Impact Wrestling Is More Trailblazing Than You Think

Impact Wrestling formerly known as TNA has been through alot of trials and tribulations since it's inception 18 years ago. Despite several instances where it seemed  the company's time was coming to a end, they have continued to persevere. Going through several regimes the Jeff Jarrett era, Dixie Carter, Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff, Billy Corgan, Jeff Jarrett again, and finally Anthem Entertainment. With Anthem hiring Don Callis and Scott D'Amore to run and right the ship Impact has been producing consistent quality programming often flying under the radar. They're presentation may not work for everyone, but it works for them.

At the same time Impact has also been trailblazing within the industry. Even before the recent noise they've made partnering with AEW, Impact has been forward thinking and below are the top five reasons they've been changing the industry.

5. Special Editions of Impact

Back in the early 2010's Impact management realized the market was not there to hold monthly pay-per-views. They took some of their pay-per-view titles that were not as popular or deemed a flagship event by the company, and turned them into special editions of Impact. Titles such as Victory Road, No Surrender, and Lockdown were repurposed to give certain editions of Impact a more special and ppv quality matches. AEW and NXT have both borrowed this idea quite frequently, with AEW's recent Winter Is Coming event having PPV worthy moments.

4. Impact Plus Specials 

Impact doesn't tour reguarly, but to keep some form of live wrestling outside of their weekly programming and quarterly ppv's and entice subscribers. Imapct hold's monthly specials exclusive to their streaming service Impact Plus. They've done the same thing as the Impact specials here and repurposed event names as exclusive events. Names like Turning Point and Final Resolution, they've also held other specials like Bash At The Brewery which was actually held at a Brewery. Mentioned before this gives fans a reason to subscribe and check out more that Impact has to offer. AEW also doesn't tour reguarly and  has followed suit with their deal with Bleacher Report holding non-ppv events like Fight For The Fallen and Fyter Fest.

3. Storytelling Experiment

Impact Wrestling is not afraid to experiment with different ways of telling stories outside the ring. Typical backstage vignettes are often part of a larger story like the recent who shot John E. Bravo? angle. This past spring and summer they tried a reality show style wrestle house which for the most part worked. 

Last Thanksgiving they held a special edition of Impact called Throwback Throwdown. Presented as a 1980's throwback wrestling program for Impact Provincial Wrestling Federation (IPWF). Now some would say WWE did it first with Southpaw Regional Wrestling, but that was more a pet project by some wrestlers than something the company truly believed in.

Let's not forget the frequent undead realm segments featuring Father James Mitchell, Su Yung, Rosemary, and other guests. Impact has shown they are not afraid of taking risks with how they present their product.

2. Cinematic Matches

When the pandemic ravaged through the world earlier this year, making it unsafe to have audience in attendance. Many organizations began to utilize cinematic style matches, some may have relied on cinematic matches a little too much. We've seen matches in the dentist office, swamps, WWE headquarters, and fight club esque environments. Impact started the recent trend back in 2016 when Broken Matt Hardy went viral with his Final Deletion match. Other cinematic matches followed with Tag Team Apocalypto and The Great War. Impact too may have relied on the cinematic match a little too much but again they set the trend. 

1. Diversity of Champions

Impact is unafraid to have diverse champions. The current Impact World Heavyweight Champion is Rich Swann, his challenger for tonight's Impact Plus Final Resolution event is Chris Bey. No mention has been made of their race, because they are that damn good. Bobby Lashley was world champion for them four times, Pentagon and Alberto Del Rio two Hispanic wrestlers were world champions. They caught alot of heat from the intergender wrestling purists but Tessa Blanchard was their world champion. Impact also makes world champions out of guys that likely wouldn't be world champions in one of the other organizations. Talented guys like Sami Callihan, EC3, Eli Drake and Eddie Edwards who have made the best of their opportunities. 

These are my top five moments why Impact has been trailblazers in the industry. I think Don Callis and Scott D'Amore have done an amazing job with what they have, and look forward to what else they can do as Impact grows as a organization.