Impact reveals a big change, and maybe two, at first taping of 2018

Tonight, Jan. 10, Impact Wrestling will kick off several days taping new television at their familiar Universal Studios backlot set. The location will be the same, but there will be new guys in charge. After a rocky first year of ownership in 2017, Anthem has handed over the reins to Don Callis and Scott D’Amore.

We’ll have to wait and see - partially because these episodes won’t start airing for a couple weeks, and partially because Callis is telling fans that they won’t be attempting to change everything right away.

One thing that is changing immediately, however, is the ring. Impact has confirmed that the six-sided ring is (again) a thing of the past...

Another possibly interesting item came from an earlier picture tweeted of the ring, this one from reigning X-Division champ Taiji Ishimori:

That one also features large “Twitch” branding on the other side of the apron, which would seem to indicate that Impact will be following AAA, Tommy Dreamer’s House of Hardcore, Texas indie WrestleCircus and others onto the video game streaming platform.

We can only speculate on what that could mean. Impact often films for things other than their regular weekly television show during tapings, so it could be a sign of a special or two for Twitch, or a bigger distribution deal. Their deal with Pop TV isn’t great, but Anthem is counting on wrestling to provide content for their international English channel, Fight Network, and their Global Wrestling Network streaming service.

Hang in there for details on that and other possible changes. Should we expect more surprises when taping starts tonight?

Note: This article has been updated to correct an incorrect reference to Impact’s U.S. broadcast home.