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


Ricky Jackson

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And this week's show went full fledge interpromotional with Private Party & Matt Hardy showing up, Jerry Lynn & Tony Khan at ringside and whatnot. They're absolutely going all the way with it and it's the WWF vs ECW stuff we never got back in 97. Loving it.

Also, Black Taurus in IMPACT ? Nice catch, he was one of the best AAA guys the last few years.

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5 hours ago, El-P said:

And this week's show went full fledge interpromotional with Private Party & Matt Hardy showing up, Jerry Lynn & Tony Khan at ringside and whatnot. They're absolutely going all the way with it and it's the WWF vs ECW stuff we never got back in 97. Loving it.

Also, Black Taurus in IMPACT ? Nice catch, he was one of the best AAA guys the last few years.

You can thank his freelance status for that. Not sure that would've happened if he was a full-fledged AAA roster member.

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4 hours ago, Migs said:

Striker is insufferable in this role. 

What ? You don't like "The Midweek Wars" ? :wacko:  Well, that's for sure, I have loved the announcing of IMPACT since it became a weekly watch for me two years and a half ago, first with Callis/Matthews then Rayne/Matthews, and although Matthews wasn't that good on his own, he formed a great and *fun* duo with both if them. And that intricate part of the product is no more.

Striker... damn, as a LU fan I should enjoy him more than I do, but the LU stuff was kinda unique and it was also my comeback to actually caring about current pro-wrestling, so maybe I got him a pass too easily... I'll say this, to me at worst Striker is a much much less annoying Mauro Ranallo (and that includes the fact I can easily ignore him). At best he could be pretty good (as he was in LU at times, I believe). I'm sure he's not gonna say something really stupid about the talents like Ross does on AEW at least. And maybe, just maybe, him and D-Lo will end up having some sort of chemistry eventually.... but I don't count on it tbh. Striker is too much of a guy who gets the attention on himself, like you know who (Vamp has such a big personality that it balanced this, not sure D-Lo will be able to do it).

So yeah, that part of IMPACT that I loved, a really FUN announcing team, is pretty much gone, sadly. Which is too bad because the company really is in a good spot now to do some super fresh stuff as this week showed. Better make peace with that fact right away...

And since we're at it as far as sad stuff goes, Taya has had a terrific stint in IMPACT, I will sure miss her (Dreamer's promo was quite funny though). Rumors of "Taya as a surprise entrant in the Royal Rumble" in 5... 4... 3...

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I thought Meltzer hit it on the head about Striker, dude started off as a decent enough announcer who had potential to be good, but WWE production messed up his confidence to the point he overcompensates everything to the max and gets annoying fast. Hopefully D-Lo can develop as an announcer and keep him in check.

Anyone else thinking all the AEW guys showing up on Impact and being dicks is going to lead to Impact guys invading Dynamite and just trashing the place like Nexus?

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I'm holding out hope that the Knockouts get involved in the interpromotional stuff. AEW's women division needs an influx of talent, badly. If some of their women got to work the Impact women, I think it could help them out a lot. I also want Abadon getting mixed up with Rosemary at some point.

My only issue with Page leaving is that it kind of leaves Alexander hanging. I'm sure he's talented on his own but he's got the stigma of a tag guy right now. I wanted to see The North in AEW's tag division pretty badly. Page is the type of guy I don't mind in a tag but don't want to see as a solo act. He's pretty full of himself ("All Ego" isn't much of an act, it seems) and that carries over into social media. His fan base is loyal though. Comic nerds who want to be noticed by a wrestler so they parrot his opinions back to him. An online friend of mine is obsessed to the point where she has bought him gifts for his birthday when he's in a town near her. He really has found a base of fans in that vein and has cultivated it for what it is worth. I liked the Karate Man stuff in AIW but it didn't work in Impact. I hope he's NXT bound so I can forget about him. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

I'm sorry to say Madison's Rayne retirement really left a void in the promotion, the most apparent one being that new announcing team... Damn, Striker can be so fucking cringe at times. Talking about Susan how she's "long like a praying mantis" and then namedropping Kendall Whindam and Sam Houston. Seriously, what the fuck ? Not to mention Su Yung isn't a tall looking woman at all. Later on, talking about Dreamer dropping a "Gran Naniwa like elbow". Trying way too hard... D-Lo is kinda there. And there's no more heel dynamics that had been a staple of the IMPACT announcing forever now with both Callis & Rayne bickering with Matthews, who was great at getting insulted (that's a compliment). Yeah, the announcing of IMPACT sadly isn't *fun* anymore, and with Striker it's not very good either.

On the brighter side, Trey Miguel signing back is really interesting and the best thing for him on every level. I mean, his former partners have no shot of doing anything in WWE, not in the main roster anyway. Being a big fish in a small pond will allow Trey to work actual worthwhile feuds and develop as a worker, plus like he said it allows him to stay home, which is very important for him as his family as had some struggle in the last few months, and he wasn't moving to Orlando. Of course that idiotic Corporate goon HHH had to drop some "We need people with passion here" in a very patronizing way when Miguel would hesitate or not sign with them, and Sami Callihan used the same words in his promo to trigger Miguel, which was quite brillant. Now that seemingly Shamrock is done, that's a really perfect feud for Sami as he's never better than when he's building someone up (as he did with Swan two years ago).

Also, ODB coming back is always cool. 

The Good Brothers really have signed the best deal ever with IMPACT, they don't work a lot of matches, they get special TV shows once in a while, their merchandise is pushed quite hard, they actually work with AEW too... Yeah, these guys truly are Hall & Nash after all.

Tommy Dreamer getting a title shot for his 50th birthday is quite cool. 

Those weekly "paid ads" by Tony & Tony are the weekly best segments no one talks about. Just consistently great. In a few years someone will dig them up and people will be amazed out of how fun this was.

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Is it me or is Tony Khan just completely wasted in all of his Impact promos? I am not complaining mind you, the best way to have an upgrade to McMemphis is to have someone be drunk or high on weed doing the shtick instead of Vince presumably being tripping balls on cocaine in the early 90s

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Well, Dreamer can still cut one hell of a babyface promo. Really cool of IMPACT to have him main event that special for the title against Swann.

Pretty cool too to also have AEW talents send happy birthday wishes, of course MJF and Jericho totally shit on Tommy !

Black Taurus being the third person is Decay in really the perfect fit, he'll get one of the best intro too that way. I had not seen him for more than a year now, he still looks as awesome as ever.

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Besides, I don't think Sammy would risk to put that working relationship in trouble after being in hot water last summer over his comments towards Sasha Banks and everything. Like I said in another thread, nobody else has reported anything about that so that's most likely fake.

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Also, like, does Impact really have enough clout to put this relationship in jeopardy over something like this? It's clear that so far this cross-promotion has benefited Impact far more disproportionately than it has AEW. So, even if this is true, the only way Sammy would be in trouble would be if he pissed off Tony Khan, and really, I don't think anything to do with Impact would piss off Tony Khan enough to get him really mad at Guevera, who is one of AEW's biggest young stars and someone with so much future potential

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Well, it was a cool little match for 50 years old Tommy Dreamer. Honestly it got better than I thought it ever would and that's a credit to Swann who figured a way to work half-speed and kinda heelish at times with the attack on the "dislocated pinkie" (smart idea, probably Dreamer's). It's really too bad there was no crowd for this. Of course the focus got back on Moose, who as been groomed for the title for a while now.

The three-way tag team match was really good, with the expected result but the execution was kind of an interesting twist. Gotta have that title vs title match with the Young Bucks, that's where the money is. Hope James Storm sticks for a while.

Both X-div matches really delivered. Trey Miguel, Ace Austin, Chris Bey, all look like futur stars. Blake Christian is a cool addition to the mix and Josh Alexander also shined, pretty cool if he gets an X-div title reign as he would be an interesting champion (much more than TJP, who although he is technically excellent as something kinda dry about him). Rohit ruled again, kinda surprised he did not win.

Both women's match did not. They have an issue now with no one hot to work against Purrazzo, and as much as I like ODB, Jazz really isn't bringing anything to the table, she was ok as a one shot but... And Tasha Steelz & Nevaeh really aren't very good (like, at all)... And Susan hasn't been a good idea thus far...

Matt Cardona did a job. Will he show up in MLW next to put over Hammerstone or Mil Muertes ?

You're trying too hard Striker. Waaaaaaaaay too hard. I'm warming up to D-Lo on announcing though.

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3 hours ago, NintendoLogic said:

Meltzer has confirmed that Sammy was pulled from Impact over creative differences but says there don't seem to be any hard feelings on either side. Apparently, most of what was planned for Sammy ended up going to Black Taurus. If I were Guevara, I'd veto being part of Decay too.

I'm not sure how Sammy makes sense in that spot either?

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Funny how everyone jumps to conclusion, hey ? IMPACT's booking for the last two years and a half that I've followed them as been the most coherent, accentuate positive, make-the-most-out-of-your talent booking I've seen in eons. The idea that Sammy would have been thrown out there doing stupid stuff just doesn't register with me, not with D'Amore & Callis at the helm. So there, I'm sure they all dealt in the most intelligent way possible, and maybe what they had in mind wasn't the best for Sammy, on the other hand Sammy should be aware of the fact he doesn't want to be that guy who's perceived as "hard to deal with", as AEW is developing more and more relationships with outside companies, especially NJPW.

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7 hours ago, El-P said:

Funny how everyone jumps to conclusion, hey ? IMPACT's booking for the last two years and a half that I've followed them as been the most coherent, accentuate positive, make-the-most-out-of-your talent booking I've seen in eons. The idea that Sammy would have been thrown out there doing stupid stuff just doesn't register with me, not with D'Amore & Callis at the helm. So there, I'm sure they all dealt in the most intelligent way possible, and maybe what they had in mind wasn't the best for Sammy, on the other hand Sammy should be aware of the fact he doesn't want to be that guy who's perceived as "hard to deal with", as AEW is developing more and more relationships with outside companies, especially NJPW.

IMPACT wanted Sammy to job someone that would have been really stupid for him to do so and would have hurt the Inner Circle angle.

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7 hours ago, El-P said:

Funny how everyone jumps to conclusion, hey ? IMPACT's booking for the last two years and a half that I've followed them as been the most coherent, accentuate positive, make-the-most-out-of-your talent booking I've seen in eons. The idea that Sammy would have been thrown out there doing stupid stuff just doesn't register with me, not with D'Amore & Callis at the helm. So there, I'm sure they all dealt in the most intelligent way possible, and maybe what they had in mind wasn't the best for Sammy, on the other hand Sammy should be aware of the fact he doesn't want to be that guy who's perceived as "hard to deal with", as AEW is developing more and more relationships with outside companies, especially NJPW.

Literally nobody cares if Impact finds someone in AEW hard to deal with 

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

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