8 Innovations TNA/Impact Brought To American Wrestling

8. The Gut Check Challenge

For your writer's money, the Gut Check Challenge never reached its full potential.

Although the origins of Gut Check go all the way back to 2004, where Impact officials would judge the prospective Impact stars on an array of skills in the ring and on the mic, the actual televised version didn't start until April 2012.

Here, an aspiring independent wrestler would be given a tryout match vs. a signed Impact talent, and would then be given an Impact contract if they were deemed worthy enough. This would change at the start of 2013 to having two independent talents square off.

Of the contestants involved, only seven of the sixteen televised talents received a full-time deal, and even then, it didn't necessarily mean a guaranteed role on television. Alex Silva, Jay Bradley, and Taeler Hendrix achieved very little after signing a deal, whereas Sam Shaw, Wes Brisco, Lei'd Tapa, and Christian York were all stuck under a proverbial glass ceiling, despite having high-profile runs for their time.

Despite Impact's lack of talent development with the successful applicants, the challenge remains something positive to come out of the company. It gave independent wrestlers a chance to wrestle a proper match on television rather than a generic squash match, some of which were actually quite enjoyable.