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Impact Wrestling in Summer/Fall 2022- (Josh) Alexander The Great

King Kamala

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Impact Wrestling is coming off one of its best PPVs in a long time, that paid homage to its storied (goofy) past while showcasing its current talent.

America's Most Wanted looks like they might be back, at least on a temporary basis, for all of you early TNA fans.

Joe Doering is Josh Alexander's challenger for the Impact World Title match at the July Impact Plus special for all of you 2010s All Japan fans
 

King Kamala

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Idk if he's going to be an active wrestler. Cagematch said his last match was in 2018. I wouldn't be surprised if they were building toward James Storm and the Briscoes with Harris as their cornerman against some iteration of Bullet Club.

Although Impact's certainly let guys far older and in far worse shape than current Wildcat wrestle (Scott Steiner was a Tag Team Champion in 2018!)

Matches you didn't think existed crosspost
While looking at Chris Harris' Cagematch, I saw that AMW had a reunion in 2016 where they faced their old Asylum era rivals The Naturals!
 
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Epic Springs

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I don't get the point of them reappearing together if they're not going to tag at least once. I'm sure Storm can cover whatever shortcomings Harris has.
 

RedJed

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Yeah, I bet they will at least do a multiman with Harris in there, just being used very sparingly. He didn't look cosmetically super terrible at the ppv, but I would venture he isn't the worker he once was for sure.

Doering/Alexander is an ok main for the next show (already on July 1, damn) especially considering they are rushing the fuck to that next big show anyway I'm alright with it. They had a match on TV a few weeks back that was pretty damn good, so bring it again. I said this in the ppv thread, but JA has been killing it in the ring against a variety of talent, I hope this run lasts a strong while.

I did peep the spoilers from the next day after the ppv and it wasn't the greatest sounding stuff, but we will see how it shows up on TV the next few weeks.
 
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King Kamala

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Impact is four months away from their next PPV so I am imagining they'll be light on meaningful storylines for the next month or two.

Speaking of which, did anyone find it mildly odd that Impact Wrestling just announced October 2022 for Bound For Glory with no mention of a specific date and/or venue? Maybe they're waiting to see if WWE, AEW or NJPW springs something last minute that messes with their flagship show?
 

RedJed

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Impact is four months away from their next PPV so I am imagining they'll be light on meaningful storylines for the next month or two.

Speaking of which, did anyone find it mildly odd that Impact Wrestling just announced October 2022 for Bound For Glory with no mention of a specific date and/or venue? Maybe they're waiting to see if WWE, AEW or NJPW springs something last minute that messes with their flagship show?
Yeah, super weird. I think they maybe said something like October 6th in the commentary (dont quote me on that) but the ad said no date IIRC. Location-wise, not sure where would be ideal to go to. I kinda feel like they are still struggling with attendance bigtime, even the Nashville show didn't look too jam-packed. Maybe going back up to Canada would be the way to go for this one. Otherwise they haven't been in Chicago or Los Angeles in years either.
 

King Kamala

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Didn't they draw one of their best crowds in years in Chicago for Bound for Glory 2019?

Looking at their schedule, it looks like they're coming to an undetermined venue in Chicago for a weekend of tapings in mid August.

I feel like they've rotated through the same half dozen or spots since going off the road in the mid 2010s. We haven't gotten an Impact Wrestling show in New England since they were on Spike TV!
 

Epic Springs

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One of the biggest "What Ifs" was Impact advertising their Hard to Kill PPV April 2020 in NYC then the pandemic happened and killed all that.
 

King Kamala

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It seemed that Impact had momentum in late 2019/early 2020 that it hasn't gotten back.

Them building their company around a GD primadonna idiot like Tessa Blanchard probably was NOT THAT SMART in retrospect.
 

RedJed

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Yep, looking back that was really a completely terrible decision in hindsight. I think it put them backwards momentum-wise at that point. The AEW partnership helped them well during covid, and it's been great to see them back in good graces with the NWA and NJPW, but I think maybe alot of fans kinda gave up on Impact as kind of the last straw that broke the camel's back with them pushing Tessa to the moon.

Maybe they should do BFG in New York, given that they had to ixnay that one in 2020? Then again they just tried the Mid Hudson Civic Center for a ppv to a pretty terrible turnout. Forgot they are trying in Chicago again mid-August. Yeah, they had a GREAT turnout for BFG in Chicago with Joe/Sting at the same building that All In/All Out runs.

I'd say they should come to MN (Minneapolis/St. Paul has a variety of mid sized venues), but the times TNA did so, holy shit they could not draw for shit. They had a house show in my hometown here in Mankato in 09 in a 7500 seat arena that barely scratched 100! And this was with a Samoa Joe/AJ Styles main event!!

It's weird because I feel like the talent is there right now and the creative ain't too bad, yet looking back in the Dixie era when they were touring nationally but the product was so much weaker mostly, man those ppvs had WAY more people in attendance than the ones now. Impact hides it well in the way they produce TV, but they really are only getting 500-600 seemingly at most for even their bigger shows.
 

Epic Springs

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Impact have definitely realized their ceiling since D'Amore took over. It seemed even for a few years after the failed Monday Night Wars Redux that they were still trying to compete with WWE. Now, they realize they can just be their own little thing and put on a good product with good workers.
 

King Kamala

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It seems like they're stuck back where they were in the mid 2010s IRT touring.

Tbh now that studio wrestling has come back in fashion somewhat, it probably wouldn't hurt for them to establish a home base somewhere and just run mostly there outside of the 3-4 big shows a year. It's less of a burden on the workers too.

They've run Melrose Ballroom in Queens a number of times and I feel like that's a great spot for them for PPVs & bigger events. If Impact Wrestling can't draw 1200 in NYC than there's something seriously wrong with their live event promotion.
 

RedJed

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I think Impact tried to do Vegas as a homebase for TV, but the way they did it made it rough to gain momentum when they ended up taping three nights in October and then another three nights in November. I was at the November shows, and the ppv drew well, the first night of AXS was maybe half the attendance of the first night ppv, and then the third evening, shit I dont think they even drew a hundo.

At that point, I think they gave up and/or Sam's Town said fuck it, no thanks into further partnering together.
 

King Kamala

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Vegas isn't a bad idea for a homebase IN THEORY but they always pick Sam's Town, which is a p. mediocre location. IIRC, it draws mostly residents and not tourists which makes it a lot harder to draw consistent crowds. None of the hip casinos are going to want to give a residency to a tertiary wrestling promotion.
 

909

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If they were based here I'd go to every taping but...they're not gonna do that.
 

Laz

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There's probably a lesson in there about quality being further down the list of what draws than we would care to admit.
Quality is what keeps people coming in, but there needs to be something attention grabbing in order to get them to check it out in the first place.

And right now? There's nobody on the roster who can grab somebody's attention. There's a lot of great talent, for sure, but nobody to really pop and make fans say "this one is great."

There aren't even any storylines or feuds that make fans, diehard or casual or in between, take notice.

D'Amore is a great booker when it comes to presenting solid and competent products, but he's always lacked a bigger vision, and maybe that's what Impact needs to be: a competent, but rarely above average, show.
 

King Kamala

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I would love to see them use SoCal, or at least some serious energy on the West Coast.
Seattle & Portland seem like underserved markets.

D'Amore's done a great job of getting Impact back to consistent respectability which is saying a lot considering the sixteen years that preceded Anthem taking over but it's going to need a lot more to earn back the trust of hardcore wrestling fans (let alone casuals).
 
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Portland does well, from what I understand. Prestige draws consistently and since this modern era has so much crossover with talent it isn't even worker-specific*. It's looked at here the same way local music is, oddly, where it's just something people go to and support. WA in general is starved and bitter about it. Like, people are still very angry and hurt about how WWE has handled them after WM19 and badly want wrestling.

*Maki Itoh is the exception, like holy shit.
 

King Kamala

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Looks like I was right about Chris Harris being in a non-wrestling role. At least for now. It's James Storm, Briscoes, and Good Brothers Vs Honor No More in a ten man tag at the next Impact Plus special.

He really must be retired if they won't throw him in a ten man with nine other dudes to cover.
 
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