I’d like to be perfectly transparent with everyone about the impetus of this article. I was recently called out for the lack of coverage of Impact Wrestling on this site. The last time we wrote about them was in 2016, when they were still TNA, and my thoughts on what would happen if WWE had purchased the company — something that was rumored at the time. Since then, outside of references on a few podcasts, we’ve not given any time to Impact.
And that is not right.
It’s not right because over the past year or so, Impact Wrestling has evolved into a must-watch television program. As someone who has watched this company’s programming religiously since it’s FoxSports days, I can tell you “must-watch” is a phrase that was not associated with this company for a long, long time. And quite frankly that’s a big reason we stopped covering it. There was absolutely nothing positive to say about it. Bad business decisions lead to multiple mass exoduses of talent from the company. Combine this with subpar booking that relied on knee-jerk title changes, and rebooting the company “for the better” hamstrung every bit of momentum it gained from the likes of Broken Matt Hardy, or elite talent like Drew Galloway or The Wolves. In the end, how many times could we criticize this company for making the same mistakes over and over again, or just flat out tell you how much the product sucked?
However, since Scott D’Amore and Don Callis came into the fold, they’ve taken a company whose show was barely watchable, and turned it into something special. They turned over the entire roster, forged international working agreements, re-pushed the women’s division, and written (mostly) simple yet effective storylines. There were growing pains for sure, but right now this company is clicking on all cylinders.
Currently airing on The Pursuit Channel on Friday nights at 10 p.m., as well as their own Twitch Channel, Impact Wrestling has buried the letters ‘TNA’ and all the negative connotations that were associated it with its former incarnation. And that’s why you need to hunt this show down.
In fact, I’ll give you five reasons why absolutely need to be watching Impact Wrestling…
1. The Men’s Roster is Loaded: Impact Wrestling’s male roster is a gathering of all-stars. One of the biggest problems TNA ran into was desperately grabbing literally anyone who worked for WWE, and then pushing them over homegrown talent. In 2019, this is not the case. Impact had to turn over their roster after last year’s debacle with the former Alberto del Rio, and the departure of Jeff Jarrett. Callis and D’Amore smartly constructed a roster that blends all the top names on the independents (Johnny Impact, Cage, Sami Callihan) with cameos and guest appearances from international talent (mostly from AAA) and former TNA regulars (e.g. Petey Williams, Tommy Dreamer).
The company has done a terrific job of giving a spotlight to the criminally underrated and underused Willie Mack, and made one of the best signings of 2019 — inking Canadian wrestler Josh Alexander (who is fantastic) to a deal. They’ve helped develop lesser known talent (upon their signing) like Killer Kross and LAX by giving them the ball and watching them run with it. Also, they have a World Title and X-Division that has multiple legit contenders — something they’ve lacked for ages.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isKbPZV_JZ4
2. The Women’s Division is Elite: The cornerstone of TNA was the Knockouts Division. The matches involving Gail Kim, Awesome Kong, and Taylor Wilde were legendary. The Beautiful People remain one of the best homegrown gimmicks in company history. Mia Yim (then Jade) vs. Rosemary was a scorching hot feud that carried TNA in its dark days. However, this division hasn’t always been focused strongly. Good matches here and there, but it was rudderless, floundering in bad booking. However, under the new regime Impact is now boasting a jaw-dropping roster. You’ve got the juggernaut Jordynne Grace, the gold standard Tessa Blanchard, the charismatic bad ass Taya Valkyrie, two demonic brawlers in Su Yung and Rosemary, plus a strong returning veteran in Madison Rayne and burgeoning stars in Alisha Edwards, Kiera Hogan and Scarlett Bourdeaux. That’s a stacked roster. This talent is lights out in the ring, and they are delivering main event matches everytime they’re in the ring.
3. Tag Team Wrestling: I just watched the trailer for Pro Wrestling Guerrilla’s latest show 200%. In the semi-main event was a triple threat match between The Lucha Bros, LAX, and The Rascalz. An indie dream match, right? Guess where they all work every single week — Impact Wrestling. LAX and The Lucha Bros have had one of the best feuds of 2019. Run don’t walk to find their match from Impact in Mexico, it is absolutely awesome and it immediately my MOTY list. Throw in OVE, Willie Mack & Rich Swann, and the soon to debut team of Ethan Page & Josh Alexander and you’ve got one of the better tag divisions in North America. These matches are given time to breathe, and they are taken seriously. This isn’t the “bitter rivals who are fighting at the PPV team up to beat the tag champs” storyline they employed forever. Tag team wrestling means something again.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvbBParC1_8
4. Effective Storylines: Yes, they’ve been running a storyline where Su Yung and Rosemary are battling in the underworld (thanks to Jim Mitchell) for the soul of Allie. Yes, they brought Glenn “Disco Inferno” Gilbertti back. Listen, no company is perfect (and that Disco angle will pay off when Scarlett Bourdeaux kicks his ass), but Impact’s storylines have been clicking. The stories have been simple yet effective — people are chasing belts, have personal issues, or there’s a logical, character-driven purpose to a story. No more evil authority figures. No more “white knights” who come to save the company. No more hard reboots. The silly nonsense of TNA is done. What helps drive these effective storylines home is the dynamite commentary of Josh Matthews and Don Callis. They serve as both the narrators, the storytellers of Impact. They are not characters — they commentate. They drive home plotpoints of a feud, talk about the strengths of talent, tell the story of the match. There’s no announcers “feuding” like Matthews and Jeremy Borash did to a nauseating level. There’s no Taz and Tenay trying to pop each other with inside references. And no screaming from Don West. Good commentary enhances matches, and that’s exactly what’s happening here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGbnUknGdyU
5. At the End of the Day…It’s All About Wrestling: The cardinal sin TNA committed was trying to be exactly like WWE, and present themselves as a “sports entertainment” company. That is not what put them on the map. Goofy, and logic-defying Vince Russo angles did not bring eyes to TNA — in-ring action did. Men like AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, Kurt Angle, Christopher Daniels, and countless others created TNA’s fanbase. Women like Awesome Kong and Gail Kim laid the groundwork for the women’s wrestling revolution — proving women’s wrestling could main event big events. The tag team division was stellar, and the hardcore matches from the likes of Abyss became eternal highlight reel material.
This is basic principle is what makes Impact great today. Turn on a two-hour episode of Impact, and the majority of the show is set in the ring. Yes, there’s vignettes, backstage segments, and the obligatory champ cuts a promo in the center of the ring moments. But those all fuel what’s happening in the ring. Impact allows matches to go long — the aforementioned LAX/Lucha Bros. matches were given time to breathe and tell a story. Mismatched opponents are allowed to have competitive matches, as seen in the most recent episode where the massive Moose and the much quicker, smaller Trey Miguel had a terrific back-and-forth match. No one gets blatantly buried in Impact. No matches feel rushed. Matches don’t serve as fodder between segments. Like Gordon Solie once said, “it says wrestling on the marquee” and that principle has set it apart from sports entertainment, and returned it back to what made this company so popular to begin with.
Impact Wrestling airs Friday nights at 10 p.m. on Pursuit. Impact presented United We Stand at 11 p.m. at the Rahway Rec Center in Rahway, New Jersey on Thursday April 4. Click here for tickets.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuA4uWU6hzM
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