Impact Wrestling (formerly TNA iMPACT!) is a television program for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling that currently airs on in the United States and Canada on Spike, and airs on Bravo in the United Kingdom. Following iMPACT!'s debut in Australia, there has been growing demand to have it broadcast in New Zealand. The show is regularly filmed at the iMPACT! Zone (Soundstage 21 at the Universal Studios Florida theme park of Universal Orlando Resort in Orlando, Florida). Tapings of the show are held biweekly on Mondays and Tuesdays and admission is free. The show's opening theme is called: A New Beginning by Dale Oliver.
History
Fox Sports Net era: May 2004 - May 2005
In May 2004, TNA announced that they had negotiated a television deal with Fox Sports Net (FSN) where they would get a one-hour timeslot on Fridays in most markets, putting TNA on unrestricted cable and satellite for the first time. TNA began taping TNA Impact that month and aired the first episode on June 4, 2004. Impact was also syndicated throughout Canada (on RDS) and Europe (on The Wrestling Channel and, also later, both Eurosport Bravo and Bravo 2). TNA's contract with FSN expired in May 2005 and was not renegotiated, with the last episode airing on May 27, 2005. The series as a whole gained little success, averaging a 0.2 household rating.
Webcasts
TNA was left with no television deal and, therefore, had no means of promoting their monthly pay-per-views (although Impact did continue to air on certain regional networks in place of TNA Xplosion). On July 1, TNA began offering new episodes of Impact through their website, first using BitTorrent downloads, then by streaming through RealPlayer. To save on production costs, four hours of iMPACT! were recorded in a day and made available throughout the subsequent month.
Spike TV era
At the same time, TNA began seeking a more profitable television outlet, finally negotiated a Saturday night timeslot with Spike TV, now known simply as Spike, and started airing Impact on October 1, 2005. Two episodes were taped every other Tuesday, airing them on the subsequent Saturday. TNA's syndication contracts for Impact on local TV channels, from after the FSN contract, were converted to contracts for TNA's syndicated show, TNA Xplosion. They are no longer paying for the timeslot, though Spike controls their advertising revenue. Because of viewership growth, Impact was moved to Thursdays in April 2006, and later to an earlier primetime slot in November. Tapings were moved to Tuesdays.
In June 2006, episodes of Impact became available at the iTunes Store.
Two Hour Expansion
iMPACT! expanded to two hours on October 4, 2007, still starting at the same time.
On January 17, 2008, Spike presented an event entitled "Global iMPACT!", which featured TNA wrestlers in matches against talent of New Japan Pro Wrestling.
On March 27, iMPACT! aired live for the first time in the show's history in its regular timeslot.
Announced in a release on TNAwrestling.com on April 2, 2008, TNA came to terms on a deal that had "Impact" airing in Australia starting April 5. Up until then, TNA had only broadcast their monthly pay-per-view events on Main Event. Impact now airs every Saturday at 9:30 p.m and every Tuesday at 3:30 p.m on FOX8.
On October 23, 2008, TNA aired its first iMPACT! outside of the iMPACT! Zone in Orlando. It was broadcasted from Las Vegas, Nevada. TNA also made the transition to HD and announced that all Impacts! after this would be broadcast in High Definition.
Re-branding to Impact Wrestling (May 2011– September 2014)
On May 3, 2011, at the tapings of the May 12 edition of Impact!, the show was re-branded Impact Wrestling with the slogan "Where Wrestling Matters", with the color scheme changing from red and black to blue, white and gray. This led to the URL of TNA Wrestling's website, tnawrestling.com, to be renamed impactwrestling.com. On July 11, 2011, it was announced that TNA would hold Impact Wrestling tapings on August 25 at the Von Braun Center in Huntsville, Alabama, on September 21 at the Knoxville Coliseum in Knoxville, Tennessee, and on October 26 at the Macon Coliseum in Macon, Georgia. On January 6, 2012, TNA announced the first international Impact Wrestling tapings would be taking place on January 28 at the Wembley Arena in London, England.
On May 17, 2012, TNA announced that Impact Wrestling would air live through the summer of 2012, starting on May 31, when the show moved to a new time slot at 8pm ET. The live schedule was later extended first through September, and then through the rest of 2012. On January 31, 2013, TNA announced that they would begin taping Impact from different venues around the United States starting March 14, 2013, from the Sears Center in Chicago. TNA officially terminated its lease with Universal Studios Orlando Florida in late March 2013 and left the Impact Wrestling Zone.
On March 14, 2013, TNA introduced a new universal HD set which is used for all weekly programming. On May 30, 2013, Impact Wrestling went back to its old start time of 9pm and in July 2013, TNA announced that they would broadcast five Impact Wrestling specials in 2013 starting July 18, 2013 with Destination X. This was followed by Hardcore Justice, No Surrender, Final Resolution and Turning Point. These specials replaced the PPV events of the same name following TNA changing their Montly PPV format to a quarterly model.
On October 24, 2013, TNA announced they will be returning to Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida on November 21, 2013 due to the high cost of production on the road. Impact tapings would be filmed from soundstage 19, rather than at the original Impact Wrestling Zone at soundtage 21, but there will still be select tapings on the road from time to time, such as the Genesis Impact Wrestling special on January 16 and January 23, 2014 from the Von Braun Center in Huntsville, Alabama. TNA also announced a new programming initiative called IMPACT365 - Where Action Never Ends, in which cameras provide unprecedented access to the lives of the TNA Superstars. This has been used to make announcements for upcoming shows and for starting new angles and storylines.
On January 30, 2014, for the first time, Impact Wrestling was broadcast live in the UK on Challenge TV channel before it aired in the US. The show took place at SSE Hydro in Glasgow, Scotland. TNA announced that they will be changing soundstages at Universal Studios Florida again starting with the March 13, 2014 live broadcast of Impact Wrestling. The new soundstage will be soundstage 20.
Final months on Spike (July 2014 – December 2014)
On July 17, 2014, after a poll made on the Impact Wrestling website, TNA brought back the six-sided ring permanently.
On Aug 14, 2014, TNA made the announcement that Impact Wrestling would move to Wednesday nights beginning on Aug 20, 2014 and on August 20, it was announced that Impact Wrestling will continue on Spike for the remainder of 2014, adding that "Negotiations remain ongoing beyond this time frame.
On August 25, 2014, TNA has received an offer to have Impact Wrestling on Discovery’s latest channel, Velocity. On November 2014, it was announced Spike TV decided to cancel all wrestling show from his programing.
Destination America Era (January 2015)
On November 19th, 2014, TNA announced that Impact Wrestling would move to Destination America starting in January of 2015.
Content
Impact Wrestling generally features four to seven matches over the course of the two hour show, as well as numerous interviews and segments interspersed between the matches. Due to the nature of the wrestling business, advertisements for merchandise and upcoming pay-per-view events often serve as bookmarks for the commercial segments.
When Impact was on Fox Sports Net, all matches had a time limit (10 minutes for normal singles matches and 20 for tag team matches and the main event) and the station's Fox Box was used. In the event of a time limit draw, the winner was determined by the NWA Championship Committee, a group consisting of three veteran wrestlers. Since leaving the channel, TNA has discarded the time limit concept.
Bound For Glory Series (2011)
Roster
Commentators
- Mike Tenay (June 4, 2004 – present)
- Don West (June 4, 2004 – August 20, 2009)
- Taz (August 20, 2009 – present)
Special Episodes
| Episode Title | Date | Rating | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Live iMPACT! | March 27, 2008 | 1.0 | First live Impact! ever. |
| Live HD iMPACT! | October 23, 2008 | 1.1 | First live HD iMPACT! outside of the iMPACT! Zone. |
| Impact! 200 | July 30, 2009 | 1.3 | 200th episode of Impact! on Spike. |
| Super Impact! | October 15, 2009 | 1.0 | Special 3 hour episode of Impact! leading up to Bound for Glory. |
| New Years Knockout Eve | December 31, 2009 | 0.6 | 4 Hour All Knockout edition of Impact! Also featured the Top 3 PPV matches of 2009 as voted by the fans. |
| Monday Night iMPACT! | January 4, 2010 | 1.5 | First iMPACT! head to head against WWE RAW. |
| The Whole F'n Show | August 12, 2010 | 1.2 | A pay-per-view style show on free TV |
| Before the Glory | October 7, 2010 | 1.3 | Special live episode of Impact! leading up to Bound for Glory. |
Recurring segments
| Segment | Type | Host(s) | Years Active | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rough Cut | Interview segment | N/A | February 2008 - Present | A in-depth interview about someone's life and career in professional wrestling. Also used as a video package interview to hype feuds between two or more wrestlers, on some occasions |
| $25,000 Fan Challenge | Wrestling Challenge | Awesome Kong w/ Raisha Saeed |
May 2008 - July 2008 | A "fan" (kayfabe) enters the ring to compete with Awesome Kong. If they win they get $25,000 and the TNA Women's Knockout Championship. The contest ended with Taylor Wilde defeating her, making her the third champion in history. |
| Karen's Angle | Interview segment | Karen Angle | July 2008 - October 2008 | Karen hosts a talk show interview segment. The segment came to an end when it was revealed on iMPACT that Karen was taking time off to focus on her family. |
| ODB's Angle / Trash Talking with ODB | Interview segment | ODB | November 2008 - Present | Took the place of Karen's Angle after she left the company. |
| Hardcore History 101 | Interview segment | Mick Foley | February 2009 - Present | Behind the scenes stories from Foley's career. |
| Off the Wagon Challenge | Wrestling challenge | Beer Money Inc. (James Storm and Robert Roode) |
February 2009 - April 2009 | Open challenge for Beer Money's TNA World Tag Team Championship. If the challengers lose by pin or submission, the wrestler who lost the match is fired. |
| Double J Double M A Open Challenge | MMA challenge | Jeff Jarrett | December 9, 2010 – January 6, 2011 | An open challenge hosted by Jeff Jarrett, where any fan who could make him submit in a mixed martial arts match, would win $100,000. |
International Broadcasters
| Country | Network |
|---|---|
| United States | Spike |
| Canada (English) | Spike |
| Canada (French) | RDS |
| United Kingdom / Ireland | Challenge |
| Arab World | MBC Action |
| France | TF6 |
| Germany | Sky Sport |
| Spain | Antena 3 and Antena.neox |
| Romania | Sport.ro MTV |
| Italy | GXT |
| Asia | ESPN Star Sports |
| Philippines | ABC and STAR World |
| India/Pakistan | STAR Sports |
| Africa | Click Boogie |
| Mexico | 52mx |
| Australia | FOX8 |
| Portugal | Sport TV 3 |
Previous Logos
Stage
External Links
- TNA Impact Wrestling at Destination America
- TNA "iMPACT!" in the UK on Bravo
- Official TNA Videos at YouTube
| TNA Roster |
|---|
|
Ace Austin • Alex Hammerstone • Brian Myers • Cody Deaner • Chris Bey • Crazzy Steve • Eddie Edwards • Frankie Kazarian • Joe Doering • Johnny Swinger • Jonathan Gresham • Josh Alexander • Mike Bailey • Moose • PCO • Rhino • Rich Swann • Steve Maclin • Trey Miguel • Zachary Wentz |
| Knockouts |
|
Alisha Edwards • Ash By Elegance • Gisele Shaw • Havok • Jordynne Grace • Killer Kelly • KiLynn King • Masha Slamovich • Rosemary • Savannah Evans • Tasha Steelz • Xia Brookside |