111-486: A Lethal Lockdown match is a professional wrestling match used in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA). This match has become a staple of TNA's Lockdown pay-per-view event, but has also made appearances at other TNA pay-per-views, and during Impact Wrestling TV broadcasts. The match consists of a single ring enclosed by a steel cage with two teams facing off with each other. The staggered entry system
222-643: A ratings competition against the flagship program of the WWF, Monday Night Raw , in a period now known as the Monday Night War . From 1996 to 1998, WCW surpassed their rival program in the ratings for 83 consecutive weeks. Beginning in 1999, WCW endured significant losses in ratings and revenue due to creative missteps and suffered from the fallout from the 2001 merger of America Online (AOL) and Turner Broadcasting parent Time Warner (later WarnerMedia, now known as Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD)). Soon thereafter, WCW
333-405: A "family-friendly" orientation, and drop the reforms that turned around the company's fortunes. Concurrently to WCW beginning to struggle under the weight of its own momentum, the WWF began to turn the corner on its own reforms. Having been caught flatfooted by the total reconfiguration of WCW and the success of Nitro in 1996 and 1997, by 1998 the WWF was building its own momentum. Taking most of
444-542: A 60% cut in pay and TNA founder Jeff Jarrett would resign from the company, but remained as minority shareholder until his temporary return on June 24, 2015, with the deal for his return including the transfer of his minority stake to Dixie Carter, making her sole shareholder. The following year Jarrett revealed plans to start a new professional wrestling promotion, Global Force Wrestling . Further departures in 2014 included TNA veterans Sting , Chris Sabin , Hernandez , Christopher Daniels and Kazarian all leaving
555-480: A botched move at Starrcade 1999 , followed just days later by Goldberg very seriously injuring himself during an angle on Thunder , and Hollywood Hogan seemingly quitting the company live on PPV at Bash at the Beach 2000 only seemed to further a sense that the company was spiralling out of control. By July 2000 Bischoff had walked off the job. In 2000, several potential buyers for WCW were rumored to show interest in
666-512: A creative writer and would assist in the writing and production of the shows. Russo states that he coined the name "Total Nonstop Action", the initials of the company "TNA" being a play on " T&A ". The original intention, as they were exclusive to pay-per-view, was to be viewed as an edgier product than WWE. Initially, TNA's weekly pay-per-view show operated as the company's main source of revenue, in place of monthly pay-per-view events used by other promotions. These shows took place mostly at
777-688: A deal with Pop TV to air Impact Wrestling , where it premiered on Tuesday, January 5, 2016, in a live special held at the Sands Hotel and Casino in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania . With this move to Pop, Impact Wrestling introduced a new HD set, graphics and theme music. This show saw the semi-finals and finals of the TNA World Title Series , which was won by Ethan Carter III . Husband and wife team Mike Bennett and Maria Kanellis would debut soon after. Subsequent shows would include episodes taped during
888-628: A deal with New Motion, Inc. which led to the introduction of TNA Mobile service. TNA has also launched "TNA U TV"; podcasts aired through YouTube to help promote the company. In August 2007, live-events coordinator Craig Jenkins stated that TNA intended to stage eight pay-per-views and 96 house shows outside Orlando, Florida, in 2008. From 2007 to 2008, TNA first toured Europe, hosting two shows at Porto and Lisbon in Portugal , with TNA later conducting its first tour of England , with most shows selling out which later broke TNA's attendance records with
999-558: A duo. The pairing was not cohesive and frequently chafed over the direction of the company. Creatively, the year 2000 saw WCW attempt numerous publicity stunts to gain traction, such as making actor David Arquette (who then had no professional wrestling experience) the WCW World Heavyweight Champion. These moves only served to push traditional wrestling fans away from WCW. Events such as Goldberg forcing WCW World Heavyweight Champion Bret Hart into retirement following
1110-401: A lien on TNA for unpaid taxes. Anthem Sports & Entertainment , parent company of Impact Wrestling ' s Canadian broadcaster, Fight Network , offered to help TNA and repay Corgan for the loans, while also offering additional financial assistance to TNA to help keep them from filing for bankruptcy. On October 31, Corgan lost his injunction that kept TNA from selling the company, but TNA
1221-734: A live house show at MCU Park , which also broke the TNA domestic attendance record at the time and being the most attended live TNA house show in the United States, with a capacity crowd of 5,550. During the May 3, 2011, Impact! television tapings, the show would change its name to Impact Wrestling . On November 7, 2011, TNA revealed that Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) would become TNA's official developmental territory . In December 2011, TNA debuted their new India-based subsidiary promotion Ring Ka King . On May 31, 2012, Impact Wrestling began airing live at
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#17328582837501332-563: A loan to Carter. Then on August 12, Billy Corgan became the promotion's new president, while Carter transitioned from president to the company's new chairwoman and chief strategy officer. It was reported on September 16 by the New York Post that Canada's Fight Network, through its parent company, Anthem Sports & Entertainment Corporation, had taken a stake in TNA. On October 13, Corgan sued TNA due to unpaid debt which Corgan claimed TNA had defaulted on. The State of Tennessee also put
1443-471: A low ebb. To counter this, Bischoff felt that WCW was in need of radical reform; to this end, Bischoff sought to modernise WCW and move its image away from that of a Southern-based " rasslin " company. To achieve this, Bischoff increased WCW's production values, avoided unprofitable house shows , increased the number of WCW pay-per-views (PPVs, which were profitable), decreased the number of Southern accents on commentary, and began recruiting top stars away from
1554-485: A majority stake of TNA, re-organizing TNA's parent company with Aroluxe having 10 percent while Carter retaining a five percent minority stake in the company, but resigned as chairwoman after 14 years with the company, while joining the advisory board of Fight Media Group. The promotion's parent company, TNA Entertainment, was changed firstly to Impact Ventures and then to Anthem Wrestling Exhibitions, LLC., with Anthem's Executive Vice President Ed Nordholm becoming President of
1665-746: A master toy license agreement with Toy Biz , with various action figures and playsets releasing between 2005 and 2007. TNA would subsequently discontinue producing weekly pay-per-views in favor of a traditional monthly pay-per-view schedule, beginning with Victory Road in November 2004. TNA's television contract with Fox Sports expired in May 2005. Without television exposure, Impact! would continue to air through webcasts – originally made available via BitTorrent and eventually via RealPlayer – and replace Xplosion' s timeslot on Urban America Television . On September 11, 2005, TNA held its Unbreakable pay-per-view. Unbreakable
1776-496: A new start time of 8 p.m. EST on Thursday nights. The live schedule would continue throughout 2012. In 2012, Panda Energy divested itself of its stake in TNA. Dixie Carter , the daughter of Panda Energy founder Robert Carter, who had been serving as TNA's president, acquired that stake, making her TNA's majority shareholder. In March 2013, TNA began taping Impact from different venues around the United States and terminated its lease with Universal Studios . On March 14, TNA introduced
1887-505: A new universal HD stage which would be used for all weekly programming. On November 2, TNA ended its relationship with OVW. TNA formed a relationship with Japanese promotion Wrestle-1 beginning in July 2013 with a meeting between TNA founder Jeff Jarrett and Wrestle-1 head Keiji Mutoh . It was arranged for Jarrett to wrestle for W-1 in October 2013. In November, A.J. Styles successfully defended
1998-637: A notable exception for almost a decade and a half. After the Invasion storyline concluded, the WWF divided the roster into two brands which was originally intended to revive WCW under the WWF umbrella but was instead divided into Raw and SmackDown! brands, named after two WWF's top programs at the time. Many other WCW wrestlers moved to the World Wrestling All-Stars (WWA) or the XWF and then Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) which all started after
2109-537: A partnership where the streaming service will distribute select non-live shows in most countries except the United States, South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa . On May 8, 2023, Impact announced their first ever Australian shows named Down Under Tour , a four-day tour with two marquee wrestling shows that took part on June 30 and July 1 in Wagga Wagga , New South Wales . At the conclusion of Bound for Glory on October 21, 2023, Impact announced that it would revive
2220-399: A period of mainstream success characterized by a shift to reality-based storylines , and notable hirings of former WWF talent. WCW also gained attention for developing a popular cruiserweight division, which showcased an acrobatic, fast-paced, lucha libre -inspired style of wrestling. In 1995, WCW debuted their live flagship television program Monday Nitro , and subsequently developed
2331-547: A report on August 7, TNA filed a new business name of Impact Ventures, LLC. Destination America gained over 41.94 million viewers over the course of 2015's first quarter, making this the channel's best first quarter ever, followed by their best May ever in prime time. In both cases, Discovery Communications touted Impact Wrestling as one of the reasons for the increase in viewers. Despite this success, Discovery Communications dropped Unlocked and Greatest Matches from their programming in May 2015. On November 19, TNA signed
SECTION 20
#17328582837502442-526: A reunited nWo in the widely panned " Fingerpoke of Doom " angle. By September 1999, the rapidly declining ratings of Nitro (now half that of Raw ), drastic dropoff in revenue, and the increasing antagonism between Eric Bischoff and Time Warner executives prompted the head of Turner Sports , Harvey Schiller , to relieve Bischoff of his position. Almost immediately Schiller found a duo to replace Bischoff: former head writers for Raw Vince Russo and Ed Ferrera . Russo had just weeks prior walked off
2553-551: A series presenting the best matches in the company's history. From December 2014 to March 2015, several employees re-signed with TNA, including Kurt Angle , Jeff Hardy, Gail Kim , Mr. Anderson, Abyss and Matt Hardy . Awesome Kong also re-joined the company following several years of absence. During this period, veteran Samoa Joe and commentator Tazz left the company by mutual consent. On April 27, 2015, Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan joined TNA as senior producer of creative and talent development. According to
2664-486: A three volume series hosted by Diamond Dallas Page called The Very Best of WCW Monday Nitro . WCW's library content would be made available with the launch of WWE Network in 2014. WWE would revive several of WCW's events, including Great American Bash in 2004, Starrcade in 2017 and Halloween Havoc in 2020. WWE also utilized the Night of Champions name and theme used on the last episode of Nitro beginning in 2001, which
2775-504: A tour of England, which would be the last TNA appearances for Kurt Angle . TNA returned to taping Impact Wrestling at the Impact Zone at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida, beginning with a live Impact Wrestling on March 15. On March 19, longtime TNA wrestlers Eric Young and Bobby Roode left the promotion after 12 years. On April 22, Velvet Sky , another longtime TNA wrestler, left
2886-481: A unique and popular identity by integrating and mixing wrestlers from all around the world and from vastly different wrestling styles, particularly Mexican luchadores such as Rey Misterio Jr. , Psicosis , and Juventud Guerrera , but also Japanese "Super Juniors" such as Último Dragón . North American wrestlers, such as Chris Jericho , Eddie Guerrero , Dean Malenko and Chris Benoit , who had travelled abroad to Mexico and Japan earlier in their careers and learned
2997-533: Is a subsidiary of Anthem Sports & Entertainment . Founded by Jeff Jarrett and Jerry Jarrett in 2002, following the end of World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in 2001, the promotion was initially known as NWA: Total Nonstop Action ( NWA-TNA ) and was affiliated with the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) governing body. The promotion dropped the "NWA" brand from its name in 2004, becoming Total Nonstop Action Wrestling . TNA continued to use
3108-568: Is identical, to the WarGames match but weapons are permitted and are even provided. When all competitors have entered the ring, a roof is lowered onto the top of the cage, with various weapons hanging from it. Victory can be attained by pinfall or submission. Total Nonstop Action Wrestling Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (abbreviated as TNA Wrestling or TNA ) is an American professional wrestling promotion based in Nashville, Tennessee . It
3219-523: Is remembered for the three-way match main event for the TNA X Division Championship , between AJ Styles , Christopher Daniels , and Samoa Joe , which received a rare 5 Star match rating from wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer , the first one the company received. Later that year, TNA would secure a television deal with Spike TV ; Impact! debuted on the network on October 1, 2005. The episode saw Team 3D make their TNA debut. TNA would gain attention for
3330-615: The TNA Impact ! video game . On October 23, 2008, TNA began producing its programming in HD . In addition, a new HD set for Impact was introduced, including new lighting, and large high-resolution screens. On June 21, 2009, TNA launched an online video-vault subscription-service where subscribers could watch past pay-per-views by choosing one of three payment options. In October 2009, TNA President Dixie Carter hired Hulk Hogan and former WCW President Eric Bischoff . Hulk Hogan first appeared on
3441-564: The TNA World Heavyweight Championship at a Wrestle-1 show in Japan. From the period of 2013 to 2014, many well-known names or veterans of the company left TNA. In October 2013, Hulk Hogan 's contract with TNA expired, ending his time as creative consultant with the company. In December, AJ Styles left TNA after his contract expired. Styles later said that he could not accept TNA's new contract offer, which would see him take
Lethal Lockdown match - Misplaced Pages Continue
3552-639: The Tennessee State Fairground Sports Arena in Nashville , nicknamed the "TNA Asylum". In October 2002, Panda Energy International purchased a controlling interest (72%) of Total Nonstop Action Wrestling from Jerry Jarrett. TNA (which originally traded as "J Sports and Entertainment") was re-organized as "TNA Entertainment", LLC, in the process. Dixie Carter was appointed president of TNA Entertainment in spring 2003. Xplosion launched on November 27, 2002, as TNA's first regular cable show and featured exclusive matches taped at
3663-538: The USA Network . The meeting led to Turner greenlighting the creation of WCW Monday Nitro , which would air on TNT on the same day and in the same time slot as Raw . Nitro would debut on September 4, 1995, and directly lead into the Monday Night War era of professional wrestling, in which WCW Nitro and WWF Raw would fiercely compete to beat each other in the Nielson ratings each and every week. The struggle between
3774-726: The X Division . Throughout the 2000s, WWE would incorporate elements into their shows formerly associated with WCW. Former WCW Championships such as the WCW World Heavyweight Championship , the WCW United States Championship and the WCW Cruiserweight Championship would be reactivated in WWE, with their WCW lineages acknowledged. The Cruiserweight division concept was introduced to WWE in 2002 and since then has been used intermittently throughout
3885-415: The "Impact Zone", at Universal Studios Florida and broadcast on Fox Sports Net (FSN). With the show's première, TNA introduced a six-sided wrestling ring, the implementation of the "Fox Box" displaying competitors and timekeeping for the match and a generally more sports-like style than the sports entertainment style exemplified by WWE. In June 2004, TNA issued a press release stating it had signed
3996-504: The "TNA Asylum". There were a total of 111 weekly pay-per-views. World Championship Wrestling World Championship Wrestling ( WCW ) was an American professional wrestling promotion founded by Ted Turner in 1988, after Turner Broadcasting System , through a subsidiary named Universal Wrestling Corporation, purchased the assets of National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) territory Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP) (which had aired its programming on TBS ). For all of its existence, WCW
4107-406: The $ 2.7 million debt that was owed to him by TNA and, as such, he was considering suing, as well as converting the debt into a 36 percent stake. As the result of a settlement between Corgan and TNA, Anthem Sports & Entertainment acquired the loans Corgan made to Carter in the process. Anthem Sports & Entertainment , a company owned by former Canwest CEO Leonard Asper , purchased
4218-573: The 2000s, 2010s and 2020s from 2002 onwards. Some WCW mainstays such as Booker T, Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit and Chris Jericho were able to achieve long-term top positions within WWE by the mid to late 2000s. Similarly, promotions such as Total Nonstop Action would also make use of former WCW talent when possible and also continued the legacy of the Cruiserweight with their X-Division. WWE has since released various WCW documentaries, anthologies, and compilations, including The Rise and Fall of WCW , and
4329-458: The Beach series of shows with AEW Bash at the Beach on January 15, 2020. However, a lawsuit by WWE prevented further reuse of that branding. Beginning in 2021, AEW began presenting their own version of WCW's WarGames match , held at the AEW Blood & Guts event. Who Killed WCW? , a four-part documentary series based off the downfall of WCW premiered June 6, 2024 on Vice TV . The series
4440-546: The GFW rights; the lawsuit was ultimately settled out of court. Don Callis and Scott D'Amore became executive vice presidents in January 2018, taking charge of Impact Wrestling's day-to-day operations. At the first tapings under their tenure, the company reverted to a traditional four-sided ring, and the show also saw the return of former World Heavyweight Champion Austin Aries , as well
4551-747: The Hall and Nash debuts as it gave the show an unscripted, "anything can happen at any time" feeling to the television audience. The start of the nWo angle, which immediately proved immensely popular and intriguing to wrestling fans, was part of a wider shift in the WCW presentation still being pursued by Eric Bischoff. As part of his overhaul of WCW, Bischoff wanted to grow WCW's audience amongst 18 to 35-year-olds . To that end, he alongside WCW's booker Kevin Sullivan began grounding WCW characters and storylines more in reality, utilising real names and darker themes in contrast to
Lethal Lockdown match - Misplaced Pages Continue
4662-566: The Impact (abbreviated as BTI ), and Xplosion was canceled after 19 years the following month. During No Surrender Impact announced a new partnership with New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). Don Callis' time as Impact executive vice president and on-air talent ended in May. Slammiversary 2021 marked the return of in-person spectators for the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. That month, BTI and Impact! would crossover for
4773-470: The January 4, 2010, episode of Impact! . Both obtained a position behind the scenes; with Bischoff part of creative and Hogan as a consultant. Under their tenure, TNA would see several revamps in 2010. Beginning with Genesis in January, TNA returned to using a four-sided ring. That month, Jakks Pacific announced a five-year agreement to produce TNA action figures. Impact! would also begin airing on Monday nights directly opposite of WWE Raw , marking
4884-529: The NWA World Heavyweight and Tag Team championships until this agreement ended in 2007; after which, the company would create its own World Heavyweight and World Tag Team championships. The promotion was purchased by Anthem at the beginning of 2017. In March of that year, it was rebranded to Impact Wrestling after its weekly flagship television show , but returned to the TNA branding in January 2024. From its inception, TNA had been considered
4995-469: The NWA and becoming a standalone wrestling promotion. In February 1993 former commentator Eric Bischoff was appointed as Executive Producer of WCW, and by 1994 he had been promoted once again to Senior Vice President, a position which gave Bischoff both creative and financial control of WCW. At this point, the promotion was struggling financially and was widely perceived within the wrestling industry to be at
5106-493: The November 19 episode. The final episodes of 2014 were Best of TNA clip shows. On January 7, 2015, Impact Wrestling moved to Destination America , with a live debut from The Manhattan Center 's Grand Ballroom in New York City. In addition to Impact Wrestling , which was now airing on Friday nights, two new shows produced were Impact Wrestling: Unlocked , hosted by Mike Tenay , and TNA Wrestling's Greatest Matches ,
5217-519: The TNA Asylum as well as exclusive interviews with TNA wrestlers and the promotion's original weekly pay-per-view shows took place mostly at the Tennessee State Fairground Sports Arena in Nashville, Tennessee . The last weekly pay-per-view took place on September 8, 2004, with a total of 111 weekly pay-per-views. In May 2004, TNA introduced its second weekly television program, Impact! (stylized as iMPACT! ), produced at Soundstage 21 , nicknamed
5328-571: The Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) name. From October 26 to 28, Impact held events in Scotland and England , marking their first United Kingdom tour since 2015. In December 2023, the promotion announced it had signed a new toy license with PowerTown, to release its first line of product in August 2024. The name change to TNA took effect in January 2024, with the first event under
5439-483: The WWE immediately and participated in The Invasion storyline as part of The Alliance which lasted until the end of 2001, however many of WCW's top stars had contracts with AOL Time Warner rather than WCW itself that the WWF did not acquire, and most choose to sit out the length of their contracts rather than breaking them in order to work for the WWF. Most would eventually find their way to WWE, although Sting remained
5550-565: The WWF free to acquire the key assets of WCW through its new subsidiary W. Acquisition Company, which was renamed WCW Inc. afterwards. AOL Time Warner sold the rights to the World Championship Wrestling name, branding, championships, and all other remaining assets aside from the talent roster and video library to WWF for $ 2.5 million in March 2001. Shortly afterwards WWF paid an additional $ 1.8 million to cover costs to AOL Time Warner in
5661-443: The WWF in January 2000, an incident which resulted in a number of firings amongst WCW management. With shakeups to WCW management becoming more and more frequent, the WCW talent began to lose any sense of leadership or direction, which in turn caused them to form bickering political cliques amongst themselves. In April 2000, WCW attempted to resolve its creative issues by asking Eric Bischoff to return but work alongside Vince Russo as
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#17328582837505772-560: The WWF seizing back the ratings lead as well as WCW's own internal problem caused tension amongst both the on-screen talent and management. By November 1998 Kevin Nash had become head booker of WCW, overseeing the creative direction of both Nitro and Thunder . Nash's tenure was fraught with unpopular decisions, such as the move that saw the popular undefeated streak of WCW Champion Goldberg ended by Nash himself, who then became champion, only for Nash to then lay down for Hollywood Hogan and reform
5883-736: The WWF throughout 2001. The storyline began proper at the WWF Invasion pay-per-view, which received 775,000 buys and became one of the highest-grossing wrestling pay-per-views of all time. Although WWF was able to recruit many of those on the WCW roster at the time of the purchase, it was unable to secure the use of most of its top-level stars, as they were signed to long-term contracts with AOL-Time Warner rather than WCW. As such, these stars could remain inactive but still continue to be paid, and were not incentivized to join WWF until those contracts expired. It would not be until 2002 onwards that headline WCW stars such as Goldberg or Scott Steiner would join
5994-453: The WWF to fight a proxy war. They also alleged that they would soon be joined by a third major figure; this "third man" was eventually revealed to be Hulk Hogan at Bash at the Beach 1996 . A major advantage WCW Nitro initially had over WWF Raw was that Nitro was live-to-air every week, while Raw alternated between live episodes and ones taped in advance and aired the following week. Nitro ' s live atmosphere enhanced segments such as
6105-497: The World Wrestling Federation (WWF). This led to marquee names such as Hulk Hogan and "The Macho Man" Randy Savage joining WCW's ranks and helping to supplement its business. In 1995, during a face-to-face meeting with Ted Turner, Bischoff was able to convince Turner that in order for WCW to become competitive with the WWF, WCW would require an equivalent to WWF's new flagship cable show WWF Raw , which aired on
6216-484: The World Wrestling Federation (WWF, later WWE ) gaining a monopoly on the industry. While on a fishing trip, Bob Ryder , Jeff Jarrett and Jerry Jarrett contemplated their futures in the professional wrestling business under a parent company known as J Sports & Entertainment, LLC. Ryder suggested a company not reliant on television, but rather one going straight to pay-per-view . In July 2002, Vince Russo joined Jeff and Jerry Jarrett's NWA-TNA promotion as
6327-600: The X-Division was considered a direct spiritual successor to the style developed in the WCW Cruiserweight division and became influential in its own right. WWE and TNA/Impact have continued to experiment and use the Cruiserweight/X-Division concept on and off throughout the 2000s and 2010s and into the 2020s. Mid 20th Century 1970s and 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s and 2020s WCW
6438-517: The acquisition of WCW by WWF/WWE in 2001, WWE revived the Cruiserweight division in 2002 to be a feature of its Smackdown brand, with the WWE Cruiserweight Championship being deemed by the promotion to be the direct lineal successor to the WCW title. Simultaneously, the newly formed Total Nonstop Action wrestling promotion heavily featured their X Division , which did not limit participants by weight but rather by style. Nonetheless,
6549-536: The battle for the largest television audience. However, in June 1996, Nitro would begin a streak of 83 constructive victories over Raw , initially sparked by the start of the New World Order (nWo) storyline. The start of the nWo angle saw former WWF talent Scott Hall and Kevin Nash unexpectedly leave the WWF to come to Monday Nitro on consecutive episodes, and each time insinuate that they were there on behalf of
6660-664: The circuit. WCW also had a presence in NASCAR from the mid-1990s to 2000, sponsoring the #29 team in the Busch Grand National Series full-time and the #9 Melling Racing team in the Winston Cup Series part-time. In 1996, Kyle Petty 's #49 car in the Busch Grand National series was sponsored by the nWo, and Greg Sacks briefly drove a WCW-sponsored for Galaxy Motorsports. Several WCW video games were made in
6771-423: The closure of WCW, several new professional wrestling promotions would launch featuring former talent associated with WCW. The most prominent of these, Total Nonstop Action (TNA), was founded by Jeff Jarrett in 2002 and would attempt to take over WCW's market position in the mid-to-late 2000s using some former WCW stars such as Sting. TNA would also adopt their own version of the Cruiserweight division, branded as
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#17328582837506882-469: The company during this period. In April 2017, it was announced on Impact! that the promotion would "merge" with Jarrett's newer Global Force Wrestling (GFW) promotion. In the lead-up to the Slammiversary ;XV PPV, Anthem officially announced its intent to acquire GFW to formalize the merger. The company subsequently announced that they were re-branding again and taking the GFW name in June;
6993-558: The company in that year, and the contracts of TNA Hall of Famers Bully Ray and Devon reportedly expired in October 2014, with TNA moving them to the alumni section of their roster in January 2015. In late July, the TMZ website reported that Spike TV was not renewing Impact Wrestling beyond October. TNA would refute the report, stating that negotiations were still ongoing. On August 14, Impact Wrestling moved to Wednesday nights. On August 20, TNA signed an extension with Spike TV until
7104-450: The company initially less dependent on the nWo storyline for ratings. However, beginning in Spring 1998, WCW began an angle which saw the nWo split into a heel faction, nWo Hollywood (centered around "Hollywood" Hulk Hogan), and the rival face nWo Wolfpac (consisting of stars such as Kevin Nash, Sting, Lex Luger and Konnan ). Speaking in hindsight in 2023, Eric Bischoff has said the angle
7215-504: The company solely as the NWA, reasoning that "it has become apparent that the NWA and the World Championship area are one and the same." By late 1988, JCP was financially struggling after further territory acquisitions. Ted Turner , the namesake principal owner of Turner Broadcasting System, formed a new subsidiary in October 1988 to acquire most of the assets of JCP. The acquisition was completed on November 2, 1988. While initially
7326-496: The company went from struggling financially as late as 1995 to generating $ 55 million in profit in 1998. December 1997's Starrcade pay-per-view (PPV) event became the highest-grossing PPV of all time for the company, thanks in large part to the show being billed as the culmination of a year-and-a-half feud between Sting and "Hollywood" Hulk Hogan. 1996 and 1997 had been banner years for WCW, with profits and popularity soaring. 1998 saw profits continue to rise. However, maintaining
7437-427: The company. It was reported near the beginning of 2016 that Aroluxe Marketing, a Brentwood, Tennessee–based marketing agency, had taken a stake in TNA at the start of 2016 in return for providing partial funding, as well as taking over TNA's production operations. It was reported in June 2016 that Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan acquired a minority stake in TNA from Dixie Carter, but he had instead provided
7548-651: The company. At the No Way Out pay-per-view in February 2002, WWE began their own version of the new World order centered around Hogan, Nash and Hall, but later incorporating former WCW stars the Giant (now known as the Big Show) and Booker T as well as WWE talent such as Shawn Michaels . Throughout the early 2000s, many former WCW headliners found it difficult to integrate into WWE, as there continued to be legitimate tensions between
7659-457: The company. Ted Turner, however, did not hold influence over Time Warner before the final merger of America Online (AOL) and Time Warner in 2001, and most offers were rejected. Eric Bischoff, working with Fusient Media Ventures, made a bid to acquire the company in January 2001. One of the primary backers in the WCW deal backed out after AOL Time Warner refused to allow WCW to continue airing on its networks, leaving Fusient to take that offer off
7770-505: The cruiserweight division and the talent represented therein probably had as much to do with the success of Nitro as the nWo storyline and Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall, and Kevin Nash. I don’t think people recognize it. The talent in that division not only helped Nitro consistently defeat WWE...that talent forced WWE, as much as the nWo, to change the way they were presenting the product. The Cruiserweight division would continue to directly influence North American wrestling for many decades. Following
7881-514: The debuts of Karl Anderson and Heath Slater . After the events of AEW Winter Is Coming on December 2, 2020, Impact began a partnership with All Elite Wrestling (AEW), which lasted until Bound for Glory 2021 . AEW-contracted wrestlers Kenny Omega and Christian Cage held the Impact World Championship during this time; this marked Cage's first in-ring return to the promotion since 2008. In February 2021, Impact launched Before
7992-529: The debuts of new wrestlers such as Kiera Hogan , Su Yung , Pentagón Jr. , Fénix and Brian Cage . The company also announced a partnership with live streaming service Twitch to produce content for their platform, starting with Brace for Impact , which was co-promoted with New Jersey–based promotion WrestlePro. Their first live show was Impact vs. Lucha Underground , a co-promoted show with Lucha Underground . Impact! subsequently moved to Pursuit Channel beginning January 11, 2019. Two months later,
8103-433: The end of 2014. In November 2014, TNA announced a new agreement with Discovery Communications to distribute its programming in the United States on Destination America and to selected international markets. Spike's outreach at the time was estimated to be more than 97 million homes while Destination America was estimated to reach 59 million households. Impact Wrestling ceased airing new televised events on Spike after
8214-468: The end of WCW. In the spring of 1996, WCW introduced its "Cruiserweight division", a segmented portion of the roster featuring smaller, faster and more agile wrestlers that contrasted starkly, both visually and stylistically, with their heavyweight counterparts. Although weight categories were not a new concept in wrestling or even WCW, the WCW Cruiserweight Division was quickly able to form
8325-654: The events that became known as Black Saturday , in which GCW and its television program briefly came under the ownership of the WWF, the promotion was eventually purchased by Charlotte, North Carolina-based Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP), the promoter of the Mid-Atlantic territory immediately north of Georgia. Influential wrestling magazine Pro Wrestling Illustrated and its sister publications thereafter habitually referred to JCP as "World Championship Wrestling", "WCW" and most commonly "the World Championship area" and continued to do so until early 1988 when it began referring to
8436-602: The first time that two major professional wrestling promotions would go head to head since the launch of WCW Monday Nitro in 1995. The show would permanently move to Mondays on March 8, 2010, Spike would keep the Thursday night slot open for repeats of the Monday night shows. During this time, Ric Flair , Rob Van Dam , Mr. Anderson would make their debuts, while Jeff Hardy would make his return. Impact! would later return to Thursday nights on May 3. On July 2, 2010, TNA hosted
8547-435: The first time, when Josh Alexander faced T. J. Perkins for the X Division Championship in Impact's first-ever 60-minute Iron man match , which began on BTI and concluded in the opening minutes of Impact! . Impact subsequently announced the end of their partnership with Twitch that August and launched a new YouTube membership program called "Impact Wrestling Insiders". In November 2022, Impact and DAZN signed
8658-546: The innovations WCW had implemented and reapplying them to their own presentation, WWF began its " Attitude Era ". Building around newly emerging stars such as Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock , as well as WWF promoter Vince McMahon becoming a major on-screen character himself, the WWF finally ended Nitro ' s 83 weeks of ratings victories on April 13, 1998. For the next four months, Nitro and Raw would trade wins until October 26, 1998, when Nitro scored its last-ever ratings victory over Raw . The combined pressure of
8769-441: The job at the WWF after a dispute with Vince McMahon over work hours, and Ed Ferrera soon followed. Russo and Ferrera were heralded at the time as the main drivers in the turnaround at WWF over the previous two years with their writing philosophy of "Crash TV", a presentation style that emphasized Soap opera style storylines, lengthier non-wrestling segments, frequent heel/face turns, an increased amount of female representation on
8880-436: The local styles were also able to thrive in the division. The division as a whole became a showcase of a fast-paced, aerial and athletic style of wrestling which became highly influential in both the short and long term in the industry. Eric Bischoff has credited with the division as becoming a defining feature of Monday Nitro that was as fundamental to the late 1990s popularity of WCW as the New World Order faction: I think
8991-549: The many high-profile talent that would join the promotion during the show's run on Spike. From 2005 to 2009, these include Kevin Nash , Rhino , Christian Cage , Sting (who made appearances at previous "Asylum" shows), Scott Steiner , Kurt Angle , Booker T , and Mick Foley . In April 2006, TNA launched a YouTube channel, featuring clips from Impact and exclusive content. Beginning with Bound for Glory in October 2006, TNA began holding select pay-per-view events outside of Orlando, Florida. In January 2007, TNA announced
9102-453: The more cartoon-like presentation which had dominated wrestling in the 1980s and early 90s. An example of this shift in tone was seen in the transformation of top WCW star Sting over the course of 1996 following the start of the nWo angle, whose persona shifted from a colorful and cheerful clean-cut face to a dark, depressed and brooding antihero inspired by the 1994 film The Crow . Another major innovation occurring concurrently in WCW
9213-419: The negotiations, bringing the final tally of WCW's sale to $ 4.3 million. AOL Time Warner maintained its subsidiary, which reverted to its original legal name of Universal Wrestling Corporation, to deal with legal obligations and liabilities not acquired by the WWF. The UWC was listed as a subsidiary of Time Warner until 2017, when it was merged into Turner Broadcasting System. Some of the WCW wrestlers joined
9324-430: The network for the first time since WCW's closure. On January 5, 2022, Dynamite moved to TNT's sibling network, TBS, marking the first time TBS has aired wrestling programming since the March 21, 2001, episode of WCW Thunder . TNT has also broadcast AEW's second show, AEW Rampage , since August 13, 2021, and added another AEW show with the June 17, 2023, debut of AEW Collision . In 2020, AEW revived WCW's Bash at
9435-494: The new parent company. Shortly after Anthem's acquisition of TNA, it was re-branded to Impact Wrestling. On January 5, 2017 Jeff Jarrett was brought back by Anthem to serve as a consultant and later promoted to executive producer and chief creative officer. Anthem re-branded the promotion as Impact Wrestling, after its primary television series two months later. Wrestlers Drew Galloway , Matt Hardy , Jeff Hardy , Jade , Crazzy Steve , Mike Bennett and Maria Kanellis left
9546-421: The other trucks is most prominent with Goldberg. Driven by to great success by Tom Meents (including Monster Jam World Finals championships both years the truck ran), after the end of the sponsorship Meents continued to run the truck as "Team Meents" in 2002 before debuting its new name Maximum Destruction in 2003. Max-D continues to compete in the series and rivals the legendary Grave Digger in popularity on
9657-404: The pandemic, the promotion cancelled its planned TNA: There's No Place Like Home event, and Tessa Blanchard , who became the first woman to win the promotion's World Championship earlier that year at Hard to Kill , was fired and stripped of the championship after a long absence. Slammiversary saw the returns of The Motor City Machine Guns , Eric Young , Doc Gallows and EC3 , as well as
9768-604: The promotion announced that Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) would serve as its developmental territory once again. In May, Impact Plus replaced the Global Wrestling Network as the official streaming app for the promotion. Impact! began airing on Anthem-owned AXS TV after Bound for Glory in October. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic , Impact would hold events behind closed doors at Skyway Studios in Nashville. During
9879-599: The promotion later touring in Germany , Scotland and Ireland in 2009, France , Wales and the United Arab Emirates in 2010 and Belgium in 2012. In February 2008, Jakks Pacific announced it had signed a multi-year master toy license agreement with TNA, to release products starting in 2010. In March 2008, Tristar Productions acquired an exclusive license deal to produce and distribute TNA trading cards and memorabilia. On September 9, 2008, Midway Games released
9990-432: The promotion such as AJ Styles and Samoa Joe . (Some of whom would later be signed by WWE during the mid to late 2010s as TNA suffered financial issues). From 2015 to 2017, the promotion was viewed by some to have fallen behind longtime rival Ring of Honor ; with the loss of their U.S. television contract with Spike in 2014, as well as monetary and personnel issues, being noted as factors to their decline. By 2019,
10101-712: The promotion was viewed to have recovered through its sustained international distribution, and the purchase by its parent company of AXS TV ; which subsequently began carrying the promotion's programming. TNA is currently viewed as being the third-largest wrestling promotion in the United States; following the establishment of All Elite Wrestling (AEW) in 2019, and its current television deals with Warner Bros. Discovery 's TNT and TBS (both of which are seen in more households than AXS). Mid 20th Century 1970s and 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s and 2020s The concept of TNA originated shortly after World Championship Wrestling (WCW) ended in 2001, with
10212-513: The quality of the shows became difficult, particularly after WCW's owners Time Warner Entertainment (who bought Turner Broadcasting System in 1996) ordered the creation of a second live cable WCW program WCW Thunder , to air on Thursdays on TBS Superstation starting on January 8, 1998 , as well as ordering a third hour to be added to Nitro ' s runtime. Nonetheless, the creation of new major headline babyface stars such as Diamond Dallas Page and Goldberg were causes for optimism, making
10323-545: The re-branding was short-lived as they severed ties with Jarrett that October and the deal for Anthem to acquire GFW was never completed. During that time, Anthem launched the Global Wrestling Network , a new streaming service which featured content from to their tape library and other sources. Jarrett subsequently filed a lawsuit against Anthem in the District Court of Tennessee for copyright infringement over
10434-467: The reinstated TNA banner being Hard To Kill . On February 7, Anthem Sports & Entertainment announced that Scott D'Amore's contract with TNA was terminated , with D'Amore being removed from his position as President of TNA, later being replaced by Anthony Cicione. From June 2002 until September 2004, the promotion's original weekly pay-per-view shows took place mostly at the Tennessee State Fairground Sports Arena in Nashville, Tennessee , nicknamed
10545-522: The second-largest in the United States behind WWE a position it would hold for most of the 2000s and early 2010s. The promotion was known for featuring former top talent from WCW, WWE, and ECW , such as Raven , Jeff Jarrett , and Sting , free agents that were released from the WWE such as Kurt Angle , Jeff Hardy , and Mr. Kennedy (who wrestled as Mr. Anderson in TNA), as well as more homegrown wrestlers who had not appeared in WWE yet and mainly performed for
10656-555: The show, expanded storyline depth, frequent title changes, and a greater focus on developing mid-card talent. The tenure of Russo and Ferrera at the creative helm of WCW was short-lived; by March 2000 the pair had been suspended from their positions as their provocative and edgy angles caused constant protest from AOL Time Warner executives. AOL and Time Warner had merged in January 2000 and, according to Bischoff and Russo, headquarters′ eagerness to tone down WCW had only grown more intense because of this. Mounting frustrations amongst
10767-504: The subsidiary was incorporated as the "Universal Wrestling Corporation", following the purchase the decision was made to utilize the familiar "World Championship Wrestling" as the name for the promotion. In late Summer/early Autumn 1993, a behind-the-scenes dispute between WCW and the NWA Board of Directors over who had the right to authorize NWA World Heavyweight Championship title changes ultimately resulted in WCW formally withdrawing from
10878-514: The table while it attempted to bring a new deal around. In the meantime, Jamie Kellner was handed control over the Turner Broadcasting division in 2000, eventually succeeding Ted Turner on March 7, 2001. Along with AOL Time Warner, Kellner deemed WCW, along with Turner Sports as a whole, to be out of line with its image and saying that it "would not be favorable enough to get the 'right' advertisers to buy airtime" (even though Thunder
10989-399: The talent resulted in many leaving WCW for the WWF; The Giant and Chris Jericho were the first major talent to "jump" to the WWF in 1999, but they were soon followed by many others. Chris Benoit (WCW World Champion at the time), Dean Malenko , Eddie Guerrero and Perry Saturn , who performed together on WCW television as " The Revolution ", all collectively walked out of WCW and over to
11100-432: The two groups. Former WCW performers such as Diamond Dallas Page (who had accepted a WWF contract in 2001) were perceived to be intentionally poorly used as part of a "victory lap" by WWF. In turn, this dissuaded some WCW stars from trusting WWE; for example, Sting choose to remain out of WWE until 2014, and even when he did join, WWE was criticised using Sting to perform yet another victory lap at WrestleMania 31 . After
11211-467: The two promotions, each one attempting to produce the best television show possible each week, led to an explosion in the popularity of professional wrestling in the United States and in hindsight is widely considered a golden era. WCW Monday Nitro proved a success for the company, which was immediately able to create a television audience of an equivalent size to WWF Raw . Between September 1995 and May 1996, Nitro and Raw regularly traded victories in
11322-465: Was a television show produced by Georgia Championship Wrestling (GCW) since 1982. Jim Barnett (who had briefly owned the Australian promotion of that name ) came to Atlanta in the 1970s during an internal struggle for control of GCW. Barnett ultimately became majority owner of the promotion, and began using his previous promotion's name for GCW's weekly Saturday television program in 1982. Following
11433-416: Was extremely influential within professional wrestling in the 1990s and several elements innovated and introduced by WCW would continue to be used in professional wrestling decades after its closure. In the immediate aftermath of WWF's purchase of WCW, a significant portion of WCW's active roster was integrated into the WWF. These former WCW talents would be used as part of a "WCW vs WWF" storyline that ran in
11544-568: Was later known as Clash of Champions , similarly named from WCW's Clash of the Champions . In 2017, WWE held its first annual NXT WarGames event for its NXT brand , with that's year's event featuring the first WarGames match since the September 4, 2000, episode of Nitro . In 2019, new promotion All Elite Wrestling (AEW) formed a partnership with WarnerMedia to air their flagship show, AEW Dynamite , on TNT, returning professional wrestling to
11655-483: Was one of the two top professional wrestling promotions in the United States alongside the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE), at one point surpassing the latter in terms of popularity. After initial success through utilization of established wrestling stars of the 1980s, the company appointed Eric Bischoff to executive producer of television in 1993. Under Bischoff's leadership, the company enjoyed
11766-486: Was presented by Dwayne Johnson and featured former WCW personalities including Bill Goldberg , Eric Bischoff , Bret Hart , Booker T , Kevin Nash , amongst others. From 2000 to 2001, Monster Jam had a series of monster trucks based on wrestlers' names. These included the nWo , Sting , Nitro Machine, Madusa and Goldberg . Following the end of WCW, Debrah Miceli , the only one of the truck's namesakes to actually drive them, remained in monster trucks. The legacy of
11877-463: Was required to pay Corgan back by November 1. It was possible that one of the other minority owners could pay Corgan, effectively making them the majority owner of TNA. On November 3, the company revealed that Anthem Sports & Entertainment provided a credit facility to fund operations for TNA and that Corgan was removed as the promotion's president. However, Corgan himself stated that neither TNA nor Anthem Sports & Entertainment had yet repaid
11988-487: Was rushed, ill-conceived and had no long-term direction. By this point, many critics began to argue that WCW was now completely overreliant on the nWo storyline and unable to pivot to a new grand concept. Additionally, beginning in the summer of 1998, Bischoff has claimed that Time Warner Entertainment management began to increasingly micromanage WCW and meddle in its presentation. Executives at Time Warner Entertainment began to increasingly advocate that WCW should pivot to more
12099-566: Was shut down, and the WWF purchased select WCW assets in 2001, including its video library, intellectual property (including the WCW name and championships), and some wrestler contracts. The corporate subsidiary, which was retained to deal with legal obligations and reverted to the Universal Wrestling Corporation name, officially became defunct in 2017. Its headquarters were located in Smyrna, Georgia . "World Championship Wrestling"
12210-510: Was the highest-rated show on TBS at the time). As a result, WCW programming was cancelled on TBS and TNT . Another factor in Kellner's decision to cancel all WCW programming was the terms of the company's purchase deal with Fusient, which included giving Fusient control over time slots on TNT and TBS even if those slots did not air WCW programming. WCW's losses were then written off via purchase accounting. The cancellation of WCW programming left
12321-532: Was the introduction of the Cruiserweight division, which saw the introduction of smaller, more agile and more athletic wrestlers performing fast-paced, high-flying dangerous matches on WCW shows. This added another unique element to WCW shows that helped propel their surging popularity. The combination of a more adult-orientated presentation, live and unedited television, more reality-based storylines, new top-level talent, new and intriguing characters, and more varied in-ring action saw WCW's fortunes dramatically shift;
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