On December 2nd, 2020, Kenny Omega defeated Jon Moxley to win the AEW Championship with Don Callis’s help. After the match, Omega and Callis ran to an SUV, but before they could run, Callis revealed that they would explain their actions on Impact Wrestling, setting the wrestling world into a buzz about two separate companies working together. The following week, fans began to see AEW owner Tony Khan and Tony Schiavone appearing in commercials to promote AEW.
In no time, Impact Wrestling quickly established a match featuring Omega and his former Bullet Club members, The Good Brothers (Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows).
Together, they took on Impact Wrestling world champion Rich Swann and The Motor City Machine Guns at Impact Wrestling’s pay-per-view Hard to Kill. Unfortunately, one-half of the Machine Guns member Alex Shelley, who could not perform due to reasons, was replaced by Moose.
Leading up to the match, Impact Wrestling did a great job establishing the feud. At the same time, AEW barely mentioned them except for Kenny Omega. Two weeks before the pay-per-view, Gallows and Anderson showed up on AEW Dynamite to take out Rey Fenix that night. The AEW broadcasters only mentioned that they were the Impact Wrestling tag-team champions.
After the Good Brothers finished Fenix off, AEW did not play their theme song, while Impact has played Omega’s theme from AEW on their show. On the final week before the pay-per-view, AEW chose to have a brawl to end the show instead of having Swann, Moose, and Sabin run in to beat up Omega the Good Brothers to promote their match.
At the Hard to Kill pay-per-view, Omega and the Good Brothers won the match. Omega put over both Rich Swann and Moose at the event. Since then, the Good Brothers and Omega are featured on both shows. This past Tuesday on Impact Wrestling, AEW tag-team Private Party and Matt Hardy showed up.
They battled James Storm and Chris Sabin for the right to battle the Good Brothers for the Impact tag-team championships. During the match Tony Khan and former TNA wrestler, now AEW agent Jerry Lynn appeared with Lynn helping Private Party win the match.
The next day on Dynamite, the AEW commentary team announced that Private Party had won the number one contender match for the Impact Wrestling tag-team championship on their show. However, Chris Sabin and James Storm did not appear on the show to continue the storyline.
This is a cause for concern for Impact Wrestling. Sure, they are getting more views on their Twitch channel, but wouldn’t it be nice if more of their wrestlers could appear on AEW Dynamite?
These two wrestling companies are working together to bring fans the best matches from both promotions. However, it seems like Impact Wrestling is becoming a minor league to AEW rather than being equal companies.
When it comes to talent exchanges, you want the wrestlers you are sending over to develop into better wrestlers than they are now. This is something that New Japan Pro Wrestling does so well with its partners. In this case, AEW could send wrestlers to Impact like TH2, Peter Avalon, Nick Comoroto, and a few others to get some ring time. On the other hand, AEW needs help in its women’s division, so why not have Impact send some of its women wrestlers like Taya Valkyrie and Jordynne Grace to help.
Another idea for this partnership is to allow wrestlers who used to be in Impact Wrestling to use their old names. For example, Santana and Ortiz are part of the stable called Inner Circle and were known as LAX in Impact Wrestling. Both wrestlers were popular when they were known as LAX. Why not allow them to use their old names? Then, they can appear on Impact and not only help the tag-team division over there, but they can also compete for the tag-team championship.
All Elite Wrestling needs to do a better job helping Impact Wrestling. Heck, Impact is one of two companies they are working with; the other is the NWA. AEW has been promoting the NWA Women’s Division over their own. AEW has a bigger audience, and Impact Wrestling has some outstanding wrestlers other than the Good Brothers and Don Callis, who can help them.
If this partnership is going to last in the long run, AEW should allow other Impact wrestlers to appear and start feuds with the AEW roster. It would be a win-win for not only the company but also the fans.
