Brian Mann & Nate Milton are joined on the Satellite Of Hate by POST Wrestling’s Andrew Thompson. The guys break down the latest news from AEW and ROH, discuss the latest Twitter-fueled wrestling controversy, and review Impact Wrestling’s first PPV of the year!
Review begins at 52:27
Impact Wrestling ‘Hard to Kill’ Sunday, January 12, 2019 Dallas, Texas at The Bomb Factory
*Impact World Title: Sami Callihan (c) vs. Tessa Blanchard
*Impact World Tag Title Handicap Match: Ethan Page & Josh Alexander (c) vs. Willie Mack
*Impact X Division Title: Ace Austin (c) vs. Trey
*Impact Knockouts Title: Taya Valkyrie (c) vs. ODB vs. Jordynne Grace
*Call Your Shot Trophy: Eddie Edwards vs. Michael Elgin
*Ken Shamrock vs. Madman Fulton
*Rob Van Dam vs. Brian Cage
*Rob Van Dam vs. Daga
*Rhino vs. Moose
Staying away from the Tessa controversy, I think the comments about the women’s division looking bad with Tessa competing for the Impact title isn’t to do with the Knockouts’ division not having talent. It’s to do with the fact the top woman in the promotion is being presented as being too good for the Knockouts’ division which suggests the Knockouts’ title isn’t supposed to be the women’s equivalent of the Impact title. It’s now like a stepping stone.
Yup it is one of the issues with inter gender wrestling. It frames the women’s title as a lesser title because only a subset of the roster can fight for it. So if women can fight for any title the women’s title becomes the defacto lowest ranked title. It is the same problem the cruiserweight title has. As soon as one guy from that division moves up to the top level it lowers the value of the title. Wrestling struggles with sending the message that size doesn’t matter, but that small guys need a belt to compete for.
For each you can do it if you establish the title as lesser but important, and the person who moves up has dominated that division for a long period of time, but that rarely happens in the US.
In the case of Tessa this wasn’t True, she had one decently long reign (9th longest) and lost to Taya, who has a current Reign that is twice as long as Tessa. If they wanted to keep things strong you have Tessa have a year plus then relinquish undefeated to move up. That still lessens the rest of the women, but it is better than her moving up after losing. Like why doesn’t Taya move up and challenge?
Going by Taya Valkyrie’s post match interview, she intends to challenge Tessa Blanchard. Champion vs. Champion. I don’t know if that means they’re unifying the titles or if Taya was just saying stuff to get out of addressing the controversy. She also says it could be her vs. Brian Cage for the Knockouts’ title so it could be the latter…
I think Impact is just looking to gain attention and putting the belt on Tessa does that. They’re less worried about how one title might effect another and just want eyeballs on the product. Totally worth the risk to try it out, IMO.
I dont think long term really matters to them. They want more attention now and this is getting them that. They put the belt on Eric Young before so Tessa as champ is fine.