Top 7 "What Ifs" in TNA/ Impact History By Hakeem Fullerton

Intro: Alternate history has always fascinated the minds of many for the sheer fact that people could look at a time or moment in history and speculate on what would have happened it things turned out the other way.

This is nothing new to wrestling fans, as many have speculated over the years on how the landscape of pro wrestling would be if certain decisions or storylines would have gone differently:What if Shawn Michaels had joined Scott Hall and Kevin Nash in WCW? What if ECW never did the Sandman Crucifix angle during Sandman's feud with Raven? What if the Finger Poke of Doom Never Happened? and What if Billy Corgan never came at the last second to give Impact the money they needed to run Bound For Glory in 2016?

These are just some of the "what if" scenarios that fans have speculated over the years but today I'll talking about seven "What Ifs" that could of change the direction TNA aka Impact Wrestling as well as scenarios could of affected the careers of many wrestlers at the time.

7. Fox keeps TNA on their programming

Before they started hopping from one TV Network to another in the hopes of finding a stable platform to show off their content, TNA who were still partnered with the NWA at the time manage to air their pay per view like events on Fox Sports Net in 2004 after spending the last couple of years airing their show on the internet.

The deal manage to get TNA some attention from the general public, who were getting sick of watching the WWE's programming following the demise of WCW and ECW in 2001.

The deal only lasted a year as the company decided to go from weekly pay per view events to weekly episodes and monthly pay per views.

Thankfully for TNA, they managed to scored a new TV deal with Spike in 2005 months after the iconic five star match between AJ Styles, Christopher Daniels and Samoa Joe at Unbreakable.

This would be the home for TNA/Impact Wrestling content until their cancellation and contract with the network expired in 2014.

So what would have happened if Fox Sports continued to support TNA into it's decision of becoming a weekly episodic TV Show running monthly PPV's?

For starters the network would have been host to some of TNA's best work during it's golden period of 2005-2009 thus, generating viewership numbers that would of kept the network executives on Fox happy thus, cementing the deal between Fox Sports and TNA for the foreseeable future.

Not to mention the exposure of being on a recognizable network like Fox Sports could opened up new possibilities that would help the company financially and have bigger presence than it's rival Ring of Honor at the time.

Perhaps, FS1 could of been what AXS TV currently is right now for the former TNA.

6. What If Cody signed an Multi-Year with Impact?

In 2016 at Bound for Glory, Cody and his wife Brandi Rhodes debuted in TNA attacking fellow wrestling couple, Mike and Maria Kanellis Bennett. Cody would be apart of Impact programming until his final appearance during the March 30th 2017 edition on Impact after failing to win the Impact Grand Championship from Moose.

Cody, in the midst of a brief stint in TNA also wrestled in Ring of Honor and New Japan Pro Wrestling as part of an non exclusive deal with Impact.

This eventually led to Cody interacting with names like Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks before a tweet by Wrestling Observer journalist, Dave Meltzer about an independent wrestling show would never be able to sell out a ten thousand seat arena.

This of course led to independent show known as "All In" being held in the Sear Centre Arena and making history as one of the first non wrestling events not under a big or established name in recent memory to sold out; and we all know what happened from there.

In a 2017 interview on the Sam Roberts Wrestling Podcast, Cody was asked about the potential of growth for Impact who would soon become Global Force Wrestling (GFW) and compared it to Ring of Honor, to which he responded with the belief that ROH has a better potential for growth due in no small part to the partnership involving ROH and NJPW.

Cody also mentions that he wouldn't sign any exclusive deals with other companies as it would take a lot of money to convince him. But what if Impact had the cash to sign Cody into a multi year exclusive contract? What would of have happened?

The first thing would of be Cody and Moose settling their issues culminating in a match that would of seen either Moose or Cody walk away with the Grand Championship.

Further, the company would have to do it's best to keep the Cody and Brandi happy meaning the company wouldn't ask for a percentage of what Brandi Rhodes made during a non wrestling event.

Not to mention that we would most likely see a triple threat match between Bobby Lashley, Alberto El Patron and Cody for the unified world championships at Slammiversary 2017.

And for just one second, imagine if Cody won the titles and the cards went down the same way as they did for El Patron in real life, we could of seen a program between Cody and Low Ki for the title at Destination X as well as a possible rematch for the title between Cody and Lashley before the latter would take partner in the "American Top Team versus Wrestlers" storyline.

And of course this means no "All In" event, no AEW and the WWE continues on with their agenda without any worry that their wrestlers want out of there contracts to wrestle elsewhere and the WWE doesn't go to extreme lengths to resign stars on their roster or to keep legendary figures like the Undertaker or Kurt Angle under contract, so that they wouldn't appear for non WWE events like Starrcast.

5. What If AJ Styles Took the Pay Cut?

According to a interview he gave with Title Match Wrestling years after the incident, AJ Styles who was the face of TNA Wrestling for a time mentioned during an interview about how management at the time asked him to take a 60% pay cut which lead AJ to response with "It's kind of crazy when that's the first offer, you're like wait, what? That doesn't make any sense. I've Worked here for 11 years, hard for 11 years. I've gotten more popular over the last year, so I don't know what's going on. This doesn't make much sense to me."

Not Surprisingly, Styles refused the offer but he did go out and wrestled his last match during an episode that aired in 2014 which saw Styles losing a unification title match to Magnus (aka Nick Aldis).

From there AJ Styles went on to wrestle in NJPW where joined the Bullet Club, formed a friendship with Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson, had a classic match with Shinsuke Nakamura at Wrestle Kingdom 10 and eventually joining the WWE in 2016.

Okay, so let's imagine in this alternate history AJ Styles out of sheer dedication to the company bafflingly took the 60% pay cut what would have happened next?

Well aside from making less money than before AJ Styles would probably continue to feud with Dixie Carter on screen leading to high a profiled match involving Styles and Ethan Carter the Third, to which EC3 would of won.

AJ also could of been booked to beat Magnus later on down the road and become world champion again thus, preventing people from accusing Impact of putting the belt on Eric Young was a copycat attempt of what WWE was doing with Daniel Bryan at time.

Not to mention, it would be Styles not E.Y. taking part in a program with MVP that would soon become a title match involving Bobby Lashley, Meaning the Eric Young would never be won champion.

On top of this, it was AJ's departure from the company that led to TNA originals like Kazarian, Bobby Roode, Eric Young, Christopher Daniels and James Storm to leave Impact for other promotions, if AJ stayed perhaps they would've stayed too.

Then again, the company was going through a financial crisis in 2016 especially so it is possible that AJ and the rest of the originals would've left then but what kind of shape would company have been in this time period?

It seems whichever way you look at it Styles would have ended up leaving the company before any actually chance of hope could actually appear for Impact Wrestling.

4. What if Christian's and Kurt Angle's Run in TNA were a Failure?

Christian's debut into TNA in 2005 and the trajectory his career took afterwards were changed for the better as he went being a tag team specialist and mid carder in WWE to becoming full fledge main eventer competing with names like Jeff Jarrett, Sting, Abyss, Samoa Joe, AJ Styles and Kurt Angle whilst winning the TNA and NWA world titles in the process.

Kurt Angle debuted less than a year later and began a program with Samoa Joe after a thunderous, head splitting Headbutt which led to an impressive tenure with TNA/ Impact that lasted 10 years, he also went on to have classic feuds with names such as the aforementioned Samoa Joe and Christian but also names like Bobby Lashley, Mr. Anderson, AJ Styles, Jeff Jarrett, Bobby Roode, James Storm just to name a few.

But what would of have happened if Christian and Kurt Angle's time with TNA/ Impact turned out to be absolute flops?

To begin with, Vince McMahon and all the naysayers who thought Christian would never become a serious main eventer would be proven right and Christian's hopes would be completely dashed, this either leads to Christian retiring in his prime or perhaps he heads to Ring of Honor where he finds success there and helps to lead ROH into becoming the true alternative to the WWE instead of Impact.

Meanwhile Kurt Angle's failure would do much more damage, as a wrestling promotion that has someone with the credentials and wrestling background of Kurt Angle being used or booked poorly would lead to not only terrible PR for that company but it would also discourage wrestlers from working with Impact, which could of led to TNA/ Impact looking at headlines talking about their demise long before Hogan, Bischoff, Dixie and GFW had the chance to cause it.

Kurt would have to either: wrestle in Ring of Honor (like Christian) and help ROH succeed, return to the WWE sooner than he did and help grow the next generation of pro wrestlers for Vince McMahon or perhaps the Olympic gold medalist goes on to pursue an MMA career which was rumored to have been an opinion for Kurt Angle at some point in his life.

3. CM Punk choses TNA over ROH

Cm Punk is a man that needs no introduction, he was the symbol and voice for a large sum of wrestling fans who were jaded from the WWE's PG product as well as seeing names like John Cena and Triple H taking over the main event scene.

However before he became the self proclaimed "Best in the World", CM Punk was a young wrestler in the early 2000's who took part in both ROH and Impact whilst the two companies had a working agreement at the time. Unfortunately a scuffle between Punk and Teddy Hart led to some serious bad blood between the two of them and with TNA management believing Punk was getting over as a babyface despite being booked as a heel at the time, the company put end to storyline involving CM Punk, Julio Dinero, James Mitchell and Raven.

However, the final straw came in March of 2004 when Punk quit the company after TNA refused to work with ROH anymore following the Rob Feinstein scandal.

Punk would remain with ROH leading to punk having a five star classic match with Samoa Joe, signing a contract for the WWE in the middle of the ROH ring and Punk's infamous promo after winning the ROH Championship from Austin Aries.

So what would have happened if Punk chose to stay in TNA instead of ROH?

For starters, TNA management would have been forced to acknowledge the crowds reaction to CM Punk and turn him babyface; there's also the possibility that Punk, with his ability to go high risk could transitioned into the X Division thus leading to classic bouts with Elix Skipper, Kid Kash, Christopher Daniels, Amazing Red, Low Ki, Jerry Lynn and of course AJ Styles.

And you know what could make this alternative history even more interesting: If Punk had stayed TNA right around the time Samoa Joe and Jeff Hardy came to the company.

This could of meant that during TNA's golden period the company could of seen not one but two five star matches involving Samoa Joe in TNA but, also the WWE Hardy vs. Punk feud from 2009 would of happened years earlier in the Impact Zone.

2. Hogan and Bischoff Never Signed with TNA/ Impact?

Okay, let's just get this bit out of the way without Hogan and Bischoff being apart of the company means that names like Orlando Jordan, The Nasty Boys, Lacey Von Erich, Sean Morley and The Band would never appear on Impact programming, the pseudo Monday Night Wars from 2010 would never happened, the company doesn't go through a myriad of bad decisions or financial troubles and Impact isn't looked upon as the "joke" of the wrestling world by the smarky internet community.

However, if you look back at some of the storylines that took place around this time, the history of this company could of completely different for example storylines that were never finished like Don West being Amazing Red's promoter or Jay Lethal open challenge could have gone somewhere, Desmond Wolfe's career could of also seen have classic feuds with names AJ Styles and Samoa Joe, not to mention that Tomko's reveal and return to Impact in late 2009 could of led to a months long feud where Tomko could challenge AJ for the world title and that's just a small fraction of what could have happened if Hogan and Bischoff had signed with Impact.

There's also the chance that Eric Young who was the leader of the heelish foreign group "World Elite" could of become world champion if management were will to pull the trigger on the idea and this would of made E.Y. world champion long before Daniel Bryan and the YES movement became a thing in the mainstream medias consciousness.

Not to mention what the careers of Samoa Joe, Christopher Daniels, Awesome Kong, Abyss and the entire x division who's careers and momentum were completely halted thanks to the new regime.

And let's not forget how New Japan Pro Wrestling fits into this story as well

It has become well known today that the reason for NJPW and Impact Wrestling's partnership coming to an end was the terrible booking of New Japan star, Kazuchika Okada who was used as Samoa Joe's henchman during Joes feud with "The Pope" D'angelo Dinero and a number of Xplosion matches where he lost every single one.

Remember all of this happened under the Hogan/ Bischoff regime but if Hogan and Bischoff never joined then it's safe to say that partnership between Impact and NJPW would probably still be going on today, the bullet club would've appeared on Impact programming and events like the G1 Climax would see New Japan cross promoting with Impact instead of ROH.

All of this and more could have happened if Hogan and Bischoff never signed with TNA/Impact.

1. What if Eddie Guerrero Joined TNA before returning to the

WWE?

The last "what if" I'm going to be mentioning on this list not only affects TNA/Impact but also affects the entire wrestling world as a whole.

Eddie Guerrero is simply one of the best wrestlers of all time and has been regarded as such even before his 2005 passing. Guerrero wrestled through personal demons, substance abuse, and injuries both in and outside the ring only to come out a better man in the process.

On November 12, 2001, Guerrero was released from the WWE following his arrested for drunk driving days earlier. Following this Guerrero traveled and wrestled around various shows and promotions like IWA, NJPW, World Wrestling All-Stars and most notably the debut show for Ring of Honor where he took on Super Crazy.

By April of 2002, Guerrero returned to the WWE where he would cement his legacy by defeating Brock Lesnar at No Way Out 2004 for the WWE Championship.

So, how does Eddie Guerrero end up joining TNA and why? The answer is easy, Eddie Guerrero's whole reason for wrestling in the indies was to get his life and career back to together, while at the same time wrestling/ putting over the future stars of the business.

So what if Eddie decided not to return to the WWE just yet and months later chose instead to wrestle for the small and relatively unknown company called "NWA TNA".

How this would happen? Eddie could take part in the over the top battle royale on the very first episode back in 2002 and become the very first TNA/NWA world champion thus, legitimizing the title by bringing in a well known talent like Guerrero who's star power could of gotten the company some recognition in the early days.

During his time as champion, Guerrero goes on to have a long and memorable title reign whilst wrestling in matches with names like Jeff Jarrett, AJ Styles, Ken Shamrock and Abyss before eventually dropping the belt.

What makes this reign as NWA world champion so important is that it could be used as a practice run for Latino Heat's confidence as a world champion as it helps prepare him for his eventual WWE title run later down the road when he returns.

Plus, it's easy to imagine Guerrero staying in TNA for a couple of years as the company's lacks schedule and smaller dates could of also helped him maintain his sobriety from drugs and alcohol while at the same time being a fixture for the company's X and Tag Team Division.

Now imagine what Eddie's decision on joining TNA would have done for the WWE; without Eddie Guerrero's death, Chris Benoit doesn't fall into a depression that ultimately led to the double murder suicide he committed back in 2007 but instead he becomes ECW Champion by beating CM Punk at the Vengeance PPV, he isn't permanently blacklisted from WWE and eventually gets inducted into the Hall Of Fame.

Furthermore, the wellness policy and WWE's maligned PG era would be created follow events like the Signature Pharmacy Scandal, Linda McMahon's political aspirations and the Concussion Lawsuit instead of the tragic deaths of Guerrero and Benoit.

In short, Eddie Guerrero joining TNA in the early stages of it's existence could of affected not only the careers of two of the all time best but also changed the wrestling world as we know it today.