Competition comes to mobile wrestling: TNA takes to mobile ring against WWE in knockdown, dragout for male teens

Like a tag-team partner vaulting over the ropes to get at an opponent, Total Nonstop Action has joined the mobile battleground.
The upstart wrestling franchise last week outlined a comprehensive wireless initiative, unveiling plans to launch TNA-branded ringtones, wallpapers, text alerts and wrestler-penned blogs. The deal includes multimedia integration with Spike TV’s TNA Impact pay-per-view and live events, and the mobile offering will be marketed through TNA’s Internet properties, plotlines and via on-air announcements and arena signage.
A text message poll two weeks ago marked TNA’s initial mobile effort-fans gave Samoa Joe a slight edge before his pay-per-view match with fellow grappler Kurt Angle, by the way-and the rest of the wireless offerings will be deployed in the next few weeks. New Motion Inc., an Irvine, Calif.-based digital entertainment company, will develop and promote the content and applications.
“We’ll have chances to be involved with the story line from time to time,” said Shane Maidy, New Motion’s senior vice president of marketing and licensing. “We’ll have a poll to consumers asking who they’d like to see (win a match), so they can impact how the storyline goes. We’re reaching consumers on a much different level than they’ve been reached before. This is not just a ringtone or a graphic.”
The effort by TNA-yes, the franchise has its share of scantily clad vixens-follows an aggressive move into wireless by World Wrestling Entertainment. Vince McMahon’s company first went wireless in June with a portal offering ringtones and wallpapers as well as a subscription news and video service that delivers two- and three-minute clips to cell phones.
The WWE has billing arrangements with Cingular Wireless L.L.C. and Sprint Nextel Corp.; subscribers with other U.S. operators must use credit cards or PayPal. Direct-to-consumer specialist Bango powers the WAP site for the WWE.
“The response (to the storefront) has been dramatic,” Bango Vice President Anil Malhotra said several months after the portal launched. “It really is like a mini-Web experience.”
The pact is a major win for New Motion, which is gaining traction in the direct-to-consumer ring. While still dwarfed by the WWE, TNA boasts several well-known wrestlers and has found success with its Spike TV show “Impact,” which often follows the popular Ultimate Fighting broadcast.
“It’s a really big deal for us,” Maidy said of the budding rivalry between TNA and the WWE, which monopolized pro wrestling in the United States for a spell. “You’ve now got rival networks, if you will, that are going out there for the fan base and creating a much more popular sport, collectively. We’re going to help them reach their goals.”
And while the sport-for lack of a better term-may be outside the mainstream entertainment media, it can be more experimental with new technologies and marketing techniques, Maidy said. Major corporations may be hesitant to approach users on their phones with marketing messages or other content, fearing a consumer backlash. But wrestling can afford to be edgier when it comes to targeting fans and delivering content through cell phones.
“TNA is extremely nimble, extremely flexible,” Maidy added. “They don’t have a lot of preconceived notions of ‘We’re so-and-so and we can’t do that.’ We’ll be doing some trials and figuring out which products work best.”