The State of IMPACT Wrestling in 2022

Welcome to the state of IMPACT Wrestling in 2022. The story of IMPACT Wrestling is easily one of the wildest in the last 20 years of the industry. To say the company has had its ups and downs would be a massive understatement. It has been home to some of the best wrestlers in the world, including Samoa Joe, AJ Styles, Sting, and even Kurt Angle, but it has also been the subject of much controversy in its 20 year lifetime. For every Joe or Angle, there’s a Claire Lynch when it comes to TNA’s most famous angles. At times as a business, it seemed entirely likely they would go bankrupt, but they’ve managed to come out of the end of every year alive and kicking.

In 2022 IMPACT Wrestling is an interesting animal. With the direction Ring of Honor has taken in the last 2 years of the pandemic and even before that, IMPACT is the default number 3 wrestling company in North America. A position it hasn’t found itself in a very long time, and they boast the roster to show it. IMPACT has easily one of the best top-to-bottom rosters in the history of the company. Both the male and female sides of the rosters feel equally as well structured, and feature a varied selection of characters. Of course, it is still IMPACT and they are their own worst enemy, which means many of the same old stumbling blocks remain.

The State of IMPACT Wrestling in 2022

A Wonderful and Diverse Roster

One thing that IMPACT definitely has going for them, as mentioned previously, is their roster. IMPACT’s roster is easily not just the best it’s ever had, but also probably the second or third best in the country behind only AEW and (maybe) WWE. When it comes to the structure of their roster, IMPACT may even have AEW and WWE beat. While they may not have as much talent as other promotions, the talent they do have they distribute more evenly. For example, it’s no rare feat to see upwards to 3 or 4 female segments on an episode of IMPACT, but such a thing is very rare on an episode of Dynamite, Rampage, RAW, or SmackDown.

The styles and backgrounds of workers are even diverse. Josh Alexander is not the same as JONAH, who is not the same as Jake Something, who is not the same as Trey Miguel, and so on. It is also always nice to see people of different demographics represented strongly and regularly on television. Talents such as Bhupinder Gujjar, JONAH, Kenny King, Tasha Steelz, and several others are all presented exactly as they should be, and are well deserving of their spot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEaeKiTf3hE

As Much as Things Change…

IMPACT has always been really bad at backstage angles unless you count being outrageously cheesy as good. Every once in a while one is really good, maybe even great, but for the most part, it’s just full of bad acting and headache-inducing camera work. But that’s only the beginning of the problem. The root of it is and always has been foolish mismanagement. It’s part of what IMPACT has always been famous for. Not paying certain workers, the whole Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff fiasco that nearly put IMPACT out of business.

Even recently, they allowed Josh Alexander’s work visa to expire. Sure, the issue was cleared up before the big PPV, but what if it hadn’t? After building him up for two years, what if they failed to clear up the work visa issue and their whole plan went wrong? In a well-managed company, things like that don’t happen. Things like work visas for your top workers don’t just “slip by.” And don’t go thinking it was a work or some such nonsense. No wrestler with a brain in their head would ever cancel multiple bookings for the sake of a storyline. That would be foolish.

Most Well-Handled Women’s Division in the Country

IMPACT has the best utilization of its female talent. WWE’s talent may get a wider audience, but it comes with no creative say, very little screen-time, and a very thin roster. AEW has a deep roster, but they still get little screen-time, and they aren’t utilized very well creatively, nor are they on the show as much as they should be. IMPACT’s Knockouts Division is the perfect balance of having a good roster that gets plenty of screentime and enough creative control over what they do to stand out from one another and be interesting.

Proof in the pudding would be that several of AEW’s most-featured talents, such as The Bunny on Dynamite and Rampage and even Kiera Hogan on Dark. Despite this IMPACT continues to build new female stars, and continues to do so quite well. Tasha Steelz, just won the Knockouts Championship from Mickie James at Sacrifice. She’s one to expect in one of the big two within the next couple of years, and part of that is due to IMPACT giving her the platform she deserved.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWIvQoefvj8

Authority Roles: Leave Them in the Past Please

Scott D’amore has been IMPACT’s on-screen authority role for a while now. I say authority role mainly because I’m not sure what his actual job is supposed to be. Is he a producer? A matchmaker? Is he some sort of general manager? It mostly just seems that he comes out whenever there’s drama or people are fighting, which is kind of always since it’s a wrestling program. I think in 2022 most can agree that on-screen authority roles are best left in the past. Whether they be babyfaces or heels. AEW does this best right now. Tony Khan does exist, and they don’t insult your intelligence by pretending he doesn’t. But he almost never actually shows up on TV, only when it’s an absolutely gargantuan announcement such as the purchase of ROH. Why would he show up? That’s what announcers are for, to make announcements.

This is nothing against Scott D’amore either. He does passably well in his role, and certainly has the experience to be a believable authority figure. But does he have to come out to the ring and talk all the time? Can’t he just show up only when absolutely needed? Because otherwise it just feels like an excuse to get him on TV.

A Mild Main Event Scene – For Now

As good as IMPACT’s undercard has been lately, and it’s been very good, its main event scene has been so utterly dull. Moose as IMPACT Wrestling champion in 2022 isn’t interesting – I’m not sure Moose as champion was ever interesting – but it certainly isn’t now. Having Josh Alexander chase the title isn’t an awful decision, but did it have to be Moose? Why not strap a rocket to JONAH and throw the belt on him? He and Alexander have shown they can have some great matches together, why not let him be the foil for Alexander to eventually get the title back from?

Even if you had to make Moose champion, why would you put him against the most boring opponents possible? W. Morrisey and Heath? Why not put him against fan favorites like Mike Bailey or Jake Something and at least try and give him some good matches, and maybe even get him some actual heat from the crowd. Then when Alexander beats him it’ll mean that much more. As is I’m sure it’ll be great to see Josh take the belt off Moose, but it could’ve been so much better.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ao5hbpVUb68

Decent Exposure, but Not a Lot

As of right now, IMPACT is on AXS TV. AXS is not terrible, hosting other wrestling content such as NJPW programming. Still, it’s a far cry from what IMPACT used to be. As has been seen with NWA, hiding your content behind a paywall is almost always a bad idea. At the end of the day, nothing is ever truly “must-see.” If something is too difficult to find, you can live without seeing it. Most people will either find other means of finding your content, usually illegally, or just drop it altogether. At the end of the day, making your content more easily accessible if you’re looking to sell PPVs as IMPACT does. IMPACT would do well to try and find something outside of AXS TV and the “IMPACT Insiders” to broadcast their content to, otherwise, they’ll never leave the bubble they’ve trapped themselves in.

The State of IMPACT Wrestling in 2022 – In Conclusion

IMPACT Wrestling in 2022 has a lot of problems. Most of them are the same ones they’ve always had, but they also have a lot going for them. Which is something they couldn’t always say. If they keep going the way they’re going now, they should be mostly fine, but that also doesn’t mean they shouldn’t look toward what they can fix. Eliminating corny backstage segments would be a big help to the pacing of the show, as well as just making it more enjoyable overall. Moving away also from authority figures on-screen and moving some of their better, more popular wrestlers to the main event scene would also do wonders for their image.

Exposure is a hard fix. They could always throw episodes up on YouTube after they air for free, but then it defeats the purpose of having the service, to begin with. FITE TV is never a terrible option either. Regardless, it’s something they have time to work on anyway. In the meantime, their best course of action is to just keep moving forward, but stop every once in a while to look inward as well. And this goes without saying, but don’t allow guys’ visas to expire. That’s just irresponsible.

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. As well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world. You can catch IMPACT Wrestling on Thursday nights on AXS TV and Twitch.TV as well as all the time on IMPACT Plus.