3 reasons New Japan would benefit from a relationship with Impact and 2 reasons they would not

4. Impact Wrestling still has a poor reputation

The relationship with Global Force was one of many damaging pursuits for Impact.

Between their downsizing in on-screen talent, chaos in the back office, and ever-decreasing television presence, Impact Wrestling has had a tough go of it for the last few years. The company has always had a loyal fanbase, but their million-plus followers have dwindled in numbers significantly. Former fans haven't stuck around because Impact isn't TNA, or because the announce team is different, the TV show is nowhere near as innovative as it used to be -- all of the usual grievances that wrestling fans have when they stop supporting their former favorite companies.

Even though the current iteration of Impact Wrestling is barely even a shell of what TNA used to be, in the minds of many people, the company will always be Jeff Jarrett's low-rent WWE wannabe promotion. It's difficult to drop that perception, especially when you have such a low presence in the wrestling world. Smaller companies that have zero television time are able to draw bigger crowds and attract more viewers on the internet than Impact, a company that has been in existence, in one way or the other, for almost 2 full decades.

Impact has a very strong TV program, great characters, a ton of really good professional wrestling, and it is so much different from anything you might find on TV today. Maybe they will be able to start rehabilitating their image with a slightly increased TV presence and a good streaming service (Impact Plus is quite good), but right now their name is still a naughty word to a lot of wrestling fans, and New Japan fans may look down their noses at the relationship. It might be a hard sell.