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What's the story?
Impact Wrestling announced the shifting of the company last week. The company is in the process of moving their office to Canada. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter recently disclosed that none of Impact's Nashville office staff has yet been informed about their future status with the company given the shift.
Wrestling News revealed some of the members were released on Wednesday. They also speculated more releases are expected over the coming weeks.
In case you didn't know....
Impact Wrestling has been cutting costs and there have been rumours that they could ask wrestlers to restructure their deals with less pay. James Storm was the latest top-level star to leave Impact as they could no longer afford to pay his $150,000-$200,000 guaranteed contract in the future.
In the past year, Impact Wrestling has gone through turbulent times with a change in ownership and extreme financial difficulties. The turnover of their talent has been incredibly high, with wrestlers leaving almost every week.
The heart of the matter
There have been rumours that Impact are unable to pay the salaries of their top stars. Previously there was talk of talent not being paid, but now James Storm has announced his departure from the company as they were unable to renew his contract given his high annual salary.
Approximately forty stars have left Impact this year so far. EC3 is another wrestler on the roster with an extremely high salary. Given this, there is speculation that he too could be released in the coming weeks.
What's next?
Impact's inability to sign wrestlers at higher salaries will limit the talent that they can sign. This does not spell a good future for the company, as the wrestlers the fans identified the promotion with, may leave.
Author's take
Impact Wrestling had a horrible 2017 with consistent financial difficulties being the most common theme. With the year almost over they will hope for a fresh start in their new base of Canada.
They may hope to survive by reducing the size of the promotion. It is painful to see a once glorious promotion reduced to this.
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