IMPACT Wrestling has come on leaps and bounds across 2020. However, one of the particular drawbacks and criticisms of the product has been the lack of fans inside the building.
While most fans will see it as logical, and IMPACT’s ability to tape weeks worth of content put them one step ahead of everyone else, there’s obviously no substitute for a live audience and the atmosphere having wrestling fans inside the building brings.
Inside The Ropes‘ Lead Writer Gary Cassidy recently asked the World Class Maniac, in an exclusive interview for Inside The Ropes, about the company’s UK television deal, and Young discussed how he can’t wait to get back to the UK for a live tour and tapings!
“Pro wrestling is a worldwide product, and being relevant in the UK and in other countries… I know the Pluto platform allows us to be in South America and other places like that. Pro wrestling is all over the place! We have an international roster and I feel we should be on internationally and being on again in the UK… Some of my fondest memories with TNA and even with the WWE is touring that part of the world.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1dXHm7JM_k
Eric Young even gave away part of his life plan, saying he may very well move to the UK, but remained coy on the reason why.
“I love that part of the world and I’ve got kind of a weird plan and maybe in a couple of years I’ll be living over there kind of full time. I don’t want to reveal that, there’s a lot of stuff in the works but it’s one of my favorite parts of the world. I love the culture, I love the cities and the fact that you can travel and all that stuff – and being on a legitimate sports channel, it’s huge! It’s huge for IMPACT and huge for all of us.”
The World Class Maniac went on to speak of the “unbelievable” crowds that “never let you down” and compared the passion of wrestling fans in the UK to those in Japan.
“The hope is, when the world opens up, getting back over there and doing a tour and maybe doing some live IMPACT tapings over there which, you know, the UK wrestling scene is unbelievable and the crowds never let you down, man, it’s such a cool thing to experience and it’s cool that pro wrestling is kind of this universal language, it kind of works in all other places. You can be in Japan and everyone knows who you are and they’re following you around – and same in the UK.
“So the deal that they got there, that AXS was able to do and IMPACT was able to to move back over into that market and be on a prime channel is huge. It’s huge and it’s a cool thing to think about what can come of it in the future.”
IMPACT is actually one of the few promotions to run a recent pay-per-view in the UK – ironically named Lockdown.
You can read the full interview here.
Thanks so much to Eric Young for taking the time, and to IMPACT UK & Ireland for facilitating the interview. Fans in the UK & Ireland can catch IMPACT! every Wednesday on FreeSports at 10pm. Hard To Kill is available via Premier Sports in the UK, and also via Fite TV worldwide.