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What's the story?
Recently Dave Meltzer revealed as part of his Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the rumored new promotion from Cody and the Young Bucks, All Elite Wrestling (AEW) turned down the opportunity to purchase Impact Wrestling, however they weren't the only notable wrestling company that were approached!
In case you didn't know...
Impact Wrestling have gone through a tumultuous few years but now seem to be stabilising under current owners Anthem. Their recent television product and pay-per-views have been critically acclaimed and the promotion definitely seems to have turned a corner. Despite this, however, their viewership on Pop TV was falling. This has seen them move to the Anthem-owned Pursuit Channel after reports of them looking for a new network to call their home.
Read Also: Don Callis teases sexier, edgier, more-hardcore Impact on Pursuit Channel
There was also some buzz created a few months back when news of a meeting between Impact Wrestling officials and WWE officials hit the internet. The subject of this meeting has not been officially revealed with Impact officials stating that it was not about the sale of the company or it's library to WWE.
The heart of the matter
Immediately, after the news of the meeting between Impact Wrestling and WWE officials broke I was told that the meeting was about something potentially huge, but my source couldn't reveal the extent of what that was at the time.
Time went on and nothing happened and it all seemed to fizzle out. My source then revealed that the meeting was about Impact and WWE working out a deal where Impact Wrestling would run on the WWE Network.
The deal would have seen Impact airing weekly on the WWE Network on a long-term basis with WWE owning a proportion of the company and gaining access to Impact's library. Impact would be able to run shows on PPV weekends that were promoted on the network. However this fell through because the two companies couldn't agree on how big a share of Impact WWE would own.
I wasn't going to publish this as I have been unable to confirm it with multiple sources, but as Dave Meltzer is reporting that they tried to sell to a company that doesn't exist yet, I thought why not. Please do take this with a heavy pinch of salt though!
What's next?
Things aren't looking good for Impact Wrestling, but they've been written off before and are still here so I'd definitely not be foolish enough to bet against them. Especially when they have a great roster, are putting out great content and simply just need wrestling fans to get behind them again.
If you are reading this and are on the fence about investing time into watching Impact Wrestling then don't be. I can tell you now, that it's decent and worth watching!
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author's and not necessarily of Sportskeeda's
Do you think WWE should agree to a deal to air Impact Wrestling on the WWE Network?
