Impact Wrestling has had its share of memorable matches and legendary professional wrestlers during its 20-plus-year run. And fans can re-live all the action anytime they want on Pluto TV. The free streaming network has been partners with Impact Wrestling since 2018. Impact Wrestling has its own channel on Pluto TV, which is good for those who can’t watch the professional wrestling organization on AXS TV.
Impact Wrestling was launched in 2002 and was founded by Jeff Jarrett, Jerry Jarrett and Bob Ryder. At the time, Impact was called NWA: Total Nonstop Action (TNA) before changing the name to TNA in 2004. It was the second-largest wrestling promotion in the country behind WWE but has dropped down to third with the emergence of All Elite Wrestling (AEW).
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Some of the notable wrestlers to compete in Impact are Kurt Angle, Sting, Mick Foley, Jeff Hardy, A.J. Styles, Rob Van Dam, Bobby Lashley, Gail Kim, Madison Rayne, Awesome Kong and Mickie James. Last year, PopCulture.com spoke exclusively to James who took a look back at the early days of Impact.
“I think about little Alexis Laree, who showed up to the Nashville fairgrounds and ate at the White Trash Cafe and was the birth of, really, my career on television,” James said. “At that point, I’d only been, prior to going to TNA, at the time Impact Wrestling, here at the fairgrounds, I had been on Ring of Honor, and I’d done local stuff, MCW Back Home, and worked myself up the scene.
“It was the first time people saw me on television in a prominent role, and I got to sit there and learn because I was immediately put with Raven and his learning tree. He’s a crazy mad man and a genius. Also, Jeff [Jarrett], who gave me the opportunity to be the first woman in the ever in the Clockwork Orange House of Fun match. The only woman for a decade that ever did that match, and to be able to learn from him and put in that position.”
Steve Maclin is the current Impact World Champion, and his wife, Deonna Purrazzo the current Impact Knockouts Champion. The company received a big boost when Trinity (known as Naomi in WWE) made her debut earlier this month.
