Impact Wrestling star Matt Sydal was pulled from a Warrior Wrestling event earlier this month due to an injury. No additional details were known until yesterday when Sydal announced he is having surgery next week to repair torn cartilage in his knee. Sydal noted he should be back to in-ring action by March or April.
Although IMPACT Wrestling has been streaming programming through Twitch for some time, there was a special curiosity regarding the promotion’s new distribution strategy: to air on domestic television via the Pursuit Channel and stream concurrently on Twitch on Friday nights.
In numbers available on SullyGnome (a Twitch statistics and analysis website) for the 7 day period of January 8th-14th, IMPACT Wrestling peaked at 10,422 viewers (at some point on Friday night). The channel is programmed nearly 24/7 and over 155 hours in the last week averaged 318 viewers for a total watch time of 51,662 hours. IMPACT gained 4,816 followers for the week (and now has 67,320 followers on the platform).
IMPACT was the most watched program in the Wrestling category. In comparison, AAA was ranked second. The AAA promotion had no specific destination programming this week but did stream 144 hours of content. It peaked at 194 viewers and averaged 60 viewers with a total watch time of 8,731 hours.
Over the last 365 days, the most watched 5 promotions were the following:
1. IMPACT
2. AAA
3. Rocky Mountain Pro
4. House of Hardcore
5. Capitol Wrestling
Source: WrestlingINC
Impact premieres tonight on Pursuit Channel and on Twitch – 10/9c
* Johnny Impact is out for revenge
* Lucha Bros vs. The Rascalz
* Willie Mack vs. Sami Callihan
* Tessa Blanchard in action
* Is Dark Allie here to stay?
In a close vote, Becky Lynch topped Ronda Rousey for 2018’s “Woman of the Year”, as voted by the readers of Pro Wrestling Illustrated. Lynch received 40 percent of the vote, four percent better than Rousey. Asuka and Tessa Blanchard were distant runners-up.
Rousey being selected number one in PWI’s “Woman’s 100” led to Lynch posting some disparaging tweets about PWI – and Publisher Stu Saks in particular. Even though Lynch appeared happy while posing for the PWI cover of the awards issue with the Woman of the Year plaque, she complained about her #11 placement in the “100” throughout much of the photo shoot.
Rousey achieved a near-record 87 percent of the vote in being named “Rookie of the Year”. The widest margin of victory in the 46-year history of the PWI awards was enjoyed by The Giant (Big Show), who garnered 88 percent of the vote for “Rookie of the Year” in 1996.
AJ Styles was named “Wrestler of the Year” for the third straight year. Styles now has earned a total of seven Achievement Awards. Styles earned 46 percent of the votes in the “Wrestler of the Year” category, followed by Kenny Omega (17 percent), Cody (8 percent), and Seth Rollins (7 percent). He also was voted “Most Popular” for the second straight year. The only other wrestler to receive WOTY honors for three straight years is Ric Flair (1984-1986).
Styles and Becky also topped Wrestling Inc.’s Best of 2018 for “Male Wrestler of the Year” and “Female Wrestler of the Year”, respectively.
PWI’s annual year-end issue can be purchased in print or digital formats at pwi-online.com.
Source: WrestlingINC
Anthem President Ed Nordholm led a backstage meeting and gave a speech to the wrestlers before last night’s Impact Wrestling TV tapings in Nashville, according to PWInsider. The speech was said to be very positive.
Nordholm reportedly said the company accomplished what they set out to do in 2018. He said 2017 was a “learning year” for Impact following the Anthem takeover, but 2018 was about getting them in position for the future. Nordholm added that everyone is optimistic an enthusiastic for what it coming for the company in 2019.
Nordholm also said Impact will continue to be a big part of The Fight Network, which Anthem also owns. He touted the growth of the network internationally. Regarding Impact moving to the Pursuit channel this coming Friday night, Nordholm said one of the reasons Anthem took Impact over was so that they could have it to use with their own assets. Anthem also owns a minority stake in Pursuit.
The roster was allowed to ask Nordholm questions during the meeting and one had to do with the rumors on Anthem possibly being interested in selling Impact last year. Nordholm assured everyone that this is not the case, and that they should not be worried about anything like a sale of the company.
Impact brought Scott Steiner back for last night’s tapings in Nashville as a bonus for Friday’s Pursuit debut. This was done just for these tapings and was not the beginning of a new Impact storyline for Steiner, but the door does remain open for more work down the line.
Source: WrestlingINC
During last night’s Impact Homecoming PPV it was announced their weekly Impact show will also air on its Twitch channel beginning January 11 at 10 pm ET.
As noted, the promotion will also be moving to the Pursuit Channel on that same day and time. You can check out their new promo in the videos above or below.
Last month, WrestlingINC spoke with Impact Executive Vice President Scott D’Amore about the move to Pursuit and had hinted that it may not be the only place their flagship show would end up on.
“We’ve been looking at moving on, doing some other things, as we looked at the options it seemed like the best time to make a move to Pursuit, which is a sister company to Impact Wrestling,” D’Amore said. “There’s an ownership stake that [Impact parent company] Anthem Sports & Entertainment has in them and Pursuit is a male dominated demographic. They’re excited to have us, it gives us a nice home base and it doesn’t mean that we don’t have long term plans that we hope for Impact to be as a television show and a wrestling company. We’re excited to have a partner that is excited to have us.
“The first part of this deal is what we’re doing now, the flagship Impact broadcast, airing on Friday nights at 10 pm E. And I know people look at that and go, ‘Oh my God, it’s the death spot.’ Well, if you look back, when we debuted on Spike TV, it’s a different era and network, but wrestling fans find good wrestling. When we went on Spike TV at 11 o’clock on Saturday, we went out there and did probably about 850k viewers when we debuted. We’re excited to work with Pursuit on building it as a platform. We have some ideas and things in the work for other properties on Pursuit. Also, looking to expanding our domestic and international distributions.”
Source: WrestlingINC
Lisa Marie Varon, probably best known for her character, Victoria in WWE, Tara in TNA/Impact has announced via social media that 2019 is her last year competing in a wrestling ring.
Varon is an accomplished performer in numerous promotions around the globe. She won her first WWE Women’s Championship in November 2002 at WWE Survivor Series and would carry it twice in her WWE career, she’s a five-time TNA / Impact Wrestling Knockouts Champion, and she even had a reign as the TNA Knockouts Tag Team Champions with Brooke Tessmacher.
She also won the honor of being the 2004 Pro Wrestling Illustrated’s Woman of the Year.
On social media, Varon wrote, “Hey Gang! Year 2019 will be my last year wrestling in the Squared Circle. An exciting new adventure is to come.” You can read her full retirement messages below:
Source: WrestlingINC
X-Division Championship (Vacant) – Ultimate X Match: Jake Crist vs. Ethan Page vs. Rich Swann vs. Trey Miguel – Winner and new X-Division Champion: Rich Swann
Allie & Su Yung vs. Kiera Hogan & Jordynne Grace – Winners: Dark Allie & Su Yung
After the match, Yung and Allie continued assaulting Hogan until Yung’s undead bridesmaids brought out a coffin. Rosemary appeared out of the coffin! Rosemary took out the bridesmaids and tossed Yung in to the group of them. Rosemary met Allie in the center of the ring and Rosemary tried to touch Allie, seemingly trying to help her, but Allie screamed and escaped the ring. Rosemary posed in the ring.
Falls Count Anywhere Match: Moose vs. Eddie Edwards – Winner: Eddie Edwards
Eddie got help from his wife Alisha
Grudge Match: Sami Callihan w/Dave Crist vs. Willie Mack – Winner: Sami Callihan
Monster’s Ball Match: Eli Drake vs. Abyss – Winner: Eli Drake
Impact World Tag Team Championship: (C) LAX vs. Lucha Bros (Pentagon Jr. & Rey Fenix) – Winners: LAX
After the match, Konnan came out and says that he was wrong and they were able to separate the personal from the professional for an exceptional match.
Impact Knockouts Champion (Gail Kim as Special Guest Referee): (C) Tessa Blanchard vs. Taya Valkyrie – Blanchard & Kim got into it which led to Blanchard choking Kim and then Kim hitting Blanchard with Eat Defeat. Valkyrie hit the Road to Valhalla on Blanchard for the 1-2-3!
Winner and new Impact Knockouts Champion: Taya Valkyrie
Impact World Championship: (C) Johnny Impact vs. Brian Cage – Cage had a confrontation with Impact’s friends, the Survivor contestants. Impact is laid out and Cage wants the ref to count the 3 after the Drill Claw, but he’s still distracted by the Survivor guys. He comes in and counts only 2. Cage attempts a superplex with Impact on the apron but Impact is able to reverse and turn it in to a pining predicament for a questionable 3 count.
Winner: Johnny Impact
After the match, Cage dropped the title in front of Impact and stormed out in frustration. Taya Valkyrie came out and Impact and Valkyrie celebrate in the ring. Killer Kross appeared on the ramp and attacked Impact. Valkyrie tried to fight Kross off but Kross grabbed her and powerbombed her in to a group of men in the crowd as the show ended.
Impact Wrestling returns home to Nashville for it’s first pay-per-view of the year. Homecoming, Live Sunday, January 6th from the world famous Asylum in Nashville, TN.
Impact World Championship: (C) Johnny Impact vs. Brian Cage
Impact Knockouts Champion (Gail Kim as Special Guest Referee): (C) Tessa Blanchard vs. Taya Valkyrie
Impact World Tag Team Championship: (C) LAX vs. Lucha Bros (Pentagon Jr. & Rey Fenix)
X-Division Champion (Vacant) – Ultimate X Match: Jake Crist vs. Ethan Page vs. Rich Swann vs. Trey Miguel
Monster’s Ball Match: Eli Drake vs. Abyss
Falls Count Anywhere Match: Moose vs. Eddie Edwards
Grudge Match: Sami Callihan vs. The Mack
Allie & Su Yung vs. Kiera Hogan & Jordynne Grace
Tonight is the final Impact before this Sunday’s Homecoming pay -per-view and is also the final Impact on Pop TV before it moves to it’s new home, Friday Jan. 11 – 10/9c on The Pursuit Channel.
* Brian Cage & Johnny Impact vs. Lucha Bros (Pentagon Jr. & Fenix)
* Fallah Bahh & KM vs. Desi Hit Squad
* Allie vs. Kiera Hogan
* 10 Man Tag: Willie Mack, Rich Swann & The Rascalz vs. Sami Callihan, oVe, Matt Sydal & Ethan Page
* Eli Drake’s Homecoming Address
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