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IMPACT WRESTLING
"Breaking Barriers"
"Breaking Barriers"
2012 was a year of change in Total Nonstop Action, after years of pushing older, more established talent ahead of homegrown, younger stars, Bobby Roode, James Storm and Austin Aries broke into the main event scene and carried the company. While critics and experts loved the new era it didn't translate at the box office or with television ratings. Impact ratings stayed the same where pay per views buys and house show attendance dropped. T.N.A.'s parent company, Panda Energy, saw the writing on the wall, with television partner, SpikeTV losing interest and showing more concern over Bellator Fighting and their contract running out at the end of 2013, they knew this was time to get out of the promotion. They started making inquiries about selling the company but not surprisingly didn't find many takers.
This all changed when an offer from an unlikely source came through in the form of LiveNation. The multi-billion dollar empire purchased the company for a mere three million dollars in October of 2012, just days after Bound For Glory. This news put the wrestling world on it's ear as many wondered what the company could now do with the backing of the biggest entertainment promoter in the world. LiveNation which promotes events in over fifty seven countries plans on making the promotion a true world wide company. Many insiders wonder what effect this will have on the W.W.E. with possibly LiveNation ceasing to sell their event tickets on Ticketmaster and blocking W.W.E. from arenas who also book many LiveNation concerts and events.
While they know everything there is to know about promoting, LiveNation knew they didn't no much about the inner working of a professional wrestling business and went out to interview some of the industry biggest names. Eric Bischoff, Paul Heyman, Jim Cornette and Gabe Sabolsky all interviewed with the company for the job of being T.N.A. President but none of them come across as the game changing mind that LiveNation imagined plus that all of them couldn't rival Vince McMahon. They then switched gears and started searching for the next big mind and interviewd Don Callis, Kevin Nash, Stevie Richards and Scott Levy and still they didn't find what they were looking for. Then they got a phone call and found their man, a man that had one of the most creative minds in the business and one that saw what a company like LiveNation could do for him and his career, that man was Chris Jericho.
Chris Jericho signed on as the new president of T.N.A. as well as an artist contract with LiveNation's record label for his group, Fozzy. Jericho agreed to a contract that will let him run the wrestling side business along with his best friend, Lance Storm and tour with his band on a LiveNation music festival events. LiveNation sent out a marketing team to see what kind of reaction they would get from fans about the possible addition of Chris Jericho and when it came back at about 94 percent positive, they deal was struck.
Chris Jericho was full of ideas and the first order of business was getting rid of the T.N.A. name and just go with Impact Wrestling. He found Impact Wrestling as more marketable and steps the company away from it's ill-fated past. The second order of business was getting it out of the Impact Zone and that was no problem as LiveNation booked them on a year-long live tour across the world. The third order of business was working on the day to day wrestling situation from the roster all the way to agents, Jericho knew he had to change the whole attitude of the company and anybody was expendable.
Jericho reshaped the backstage of Impact Wrestling as Bruce Prichard and Eric Bischoff was released and was replaced with Scott D'Amore and Lance Storm. The future of Hulk Hogan is still uncertain as LiveNation sees him at least as a marketable name for other events for the company. Jericho, D'Amore and Storm started sorting through contracts, releasing some talent, signing some new ones before finally coming up with a new roster, one that has been kept secret from the general public although there has been numerous rumors as the group has searched the world for the best talent.
On December 7th,it was announced that Impact Wrestling will re-open it's doors on January 3rd, 2013 and usher in the New Year with a two night event that will see the crownings of the first ever Impact Heavyweight Champion, Television Champion, X-Division Champion, Knockouts Champion and Tag Team Champions as well as the announcement on who will be the new Impact General Manager. It will certainly be a historic date.
