Impact Wrestling Announces Move To AXS TV

Impact Westling has announced the move of its television program to AXS TV. The announcement comes just three days removed from Anthem’s acquirement of AXS TV, as well HDNet Movies.

Anthem Sports and Entertainment is the parent company of Impact, which means the promotion’s move to AXS was perhaps a foregone conclusion. Many pro wrestling insiders predicted the move from the beginning and now those predictions have indeed become a reality.

#IMPACT Wrestling Announces Move to @AXSTVhttps://t.co/8sU3fuNdgr pic.twitter.com/zudtQliEj9

— IMPACT (@IMPACTWRESTLING) September 12, 2019

Impact wasted no time with the announcement, as the debut on AXS will happen in October of 2019. However, the company has yet to reveal the time slot for the program’s premiere episode.

One curious sidebar to this story is what will happen with AXS TV’s deal with New Japan Pro Wrestling. AXS has featured NJPW since 2015 and most of the time, those episodes were taped from one, sometimes two, weeks before. But AXS also broadcast live events from the company as well, including the first night of the G1 Climax Tournament on July 1.

New Japan’s status as a programming partner of AXS TV is currently unknown. Women of Wrestling, the other pro wrestling program that airs on AXS, is expected to return for season two, though that has not been confirmed since the Anthem announcement.

Anthem acquired Impact in January of 2017, when the promotion was still using the name TNA Wrestling. TNA’s last stable network home was Spike TV, where the company attempted to compete with WWE in 2010, by going live on Monday nights.

Impact Wrestling is currently airing two hours of content every week on the Pursuit Channel, which is also owned by Anthem Sports. It’s unknown if that runtime could decrease, or increase, when the program moves to AXS TV. Many fans have had a difficult time finding Pursuit, which may not be a problem now, as AXS is more widely available on both cable and satellite.