A return to the TNA brand marks a crossroads for American wrestling’s underdogs

The former Impact Wrestling prepares for challenges ahead

Over the last few years, a casual wrestling viewer has had many choices about where to get a weekly wrestling fix. All Elite Wrestling has Dynamite, Collision, and Rampage. WWE has two “A” brands, Raw and Smackdown, as well as the developmental NXT brand that often features some of the most in-depth wrestling action on the market. One might think any of those might be the best-written wrestling show on the market. And you would be wrong.

That honor goes consistently to Impact Wrestling. When the company was first founded back in 2002, it wouldn’t have been a surprise for the brand to go belly up in a matter of months. The first year of what was then known as NWA: Total Nonstop Action varied wildly as they brought weekly pay-per-views to the world. It carried on well past that as it rebranded simply as TNA and turned its attention to weekly television in the form of a show called Impact. Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff would try to build the brand, but the money wasted on numerous big-money contracts drove the company nearly into bankruptcy again.

At one point, Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan seemed a likely new owner, even as he took over the creative of the company. Things fell apart quickly afterward, and a messy lawsuit forced a need for a hasty sale. Anthem Sports ultimately purchased the company in 2017 and renamed the…