As I mentioned about a week ago Impact Wrestling are currently negotiating a new TV deal and are likely moving off POP TV for a new station in early 2019. It is very interesting to see how different the negotiating period has been compared to when they left Spike TV a few years ago. Now based on reports it seems like POP and Impact Wrestling have a great relationship as POP is allowing Impact to remain on the station until early 2019 as I mentioned earlier. 

Currently, Impact is in talks with SyFy, TruTV, and WGN for a television deal after their current contract expires. According to a recent edition of the PWTorch Livecast one thing that drove a wedge between Impact & Pop is the wrestling company's desire to return to a prime-time slot and Pop's unwillingness to give them the spot. It seems like Impact will likely head to whichever station will give them a prime-time slot and it would be interesting to see SyFy land the company knowing their history with the WWE. Also an interesting note if Impact does end up on the SyFy network it would be the first time that the WWE & Impact are on stations owned by the same company. Though it might not seem like a big deal I feel like it would be interesting having both Impact & WWE on channels owned by NBC Universal. 

In my opinion, I think any of these three channels or maybe a mystery one could be in the running for Impact. Specifically though I'd go for either WGN America or SyFy due to their past history with having wrestling programming on the network. In hindsight though I think SyFy or TruTV would help Impact more as they are more nationally known stations on television. Overall 2019 promises to be another interesting year for wrestling and this is just adding fuel to the fire. 

At one point I remember when this was a "major" news story every other day when the company was leaving Spike TV a few years ago. Luckily this time around it is not as much of a questionable situation and if anything it is total opposite situation. Following the companies stay on Destination America which is where they headed after Spike TV they moved to another channel and that was POP TV aka the former TV guide network. Prior to POP picking up Impact Wrestling they had given television time to Vegas Independent wrestling company Paragon Pro-Wrestling. Now in reality during there time on POP we saw Impact almost hit it's end when Dixie Carter finally sold the promotion. 

The last two years have been full of ups and downs for the company with the promotion having seemingly found stability and a foundation to rebuild the promotion. At this point it has been an extremely long amount of time since we last saw a negative story about the promotion which was common place at one point. As far as where they stand with POP television at the point and though the relationship seems in a good place it doesn't seem like the company will resign. 

Overall Impact Wrestling still has television in both the UK and Canada, but as of early 2019 they will loose television in the United States. The latest news points to Impact & POP coming to a short term extension to keep the promotion on the channel until late winter or early spring, but after that is uncertain. For those who may not follow Impact the company recently was moved to a different time slot and has seen a drop in viewers because of it. Looking at the possible places for Impact to move that is one thing I am unsure of due to nobody reporting anything about possible new homes. However, if I had to guess the Fight Network might be a possible spot considering it is also owned by Anthem Sports & held an ownership interest in Impact at one point. 

Some feuds never end and others need a little help to continue as a way to allow fans a break from seeing the old stuff. One problem in wrestling is when a feud has been going for a while fans get tired of the same match and sometimes a feud just needs a punch in the air. In some cases a breath of fresh air can be enough to keep a feud going for months at a time even the company plays there cards right. After months of a developing blood feud between the original LAX faction of Homicide & Hernandez with King (Eddie Kingston) against the reinvented LAX faction with Santana, Ortiz, and Konnan. Now the feud really kicked off when it was reveled that Kingston was the one behind the attack of Konnan and we then saw the shocking returns of both Homicide & Hernandez. 

Following the blow-off of the feud at Bound for Glory though the blood feud came to an end with LAX moving one way and the OGz going another way. Though the "bosses" told both teams to stay away from each other but they didn't mention friends or protégées. This now opened the door for an interesting feud between the OGz and Pentagon/Fenix who were mentored and heavily influenced by Konnan since very early on in their careers. At this point I don't know if these two teams will revisit the feud they had at one point, but if they did it will likely be in a couple of months. If they did revisit this feud though after the OGz & Los Lucha Brothers feud there will be another layer on a feud that already had deep roots to begin with. 

Overall this is one of the many ways that Impact Wrestling has improved the outlook of their product this year as they have shifted focus to pay more attention the wrestling. Comparing the WWE & Impact Wrestling it is incredible the differences between the companies with one focusing more on week to week & the other actually having long term overarching stories. Take a guess which one Impact falls under, fact is Don Callis, Anthem, and Scott D'Amore are slowly turning Impact into a stable wrestling company again and it is amazing to watch them do it. 

The past has been tough for Impact Wrestling with a lot of questionable decision lying the long history of the company that always found a way to get past the bad. However, things began to change when Anthem Sports purchased the company they brought stability to the company which was much needed. Now I do remember the early days of Anthem and the issues with the Hardy Brothers. Once things calmed down though and they were allowed to focus on improving Impact Wrestling as opposed to the non sense they had been dealing with they hit the ground running. 

I will go out on a limb and say that this year has been the best year for Impact Wrestling since around 2007 or 2008. Even though I know I have been super critical of this company over the years, but I am very happy that they have found some stability. In my opinion though Don Callis shows in one promo exactly why Impact is in a better position now then they have been in a long time. Take a look!! 

Over the years Impact Wrestling has gone threw a number of changes over the years with a lot of their roster changing. From AJ Styles to Bobby Roode to James Storm to Christopher Daniels to even Jeff Jarrett have all left the company but one "founding father" has remained with the company threw it all. The one man that has remained loyal to Impact Wrestling during all the ups and downs is the "Monster" Abyss. At one point or another I think every Impact star has thought about greener pastures being somewhere else and I'm sure Abyss has had the thought enter his mind, but it never really deterred him from staying. The one rumor that is out there is that Abyss had been offered a few years ago to jump to the WWE and fight The Undertaker at WrestleMania, but turned down the offer in favor of remaining loyal to Impact. 

Though some might look at his decision as dumb because he turned down likely the biggest payday of his career to stay in the company known for uncertainty. I think in many ways it was sort of noble that he chose to stay instead of taking the money, because it is also clear that there was more to his decision to stay. The other side of his decision I think was okay I go and fight Undertaker, but what happens after that am I just going to be fed to Taker and forgotten about. In my opinion I think that this logic not only played a part in his decision to stay, but may have encouraged him to remain with Impact Wrestling for the time being. 

It is funny though how fast time can go when you think about it because Abyss has been a part of Impact Wrestling since day one and is still with the company. For those who don't know Abyss was actually an entry in the Gauntlet for The Gold Battle Royal which was held on the first ever TNA show in June 2002; which means unlike some fellow "founding fathers" Abyss has actually been there since the start. Though I don't watch often I do believe that as of now Abyss has dialed back his time in the ring likely due to a mixture of his age and past injuries catching up to him. Overall though there is no doubt in my mind that Abyss is extremely deserving of the honor to be inducted into the Impact Wrestling Hall of Fame. Even though the company might've not inducted anyone last year that doesn't change the fact that they have an inductee this year and it is someone who has given his all for the company. With that being said I would like to extend my deepest congratulations to the "Monster" Abyss for this extreme honor as Impact Wrestling's next Hall of Famer.

To be up front I will admit that I got this idea from What Culture Wrestling as they had a good video about this subject recently. Recently Impact has seen rebirth as the new management team in place has really attempted to change the perception of the company. In the past I think that everyone knows the amount of bad headlines or worrisome headlines that Impact saw during the last couple of years. However, a number of positive headlines have come to light recently especially since the company moved to the "Great White North." I know in the past I have praised Impact for various reasons including some reasons like long term planning for the company and that is something really have done. 

Overall though one of the main reasons that I have started to watch Impact again when I can is because I know the flow of the shows will keep with each other. With that I mean it is clear that the company has a long term plan for a lot of talent which is a breath of fresh air from where they once were in the past. Also this booking style is something you really don't see with the WWE as they don't normally have a long term plan in place for any talent which is a big shift from how Vince use to book. 

In my opinion though one of the best things a company can do is choose to map out a plan for the future so they can Segway easier between feuds with talent instead of having some layoff time. The reason that you want to have the quick move without much down time is because it is the best way to keep talent hot if you have them consistently on TV in important angles and feuds then the perception of the talent will be viewed as such. Looking at talent like Eddie Edwards, Austin Aries, or Sami Callahan who are really among the hottest talent in wrestling this because of the consistent booking and it being easy to see that these guys are the most important talent in the company. 

Clearly though heading into Bound For Glory next month we have seen the development of certain feuds including Johnny Impact & Austin Aries for the Impact World Championship. Right now the card isn't full at all but all of the matches on the show so far excluding Impact & Aries has been building for at least the last 4-6 months. I also think it's fair to say that Eddie Edwards will likely be fighting Moose in some form at the event after the blow up the former friends had a few weeks back. I would also point to this feud as another example of the companies renewed focus on long term booking. In a long winded way I am explaining that Impact Wrestling actually cares about booking now and it really shows on a week to week basis how much they care about planning for the long term. ​

Strong booking will make you invest in not just the wrestler that your watching, but also pay more attention to the company. For me the booking that brought me back to Impact Wrestling has been the booking of Eddie Edwards and Sami Callahan. Since his arrival in the company there is no doubt that Sami Callahan has been the strongest heel in the company and one of the craziest unique talents in all of wrestling. But I do think that nobody has been able to touch Eddie Edwards as I don't think anyone really thought that Edwards had this type of gimmick in him. This does speak to the amount of talent and potential that Eddie has and how fortunate it is that he can help lead the way for Impact Wrestling with other gifted talents. 

Looking at the last few months or almost a year at this point it is clear that from the time that Don Callis & Scott D'Amore got the book they sat down and worked out a long term plan for certain talent. We've seen this come to be with Sami Callahan and Austin Aries. The one I want to focus on is Eddie Edwards though as this past weeks edition of Impact saw that overarching story take another step forward. For those who haven't been watching following the conclusion of his feud with Tommy Dreamer, Eddie moved on to the World Champion Austin Aries. 

However, thus far Eddie has had barrier after barrier placed in front of him to make his climb back to the top even harder. Austin Aries found an insurance policy with Killer Kross and now Moose has turned on his former friend. Honestly I think Moose is better as a heel over a face because I never saw him as a person who needs to pander and I saw him as someone who uses his raw talent do the talking. Seeing him turn on Eddie though and then having Eddie's wife get involved and teasing an altercation was put over very well by the announcers. I am loving this broadcast team by the way I mean I have taken plenty of shots at Josh Matthews, but now getting to see him when the chains are off it is awesome to see the amount of talent he has and how good he can is when he's allowed to be. 

Overall I don't think it'd be fair to compare this feud to any other because of the gimmicks involved and the fact that it might compare to other feuds from the past but it is different enough to be given it's fare shot. Also with the mixture of talent in this feud both proven and unproven makes it a very different type of story and really is sort of the embodiment of the new Impact Wrestling. I will be keeping my eyes on this feud and all things Impact Wrestling as they continue to build momentum and my interest in the company continues to increase. Take a look at some other top moments from the most recent edition of Impact Wrestling featured below: 

Recently news broke that Jeff Jarrett has filed a lawsuit against Anthem Sports and Entertainment who is the parent company of Impact Wrestling. Now the according to some research Jarrett filed suit due to Global Wrestling Federation's part in the Global Wrestling Network and the Amped name being used on the service apparently. I don't know much about the Global Wrestling Network or anything like that because I don't have the service, so I will not be commenting on that subject. Looking at the situation though I think both parties could be to blame, but I will not be placing blame on either party since I am unaware of important aspects of the story. 

At this point you might be wondering exactly why I have chosen to write about this based on my lack of knowledge on this subject. Well the easy answer is that I wanted to take a different approach with this story and look at it from the eyes of Impact Wrestling. Everyone knows Impact's past with poor news headlines being as common for the company as a tv taping. Things have begun to change though with more positive articles being written about the company in recent months and the overall perception changing. 

However, in my opinion this is a step back for them as it is just another bad headline and one of the main issues of having a parent company. In my opinion Jeff shouldn't be hurting the company and should've tried to figure another way to settle this issue in the quietest way possible anything bad being written about Impact. This issue will not effect the programming for Impact and that it shouldn't reflect poorly on them, because for once it is nothing that they did and it should still be all about letting them continue to build momentum and move in the positive direction they had been heading. Good Luck Anthem!

On the surface it is something that sticks out just because of Anthony Carelli being on Impact Wrestling after spending so many years with the WWE. The other part that sticks out is that Dustin Cameron fought Austin Aries in a World Title match which would lead most to wonder who is Dustin Cameron. Until I got some context I wondered the same thing like I might have missed something or that Eddie Edwards was having an identity crisis. 

However, now seeing Austin Aries confront the former Santino Marella is strange like I mentioned but this also gives fans an interesting opportunity to see something totally different from other companies. This is exactly the type of thing that this company needs to do to reinvent themselves. One thing that I have continued to mention is that once Impact stopped trying to be a second to WWE and focused more on being their own company it helped them tremendously. This change in perception started when they moved to the "Great white North" which is also actually what opened the door for this to happen as Carelli's school is in Canada. 

Overall some critics might look at this as Impact being second rate using Carelli like this or whatever odd idea that "hater" think up but the one thing I would say is that I am proud of Impact. As they have been really trying to earn the fans respect back and change the perception of that the company had which I think they are doing a fantastic job. Let the praise continue!!