Though he came up short at Bound For Glory, he’s now finally done it. Sami Callihan, who in my estimation has been the top heel in Impact for all of 2019, and not that long ago was one of the most talked about, controversial figures in the business, is now Impact World Champion. He defeated Brian Cage in, fittingly, a Steel Cage match to take the title. Though in most cases the idea of having a champ retain at the theoretically biggest show of the year only to lose the title days after would be ludicrous, this is a special occasion.
After all, this week Impact officially makes it’s move to AXS TV. Impact’s parent company, Anthem, bought the network over the summer after negotiations that went all throughout the year. Impact Wrestling has had horrible luck with TV networks of late, a far cry from it’s peak days (in terms of viewership anyway) on Spike TV. Pursuit, their previous tv distributor, would routinely let them down in comical ways. I actually documented them in an article that never ended up seeing the light of day. You can check out the sad tale here, but thankfully it’s all obsolete now.
AXS is of course the same network that broadcasts New Japan shows in America, as well as Women of Wrestling shows. Now Impact Wrestling joins the fold. With them essentially owning their own network, they’re sure to do everything they can to make sure that their show is treated very, very well.
The crowning of Sami Callihan will officially christen the move.
The premiere occurs on October 29th, where the match will be airing. Apologies for the spoilers, but let’s be real, they’re everywhere! And those at Impact Wrestling knew that full well, they wanted everyone to know that this was going to be a landmark show.
Callihan has spent much of this year in an intergender feud with Tessa Blanchard, who has been steadily built to be the face of the promotion. Blanchard is seen by many as the best female wrestler in the world, and among the top performers in the genre period. Intergender matches have become an identifying staple of Impact, helping it separate itself from the pact. It also seems like a more violent and risque promotion in general, effectively the ECW of the modern age.
Making Tessa the ace of the promotion is a pretty revolutionary move on Impact Wrestling’s part. And for Sami Callihan, it crystallizes his own significance to the company. After all, he’s emerged as her top nemesis. Long term booking for Impact Wrestling going forward would seem to build to an eventual match in which Tessa ends up defeating him once and for all, and in the process becoming the first woman to ever win the Impact World Championship. They’d easily become the most significant promotion to have a woman claim their top prize in the process.
The move to AXS caps off a historic month in pro wrestling, with tons of major TV power plays being made. Here’s hoping it leads to a renaissance for Impact. They may never be the #2 promotion in the US again but they can certainly thrive in their own way.
