So, Impact Wrestling is awesome!
Since Don Callis came on board with the company in late 2017, the quality of the promotion has really improved, as storylines are generally compelling and the matches tend to be top notch. Is Impact perfect? No - but then there isn’t one promotion I consider perfect at the moment.
Impact consistently provides quality entertainment; however, the company continues to remain a damaged brand due to its past, or in some cases, the new network that they are on. I don’t know if this is possible or not, but I feel Impact would be wise to release full episodes on their YouTube channel like Major League Wrestling does.
Also, lowering their pay-per-view prices to $19.99 may actually encourage fans to check out the product to see what’s new. As great as Impact is at the moment, there’s simply no buzz surrounding the product, which is a shame.
Slammiversary continued the trend of great pay-per-view's this company has put out in 2019. My only critiques are that the World Championship match should’ve been on last. I’ve never been a big fan of non-title main events, no matter how big they are.
Championship fights should always hold more prestige than non-title bouts, especially since Cage/Elgin was built up since Rebellion and Blanchard/Callihan kind of felt random despite the solid build.
Also, booking wise, I feel that Killer Kross should’ve went over Eddie Edwards. This “crazy” Eddie persona is just not working. He’s trying, but his acting is just not good enough to pull off the character.
I believe Killer Kross is a main event star and it does surprise me that he hasn’t held the Impact World Championship yet. Kross has a nice imitating look, along with a strong and compelling character. I feel both Lucha Underground (if it ever comes back) and Impact have a gem of a heel on their roster – in addition to the always hilarious Moose and Sami Callihan – thus him getting the win would’ve been preferred.
Those were simply my nitpicks, which never soured my opinion on the show as a whole and despite being $40, it was worth the price of admission.
Now let’s talk about Tessa Blanchard vs. Sami Callihan and Inter-gender wrestling as a whole.
First, a great match and a strong showcase for the third-generation wrestler. But here’s the thing: I feel that this Inter-gender wrestling in Impact has kind of been shoved down our throats.
Personally, I have no problem with inter-gender wrestling. In fact, it’s one of the things I loved about Lucha Underground. The difference with LU is that the promotion instantly made it clear that women and men were on the same level. So, when Ivelisse fought someone like Cage or Mil Muertes, I believed it because Lucha Underground established instantly that she was on equal footing with those two men.
However, promotions such as WWE and Impact Wrestling have either veered away from such territory, or have established that men are the dominant sex between the two.
That’s why I never found it believable when Scarlett Bordeaux started fighting men earlier this year. First, it was an abrupt shift from her character. Bordeaux was portrayed as the sexy, conceited, and often times manipulative vixen throughout most of her run; however, officials did a complete 180 turn without any build and made her into a male ass kicker. Her ring gear didn’t help the cause either. This is nothing personally against Bordeaux, because it’s possible that she could kick my ass in a fight in real life.
However, Tessa Blanchard is more believable when it comes to fighting men. In some ways, she reminds me of Linda Hamilton’s Sarah Connor, but again, Impact abruptly changed her character following Rebellion. There was never any slow build towards her face turn, it was simply her showing respect to Gail Kim, and then BOOM! She’s gone from an arrogant heel to an ass kicking warrior when it comes to men.
My stance is that the audience has been conditioned to believe that female talents are weaker than men, and with Impact suddenly rushing into this feud with Blanchard and Callihan, I feel that if Blanchard had of won this match, it would've felt like an unearned moment. Again, the feud was built decently, but this felt out of left field. Callihan suddenly devaluing the knockouts division came out of nowhere, just as Blanchard's face turn did.
Impact needs to tread carefully. While the inter-gender matches worked for Lucha Underground, it most likely drove many fans away who simply don’t find it believable that a woman can equally mix it up with a man. Impact made the right call by having Callihan go over, but only time will tell if this method will push away more fans from the product.
However, if Impact continued this feud and built it up correctly until Bound For Glory, then Tessa Blanchard beating Sami Callihan would feel earned. While there will be always be people who look down on inter-gender wrestling regardless, it could easily be done correctly if Impact is patient and let it slowly become the norm for the company.