Oh, you didn’t know? The latest interview for my book about the first 20 years of TNA/IMPACT Wrestling was with the legendary Brian James. As someone who grew up watching Brian as The Roadie with Jeff Jarrett, Road Dogg in The New Age Outlaws and D-Generation X, and B.G. James in TNA, I was thrilled to have the chance to speak with him at length.
IMPACT Wrestling fans around the world, your voices have been heard! Beginning this Thursday, July 14th, new episodes of classic IMPACT! from 2008-2013 will be available on IMPACT Plus for the first time ever. Read on for more details.
IMPACT Wrestling has had a tumultuous history, and one of the craziest years was 2017. There were a few moments of magic sprinkled throughout. One of them was the wedding of Laurel Van Ness and Braxton Sutter. For my money, it was the best wrestling wedding ever. Don’t believe me? Watch the full segment below. It will have you in tears and fits of laughter.
Kenny Omega’s arrival in IMPACT sent shockwaves all through the wrestling world. Omega made his in-ring debut at Hard To Kill as the team of him and The Good Brothers faced the trio of Rich Swann, Moose and Chris Sabin. Despite an impressive fight from the IMPACT trio, Omega pinned Swann and set in motion a historic title match. Swann would survive a difficult challenge against Moose at Sacrifice before an even bigger challenge was coming. At Rebellion in April, the IMPACT World Champion Rich Swann would face the AEW World Champion Kenny Omega in a Title vs. Title match.
Our World Changed in 2020. It’s easy to think about how 2020 changed the world in many ways but Slammiversary was an industry shaking event. For weeks beforehand, anticipation built around just who would appear at IMPACT’s yearly anniversary PPV extravaganza. At least one former World Champion was promised, many other debuts and returns were teased – but just exactly who and how many people would be appearing at Slammiversary was anybody’s guess. Slammiversary came and blew away all expectations.
As Brian Cage ramped up his pursuit of the IMPACT World Championship, Johnny IMPACT became increasingly insecure – looking to do anything he could to hang onto gold. He just about escaped from Homecoming with the title, fending off Brian Cage’s Option C challenge, but The Machine’s chase was only beginning. As Cage got closer and closer to Johnny, Johnny cracked under pressure – using corrupt official John E. Bravo to keep the title around his waist as Johnny and Taya Valkyrie looked to rule IMPACT. Brian Cage would finally get another shot at Rebellion – this time with special referee Lance Storm in place to ensure that Johnny couldn’t tilt the scales in his favor in any way. Cage defeated Johnny in Toronto to capture the richest prize in IMPACT Wrestling.
Santana and Ortiz carried on the LAX name with honor, living up the tremendous legacy of Homicide and Hernandez. However, the original LAX weren’t exactly pleased to see their spotlight taken by a younger generation. After over a year dominating the tag team division, Eddie Kingston arrived in IMPACT with a worrying message – Konnan had been taken out but he was here to steer the ship in Konnan’s absence. Diamante was skeptical of Kingston at first but over time he earned Santana and Ortiz’s trust and helped lead them back to the Tag Team Titles. All was well in LAX until Konnan returned.
IMPACT Wrestling today released its first-ever Pride shirt – with the IMPACT logo emblazed in the rainbow colors, and available in four different shirt colors – to coincide with Pride Month.
I had the fabulous opportunity of being interviewed by someone I interviewed for my book: Goldy Locks! This incredibly talented woman, who was the first female broadcast journalist in the history of TNA Wrestling and contributed a great deal to the original music produced by the promotion, interviewed me on her show, Goldy’s Closet. Below is a video preview, as well as information regarding how you can watch the full episode.
I’m currently two-thirds of the way through transcribing my interview with Don West for my book about the history of TNA/IMPACT Wrestling, so I figured now was as good a time as any to provide an update on how things are going. Read on for more details on how my project is coming along.