{"id":63488,"date":"2018-07-23T12:15:03","date_gmt":"2018-07-23T17:15:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/?p=63488"},"modified":"2018-07-24T23:41:17","modified_gmt":"2018-07-25T04:41:17","slug":"mcmahons-take-impact-showed-us-how-theyll-differentiate-themselves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2018\/07\/23\/mcmahons-take-impact-showed-us-how-theyll-differentiate-themselves\/","title":{"rendered":"MCMAHON&#8217;S TAKE: Impact Showed Us How They&#8217;ll Differentiate Themselves"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-2741101728\" class=\"pwtor-before-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><hr \/><b>SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)... <\/b>\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?show_id=3076978&theme=light&playlist=false&playlist-continuous=false&autoplay=false&live-autoplay=false&chapters-image=true&episode_image_position=right&hide-logo=false&hide-likes=false&hide-comments=false&hide-sharing=false&hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"140px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\r\n<hr \/><\/div><p>The biggest component Impact Wrestling has been lacking over the last three years has been a clear and defined identity. They&#8217;re not the biggest promotion in the world, they&#8217;re not the most athletic and they aren&#8217;t the most unique when it comes to storytelling. So what are they? What can Impact Wrestling offer to wrestling fans who are already engrained in the universes of WWE, New Japan, Ring of Honor and Lucha Underground?<\/p>\n<p>Last night at Slammiversary, Impact showed us what their identity can be. Impact can be the most violent of the &#8220;mainstream&#8221; companies in the U.S., and they went there in full force last night.<\/p>\n<p>Impact presented three hardcore matches on its PPV. Eddie Edwards beat Tommy Dreamer in a bloody House of Hardcore match. LAX defeated the OGz in a bloody 5150 street fight and Pentagon Jr. beat Sami Callihan in a bloody Hair vs. Mask match. Are you noticing the common theme?<\/p>\n<p>All three matches, while rooted in the same type of violence, were still uniquely different. Dreamer and Edwards was a slower more methodical street fight that featured a lot of weaponry, most likely to mask some of the physical limitations that come with Tommy Dreamer and his age and mileage in the ring. The LAX-OGz match used weapons like Drain-O and tables in the background, instead focusing on a wild brawl that featured some crazy athletics from Santana and Ortiz, creating the movement in the ring against two veterans in Homicide and Hernandez. Then there was Pentagon and Callihan, who blended the athletic violence and weaponry into the match of the night, and perhaps one of the most intense matches Impact has presented in several years.<\/p>\n<p>Scott D&#8217;Amore and Don Callis have recognized at this point what Impact is, and where it ranks. They can&#8217;t hold a candle to WWE&#8217;s production values, so why try? Instead they opted for a unique setting inside the Rebel Entertainment Complex in Toronto (a concern venue) that featured some different lighting and aesthetics. The crowd \u2014 a paying crowd \u2014 was hot from the opening bell to the final pinfall.<\/p>\n<p>Impact has tried a storytelling structure similar to Lucha Underground, but Lucha Underground pulls is off better, and they&#8217;ve established their structure for storytelling. Impact&#8217;s sudden use of vignettes modeled after Lucha Underground felt like a knockoff.<\/p>\n<p>Impact doesn&#8217;t have the roster depth to present the same athletic matches that New Japan or even Ring of Honor presents on a nightly basis. So why try? Impact certainly has some wrestlers who can fit into that category \u2014 Edwards, Aries, Ishimori, Pentagon, Trevor Lee, Brian Cage \u2014 but the depth just isn&#8217;t there. Instead, Impact used this pay-per-view to focus more on an in-ring product that harkened back to an late-90&#8217;s ECW feel.<\/p>\n<p>People only seem to remember ECW for its innovative violence, but it really was a lot more than that. They told compelling and real stories, rooted in reality, and made the rivalries intense enough that they called for violent matches on pay-per-view.<\/p><div id=\"pwtor-495947379\" class=\"pwtor-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>They weren&#8217;t smashing fluorescent light tubes over each other for no reason.<\/p>\n<p>Tommy Dreamer and Raven fought because of the pain Raven felt for Dreamer ruining his childhood. Dreamer and Eddie Edwards fought because Edwards believed Dreamer was having an affair with his wife. LAX wanted redemption against the OGz for taking out their mentor and leader, Konnan.<\/p>\n<p>Given the near universal praise Slammiversary has received among fans and critics, it&#8217;s only fair to expect that Impact will continue to push the violence button hard. If it&#8217;s done correctly \u2014 with proper storytelling \u2014 it won&#8217;t feel like an ECW ripoff, and it will work.<\/p>\n<p>Regardless of whether or not you personally like the style, no one else on with wide television distribution is running a promotion like this in the United States.<\/p>\n<p>What&#8217;s old is often new again, and ECW hasn&#8217;t existed in almost 20 years.<\/p>\n<p>A critical component to the rise of ECW in the 90&#8217;s was Dreamer and especially the rise of Raven, who truly epitomized why ECW worked. Raven was grunge rock in an era where grunge rock was exploding.<\/p>\n<p>Is Sami Callihan Impact&#8217;s Raven? Can he be the personality that people use to identify this new violent, edgy form of Impact?<\/p>\n<p>Sure.<\/p><div id=\"pwtor-1701069119\" class=\"pwtor-content-1 pwtor-entity-placement\"><!-- Tag ID: pwtorchcom_test_300x600 -->\r\n<div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __300x600\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>Callihan is one of the best heels in wrestling right now. Even though he&#8217;s doing things in the ring \u2014 like plunging spikes into the forehead of Pentagon Jr. \u2014 that fans are excited about, they&#8217;re not cheering Callihan. That&#8217;s because he&#8217;s such a great heel.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Slammiversary felt like a coming out party for the Pentagon character in Impact Wrestling. Up until last night, Impact&#8217;s Pentagon felt like a watered-down version of what Lucha Underground fans have come to know and expect from the character.<\/p>\n<p>The one missing piece for Impact right now is a big marketable star. ECW first pay-per-view was built on Terry Funk winning the World Title. Heyman has mentioned in interviews numerous times that Funk wanted to come in and help the next generation, &#8220;so that there was a business for him to leave a legacy to.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>If Impact, even as a one-off, can land a marketable name for a big pay-per-view \u2014 I&#8217;m thinking of a certain Canadian who is a former World Champion in the WWE and is close friends with Impact&#8217;s Don Callis \u2014 it would take the company&#8217;s Q-Rating and launch it into the moon.<\/p>\n<p>The follow-up to Slammiversay will, of course, be important as the company continues to move forward and tries to gain precious traction on a smaller network like Pop TV. People aren&#8217;t going to find Impact on their own, so Impact needs to give people reason to find them. Slammiversary has the potential to be the big, loud noise that let wrestlings fans know Impact Wrestling is still here, and it&#8217;s not the same.<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8212;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Mike McMahon covers Impact Wrestling for the PW Torch and also co-hosts the weekly Thursday PW Torch Livecast with Andrew Soucek, talking all things Impact Wrestling. Listen to the show at www.pwtorchlivecast.com and follow Mike on Twitter <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/mikemcmahonpw\">@MikeMcMahonPW<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/SlammiversaryMemories?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#SlammiversaryMemories<\/a>: <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PENTAELZEROM?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@PENTAELZEROM<\/a> drives a SPIKE into <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheSamiCallihan?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@TheSamiCallihan<\/a>&#39;s skull with a baseball bat! <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/SlamXVI?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#SlamXVI<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Catch the replay on <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FiteTV?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@FiteTV<\/a>! <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/n2dDC0OKrm\">pic.twitter.com\/n2dDC0OKrm<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; TNA Wrestling (@ThisIsTNA) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ThisIsTNA\/status\/1021439800614666240?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 23, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">You OWE it to yourself to see <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheSamiCallihan?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@TheSamiCallihan<\/a> vs. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PENTAELZEROM?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@PENTAELZEROM<\/a>! <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/SlamXVI?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#SlamXVI<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/KuYwcWj3Lt\">pic.twitter.com\/KuYwcWj3Lt<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; TNA Wrestling (@ThisIsTNA) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ThisIsTNA\/status\/1021319006718918657?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 23, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">PILEDRIVER ON A CHAIR! <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/SlamXVI?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#SlamXVI<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheSamiCallihan?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@TheSamiCallihan<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Y7p5pyHN3I\">pic.twitter.com\/Y7p5pyHN3I<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; TNA Wrestling (@ThisIsTNA) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ThisIsTNA\/status\/1021219249090715653?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 23, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">There&#39;s SO much at stake that the referee is letting this match go. And <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PENTAELZEROM?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@PENTAELZEROM<\/a> just ate a chair to the face from <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheSamiCallihan?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@TheSamiCallihan<\/a>! <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/SlamXVI?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#SlamXVI<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/4nPUcHa3Q0\">pic.twitter.com\/4nPUcHa3Q0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; TNA Wrestling (@ThisIsTNA) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ThisIsTNA\/status\/1021216422242979840?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 23, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">OH MY GOD! <\/p>\n<p>BORDER TOSS THROUGH A FREAKING TABLE! <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/SlamXVI?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#SlamXVI<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SuperMexCTM?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@SuperMexCTM<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/6R8t4Y0H3l\">pic.twitter.com\/6R8t4Y0H3l<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; TNA Wrestling (@ThisIsTNA) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ThisIsTNA\/status\/1021212324521275397?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 23, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">TOPE CON HILO THROUGH A TABLE. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/SlamXVI?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#SlamXVI<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/85PBGPcWZn\">pic.twitter.com\/85PBGPcWZn<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; TNA Wrestling (@ThisIsTNA) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ThisIsTNA\/status\/1021211837604483073?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 23, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-3921598547\"><div id=\"pwtor-1777817526\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nTHANK YOU FOR VISITING<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>The biggest component Impact Wrestling has been lacking over the last three years has been a clear and defined identity. They&#8217;re not the biggest promotion in the world, they&#8217;re not the most athletic and they <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2018\/07\/23\/mcmahons-take-impact-showed-us-how-theyll-differentiate-themselves\/\" title=\"MCMAHON&#8217;S TAKE: Impact Showed Us How They&#8217;ll Differentiate Themselves\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":63630,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46,4011,53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spotlightarticles","category-mcmahons-take","category-opinion_stafftakes"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/post\/2018\/07\/Pentagon_Sami_3x2_600.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63488"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63488\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63496,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63488\/revisions\/63496"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}