The two major positives I see from the partnership:
1. Don Callis and Scott D'Amore are GOOD BOOKERS.
D'Amore has had a hand in almost every legitimately good period of the company's history since 2004, shared booking duties in 2005-2006 with Dutch Mantel (seen as the company's high point), and his return saw the weekly product increase in quality enough to where, despite its limitations in production and the available talent pool, the shows were watchable from start to finish (barring the cinematic nonsense). NO OTHER COMPANY'S SHOW CAN SAY THAT.
Callis has shown that he will put the well-being of the company and the business ahead of his own personal interests, especially so since he made a fortune away from it through investments. While I can't agree with all of the decisions he's made since taking over the company, it's inarguable that his decisions have been the wisest in a business sense in at least a decade, maybe even in the history of the TNA/Impact brand's existence.
2. Talent share.
With Omega already being advertised to be seen on Impact next week, even if it's just in a pre-tape, this gets more eyes on the show. Impact is not the only one to benefit here, as their tag and Knockouts divisions are extremely well-booked and feature deeper talent pools than AEW. We've already seen some fantasy booking in this thread about the possible matches that can come as a result - FTR vs. the North, Jordynne Grace vs. Serena Deeb - but we're ignoring some other potential big deals.
Sami Callihan is, as far as I know, still under contract with Impact, and his pairing with Jon Moxley back in CZW was one of the few highlights during the waning days of Zandig's ownership. When he returns from injury and shakes off the rust, Alex Shelley reuniting again with Chris Sabin to take on the Bucks in another series of matches could prove entertaining. Ace Austin would do very well against Jungle Boy, Sammy Guevara and Rich Swann could have some fun, and basically the entire Knockouts division going up against Shida/Statlander/Ivelisse/Diamante/Snow...yeah, there's some great potential here.
The two most glaring negatives...
1. Too much potential for retreads
Fuck the Bullet Club reunion, at least as a primary draw. It would be cool to see a faction stretched across companies, but it's also just playing off of a dated meta-reference that's just old hat by this point. There's only so many ways an invasion angle can really go, with the crown jewel still being the ROH/CZW feud, and I already see most of the AEW feuds built around the same core talent over the last year and don't see this changing that much. I have a gut feeling it will always boil down to Omega being an anime character, the Bucks doing the same routine they've done for the last decade but being increasingly outshone by other talents who can do it faster and smoother and with more psychology, Cody desperately trying to be some amalgam of his dad and Ric Flair...basically, I can see this being more like JCP/UWF than I can ROH/CZW.
2. LET STING RETIRE
No, fucking seriously. He's in his 60s and had to retire because of injury and hadn't had a worthwhile showing prior to that in many years. LET THE MEMORIES GO.
