Posted By James Walsh on 10/31/17


If you saw the 10/26 episode of Impact Wrestling, you saw that the majority of the show was from various events around the world featuring Impact stars. This feeds into their "Global" appeal as coined with their former title of Global Force Wrestling and their current project the Global Wrestling Network. But, it did not gel that well as a cohesive broadcast. It felt pieced together like a "Best Of Impact Around the World" DVD or something. And, the TV ratings reflected its lack of that live Impact feel as it was the lowest rated episode of 2017 thus far.

So, how do you present a show like this in a way that works and feels better?

I have a few ideas. Want to hear them? Good thing you're reading this, then!

WWE used to do Prime Time Wrestling before it became RAW. Prime Time was a show where the hosts, Bobby Heenan and Gorilla Monsoon when it was good, were in a studio talking about the product and cut to a match which aired on Challenge, Superstars, or was an exclusive to the Prime Time broadcast. In that sense, it sort of felt like "Inside the NFL" in a way with 2 guys who simply were magic in a bottle together. We all talk about how great Heenan and Monsoon were as a duo but I bet more than half of the top 10 memories of them forging that legacy came from Prime Time segments. I'm getting off point here.

Much the same type of show, WCW Main Event in 1994 and 1995 became a show much like Prime Time. Heenan was now paired with "Mean' Gene Okerlund selling the product in their in studio talking segments and then pitching it to matches either filmed for Saturday Night, Worldwide, Pro, or Nitro. It was the Sunday night show and by no means the flag ship of the brand. But, it was an extremely entertaining way to present the show and the set up, which is what I'm trying to sell here, worked.

Maybe what I am pitching is not a great idea for Impact as it does basically concede that the show is not live and loses that "Anything Can Happen" feel that we became far too used to during the Monday Night War period. But, maybe as an exclusive broadcast to the Global Wrestling Network, it would work if you had the right 2 hosts. If you have the wrong hosts, well...

The wrong hosts would result in a 1992 episode of WWE Prime TIme Wrestling which featured Vince McMahin in a sweatshirt and sweatpants of various colors trying to be as loose and comical as Heenan and Monsoon were. The new set up, in front of a plant filled studio audience and a production quality somewhere between the old Geraldo show and Nickelodeon's Double Dare, it was a forced attempt at humor by a man who was showing his first signs of self importance. He had not created his own "Universe" yet to live in his own borderline autistic bubble ala the weird series finale of St. Elsewhere like Vince has created now, but for all the good things that Prime Time was in the 80's and early 90's, that is as bad as it got around Summerslam 1991 until they put it out of its misery in early 1993 to usher in RAW.

Back on point, if Impact is going to feature an episode of their flagship show consisting mostly of matches filmed outside the arena the announcers are supposed to be in, they would benefit greatly from flipping the script on those weeks and presenting it from a different perspective.

Of course, that is just my opinion. And, i could be wrong. But, I doubt it. (James Mitchell, the royalty check is in the mail.)