The future of IMPACT Wrestling’s future on television has grown uncertain after it was announced that Pop TV was moving the company’s flagship show out of primetime.
Last week, news broke that Impact TV was being moved from the Thursday night’s 8PM time slot to a less desirable 10 PM start time. As a result of this setback, Impact hired former WWE executive Andrew Whitaker to help manage the PR fallout of the story.
Whitaker has a bit of a checkered past with the wrestling industry following his exit from WWE and previous occupation with GLORY kickboxing before he let go from that organization as well. More recently, Whitaker has been consulting from his own company based out of Stamford, Connecticut.
Interestingly, Whitaker has ties to the former SPIKE TV — now the Paramount Network — and the hope is that perhaps he could potentially spark interest in bringing IMPACT wrestling back there again. Unfortunately, Paramount Network has largely shifted away from the programming parameters at the old SPIKE TV with the network launching several high profile original shows including ‘Yellowstone’, which was one of the highest rated new series in 2018.
Sources close to Paramount Network have stated that the network is staying focused on that original programming rather than adding elements similar to what previously aired on SPIKE TV. Then again nothing is written in stone so it’s impossible to tell what the future might hold now that Whitaker is involved with IMPACT.
In addition to the tumultuous situation with the television deal, production is also suffering right now at IMPACT.
Michael Vettor, the head of IMPACT TV, had apparently reached out to several MLW production personnel over the past 10 days to contract them to work the Bound for Glory pay-per-view and subsequent television tapings. Several people were contacted including at least two producers and several cameramen but only one person ultimately accepted the job due to Vettor’s reputation and aggressive approach when trying to secure production staff.
This all adds up to a volatile time at IMPACT wrestling, especially after holding their biggest pay-per-view event of the year and now the company faces a ton of uncertainty going forward into late 2018 and beyond.
