As Impact Wrestling, formerly Total Non-stop Action (TNA), marked its 15th anniversary in June, co-founder Jeff Jarrett finally came to the realization that he had the answer to the company's problems all along.
Citing the negative connotations of the TNA label (discontinued earlier this year), Jarrett and Anthem Sports' Ed Nordholm announced on June 30 that, beginning with Sunday's Slammiversary PPV, the promotion will adopt the name of Jarrett's vagabond Global Force Wrestling, which couldn't get a TV deal on their own. In hindsight, the short-lived GFW-TNA feud a while back should've ended with GFW on top, but no one thought that was a feasible solution back then.
Anthem acquiring GFW earlier in June should've also been a sign of what was to come. Jarrett now is Chief Creative Officer, and with this latest name change, the complexion of Slammiversary conceivably could change by the end of business on Sunday.
The main event sees Alberto El Patron, with his father, Dos Caras, in his corner, vs. current Impact champ Bobby Lashley, who will have the returning King Mo in his corner. There's also a four-way tag team match involving teams from Japan & Mexico, the latter represented by 2 warring promotions, Crash (Konnan's group) and AAA.
All well & good, given that Jarrett has had business connections with AAA as well as New Japan, although the Japanese team in this match would instead represent Zero-1, but you know that there's bound to be a screw-up somewhere. We'll just have to wait & see.
On Pop TV, the TV show will still be called Impact, but I don't see that lasting much longer. Will these changes bring more eyeballs to Pop on Thursdays? That's the goal, but, well.......!
The next move, then, would be to try to salve the issues between AAA & Crash, and maybe land some sort of deal that would bring Lucha Underground into the mix, along with its home network, El Rey, which could use the help. The other move would be to end the blocks of TV tapings which tie up storylines for weeks, leaving no room to account for any injuries that may occur. Live episodes every other week would be a better solution, taping 2 episodes at a time, but because of current plans, those changes probably won't be in place until next year at the earliest.
Good luck making this work, Jeff. You need it.
