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

[Tenese Sarwieh]

BFG was a fine show with questionable ending with Alexander/Moose. While I wouldn't have done the cash in and really sick of the trope I can somewhat understand the logic. With the relationship with AEW looking to be done Impact needs to use the tactics of their earlier years finding undiscovered talent and presenting them as stars, and yes there still good untapped talent out there. 

[sek69]

The Moose stuff is what it is, but the team fka as the IIconics winning the titles on their first night in is some classic TNA "former midrange WWE talent gets positioned ahead of everyone in the company" move. AEW has shown the way to take those folks and rehab them in a way it doesn't come off as looking like also rans in WWE can walk in and beat your existing folks.

[strobogo]

It seems awfully weird to me that the end game of the AEW/TNA relationship was have Kenny beat all of TNA's guys then drop the belt to AEW's Christian, who then drops it to TNA's X-Division champ who immediately drops it to Moose.

[ButchReedMark]

I personally didn't mind the finish. Moose has recently made it clear he's willing to beat women to get what he wants after twatting alisha, Josh Alexander protects his family and moose beats him because if it and celebrates before Josh's family. I'm looking forward to the redemption. 

 

Also Johnny Swinger is the best thing in wrestling 

[C.S.]

38 minutes ago, strobogo said:

It seems awfully weird to me that the end game of the AEW/TNA relationship was have Kenny beat all of TNA's guys then drop the belt to AEW's Christian, who then drops it to TNA's X-Division champ who immediately drops it to Moose.

Well, Impact didn't get to the bottom by making smart and competent business and creative decisions.

[ButchReedMark]

I dunno. Moose as cjampipnseemed like the logical end game when Omega won the title. It was a round about way but it got there.

[Tenese Sarwieh]

At least they have a major program to carry them into the new year and Moose/Alexander will be a great hoss fight. Curious about there being any legitimacy regarding the rumors of Impact/ESPN?

[SirEdger]

First time I ever hear of this.

[sek69]

With AEW proving non WWE wrestling can be viable, this is probably the best time for Impact to land an actual decent US TV deal for the first time since the Spike days.

[El-P]

On 10/24/2021 at 9:57 PM, sek69 said:

The Moose stuff is what it is, but the team fka as the IIconics winning the titles on their first night in is some classic TNA "former midrange WWE talent gets positioned ahead of everyone in the company" move. 

Actually, it is not at all, for several reasons. First, it is not 2010 anymore, and IMPACT is not trying to position itself as an alternative to WWE. They are a small company and they know exactly where they are on the landscape, they are the equivalent of a small territory from back in the days. They are a big fish in a small pond company and are happily functioning that way. Second, the women tag team championship, although have been made important in the company's lore, are still the lowest in the totem pole. IMPACT World Title > Knockout's World Title > X Division title > Tag Team Titles > Knockout's Tag Team Titles. Plus, the introductory angle was that they basically did not deserve a title shot because they were not even in the company, but they came in like stars (as their intro showed). But it's not like if Eva Marie showed up and defeated Deonna Purrazzo, not at all.

I absolutely did not see the Moose thing coming, and I was shocked like crazy when it happened, and I was glad I was because after 31 years of watching pro-wrestling I can still get tricked in the best way. Totally made sense if you watched Moose's entire arc since the ECW3 feud where he has become that über-focused killer and opportunist with no conscience whatsoever. Just amazingly well done too. Christian vs Alexander was excellent too (although Alexander had better matches this year honestly).

And now we get Suzuki trading shots with Alexander and soon Mickie James vs Mercedes Martinez. Fuck yes.

[Tenese Sarwieh]

With the free agents with the ROH hiatus it has me doing a wish list for Impact:

Sign Demomic Flamita and pear him with Decay so him and Black Taurus can be a banging tag team and maybe take the belts off of The Good Brothers, he'll I'd even throw in The Briscoes as well.

Also adding Bandido/Rey Horus in the X-Division would add more depth.

And I just need a Jonathan Gresham/Josh Alexander match because I need more bangers in my life.

I know it's long shot but I would focus on guys like these instead of Strowman.

And I can't forget about the women. With Japan opening back up D'Amore needs to use that New Japan relationship to get a thing with Stardom working.

[C.S.]

W. Morrisey's contract has apparently expired.

[sek69]

15 minutes ago, C.S. said:

W. Morrisey's contract has apparently expired.

Part of me is glad to see the dude has turned his life around and is seemingly on the right path, but the other part of me is like it's still Big Cass and there's about a billion people available I'd be more interested in signing before I got to his name. 

[C.S.]

23 minutes ago, sek69 said:

Part of me is glad to see the dude has turned his life around and is seemingly on the right path, but the other part of me is like it's still Big Cass and there's about a billion people available I'd be more interested in signing before I got to his name. 

Supposedly he's looking to re-sign for a big money deal (by Impact standards), so we'll see what happens.

[El-P]

No offense to him, but considering what he's bringing to the table (not much, although he's better than he was in WWE) and the talent available, like Jonah who had a great debut doing an Invader III style destruction on Josh Alexander (complete with Alexander coughing up blood, kinda gross), sorry Mr. W but I don't have any desire to see more of you in IMPACT Wrestling. But hey, there's NWA and MLW right there, like, over there where I'm not watching...

Moose vs Eddie Edwards was quite the spectacle. Brutal stuff. A bit on the long and slower side, especially since they sold so much (but really who will blame them ?), and although Edwards having a notable match really isn't a surprise, especially in this setting as he's got a Dreamer/Foley will to take punishment, Moose really is the low-key great big match worker of the year. He had great matches against Willie Mack (I believe it was this year, right ?), Rich Swann, Kenny Omega, Tomohiro Ishii, Juice Robinson and now Eddie Edwards. And basically is always delivering. He's also got that awesome presence and has become a really terrific seller. Really a terrific year for Moose.

Austin vs Sabin and James vs Martinez were also very good. 

Ultimate-X women match announced for Hard to Kill (this is gonna get tricky), alongside Mickie James vs Deonna return match. Plus I guess Jonah vs Alexander. And I get the return of Wrestler House on the weekly shows. Damn IMPACT, not many people watch but those who do really get some good shit.

[ButchReedMark]

After last night's show, that pretty much nails on Impact as the most cutting edge wrestling show on TV. 

[El-P]

I haven't watched it yet, but I was so excited when I saw it was actually an entire episode of Wrestle House. And their next special is gonna be a Throwback show too, the first one was awesome. Yeah, the nice thing about IMPACT is that they aren't gonna blow up, that ship has sailed a long, long time ago, but now they are under the radar enough that they can allow themselves to do stuff like this (although really you can credit Matt Hardy for jumpstarting it). Since LU has disappeared (and no, MLW getting Cesar Durante and Karly Perez aka Cueto & Catrina just isn't the same at all), this kind of off-the-wall stuff is always welcomed.

[El-P]

Well, after finally watching it :

On 11/27/2021 at 3:50 AM, ButchReedMark said:

After last night's show, that pretty much nails on Impact as the most cutting edge wrestling show on TV. 

Confirmed. It was tremendous from A to Z.

And yes, Swinger is legit one of the greatest character in pro-wrestling. Amazing that he finally got an entire TV show basically built around him. 2021 strikes again.

[El-P]

It's a testament to D'Amore's focused booking that I actually care about a main event involving both Matt Cardona and W. Morrissey. I'll say it again, IMPACT is the best booked promotion in term of getting the most out of their roster. Morrissey has improved since his WWE days, but he still isn't much, but the way he's been booked is very smart in protecting him and allowing him to shine the most that he can. Cardona since the GCW stuff has gained a certain aura and all the angles leading up to the PPV have involved Chelsea Green in a pretty engaging way, up to the last terrific one this week. And Moose may be the best heel in pro-wrestling today, love everything about his game (the way he talks, his demeanor, his angle work, plus he really has killed it in the ring this year). So, the main event should actually be quite good, with Moose and Cardona doing the heavy lifting.

Jonah vs Alexander and Trey Miguel vs Steve Maclin should be excellent. Ditto Deonna vs Mickie in a Texas Death Match. The first women Ultimate-X match is a cool attraction, whether it'll be good is another story. Not that bad a start for IMPACT in 2022. 

And of course this week-end Throwback Throwdown is gonna yet another mind-blowing WTF experience, perfect to watch later during the usually depressing Holliday seasons.

[Tenese Sarwieh]

Hard to kill was a damn good outing from Impact with Trey/Maclin, Gresham/Sabin, and Alexander/JONAH being all bangers. The rest of the show was fine and intrigued about the ROH invasion. I hope to god that OGK takes the tag belts from The Good Brothers. The main event was fine and I would've put the belt back on Deonna and the stip did hurt the match some. I did love the Queen's Gambit from the top rope through the table. Looking forward to more working agreements that Impact has in store. Also shoutout to Tom Hannifan for doing a great job on his debut. 

[TheDuke]

I really liked seeing the ROH invasion segments on this weeks show. That was a lot of fun. And when they showed that backstage segment setting up Ziggy Dice vs Moose later in the show, I was excited that one of the arcade games in the background looked to be WWF Wrestlefest, which was my personal favorite wrestling game I have ever played. And that giant pizza looked awesome. And then they brought in Ian Riccaboni in to call the main event, that was awesome. It was funny though, right before the main event the announcers were on camera talking about Mickie Jame, and they dubbed in audio of Tom talking about the Royal Rumble. The problem was because the announcers were on camera, the audio didnt match their lips, and when the audio stopped the announcers kept talking with no audio on screen. You think the could have also showed shots of the crowd or imposed a Mickie James graphic on top of the screen instead.  I am excited to watch Jonathan Gresham wrestle a Pure Rules match next week.

[C.S.]

5 minutes ago, TheDuke said:

WWF Wrestlefest, which was my personal favorite wrestling game I have ever played.

You know about the official sequel, right?

https://www.retromaniawrestling.com/

[DMJ]

Not sure if this belongs here, but I've been digging that they've been playing old TNA PPVs on AXS TV. If you have a DVR and you set it to record Impact Wrestling, you will find yourself with not only the weekly episodes but random TNA PPVs from the 2010s and earlier. For example, I'm watching Destination X from 2010 right now.

I'm not saying these shows are essential viewing or anything - like how essential could a Shannon Moore/Doug Williams ever be? - but its been fun for me to go back and watch these shows that I'd never seen before and the ease of access is a + if you're an old fogey like me and watch most of your wrestling on TV/On Demand. 

If I were WWE, I'd strongly consider pitching the idea of putting old PPVs on one of the bajillion lower tier channels that NBC or FOX own at graveyard shifts. I mean, its not going to draw a rating, but if you're WWE, this is stuff that you could license or sell to low tier cable channels (like AXS) and maybe make a small bit of coin on. Like, if AXS and Impact can somehow make money playing Hard Justice 2009 at 2 in the morning, the WWE should surely be able to make some money letting FS2 play random shit like Vengeance 2001 at the same time?

[strobogo]

They did do that for a while when sports were all shut down in 2020. Both old PPVs and the Best Of compilations aired on Fox Sports 1/2 and I think even mainline Fox a couple of times. 

[El-P]

On 1/11/2022 at 6:52 PM, Tenese Sarwieh said:

Hard to kill was a damn good outing from Impact with Trey/Maclin, Gresham/Sabin, and Alexander/JONAH being all bangers. The rest of the show was fine and intrigued about the ROH invasion. I hope to god that OGK takes the tag belts from The Good Brothers. The main event was fine and I would've put the belt back on Deonna and the stip did hurt the match some. I did love the Queen's Gambit from the top rope through the table. Looking forward to more working agreements that Impact has in store. Also shoutout to Tom Hannifan for doing a great job on his debut. 

Agree with everything.
The ROH stuff has been very well done thus far, having Gresham on the show brings another flavor with the Pure style (which is indeed very cool, I had not watched it when it happened in ROH). Deonna remains one of my very favorite workers in the world, glad she got that ROH title too now. 

Slammiversary will be the 20 years anniversary of the company. Who would have thought. And when you look at its history, the most obvious lesson is that Scott D'Amore is a terrific booker. He was responsible for its best years in the 00's (2005 and a good part of 2006) and the comeback since 2018. I hope they get Jarrett to make an appearance, I mean, he's smashing guitars in GCW these days, so why not.