Has the AEW-Impact partnership lived up to its potential?

The idea of wrestling companies working together in some fashion tends to intrigue wrestling fans.

Such partnerships are filled with potential matchups they might not otherwise get to see. That was certainly at the forefront of fans’ minds when the AEW-Impact partnership was revealed. There were a lot of matches that could happen.

But the odd thing is that very little has come of that partnership, except the weird Double Tony commercials during Impact. After four months, the AEW-Impact partnership hasn’t yielded much in the way of crossover matches and it could have already been so much more.

Starting the AEW-Impact partnership

In front of the camera, the partnership between these two companies started on December 2, 2020. Kenny Omega challenged Jon Moxley for his AEW World Championship on the now infamous Winter is Coming. Kenny defeated Moxley with the assistance of Impact EVP Don Callis.

The moment turned Omega fully heel as well as launching the AEW-Impact partnership. Naturally, this set social media ablaze with theories about what was going on between the two companies. It’s been a little over four months, and things haven’t really come into focus.

Kenny Omega has repeatedly appeared on Impact programming. Similarly, the now former Impact World Tag Team Champions The Good Brothers have popped up on AEW Dynamite almost weekly. Matt Hardy and Private Party also made appearances on Impact, challenging The Good Brothers.

Oddly enough, NJPW has also gotten in on the action with Kenta appearing on Dynamite before facing Moxley in Japan for the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship. And NJPW’s FinJuice are the current Impact World Tag Team Champions.

If that’s not confusing enough, NWA’s Thunder Rosa has become a mainstay of AEW programming over the past few months. At the same time, AEW’s Serena Deeb is the reigning NWA World Women’s Champion. Honestly, it’s all getting a little hard to keep track of.

But the core of this whole thing is the AEW-Impact partnership. The strange thing about the whole situation is how limited the interactions have turned out to be, with a lot fewer crossovers than the fans were hoping for out of it.

Not everything it could be…

While there is certainly a lot of cooperation between various wrestling promotions around the world, the AEW-Impact partnership has not amounted to much. Only a handful of talent from either side have been involved so far.

At this point, The Good Brothers might be getting more screen time on AEW programming than they do on Impact. But outside of Kenny Omega, Matt Hardy and Private Party, very few members of the AEW roster have made a similar leap.

To be fair, Sammy Guevara was supposed to be part of an angle on Impact but he refused. This apparently caused some slight backstage problems between the two companies, though that has passed. It is interesting to note that no new angles have started since then.

The only other crossovers have been Tony Khan “buying” weekly airtime to appear during Impact alongside Tony Schiavone. The promos are really weird, which sometimes works, and they occasionally bring other AEW talent with them. But those aren’t matches.

So far, the AEW-Impact partnership hasn’t really delivered a lot of big, unexpected faceoffs. If anything, it seems like it was just an excuse to get The Good Brothers on AEW programming, which is a choice they could have made a lot sooner.

Early in the genesis of AEW, the wrestlers behind the company called some of their friends in WWE and asked them to join. AJ Styles, Karl Anderson, and Doc Gallows chose to stay in WWE. Gallows and Anderson were famously turfed from the company not long after that.

It’s safe to say that The Good Brothers regretted that choice. In the end, they signed with Impact and have done reasonably well for themselves. Their appearances on AEW Dynamite have allowed them to work with their friends, again, and make up for a bit of lost time.

The future of the AEW-Impact partnership

Keeping in mind that it’s only been four months, the partnership hasn’t yielded much in the way of collaborative matches. There were a lot of possible pairings that could have produced great bouts for fans to enjoy, none of which have happened yet.

But the keyword in that statement is “yet.” There are still a lot of opportunities to make those crossover matches happen. In particular, this could be really good for both company’s Women’s Divisions, which have great talent who deserve more focus.

Impact stars Tenille Dashwood, Rosemary, and Deonna Purrazzo could put on excellent bouts with AEW stars like Big Swole, Britt Baker, and Red Velvet. Plus, watching Jordynne Grace and Leyla Hirsch throw down on Dynamite could be incredible.

The Men’s Division in both companies has similar potential. But there are no guarantees that any of this will come to pass. Hopefully, the AEW-Impact partnership will ultimately bear far greater fruit than what fans have seen so far.