The following is scheduled for tonight’s Impact on Pop TV 10/9 C.
* Ultimate X Qualifying Match: Matt Sydal vs. Ethan Page
* Ultimate X Qualifying Match: Jake Crist vs. Willie Mack
* Johnny Impact & Taya Valkyrie vs. Mosse & Tessa Blanchard
* Eddie Edwards update from Shady Acres Asylum
* Dark Allie in action
Former WWE Superstar Chris Jericho is a hot commodity in the wrestling business once again. Jericho proved that he can stay relevant by reinventing himself, and is the current IWGP Intercontinental Champion after beating Tetsuya Naito earlier this year at NJPW’s Dominion event. Jericho has so far refused to face Naito in a rematch at Wrestle Kingdom 13, while New Japan Pro Wrestling has announced a match between the two performers for the Intercontinental title at the Tokyo Dome show.
Chris had previously talked about being open to working with any promotion, and has categorically stated that he will not rule out working for any particular organization, including WWE and Impact Wrestling. In fact, Jericho is good friends with Impact Wrestling’s co-executive vice president Don Callis, and reportedly batted for him to get the role in the company.
Jericho previously talked about suggesting Callis and D’Amore to Leonard Asper, whose company Sygnus Corp owns a significant ownership stake in Anthem Sports & Entertainment, the parent company of Impact Wrestling.
“My thought process was, and this is not a slight on anyone that has ran that company or been part of that company, working with that company, that has been around for so long, through so many incarnations and through all its ups and downs, and now I found with the last incarnation with TNA/Global Force is that it was a dead company. There was nothing exciting about it or sparking it, so to me, the only way to get it rolling would be to completely change directions and go with somebody new and different,” said Jericho. “When Billy Corgan was up for it I would have much rather him run it over Dixie Carter because it was somebody new, and I just really felt that it was my place to call the guys and say, listen, if you guys really want to lose money go for it, or use it as a tax write off then you have the right place. But if you really want to do something and role with it and be at a place where people are excited about then you have to go in this direction, and these guys [Callis and D’Amore] are the guys to do it with. So that was basically the jist of the conversation and it worked because here you guys are, but this is really the only way the company to grow is by doing something completely different and new.”
Adding more fuel to the fire, Jericho recently uploaded a photo to his Instagram account, where he was seen posing with Impact Wrestling executives Callis, Ed Nordholm and Scott D’Amore.
Source: WrestlingINC
The following is scheduled for tonight’s Impact on Pop TV 10/9 C.
* Lucha Bros vs. Rich Swann & Willie Mack
* Debut of The Rascalz
* Eli Drake vs. Tommy Dreamer
* Jordynne Grace vs. Katarina
* Taya Valkyrie in action
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:
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 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
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 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
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
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
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