Impact Wrestling moves to Pursuit Channel in 2019, but is it the right fit?

After weeks of speculation, news finally broke today that Impact Wrestling has signed a brand new television deal. It’s a move that many fans were excited to see happen, but has Impact made the right move? Is Pursuit the right home for Impact Wrestling?

I’m sure there are some fans, even those who love to catch Impact Wrestling, who wonder why the company has struggled in recent years to secure a prime television deal. The short answer is that television is difficult, but really the issues are longstanding. Before we look at the problems with PopTV, let’s take a look at the history of TV deals in Impact Wrestling.

What’s with Impact Wrestling and television deals?

All the way back in 2002, TNA Wrestling (now Impact Wrestling) got their start doing weekly pay-per-view events. They circumvented the need for a television network by using those weekly PPVs as their primary source of revenue. It allowed the company to get off the ground without a TV deal, but it wasn’t a long-term sustainable plan.

In 2004, they signed a one year deal with Fox Sports. The show took a more sports-centric feel, and they had a solid year despite airing on Fox Sports at odd hours. Finally, TNA hit gold in 2005 when they signed a prime-time TV deal with Spike TV. Of course, they did get an assist from some good timing on WWE’s part.

While Monday Night Raw had primarily aired on USA Network during the 90s, they switched from USA Network to TNN, which later rebranded as Spike TV in August 2003. By October 2005, WWE was ready to move their flagship show back USA Network. This left Spike TV an opening for some new wrestling programming, and they filled that void with TNA’s Impact.

While TNA has had various time slots over the years, some better than others, their time with Spike TV was always helpful because of the network’s notoriety. Most major cable providers carried it in the standard package, and most non-wrestling fans had heard of Spike TV. By the time Spike had soured on TNA in 2015, the landscape of cable had changed.

With more and more networks pursuing original content, getting a prime-time deal on a basic cable network had gotten more and more difficult. When Impact Wrestling started looking for a new home, they arrived on Destination America. Thus began their struggles with lesser known networks. Destination America was available with most expanded cable packages in the US, but not nearly as widespread as Spike TV.

A Period of Uncertainty

Impact only spent the year of 2015 on Destination America, and it was a tumultuous year in the company. After struggling ratings and questionable writing for some time, TNA was ready for a change when they filed a new business name of Impact Ventures, LLC in August of 2015. It came with the shift from TNA, and a desire to lose some of the stigma the name had garnered during the tougher years, by renaming the company Impact Wrestling. The rebranding effort was well-intentioned, but the company’s new start hadn’t yet found footing or proper funding.

Amidst that transition, Destination America chose not to renew their deal with Impact and left them searching for a new TV deal once again. Fortunately, Impact found PopTV and was able to move forward. While not on the same level as Spike TV, Pop was a decently tenured network with decent extended cable distribution. Impact signed with PopTV and aired their first episode with the network on January 5th, 2016.

Things were looking up. Unfortunately, the company was still in flux. In late 2015 and into 2016, news started to filter out that Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan was looking to acquire a stake in Impact and help take over the company. What followed was an extremely chaotic few months, and one with different narratives depending on who you ask.

The Acquisition by Anthem

The short version is that after all that confusion, Billy Corgan settled his issues with Impact and move on from the deal. Instead, Anthem Sports & Entertainment Corp took control of Impact in early 2017. Since acquiring the company, wrestlers and crew alike have had nothing but good things to say about Anthem. RealSport spoke to Eddie Edwards about the acquisition by Anthem:

"“You know, I think it’s a good start. It started off for the new year, and I think it’s the perfect time. It’s a new year. It’s a new beginning. It’s truly a new era for Impact Wrestling under Anthem. The ownership, the guys in charge there, they truly believe in our product, and we believe in them. So I feel like this is a true time where the wrestlers, the production team, the office, the writers, everybody is on the same page. And as long as we’re on the same page, we’re all gonna go the same direction. You can especially tell by the guys in the ring, when we go into that ring people are going out there having the best matches they’ve had because we want – we truly believe in what we’re doing behind the scenes. If that wasn’t the case, people wouldn’t be risking their life in the ring.”"

I also got the opportunity to speak to Josh Mathews back in March of 2017 about the acquisition, and he was just as positive about things moving forward:

"“I’ve had an opportunity now to go up to Toronto and see Anthem’s headquarters and sit down with everyone and put faces to emails. I’ve also gone to New York and met with everyone that runs Fantasy Sports Network, another one of the properties under the Anthem umbrella, and to me it’s just- I worked for a big corporation for 12 years. Then I came here when the chip count was low, and it wasn’t a massive machine. So, when Anthem came in, to me, this was how I remember it being, how it was supposed to be.”"

Is Pursuit Channel the right place for Impact Wrestling?

Despite all of the positives that came from Anthem’s takeover of the company, there was a looming negative. PopTV seemed like they were losing interest in Impact Wrestling. This hit a breaking point when PopTV spontaneously moved Impact’s timeslot up an hour, which had an immediate negative impact on ratings. The network also often seemed more preoccupied with airing old movies and their own original content than pushing Impact to new heights.

With all of that in mind, it was no surprise once news began to circulate that Impact was searching for a new TV deal and PopTV was unlikely to renew theirs. The rumors started immediately about potential landing spots for Impact Wrestling, but Impact broke the news today that they’ve signed a deal to air weekly on Pursuit Channel on Friday nights in 2019. Per Impact’s official press release:

"“IMPACT Wrestling, a subsidiary of Anthem Sports & Entertainment Corp., announced today it has entered into an agreement to broadcast its flagship weekly two-hour program IMPACT! nationally across the U.S. on Pursuit Channel, the most widely distributed outdoor network and one of the fastest growing channels in the country.Beginning on Friday, Jan. 11, featuring the aftermath of Homecoming, IMPACT Wrestling’s first marquee pay-per-view event of the year, IMPACT! will air weekly on Pursuit Channel on Friday nights at 10:00 p.m. ET.”"

After recent TV slots on Thursday nights of 8PM to 10PM ET and 9PM to 11PM ET, there was some surprise that Impact’s new deal will put them on air from 10PM to Midnight ET, but that could be the perfect spot for the company. Before we get to what makes that time slot right, there’s still the elephant in the room that is Pursuit Channel. What is it? Can I even get it? That’s what a lot of fans are asking.

While not as widely distributed or well known as some networks, Pursuit is going through aggressive expansion and already has a home on most major cable outlets in the US. Personally, I have DirecTV and have already checked to see we already have Pursuit Channel. A package check on their website showed Pursuit available in all cable packages, even the most basic, while PopTV was only available from the third tier up. It’s only one provider in a sea of several, but it’s a good sign when it comes to availability.

Ed Nordholm, president of Impact Wrestling, had this to say in their press release about moving to Pursuit Channel:

"“Pursuit Channel is a natural fit for IMPACT! It has a passionate viewership base that correlates strongly with our core audience, and is one of the few broadcast destinations that is expanding its footprint, enjoying a 15% increase in broadcast distribution this year alone. With IMPACT Wrestling coming off a tremendous year of audience growth globally and positive fan engagement, we look forward to leveraging our respective resources to bring fans more of the wrestling content they want to see: tougher, edgier action.”"

The comments from Rusty Faulk, CEO and founder of Pursuit Channel, were equally positive about the future:

"“Pursuit Channel is pleased to welcome IMPACT Wrestling into our Friday night lineup of popular shows. IMPACT Wrestling programming is perfect for our audience, which enjoys adventurous content to feed their wild side. We look forward to a long partnership and providing our fans with new and exciting world-class content while expanding IMPACT Wrestling’s audience to a new base.”"

While most of the information about the deal so far has come from Impact’s press release, there’s also been some reporting by Ryan Satin of Pro Wrestling Sheet about things:

"“According to one Impact source, this new deal with Pursuit Channel is better financially than the one they had with Pop — so the company is happy with the change. For those wondering how Impact ended up on a network that largely airs hunting and fishing programming, we’re told Anthem owns a large stake in the channel.”"

The news that Anthem owns a stake in Pursuit might sound like a bad thing to some fans, but considering the heavy support and interest Anthem has in making Impact Wrestling succeed, it’s unlikely they would’ve made the move if they didn’t think it would be beneficial. On top of that, if the TV deal really is financially better for the company, it could be a major boon moving forward.

As shown above, Pursuit Channel is talking like this will be a long-term partnership, but even a successful stint with Pursuit for a year or two could help Impact find a prime-time deal on a major network. While it’s easy for fans to poke fun at Impact Wrestling moving to a channel that primarily airs outdoors programming, it could be the perfect home.

In many ways, Impact doesn’t need a high-pressure prime-time television deal right now. After massive social expansion and improvement in content quality over the last year, Impact Wrestling might benefit most from a network that supports them. PopTV liked to push things on social media, but the shifting time slot in favor of airing old movies emphasized how they really felt about Impact Wrestling.

With Pursuit Channel’s connection to Anthem, and Anthem’s consistent improvement of Impact, that could continue to help bring stability and quality content to Impact Wrestling. On top of that, 10PM to Midnight ET is a better time slot than it appears to be at first glance. Remember that Impact Wrestling can’t make their decisions in a vacuum, and other wrestling companies are on television as well.

In 2019, SmackDown Live will be moving to Friday nights and air on Fox Sports. While their potential time slot is unconfirmed, SmackDown’s current slot of 8PM to 10PM ET is a likely choice. If that’s the case, Impact would be able to try and pull SmackDown viewers over to Pursuit Channel to watch Impact immediately after. NJPW currently airs a one-hour weekly show on AXS TV on Friday nights at 8PM ET. Even independent promotion MLW airs their weekly MLW: Fusion show on BeIN Sports at 8PM ET on Fridays.

The Friday night wrestling lineup in 2019 is going to be packed, but as of right now Impact Wrestling won’t be head to head with any of them. Fans will be able to make their decisions about watching SmackDown, NJPW, or MLW, and follow it up with two hours of edgier content paired with quality in-ring work from Impact Wrestling. Joke all you want, but this could be a fantastic new beginning for a company that has knocked it out of the park in 2018 when it comes to quality content.