TNA Impact!
| TNA Impact! | |
|---|---|
| File:Tnaimpact.jpg Current TNA Impact! logo | |
| Created by | Vince Russo Jeff Jarrett |
| Starring | See Total Nonstop Action Wrestling roster |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of episodes | 134 (as of February 1, 2007) |
| Production | |
| Camera setup | Multicamera setup |
| Running time | 1 hour per episode (44 minutes plus commercials) |
| Original release | |
| Network | Fox Sports Net (June 2004 – May 2005) Webcast, Sun Sports, regional TV networks (June 2005 – September 2005) Spike TV (October 2005 – Present) |
| Release | June 4, 2004 – Present |
TNA Impact! is a professional wrestling television program produced by Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) as its main television program. TNA Impact! is filmed at the TNA iMPACT! Zone, Soundstage 21 at the Universal Studios Florida theme park, at Universal Orlando Resort in Orlando, Florida. Admission to tapings of the show is free, though paying guests of Universal Studios Florida are given seating priority. Tapings are held biweekly on Mondays.
It currently airs in the United States and Canada on Spike TV, in the United Kingdom on Bravo 2, throughout Europe on Eurosport, in Quebec on RDS, throughout Asia on ESPN Star Sports, in the Philippines on ABC, in South Korea on Cinema Networks, and throughout Africa on Click Boogie.
History
In May 2004 TNA announced that they had negotiated a television deal with Fox Sports Net (FSN) where they would get a one hour timeslot on Fridays in most markets, putting TNA on unrestricted cable and satellite for the first time. TNA began taping TNA Impact! that month and aired the first episode on June 4, 2004. Impact! was also syndicated throughout Canada (on TSN and RDS) and Europe (on The Wrestling Channel and, also later, both Eurosport and Bravo 2). TNA's contract with FSN expired in May 2005 and was not renegotiated, with the last episode airing on May 27, 2005. The series as a whole gained little success averaging a 0.2 household rating.[1]
TNA was left with no television deal and, therefore, had no means of promoting their monthly pay-per-views (although Impact! did continue to air on certain regional networks, replacing TNA Xplosion on those networks). On July 1, TNA began streaming Impact! from their website via RealPlayer, in addition to enabling downloads via BitTorrent. To save on production costs, four hours of Impact! were recorded in a day and made available throughout the subsequent month.[2]
At the same time, TNA began seeking a more profitable television outlet, finally negotiated a Saturday night timeslot with Spike TV and began airing Impact! starting October 1, 2005. Two episodes were taped every other Tuesday, airing them on the subsequent Saturday.[3] TNA's syndication contracts for Impact! on local TV channels, from after the FSN contract, were converted to contracts for TNA's syndicated show, TNA Xplosion. They are no longer paying for the timeslot, though Spike TV controls their advertising revenue.[4] Because of viewership growth, Impact! was moved to Thursdays on April 13, 2006 and later in November, to an earlier primetime slot. Tapings were moved to Mondays.[5]
Starting in June 2006, episodes of TNA Impact! became available at the iTunes Music Store.[6] Unlike WWE, TNA has encouraged the posting of their videos on sites such as YouTube, going as far as to have official accounts on sites such as YouTube that post segments of past episodes of Impact! for public viewing.
Content
Being still a developing promotion, TNA maintains a similar style of programming throughout its weekly shows and pay-per-views. TNA uses a hexagonal ring that differs from other professional wrestling promotions and being set in a sound stage as opposed to an arena presents more of a local promotion atmosphere. The TNA roster is divided into the typical Heavyweight and Tag Team divisions and the X Division that focuses on a high-flying, high-risk style of wrestling. These three are represented by respective championship belts.
Impact! generally features two to four matches in the space of the hour, as well as numerous interviews and angles interspersed between the matches. Due to the nature of the wrestling business, advertisements for merchandise and upcoming pay-per-view events often serve as bookmarks for the commercial segments.
When Impact! was on Fox Sports Net, most matches had a time limit of normally ten minutes. In the event of a time limit draw, the winner was determined by the TNA Championship Committee, a group consisting of three veteran wrestlers. Since being dropped from FSN, Impact! has discarded the time limit concept. They still have three to five matches per show.
Commentators
- See also: Total Nonstop Action Wrestling roster
Mike Tenay is the play-by-play commentator and Don West is the color analyst. Jeremy Borash, Christy Hemme and Leticia Cline handle interview duties.
Spanish commentary is provided by Armando Quintero and "Moody" Jack Melendez. The French language version of Impact! on RDS is hosted (from a studio) by Marc Blondin and Pierre-Carl Ouellette. Both Bravo 2 and TWC Fight! have retained Mike Tenay and Don West as TNA announcers, Harry Weber and Christian Bruns (German version) and Axel (Portuguese version) among others. The Hindi version shown on STAR Sports takes place in its ESPN Star Sports studios.
See also
References
- ^ "2004 Television Ratings". Retrieved 2007-01-08.
- ^ "Impact! Taping Results from Orlando, FL for the next four weeks". 2005-07-20. Retrieved 2007-01-09.
- ^ "More on TNA's new television deal with Spike TV; debut & taping schedule". 2005-07-21. Retrieved 2007-01-09.
- ^ "Notes on TNA's debut on Spike TV in October, advertising situation, more". 2005-08-11. Retrieved 2007-01-09.
- ^ "TNA Changes iMPACT! Taping To Mondays". 2006-03-21. Retrieved 2007-01-01.
- ^ "No Surrender Note, iMPACT!/ITunes, & More". 2006-07-03. Retrieved 2007-01-01.