3 Ideas WWE Needs To Borrow From Impact Wrestling

WWE is the king of the mountain when it comes to professional wrestling promotions on planet Earth. The company is the biggest promotion in the world and it doesn’t look like that’s going to change anytime soon. Impact Wrestling has been trying for years to reach WWE’s level of success and although the company hasn’t achieved it yet, they’re still fighting the good fight.

It may be cool to hate on Impact Wrestling, but it’s still impossible to deny that the company comes up with some pretty good ideas every once in a while. There’s also no denying that they’ve come up with some pretty bad ideas as well, but who hasn’t?

Impact Wrestling has borrowed quite a bit from WWE over the years and some of their storylines have been shameless adaptations of WWE angles. But we’re not here to shame or bash Impact as this article is more or less a song of praise for the ideas that the company has gotten right.

Although WWE will never admit it, when Impact Wrestling does have a good idea, they pay attention. One needs to only look back on the segment which aired on Raw last year that featured The New Day battling The Wyatt Family at their compound. It was a pretty blatant rip-off of The Final Deletion, but unfortunately for WWE, it wasn’t nearly as quirky and entertaining.

However, there are some Impact Wrestling concepts that WWE could probably benefit from trying to make their own, and today we’re going to take a look at a few of them.

Ultimate X

Over the years Impact Wrestling has created quite a few unique gimmicks matches, but only a fraction of them have withstood the test of time. There’s a reason why the Ultimate X match is still around today, and that’s because it’s awesome.

The Ultimate X match is a match where 4 metal structures are placed at each turnbuckle and they hold two cables which are extended 15 feet above the ring. The cables meet to form a large “X” and a title belt is suspended above the ring in the middle. The concept is similar to a ladder match, but the extended cables give wrestlers an endless possibility of options to work with.

The Ultimate X match is considered to be one of Impact’s signature matches, but the concept could easily be adapted for WWE.

The cruiserweight division has been met with a lack of excitement from fans so far, but having a gimmick match that’s exclusive to the division could get a lot of people talking. However, although this type of match is best suited for high flyers, it certainly doesn’t need to be limited to cruiserweights, as it could easily be utilized with bigger wrestlers as well.

Open Fight Night

The Hulk Hogan era of TNA is almost universally panned by fans, but it did have its moments. A lot of concepts were introduced during Hogan’s run and although not all of them worked, Open Fight Night did.

Once a month TNA Impact would become Open Fight Night and during Open Fight Night anyone on the roster could come to the ring and call out anyone they wanted for a match.

As we all know, wrestling can become monotonous sometimes when you have to watch stars like Randy Orton and Sheamus battle each other for 47 weeks in a row, but a concept like Open Fight Night could help to break up some of the monotony.

Open Fight Night gives stars the chance to work with wrestlers who they wouldn’t normally have the chance to face and it’s a good way to take a break from certain feuds, and keep weekly wrestling programming from becoming boring. On the flip side, it’s also a concept that easily allows wrestling promotions to create new feuds as well.

One of the biggest complaints people seem to have when it comes to WWE is that certain stars get stuck fighting the same wrestlers over and over again. WWE could certainly benefit from a concept similar to Open Fight Night which would allow stars who are lower on the card to mix it up with stars at the top of the card.

Option C

In September of 2011, Austin Aries won the X-Division Championship and he held onto the belt until July of 2012. Austin’s run as TNA X-Division Champion did wonders for his career, and he eventually became so popular that the company had no choice but to push him to the main event.

Austin Aries told Hulk Hogan that he wasn’t satisfied with the X-Division Championship and he wanted a shot at the World Heavyweight Title. Hogan then told Aries that he couldn’t be a dual champion, so he could either keep the X-Division Championship, or relinquish it for a shot at the biggest prize in TNA.

Aries presented a third option which he dubbed “Option C.” Wanting to set the precedent for the future, Aries told Hogan that he would cash in his title for a shot at the World Heavyweight Championship, but he wanted to be assured that every X-Division Champion after him would have the chance to cash in the belt for the same opportunity.

Hulk Hogan agreed and now every year at Destination X the X-Division Champion gets the chance to fight for the World Heavyweight Title if they choose to.

It’s no big secret that WWE’s cruiserweight division hasn’t been a huge hit with the fans and a lot of the problem seems to be not only that the division lacks star power, but that they’re completely separate from the rest of the roster as well.

Implementing a stipulation similar to “Option C” for the cruiserweight division could go a long way for the stars of 205 Live. Giving the Cruiserweight Champion the opportunity to cash in his title and fight for the WWE Championship would make the stars of the division look more credible in the eyes of the fans.

As of right now the cruiserweights exist in their own little world, but if one or more of them ends up getting over with the fans, WWE will need to find a way to make them look like serious contenders and “Option C” could do just that.