A little over a week ago, Impact Wrestling made its Twitch debut with Barbed Wire Massacre III, a match deemed “too violent” for Pop TV. Since then, the channel has been a 24/7/365 dedicated live stream of various matches and moments from the tape library, but with no new content. That’s all about to change however as on last night’s episode, Impact announced that the WrestlePro co-branded Brace for IMPACT, will air live on Twitch on February 3.
You just heard it announced on IMPACT, the upcoming @WrestlePro Brace for IMPACT show will be our first Twitch exclusive event! pic.twitter.com/HxJSzBBNV5
— TNA Wrestling (@ThisIsTNA) January 26, 2018
Brace for IMPACT was already an eye-popping card given that Emma, real name Tenille Dashwood, would be working the event in her first post-WWE appearance. Dashwood was released from WWE on October 29, 2017 and a common 90-day non-compete clause would keep her from competing on the independents until February 1, two days prior to Brace for IMPACT.
WrestlePro announced that Dashwood and former six-time Knockouts champion, Angelina Love, would be main eventing the show, which is also scheduled to feature various talent from Impact taking on WrestlePro talent, including two former champions going at it as former WrestlePro Champion Bobby Wayward takes on former TNA World Heavyweight Champion, Eddie Edwards, Johnny Impact faces off against WrestlePro Silver Champion Dan Maff, Impact X Division Champion Matt Sydal against Chris Payne, and much more.
Dashwood being on the card led many to speculate if becoming a Knockout may be in her future and the announcement that this show will be streamed live has only furthered that talk. In December, it was reported by EWrestlingNews that while some of the content from Brace for IMPACT was planned to be filmed for later use on Impact Wrestling’s weekly programming, that this match was not. It would seem however that plans have changed given the entire show is now set for live broadcast on Twitch, perhaps indicating that this is the first but not the last time, Dashwood will be seen on Impact.
Ticket update!! FIRST AND SECOND ROW SOLD OUT!! A third row will open up for purchase along with general admission ! Hold on folks as we “BRACE FOR IMPACT” https://t.co/JyEFhx9RS3 for tickets! Come witness history! pic.twitter.com/iLLWN8vyJn
— 𝗪𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗹𝗲𝗣𝗿𝗼 (@WrestlePro) January 9, 2018
While not seen as a game-changer, Impact’s Twitch partnership is certainly one that projects to get more eyes on the product than what is currently being reached by Pop TV. It does not seem likely that Impact would move entirely to Twitch or any other online platform, however, with even WWE in talks to potentially move their flagship programming to a streaming site, nothing would be surprising at this point.
In the meantime, Twitch offers Impact another platform to push their content and the biggest plus-side from a fan perspective is that Twitch is free. So while being able to relive the glory days is nice, Impact also using Twitch to showcase full live events in which their talent performs is definitely going to help grow their channel moving forward. Plus, it is beneficial to their partner promotions, such as WrestlePro, which thanks to Brace for IMPACT will see one of their cards broadcasted live.
