Thank You Impact Wrestling...

Thank you Impact Wrestling for reminding me of how awesome hardcore, no rules matches can be!  Now, you may ask yourself, why would I be thanking this company for something like this?  Why is a hardcore, no rules wrestling match such a big deal?  Allow me to explain...

Anyone still reading this probably knows that I have a huge love for Professional Wrestling.  A love that I have garnered for more than a decade now.  But, over the last couple of years, I could kind of feel myself getting burned out a little bit.

When you tune in every week just to see the exact same matches you saw the week before, and the week before that, and the week before that, it gets hard to stay emotionally invested.  When you see the characters you love and have a connection to continue to be overlooked, underused, and misused, it’s real tough to bring yourself to commit the time each week to continue watching the show.

I tried to branch out into different wrestling companies, and it seemed to help a little, but after awhile, I realized that it was not actually helping, just delaying the inevitable burnout.  But then, while catching up on past episodes of Impact Wrestling, I came across “Barb Wire Massacre III…”

And you know what?  It was awesome!  In a Barb Wire Massacre match, they replace the standard wrestling ring ropes with barbwire.  They also usually have several barbed wire weapons incorporated in the match, such as planks of wood with coils of barbed wire attached to them, chairs wrapped in barbwire, etc.  The competitors in the matches also tend to bring their own items with them, and this time was no exception with the addition of forks, barbwire wrapped 2 x 4’s, tables, and bamboo skewers.  Yes, you read that correctly, but that is the kind of things you will see in this type of match.  And it was AWESOME!!!!!  This no rules, hardcore style match I think was the exact thing I needed to get me out of my wrestling funk and reignite my love of scripted sports.

Now, I have always loved me a good hardcore, no rules, weapons match.  Being a huge fan of ECW (Extreme Championship Wrestling), these are things that were featured on a regular basis.  But, in the current state of the business, these types of match elements are becoming more and more rare.  So to find this match still being broadcast makes me incredibly happy.

So thank you once again to Impact Wrestling, and more specifically to Sami Callihan, Dave and Jake Crist, Ortiz, Santana, Homicide, and Konnan, for helping me renew my love of professional wrestling, and reminding me how much I love violent, hardcore wrestling!  Now, I know that when things start to get boring and stale, I just need to crack open a ice cold can of violence and mayhem, and everything will be ok!

Until next time….Stay weird!