Impact tonight on Pursuit Channel and on Twitch – 10/9c
* Impact World Championship: (C) Johnny Impact vs. Killer Kross
* Rich Swann vs. El Hijo del Vikingo
* Ethan Page vs. Trey
* The Desi Hit Squad vs. The Rascalz
* Impact Knockouts Champion Taya Valkyrie returns to action
Impact tonight on Pursuit Channel and on Twitch – 10/9c
* LAX vs. oVe
* Rich Swann vs. Trey
* Jordynne Grace vs. Dark Allie
* Eddie Edwards vs. Ethan Page
* Scarlett Bordeaux select winner of talent search
* Heath update on Taya Valkyrie
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?
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
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
As we previously reported, Impact Wrestling will move to Friday nights on the Pursuit Channel beginning on January 11th. Impact reportedly had talks with Syfy, TruTV and WGN America regarding a new television deal.
The show is now moving to a channel owned by their parent company, Anthem Entertainment. Despite Anthem owning the station, the show will remain at 10 p.m. ET, which is the timeslot that Pop TV moved it to last October. Impact has drawn its lowest viewership in their history in the 10 p.m. timeslot and faces a further uphill battle as they will be available in far fewer homes. 30 million homes have access to Pursuit, which is a 55% drop from the 67 million homes that receive Pop TV.
It was revealed in the latest edition of The Wrestling Observer Newsletter that “there were forces attempting to sell Impact” to the yet-to-be announced All Elite Wrestling promotion a few months ago. That would indicate that the talks would have taken place before AEW filed for their trademarks, as that didn’t happen until early November. The Observer noted that the proposal for the sale was declined.
Impact Executive Vice President Scott D’Amore spoke with Wrestling Inc. last Friday and said that the company was excited to work with their new partners, and that they have “some ideas and things in the work for other properties on Pursuit.”
“The first part of this deal is what we’re doing now, the flagship Impact broadcast, airing on Friday nights at 10 pm ET,” D’Amore said. “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
Don Callis was on his Killing The Town podcast, thanks to Wrestling Inc. contributor Himanshu D. for sending this along: and talked about various topics related to IMPACT. You can listen to the podcast here:
Raven appearing on IMPACT:
“How awesome was it to have Raven on IMPACT television? I gotta tell you, I was like a kid in a candy store, came up with this idea to have Raven. I always love hanging out with him and I learnt so much even now just talking to him. I gotta tell you he was so great, my god just out there — no one scripted Raven. Raven just has great timing and he was great. Josh Mathews described him as the Keyser Söze of pro-wrestling and I think that’s right. I think that that is the ideal character for Raven at this point in his career it is to be Keyser Söze, the criminal, the ultimate master mind. I think that would be really cool. So that was a really awesome thing to see Raven.”
Working with IMPACT after being inactive from the business for many years:
“Being with IMPACT — you gotta understand, I was out of the business by my own choice for 13 years or more. To get back into the wrestling business and start tweaking those old scratches and itches and enjoying myself, it was just great. And people ask, ‘What was the best part? Is it the travel?’ Honestly, the best part for me is working with the talent. I always loved that. I always loved trying to play a role and passing on whatever knowledge I had, whether it was with the promos or how to get something over, get yourself over. Those are areas that I think I was pretty good at over my career. It’s just really cool. It’s hard work, it’s a grind, I have never been on the road this much. It’s really cool.”
Sami Callihan:
“Even a guy like Sami Callihan is effectively a psychotic. He is a functioning psychotic. Sami and I have had our ups and downs without a doubt. Sami has taken some liberties with me. If I were a wrestler, I probably would have something to say about it. But one thing I will say about Sami, Sami like I was is all about getting himself over. And some people don’t like that. Some people say, ‘God this selfish son of a b—h, he is just getting himself over’ and you know what I say to that? I say, ‘You’re an idiot’ because that’s the whole point of this business. If you are not constantly trying to get yourself over, and sometimes that means at the expense of other people — not everyone gets first prize, ladies and gentlemen. And if you think that you do then you are just never going to be over and Sami is a guy who is constantly trying to out wrestle, out fight, out talk, out do, out promote everybody else. And I love that about him.”
Jake and Dave Crist:
“I can’t stand The Crist brothers. That’s a redemption story too. I wanted to fire those guys when I first came into IMPACT. I’d seen them on TV a couple of times. I was like, ‘What?’ But this is the thing, people say, ‘Oh you like the Crists now. They are really cool. What they do, they are great heels. What did you do, Don?’ I didn’t change anything about the Crists. We didn’t change anything about the Crists. We let the Crists be the Crists. My thing was always I want Jake and Dave to have their time. Yeah, Sami is Ric Flair and those guys are Tully Blanchard and Arn Anderson. That’s not a bad thing. Not everyone can be Ric Flair. That’s Sami Callihan. But that doesn’t mean that Tully and Arn don’t have their own thing. And I want Jake and Dave and we all want Jake and Dave to have their own thing. And man, I tell you they have really stepped up. Jay Crist doing the ‘mini draw’ thing to me is… man, I love that is just so ridiculous and crazy and awesome. Dave Crist has got some of the best facials in wrestling on these promos and Sami is Sami.”
Johnny IMPACT:
“You talk about guys like Johnny IMPACT. He’s our world champion and man, he’s been a pleasure as well. Such a good dude. You talk about the prototype world champion, that’s the guy.”
Brian Cage:
“Getting to work with Brian and I think that maybe my tone and my way of talking to Brian early on might have been a bit of a shock to him. And I’m not going to get into what was said, but if you listen to this podcast you kinda know. I wanna see aggressive, driven, selfish Brian Cage. GMSI stands for ‘Get My s–t In’, it doesn’t stand for ‘Get Your s–t In Too’. I love working with Brian and I think Brian has maybe the most untapped potential in the wrestling business, which is scary when you think about saying ‘untapped potential’ and all the stuff he already does. It’s the stuff he’s currently not doing, that’s the stuff that’s gonna make Brian Cage the biggest star in wrestling at some point.”
The Pursuit Channel deal:
“This week we announced our move from Pop TV which was a great partner for us. A lot of fans thought, ‘Wow, you guys should be on a different network with a different demographic’ so we announced this week we’re moving to Pursuit which is an exciting thing for me. When you talk about how you deal with your content as a company because our parent company Anthem owns not only the Fight Network and Game TV, they also own a significant stake in Pursuit. It’s a great strategic move for us, and I think people are going to love to see a sexier, edgier, maybe even a little more hardcore IMPACT Wrestling. I’m really, really pumped about that.”
Source: WrestlingINC
Impact Wrestling announced today that its flagship weekly two-hour program, IMPACT!, will move to Friday nights on the Pursuit Channel in January. As noted, SmackDown Live will also begin airing on Friday nights when it moves to FOX this October, while MLW FUSION also currently airs on Friday nights on beIN Sports.
Beginning on Friday, January 11, featuring the aftermath of the Homecoming pay-per-view, IMPACT! will air weekly on Pursuit Channel on Friday nights at 10:00 p.m. ET.
“Pursuit Channel is a natural fit for IMPACT!” said Impact Wrestling President Ed Nordholm. “It has a passionate viewership base that correlates strongly with our core audience, and is one of the few broadcast destinations that is expanding its footprint, enjoying a 15% increase in broadcast distribution this year alone. With IMPACT Wrestling coming off a tremendous year of audience growth globally and positive fan engagement, we look forward to leveraging our respective resources to bring fans more of the wrestling content they want to see: tougher, edgier action.”
“Pursuit Channel is pleased to welcome IMPACT Wrestling into our Friday night lineup of popular shows,” added Rusty Faulk, CEO and founder of Pursuit Channel. “IMPACT Wrestling programming is perfect for our audience, which enjoys adventurous content to feed their wild side. We look forward to a long partnership and providing our fans with new and exciting world-class content while expanding IMPACT Wrestling’s audience to a new base.”
Below is the full press release from Impact Wrestling:
IMPACT Wrestling and Pursuit Channel Announce Broadcast Agreement to Televise IMPACT! Nationally Across the U.S.IMPACT! to Premiere Weekly on Fridays at 10:00 p.m. ET on Pursuit Channel, Starting on Jan. 11
TORONTO | LUVERNE – IMPACT Wrestling, a subsidiary of Anthem Sports & Entertainment Corp., announced today it has entered into an agreement to broadcast its flagship weekly two-hour program IMPACT! nationally across the U.S. on Pursuit Channel, the most widely distributed outdoor network and one of the fastest growing channels in the country.
Beginning on Friday, Jan. 11, featuring the aftermath of Homecoming, IMPACT Wrestling’s first marquee pay-per-view event of the year, IMPACT! will air weekly on Pursuit Channel on Friday nights at 10:00 p.m. ET.
“Pursuit Channel is a natural fit for IMPACT!” said Ed Nordholm, president of IMPACT Wrestling. “It has a passionate viewership base that correlates strongly with our core audience, and is one of the few broadcast destinations that is expanding its footprint, enjoying a 15% increase in broadcast distribution this year alone. With IMPACT Wrestling coming off a tremendous year of audience growth globally and positive fan engagement, we look forward to leveraging our respective resources to bring fans more of the wrestling content they want to see: tougher, edgier action.”
“Pursuit Channel is pleased to welcome IMPACT Wrestling into our Friday night lineup of popular shows,” said Rusty Faulk, CEO and founder of Pursuit Channel. “IMPACT Wrestling programming is perfect for our audience, which enjoys adventurous content to feed their wild side. We look forward to a long partnership and providing our fans with new and exciting world-class content while expanding IMPACT Wrestling’s audience to a new base.”
Showcasing top professional wrestling stars such as IMPACT World Champion Johnny Impact, who starred in the most recent season of the hit CBS show Survivor, plus Brian Cage, Eli Drake, Moose, Eddie Edwards, Sami Callihan, Pentagon Jr., Fenix, Rich Swann, the high-flying X-Division and the Knockouts, including Champion Tessa Blanchard, Taya Valkyrie, Rosemary, Allie and Su Yung, IMPACT! has been a leading destination for professional wrestling fans, televised globally in 120 countries since its inception in 2002, while growing its popularity and reach on YouTube, Twitch, Pluto and social media platforms.
