Missed Opportunity for Impact

   At this point, the words "missed opportunity" and Impact sound cliche.  They just go hand in hand and have for a number of years.  Honestly, there's too many to mention so I'm going with something specific that came to mind.  This may not be something people would have thought about but it's been in my brain for quite some time.  Before I start, here's a little context!

   

   If I'm being honest, and many people might agree, the NWA itself as a promotion, and especially the NWA World Heavyweight Title, hasn't meant much, if anything, in a long time.  Look back to 1994 when "The Franchise" Shane Douglass threw down the NWA Title in that infamous speech, marking the true beginning of Extreme!  Douglass mentioned that the NWA was basically a dead promotion and their championship meant nothing.  I couldn't argue with that then and I can't argue with it now.  

   The NWA was once the most prominent promotion in all of professional wrestling.   Names come to mind such as Lou Thesz, Dory Funk Jr., Jack Brisco, Harley Race, Terry Funk, Dusty Rhodes, Ric Flair, Ricky Steamboat, and Sting.  Absolute legends of the business!  The NWA name rose slightly with Jerry and Jeff Jarrett's creation of Total Nonstop Action (TNA).  Oh, how I loathe the TNA initials!  It's not clever and frankly, it stalled any chance of the company being taken seriously.  

   The first few years of TNA saw shows like The Asylum and then Impact grow and such was their use of the NWA World Title.  Despite my diatribe about its meaning, the letters NWA still had some value.  In fact, NWA had enough value that the Jarretts should have tried to purchase the promotion and lay claim once and for all to the NWA World Heavyweight Title.  After ECW was gone and WCW was purchased by Vince McMahon, he held a monopoly in wrestling.  TNA's presence added more to the table and a slight form of competition, which is what made the Monday Night Wars thrive.

   The first several years of Impact's existence as TNA took names like AJ Styles and Samoa Joe and made them stars when they became the NWA World Heavyweight Champion.  Of course, Jeff Jarrett himself was a mainstay in that of championship contenders, but then you add legends like Sting and Kurt Angle, up and comers like Abyss, and journeymen like Christian.  These names ignited a new fire for the NWA!  In a move that Impact's owners thought was a good business maneuver, they broke away from the NWA, much like the AWA, WWF, WCW, and ECW had before.  

   But it wasn't just the World Heavyweight Championship division!  The NWA World Tag Team Titles once again rose, now with amazing teams such as America's Most Wanted, Triple X, LAX, and the legendary Dudley Boys.  Another thing that brought Impact to the table was their X Division.  The talent in the company was great!  Bobby Roode, Eric Young, Christopher Daniels, and many others took the company to new heights.  Even after the initial break-away, things were going great!  I personally enjoyed the AJ/Joe/Daniels triple threat matches, the Main Event Mafia, Motor City Machine Guns, Beer Money, and many other things they had to offer.  Another thing that set them apart was their six-sided ring, which I did not care for myself, but like I said, it set them apart!

   

   With the talent there, and a known name like NWA, I think going all the way and getting rid of the letters TNA would have made a significant difference.  Again, the letters TNA sound juvenile, like young teenage boys thought them up!  I just can't take a company like that seriously!  Yes, in recent times, they finally broke away from TNA but too little too late.  But maybe they were doomed either way!  The company has never had its act together, losing money left and right, letting Jeff Jarrett be the champion way too much, and losing their MVP in AJ Styles.  How could that have happened?  Dixie Carter was a joke and their failed attempt at competition for a new Monday Night War was laughable.  

   What I'm getting it is, the NWA could have risen like a Phoenix and with their name value, could have been a viable competitor for WWE.  A lot of wrestlers that waited out their AOL/Time Warner contracts and didn't end up in WWE or at least not for a while, were used in the NWA's TNA.  If the Jarretts had purchased the NWA, would the name value have been enough?  Although, I feel like Impact, or whatever name they call the company, is like a cockroach.  It just won't die!  Someone should have put a bullet in it long ago.  I want to know your thoughts!  What if it was the NWA in place of those God-awful letters TNA?  Would there have been a difference?

If you have any comments on the situation, let me know.  Heck, let us all know on The WAR Report podcast, every Tuesday at 7PM EST, brought to you by TagMeADate.com, the first and only dating site for wrestling fans.  Go to askthewarreport@gmail.com or #askthewarreport.