Impact Wrestling Has Always Been Cutting Edge

Impact Wrestling is starting to find a new stride in 2018 with Don Callis and Scott D’Amore under the helm. However, even in its dark times, Impact has had more of an influence on the wrestling industry than many people give it credit for.

For better or worse, Impact Wrestling has built its reputation off of taking risks. As the first promotion to tip the national scale since the demise of WCW and ECW in 2001, it was make or break for the company then-known as NWA: TNA.

Sure, the company kicked off with recognizable figures such as Jeff Jarrett and Scott Hall but it built its foundation off of previously obscure talents like AJ Styles, Low Ki, Christopher Daniels and others.

The three names mentioned were staples of one of TNA’s greatest concepts, the X-Division. Priding itself as a continuation of the high flying cruiserweight style popularized on a national platform in WCW, TNA added a twist by declaring that the X-Division wasn’t about weight limits, it was about no limits. The most memorable example of such was the emergence of Samoa Joe. Joe went on to dominate the X-Division as its lone heavyweight savage and have what is still widely considered the greatest match in TNA/Impact Wrestling history against AJ Styles and Christopher Daniels at Unbreakable 2005.

As Impact developed its household names, it also started to attract red-hot free agents with something to prove like Christian Cage, Sting and Kurt Angle. Cage proved that he could be a main event player, Sting showed that he still had years of great matches left to produce and Angle cemented his legacy as one of the best wrestlers of all-time.

Eventually, Impact introduced its Knockouts division. Considering no other nationally recognized promotion allowed women adequate screen time to produce compelling matches and engaging storylines, the Knockouts division was a welcome breath of fresh air in the women’s wrestling scene.

Aside from some occasional bright spots, it can be argued that Impact’s gradual decline began during the Hulk Hogan regime in 2010. The company continually slip into obscurity over the years but finally started to regain some steam thanks to “Broken” Matt Hardy.

Hardy’s Broken Universe with “Brother Nero” became the talk of the wrestling industry off the back of some incredibly bizarre but equally riveting segments. The act became so popular—thanks in part to the successful Final Deletion segment—that the Hardys even got an entire special episode of Impact Wrestling dedicated to them called Total Nonstop Deletion.

When the Hardys returned to WWE at WrestleMania, the crowed erupted with chants of “DELETE”. Had Impact Wrestling not essentially given The Hardys the creative freedom to make themselves the hottest act in wrestling, they would not have had nearly the momentum they had coming back to WWE.

Beyond The Hardys, Impact Wrestling has an increasingly long list of talent that have gone on to find success—whether improved or new—in the WWE as a stint there is no longer the death sentence it used to be. Two ex-Impact Wrestling cornerstones—AJ Styles and Samoa Joe—are in a high profile match at SummerSlam for the WWE Championship.

A former longest-reigning TNA World Heavyweight Champion, Bobby Roode has NXT and United States Championship reigns on his resume. Eric Young followed up on his twelve years at Impact Wrestling with an NXT Tag Team Title reign and a spot in the first WarGames match in decades. Drew McIntyre, Bobby Lashley and EC3—despite debuting in Impact Wrestling well after its most prosperous period—made huge strides during their respective tenures.

Nowadays, Impact Wrestling is trying to re-establishing itself as the most buzz-worthy product in wrestling and their mission is coming along well so far. Since 2018 began, Impact has brought in world class talents such as Brian Cage, Pentagon Jr., Fenix, Tessa Blanchard, Joe Hendry and Rich Swann.

LAX’s feud with The OGz is just one example that goes to show how much more focused Impact is on long-term storytelling than they’ve been in years. Any notion that Impact Wrestling is beyond repair was quickly dissuaded thanks to the success of Redemption and Slammiversary.

Impact Wrestling’s resurgence is for real this time with no over-reliance on failed stars, failed concepts or failed regimes. With a strong end to 2018, Impact can potentially stake its claim as wrestling’s most talked about brand.