On Tuesday’s episode of IMPACT Wrestling, a vignette aired to promote the upcoming Slammiversary pay-per-view on July 18. The vignette focuses on someone in a hoodie watching a news broadcast mentioning “over 20 plus Superstars” being “released from their contracts” and wishing them well “in their future endeavors.” Clearly it was mentioning WWE’s Black Wednesday earlier this year and the date has a huge significance. It’s the first day that those released on the first day of WWE releases can officially work somewhere else, as confirmed by Heath Miller (formerly Heath Slater) in an interview with Wrestling Inc. in mid-May.
You never know where future endeavors may lead.
Slammiversary is Saturday, July 18th LIVE on PPV. #Slammiversary pic.twitter.com/MBezL1HIOW
— TNA Wrestling (@ThisIsTNA) June 3, 2020
The video showed archival TNA/IMPACT footage of wrestlers such as Eric Young, Luke Gallows, Karl Anderson, Drake Maverick, Maria & Mike Kanellis, as well as the Bulgarian flag (of countryman Rusev). The final image was that of former 2x IMPACT World Heavyweight Champion EC3. Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson have recently fueled rumors of a possible location as IMPACT for their “future endeavors” when IMPACT Executive Vice President Scott D’Amore happened to call Gallows during a live episode of their podcast with Rocky Romero, Talkin’ Shop.
Impact EVP Scott D’Amore makes an accidental appearance on the Gallows and Anderson podcast “Talkin Shop”. Sure sounds to me like they may be negotiating. pic.twitter.com/6yp6S3If74
— Mike Gilbert (@MikeGilbert311) May 11, 2020
While it’s highly unlikely they sign every person they highlighted in the video (at least by the time Slammiversary airs), IMPACT has definitely been the most free-spending major promotion in North America in 2020, loading their Knockouts Division with the addition of Kylie Rae, Neveah, Kimber Lee, Tasha Steelz, and Deonna Purrazzo, signing West Coast indie sensation Chris Bey, plus re-signing Su Yung and bringing back Crazzy Steve. They’ve lost some of their top male stars in the past year like former World Champions Austin Aries, Pentagon Jr., John Morrison, and Brian Cage, but perhaps their early year buffering of new talent to the men’s and women’s division will be enough to entice some of the names to come home to IMPACT to help push the company to a new level (or bring some new faces that have been dramatically underutilized in their former Connecticut home).
Who do you think will be heading to IMPACT at Slammiversary? Let us know in your comments below!
Stay tuned to the Last Word on Pro Wrestling for more on this and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world. We provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world. You can watch IMPACT every Tuesday on AXS-TV and see past episodes of IMPACT Wrestling on IMPACT+.
