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Impact Wrestling Winter/Spring 2020-21: Swann Diving Into a New Era

King Kamala

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Impact Wrestling has a new World Champion and Knockouts Champion (and they are a couple, eat your heart out, NXT!). Did you hear they also got The Rock to show up on their PPV last night (appearance taped on the same day he endorsed Biden. Equally important events IMO)

Discuss everyone’s favorite dysfunctional third rate promotion as it heads into 2021 ITT.
 

Big Beard Booty Daddy

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I’m very interested to see where they go with everything. The best tag team in the world is now in their second reign with there titles, the Knockouts Tag Titles are making a return (hopefully Kiera and Tasha get the first riegn), the X Division is heating up again.

It sucks that Swann had to win the title in front of no one, because the story was so good and bilt him up for the huge win, and I could imagine if that happened in front of a real crowd. Then again, if it happened in front of an Impact crowd, he’d have gotten the same reaction, since their live crowds aren’t very good.
 

King Kamala

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Some people treated the Knockouts Tag Team titles return announcement as kind of a joke but their women division is pretty loaded (even if they only have one or two actual tag teams) and I could see them making it work.


As I said in the BFG thread, I think only way for Impact to make things work long term is to emphasize Knockouts division and this is another step in the right direction.
 

Big Beard Booty Daddy

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Taya and Rosemary
Havok and Neveah
Tasha and Kiera
Su Yung and Kylie
Kimber Lee and Deonna

Pretty much every Knockout, except for Jordynne, Alisha, and Tenille have a partner they can team with. I like that a lot.
 

King Kamala

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Plus the way Madison Rayne reacted on commentary made me think that some form of The Beautiful People will be in it in some iteration as token returning team from first iteration of division.
 

Valeyard

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It's been nearly 20 years(!) and they finally got self-awareness.
 

Laz

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BOOOOOOOOOOO

If it's for the best, then so be it. A damn crying shame, though. She was, arguably, the most impressive overall female talent to crop up these past few years.
 

RedJed

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Everything has been so mysterious not only on her leaving AEW but now this with Impact. Is this pure severe mental health things at play? I read some stuff that the day of that ppv she checked herself out of the hotel ahead of time, left with her boyfriend, and nobody contacted Impact, neither of them.

I just don't get this...as someone who deals with panic, anxiety, and depression on the daily I totally get what it's like to feel overwhelmed with mental health issues but the one part that I don't understand is why she didn't reach out to the company or why her boyfriend didn't reach out to the company or someone on behalf of her? This would be akin to myself not calling into work if I was having mental health issues and just simply not showing up and not letting anybody know. That's the part that I don't understand here.

It's a shame as she is a great talent, but I can't get over the vague nature of it all and zero explanation, including herself. Just leaving it as unwell doesn't really clarify what's up. I've said it before but something here feels like an out of control addiction mixed with mental health out of control.

All I can figure is that in two instances she's left companies when they were on the road to pushing her. Is she having a case of major stage fright in a sense of she's afraid of the responsibility that comes with said push?
 

King Kamala

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I don't know if we'll know the story as to why Kylie Rae flaked out for a very very long time if ever. I've dealt with anxiety and panic issues myself and I totally empathize with her but from a promoter's stand point, Idk if she could ever be trusted again.
 

Valeyard

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I really hope she's okay. I get it. No one's mental health problems really work the same way for everyone. I just get very worried personally with this kind of thing.

This is a post-Hana Kimura era for the business, and I want her to be safe.
 

Epic Springs

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So apparently EC3 is already done with Impact. He wasn't working with a contract. He's going to be fulltime with ROH now.
 

King Kamala

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Yeah. That crappy cinematic match with Moose kind of indicated his run would be a one off.

So far I am really unimpressed with post WWE run, stoic badass EC3. Just horrible miscasting.
 

Baby Shoes

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I feel like modern day Impact does not get enough credit, that I see, in quickly rebuilding the credibility of guys. Guys like Myers, Heath and Young were all made into looking incapable of winning a match in WWE yet quickly became top acts in Impact. I know there’s been instances in the past of TNA forcing WWE guys over their existing talent but I feel all guys have been booked at a proper pace to establish them in the company.

I think my other piece, only being about the first half hour into this week’s show is I may be in the minority of preferring the Susie gimmick/character to Su Ying.
 

HSJ

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I was a fan of the Susie character too, but think they rushed it back due to Kylie no showing.
 

Baby Shoes

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Yeah, I felt they were building to Su probably coming back to face Kylie. The return to Su seemed inevitable, I just never really cared for the character.
 

Big Beard Booty Daddy

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I feel like modern day Impact does not get enough credit, that I see, in quickly rebuilding the credibility of guys. Guys like Myers, Heath and Young were all made into looking incapable of winning a match in WWE yet quickly became top acts in Impact. I know there’s been instances in the past of TNA forcing WWE guys over their existing talent but I feel all guys have been booked at a proper pace to establish them in the company.

I think my other piece, only being about the first half hour into this week’s show is I may be in the minority of preferring the Susie gimmick/character to Su Ying.

Modern Impact doesn't get enough credit for anything. They still do some "Impact gonna Impact" things, but they have a great roster or solid vets and talented young wrestlers. Their Knockouts division is fantastic, the tag division was rebuilt so fast after being so thin earlier this year, and the male singles divisions are both very good.

And I'm on the Susie being better than Su Yung gimmick.
 

Baby Shoes

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I really think the Wentz-Xavier team has been underutilized. I feel like they’ve been all over the board with Trey. I’d be surprised if they really left though. They recently brought in Wentz’s wife, they seem to have been a good and supportive place for Trey’s mental health stuff and Dez was working Impact before the other two showed up.
 

King Kamala

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It's not just kayfabe. It really is their last match for Impact. Joking aside, I have a hard time seeing them go to WWE given WWE's hardened anti weed stance for the past 15-20 years. On the other hand, AEW makes just as little sense since they are really overloaded with tag teams.

ROH would be good but I really doubt they are signing anyone during the middle of the pandemic. Agree with you , @Baby Shoes that move seems confusing as Impact seems like absolutely best fit for those guys.
 

Epic Springs

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Didn't think they'd sign all 3 of them but I guess Santos Escobar's stable needs someone to feud with.
 
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