PWInsider has provided more details on the departure last week of Lou D’Angeli, Vice President of Marketing for all of Anthem.
Fightful Select first reported last week that D’Ageli had left Anthem Sports and Entertainment/TNA Wrestling.
It is being said that D’Angeli’s exit from TNA Wrestling is especially shocking is due to the scope of his role for TNA grew exponentially over the last year or so, which also included bringing CM Punk in for negotiations with the company, bringing Trinity Fatu that also had developed into initial conversations with Mercedes Mone in an attempt to set up at match between Mickie James and Mone in TNA.
PWInsider notes anonymous sources on the TNA side admitted the relationship between D’Angeli and Anthem was fraying in recent months, specifically built around the company’s slow process in locking in and confirming dates and cities for events. PWInsider also said they were told D’Angeli for a long period of time had attempted to get TNA to break away from their normal schedule of running the same cities on back to back, but management never pulled the trigger on changing to that strategy.
PWInsider said they were also told there was also, at times, issues with dates and cities being relayed, only to have the scheduling change numerous times, putting D’Angeli in a very bad position of being questioned by wrestlers and staff, but not having answers to relay from those above him in the company.
PWInsider also said they were told by sources that sometime last week, there was a meeting between Anthem executives and D’Angeli that it was decided it was time for him to leave. It is further said the story that has made the rounds is D’Angeli was later contacted by Anthem executives and told that Anthem was moving forward without him, and that he agreed to it.
D’Angeli’s exit from TNA Wrestling came days after the advance ticket sales for this July’s Slammiversary PPV in Montreal had the best pre-sales in a decade for the company. When asked about D’Angeli’s importance to the company, one source told PWInsider that under his purview, the year over year ticket sales for the company did grow. The final shows that will be under D’Angeli’s are Against All Odds on June 14 and the TV tapings held the next night at Cicero Stadium. Both shows are expected to sell out.
Furthermore it is being said that Anthem is working on options of who will take over the live events for the company, including a permanent site for potential live TV tapings, something that they had been working towards even prior to the firing of Scott D’Amore. PWInsider has said that at least one other member of D’Angeli’s team has also left TNA.
When PWInsider spoke to several TNA talents over the last 24 hours about D’Angeli leaving, the response was a mixture of disbelief and sadness, given how much that D’Angeli had an advocate behind the scenes, pushing for talents to take on additional roles in the company. One talent said D’Angeli seemed be trying to set up future roles for talent when they move on from the ring.
Prior to coming to Anthem, D’Angeli previously ran all of the marketing for Cirque du Soleil and worked for WWE heading up WrestleMania AXXESS among other events.
At the time of this writing, PWInsider noted that multiple attempts to reach D’Angeli have been unsuccessful.
Just last week, Robert “RD” Evans resigned as head of creative and longtime producer David Sahadi also left the company. The departures are said to be Anthem wanting to go in a new direction, to become more effective in the live event markets.