Category: TNA Impact Zone (2004-2023)

I haven’t watched Impact in a good long while. Not for a lack of wanting; I just never got around to it lately.

Let’s turn back the clock, kids. Back to 2009, when the company formerly known as TNA Wrestling announced that they had signed Hulk Hogan and they were going to do a special live edition of IMPACT on Monday, January 4th… that’s right, kids. For the first time since WCW aired its final edition of Monday Nitro in 2001, WWE RAW was going to have a rival wrestling show on the same night to deal with.
Fortunately, two things were in RAW’s favor; the return of Bret Hart to WWE television – his first real appearance in a WWE ring since that night in Montreal in 1997. And the other thing was that… it’s fucking TNA.

I’ve only seen snippets of this show back in the day and decided it wasn’t worth my time. However, numbers were promising and that convinced TNA and Spike (who aired IMPACT at the time) to make the move to Monday Night more permanent. Now I recently posted musings on the short run of Monday Impact that I had written years ago, but never did get around to posting for one reason or another. Probably because I didn’t want anyone to know that I actually watched IMPACT and to be fair, there were a couple good episodes in there… but they were mostly bad.

So, to put a little bow on this Monday Night Pillow Fight of 2010, I’ve decided to go back and watch the January 4th edition of IMPACT, which was THREE FUCKING HOURS and we’re going to do this thing for… some reason.

Continue reading “IMPACT (January 4th, 2010) – The Opening Salvo Of The Monday Night Pillow Fight”

So, for those who missed the Winter Is Coming edition of AEW Dynamite earlier this month, Kenny Omega defeated Jon Moxley with help from Impact Wrestling executive Don Callis to win the AEW World title. He and Callis then ran out of the arena and mentioned that they were going to announce their intentions on Impact. And this is the episode where AEW World Champion Kenny Omega makes his TNA Impact Wrestling debut.

Impact Wrestling, to their credit for lack of a better word, posted the entire episode up on Youtube for free for all to see… but they also uploaded the individual clips that people would want to see on their Youtube channel as well, so everyone can watch that one Kenny segment immediately instead of sitting through an episode of an empty arena edition of Impact. I even said as much in my Dynamite musings for the Dec. 9th edition:

“So… the Impact show is something that I just breezed through for the most part. An empty studio show with a bunch of stuff happening and no effort to get potential new viewers familiar with any of the characters since this was their most watched show in ages. There’s a pretty good Sami Calihan promo hyping his rivalry with Eddie Edwards over that errant baseball bat hit across the face from yesteryear – I’m amazed I actually remember that angle – and there’s a neat bit where the reigning Impact World champion is refused entry to the parking lot… yes, the reigning world champion of your company was shut out by a portly security officer, which is a hell of a first impression for new viewers… but other than that, the only notable bits were the two AEW segments. The first being a paid ad with the two Tonys and the second being the awesome interview between Josh Matthews and the Don Callis/Kenny Omega team… and since those segments are online, it renders the whole episode pointless if you’re just tuning in for the AEW stuff.”

So suffice it to say that it was not a glowing endorsement of the Impact Wrestling product and truth be told, revisiting Impact for the umpteenth time after failed attempts to suck me in didn’t exactly sit well with me. Not to mention that the prospect of another empty arena show, which I’ve had more than my fair fill.

Regardless, I did give the show another watch and what strikes is the commentary team’s gushing over this big thing involving Kenny Omega and Don Callis, which is funny in retrospect because that one piece has almost nothing to do with anything on the actual program. Honestly, in hindsight, that was a segment that could’ve aired on Dynamite, just with someone else instead of Josh Matthews. In fact, the Dynamite appearance the next night basically blew through those points again, but to an audience that was actually watching. So while having the reigning world champion of the second biggest wrestling promotion on your television show might seem like a big deal, it means very little until he’s actively interacting with your talent and if these pre-tapes are the extent of Kenny’s involvement, then I don’t see what Impact or AEW has to gain from this arrangement.

It also doesn’t help that on this very important edition of Impact Wrestling that may have gotten a boost in viewership thanks to the AE-Rub, the wrestling show that they did put out wasn’t the most compelling show there. There was a really good match between Josh Alexander and Chris Sabin that opened the show, but then they followed that with a Curt Hawkins match that – bless him, I’m sure he’s a nice guy, but this match with TJP almost cured my insomnia. The only other match that stood out as any good was the main event; the tag match between Chris Bey and Moose beats Willie Mack and Rich Swann. I thought that was good stuff and all four guys were really good. Everything else in between wasn’t anywhere close to that level of quality or notability and it’s a damned shame.

In any event, not the strongest first impression for anyone coming to see Kenny in another promotion. Maybe things will pick up as this goes on, but right now, I’m not entirely sold on Impact and don’t see myself following this show on a weekly basis. We’ll try this again in a few weeks. Later.

(2020 Update: This post features Joey Ryan and was written long before the Joey Ryan controversy broke out. The text remains as is, even if it doesn’t age as well.)

You know… I forgot that Impact was a thing that was being recorded on my DVR thing… so might as well look at last week’s episode because that’s all I got. I’m not going to do a full recap or anything like that because honestly, I wasn’t paying a whole lot of attention, sadly… but I’ve seen enough of a show to gather five talking points.

Continue reading “IMPACT (Nov. 5th, 2019) – Ryan Shamrock”

The last time I sat down to watch an episode of Impact Wrestling… let’s just say it didn’t go over well and the end result was one of the longer tirades I’ve written on a wrestling show.

It’s been a year since then and there’s been yet another shake-up in management, a move to Toronto, and a massive reshuffling of the deck in terms of talent and personnel. And of course, the familiar claim to fame that Impact Wrestling survived another year. And while the product was once again under new management, I didn’t bother to watch their first show last month because it wasn’t a straight-up reboot or anything like that, but rather a slow shift. Things would change, but not outright and in a way that would feel natural rather than forced.

So I made the decision to bite the bullet and check out their Crossroads special; essentially an episode of Impact Wrestling with four major matches, including the first ever meeting between Impact World champion Austin Aries and Johnny Impact. I’ll be doing a general musings of the show, but I will also bring up a couple points from my last Impact viewing experience and see how this compares to that earlier (and lesser) venture.

For what it’s worth, I’m watching this off the Global Wrestling Network website, which shows the last few episodes of Impact for free. I’m on the fence as to whether I’d want to fork over another ten bucks for a monthly subscription, but on the other hand, there’s a whole bunch of TNA shows that I’d very much want to check out and I’ve got some free time coming up, so it might be worth looking into in the future.

But back to Crossroads… right after the break, of course.

Continue reading “Impact Wrestling: Crossroads (March 8, 2018 Episode)”

It’s a day late but that’s only because I saw it a day late and since I’ve seen it and since this is supposed to be a new day yes it is and since I don’t know what a comma is apparently I’m going to share my thoughts on the first episode of the brand spanking new IMPACT WRESTLING being run by all the old TNA guys.

I guess that’s good enough for TNA standards, right?

Anyway, to provide context, this is the first episode of Impact Wrestling under the direction of the new creative team of Jeff Jarrett, Scott D’Amore, Bruce Prichard, Dutch Mantell, and a couple other guys… essentially some of the folks who were around during the TNA heyday years, whatever that ends up meaning, I guess. The company had been acquired by the Anthem Sports group (who also owns the Fight Network up here in Canada) a while ago and have before this point produced lame bird episodes from what’s left of the old regime. And since this is a new era or something, this seems like the perfect jumping on point for someone looking to get into this would-be alternative to the WWE circus.

Some more context to provide; this is the first episode of Impact Wrestling that I actually sat down and watch in its entirety in years. Yes, despite the “brilliance” of Broken Fatt, Brother New Coke, and Not So Final Deletions, I haven’t had the urge or desire to catch up on anything going on with the TNA promotion beyond reports I’ve read online. If anything, the story of the administrative in-fighting and financial woes of the company were more compelling than anything that took place in the hexagonal circle.

With Dixie Carter and Billy Corgan turfed in some form or fashion and most of the major stars having left, I figured it’d be interesting to see how Jarrett and company fare on their first effort in a new chapter of Impact Wrestling. So I gave the first episode a go and well, you could read my full thoughts after the break. However, given the choice of image used for the header of this post, you could probably surmise what I thought of this first episode.

Grab a drink, kids. This is going to be a long one.

Continue reading “IMPACT (Mar. 11th, 2017) – The New Impact Wrestling… Oh Dear…”

So, against my bitter judgment, I decided to forgo my long standing directive to ignore TNA while Hogan’s on the air and check out last night’s Impact Wrestling episode, where they supposedly introduced new concepts to the show such as Open Fight Night and TV Champion Devon defending his title every week against worthwhile challengers. I’ve been keeping track of TNA through results and a couple clips here and there, so I figured I give it a shot, especially after RAW’s anemic effort.

Honestly, I thought IMPACT was a pretty good show… and I’m not just blowing smoke. I was thoroughly entertained by the show. It had some good moments and the wrestling was actually pretty good. So here are some quick random thoughts;

– Match between Bully Ray and Devon (who retains) was actually pretty good – far better than I would have expected the two to have. But I guess when you team with a guy for as long as these two, you tend to know what your partner is capable of and produce quality stuff. People have been given high praise to Bully Ray these past few months and I can see why. What few clips I’ve seen of his stuff on YouTube is not that bad and if TNA decided to give him a run with the World Title, I wouldn’t be against it because the guy deserves a run on top.

– Liked the fact that Hardy/Anderson ended up being fodder to Joe/Magnus, but otherwise, I thought it was a nice match that was enjoyable. Not much to say on this one…

– Hogan wants Eric Young to be productive. I second that notion… Holy shit on a stick, did I just agree with Hulk Fucking Hogan?!!

– If only he’d say the same thing to Eric’s boy… god damnit, man. You make me long for the days when David Arquette was WCW Champion!

(That was a lie. I never want that… ever.)

– Uncle Eric tossed into a porta-potty filled with shit… and you thought getting dumped into a garbage truck by Mister Mack-Man was an embarrassing way to go.

All in all, pretty good show. If TNA produces more shows like this, then I might actually watch this on a weekly basis… hell, I may even change the TNA tag… again.

FRIDAY MORNING NOTE: This was written prior to the airing of Impact and some amends have been made since the show aired. Since the shows in question are in the books, there’s no point in hiding the below text, so enjoy my rambles.

So, stop me if you’ve heard this before.

Continue reading “IMPACT (Oct. 20th, 2011) – SPOILERUSSORIFIC Impact? Not really…”

So, as I said, I’m sitting down to watch TNA Impact and I’ll be pointing out thoughts, observations, results, and whatnots. So let’s begin this show, shall we? TNA boasts that they’re a wrestling show… here’s their chance to sell me on their wrestling.

Continue reading “IMPACT (May 12th, 2011) – The Network’s Revenge? More like The Network’s Migraine”

Judging from the last bit, TNA probably signed WCW’s long-inactive Gimmick Xerox machine to a contract. At this point, though, ripping off WWE segments seems to be a much better attempt at intriguing storylines than whatever TNA is cooking out of their ass.

Hey, TNA? Did you know that the return of Sting isn’t the most shocking moment of the year? Because that’s kind of obvious. I think that even the most braindead fan knows a Sting return to TNA is no longer shocking.

Shocking moment of the year? I’d go with THE ROCK COMING BACK TO WRESTLEMANIA and his BREAKDOWN of John Cena at RAW. Do you think anyone is going to care about JWOWW coming back to TNA?

By the way, TNA, please kill this Kurt Angle/Jeff and Karen Jarrett bullshit. That’s probably the main reason why I’m NOT watching your TV at this point.