It was recently announced that Impact Wrestling is Impact Wrestling no more. The company has officially become Global Force Wrestling, and this Sunday GFW will present its first pay-per-view in the form of Slammiversary.
Jeff Jarrett returned to Impact Wrestling earlier this year after Anthem bought the company, and Jarrett appears to have a plan in place to grow the promotion. He recently spoke to Sports Illustrated and noted that Slammiversary will kick off the beginning of a five year plan for the company.
“I consulted with Anthem in January, and we came to an agreement by mid-February,” explained Jarrett. “March was a whirlwind of activity, and we started change in March, but we are still getting the pieces of the puzzle in play. Slammiversary is the beginning as we move toward Bound for Glory, but we are, realistically, looking at 2018 to fully implement our five-year plan with Anthem.”
Of course in order to grow the brand, GFW will need a TV deal, and there are still a lot of questions surrounding the promotion’s future on POP TV. Jeff Jarrett didn’t specify whether or not the weekly TV series will air on POP in 2018, but he did note that he hopes the show will be able to air live on a more consistent basis.
“We want to be on television in 2018,” confirmed Jarrett, who did not specify a network to air Impact. “And I’d love to go live. Success will dictate that. It is no secret that the whole industry is moving toward video on demand, but there is nothing like a live experience and feel. Watching wrestling live completely changes the experience, and that is a major reason why we are going back on the road for live shows in August.”
UFC Hall of Famer Stephan Bonnar is making the jump to professional wrestling, and on this week’s episode of Still Real Radio we’re talking all about it. Bonnar is teaming up with Phil Baroni to form a tag team called The Real Shooters and they’ll be wrestling their first match in just a few weeks. You can subscribe to Still Real Radio on iTunes, and you can check out the latest episode below.
