10 Moments When TNA Was The Hottest Wrestling Company In The World

And just like that, it was gone.

In a moment so intrinsically congruent with the troubled brand, TNA/Impact Wrestling literally ceased to be during a show dedicated to celebrating 15 years of its existence.

Jeff Jarrett stood centre-ring with Unified World Heavyweight Champion Alberto El Patron at the conclusion of the broadcast, marking his territory in the Impact Zone yet again, as the company prepared to morph wholesale into Global Force Wrestling, the quasi-independent company he formed with his wife Karen in 2014.

As it had turned out, a prior purchase of GFW by TNA's parent company Anthem Entertainment was not to swallow the ill-established brand but to in fact repurpose the struggling Orlando outfit.

It's a remarkable return to prominence for Jarrett himself within the group, but also draws a line under five years of marketplace confusion following a mishandled attempt to shift the company from TNA to Impact Wrestling. 'Impact' will remain, but strictly as Global's television show, as it has been for TNA since 2004.

Though Double J remains the connective tissue between old and new, the rebrand conclusively lays TNA to rest, a decade and a half on from when most thought it would perish.

Though often deservedly pilloried, the company did in that time manage to capture the imagination of the wider wrestling audience, and as insane as it sounds today, even look like credible competition for Vince McMahon's WWE. So let's head to the back with JB and see what all that commotion was about.

The Bound For Glory main event between Bobby Roode and Kurt Angle remains one of the bigger disappointments in company history, but that may be in part due to the show being stolen one match earlier.

Expectations were rock bottom for a match pitting Hulk Hogan (accompanied by Ric Flair) against Sting for control of TNA. The storyline was yet another weathered power struggle, and the trio's combined age of 168 represented the antithesis of a young dynamic brand the organisation was always supposed to be.

Worse still, though the Philadelphia crowd were only witnessing their second company event ever, the locals weren't known for patience and decorum when served something not to their discerning tastes. Remarkably, Hogan and Sting not only had a serviceable (though heavily gimmicked) brawl, but also provided blood, a babyface turn and a grandiose payoff that wrong footed the exhilarated audience.

With Hogan associate Garrett Bischoff installed as the guest referee and Flair ringside for all the action, the odds were stacked against 'The Icon', but he remarkably prevailed at the conclusion of the bells and whistles scuffle after making Hogan tap out in the Scorpion Deathlock.

Having lost power to Dixie Carter, Hogan and Bischoff's 'Immortal' group hit the ring to join Flair in a post-match beatdown of 'The Stinger', but in some surprisingly powerful pathos, the bloodied Sting begged for help from the equally crimson 'Hulkster', who tore his shirt off and turned babyface to a rapturous ovation. The faces cleared the ring to conclude the spectacle.