March 28, 2024

Examining Impact Wrestling’s Restocked Divisions

Slammiversary 2020 marks a new chapter in the ever-evolving company.

Impact Wrestling is beginning to feel like a top shelf efed that was recently purged of all its top members, but replaced all of them quickly and quietly. If that reference hits home, I drink to you.

It’s not often one will find a wrestling company entering a “rebuild” period. These are usually reserved for dumpster fire sports teams looking to reclaim past glory, and while Impact Wrestling was a one-time dumpster fire, new management has effectively carved out a new image for the promotion to flourish in.

One small problem: Impact finds itself down two of its previous three most recent world champions, and upon further inspection, the last member of the current roster not named Sami Callihan to hold the world title before Eddie Edwards won it at Slammiversary 2020 was Edwards himself back in January 2017. Before that, you wouldn’t even find a former Impact World Champion on the current roster, unless you were to count ECIII who recently rejoined the fold.

But with the departures of Johnny Impact, Brian Cage and Tessa Blanchard come silver linings. The pandemic “forced” WWE to purge its roster of some of its seldom-used talent, and with three of Impact’s most expensive wrestlers off the books, it provided an opportunity for the consensus No. 3 promotion in North America to splurge on some interesting names, effectively giving its roster a makeover even RuPaul would have to appreciate.

Several names have come aboard all at once, so my goal in this piece will be to organize some of Impact’s new names into the different divisions and shed some light on what can be expected from one of pro wrestling’s most unorthodox and suddenly interesting rosters.

Impact World Heavyweight Championship
Champion: Eddie Edwards
Top Contender: Eric Young
Future Champion: Moose
Dark Horse: Heath

For a long time, wrestling fans saw Davey Richards, not Eddie Edwards, as the breakout member of American Wolves. Slowly but surely, Edwards has made a believer out of me, reinventing himself several times over, and for that reason makes for a logical choice atop the totem pole for now. With several members of the roster having taken big money deals to wrestle elsewhere, guys like Edwards should be rewarded for their loyalty. As exciting as Impact’s new roster looks on paper, he is probably headed for some form of collision course with Moose, who holds the “TNA World Heavyweight Championship,” which will obviously result in one guy holding up both belts in a star-making moment.

Eric Young seems well positioned to handle top contender duties for now. He’s had plenty of time to rest, with Sanity’s “call-up” to the main roster where Vince McMahon all but said, “What is an Eric Young?” I don’t think I need to run down Young’s TNA accomplishments, but he is 40 and I’m sure he’s chomping at the bit to work down the “Back 9” of his career on his own terms. The guy I really want to focus on is Heath [nee Slater]. Heath showed millions of fans something in his recent appearance on Raw, which must have been a huge gamble from his point of view. There, we saw a guy in a rarefied “nothing to lose” scenario in WWE and he responded by cracking a home run into opposite field. So, what’s next fort Heath? Maybe it’s the Impact World Championship at some point down the line. If the guy who showed up on Raw last week shows up at least three out of every five nights at Impact with his working boots on, he should have no problem standing out.

TNA World Heavyweight Championship
Champion: Moose
Top Contender: ECIII

The TNA World Championship is just a temporary prop that’ll eventually lead to someone holding both world championship belts while confetti rains down from the rafters. But for the time being, it looks like ECIII is going to pursue Moose for his “strap.” It makes a world of sense. ECIII is another guy with something to prove, a common theme surrounding this new wave of signees, and who knows? Maybe he ends up taking the belt off Moose and parlaying it into a chance to hold both titles in the air? Stranger things have happened, no doubt.

Knockouts World Championship
Champion: Deonna Purrazzo
Top Contender: Jordynne Grace
Future Champion: Taya Valkyrie
Dark Horse: Kylie Rae

Deonna Purrazzo has quickly become one of my favorite female wrestlers. After all, who doesn’t love a nice Italian woman? In all seriousness, I have always liked Purrazzo, which is why I questioned why her two-year stint in WWE played out the way it did. I know she’s been hellbent on this Virtuosa persona for some time now, and it deserves to be seen through (even if I never quite saw the appeal). Either way, she’ll get to succeed or fail on her own merits now, which is all one can really ask for out of life. The early returns have looked good, although she’s in need of some more seasoning on the mic. Key to remember, though, that she did not get said seasoning in WWE, which is a shame. In the meantime, I did enjoy her match with Jordynne Grace, but did not think she would get the Knockouts Title as fast as she did. It was a pleasant surprise and one that will no doubt lead to another match with Grace in the short-term and matches with Taya Valkyrie in the long-term. Keep an eye on Kylie Rae, though. Remember, her Impact debut came right before the pandemic hit. Ultimately, Impact is going to be a solid fit for her. There’s room for a babyface atop the division and she fits the profile as she’s a lot of fun to watch in the ring.

Impact World Tag Team Championship
Champions: Motor City Machine Guns
Top Contenders: The North
Future Champions: Gallows & Anderson
Dark Horses: Heath & Rhino

Can you believe the Motor City Machine Guns have only won the lineal tag team championship in Impact Wrestling just twice? This is crazy to me, considering you’ll find The Guns towards the top of most TNA-Impact Wrestling historical tag team tier lists. That stat is made more crazy, considering The Guns only returned to Impact at Slammiversary. Now, they sit atop the tag team division. It really is remarkable the difference a week can make. They’ll definitely face some opposition from The North again, which have been put over as one of the greatest teams in company history. They’re no Beer Money Inc., at least not yet, but they are on their way, and between these two teams Impact now has the makings of a promising tag team division. Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson will add to the division and will definitely get their hands on the belts at some point, although I have a real disdain for the name “Good Brothers.” It is corny as all get out, and at best sounds like it has religious undertones. The reality is “Gallows & Anderson” is a much more menacing name. But no matter what you choose to call them, this is another set of superstars with something to prove in their new home. Keep an eye on Heath & Rhino as well. I don’t know how far Impact is going to go with them as a team, but the option is always going to be there.

Impact X-Division Championship
Champion: Chris Bey
Top Contender: Willie Mack
Future Champion: TJP
Dark Horses: Brian Meyers/Rob Van Dam

Chris Bey winning the title at Slammiversary made it a clean sweep of new champions for Impact. But what’s interesting to note is how few of Impact’s new additions really jump out as X-Division assets. It does, however, make guys like Ace Austin and Rich Swann more vital to the X-Division in the meantime, indicating that Impact doesn’t have to necessarily rush any of those guys into the main event out of pure necessity anymore. But while both Austin and Swann are still around, I see TJP as a future champion for the division. He’s as talented as anyone when he’s on and is yet to win the X-Division Championship since returning last year. Brian Meyers could also factor into the X-Division picture when he makes his inevitable return, and there’s plenty of opportunity for Rob Van Dam, a former champion of the division to inject his own unique star power onto lesser-known guys like Bey while giving the division his own spin. Can you imagine RVD winning the belt and rechristening it the XXX-Division? I’m not sure if money can make a sound, but if it could, that’s exactly what I’m hearing.

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