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92-610: AAA has a developed a reputation for its outlandish gimmicks and characters, and more extreme match styles. In addition to the conventional "squared circle", the promotion occasionally uses a hexagonal wrestling ring . The promotion has had working relationships with other Mexican promotions, as well as several American promotions; such as Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), Major League Wrestling (MLW), and All Elite Wrestling (AEW). AAA primarily hosts pay-per-views (PPV) events in Mexico, and has also promoted international events in

184-464: A car . On September 24, AAA announced that it would return to its first performances in early October after the announced project. In December 2020, FactoryMade Ventures , one of the co-producers of Lucha Underground , filed a lawsuit with AAA; claiming to have exclusive rights to distribute AAA events and merchandise outside of Mexico. On February 2, 2021, the company signed an alliance with SECTUR to promote Mexico's tourist destinations. Bearing

276-542: A 60% cut in pay and TNA founder Jeff Jarrett would resign from the company, but remained as minority shareholder until his temporary return on June 24, 2015, with the deal for his return including the transfer of his minority stake to Dixie Carter, making her sole shareholder. The following year Jarrett revealed plans to start a new professional wrestling promotion, Global Force Wrestling . Further departures in 2014 included TNA veterans Sting , Chris Sabin , Hernandez , Christopher Daniels and Kazarian all leaving

368-512: A creative writer and would assist in the writing and production of the shows. Russo states that he coined the name "Total Nonstop Action", the initials of the company "TNA" being a play on " T&A ". The original intention, as they were exclusive to pay-per-view, was to be viewed as an edgier product than WWE. Initially, TNA's weekly pay-per-view show operated as the company's main source of revenue, in place of monthly pay-per-view events used by other promotions. These shows took place mostly at

460-709: A deal with Pop TV to air Impact Wrestling , where it premiered on Tuesday, January 5, 2016, in a live special held at the Sands Hotel and Casino in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania . With this move to Pop, Impact Wrestling introduced a new HD set, graphics and theme music. This show saw the semi-finals and finals of the TNA World Title Series , which was won by Ethan Carter III . Husband and wife team Mike Bennett and Maria Kanellis would debut soon after. Subsequent shows would include episodes taped during

552-633: A deal with New Motion, Inc. which led to the introduction of TNA Mobile service. TNA has also launched "TNA U TV"; podcasts aired through YouTube to help promote the company. In August 2007, live-events coordinator Craig Jenkins stated that TNA intended to stage eight pay-per-views and 96 house shows outside Orlando, Florida, in 2008. From 2007 to 2008, TNA first toured Europe, hosting two shows at Porto and Lisbon in Portugal , with TNA later conducting its first tour of England , with most shows selling out which later broke TNA's attendance records with

644-401: A lien on TNA for unpaid taxes. Anthem Sports & Entertainment , parent company of Impact Wrestling ' s Canadian broadcaster, Fight Network , offered to help TNA and repay Corgan for the loans, while also offering additional financial assistance to TNA to help keep them from filing for bankruptcy. On October 31, Corgan lost his injunction that kept TNA from selling the company, but TNA

736-747: A live house show at MCU Park , which also broke the TNA domestic attendance record at the time and being the most attended live TNA house show in the United States, with a capacity crowd of 5,550. During the May 3, 2011, Impact! television tapings, the show would change its name to Impact Wrestling . On November 7, 2011, TNA revealed that Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) would become TNA's official developmental territory . In December 2011, TNA debuted their new India-based subsidiary promotion Ring Ka King . On May 31, 2012, Impact Wrestling began airing live at

828-570: A loan to Carter. Then on August 12, Billy Corgan became the promotion's new president, while Carter transitioned from president to the company's new chairwoman and chief strategy officer. It was reported on September 16 by the New York Post that Canada's Fight Network, through its parent company, Anthem Sports & Entertainment Corporation, had taken a stake in TNA. On October 13, Corgan sued TNA due to unpaid debt which Corgan claimed TNA had defaulted on. The State of Tennessee also put

920-485: A majority stake of TNA, re-organizing TNA's parent company with Aroluxe having 10 percent while Carter retaining a five percent minority stake in the company, but resigned as chairwoman after 14 years with the company, while joining the advisory board of Fight Media Group. The promotion's parent company, TNA Entertainment, was changed firstly to Impact Ventures and then to Anthem Wrestling Exhibitions, LLC., with Anthem's Executive Vice President Ed Nordholm becoming President of

1012-751: A master toy license agreement with Toy Biz , with various action figures and playsets releasing between 2005 and 2007. TNA would subsequently discontinue producing weekly pay-per-views in favor of a traditional monthly pay-per-view schedule, beginning with Victory Road in November 2004. TNA's television contract with Fox Sports expired in May 2005. Without television exposure, Impact! would continue to air through webcasts – originally made available via BitTorrent and eventually via RealPlayer  – and replace Xplosion' s timeslot on Urban America Television . On September 11, 2005, TNA held its Unbreakable pay-per-view. Unbreakable

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1104-496: A new start time of 8 p.m. EST on Thursday nights. The live schedule would continue throughout 2012. In 2012, Panda Energy divested itself of its stake in TNA. Dixie Carter , the daughter of Panda Energy founder Robert Carter, who had been serving as TNA's president, acquired that stake, making her TNA's majority shareholder. In March 2013, TNA began taping Impact from different venues around the United States and terminated its lease with Universal Studios . On March 14, TNA introduced

1196-514: A new universal HD stage which would be used for all weekly programming. On November 2, TNA ended its relationship with OVW. TNA formed a relationship with Japanese promotion Wrestle-1 beginning in July 2013 with a meeting between TNA founder Jeff Jarrett and Wrestle-1 head Keiji Mutoh . It was arranged for Jarrett to wrestle for W-1 in October 2013. In November, A.J. Styles successfully defended

1288-671: A number of luchadores for the Royal Rumble event and its namesake match. In April 2014, TNA founder Jeff Jarrett , who was credited for AAA & TNA relationship, had left the company. He announced that his new Global Force Wrestling (GFW) promotion would begin working with the AAA. TNA and AAA would continue to work with each other, including on such events as the Lucha Libre World Cup on May 24, 2015. When Jarrett returned to TNA (then known as Impact Wrestling) in 2017, it

1380-534: A number of signature events and tournaments: some shown as pay-per-view events and others presented as TV Azteca television specials. The annual shows and tournaments, shown in order of occurrence during each year, include: AAA has few restrictions on the number of championships it promotes, often allowing wrestlers to defend titles from other promotions; such as the Universal Wrestling Association . Such titles are defended on AAA shows as

1472-543: A partnership where the streaming service will distribute select non-live shows in most countries except the United States, South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa . On May 8, 2023, Impact announced their first ever Australian shows named Down Under Tour , a four-day tour with two marquee wrestling shows that took part on June 30 and July 1 in Wagga Wagga , New South Wales . At the conclusion of Bound for Glory on October 21, 2023, Impact announced that it would revive

1564-444: A referee was present to make the pinfall . The OVW Hardcore Championship had a trashcan passed from wrestler to wrestler rather than a belt. The GHC Openweight Hardcore Championship had a unique stipulation in that if a challenger who was outweighed by the champion survived 15 minutes, he won the match and the title. Total Nonstop Action Wrestling Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (abbreviated as TNA Wrestling or TNA )

1656-547: A report on August 7, TNA filed a new business name of Impact Ventures, LLC. Destination America gained over 41.94 million viewers over the course of 2015's first quarter, making this the channel's best first quarter ever, followed by their best May ever in prime time. In both cases, Discovery Communications touted Impact Wrestling as one of the reasons for the increase in viewers. Despite this success, Discovery Communications dropped Unlocked and Greatest Matches from their programming in May 2015. On November 19, TNA signed

1748-476: A result of creative problems, and stars such as Fuerza Guerrera and Blue Panther soon left too when the Mexican economy began to slow down (which resulted in the company's inability to offer as much work). Talent such as Rey Misterio, Jr. , Psicosis , La Parka , and Juventud Guerrera , would also depart to WCW in 1996, as well as Konnan's short-lived Promo Azteca promotion. In early 1997, AAA established

1840-554: A result of the COVID-19 pandemic . The following April, a tournament called Lucha Fighters was created consisting of 12 luchadores and 8 luchadoras . During the indefinite recess due to health contingency due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Mexico , on July 20, 2020, AAA announced its project called " AutoLuchas " which consists of a events in Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez where fans could see through from

1932-551: A series presenting the best matches in the company's history. From December 2014 to March 2015, several employees re-signed with TNA, including Kurt Angle , Jeff Hardy, Gail Kim , Mr. Anderson, Abyss and Matt Hardy . Awesome Kong also re-joined the company following several years of absence. During this period, veteran Samoa Joe and commentator Tazz left the company by mutual consent. On April 27, 2015, Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan joined TNA as senior producer of creative and talent development. According to

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2024-594: A show for the American El Rey Network in the second half of the year. The one-hour weekly program would be accompanied by monthly and quarterly specials as well as live pay-per-views. The show, titled Lucha Underground , premiered on October 29, 2014. The series ran for four seasons, and received generally positive reviews. Beginning in March 2015, the company announced that it would be known as Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide from that point on, although it

2116-515: A tour of England, which would be the last TNA appearances for Kurt Angle . TNA returned to taping Impact Wrestling at the Impact Zone at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida, beginning with a live Impact Wrestling on March 15. On March 19, longtime TNA wrestlers Eric Young and Bobby Roode left the promotion after 12 years. On April 22, Velvet Sky , another longtime TNA wrestler, left

2208-501: A way to promote their talents. This long-standing practice ended in December 2008, after the promotion announced it will no longer recognize or promote any non-AAA title. This list only includes AAA championships and does not include titles from other promotions. As of November 28, 2024. Hardcore wrestling Mid 20th Century 1970s and 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s and 2020s Hardcore wrestling

2300-745: A working agreement with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), with several luchadores appearing in the 1997 Royal Rumble . In the mid-1990s the name of the company was changed to simply be AAA (pronounced as Triple A ), as the company bought out Televisa and became independent. On October 6, 2006, founder Antonio Peña died of a heart attack. Following Peña's death, his sister Marisela Peña manages AAA financially; while Peña's brother-in-law Joaquín Roldán and his son, Dorian Roldán Peña serve as operational managers. In 2008, Lucha Libre USA presented AAA's second U.S. pay-per-view, Legendary Battles of Triplemania . In 2009, AAA announced

2392-450: Is a form of professional wrestling where disqualifications, count-outs, and all other different rules do not apply. Taking place in usual or unusual environments, hardcore wrestling matches allow the use of numerous items, including ladders, tables, chairs, thumbtacks, barbed wire, light tubes, shovels, glass, baseball bats (sometimes wrapped in barbed wire) and other improvised weapons used as foreign objects . Although hardcore wrestling

2484-720: Is a staple of most wrestling promotions, where they are often used at the climaxes of feuds , some promotions (such as Big Japan Pro Wrestling , International Wrestling Syndicate , IWA-MS , Game Changer Wrestling , Combat Zone Wrestling ) specialize in hardcore wrestling, with many matches performed in this manner. Hardcore wrestling was first acknowledged as a major wrestling style in Japan with promotions such as Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling and W*ING . It then became successful in America with Extreme Championship Wrestling . The World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment capitalized on

2576-584: Is an American professional wrestling promotion based in Nashville, Tennessee . It is a subsidiary of Anthem Sports & Entertainment . Founded by Jeff Jarrett and Jerry Jarrett in 2002, following the end of World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in 2001, the promotion was initially known as NWA: Total Nonstop Action ( NWA-TNA ) and was affiliated with the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) governing body. The promotion dropped

2668-427: Is often separated into distinct "levels" based on the graphic nature of the match: Hardcore matches tend to emphasize the use of certain weapons, the brutality of the attacks, moderate brawling techniques, and the extreme physical toll on the wrestlers, and thus many euphemisms for these matches are employed. The almost kayfabe -breaking accessibility of some of these weapons—often under the ring—to wrestlers has led to

2760-526: Is remembered for the three-way match main event for the TNA X Division Championship , between AJ Styles , Christopher Daniels , and Samoa Joe , which received a rare 5   Star match rating from wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer , the first one the company received. Later that year, TNA would secure a television deal with Spike TV ; Impact! debuted on the network on October 1, 2005. The episode saw Team 3D make their TNA debut. TNA would gain attention for

2852-499: Is still referred to mainly as AAA or "Triple A". On April 8, 2017, AAA General Manager Joaquín Roldán died. On 14 June, AAA began airing on FrontRunnerTV in the UK. In April and May 2018, some Liga Elite talent Teddy Hart, Juventud Guerrera and Taurus made their return to AAA wearing their Elite League jerseys. On June 4, at Verano de Escándalo , Jeff Jarrett returned after 3 years to defeat Rey Wagner and Rey Mysterio Jr. and win

Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide - Misplaced Pages Continue

2944-624: The TNA Impact ! video game . On October 23, 2008, TNA began producing its programming in HD . In addition, a new HD set for Impact was introduced, including new lighting, and large high-resolution screens. On June 21, 2009, TNA launched an online video-vault subscription-service where subscribers could watch past pay-per-views by choosing one of three payment options. In October 2009, TNA President Dixie Carter hired Hulk Hogan and former WCW President Eric Bischoff . Hulk Hogan first appeared on

3036-747: The When Worlds Collide pay-per-view event with World Championship Wrestling (WCW). The event was critically-acclaimed and is credited for popularizing lucha libre in the United States. Weeks after the show, Art Barr (a key member of Los Gringos Locos ) died while visiting his family. AAA subsequentally vacated the AAA Tag Team Championships, which led to the departure of fellow stable-mates (in Los Gringos Locos) Eddie Guerrero and Madonna's Boyfriend . El Hijo del Santo also departed as

3128-933: The America's X-Cup Tournament as a contingent known as Team Mexico . Team Mexico dominated the America's X-Cup Tournament, defeating Team USA in the first round before retaining the Cup against both Team Canada and Team Britain . They eventually lost at the World X-Cup , which saw Team USA defeat Team Canada and Team Mexico in the Ultimate X finals to win the Cup. TNA and AAA's working relationship would end in late 2004. TNA continued utilizing luchadores, but opted to contract them individually. In 2006, AAA and TNA would again team up for an event in Toreo de Cuatro Caminos , utilizing some of TNA's talent and stage (which includes

3220-582: The TNA World Heavyweight Championship at a Wrestle-1 show in Japan. From the period of 2013 to 2014, many well-known names or veterans of the company left TNA. In October 2013, Hulk Hogan 's contract with TNA expired, ending his time as creative consultant with the company. In December, AJ Styles left TNA after his contract expired. Styles later said that he could not accept TNA's new contract offer, which would see him take

3312-654: The Tennessee State Fairground Sports Arena in Nashville , nicknamed the "TNA Asylum". In October 2002, Panda Energy International purchased a controlling interest (72%) of Total Nonstop Action Wrestling from Jerry Jarrett. TNA (which originally traded as "J   Sports and Entertainment") was re-organized as "TNA Entertainment", LLC, in the process. Dixie Carter was appointed president of TNA Entertainment in spring 2003. Xplosion launched on November 27, 2002, as TNA's first regular cable show and featured exclusive matches taped at

3404-415: The "Impact Zone", at Universal Studios Florida and broadcast on Fox Sports Net (FSN). With the show's première, TNA introduced a six-sided wrestling ring, the implementation of the "Fox Box" displaying competitors and timekeeping for the match and a generally more sports-like style than the sports entertainment style exemplified by WWE. In June 2004, TNA issued a press release stating it had signed

3496-559: The "NWA" brand from its name in 2004, becoming Total Nonstop Action Wrestling . TNA continued to use the NWA World Heavyweight and Tag Team championships until this agreement ended in 2007; after which, the company would create its own World Heavyweight and World Tag Team championships. The promotion was purchased by Anthem at the beginning of 2017. In March of that year, it was rebranded to Impact Wrestling after its weekly flagship television show , but returned to

3588-406: The $ 2.7   million debt that was owed to him by TNA and, as such, he was considering suing, as well as converting the debt into a 36 percent stake. As the result of a settlement between Corgan and TNA, Anthem Sports & Entertainment acquired the loans Corgan made to Carter in the process. Anthem Sports & Entertainment , a company owned by former Canwest CEO Leonard Asper , purchased

3680-595: The AAA Mega Championship. Jarrett was assisted by Konnan, who also returned to AAA after 2 years. On February 1, 2019, AAA announced the end of their relationship with Televisa after 27 years, with the promotion's programming moving to the Multimedios television station. On February 3, after Super Bowl LIII , AAA reached an agreement with TV Azteca to broadcast their show on Azteca 7 . On April 4, 2019, AAA announced its first event to be held in

3772-558: The GFW rights; the lawsuit was ultimately settled out of court. Don Callis and Scott D'Amore became executive vice presidents in January 2018, taking charge of Impact Wrestling's day-to-day operations. At the first tapings under their tenure, the company reverted to a traditional four-sided ring, and the show also saw the return of former World Heavyweight Champion Austin Aries , as well

Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide - Misplaced Pages Continue

3864-816: The Hardcore-style matches that emphasize the spirit of JCW. Other euphemisms, such as the Good Housekeeping match and Full Metal Mayhem, emphasize the use of certain foreign objects as being legal (the former with kitchen implements and the latter with metallic objects). In a Fans Bring the Weapons match, wrestlers fight with "weapons" that members of the audience bring to the venue (most often brought are standard kitchen household appliances, like frying pans, toasters, or rolling pins, although its not unusual that fans occasionally bring in items that are far more improbable, like an artificial leg or LEGO); this

3956-575: The Impact (abbreviated as BTI ), and Xplosion was canceled after 19 years the following month. During No Surrender Impact announced a new partnership with New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). Don Callis' time as Impact executive vice president and on-air talent ended in May. Slammiversary 2021 marked the return of in-person spectators for the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. That month, BTI and Impact! would crossover for

4048-470: The January 4, 2010, episode of Impact! . Both obtained a position behind the scenes; with Bischoff part of creative and Hogan as a consultant. Under their tenure, TNA would see several revamps in 2010. Beginning with Genesis in January, TNA returned to using a four-sided ring. That month, Jakks Pacific announced a five-year agreement to produce TNA action figures. Impact! would also begin airing on Monday nights directly opposite of WWE Raw , marking

4140-524: The Japanese promotions. A new gimmick , breaking wooden tables , was introduced to ECW through Sabu , nephew of The Sheik. Sabu had developed a gimmick of throwing himself through a propped-up table in Japan in order to entertain the crowd and get his character over as a wild and possibly insane man. He then started to put opponents through tables, a relatively safe spot which looked and sounded devastating. He brought it with him to ECW, where it became

4232-556: The NWA, the company changed its name to Extreme Championship Wrestling, and became the leading independent hardcore wrestling federation in North America. ECW coined the term "hardcore wrestling", but its usage there was slightly different from how it is used today. In ECW, 'hardcore' referred to a strong work ethic , high levels of effort, dedication to the fans, and lack of fluff or filler. Their level of violence rarely equaled that of

4324-500: The November 19 episode. The final episodes of 2014 were Best of TNA clip shows. On January 7, 2015, Impact Wrestling moved to Destination America , with a live debut from The Manhattan Center 's Grand Ballroom in New York City. In addition to Impact Wrestling , which was now airing on Friday nights, two new shows produced were Impact Wrestling: Unlocked , hosted by Mike Tenay , and TNA Wrestling's Greatest Matches ,

4416-525: The TNA Asylum as well as exclusive interviews with TNA wrestlers and the promotion's original weekly pay-per-view shows took place mostly at the Tennessee State Fairground Sports Arena in Nashville, Tennessee . The last weekly pay-per-view took place on September 8, 2004, with a total of 111 weekly pay-per-views. In May 2004, TNA introduced its second weekly television program, Impact! (stylized as iMPACT! ), produced at Soundstage 21 , nicknamed

4508-656: The TNA branding in January 2024. From its inception, TNA had been considered the second-largest in the United States behind WWE a position it would hold for most of the 2000s and early 2010s. The promotion was known for featuring former top talent from WCW, WWE, and ECW , such as Raven , Jeff Jarrett , and Sting , free agents that were released from the WWE such as Kurt Angle , Jeff Hardy , and Mr. Kennedy (who wrestled as Mr. Anderson in TNA), as well as more homegrown wrestlers who had not appeared in WWE yet and mainly performed for

4600-592: The Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) name. From October 26 to 28, Impact held events in Scotland and England , marking their first United Kingdom tour since 2015. In December 2023, the promotion announced it had signed a new toy license with PowerTown, to release its first line of product in August 2024. The name change to TNA took effect in January 2024, with the first event under

4692-447: The United States and Japan. The promotion broadcasts shows regularly on Gala TV in Mexico, and Univision TDN in Mexico and parts of the United States. Mid 20th Century 1970s and 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s and 2020s Between April and May of 1992, Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) booker Antonio Peña broke with the company in favor of establishing his own group, along with Konnan , and much of

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4784-576: The United States, Invading NY , would take place at Madison Square Garden on September 15, 2019. The promotion also announced that would hold a second event in the US titled Invading Los Angeles , at The Forum in Inglewood, California on October 13, 2019. On August 16, 2019, it was reported by Pro Wrestling Insider that Invading NY was moved to Hulu Theater due to poor ticket sales. AAA would cancel and postpone its televised events in mid-March 2020 as

4876-527: The United States, two independent promotions had brief but significant runs, serving as prototypes for Extreme Championship Wrestling. The Philadelphia-based Tri-State Wrestling Alliance held occasional supercards that featured big name stars among their own local talent, and showcased wild bloody main event brawls with Abdullah the Butcher, The Sheik, Jesse James Sr. and others. The National Wrestling Federation (formerly known as Continental Wrestling Alliance)

4968-564: The World Wrestling Federation (WWF, later WWE ) gaining a monopoly on the industry. While on a fishing trip, Bob Ryder , Jeff Jarrett and Jerry Jarrett contemplated their futures in the professional wrestling business under a parent company known as J   Sports & Entertainment, LLC. Ryder suggested a company not reliant on television, but rather one going straight to pay-per-view . In July 2002, Vince Russo joined Jeff and Jerry Jarrett's NWA-TNA promotion as

5060-589: The World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment, ladder matches , which had become more common, were now combined with tables and weapons matches to create Tables, Ladders, and Chairs matches . ECW influenced wrestling organizations such as Xtreme Pro Wrestling , International Wrestling Syndicate , IWA Mid-South , Combat Zone Wrestling , and Juggalo Championship Wrestling , which carried on ECW's violent style after it went defunct. Hardcore wrestling has fallen out of favor in

5152-469: The bloody brawling style which caught on in Japan and the American South. New match types were devised that resembled street fighting , such as matches which were held in a cage , Texas Deathmatches which incorporated weapons, and Lights Out matches which were 'unsanctioned' and took place after the rest of the scheduled card, once the house lights had briefly been turned off to signify the end of

5244-528: The company during this period. In April 2017, it was announced on Impact! that the promotion would "merge" with Jarrett's newer Global Force Wrestling (GFW) promotion. In the lead-up to the Slammiversary ;XV PPV, Anthem officially announced its intent to acquire GFW to formalize the merger. The company subsequently announced that they were re-branding again and taking the GFW name in June;

5336-561: The company in that year, and the contracts of TNA Hall of Famers Bully Ray and Devon reportedly expired in October 2014, with TNA moving them to the alumni section of their roster in January 2015. In late July, the TMZ website reported that Spike TV was not renewing Impact Wrestling beyond October. TNA would refute the report, stating that negotiations were still ongoing. On August 14, Impact Wrestling moved to Wednesday nights. On August 20, TNA signed an extension with Spike TV until

5428-427: The company. It was reported near the beginning of 2016 that Aroluxe Marketing, a Brentwood, Tennessee–based marketing agency, had taken a stake in TNA at the start of 2016 in return for providing partial funding, as well as taking over TNA's production operations. It was reported in June 2016 that Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan acquired a minority stake in TNA from Dixie Carter, but he had instead provided

5520-525: The debuts of Karl Anderson and Heath Slater . After the events of AEW Winter Is Coming on December 2, 2020, Impact began a partnership with All Elite Wrestling (AEW), which lasted until Bound for Glory 2021 . AEW-contracted wrestlers Kenny Omega and Christian Cage held the Impact World Championship during this time; this marked Cage's first in-ring return to the promotion since 2008. In February 2021, Impact launched Before

5612-529: The debuts of new wrestlers such as Kiera Hogan , Su Yung , Pentagón Jr. , Fénix and Brian Cage . The company also announced a partnership with live streaming service Twitch to produce content for their platform, starting with Brace for Impact , which was co-promoted with New Jersey–based promotion WrestlePro. Their first live show was Impact vs. Lucha Underground , a co-promoted show with Lucha Underground . Impact! subsequently moved to Pursuit Channel beginning January 11, 2019. Two months later,

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5704-483: The empty arena match and fighting among the crowd into the concession stands , improvising attacks with whatever appliances could be found. More specialties such as ladder matches , scaffold matches and Dog Collar matches were introduced. The NWA eventually instituted a World Brass Knuckles Championship , which was active in the Tennessee territory from 1978 to 1980. In 1989, Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW)

5796-433: The end of 2014. In November 2014, TNA announced a new agreement with Discovery Communications to distribute its programming in the United States on Destination America and to selected international markets. Spike's outreach at the time was estimated to be more than 97 million homes while Destination America was estimated to reach 59 million households. Impact Wrestling ceased airing new televised events on Spike after

5888-749: The event. The National Wrestling Alliance had brass knuckles championships in the Texas and Florida territories, dating from the 1950s. (The Texas title was taken by World Class Championship Wrestling when it split away). Brawling continued to evolve and grow in popularity in America through the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. The Detroit territory was home to The Sheik , Abdullah the Butcher and Bobo Brazil , and featured long, bloody brawls. The Puerto Rico territory featured Carlos Colón , The Invader and Abdullah, and introduced fire as an element of violence. The Memphis territory featured Jerry Lawler , Terry Funk , Eddie Gilbert and Bill Dundee and introduced

5980-611: The first time that two major professional wrestling promotions would go head to head since the launch of WCW Monday Nitro in 1995. The show would permanently move to Mondays on March 8, 2010, Spike would keep the Thursday night slot open for repeats of the Monday night shows. During this time, Ric Flair , Rob Van Dam , Mr. Anderson would make their debuts, while Jeff Hardy would make his return. Impact! would later return to Thursday nights on May 3. On July 2, 2010, TNA hosted

6072-435: The first time, when Josh Alexander faced T. J. Perkins for the X Division Championship in Impact's first-ever 60-minute Iron man match , which began on BTI and concluded in the opening minutes of Impact! . Impact subsequently announced the end of their partnership with Twitch that August and launched a new YouTube membership program called "Impact Wrestling Insiders". In November 2022, Impact and DAZN signed

6164-620: The focus of a feud involving multiple teams. The table spot became a staple of ECW events, and has become so commonplace that it is now incorporated into otherwise non-hardcore matches in almost every promotion. In Japan, hardcore promotions sprang up around the country, including Wrestling International New Generations W*ING , the International Wrestling Association of Japan and Big Japan Pro Wrestling . New elements included fluorescent light tubes, scattered thumb tacks , flaming ropes and live piranhas . In

6256-689: The major American promotions; the last major hardcore title was the WWE Hardcore Championship , which merged into the Intercontinental Title in 2002. However, WWE still features a yearly pay per view event based around hardcore wrestling called WWE Extreme Rules . In 2006, the MTV -affiliated promotion/show Wrestling Society X featured hardcore wrestling, but was cancelled after one season. The main rule behind hardcore can have various connotations. Thus, hardcore wrestling

6348-600: The many high-profile talent that would join the promotion during the show's run on Spike. From 2005 to 2009, these include Kevin Nash , Rhino , Christian Cage , Sting (who made appearances at previous "Asylum" shows), Scott Steiner , Kurt Angle , Booker T , and Mick Foley . In April 2006, TNA launched a YouTube channel, featuring clips from Impact and exclusive content. Beginning with Bound for Glory in October 2006, TNA began holding select pay-per-view events outside of Orlando, Florida. In January 2007, TNA announced

6440-714: The mid-1990s, FMW eventually held female hardcore matches at the suggestion of Megumi Kudo . The first one was held between Megumi Kudo and Combat Toyoda as a deathmatch where the ring ropes were replaced with electrified barbed-wire with explosives. After the match, many female wrestlers had various brutal and bloody deathmatches in FMW with barbed-wire ropes, barbed-wire barricades, exploding barbed-wire barricades, electrified/exploding barbed-wire ropes, broken glass, or mixtures of any and all these. These matches often included various dangerous weapons such as barbed-wire wrapped chains, flaming barbed-wire baseball bats, and sickles . Most of

6532-542: The name of the tour as " Lucha por la Identidad Nacional ", this included shows such as Rey de Reyes and Verano de Escándalo . On August 14, Triplemanía XXIX was held at the Arena Ciudad de México. It was the first event since the pandemic began to have a limited number of fans in attendance for biosecurity reasons. Héroes Inmortales XIV would also have a limited audience present. In 1997, AAA partnered with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) to bring in

6624-494: The new parent company. Shortly after Anthem's acquisition of TNA, it was re-branded to Impact Wrestling. On January 5, 2017 Jeff Jarrett was brought back by Anthem to serve as a consultant and later promoted to executive producer and chief creative officer. Anthem re-branded the promotion as Impact Wrestling, after its primary television series two months later. Wrestlers Drew Galloway , Matt Hardy , Jeff Hardy , Jade , Crazzy Steve , Mike Bennett and Maria Kanellis left

6716-928: The noun "plunder" in reference to them. For example, Street Fights and Bunkhouse Brawls are hardcore-style matches which emphasize that wrestlers need not be in typical wrestling gear when they are battling, while the No Holds Barred match emphasizes the no-disqualification rule, the "HardKore X-Treme matches are the version of hardcore rules match except weapons include flaming tables, flaming chairs, flaming weapons, razor wire, sheets of glass, and weapons that are covered in barbed wire, and Deathmatches that emphasize fluorescent light tubes, panes of glass, barbed wire, fire, thumbtacks, razor blades, gusset plates, syringes, needles, explosives, bed of nails, staple guns, concrete blocks, alive piranhas and all other foreign objects to provoke extreme and heavy bleeding. In WWE , Extreme Rules matches are hardcore-style matches that emphasize

6808-427: The official release of a video game originally entitled AAA El Videojuego . The game was later retitled Lucha Libre AAA: Héroes del Ring , was released on October 12, 2010. AAA developed a working relationship with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) in 2004. Through the relationship, AAA sent the luchadores Juventud Guerrera , Héctor Garza , Abismo Negro , Heavy Metal , and Mr. Águila to TNA to compete in

6900-404: The pandemic, the promotion cancelled its planned TNA: There's No Place Like Home event, and Tessa Blanchard , who became the first woman to win the promotion's World Championship earlier that year at Hard to Kill , was fired and stripped of the championship after a long absence. Slammiversary saw the returns of The Motor City Machine Guns , Eric Young , Doc Gallows and EC3 , as well as

6992-569: The promotion announced that Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) would serve as its developmental territory once again. In May, Impact Plus replaced the Global Wrestling Network as the official streaming app for the promotion. Impact! began airing on Anthem-owned AXS TV after Bound for Glory in October. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic , Impact would hold events behind closed doors at Skyway Studios in Nashville. During

7084-613: The promotion later touring in Germany , Scotland and Ireland in 2009, France , Wales and the United Arab Emirates in 2010 and Belgium in 2012. In February 2008, Jakks Pacific announced it had signed a multi-year master toy license agreement with TNA, to release products starting in 2010. In March 2008, Tristar Productions acquired an exclusive license deal to produce and distribute TNA trading cards and memorabilia. On September 9, 2008, Midway Games released

7176-432: The promotion such as AJ Styles and Samoa Joe . (Some of whom would later be signed by WWE during the mid to late 2010s as TNA suffered financial issues). From 2015 to 2017, the promotion was viewed by some to have fallen behind longtime rival Ring of Honor ; with the loss of their U.S. television contract with Spike in 2014, as well as monetary and personnel issues, being noted as factors to their decline. By 2019,

7268-712: The promotion was viewed to have recovered through its sustained international distribution, and the purchase by its parent company of AXS TV ; which subsequently began carrying the promotion's programming. TNA is currently viewed as being the third-largest wrestling promotion in the United States; following the establishment of All Elite Wrestling (AEW) in 2019, and its current television deals with Warner Bros. Discovery 's TNT and TBS (both of which are seen in more households than AXS). Mid 20th Century 1970s and 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s and 2020s The concept of TNA originated shortly after World Championship Wrestling (WCW) ended in 2001, with

7360-562: The re-branding was short-lived as they severed ties with Jarrett that October and the deal for Anthem to acquire GFW was never completed. During that time, Anthem launched the Global Wrestling Network , a new streaming service which featured content from to their tape library and other sources. Jarrett subsequently filed a lawsuit against Anthem in the District Court of Tennessee for copyright infringement over

7452-467: The reinstated TNA banner being Hard To Kill . On February 7, Anthem Sports & Entertainment announced that Scott D'Amore's contract with TNA was terminated , with D'Amore being removed from his position as President of TNA, later being replaced by Anthony Cicione. From June 2002 until September 2004, the promotion's original weekly pay-per-view shows took place mostly at the Tennessee State Fairground Sports Arena in Nashville, Tennessee , nicknamed

7544-483: The spirit of its former competitor, Extreme Championship Wrestling . Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW) dubs the Hardcore match as " Ultraviolent Rules " match, the hardcore-style matches that could involve and emphasize ladders, tables, chairs, thumbtacks, barbed wire, light tubes, glass boards, fire, staple guns, and the spirits of Combat Zone Wrestling . In Juggalo Championship Wrestling (JCW), " Juggalo Rules " match,

7636-595: The success and introduced the WWF Hardcore Championship in the 1990s. The WWF soon began to turn the matches into comedy skits, illustrating the ridiculousness they involved. Hardcore contrasts with traditional mat-based wrestling, where solid technical skills are preferred over hardcore's stuntworks, blood, sweat, gore, and severe shock value . As professional wrestling entered the mid 20th century, promoters and performers looked for ways to heighten audience excitement. Blood , while initially taboo ,

7728-478: The tunnel and lasers). This partnership would end after Konnan left TNA in June 2007 and filed a racial discrimination lawsuit against TNA; The lawsuit was later dismissed. TNA would later start a relationship with CMLL from 2007 to 2009 , and would begin another working relationship with AAA in February 2010. On January 12, 2014, it was announced that, with the backing of Mark Burnett , AAA would co-produce

7820-569: The wrestlers who competed in these deathmatches, including some non-FMW rosters such as Shinobu Kandori , Lioness Asuka , and Mayumi Ozaki , were sent to the hospital afterwards. ECW's popularity led to the major American promotions of the 1990s, World Championship Wrestling and World Wrestling Federation , creating divisions devoted exclusively to "hardcore" wrestling (which mostly amounted to no-disqualification weapons matches). The divisions were at first largely centered around ECW alumni such as Mick Foley , Terry Funk, Raven and Sandman . In

7912-658: The young talent from CMLL. AAA would look for talent from other markets, as they found and signed Tijuana natives Rey Mysterio, Jr. and Psicosis . The promotion became known for signing top talent, such as El Hijo del Santo , Octagón , Blue Panther , the Casas brothers ( Negro Casas and Heavy Metal ), Los Gringos Locos , Cien Caras , Konnan , and Perro Aguayo . The rising popularity of AAA caused rival promotion Universal Wrestling Association to go out of business. Peña would quickly sign up top draws , including El Canek , Dos Caras and Los Villanos. In 1994, AAA co-promoted

8004-566: Was announced that both promotions would continue to be work together. In July 2015, Canadian-based International Wrestling Syndicate (IWS) announced a talent partnership with AAA. In June 2018, AAA partnered with Lucha Libre Elite . In August 2018, AAA started a working agreement with the American-based Major League Wrestling (MLW). In February 2019, it was announced that AAA would be partnering with All Elite Wrestling (AEW). Each year AAA promotes

8096-471: Was based in New York state. Both TWA and NWF featured Larry Winters and D. C. Drake , who engaged in a long blood feud. The two promotions ended about the same time, and National Wrestling Alliance Eastern Championship Wrestling took their place, with many of the same wrestlers and venues. Eddie Gilbert was the initial booker, and was replaced a few months later by Paul Heyman . After splitting off from

8188-422: Was found to be a significant draw, and the advent of the now common "no holds barred" match marked the beginning of what is now known as hardcore wrestling. Methods were devised for wrestlers to make themselves bleed purposefully as part of their performance. During the 1950s and 1960s wrestlers such as "Wild Bull" Curry , "Classy" Freddie Blassie , Dory Funk, Sr. and Giant Baba were among those who introduced

8280-564: Was founded in Japan, the first promotion dedicated largely to the wild brawling style. In the early 1990s, the Puerto Rican promoter Víctor Quiñones arrived in Japan, being invited to FMW as the special manager. FMW escalated the violence to legitimately dangerous new levels, with barbed wire ropes, timed C4 explosives , exploding wire ropes, and " land mines ", known as "deathmatch". The federation featured many future North American stars, and became very popular worldwide. Soon after, in

8372-534: Was popularized in the United States by ECW and is now a specialty in CZW. Below is a list of some common weapons. In promotions where Hardcore wrestling is present, a Hardcore title may come into existence. This form of title is defended under hardcore rules, and title changes are frequent. Some hardcore titles may have their own unique rules. For example, the WWE Hardcore Championship was defended under 24/7 rules, meaning it could be defended and won at any time, provided

8464-463: Was required to pay Corgan back by November 1. It was possible that one of the other minority owners could pay Corgan, effectively making them the majority owner of TNA. On November 3, the company revealed that Anthem Sports & Entertainment provided a credit facility to fund operations for TNA and that Corgan was removed as the promotion's president. However, Corgan himself stated that neither TNA nor Anthem Sports & Entertainment had yet repaid

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