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Is Impact* the best wrestling promotion in history? *(Now TNA again, 2024)


Ricky Jackson

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8 minutes ago, sek69 said:

I remember a while back there was a Japanese woman wrestler going off on Tessa (among others) being an unprofessional shit at a show she was on, bullying someone who was new to the business in the locker room. As soon as I saw Tessa tweeting about supporting women I was like "oh no baby, what is u doin"....she opened the floodgates and now everyone she ever had a run in with is going to be dunking on her. 

I wonder if this is related to Allysin Kay's tweet about Tessa.

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Of course.

One of the few things in wrestling I'm excited about just has to get shit on by the cesspool that is wrestling Twitter.

In any case, I'm good. Still going to follow her story and root for her anyway. Fuck it. Sign me up as a Tessa fanboy.

Pro wrestling being populated by mostly shitty human beings is nothing new. And how recent are any of these incidents? I ask, because that's relevant to evaluating who/where she is in her life at this particular moment. People live, experience, and grow. I just don't know.

I also don't care. There are so very few things I actually care about in wrestling anymore, so yeah. Fuck it. I'm selfishly going to look the other way on this one and continue to happily enjoy her work, regardless.

I realize it could hurt her chances in getting signed to a bigger deal, but meh. Again, I'd selfishly rather see her in Impact than AEW anyway. Sucks that she may not get a chance to clash with some of the women on the WWE roster for sure, but it is what it is.

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10 minutes ago, SomethingSavage said:

And how recent are any of these incidents? I ask, because that's relevant to evaluating who/where she is in her life at this particular moment. People live, experience, and grow. I just don't know. 

Did you give The Hulkster the same leeway...brother?

Or does Tessa get a free pass because she's a "better worker," JACK! (Even though she isn't. Hulk is a better worker than 99.9% of the pimped darlings on this forum and on the internet in general...brother!)

 

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5 minutes ago, C.S. said:

Did you give The Hulkster the same leeway...brother?

Or does Tessa get a free pass because she's a "better worker," JACK! (Even though she isn't. Hulk is a better worker than 99.9% of the pimped darlings on this forum and on the internet in general...brother!)

 

You're one strange cat, jack. I can't even tell why you're arguing against yourself here.

First, you bring Hogan into the conversation on your own. Then you (for whatever reason) ASSUME I rank his work lower than Tessa's (again, no idea why). But you don't stop there. Then you cut off your own momentum and argue that he's actually better than her and other internet darlings.

The actual fuck are you talking about?

I didn't say a word about Hogan. I didn't even mention Tessa's work rate or internet darlings or any other dates terms you borrowed from Scott Keith to cobble together that little unnecessary tirade.

Maybe you'll come back with a fiery response about how I support the Usos' drunk driving next. Who the hell knows how you connect these dots the way you do?

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21 minutes ago, SomethingSavage said:

You're one strange cat, jack. I can't even tell why you're arguing against yourself here.

First, you bring Hogan into the conversation on your own. Then you (for whatever reason) ASSUME I rank his work lower than Tessa's (again, no idea why). But you don't stop there. Then you cut off your own momentum and argue that he's actually better than her and other internet darlings.

The actual fuck are you talking about?

I didn't say a word about Hogan. I didn't even mention Tessa's work rate or internet darlings or any other dates terms you borrowed from Scott Keith to cobble together that little unnecessary tirade.

 Maybe you'll come back with a fiery response about how I support the Usos' drunk driving next. Who the hell knows how you connect these dots the way you do?

Or I saw an opportunity to type a post like Hulk and took it. :D

On a more serious note, I was just wondering if you would defend Hulk for "being in a different place in his life" when he made his racist rant years ago like you are for Tessa now. I think that's a fair question to ask, don't you?

I'm not sure I've ever read this Scott Keith that you speak of, but yes, I did run off on a bit of a tangent there.

As for The Usos, I think they're straight up trash people, overrated wrestlers, don't draw a dime, and I'd be fine if I never saw their cringe-worthy characters or lame-ass catchphrases on my TV ever again. I've no idea how you feel about them, however, and don't really care either way because it's not like you'd change my mind and they're not worth the energy to debate as far as I'm concerned.

BTW, yes, I suppose I am "one strange cat, jack." Never denied it! B)

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8 minutes ago, sek69 said:

To be fair, it sucks when someone you admire does something to reveal their inner shithead-ery. The reflex is to either ignore or excuse it somehow, but it's hard when the person just doubles down on denying it when the evidence pours in.

Agreed. And we've all experienced countless examples of that in wrestling, never mind mainstream media. 

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2 hours ago, C.S. said:

Or I saw an opportunity to type a post like Hulk and took it. :D

On a more serious note, I was just wondering if you would defend Hulk for "being in a different place in his life" when he made his racist rant years ago like you are for Tessa now. I think that's a fair question to ask, don't you?

Just to be clear, I posed a question. I never defended anything for Tessa. But hey. You assigned me opinions about Hulk Hogan's work for some bizarre reason. Why stop there, I guess?

I asked about the recency of these events. I don't think it's an unfair inquiry to make. Is that a defense? Maybe, but only if you're feeling extra sensitive and easily offended in the first place.

But hell. You already made up your mind you were outraged about a MADE UP opinion that YOU ASSUMED I HAD about Hulk Hogan. So again, who knows how you connect these dots in your head?

2 hours ago, C.S. said:

As for The Usos, I think they're straight up trash people, overrated wrestlers, don't draw a dime, and I'd be fine if I never saw their cringe-worthy characters or lame-ass catchphrases on my TV ever again. I've no idea how you feel about them, however, and don't really care either way because it's not like you'd change my mind and they're not worth the energy to debate as far as I'm concerned.

1 hour ago, C.S. said:

 

I only randomly mentioned the Usos because I know you love to bring up their drunk driving whenever possible. That's a freebie. I don't feel strongly about them either way.

 

1 hour ago, sek69 said:

To be fair, it sucks when someone you admire does something to reveal their inner shithead-ery. The reflex is to either ignore or excuse it somehow, but it's hard when the person just doubles down on denying it when the evidence pours in.

This.

But my original statement was more on the, "I'll gladly ignore it" side of things and less about any "admiration" or excusing it.

I'd never excuse racism, and if anyone knew me on a social level they'd understand that pretty clearly. Or maybe someone could assign me an ethnicity here to go along with my assumed opinions?

So nah. Would never excuse racism. However, I *do* live in the real world and have personally experienced people resorting to racism as the lowest bar & the last resort of insults. It's ugly. It's intolerable. But people use it to get a reaction when they've been embarrassed or outed. That's not an excuse. That's realism.

I'm choosing to ignore this sudden backlash against Tessa (for now) because I have been enjoying Tessa's work in Impact. Is that shallow? Is that superficial? Sure it is. But I enjoy about three or four whole things about pro wrestling right now. I'm not you guys. I can't watch 55 hours of pro wrestling every week. I can catch three or four matches sometimes. So maybe I have more incentive to overlook shit that has no actual, tangible affect on what I see as entertainment.

I'm not going to crucify her over some he said/she said shit.

How many of you guys will never watch another Hogan match? I still do. I still love his 80s HulkAMania stuff and don't mind revisiting it a bit.

How many of you pledge to never listen to another Michael P.S. Hayes interview?

How many of you have sworn off Dick Murdoch?

I'll wait.

How many of y'all boycotted CWF Mid-Atlantic after that shit with Stutts came out?

What's that? Crickets?

So yeah. Let this shit play itself out. Maybe she is a wretched, scummy human being underneath it all. Maybe she isnt. I don't know. I pay no attention to wrestling Twitter. It's not something that has any influence over the three or four things I enjoy about wrestling anymore. Sue me.

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7 minutes ago, SomethingSavage said:

 I asked about the recency of these events. I don't think it's an unfair inquiry to make. Is that a defense? Maybe, but only if you're feeling extra sensitive and easily offended in the first place.

But hell. You already made up your mind you were outraged about a MADE UP opinion that YOU ASSUMED I HAD about Hulk Hogan. So again, who knows how you connect these dots in your head? 

Except, I'm not sensitive, offended, or outraged by what you choose to watch or not watch, or anything you've posted. We're not living together, so why the fuck would I care? I was just wondering if you felt the same way about a similar situation (Hulk) - that's all, nothing more, nothing less. I had a little fun with my post, which seems to have triggered you for some reason. Please accept my sincerest apologies if I've upset you.

You okay, man? You usually seem more even-keeled than this.

While it's now clear that you don't particularly like me, my posts, or my opinions, I still enjoy reading yours. 

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14 minutes ago, C.S. said:

Except, I'm not sensitive, offended, or outraged by what you choose to watch or not watch, or anything you've posted. We're not living together, so why the fuck would I care? I was just wondering if you felt the same way about a similar situation (Hulk) - that's all, nothing more, nothing less. I had a little fun with my post, which seems to have triggered you for some reason. Please accept my sincerest apologies if I've upset you.

You okay, man? You usually seem more even-keeled than this.

While it's now clear that you don't particularly like me, my posts, or my opinions, I still enjoy reading yours. 

I don't dislike you, man. We've had some decent interactions here on the board. Racism is something that's triggered me on this board before though. It *is" something I have personal experiences with, and it's not something I feel like can be judged at a distance, without context, or by a handful of people who have never even met in person.

Do you know my race or ethnicity? That's rhetorical, because the answer is no. And that goes both ways. But I do feel like this immediate outrage over shit is ridiculous. And I come here to talk about the rapidly dwindling handful of things I SOMEHOW still enjoy about pro wrestling.

That's why wrestling Twitter sets me off. It's a fucking cesspool. Nothing good ever comes from it. It's always petty, childish bullshit like this. It's back & forth he said/she said shit that's better left handled between individuals in person. But it plays out for all of us to see and render judgments, as if they mean anything at all.

But they don't.

The only point I'm making is that those of us who watch Tessa and enjoy her are likely going to continue to watch. Just like the rest of you haven't stopped watching ANYONE ELSE in the history of wrestling based on similar accusations. You're lifers. So it's all sort of pointless to act all outraged and upset.

Everyone is here, pretending to be more upset and bothered by something that is, in fact, a very real subject.

Tessa's career isn't going to be canceled by your exxaggerated outrage. If you weren't watching her before or taking Impact seriously before, then it's no big loss that you won't now. But if you were, you wouldn't stop.

Just like you haven't stopped watching WWE's God awful shows because of the Usos terrible choices or anything else.

That's my point. I'll watch, because her arc and her run in Impact is one of the few remaining things I enjoy in pro wrestling. It certainly sucks if all this is true. But everyone deciding whether she is or isn't racist based on a few tweets is something really worrisome.

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3 hours ago, SomethingSavage said:

Of course.

One of the few things in wrestling I'm excited about just has to get shit on by the cesspool that is wrestling Twitter.

In any case, I'm good. Still going to follow her story and root for her anyway. Fuck it. Sign me up as a Tessa fanboy.

Pro wrestling being populated by mostly shitty human beings is nothing new. And how recent are any of these incidents? I ask, because that's relevant to evaluating who/where she is in her life at this particular moment. People live, experience, and grow. I just don't know.

I also don't care. There are so very few things I actually care about in wrestling anymore, so yeah. Fuck it. I'm selfishly going to look the other way on this one and continue to happily enjoy her work, regardless.

I realize it could hurt her chances in getting signed to a bigger deal, but meh. Again, I'd selfishly rather see her in Impact than AEW anyway. Sucks that she may not get a chance to clash with some of the women on the WWE roster for sure, but it is what it is.

I mean, given all the talent that Tessa possesses, there had to be something that didn't please for WWE not to sign her, knowing that they could eventually have her booked against Charlotte, Sasha Banks, Becky Lynch, Bayley and many more and it certainly wasn't about her wrestling skills. But this has become the opportunity that fell right in Impact Wrestling's lap and boy, did they take advantage of it. I'm expecting Tessa to win the title tomorrow night and worst case scenario, turn her back heel again. In Québécois, we have that saying that goes like this: "Parlez-en en bien, parlez-en en mal mais parlez-en" which roughly translates to "any publicity cannot hurt you". This is a perfect example of this adage for Impact at the moment.

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1 hour ago, SirEdger said:

I mean, given all the talent that Tessa possesses, there had to be something that didn't please for WWE not to sign her, knowing that they could eventually have her booked against Charlotte, Sasha Banks, Becky Lynch, Bayley and many more and it certainly wasn't about her wrestling skills. But this has become the opportunity that fell right in Impact Wrestling's lap and boy, did they take advantage of it. I'm expecting Tessa to win the title tomorrow night and worst case scenario, turn her back heel again. In Québécois, we have that saying that goes like this: "Parlez-en en bien, parlez-en en mal mais parlez-en" which roughly translates to "any publicity cannot hurt you". This is a perfect example of this adage for Impact at the moment.

I greatly preferred her as a heel, running the Knockouts division. I get that they wanted to switch her babyface based on crowd reactions, but yeah. I'm right there with you. If this doesn't dissipate overnight and continues to follow her, they might as well lean into it and let her channel it into the character.

I remember hearing something about her attitude when she wasn't signed to a WWE deal. But in the time between that happening and her Knockouts title run, I guess I just never thought about it again.

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2 hours ago, SomethingSavage said:

But I do feel like this immediate outrage over shit is ridiculous. And I come here to talk about the rapidly dwindling handful of things I SOMEHOW still enjoy about pro wrestling.

That's why wrestling Twitter sets me off. It's a fucking cesspool. Nothing good ever comes from it. It's always petty, childish bullshit like this. It's back & forth he said/she said shit that's better left handled between individuals in person. But it plays out for all of us to see and render judgments, as if they mean anything at all.

But they don't.

I completely understand your overall point about wrestling being a scummy business populated with shitty people - one of the best wrestlers of his time was a Klansman after all - and that it sucks when we find out more about our favourites' bad side. I also completely understand not caring and watching anyway. Any of us who have been wrestling fans for an extended period of time have done that about multiple wrestlers, simply because as I said, this is a business filled with scummy people.

In this case, however - and it's why I quoted only specific parts of your post - Tessa spitting on a black wrestler and using the n-word at least was vouched for by several people. It was also made clear that the woman in question did not come forward at that time cuz she was afraid of getting blackballed, something I don't think anybody would seriously dispute. In this particular case, I don't think we need more than hearsay to draw our own conclusions.

Of course our conclusions don't "matter" but when someone literally asks for judgment by posting a bulkshit tweet about women supporting women, I also think it's fair to listen and make conclusions about these allegations/incidents and not just think about them as hearsay and dismiss them. Not saying that this should determine your decision to watch or enjoy her, but she brought this upon herself and if skeletons are tumbling out cuz she left her closet open, I say let them tumble out. I don't think knowing stuff like this about wrestlers is a bad thing; we should at least have an idea about how scummy they are.

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1 hour ago, MoS said:

I completely understand your overall point about wrestling being a scummy business populated with shitty people - one of the best wrestlers of his time was a Klansman after all - and that it sucks when we find out more about our favourites' bad side. I also completely understand not caring and watching anyway. Any of us who have been wrestling fans for an extended period of time have done that about multiple wrestlers, simply because as I said, this is a business filled with scummy people.

In this case, however - and it's why I quoted only specific parts of your post - Tessa spitting on a black wrestler and using the n-word at least was vouched for by several people. It was also made clear that the woman in question did not come forward at that time cuz she was afraid of getting blackballed, something I don't think anybody would seriously dispute. In this particular case, I don't think we need more than hearsay to draw our own conclusions.

Of course our conclusions don't "matter" but when someone literally asks for judgment by posting a bulkshit tweet about women supporting women, I also think it's fair to listen and make conclusions about these allegations/incidents and not just think about them as hearsay and dismiss them. Not saying that this should determine your decision to watch or enjoy her, but she brought this upon herself and if skeletons are tumbling out cuz she left her closet open, I say let them tumble out. I don't think knowing stuff like this about wrestlers is a bad thing; we should at least have an idea about how scummy they are.

Agreed. Very well said, and I appreciate you sharing that bit about the specifics. As mentioned, I don't fuck with wrestling Twitter. And I've deliberately stayed away from the other thread because of that.

And you're right. I'll still watch and enjoy her. I think it's easy for some fans to say they won't watch Impact or Tessa, when in fact they weren't watching Impact or Tessa before anyhow.

If this were a woman in AEW or WWE, I don't think they'd be so quick to make such exclamations.

And really, that's what rubs me the wrong way. People are outraged, but only up to a point. At least I'm being honest about it. I'll keep watching. But so would everyone else, which has been established and shown over time - just as you'd reiterated.

So yeah. Everyone is welcome to discuss it and voice their disgust, but if anyone were truly that outraged, I find it hard to believe they'd still be watching any of this stuff.

A blind eye is a blind eye. None of us get to decide which one is more excusable than the other.

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The thing about Tessa is the main reason she was in Impact in the first place is she had a terrible rep and no one else would touch her. Her going there was supposed to be a time for her to stay under the radar and rebuild her rep, which ironically was going pretty well until she decided to blow everything up today.  

So yeah, this isn't so much a case of everyone dogpiling on someone because the place they work makes them an easy target to ignore. It's because she's someone who was previously known to be a shithead who people were assuming had reformed before finding out that wasn't the case. 

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As much as those allegations are awful, I don't think that racism allegations won't be enough for me to stop watching Tessa wrestle or Impact Wrestling. Hard to Kill should be another statement for the promotion in terms of quality.

Meanwhile, if we go back to the card itself, the one match intriguing me on the whole card is The North vs Swann/Mack. That storyline and the teasing of a Swann/Mack rift is very good so far. Gives you enough interest in that match to make you wonder if Swann & Mack can finally stop The North tomorrow.

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Not really part of wrestling Twitter, so had no idea about the Tessa firestorm that's hit the last 24 hours, I was just logging on here to say that the hype package for the Tessa/Sami match on Impact was excellent...

As others have pointed out, it got across both people's motivations, and perfectly framed the context for why this match is taking place. It also showed how this has been a match essentially 7/8 months in the making, that's not had them wrestling each other every week, which is how WWE does long term feuds these days.

Thought Sami was great in the video as well, managing to convey real emotion and, what I presume was real backstory about his parents, setting out why that might have set him on the path to the person he is now, but managing to balance something you could sympathise with him about with still making you want to route against him for his actions. Really great work from him.    

 

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1 hour ago, SirEdger said:

Meanwhile, if we go back to the card itself, the one match intriguing me on the whole card is The North vs Swann/Mack. That storyline and the teasing of a Swann/Mack rift is very good so far. Gives you enough interest in that match to make you wonder if Swann & Mack can finally stop The North tomorrow.

In total agreement with this. In addition to the Sami/Tessa video, the package building up this match was really good - once again getting across real motivations for the people involved, and showing that it's a match that's been built for months but without the teams just having endless matches against one another. At the moment it feels very similar to the Christian/Jericho vs Booker T/Goldust rivalry, where the heels were hammering Goldust as the weak link and getting him to doubt himself.

First off, both these teams are excellent so the match itself should be very good, but there's also great intrigue as there's lots of different ways you can go with the storyline: does the Mack overcome his doubt and The North's manipulation of his emotions for the big triumph against adversity moment? Does the Mack finally listen to all the baiting about Swann's achievements and get jealous of his partner and turn on him? Or does Swann feel like the Mack is holding him back and stuffing up and turn on him? Lots of options. 

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Overall, looking forward to the show tonight. In 2019, Impact was arguably my favourite of the promotions that is a television product, where a lot of the time rivalries and feuds are built on personal issues and where you can identify with the motivations of people involved. For anyone that's looking to jump on board the Impact train, and that wants to pick out some of the best matches from last year to revisit to give you a flavour, this is my top 10 of Impact matches from 2019 based on my match ratings:

NB - these are in chronological order rather than ranked 1-10 on which I thought was best.  You can see the same names often cropping up.

01/06/2019 Homecoming: LAX vs Lucha Bros     

02/08/2019 Impact: LAX vs Lucha Bros

02/15/2019 Impact: Tessa Blanchard vs Taya Valkyrie (Street Fight)         

04/29/2019 Rebellion: Tessa Blanchard vs Gail Kim         

04/29/2019 Rebellion: LAX vs Lucha Bros (Full Metal Mayhem)  

07/07/2019 Slammiversary: Brian Cage vs Michael Elgin

07/07/2019 Slammiversary: Sami Callihan vs Tessa Blanchard     

08/02/2019 Impact: The North vs The Rascalz    

11/19/2019 Impact: Tessa Blanchard vs Brian Cage vs Rich Swann vs Michael Elgin vs DAGA vs Moose (Gauntlet match)

10/20/2019 Bound for Glory: Jake Crist vs Ace Austin vs Tessa Blanchard vs DAGA vs Ace Romero (Ladder match)

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  • Ricky Jackson changed the title to Is Impact* the best wrestling promotion in history? *(Now TNA again, 2024)

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