– In response to the statement issued on TNAwrestling.com on Friday regarding Chris “Abyss” Park leaving the company, a few more details regarding the situation have become available.
As we noted earlier this week, Abyss approached TNA management on Tuesday night at the Impact! tapings pointing out that his contract had expired last fall without anyone noticing and felt he deserved a raise. To further the talks, Abyss made it clear that WWE had an offer on the table for him and in order to keep him from taking that offer, he wanted the company to double his pay per show. From what is known, he was being paid $500 per show and instead wanted $1,000 per show. However, seeing as TNA was the dominate force giving the Abyss character national exposure, their policy is to pay what they have in order to keep talent and they didn’t feel enough pressure to pay him as much as main eventers who carry more name recognition.
From that point on TNA officials, trying to keep the budget low since they continue to lose money, spent a few hours discussing the situation and eventually gave in to the raise Abyss requested. When officials informed Abyss they would be giving him the raise, sources close to the situation say he wanted to talk to WWE first and think about it. TNA management became upset immediately and pulled the offer right away. Abyss was then sent home despite his offer to work the TV tapings as he was scheduled to do. TNA officials opted not to let him and decided to rewrite the show and cancel Abyss’ scheduled feud with Jeff Hardy that would lead to a PPV match at Final Resolution.
Seeing as Abyss had a strong chance of earning around $50,000 with TNA alone this year, many hope his remarks of having a deal on the table from WWE is true as he could either be out of the job for a while or work for half the price in the WWE’s developmental system. That is however assuming he does have an offer waiting for him in Stamford. (Partial Source: The Torch)
