From NWA-TNA under the Jeff Jarrett regime, to TNA Wrestling under the Dixie Carter regime, to TNA Impact Wrestling under the the Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff regime, to TNA Impact Wrestling back under the Carter regime, to GFW Impact once again under the Jarrett regime, and finally Impact Wrestling of today under the management of Scott D'Amore and Don Callis.
It has been a long and often troublesome journey for this company to find stability and consistency within management, as the previous regimes in alot of people's eyes was "corrupt" and "deadly" to the Impact brand, names such as Vince Russo, and now the infamous and heavily criticised Hogan/Bischoff era. Now thanks to the genius of Chris Jericho, who advised Anthem [the owners of Impact Wrestling] to lead Impact down a different road, and now Impact Wrestling has finally found it's forever home that it has tried so hard to find. The brain power of Scott D'Amore and Don Callis has reshaped Impact Wrestling in such a way that not even the collaborative powers of Dutch Mantell, Bruce Prichard and Jeff Jarrett could form. While the old school booking mentality of the three latter names, and the way of doing business may bring back fond memories for alot of people, But the day and age for this type of strategy has long gone, and new, fresh ideas are what is needed to interest this new generation of wrestling fans.
The Callis-D'Amore motor engine has so far been very effective, giving the fans a much needed boost of confidence to be able to watch the show again in many people's cases. For me, I have never complained or never not enjoyed the shows that the company has produced under former managements, from the TNA era [2002-2017], I feel like the shows from those years have been so heavily and unfairly criticised when they have produced some of the best wrestling matches I have ever seen.
Now let's take a look back at the past rebranding attempts by Impact that just never seemed to mean much to the fans..
Goodbye NWA, We're flying solo! - 2007 - 2009
This was a major step for TNA, going solo without the partnership with the NWA. On first glances, it went very well. You have Kurt Angle becoming the first ever TNA World Heavyweight Champion, you had the introduction of the Women's division, and an A class of top tier talents, from Bubba Ray Dudley to Sting. This new turn led to some of TNA's most memorable moments, Gail Kim starting a legacy of women wrestling at it's best, one of the most decorated pro wrestling factions of all time being created with the members all being former World Champions. The group consisted of Sting, Kurt Angle, Kevin Nash, Booker T, Scott Steiner and Taz [non wrestling role]. This wasn't as such a rebrand, but it was arguably TNA at it's best. At the announcers desk, we saw a big change, as Mike Tenay would no longer be calling the action along Don West, who had been at the announcers table with Mike since day one. The legend of ECW, Taz, would join Tenay and would form one of the best commentary teams, truly living up to the level set by his predecessor.
The Hulk Hogan Eric Bischoff Era - 2009 - 2013
The company would continue to feature legends and superstars from the past in the likes of the ECW legends [Dreamer, Raven, Sabu, RVD, Stevie Richards], Mick Foley, Ric Flair, and merge them in with their own stars like Eric Young, Bobby Roode, James Storm, Samoa Joe and AJ Styles. While I found that these legends were having some of the best of their careers, To many fans, after a while it became a running gag that TNA will hire anyone that WWE rejects or sacks. Although to TNA's credit, they didn't just hire the WWE's alumni and use them the same way, they took the stars and made them into their versions of how they want them to be and not just live off of their reputations with WWE or WCW etc. When you think of Kurt Angle in TNA in comparison to Kurt in WWE, they are almost like two different people, and that's what TNA did with the majority of the stars that came over. But, a major down point was the overspending of Hogan and Bischoff, leading to the next phase of TNA to be very difficult to stay above board.
The Dixie Carter Struggle - 2013 - 2017
TNA would hit hard times, with lawsuits and money problems. The company began to get a bad reputation as a company that couldn't pay its talents on time, But the quality of the shows in my opinion remained as high as ever. Then there was the commentary change that truly shook up the desk like never before. Longtime match caller Mike Tenay would leave the desk, and former WWE commentator and backstage interviewer Josh Mathews would take over.
The way in which the dirt sheets almost burned TNA at every given moment made seeing the company survive very difficult to believe. Then thankfully for it's perseverance in creating it's own stars, Talents like EC3, Eddie Edwards and Bobby Lashley, TNA was able to keep on proving that this company could succeed if it had the chance. Then came the strange blessing of the Broken Hardy's. While it was sometimes silly, it gave the company the media attention that it really needed, and assisted it through it's most difficult time where Dixie was pondering selling up. Thankfully, Dixie didn't sell up to Billy Corgan or WWE, and sold the company to Anthem Sports and Entertainment.
The Return of Jarrett and his GFW - 2017
Following the sale to Anthem, The new owners went back in time and brought back old hands of the company, IE Jeff Jarrett, Bruce Prichard and Dutch Mantell. Jarrett would merge his Global Force Wrestling with Impact Wrestling. With Jarrett back in control, this would lead to big changes and bold moves regarding the lockeroom, as countless stars that the company had been building and big stars like Jeff and Matt Hardy, Drew Galloway, Mike Bennett and Maria, Jade [Mia Yim] among others would be shown the door. Again, while the matches and shows with it's newly arranged lockeroom remained on point, trouble wasn't far behind.
Broken Matt Hardy, who was planning on taking his highly successful gimmick with him hit a roadblock, as Jarrett refused to allow him to use the gimmick outside of the company. The backlash from the fans defending Hardy on the newly rebranded GFW Impact left a bad taste, with even parent company Anthem getting a beating from the fans. Then later in the year, It would unfold that Jeff Jarrett was suspended from the company, and later be caused due to alcohol problems. Not long after, Impact announced its split from GFW.
Nordholm, Callis and D'Amore - 2018 - Present
Anthem required a miracle to salvage Impact at this point, it had tried everything, until Chris Jericho would give a phone call to the head of Anthem, advising him to either put Scott D'Amore and Don Callis in control, or fold. Jericho's advice paid off, with Anthem's Ed Nordholm placing D'Amore and Callis in the positions of power. This new trio, would slowly but surely regain trust of the once loyal fans and create magic every week. The success came so quickly that the company was already adding new PPV's to it's already heavily slashed PPV schedule, and tapings would feature less but take place more often, meaning that content over 4 weeks old wouldn't be shown at much later dates. The new management's view on company partnerships had also greatly helped the company, as the old school mentality of working alone was thrown out, and partnerships like with Lucha Underground, AAA and Pro Wrestling Noah had led to many dream matches coming true and international fans gaining interest.
Then there is the work of Josh Mathews, the workhorse of the company in many peoples eyes, as through his hard work and energy, Impact's presence has been given a new lease of life. This new era of Impact has been the best that has been in years, not just management wise, but future wise, as right now the only way is up, something that I couldn't say before.
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