JAKKS Scores Worldwide Master Toy License for TNA Wrestling

MALIBU, February 14: JAKKS Pacific has inked an exclusive five-year
worldwide master toy license with TNA (Total Nonstop Action) Entertainment for
TNA Wrestling, with a product launch slated for 2010.

The license includes all styles of action figures, playsets, accessories
and role-play toys, as well as collectible items based on TNA Wrestling’s star
personalities, including Kurt Angle,
Booker T, Christian Cage, Samoa Joe, A.J. Styles, Kevin Nash, Team 3D and
others.

The figures are based on TNA
iMPACT, which airs every Thursday
at 9 p.m. on Spike in the U.S. Through a combination of televised programming,
pay-per-view and live events, TNA is also available in more than 110 countries
around the globe.

“TNA’s stellar and growing
arsenal of top world-famous wrestlers, impressive ratings increases, aggressive
live touring event schedule and mounting exposure worldwide, coupled with
JAKKS’ expertise as the world’s leading wrestling toy maker, bodes well for
this new wrestling toy line to create a perfect storm,” said JAKKS’ chairman
and CEO, Jack Friedman. “By the time 2010 arrives, TNA should be able to
increase its market share even more significantly, and fans should be even more
receptive to a new and exciting wrestling toy line.”

“TNA fans have come to
expect the very best in professional wrestling in everything we do, and JAKKS
represents the top of the line in pro wrestling action figures,” said Dixie
Carter, the president of TNA Wrestling. “We could not be more thrilled to have
the world’s leading wrestling toymaker join the fastest-growing
professional-wrestling brand in the world. We believe that JAKKS’ strength in
the wrestling action figure genre will help continue TNA's reinvention of pro
wrestling."

—By Ned Berke