Every Major Wrestling Debut TV Show Ranked From Worst To Best
5. TNA !MPACT!
Launched a year prior in most markets, the Spike Era of !MPACT! brought TNA to every market on October 1, 2005.
A melodramatic voiceover sent us very on-brand mixed messages, in which he half-buried the roster and put them over with laughable hyperbole. AJ Styles had “toiled in anonymity”, but was “perhaps the greatest athlete to ever step foot in the ring”, getting very wrong the presumed best-kept-secret spiel.
The production looked pretty damn good; the intimate setting brimmed with life, the pyro looked spectacular, the six-sided ring visualised the promise of something unprecedented. Styles almost lived up to his lofty billing in a tremendous showcase performance opposite Roderick Strong. Explosive, creative, crisp, and lightning-fast, this opener was as astute as it was exciting.
Monty Brown impressed in a charismatic promo—another shrewd choice with which to maximise a roster that felt like its own, unique beast—and, in keeping with the theme, TNA promoted its X Division as the spiritual successor of WCW’s Cruiserweight division in an all-action Triple Threat match.
Authentic, exciting, intelligent: the debut of !MPACT! advertised TNA very well—if falsely, based on subsequent, risible evidence.