10 Impact Wrestling Mysteries that Remain Unsolved By Hakeem Fullerton

Intro: When a company like Impact Wrestling has been around for close to 20 years, you know that certain storylines, plot elements or angles can end premature or get nixed before any really development can take place.

And that's precisely what we have hear: ten storylines that we shown on TV but for one reason or another they ended before they had a chance to get off the ground or left massive plot holes open that will sadly never be solved.

10. Where did Don West Go?

Although he has fallen out of love with some Impact Wrestling fans over the comments his made about the company in the last couple of years.

Don West was one of the most memorable voices for TNA from 2002-2009, due in large part to his commercials promoting upcoming TNA events, new merchandise being sold on SHOPTNA.COM and of course being the 'Jerry Lawler' to Mike Tenay's 'Jim Ross' during commentary.

In early 2009, Don West would turn heel on his broadcast partner, Mike Tenay even going so far as leaving him alone to do commentary for upcoming matches.While this ultimately made way for Taz to become Tenay's new commentary partner nothing was ever brought up about Don West's heel turn.

As if that weren't weird enough, on an October 15th episode of Impact, Don West returned to TV as the promoter and manager for then X Division Champion, Amazing Red.

With West's gift for gab and Red's extraordinary high flying abilities, the pairing seemed to be going places however by 2010 Red would continue on as X Division champion but without his promoter Don West.

Thanks in large part to the shakeup involving the new regime change of Hogan and Bischoff, many angles were dropped and this was just one of them.

9. General Manager Bully Ray

In 2015, Impact Wrestling was in bad shape at the time as TNA President Dixie Carter was running the show and after a number of high profiled names like Hulk, Hogan, AJ Styles, and Christopher Daniels left, the company's public image and stance as the second biggest wrestling company in the world was falling apart at the scenes.

However, on the July 15th 2015 episode of Impact, an unlikely individual stepped up to try and steer this ship back on course. This came in the form of former tag team and world champion, Bully Ray who had spent the latter half of his time with the company feuding with the Carter Family.

Bully went on to cut a semi work/ shoot promo on the state of the company and how the wrestlers, production crew and the fans deserved better.

Afterwards Bully Ray accepted the job as General Manager of Impact Wrestling with the hopes that a new beginning would arise for the struggling company.

Unfortunately, that never came to fruition as by the end of the night Bully Ray was attacked by someone in the backstage area but no one knows who (rumors have speculated that it was Tyrus and EC3 who attack GM Bully Ray but was never made public)

Following this, Bully who be gone from the company on July 24th, citing unhappiness with the "current state of affairs within the company".

The Bully Ray GM angle was never brought up or mentioned again and the bad press from Bully's departure only made matters worse for the company; thankfully by 2018 things would start to change for the better.

8. Bram gets kidnapped by Decay

Courtney Rush better known as Rosemary has been synonymous with the Impact Wrestling brand since her debut in 2016 as a zombie walking, Harley Quinn like character.

But while the Demon Assassin's career with Impact has been nothing but amazing there a few things that the company would like you forget... and her relationship with Bram is one of them.

In 2016, Rosemary began a strange love affair with British Wrestler, Bram. Rosemary's plan was to convert Bram into joining her macabre crew of face painted freaks known as 'Decay'; the angle would see Bram slowly consider the offer, mostly due to the Rosemary's sadistic but temptress ways.

A few segments between Rosemary and Bram where shown on TV describing the strange, if not convoluted backstory behind Rosemary's existence.

The final segment would see Bram refusing to go along with Rosemary or her group thus, leading to members Crazy Steve and Abyss to kidnap Bram and place him inside the back of a vehicle where it's seen driving to an unknown destination.

Months later Bram would be seen along with Eddie Kingston and James Storm wearing white masks and black suits as part of the DCC (Death, Crew Council).

This ultimately ended any hopes of a resolution to the Bram/ Rosemary/Decay storyline as well as what happened to Bram after he was kidnapped.

7. Trytan and the Masked Man

At Destination X 2005, "The Alpha Male" Monty Brown was set to square off against the 6 foot 10 giant known as Trytan...Who?... Exactly.

In 2005, a number of vignettes aired on Impact (then known as TNA) prompting the arrival of Trytan, a Terminator inspired knock off whose theme song would eventually be used for the heelish British faction known as "The British Invasion".

Trytan would appear on a few episodes stalking and distracting the alpha male, leading to their match at Destination X.

The end result was a match so difficult to watch that it would make Undertaker vs. Goldberg at the Super Showdown look like John Cena vs. CM Punk at Money in the Bank 2011.

As if seeing two big men stumble around each in front of a pay per view audience who could give less of a crap about the "match" they were seeing wasn't bad enough, the lights went out for a few seconds only for them to come back on and an unknown masked man dressed in all black is seen inside the ring attacking Monty, whilst Trytan is nowhere to be found; the Alpha Male then hits his trademark 'Pounce' maneuver on the masked man and pins him for the win (even thought he wasn't suppose to be in the match to begin what)?!

The masked man was never seen again after Destination X and aside from a tag team match with Simon Diamond at Slammiversary 2005's preshow nothing else materialize in regards to Trytan's career as he left the following month.

By the way, the person who played the masked man was Dennis Knight also known as Midgeon aka Naked Midgeon.

6. Raquel and Bobby Lashley

It may be had to believe with his current and previous runs in the WWE, but from 2014-18 Bobby Lashley was a prime example, strength, speed, MMA and Wrestling training combined into one.

Although his mic skills were average during his time with Impact, someone decided to give the man known as "Walking Armageddon" a valet.

In January of 2016, a purple haired Brazilian beauty named Raquel started to make appearances on the show with a keen interest in Lashley.

She would show up after his matches or backstage and tell Lashley "I Could bring you Pain or I could bring you Pleasure."

This looked like the beginnings of an association between the former world champion and the unknown woman but the angle never went anywhere as the storyline was quickly axed with no reasons as to why or what the pay off would have been.

Raquel would eventually return to TV and become the valet for Robbie E and Jessie Godderz before wrestling in a handful of matches on Xplosion as a selfie loving bad girl before leaving the company with little to no fan fare.

5. Eddie's favor to Raven

In late 2018, Moose had turned heel after turning on his best friend Eddie Edwards and committing him to an insane asylum. A few weeks later Eddie gets visited by ECW Alumni Raven, who mentions that he likes to make trips to the insane asylum.

Which is "fine" I guess?!

During their meeting, Eddie mentions that his not crazy and that he needs get out so he can get revenge on Moose.

Raven gives Eddie a key card which will help him escape the asylum but not before Eddie tells Raven "I owe you one", to which Raven responds with "Ya, yea do."

Months later Eli Drake (who was feuding with Abyss at the time) visits the asylum, telling Raven that he'll destroy the last vestiges of Hardcore Wrestling and wants him to watch what he does next.

Weeks after that Tommy Dreamer and Raven are seen in the ring together attacking Eli Drake, with Dreamer and Raven standing tall.

As of now, this was the last time Impact fans saw Raven on TV and seeing how Eli Drake left the company in early 2019 and Eddie Edwards nor the company has mentioned Raven or his favor since Eddie's escape, it's likely that this little plot hole will remain unanswered.

4. Who were the other Willows?

In 2016, Jeff and Matt Hardy began another chapter in their sibling rivalry when Jeff left his brother Matt in ruins following a no-contest decision in their 'I Quit' match on an episode of Impact.

In the following weeks, Jeff Hardy and many other wrestlers would spot individuals who look like Jeff Hardy's alter ego, Willow the Wisp in the backstage area ultimately attacking Jeff and leaving him injured.

On May 17th episode of Impact, the Willows attacked Jeff in the middle of the ring only to discover that one of the imposters was his own brother, Matt.

This would ultimately set the stage for Matt Hardy's greatest gimmick change as "Broken Matt Hardy".

The Willows would return for another episode of Impact following Matt's rematch with Drew Galloway for the world title but they haven't reappeared since then.

This brings up the question on who they other Willow imposters were and was their connection to the Hardy Boys.

Unfortunately, due to Jeff and Matt leaving Impact in 2017 and both planning to spend the rest of their in ring careers in the WWE, it's unlikely that we will ever find out the answers.

3. Planet Jarrett and Jackie Gayda's blackmailing secrets?

While Jackie Gayda is best known for her infamously match with Trish Stratus, Bradshaw and Chris Nowinski; People might not know is that she debuted with Impact (the known as TNA) on November 26, 2005 with the goal of blackmailing Jeff Jarrett (in Kayfabe).

Gayda's reasoning behind her blackmailing plot was that Gail Kim stole a position away from the former WWE Diva that was promised to her by Jarrett himself.

Though it's unclear what Jackie's salacious evidence over the TNA Founder was at the time, the storyline would have new a element thrown into the mix.

Jarrett hired former TNA Tag Team and X Division champion Alex Shelley, who's gimmick at the time was that of a camera wielding, gossip spreading paparazzo who video taped other wrestlers or wrestling personalities doing interesting things that fellow wrestlers could use as leverage over their opponents.

When Jeff and the rest of his stable discovered this tapes, Jeff threaten Jackie to join his group or the scandalous tapes would be revealed to the public.

The angle was eventually dropped in mid 2006 when Jackie became pregnant in real life to which Gail Kim fired Jackie (in Kayfabe) and was released from the company not too long afterwards.

What was the secrets that Jarrett and Gayda had over each other, your guess is as good as mine...

2. Awesome Kong: Leader of The Dollhouse

Man! 2016 was a quite a year for Impact Wrestling in regards to building and dropping storylines as this here is another example of that.

On April 24th 2015, then Knockouts champion Taryn Terrell defeated Awesome Kong on an episode of Impact thanks to the interference of Jade (Mia Yim in the WWE) and Marti Bell of "The Dollhouse".

After the match, it's revealed that Taryn was the leader of the group and went on as KO champion until she lost the belt to Brooke Tessmacher on July the 15th.

Following this Terrell was sidelined with a hand injury thought she would make a few a appearances on the jumbotron instructing her fellow dolls to attack, even adding Rebel as a new member to the group.

Bafflingly on January 5th 2016, Awesome Kong turned heel and became the new leader of the dollhouse following Taryn Terrell's release from Impact, in which the group went on to have an uninteresting feud with the reunited "Beautiful People".

Kong's tenure as the leader of the Dollhouse would not last or be resolved in storyline form because on February 5th 2016 she would be released from the company following an altercation between herself and Reby Sky Hardy (the wife of Matt Hardy).

Then leader of the Knockouts, Maria Kanellis Bennett made an impromptu triple threat match involving all three remaining members of the group with the winner getting a title shot at the Knockouts championship, which resulted in Jade winning and eventually becoming Knockouts Champion and ending the stable once and for all.

1. Who Kidnapped Samoa Joe (and Why)?

Undoubtedly the holy grail of unsolved mysteries and storylines within the history of Impact Wrestling was the time that former World and X Division champion, Samoa Joe was kidnapped following an upset lost to Orlando Jordan (of all people).

Following his match, Joe was seen leaving they arena as backstage interviewer Jeremy Borash tried to interview Joe, only for a white van to drive up out of nowhere and a bunch of men in black clothing to appear and kidnap the Samoan Submission Machine before driving off.

While a quick video package in which Joe speaks to a shaky camera was shown on TV, it was on the April 19th edition of Impact when Samoa Joe resurfaced on TV to be apart of Team Hogan for the 2010 Lethal Lockdown match.

The big questions everyone has are: Who kidnapped Samoa Joe and Why? Where was he all this time? How did get his hands on that camera to record that message he made? and how did he escape?

According to various sources, Vince Russo created a psycho gimmick involving Samoa Joe; However, due to a desperate need of babyfaces for the Lethal Lockdown match Joe resurface as a babyface and the angle was dropped with Russo having no idea on how to continue or finish up the storyline.

Years later and with Samoa Joe in WWE and Vince Russo being persona non grata in the eyes of many, its highly unlikely this storyline will ever be finished. Thus, making this the biggest unanswered mystery in Impact Wrestling History.

If you enjoyed my article or would like to see a part 2 on this topic please leave your thoughts below and follow me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

And for more Wrestling Related Lists this one, here are the links to some of them down below:

Top 7 "What Ifs" In TNA/Impact Wrestling History:
https://blogofwrestling52.blogspot.com/2019/09/top-what-ifs-in-tna-impact-history-by.html

Top Ten Best Things Under the Hogan/ Bischoff Regime: