Want more wrestling news, rumors, and results? Be sure to visit PWInsider.com and PWInsiderXtra.com.
The next two weeks of Impact Wrestling on AXS TV programming will be Best of 2023-themed.
The official launch of TNA+ as the streaming service that replaces Impact+ will be 1/5/24.
The promotion's website is already pointing to the TNAWrestling.com URL.
Online now for PWInsider Elite subscribers is a 61 minute conversation with Dave Penzer about exiting the promotion, why he's thankful for the run, working during the pandemic, Jade Chung taking over his role as ring announcer, the chaos working for WCW, a book project he is working on and more. He noted that he knew about six months ago, he knew he would be finishing up at Final Resolution.
On the company honoring him that night, Penzer said, "I was blown away that they just brought me up to have closure. Normally on a one off pay per view without TVs, they don't bring me up, especially when the person who's replacing me is there anyway, but and that was a tell that I was, I could expect a call that, so that, that was going to be a wrap up because they usually use somebody local, like when they do the New Japan combo pay per views with Impact and stuff like that. When Scott called, he said he wanted to bring me up to give me some closure and I'm thinking, who does that? I live in Tampa, so you're paying for a plane ticket for what's essentially a B-pay per view. Put me up in a hotel room, giving me a payday, just so I could say goodbye to people and I thought to myself, that's incredibly classy. I can't think of who does that. I can't think of anybody who would have, who wouldn't just said, 'Hey Dave we don't need you anymore.' As we talked about that, earlier we're not going to move forward. I certainly wasn't expecting what happened. Until he called me into the ring, I wasn't expecting what happened that whole thing in production meeting was going to be get all the wrestlers out to the ringside and do a send off of Impact Wrestling, not a send off with David Penzer. So yeah, incredibly blown away. I hope to get video of it that they taped and hopefully we could post it online. But at one point I got a little emotional. I didn't cry, but just it's an incredible company. Classy and the locker room is like a family, not only the locker room production, management, everybody works so hard. I'm disappointed that I can't be a part of it anymore, but like I said, I'll be rooting. I like an old grandfather, I'll be rooting from the side."
We also have a 20+ minute discussion with PCO about deciding to remain with the company, the change to the TNA brand, mitigating the chances and violence he endures during his matches and more. On remaining with the company, PCO explained, "I was leaving. I didn't know that 2024 was going to be the rebirth of TNA. That was kept in the secret like for a long time from a lot of the guys, a lot of the boys, a lot of the roster, a lot of the even producers. I think it was a super well kept secret, and I was not aware of that when I wanted to leave. That's one thing. The second thing was like it was a lot going on at the moment on my side and on the company's side. With a lot of contracts we were coming to an end. There was a lot of renegotiations. So I felt we started on a good foot. The negotiation was started very super well and for a while I felt like maybe the contact between the two sides on each side, both parties, was not where it was supposed to be. For whatever reason, there's so many things that happen behind the scenes as far as a wrestler and as far as a competitor and as far as a person and sometimes you start to get new scenarios in your mind, but the scenarios that maybe you come up with, maybe they're not actually what the other party hasa for scenario. I was doing the last days of my actual contract, which was finishing on October on the 30th or 31st, something like that, so just a little bit before the end of of my contract was going to expire. Then there was, suddenly, a lot of talk between myself and the higher executives in the company and it went from like almost having no talks to having a super awesome talk together. Once we got together towards the end, just before I was leaving, once we got together, then I knew right away, I was going to be the first signing of The new TNA era, and I knew that's where I wanted to be. I wanted to be part of that. So, I wanted to be part of that that, the rebirth of TNA and I wanted to be a key player in that rebirth. So all the all the negotiations towards the end made it easy for me. It was like everything flipped and then the last week before my contract ended up, it changed enough so that I could change my mind and say, okay, I'm gonna [stay], I want to be part of this."
Upcoming dates for the relaunched TNA:
1/13 - Hard to Kill PPV at The Palms in Las Vegas.
1/14 - Snake Eyes TV Taping at The Palms in Las Vegas.
1/19 - TV Taping at Osceala Heritage Park in Orlando.
1/20 - TV Taping at Osceala Heritage Park in Orlando.
2/23 - TV Taping at the Alario Center in New Orleans.
2/24 - TV Taping at the Alario Center in New Orleans.
If you enjoy PWInsider.com you can check out the AD-FREE PWInsider Elite section, which features exclusive audio updates, news, our critically acclaimed podcasts, interviews and more by clicking here!
Bang On Casino
