10 Ways Impact Wrestling Can Become Major Players Again
Impact Wrestling has finally turned things around but how can they become major players again?
It doesn’t seem all that long ago that TNA Wrestling was a major player.
They were on Spike TV and had a roster that boasted Sting, Kurt Angle, Kevin Nash, Scott Steiner, Booker T, and Christian in addition to an exciting X Division that included AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, and Christopher Daniels. They had unique matches like Six Sides of Steel and Ultimate X inside of a six-sided ring. TNA had a successful niche wrestling product in an industry that had seen it all.
However, in 2009 President Dixie Carter brought in Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff to help run the company. The star power of Hogan and Bischoff initially worked, but TNA soon lost its way. The company was rebranded Impact Wrestling, the six-sided ring was scrapped in favor of a traditional one, and the company started to look and sound like Diet WWE. The promotion would soon experience a downward spiral they almost didn’t recover from.
New majority owners Anthem Sports & Entertainment finally have Impact Wrestling back on the right track. But, what will it take for Impact to be competitive against WWE and AEW? Let's find out...
10. Increase Roster Depth
WWE has set the standard for creating roster depth, but they also have the most resources to do so. With NXT, they can replenish Raw and SmackDown with fresh faces regularly. It allows WWE to develop stars like John Cena and Roman Reigns slowly. AEW realizes the importance of development as they use their AEW Dark program partly for that purpose.
WWE and AEW also create depth by bringing in veterans who work well with the young talent. Dustin Rhodes in AEW is an excellent example of someone who can work with and elevate young talent. Tommy Dreamer and Eric Young are two Impact veterans who could help develop young stars.
Impact also needs to find a way to keep young talent under their control. The best way to do that without breaking the bank would be to use Xplosion as a feeder system. Increasing roster depth will be crucial to Impact’s ability to run with the big dogs.