Category: Impact

Impact Wrestling Viewership Sees Big Increase On Thanksgiving

Image result for Impact Wrestling Viewership Sees Big Increase On Thanksgiving

Last week’s Impact Wrestling numbers are just now coming out due to the Thanksgiving holiday.

Thursday’s Impact Wrestling episode, which aired on Thanksgiving and featured Eli Drake’s 2nd Annual Turkey Trot main event that saw the return of Disco Inferno, drew 124,000 viewers. This is up 23% from the previous week’s 101,000 viewers, which was the second-lowest viewership in the history of the show.

This is the fifth viewership for Impact in the 10pm timeslot on Pop.

Thursday’s show ranked #104 on the Cable Top 150. The show did not make the Top 150 the previous week.

A Hallmark Christmas movie topped the night on cable in viewership with 3.266 million viewers, ranking #1 on the Cable Top 150. The NFL games on Fox drew more than 70 million viewers with the pre-game, post-game and the actual game coverage.

Below is our 2018 Impact Viewership Tracker:

January 4th Episode: 309,000 viewers
January 11th Episode: 276,000 viewers
January 18th Episode: 309,000 viewers
January 25th Episode: 310,000 viewers (Genesis episode)
February 1st Episode: 319,000 viewers (Reboot)
February 8th Episode: 294,000 viewers
February 15th Episode: 300,000 viewers
February 22nd Episode: 262,000 viewers
March 1st Episode: 365,000 viewers
March 8th Episode: 325,000 (Crossroads episode)
March 15th Episode: 350,000 viewers
March 22nd Episode: 362,000 viewers
March 29th Episode: 399,000 viewers
April 5th Episode: 294,000 viewers
April 12th Episode: 381,000 viewers
April 19th Episode: 373,000 viewers
April 26th Episode: 308,000 viewers (post-Redemption episode)
May 3rd Episode: 299,000 viewers
May 10th Episode: 295,000 viewers
May 17th Episode: 326,000 viewers
May 24th Episode: 263,000 viewers
May 31st Episode: 283,000 viewers (Under Pressure episode)
June 7th Episode: 296,000 viewers
June 14th Episode: 276,000 viewers
June 21st Episode: 262,000 viewers
June 28th Episode: 254,000 viewers
July 5th Episode: 304,000 viewers
July 12th Episode: 284,000 viewers
July 19th Episode: 275,000 viewers
July 26th Episode: 299,000 viewers (post-Slammiversary episode)
August 2nd Episode: 248,000 viewers
August 9th Episode: 168,000 viewers
August 16th Episode: 210,000 viewers
August 23rd Episode: 212,000 viewers
August 30th Episode: 225,000 viewers (ReDefined episode)
September 6th Episode: 236,000 viewers
September 13th Episode: 258,000 viewers
September 20th Episode: 229,000 viewers
September 27th Episode: 222,000 viewers
October 4th Episode: 190,000 viewers
October 11th Episode: 183,000 viewers
October 18th Episode: 189,000 viewers (post-Bound For Glory episode)
October 25th Episode: 98,000 viewers (timeslot change to 10pm)
November 1st Episode: 105,000 viewers
November 8th Episode: 129,000 viewers
November 15th Episode: 101,000 viewers
November 22nd Episode: 124,000 viewers (Thanksgiving episode)
November 29th Episode:

2017 Total: 16.147 million viewers
2017 Average: 311,000 viewers per episode

Sources: ShowBuzz Daily and WrestlingINC

Below is the Top 5 Must-See Moments from Eli Drake’s 2nd Annual Turkey Trot main event:

WWE Reportedly Interested In Trevor Lee Who Just Finished With Impact Wrestling

Image result for trevor lee impact wrestling

Trevor Lee, one of the youngest X Division Champions in Impact Wrestling history, is now a free agent according to PWInsider.

Lee gave Impact Wrestling notice he would be finishing up, although his deal officially expires on December 31. He worked his last few bouts with the company during this week’s Las Vegas TV tapings.

It is being reported WWE will be looking to pick him up for its NXT system, possibly in January when the latest Performance Center class arrives.

Debuting for Impact in 2015, Lee, 25, became a three-time X Division Champion.

He also won the Tag Team Titles with Brian Myers, aka Curt Hawkins. Along with Andrew Everett and Caleb Conley, the Cult of Lee became a premier tag team while at Impact. Outside of the promotion, Lee was a featured member of the Carolina independent scene, the Hardy’s OMEGA organization and Pro Wrestling Guerrilla.

Source: WrestlingINC

Impact Wrestling Preview 11/15/18

* Impact Knockouts Champion Tessa Blanchard in action

* X-Division Championship: (C) Brian Cage vs. Sami Callihan

* Eli Drake would like to speak his mind… As usual

* Impact World Champion Johnny Impact vs. Matt Sydal

* Impact World Tag Team Champions LAX in action

Johnny Impact Eliminated From Survivor

Related image

John Hennigan, aka Impact Wrestling World Champion Johnny Impact, was eliminated from CBS’s Survivor reality competition show on Wednesday’s episode.

This season of Survivor had a “David Vs. Goliath” theme where half the competitors were notorious underdogs and the other half were breakout successes in their occupations. Both sets of competitors were broken into separate “tribes” to start the season and competed against one another. Hennigan was designated a Goliath, but lasted long enough in the season to make it to the merge, where the remaining players became a single tribe. This was the eighth week of the competition with one castaway already voted off following the merge, Elizabeth.

Impact’s elimination from the show was a complete surprise and not without controversy. Heading into tribal council at the end of the show Hennigan seemed to be in a comfortable spot. The odds were in his favor, as he had lasted more than twenty days on the island and the Goliaths outnumbered the Davids.

The plan was for the Goliaths to vote off one of the Davids, Christian. Christian is a robotics scientist and had become a threat in the game with his ability to quickly solve puzzles. He also had become close with some of the Goliaths, including Hennigan, who affectionately referred to each other as “The Brochachos”.

Out of nowhere, one of Christian’s David team mates played an immunity idol that invalidated any votes cast for him. The next in line for elimination would have been Angelina, a Goliath, who also had a immunity idol played on her behalf. When the dust settled, the only other player who had votes cast for them at tribal council was Hennigan, who received three. Hennigan now joins Elizabeth as a member of the Survivor jury and will cast a vote in deciding who will be awarded the one million dollar prize at the end of the season.

Source: WrestlingINC

You can watch John being voted off at the tribal council below:

Impact Officials Reportedly Looking For New TV Home

Impact Wrestling officials are reportedly looking for a new home on cable TV.

Impact’s current deal with Pop TV expires at the end of this year and officials are reportedly searching for a new potential TV partner in the United States, according to PWInsider. The contract runs through December 31st, potentially leaving the company without a TV home to start the new year.

Impact was recently moved to a later timeslot at 10pm and viewership has suffered. The change was seen as a major step backwards in the Impact – Pop relationship as network officials didn’t inform Impact of the change until several days before the first episode aired with a 10pm start time.

The 10 episodes before the time change drew an average of 215,400 viewers. The two episodes since the time change drew 98,000 viewers and 105,000 viewers, the lowest in company history. The first 10 episodes of 2019 drew an average of 306,900 viewers. It’s worth noting that the final three episodes before the time change drew some of the lowest viewership in show history – 190,000, 183,000 and 189,000 the week before the change. The show averaged 311,000 viewers per episode in 2017, 311,000 viewers in 2016 and 327,000 in 2015. The 2014 average was 1.15 million per episode on Spike and the 2013 average, also on Spike, was 1.26 million per episode.

Source: WrestlingINC

Impact Wrestling ‘Final Hour’ Preview 11/8/18

Image result for Impact Wrestling Final Hour logo

Tonight Impact Wrestling presents ‘Final Hour’ on Pop TV at 10/9c.

* Impact World Championship: (C) Johnny Impact vs. Killer Kross

* Brian Cage goes to Ohio

* Lucha Bro! vs. OGz

* Jordynne Grace makes her Impact Wrestling debut

* Eddie Edwards vs. Moose

* Eli Drake and Joseph Park address Impact Wrestling

Gail Kim Issues Statement And Clarifies Recent Comments About WWE Being Racist

gail kim wwe racism allegations mcmahon comes from the top management leadership

Impact Wrestling Hall of Famer Gail Kim took to Twitter today and issued a statement on her recent comments about WWE being racist. The former WWE Women’s Champion often speaks out about WWE and recently knocked them for holding the Crown Jewel event in Saudi Arabia.

As seen below, Kim tweeted about WWE being racist on November 2 when responding to a comment about WWE Hall of Famer Hulk Hogan being brought back at Crown Jewel. Kim made another tweet that day and reiterated her thoughts on the company being racist. You can see those original tweets here:

https://twitter.com/gailkimITSME/status/1058520486039183360

https://twitter.com/gailkimITSME/status/1058522668859904007

Below is Gail’s new statement on the matter along with follow-up tweets that make it clear she was not apologizing. She noted that she decided to issue the clarification on her original comments after a friend in WWE called her.

The statement reads like this: “After speaking with a couple of my friends recently regarding my comments on social media on racism, I had my eyes opened to the fact that my words chosen to deliver my message could have been managed more thoughtfully. The one word of my statement that I regret using is the term “they”. I think due to the fact that sometimes terms like racism are thrown around easily, especially in today’s climate. Racism is a serious thing and I realized that saying “they”, that I was putting a blanket over everyone who works in the company. This is not true. The culture or environment of a company starts from the top. The leadership. The leadership of a company sends a message to its employees of what is tolerated and what is not. I know there are a lot of respectful people in WWE who have a lot of integrity.

“Being Election Day and realizing the climate of hate and negativity, I think it’s important to use my voice. As an ethnic female in wrestling, there will be people reading my words and I want to set an example. I did experience racism. I never even understood the term “gook” until I worked for the company or heard the usage of so many ugly racial slurs. I think it’s important to educate, listen and talk about these issues. I want to be very clear on where I stand. I want racial and gender equality. I hope that we can make strides to talk about and create change for the good of our industry and others.”

https://twitter.com/gailkimITSME/status/1059895169238163456

https://twitter.com/gailkimITSME/status/1059907694994309121

https://twitter.com/gailkimITSME/status/1059909503330721792

https://twitter.com/gailkimITSME/status/1059930939005038593

Source: WrestlingINC

Anthem Responds To Jeff Jarrett’s GFW Lawsuit

Image result for Anthem Responds To Jeff Jarrett’s GFW Lawsuit

Anthem Wrestling is asking a judge to dismiss Jeff Jarrett‘s copyright infringement lawsuit for several reasons, according to new documents.

As reported by PWInsider, Anthem filed motions last week with the United States District Court of Tennessee attempting to have the recently amended lawsuit dismissed.

While Jarrett alleges copyright infringement in regards to Impact airing GFW content as pay-per-views, the motion states no copyrights had been filed on the content prior to Jeff filing a lawsuit. They also claim to have aired all but one of the specials while he was employed by the company.

The filing goes on to explain the nature of the GFW/Anthem merger, stating that “Jarrett’s company would merge into Anthem Wrestling in exchange for an officer-level position with a large salary, a job for Jarrett’s wife, and an equity interest in Anthem Wrestling.” The filing then claims that, as Chief Creative Officer, it was actually Jarrett himself that would oversee the release of the GFW content.

The document notes, “Remarkably, Mr. Jarrett is suing over the very conduct that he oversaw and conducted as an officer of Anthem Wrestling.”

The company also disputes Jarrett’s claim that Anthem “violated [his] exclusive property rights to his own name, photograph, and other likeness,” arguing that they took over a trademark on the name “Jeff Jarrett” after acquiring Impact Ventures, LLC from Dixie Carter.

In response to Jeff’s claims of state and federal trademark infringements, Anthem argues Global Force Wrestling LLC’s trademark filing for “GFW” actually featured the cover art of Impact’s GFW Amped! DVD release. This would imply that Jarrett himself provided proof of Impact’s existing permission to use the GFW logo and name.

A second motion filed by Anthem explains that Anthem Sports is a holding company based in Canada, and as such would not be subject to the jurisdiction of the District Court of Tennessee.

Anthem additionally alleges that when Jeff Jarrett came in as Chief Creative Officer for Anthem, part of his non-disclosure agreement included a clause stipulating any legal issues that may arise would be subject to New York law. Thus, Anthem could not be sued in Tennessee.

The motions filed by Anthem also make reference to a declaration from Ed Nordholm, Executive VP of Anthem Sports & Entertainment, in which Nordholm explains that “Anthem Wrestling was formed in order to acquire the assets of an entity called TNA Entertainment LLC, when Fight Media foreclosed on certain loans to that entity.”

This basically means Dixie Carter was unable to repay the loan given to Impact after Billy Corgan stopped funding the company in October 2016, allowing Anthem to foreclose and claim ownership.

The ball is now in the court of Jarrett and GWE, who will have to respond to Anthem’s motions before the court issues its rulings on whether or not the case will proceed.

Source: Pro Wrestling Sheet

Impact Wrestling Preview 11/1/18

The following is scheduled for tonight’s IMPACT on Pop TV at 10/9C.

* LAX vs. Matt Sydal & Ethan Page

* Desi Hit Squad in action

* Pentagon Jr. vs. Homicide

* Rich Swann vs. Willie Mack

* Impact Knockouts Championship: (C) Tessa Blanchard vs. Taya Valkyrie

Impact Wrestling Preview 10/25/18

Tonight’s IMPACT on Pop TV is at it’s new time of 10pm ET/ 9pm CT

* Impact World Championship: (C) Johnny Impact vs. Fenix

* Gama Singh vs. Rahit Raju

* Moose & Killer Kross vs. KM & Fallah Bahh

* Tessa Blanchard’s rebuttal to Taya Valkyrie

* Su Yung vs. Kiera Hogan