Impact wrestling thread - It's a Don West tribute thread now!

[Guest]

Nothing of their regime has been on tv yet 

[garynysmon]

All I've heard is some hardcore fans commenting online that this have been their "best set of tapings in years." But of course, being hardcore fans, you're never sure what to believe.

Its good to see they haven't gone for another reboot though. The last thing they needed was another 'new era', and D'amore and Callis have already made it clear they won't be appearing on TV.

Its evident they're getting rid of the big earners off the wage bill, with no intention of offering them anywhere near what they were on.

I'm in two minds about this, as its obvious that Anthem want a company that's not haemorrhaging money. That in itself is perfectly understandable.

But yet, when you consider how much star power they've lost since 2012, its pretty scary. 

If I had to hazard a guess, they're looking to build up from pretty much scratch. Don Callis and D'amore are men who've been successful in business ventures outside of wrestling, so they're far from stupid.

I would hope they would be in a position to bring in some of the indy darlings such as Will Ospreay and maybe even Kenny Omega, who knows, for the next set of tapings. They'd be silly not to use some of the freed up cash to freshen up the taping schedule though. These 5-6 week tapings are brutal.

Edited January 15, 2018 by garynysmon

[BomberPat]

Just now, garynysmon said:

I would hope they would be in a position to bring in some of the indy darlings such as Will Ospreay and maybe even Kenny Omega, who knows, for the next set of tapings.

It would depend on what kind of relationship they could forge with NJPW, if any, and to a lesser extent with ROH.

NJPW haven't been particularly keen to work with Impact since their last working relationship fell apart over - amongst other things - misuse of Okada, and TNA refusing to allow the Dudleys to take a NJPW booking while they were IWGP Tag champs.

Now, obviously Callis has an in with NJPW, so it may be that they'll be more open to working with Impact in that respect - though Impact have less worth now than they did the last time they worked together, NJPW already have a working relationship with ROH and are looking to expand more into the US themselves, and Impact already have working arrangements in place with NOAH and AAA, which could be politically difficult as it seems the NJPW/NOAH arrangement is over, and NJPW have a long-standing partnership with CMLL, who wouldn't be open to NJPW talent working with AAA talent.

Ultimately, it becomes difficult to see what upside there would be for NJPW to allow their contracted talent to appear on Impact, or what they would get out of a working relationship.

[garynysmon]

Yeah, you're completely right. If it weren't for Callis' personal relationship with New Japan it would be a complete non-starter. But him being best buds with Kenny Omega, and to a lesser extent, Chris Jericho, can't hurt in the slightest.

I would suggest that Impact has a much bigger footprint than ROH internationally, but is it enough?

The whole wrestling world is a bit WWE vs the world at the moment, and seeing that Impact managed to work with both AAA and The Crash at the same time, anything is possible I suppose.

Without going into spoiler territory, the latest tapings didn't seem to feature as many international imports as there have been. It would not surprise me in the slightest if Callis sacked off AAA as a condition for working with New Japan.

Edited January 15, 2018 by garynysmon

[BomberPat]

Me either - and that would be a wise choice, I feel. I'm going to guess that the AAA deal largely came about through Jeff Jarrett and his ongoing relationship with them, and God knows how they managed to keep it going when they lost Jarrett and still had Konnan knocking about.

Right now, NJPW have considerably more buzz around them, and more upside for Impact, than AAA - the AAA relationship allows them to use talent who appeared on Lucha Underground, but that pool is drying up as so many of the LU big names have parted ways with AAA, and Lucha Underground has nothing like the hype it used to have surrounding it, while NJPW goes from strength to strength. If Callis was able to broker a relationship with NJPW that allowed Impact to use the likes of Jericho and Omega, at the very least, I'd say he'd be a fool not to cut the AAA relationship loose.

I don't know how much influence, if any, Callis would have on the NJPW office, though, nor how open NJPW would be to working another US promotion - they've got the ROH deal helping them get a pick of a foothold in the US, and ROH and Impact's TV numbers are probably about equal now, so I don't see the advantage in ditching one for the other, particularly not when the ROH deal doesn't seem to have presented any problems, when I suspect there would still be some residual ill will around the old TNA partnership that would make them reluctant to try and work together again.

 

I'm not sure if Impact having more international exposure than ROH would make much difference, either - NJPW seem smart enough to be trying to walk before they can run, and their focus at the moment is on the US market, with the odd feeler into Australia. I don't see much that Impact would be able to offer them in that regard that they'd be keen to take at the moment.

 

Getting off topic on the Impact front and more NJPW, but a lot of people seem to have taken Kidani's comments from the Wrestle Kingdom press conference about wanting to work with "WWE talent" very literally, and assume that they're pursuing a working relationship with WWE - I don't think that's happening at all, or at least that wasn't my interpretation, but if they are interested in that, I don't see them risking it by cooperating with one of the few promotions that seems to remain on WWE's shitlist.

[WyattSheepMask]

Bobby Lashley has now left the company. He worked the last set of tapings but that's the last you'll see of him.

Also

Austin Aries is a dual-champion after beating Matt Sydal for the Grand Championship, so fuck knows what that 'gifting' it to Josh Matthews was all about

[Statto]

4 hours ago, BomberPat said:

Worst of all, didn’t TNA switch the IWGP belts onto the British Invasion without bothering to ask NJPW first?

Edited January 15, 2018 by Statto
Typo.

[Kaz Hayashi]

3 hours ago, WyattSheepMask said:

Bobby Lashley has now left the company. He worked the last set of tapings but that's the last you'll see of him.

Also

  Reveal hidden contents

Austin Aries is a dual-champion after beating Matt Sydal for the Grand Championship, so fuck knows what that 'gifting' it to Josh Matthews was all about

 

But then why....

.. did Cyrus say the Grand title was retired?

Edited January 15, 2018 by Kaz Hayashi

[WyattSheepMask]

40 minutes ago, Kaz Hayashi said:

But then why....

 

  Reveal hidden contents

.. did Cyrus say the Grand title was retired?

Because TNA

[Philjax]

Watch the buildup if you haven't already....

 

[midlandsfirst]

Being reported Dreamer and Steiner are backstage and scheduled to wrestle at tonight's tapings

[garynysmon]

42 minutes ago, midlandsfirst said:

Being reported Dreamer and Steiner are backstage and scheduled to wrestle at tonight's tapings

Sorry, I know it may not be cool, but who doesn't love the big bad booty daddy?!

I take back everything I said about star power earlier.....

Possible return for Maple Leaf Muscle?!

 

Edited January 15, 2018 by garynysmon

[eugenespeed]

2 hours ago, midlandsfirst said:

Being reported Dreamer and Steiner are backstage and scheduled to wrestle at tonight's tapings

Just saw a pic on Facebook of Steiner at the Impact Zone. 

[air_raid]

14 hours ago, Statto said:

Worst of all, didn’t TNA switch the IWGP belts onto the British Invasion without bothering to ask NJPW first?

The bigger crime was the intelligence insulting finish where the ref called a finish in a tables match which he didn't actually see. In kayfabe he should have been struck off for incompetence like that. In reality, I was dumbfounded at how little sense it made. Like that AMW/3D finish where the ref "couldn't see whose shoulders he was counting." Utter bullshit.

[WyattSheepMask]

I'm assuming that will have happened during of Russo's turns with the writing, sounds like his type of shit he would come up with. Just like that time in WCW when Kevin Nash won that Powerbomb match after a ref bump by telling the ref "yep, I definately hit him with the Powerbomb" and the ref said "ok, I believe you". The ref wouldn't happened to have been that bald one with the shorts was it?