Impact Wrestling presented its most significant annual event on Sunday with Bound for Glory from the Odeum Expo Center in Villa Park, Ill.
While the event wasn't the best show of the year, it was still a very solid outing from top-to-bottom with the five-person ladder match featuring Tessa Blanchard, Ace Romero, Ace Austin, Jake Crist and Daga along with a very physical main event between Impact heavyweight champion Brian Cage and Sami Callihan.
With All Elite Wrestling and WWE battling for pro wrestling supremacy, how does Impact fit into the grand scheme of things?
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The wrestling landscape changed when AEW debuted "Dynamite" on TNT at the beginning of October and WWE signed highly lucrative deals to air "SmackDown" on Fox and "Raw" remaining on the USA Network.
But Impact made a significant move of its own that flew under the radar in September. That's when its parent company, Anthem Sports and Entertainment, announced it was buying a majority stake in AXS TV and Impact Wrestling would be airing on the channel starting this Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET. While the channel airs in about 50 million homes, it's a significant upgrade from when they were airing on the Pursuit Channel, a low-level network where they were only seen by a couple thousand viewers each week.
Add in the fact that New Japan Pro Wrestling has gotten significant traction in the United States since being on the network. Now, with Anthem having a controlling interest in the channel, Impact is going to receive a ton of publicity that will drive even more people to its live events.
Under the new regime of Scott D'Amore and Don Callis, Impact has gone under a rejuvenation from the days of being utterly disorganized on every level under Dixie Carter and on the brink of extinction on numerous occasions to now becoming a place where you're seeing storylines thrive and younger talent getting a chance to show the world that there's more than just WWE and AEW.
"I know when I first got to Impact ... I’m not going to lie, I asked myself, ‘Maybe I made a mistake by coming here,’” Impact talent Moose told Sporting News in March. "As soon as Anthem bought the company and (executive vice presidents of Impact) Scott D’Amore and Don Callis came on board, things have been working great. You could see the improvement TV show after TV show. Everything takes time for people to start seeing the improvement. I think we are showing that improvement. Fans just need to be patient, and things will keep on getting better."
While all of the wrestlers in Impact aren't household names, Impact possesses the best overall female wrestlers led by the woman who not only is the best in the company, male or female, but one of the top talents in the business, period, in Blanchard. Everything about her equates to a superstar. She carries herself as a major star and it resonates with the fans, as Blanchard got by far the largest reaction during Sunday's show.
Fans were into whatever Blanchard did in the ring. She made what looked to be an average match on paper appear above average. Simply put: Blanchard is a once-in-a-generation type of talent as she has the ability inside the ring, mixed in with her looks and charisma. That type of individual doesn't exist in WWE or AEW. Blanchard is the individual you hitch your wagon to and it would help get more eyeballs on Impact and get the company to the next level.
If you mix in Callihan, Moose, Knockouts champion Taya Valkyrie and Cage and continue to make them major focal points of your programming, then fans will continue to gravitate toward Impact and start to see more sold-out shows as you saw on Sunday evening right outside Chicago.
"You are giving them (young wrestlers) the light that gives people energy and some drive and lifting the talent up to be at an elite level whereas I thought everyone else had a jump on Impact," former Impact heavyweight champion Ken Shamrock recently told SN. "Now, all of a sudden, with the way things are going, Impact is among the big three."
Will Impact overtake WWE and AEW in the United States? No, but being number three isn't bad whatsoever. Most weeks, Impact is putting on quality shows that are often better than what WWE has been presenting. And that is due to giving D'Amore and Callis the keys to the kingdom and allowing them to bring in the right talent who work their tails off.
Impact is once again creeping into their minds of pro wrestling fans. Slow and steady isn't the cool way to do things in this day and age where WWE acts on the whim of a 74-year-old Vince McMahon, who changes his mind as often as the wind blows, and AEW looks to continue to establish itself.
However, Impact is doing things the right way and continuing to grow brick-by-brick. As long as Impact stays the course, it's an absolute number three brand that people can watch every week and show the world they can be the perfect mix of what WWE and AEW aren't offering fans every week.
