IMPACT Wrestling is now viewed by, well, pretty much no one. However, it fared a little better on Pop TV and the network president Brad Schwartz has now revealed why they decided to ditch wrestling.
He explained that IMPACT wanted to keep airing on the network but they ultimately decided that they wanted to start focusing on other things and wrestling didn't really factor into what they had planned.
"Yes, we had a wrestling show every Thursday night, which by the way was one of our 10 highest-rated shows on the network. They wanted to keep going, obviously. It was two hours of original content every Thursday night, 52 weeks a year that would do 400 thousand-500 thousand viewers every Thursday night. We had to really start focusing on brand and expectation, and I think if you're going to pitch yourself and tell audiences that you're this place for premium content, Schitt's Creek, Flack, Florida Girls, this type of stuff, then people need to know what to expect from you when they come to the channel."
Those numbers are higher than what was reported at the time but Schwartz could be taking DVR viewership and app streams into account. Ultimately, it sounds like Pop didn't view wrestling as "premium content" and we can probably forget about seeing them pick up something like All Elite Wrestling. For now, things look bleak for IMPACT and it's hard to say how much longer they'll be around for.