Impact Wrestling’s DJZ posted the following on Twitter, announcing that he suffered a neck injury that will require him to take some time off. The good news is that he will not need surgery at this time. He worked the weekend EVOLVE events…
Source: 411Mania
We noted before how Bobby Lashley and Ethan Carter III could be leaving Impact Wrestling when their contracts expire soon. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports that former World Heavyweight Champion Eddie Edwards may be joining EC3 and Lashley as his contract expires in February 2018.
Regarding contracts moving forward, word is that the company will only be offering the new per-day contracts instead of significant guaranteed money deals, which Lashley, EC3 and Edwards are currently signed to. There’s a good chance these three veterans may be leaving because of this, just like James Storm. Storm recently left the company as he was signed to a high-paying contract that the company did not want to renew as they are looking to stop losing money.
No word yet on Eddie’s future plans but the belief right now is that WWE and ROH do have interest in signing him. WWE’s interest is for the WWE NXT brand, according to The Observer.
Source: WrestlingINC
* oVe airs their grievances
* Knockouts Tournament Match: Sienna vs. Rosemary vs. Allie
* Caleb Knley vs. Taiji Ishimori
* Impact Grand Championship: (C) EC3 vs. Matt Sydal
* Eli Drake & Chris Adonis vs. Johnny Impact & Petey Williams
It is believed that there will be several wrestlers that depart the company over the next month or so, including some main event talents. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter notes that with James Storm recently leaving the company, the next two top talents who may be leaving when their contracts expire are Bobby Lashley and Ethan Carter III, who currently holds the Impact Grand Title on TV. As noted, Storm left the company because he had a high guaranteed money contract that Impact would not renew.
Two stars who will be staying for a while are Johnny Impact and Taya Valkyrie. They both recently signed deals that will allow them to continue working for Lucha Underground when the series films the next season.
On a related note, the belief is that Impact will feature a much larger contingent of Canadian-based wrestlers going forward as the company is now based out of Toronto, Ontario due to parent company Anthem being located there.
As noted, Impact announced today that Scott D’Amore and Don Callis have been hired as Executive Vice Presidents of the company. They will report to President Ed Nordholm and form a three-member Executive Committee. The committee has an “overall responsibility for developing the creative direction for the Company and managing the execution of the Company’s business plan.” Impact has not confirmed any significant office departures related to the new committee but PWInsider notes that word going around says John “Big” Gaburick will be officially leaving the company during early 2018. Gaburick was kept on as a consultant when Anthem took over and he’s also worked TV tapings but he was kept more as insurance in case the regime under Jeff Jarrett didn’t work out. Gaburick helped with the transition following Jarrett’s departure but mostly with production as creative was being led by D’Amore and Sonjay Dutt. Gaburick is no longer needed with Don Callis and Scott D’Amore being hired but he had already been preparing for life after Impact wit new projects as of late. Gaburick isn’t the only one leaving in early 2018 as Dutch Mantel is expected to part ways with the company. One source noted to PWInsider that Mantel is already gone but that could not be confirmed. Mantel was not brought in for the November TV tapings after losing his power when Jarrett left.
PWInsider notes that one of the longterm employees that is expected to stay with the company and work from home is Bob Ryder, who still works as an executive.
Regarding the rest of the creative team, Dutt is still working creative and as a producer, and that is not expected to change. Abyss, Gail Kim, Jeremy Borash and Jimmy Jacobs will all continue to work as producers and will also have input into creative. The final calls on creative and direction of the company will now be made by Callis, D’Amore and Nordholm.
The company is looking to try and run live events more consistently in 2018 as well. There’s been talk of taping 4-5 weeks of TV episodes at a time, instead of 10 weeks or so over a longer stretch of time. They are also interested in running live non-televised events at smaller venues in between tapings if they can be cost-effective. The January TV tapings are confirmed for Orlando, Florida but the company is planning on running the US and Canada next year. There’s talk of holding the March TV tapings in Canada, possibly the in the Windsor area.
Source: WrestlingINC
Impact Wrestling announced today that Scott D’Amore and Don Callis have been hired as Executive Vice Presidents of the company. D’Amore has been working closely with Anthem’s Ed Nordholm for several months now following Jeff Jarrett’s departure. PWInsider reports that the original plan was for Callis to start working in November but his contract had not been completed. The official announcement seen below notes that Callis will continue working commentary for New Japan Pro Wrestling. PWInsider adds that NJPW had been planning for Callis’ departure and were considering several replacements.
Impact Wrestling sent us the following this morning:
IMPACT Wrestling Hires Senior Executive TeamTORONTO – Anthem Wrestling Exhibitions LLC, a subsidiary of Anthem Sports & Entertainment Corp.and parent company of IMPACT Wrestling, announced today that Don Callis and Scott D’Amore have joined the company as Executive Vice Presidents. Reporting to Ed Nordholm, President of the Company, they will form a 3-member Executive Committee with overall responsibility for developing the creative direction for the Company and managing the execution of the Company’s business plan.
Don Callis has built a critically acclaimed 15-year career in the wrestling business as a performer, color commentator and writer for WWF, ECW and TNA. After retiring from wrestling in 2004, he obtained an MBA and established another successful career in international business. Callis recently returned to the world he loves and is now the color commentator for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (a role that he will retain) and co-hosts the hit podcast “Killing the Town” on The Jericho Network.
Scott D’Amore has held just about every position in the wrestling industry, including performer, trainer, promoter, writer and producer. D’Amore is an IMPACT Wrestling original, having been with the company from its early days in the Asylum until his departure in 2010. In his time away from the organization, D’Amore applied his entrepreneurial spirit to transform The D’Amore Group from a family-run construction company into a multi-faceted real estate development company. He has kept his hand in the industry, running Border City Wrestling in Windsor in collaboration with the Entertainment Technology program at St. Clair College. He also owns and operates Can-Am Wrestling, a successful professional wrestling training facility that has produced numerous top talents in the wrestling industry today.
“I am excited that Don and Scott have made this commitment to the Company,” said Ed Nordholm, president of Anthem Wrestling Exhibitions, LLC. “The 50 years of experience and success in the wrestling industry brought by Don and Scott, combined with the global media, marketing, sales and financial expertise of Anthem, provide the management depth and expertise that will propel IMPACT Wrestling to greater success as we continue to expand our footprint, embrace digital opportunities and grow the brand.”
For more information, visit http://www.impactwrestling.com.
Source: WrestlingINC
The Crash wrestling promotion in Mexico announced today that they’ve parted ways with Konnan and released a statement that sounds like things didn’t end on the best of terms.
The statement on Facebook reads: “The Crash Lucha Libre brand is known for the way we treat people and value each and every single person that works in this company. Bettering the economical and habitual needs. Showing the support for each element and giving opportunity to new talent. In this way, the value and professionalism shown between each of its partners.”
“Not being able to comply to the Crash Lucha Libre code of ethic, is something that we do not tolerate in this company. With that being said, We now announce that Carlos Santiago Espada “Konnan”, will no longer be working with The Crash.”
It’s unclear at this point what caused the two sides to split. There’s also no word on whether this will affect Konnan’s relationship with Impact Wrestling, who are affiliated with The Crash.
As we previously reported though, Konnan was recently announced as the head writer of the new startup promotion Aro Lucha — fronted by the production team who used to work with Impact.
Source: Pro Wrestling Sheet
After running the last set of Impact Wrestling tapings in Canada, the next set of tapings will take place from Universal Studios in Orlando, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. The tapings are currently scheduled for January 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th and 15th. This will tape Impact Wrestling through March 2018. There are plans for the March tapings to take place somewhere in Canada but not in Ottawa as it was hard to draw a crowd there. The Observer notes that it’s believed Impact will hold more tapings in Canada because they are less expensive to hold there and the company is trying to do everything they can right now to trim the budget and not lose money.
Source: WrestlingINC
* The Knockouts Title Tournament Begins (Sienna, Rosemary, Madison Rayne, Allie, KC Spinelli, and Laurel Van Ness will compete)
* Ishimori vs. Hakim Zane
* Matt Sydal vs. Tyson Dux
* James Storm vs. Texano
* Johnny Impact vs. Alberto El Patron
Matt Hardy‘s “breakdown” on Raw this week seemed to indicate that a version of his “Broken Matt” persona is on the way and Impact Wrestling exec Ed Nordholm has released a statement about it.
Nordholm told Sports Illustrated, “We have seen the character development and will be interested to see where they take the concept.”
Ed continued, “Our new talent agreements all incorporate language that allow talent to continue to use their IMPACT persona after they leave the company. We are working with our legal team to amend our existing agreements to extend this to all of our current and former talent.”
Despite the public trademark battle with Matt this year, it seems like they’ve changed their stance.
SI also claims that the recent tease for a Broken Matt-like character isn’t false hope. The publication reports that WWE is creating a character that will not be labeled as Broken, but similar.
Source: Pro Wrestling Sheet
According to PWInsider, there’s an update on the “Broken Matt Hardy” trademark where it’s been published for opposition on December 19. This means any parties that want to challenge have 30 days to do so. If there aren’t any, then Matt Hardy will have ownership and can use it within or outside of WWE. Since leaving for WWE, there’s been a long intellectual property battle between Hardy and Impact Wrestling’s parent company, Anthem, where Hardy even offered to outright pay $10k-$15k for the gimmick.
Source: WrestlingINC
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