Report: Impact Wrestling Staying Live For Now

[Jack-Hammer]

According to a report at PWInsider.com, Spike & TNA have reached a deal to keep Impact Wrestling live each Thursday through the end of 2012. The report says that there might be some exceptions to that during certain weeks through the upcoming holiday season. So a few shows might be taped depending upon whether those Thursdays fall on holidays. For instance, TNA's Thanksgiving episode is usually pretty horrible and often draws poor ratings so it almost certainly won't be live.

 

[UFOcalling]

This is fantastic news! I was wondering if Impact would continue to run live on Thursdays, since I think I remember seeing (originally) that the show would only be live through the summer. I also remember reading that this summer would kind of be like a "test-run" to see how the live shows would work, and at the end of the run it would be decided whether or not to continue live, or go back to a prerecorded show. I'm glad TNA will continue to be live, at least for the time-being. I'd have to think everyone prefers a live wrestling show to a taped show, no matter which wrestling show you're watching.

With Impact Wrestling's current Aces & Eights storyline, a live show is definitely the way to go. Everyone who is watching TNA right now wants to see the payoff of this angle, and will probably be more likely to watch Impact on Thursday nights to see how the story will unfold. If the show was taped, a lot of people would just read the spoilers to see what happened at the taping.

Thanksgiving this November is the only holiday that falls on a Thursday this year, so hopefully that will be the only taped episode of Impact we see between now and the end of 2012. Halloween (I know it's not a "national" holiday, but I'm sure some of the performers would want the night off anyway) falls on a Wednesday, Xmas falls on a Wednesday as well, and New Year's Eve is a Monday (New Year's Day being the following Tuesday). I suppose that they had to mention "holidays" in the report, since TNA usually does a special Thanksgiving Episode of Impact (with the turkey suit, and all). I really don't mind if they do a taped show that night, as we can't expect the Impact roster to be away from their families on that day/night.

IMHO, Impact has been so much better this summer - and I think we owe a great deal of credit to the show being live. I know a lot of people still just read results, instead of watching the show on Thursdays...IW's ratings haven't drastically improved either, but I don't think anyone was expecting that to happen. The overall quality of shows has improved though, and I for one have been more excited to watch Impact on Thursday nights than any other weekly wrestling program on television. Again, this is fantastic news - and I hope that TNA continues live for a long time. Way to go, TNA/IW!!

 

[Lowdown]

This is great news for TNA. I don't know how well the ratings have been as of late, but this is huge. Definitely a step in the right direction. Although I missed most of this past Thursday's (had to watch my Packers game), I caught the end of the main event. Something must be going right, and I hope that this continues well into 2013.

 

[Skairipa Matrix]

This is great news! Impact crowds have been TONS better since the shows have been live and it seems like there is more energy in the impact zone now which in turn probably makes the wrestlers work harder to put on a better show. I hope it stays live forever cause its been great for them.

 

[Weems2k]

Great news. Whatever happened to dong more shows outside of the knob zone...errrr..Impact Zone? I've said it once, and I'll say it again. TNA will never grow more than what they are now, or increase their ratings by staying in the lame ImCrap Zone.

 

[GameOver]

It's live already? noticed no difference, which i guess is a good thing that it's not obviously edited like stuff in the past on both sides of the wrestling world. and i agree with Weems2K

They need to get out of the ImCrap Zone, it's got to be demorilising working infront of the same 1000 people each show, PPV's Impact or Explosion, there's no difference it all looks the same.

They've proven they can sell out some bigger arena's they need to take the plunge, they can't grow staying in the same place that is tiny

WCW moved out of the Amusement Park after a few years and look where they went. Surely sugar daddy and sugar momma can see that

 

[fenfool]

I'm glad they got this, the ratings have dropped and I was afraid that would send them back to tapings. But there is definitely a better vibe live, the crowd is better, and it's just more exciting to watch the product live as opposed to 4-10 days after the tapings happened. Now to build those ratings enough to allow for a show outside of Orlando once or twice a month...

 

[George Steele's Barber]

This is good news for TNA and their fans. It shows that the ratings don't mean what we digest as simply in comparison to the previous week or what Raw brings in. It may be possible that the live Impacts have helped lead to more PPV buys.

I still think getting out of the Impact Zone or improving the audience's reaction is more important. Like a lot of chronic channel flippers I turn it on and the dead silence during matches and promos kills any interest I may have in the program.

Wrestling on TV needs their fans to constantly be excited so anyone that tunes in sticks around long enough to see why the fans are so excited.

 

[Mikechase69]

This is great news for Impact Wrestling and fans like myself, The TNA product is slowly starting to grow on me. I remember the product back in 2005 and I thought it was great but it seemed like the were more concerned with being the WWE and not something different. And now they seem to be going back to its old route of being a true alternative to the WWE, Which for myself is great.

 

[whoopin' ass]

i think it is a good idea. had they just done live and not tried to go head-to-head on Monday's, TNA would probably be in a better place now. Smackdown runs into the same issue as Impact - people know what is going to happen before the show ever airs. take that away and people are forced to tune in to watch it and watch the whole thing, not just a segment that interests them. plus it will make everyone up their game since you can't edit out any mistakes that happen now. don't see a big downside here.

 

[ABMorales787]

Tremendous news and it shows Spike has faith in TNA to build up Bound For Glory as best as possible. 2 taped Impacts are already scheduled for the UK tour, but who knows. Maybe by them, those are the only shows that are taped. Ratings may not show it, but the product is far more fluid and cohesive than last year. Hopefully the ratings follow up and lead a potential second wrestling show for them as well as going road-bound soon enough.

 

[HBsam31]

This is great news for TNA. Personally I have enjoyed Impact more this summer than I ever have, and part of that was due to them going live. It just gives it that unpredictable feel that you don't get with a taped show. The product has also improved greatly, and it could be due to them stepping it up knowing they are live each week. This is a positive thing for them. I hope they keep it up, and good things continue to happen for them.