There are many fans in the world of professional wrestling that often comment on the lack of reach Impact Wrestling has being on AXS TV. The majority of Impact Wrestling fans also believe that Impact Wrestling belongs on a station with a wider audience.
Three days before Impact’s huge PPV Bound for Glory, Impact Wrestling’s EVP Scott D’Amore spoke with Josh Sasson of Wrestling Observer to discuss the current TV deal with AXS TV and if he would be willing to move Impact to another TV station:
“I mean, look, much like our policy with talent, we’re open to exploring anything. I can tell you this, I sit here and wear a couple of hats, I’m the EVP of IMPACT Wrestling and I’m also the EVP of Anthem Sports Media Group. IMPACT is such a juggernaut on AXS TV for us. I know at times it is frustrating for fans. One of the reasons we added the show weekly on the YouTube subscription… we will always look to keep IMPACT as one of the staples of AXS TV and frankly, our other broadcast networks both domestically and in Canada and such. But we will also look for other growth opportunities. For me, it’s a great opportunity to serve two masters. We got IMPACT Wrestling, which is so great on AXS TV, especially paired with New Japan, but if we’re out there and the right deal pops forward, we would be more than happy to sit in a room and book a deal with a different network. The other thing is we’ll continue to work at other streaming platforms and opportunities,” D’Amore said.
Another topic they discussed was moving Impact Wrestling PPV’s and Impact Plus events from Saturdays to Fridays. Many people questioned this decision as it puts them in direct competition with WWE Smackdown and AEW Rampage. D’Amore explained his decision to move to Friday nights:
“We want to try some different things. It is a busy night, but one of the things is the way people consume content differently in this day and age. You see sometimes what we think is competition isn’t as much competition as we really think because people are going to watch it. This isn’t as much of a live content consuming world as it used to be and there is great stuff out there on Friday nights. I’ll be totally honest with you, we may turn around and look at this in a handful of months and go, ‘You know what, Friday wasn’t the day to do.’ But it was one of those things where it’s not completely unheard of. I mean, there have been PPVs on Friday nights and there is so much competition on every night of the week these days that we looked at it and said, ‘You know what, Friday and Saturday are great nights to block for live events, let’s take a look and let’s see how the Friday night PPVs do.’ In some ways, Friday night is a night we might find that people are already in the wrestling groove and decide they want to DVR SmackDown and Rampage and watch our show. Or watch SmackDown and Rampage and DVR our PPV. They might want to buy and stream it at 11 o’clock at night or turn around and watch it the next day. One thing is we’ve always been open to trying different things. Sometimes you invent Ultimate X and other times you come up with Reverse Battle Royal” D’Amore said.
Impact Wrestling’s Bound for Glory PPV takes place this Friday October 7 in Albany, NY.
(H/T and quotes transcribed by Fightful)
