11 Ups & 3 Downs From Impact Wrestling (Feb 4)

8. Step In The Right Direction

If you read the overall 2019 Ups & Downs article for Impact Wrestling, one of the biggest gripes about the promotion over the 12 months was that their Twitch/Impact Plus specials didn't always matter to what was happening on the weekly shows, or the main four pay-per-views. Sure, they may have had the same stories being played out, but what happened on those shows usually stayed on those shows never to be mentioned again.

In 2020, however, there have now been two major occurrences of those shows bleeding into the 'main' product. The first saw Rich Swann suffering an ankle injury at Bash At The Brewery II, the same injury that kept him out of the World Tag Team Championships match at Hard To Kill two days later (and on the injured list since for that matter). While not exactly a highlight of Swann's career, it still marked a point where these shows became canon, if you will.

The second incident came this week. Tessa Blanchard defeated Adam Thornstowe in the night's opening match, and was then ambushed by Thornstowe, Reno Scum pal Luster The Legend, and Tessa's Sacrifice challenger Ace Austin. Sacrifice, which is of course a former pay-per-view name for Impact back when they had at least one every month, will be aired live on Impact Plus on 22 February. To have matches at those events hyped and built on the weekly shows is fantastic - let's just hope the first episode of Impact after Sacrifice actually speaks about what happened at the event.