Can Impact Wrestling Follow Up on Slammiversary 2018’s Success?
Over the past number of months, Impact Wrestling has been able to do no wrong. For a company with such a rocky past few years, 2018 has worked wonders for their reputation. But following the immense success of Slammiversary XVI, can Impact follow up on their big show in the long term?
Impact Wrestling has become the highlight of Thursday nights for the wrestling world. With independent stars like Moose and Sami Callihan, and actual wrestling legends like Austin Aries and Tommy Dreamer on the card, Slammiversary XVI was an incredible night.
One of the best shows of the year, Slammiversary proved that, in the words of our own Joe Soriano, “Impact is “for real” as a legitimately great wrestling product.” The show was jam-packed with incredible matches, included something for everyone.
Nearly every match on the card was at least good, and at best, Impact showed some real match of the year contenders here. The card was perfectly constructed, breaking up brutal (and sometimes almost hard to watch) hardcore matches with more clean and technical bouts. Pentagon Jr. took on Sami Callihan in the penultimate match, and nearly burned the house down in one of the most ferocious and hardcore matches we’ve seen in years, even including steel spikes.
In the final match of the night, Austin Aries surprisingly took down Moose in a fantastic main event. But with all the big storylines reaching their climax at Slammiversary XVI, where does Impact go from here? More importantly, can they follow up on this success?
More from Daily DDT
- It’s time for Adam Cole and MJF to drop the ROH tag team titles
- Tom Lawlor talks MLW return, AEW opportunity, CM Punk’s WWE return and more
- Eddie Kingston stands to gain the most from the AEW Continental Classic
- Trish Stratus on WWE NXT would help elevate that women’s division
- Randy Orton signs with SmackDown to go after The Bloodline
From week to week, Impact Wrestling has been putting in the work necessary to build themselves back up. After essentially blowing it all up and starting over following the GFW/Impact days, the former TNA Wrestling has spent the entirety of 2018 building a reputation.
More importantly, they’ve spent it trying to build up an identity for actually being a great wrestling company over anything else.
Under current world champion Austin Aries (and Pentagon Jr. before him), the company has made a point of building a product in the ring that is second to very, very few. Impact have managed to reinvent themselves as a company based mainly on in-ring competition, while still staying fresh.
As Slammiversary showed, Impact knows who they are as a company now, and that might be their most important new asset. No champion, match, or gimmick can make the same impact as knowing exactly who you are.
Impact doesn’t want to compete with WWE anymore, because they know they can’t. Rather than that, they know they can go off and do their own thing, unbothered, and just try to make the best product they can. If they have any competition, it’s Ring of Honor, but even then, all Impact has to do is make a great product every week.
Next: Slammiversary XVI As Told By GIFs
All in all, Impact is shaping up nicely for the rest of 2018 and beyond. Once he does take the world title (which he inevitably will), Moose should settle in nicely as the face of the company. Likable, in his wrestling prime, and not to mention an athletic monster, Moose should be the one to move Impact Wrestling into the future.
A terrific undercard, a monster main event, and a perfect blowoff to a massive blood feud, Slammiversary XVI showed exactly what Impact Wrestling can be as a promotion. This isn’t the same old Impact, and going into the future, they should be able to deliver with the incredible talent and booking they now possess.