Impact Wrestling: Redemption 2018 Is One Of This Year’s Most Important Shows

Tomorrow night at 8 p.m. ET in Orlando, Florida, Impact Wrestling will air its Redemption 2018 Pay Per View. Here’s why wrestling fans should have a vested interest in how the show unfolds.

I am of the belief that “All In” is the most important wrestling show in 2018, because it will be an action-packed evening that makes a statement that Independent Wrestling is capable of banding together to crate a spectacular show that draws a sell-out crowd.

But a close second in terms of importance is Impact Wrestling’s “Redemption” Pay Per View, which will begin tomorrow night at 8 p.m. ET.

For years, Impact, then known as TNA, was WWE’s stiffest competition. Not only did they have a TV deal, but they also had some of the world’s most prolific wrestlers. AJ Styles, Bobby Roode, and Samoa Joe are three of WWE’s biggest stars, and all three became renowned names globally as a result of their work in TNA. Kurt Angle, Jeff Hardy, and more had some of their best matches in TNA. Furthermore, the Knockouts Division did a lot of the paving for women’s wrestling that WWE now takes much of the credit for.

Since its heyday ended, no promotion has shot itself in the foot more frequently. There have been distasteful segments, the departures of big names, and disputes over ownership that have ranged from confusing to embarrassing.

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Thankfully, there’s new leadership, and Scott D’Amore and Don Callis have done a remarkable job of generating renewed interest in the product. Over the past several months, Impact Wrestling has been one of the most interesting wrestling programs around. The feuds have been well-written, most of the angles have been smart (I still have my gripes with the Sami Callihan stuff), and the focus has been on the in-ring action.

Impact “gets it right” when it comes to fan engagement, promoting their product, and allowing the wrestlers to showcase their brands. They understand that they need to rebuild a sense of trust with their audience, and that requires “giving” something to “get” something in return.

Most fans of the product understand these issues, and, quite frankly, they’ve grown tired of hearing about them ad nauseam. They know the company had its issues, but they’ve stuck through it all and just want to move on.

However, people who aren’t familiar with Impact are probably still skeptical about giving the company another chance. They’ve heard the jokes, they’ve seen the gags on YouTube, and they aren’t sure about the current names on the roster now that the likes of Styles and Samoa Joe are shining brightly in the WWE.

It’s all in the name. Redemption. This PPV is Impact’s opportunity to show wrestling fans that the have indeed changed for the better. D’Amore and Callis have said all the right things in interviews, whether those “sitdowns” are with Metro or Sports Illustrated. As D’Amore said, it’s all about winning the fans over slowly by putting forward a good product. There are no tricks. It’s about consistency and giving the fans what they’ve been dying to see.

Hardcore fans of Impact Wrestling will undoubtedly tune in, but some fans may be uneasy about paying the $40 price tag to watch Redemption live.

Even if these fans don’t actually buy the PPV or watch it live, they’ll still hear about what happened. And if the show is a success, they’ll be more likely to part ways with their money at Impact’s next PPV, or, at least, finally tune in to Impact’s television programming.

Heck, even if they only check out Impact’s YouTube channel each week after this Pay Per View, that’s still a “win” for Impact, because it means there are more fans paying attention to what they’re doing.

What makes it so difficult for most companies to compete with WWE is the fact that the “E” is an entertainment juggernaut that does an incredible job of promoting its product on all social media avenues. They have a great deal of resources, and they know how to use them.

Impact isn’t on the “fast track” to competing with WWE, but at one point in the company’s history, they were the best alternative to WWE and honestly had the more compelling product, even if only briefly. A rise from Impact Wrestling benefits the wrestling landscape as a whole, partially because the company is openly working with other promotions like Lucha Underground, whose wrestlers feature at the “Redemption” PPV, and Ring of Honor. Because Impact also has a vested interest in allowing their talent to showcase themselves outside of their own programming, more exposure for these wrestlers on Impact can have a positive effect on these other promotions.

Broader implications aside, a successful showing at Redemption is important just for our own entertainment purposes. As selfish as that sounds, wrestling fans want and have earned the best wrestling products possible. Impact has a fresh look and a compelling weekly show, so if they are able to put that all together into an excellent PPV, they have confirmed to the fans that we can add another wrestling promotion to our increasingly growing list of “must watch” wrestling programming week-to-week and month-to-month.

In all honesty, it shouldn’t be difficult for Redemption to be a quality PPV. The likes of Allie, Brian Cage, Taiji Ishimori, Matt Sydal, Eddie Edwards, Austin Aries, and Pentagon Jr. are among the best wrestlers in the world, and they have excelled on television for weeks. As long as management stays out of the way, lets the talent shine, and doesn’t shoot itself in the foot, this has a chance to be a memorable PPV and a proclamation from Impact that, yes, they are indeed “back” and have changed for the better.

That’s all wrestling fans are asking for, that’s all they are hoping for, and I am optimistic that this is what they will get tomorrow night. There are reasons to be cautious given this company’s history and the fact that another talent, Tyrus, left due to creative differences, but there are considerably more reasons to quietly believe that Redemption will be a hit.

Next: Impact Wrestling Redemption 2018 Match Predictions

One of those reasons? The incredible Wrestlecon Triple Threat fought by Austin Aries, Pentagon Jr, and Rey Fenix, which Impact wisely uploaded to its YouTube channel as a way of hyping up the Redemption PPV. If you want to know what Impact Wrestling has been all about in 2018 thus far, then I’d suggest watching the match by following this link.