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

[TonyPulis'Cap]

On 12/29/2020 at 3:12 PM, Migs said:

Your comment seems to imply they'd be heels, but I think a Bullet Club reunion would get a lot of cheers if there were a crowd. Would probably be very similar to the old ROH vibe where they were "heels" who clearly had more support than the babyfaces.

Yeah, I guess I meant 'heels on paper' - think you're right in terms of they would definitely get cheers if they were doing the act in front of crowds, but either way, 'cool heels getting cheered' (as you say, as Bullet Club were in ROH) seems like a better fit for them than than trying to play the more traditional babyface roles they have sort of being doing so far which hasn't been too captivating. You can also see way more energy from them being aligned with Omega than the 'collecting a pay check' vibe they had been giving off prior to that.  

[NintendoLogic]

Brother @El-P will probably be bummed by this move, but for the rest of us, this is cause for rejoicing. At least, it would be if they weren't replacing him with Striker. Total monkey's paw scenario.

[El-P]

I really enjoyed Josh and Madison together (and honestly Josh & Callis too), it's been fun while it lasted. As long as she keeps on being featured and doing cool stuff, I'm ok with it, she rules whatever she does. I'm still gonna miss her doing the announcing, for sure.

Matt Striker... I enjoyed him in LU with Vamp, but that was totally in a specific context and a matter of the whole being much better than the sum of the parts. I really have not enjoyed him anywhere else lately. No idea how D-Lo does.

Hard to Kill is a really cool card on paper. With the matches of all matches : Ethan Page vs Karate Man.

[SirEdger]

I would assume that Madison Rayne will probably let the cat out of the bag about the speculations of retiring from the business and moving on to another job outside of it. And that's a career that isn't to be sneezed at either; at one time, she was brought in as the 3rd wheel of The Beautiful People and she turned out to be the most talented and valuable of the trio. Versatile in many positions, as her gig as color commentator on Impact proved it. I would easily put her in my top 5 of the greatest Impact Knockouts Champion of all time

[El-P]

14 minutes ago, SirEdger said:

I would assume that Madison Rayne will probably let the cat out of the bag about the speculations of retiring from the business and moving on to another job outside of it. 

I'd miss her, but whatever makes her happy. She comes off as a quite smart person too (really quick on her feet on announcing).

14 minutes ago, SirEdger said:

she was brought in as the 3rd wheel of The Beautiful People and she turned out to be the most talented and valuable of the trio. Versatile in many positions, as her gig as color commentator on Impact proved it. I would easily put her in my top 5 of the greatest Impact Knockouts Champion of all time

Yeah, what struck me when I was watching her basically grow out of the BP is how quickly she became a highlight of the show and how she totally carried the division at a time where the emphasis on it was gone. She was never a great in-ring worker, (although really solid) but she very quickly became a great character and she does tons of little things right. Totally a detail worker, always so much fun to watch no matter what she was doing.

[SirEdger]

I love the term "detail worker". I can't help but look at what Alexa Bliss is doing on RAW at the moment and put her in the same category; never been a fantastic in-ring worker but in terms of character work, she nails it every time. Always thought it was important to have a good balance between workhorses and character workers. Just like how Alexa is doing it on RAW, Madison did it in Impact, and it's even more impressive as like you said, she did it at a time where people wouldn't bother really watching Impact/TNA because of the stigma that Dixie Carter's incompetence had put on the promotion.

[Alucard]

Madison had a couple matches when she first came back in 2018 with Tessa and Taya that were great stuff. Her 2011 feud with Mickie James had a couple real good matches and an excellent promo building it up that stood out.

I will miss Josh Mathews as the voice of Impact. He'd been there for so many years now with so many different partners but I always enjoyed his work. 

[El-P]

So, Alex Shelley can't make the PPV for undisclosed reason (of course everyone is going COVID! COVID! because that's how it goes) and he's replaced in the main event by... Moose, who's basically on his way to challenge Swann as the N°1 heel built these last few months (and they did a great job at it). That's intriguing to say the least. Totally changes the dynamics of the match, I'm curious to see how they work it out at the PPV because obviously Willy Mack would have made much more sense, but IMPACT doesn't do random stuff. 

BTW, Callihan vs Edwards could be the show stealer in an old-fashioned barbwire blood-bath.

[SirEdger]

Wonder in Shelley's case, it's due to his job outside of wrestling

[Laz]

FWIW, I moved just outside Nashville a couple months ago, and we're expecting some bad snowstorm tonight into tomorrow. Nothing that would close a school back home (Boston area), but the southern states have no real prep for winter storms and things go nutty real quick. That could be a factor.

[sek69]

Matt "Zach Ryder" Cardona showed up at the PPV, I guess AEW put in a good word for him? At any rate, it seems like a good fit. His bro Brian Myers is there and he's someone who Impact can use while getting a nice run to hopefully reinvent himself.

[C.S.]

5 minutes ago, sek69 said:

Matt "Zach Ryder" Cardona showed up at the PPV, I guess AEW put in a good word for him? At any rate, it seems like a good fit. His bro Brian Myers is there and he's someone who Impact can use while getting a nice run to hopefully reinvent himself.

Wouldn't surprise me if Broski shows up on Dynamite and rails against AEW for not signing him after his five-appearance deal expired.

[SirEdger]

Apparently, he's also on a short-term deal with Impact Wrestling too? What's up with that?

[C.S.]

1 hour ago, SirEdger said:

Apparently, he's also on a short-term deal with Impact Wrestling too? What's up with that?

Maybe he's getting a relatively nice payday for very few appearances. 

[El-P]

I expected the main event to be quite good, but certainly not that great, but who am I to doubt Kenny Omega ? Everyone looked terrific in this, Moose clearly took the ball and ran with it. Omega pinning Swann is so interesting because now this probably insures a title match between the two with Omega maybe capturing yet another belt. Plus I guess Moose, whose basically built up to be the next champ, can now go all out on Swann too for losing the match. With that said, fun conspiracy theory :

Hint 1 : Don Callis introduced Kenny Omega as "The God of Pro-wrestling". We know who declared himself the God of Pro-wrestling two weeks ago, right ?

Hint 2 : Omega & the Good Brothers all wore Bullet Club garments to the ring, hell, Doc Gallows wore straight Bullet Club tights. 

Hint 3 : the announcers did mention the relationship between Omega & Ibushi at one point

So yeah, it will probably not happen or not that way anyway, but next year, WrestleKingdom, Omega as AEW, AAA & IMPACT champ vs Ibushi as IWGP & Intercontinental champ. DO IT !!!!

Eddie Edwards vs Sami Callihan was one hell of a bloodletting in old Onita fashion, with lots of teasing/selling and a fair dose of brutality too (although it probably looked worse than it was).

Taya vs Purrazzo was really, really good and now Purrazzo needs another opponent since this was a straight loss for Taya (who I guess could be on her way out, which would be sad but she's been in IMPACT for years and referred to going to Slamtown after her win...). Deonna is having one hell of a stint.

Ethan Page vs Karate Man was a fun as hell FMV video game sequence, basically. Ethan Page got his heart ripped out in a fatality. 

A bunch of fun stuff on the undercard too, Hogan & Steelz won the tag team titles in a decent match (Steelz & Nevaeh aren't that good, the match was straight carried by Hogan & Havok), they got the new belts from Gail Kim & Madison Rayne, which was pretty cool. Matt Cardona fits much better here than in AEW if he wants to try something new, but from what I see he's there to do the J.O.B to Ace Austin, who's a future star.

Going back to Madison Rayne, yeah, she basically announced her retirement and going home to be a mom. Good for her to get out of her terms. I'll certainly miss her a lot though, she was so much fun in any role she was doing. They really should induct her into their HOF eventually, she's the most valuable woman worker they had this side of Gail Kim and has been a staple of the company.

Interestingly enough, IMPACT is running a PPV in April, so they are adding another one to the schedule, so it shows they are certainly serious on not dying...

[Stiva]

Only watched the main since I fell off Impact months ago but I thought Moose looked fantastic. It really felt like the kind of complete performance he's been teasing since that Aries match a few years back. They're probably going to do the belt collector gimmick but it still feels like Moxley should be the guy to beat him in AEW considering he was screwed out of it in the first place. Unless they find a hot feud to funnel him into but I don't know who that is at this point, unless Cody turns heel.

[sek69]

Ethan Page was not happy how the Karate Man segment went down:

 

I’m going to take a full blown break from social media. I’ll be staying active on my personal Patreon as much as I can & probably in this group too cuz I love the fig life & u guys. Xoxox. But man .... last night sucked. I’m so embarrassed with how IMPACT! lazily edited that segment last night & forced it to be a joke. I felt the thought of the same guys fighting each other was comedy enough & the more serious we took it the better the reaction would be. But cuz I left the company, they lied to my face & just did what they wanted the whole time. I’m sorry if any of my fans paid for that PPV & felt cheated. I honestly feel the free version I gave away was made with more love, care & attention to detail. Sadly I had no control over the creative or the final product & the editor refused to send it to me beforehand .... so I saw it live with you guys & was surrounded by family. All scratching their heads at that high school project level delivery on a PPV. I pray ppl know I didn't edit that hot garbage. I actually begged IMPACT! Not to even have Karate man on tv. I only wanted it for my YouTube channel. But ... we don’t write the shows. We just get the scripts & do our best. Idk what else to say. Breaks my heart this company refuses to respect its talent or it’s fan base on a regular basis. I tried.  Oh well! Life goes on. That door is closed. Now let’s focus on what’s next. Hope you’re all well. I love all of you for supporting me & helping promote my projects. Because without you guys, karate man wouldn’t have been anything haha. I’m gonna just focus on the good that came of him for my social media & my personal channels. He’s gone now & May he live on in GOOD videos edited by the person who created him. Not stolen by a greedy company trying to capitalize on someone else’s hard work & creativity. Sorry if this comes off so negative. I know I’m usually a positive light for my fans ... but today, I need to just be honest. I was lied to. I was hurt. I was disrespected. And I need a break from it all."

Love Julian

[C.S.]

Two honest questions:

1. Did anyone actually buy the show for him?

2. Does speaking out like this encourage any future employers to take a chance on an unknown quantity like him? He's not a star. He doesn't even have "indie buzz." And now this. Why would anyone hire him?

I certainly understand his frustration if he was lied to and the editing of the match was a sloppy mess - was it? I didn't see it - but this hardly seems like a smart career move. 

[Laz]

From what I've also gathered, he is known as a guy with a lot of burnt bridges in his past. He's talented, sure, but he's not "let's ignore the ego" talented.

[sek69]

Someone asked Cody on Twitter if they were going to be picking up Ethan Page, and he did the facetious "I don't know who that is" reply. 

It seems like he must rub people the wrong way for sure. Impact under Callis and D'Amore has been a place where they try to do whatever to make sure everyone there is happy, it would seem odd that they would suddenly go all WWE on Page here. 

TBH the whole Karate Man thing was stupid when it was something Page was doing to pop his fans on social media, I can just imagine Impact trying to make sense of it for a PPV segment. From all accounts it was played as a goof, like a bad karate flick, which was probably the only way could have done it.  I'd guess they were thrilled to have Ethan over their shoulder giving editing tips as if he had just filmed the next Citizen Kane.

[C.S.]

Next stop MLW?

That seems to be the place for malcontents who aren't actually draws, or interesting, but think they sold out every building ever and are God's gift to any wrestling promotion they "grace" with their presence.

[El-P]

Ethan Page is very talented and I have enjoyed him a lot in IMPACT

I found the Karate Man vs Ethan Page "match" was a very funny little absurd segment like I said.

So, there... It's not the first time IMPACT gets criticized by someone on their way out though. Did not always turn out for the best either creatively, remember that girl Scarlett Bordeaux who in her short time in IMPACT did so many memorable and fun stuff ? She's been in NXT probably longer now and has been doing exactly nothing apart from being an animatronic for her guy's intro. I don't know about Ethan Page's reputation, but the guy was in his way out, the Karate Man on TV was actually cute I found. I guess the "Ethan Page was not hard to kill" bit was a bitter pill to swallow, which I can understand. 

[sek69]

Ethan Page is very talented, and his time in Impact was great. The North were a great act, but on social media he's come off for a long time as someone getting high on their own supply. in terms of believing his own hype.  His feed reads like someone who was fully expecting Impact to back the truck up for him and got offended when they didn't. You, like most people I've seen, thought it was a funny little segment. Page apparently thought he had filmed the next cinematic masterpiece.

Also I'll admit I don't have perfect recollection but IIRC Scarlett has largely been used as eye candy everywhere she went. Her Impact run was one big "look at me I'm hot" with all the Smoke Show stuff, which while amusing, was hardly anything I'd classify as memorable. Just like when she was in AAA her role was mostly "come to ringside and show your ass" while occasionally teaming with Sammy Guevara while challenging for the mixed tag titles. Plus her man is likely to get a mega push in WWE as long as he stays healthy since he's a Typical Vince Guy body wise and their entrance will probably be over huge when crowds come back. 

[El-P]

31 minutes ago, sek69 said:

Plus her man is likely to get a mega push in WWE as long as he stays healthy since he's a Typical Vince Guy body wise and their entrance will probably be over huge when crowds come back. 

Well, that ship has sailed. Crowds will come back whenever, Kross is a body guy but he's not that big and the day he steps in the main roster you know what is gonna happen  after a while : spitsville because that's what they do whenever an act can get hot, and especially if they are a real life couple. Remember that Aleister Black guy with that great entrance ? Whatever happened to him ?

Memorable is maybe a strong word, but it was a fun stint. The Fallah Bah angle was quite cool and she did get to shine in intergender matches (which WWE won't do). She was tons of fun in backstage vignettes.

Since I don't follow social media really I wasn't aware of that aspect of Page's game. So... Was fun while it lasted. Meanwhile, Alexander lost in the pre-show...

[C.S.]

Kross is going to get eviscerated on the main roster, because Vince will see Scarlett as the real star of the two - like Ru Ru and Lana, except this time, he won't be wrong.