Pro wrestling companies are characters in themselves and they run the gambit from face to heel for fans depending on how the fans react to what they’re doing.
Traditionally, the companies are owned by the same person or persons for years, and when there’s a change in management it usually takes some time for the culture and mindsets to change.
Kenny King Says Impact Wrestling is a Player-Coach Environment
While we’re seeing the WWE transitioning to more of a talent friendly managing style, Impact Wrestling has been perfecting the talent friendly management style since Scott D’Amore took over as Executive Vice President.
He initially worked with Don Callis, but Callis left his position in May of 2021 and Scott’s been manning it on his own since, and the company has continued to grow its reputation among wrestlers for how they treat their talent.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jlp7SoKQv0
Change of pace
Kenny King recently appears on the Vegas Bad Boyz of Podcasting where he talked about his return to Impact Wrestling after years away.
He covered a variety of topics from the Ring Of Honor storyline blurring the lines between reality and fiction as what everyone said concerning their feelings about ROH were legitimate. He also discussed his debut being delayed after he caught Covid.
When their talk turned to the differences in Impact from his last run there to his current one, and he said things were better structured internally.
“I would just say that behind the scenes… it’s ran in much more like a player-coach environment. It’s a lot less… How do I be politically correct, right? It’s a lot more people who have done the job so they kind of know what it’s like, so it’s a different feel as far as the way things are ran, things are delegated a little bit more evenly and, you know, it just feels — there’s a different feel in the locker room; a different feel backstage, so, and any iteration of IMPACT or TNA that I’ve ever been in, the locker room has always been the least of the issues. The work, the characters, the everything was always what was keeping it alive, so it’s good to have kind of both sides even out a little bit.”
It’s always good to hear when companies work with their talent instead of forcing them to fit their vision of what the promotor wants them to be. Too often it’s a square peg trying to be shoved into a round hole.
Impact Wrestling has proven to be a viable alternative to WWE and AEW over the last few years thanks to this approach as the wrestling and storyline have been among the best.
And with WWE and AEW doing the same style, it’s making wrestling fun again.
What do you think about what King had to say? Does it translate into a noticeable difference in the product? Let us know in the comments below.
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