Impact Wrestling is celebrating the 18th anniversary of their company. In lieu of a top 5 list this week, they put together an interesting list of 18 wrestlers you won’t believe appeared on Impact/TNA programming.
- Shinsuke Nakamura
- Jon Moxley
- Tommaso Ciampa
- Sammy Guevara
- Lex Luger
- The Briscoes
- Kazuchika Okada
- Chris Hero
- Randy Savage
- Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart
- Tyler Black (aka Seth Rollins)
- Naito & Takahashi
- Road Warriors
- Luchasaurus
- Vader
- Will Ospreay
- Dalton Castle
- CM Punk
That’s quite the list of impressive talent. I was only aware of Savage, Luchasaurus, and Punk. The legends appearances are not all that surprising in hindsight. Televised wrestling outside of WWE was very limited at that point in time. TNA was pretty much the best alternative.
The fun part about this video is thinking about what could have been. Moxley, Ciampa, Guevara, and Castle stand out in that category. It’s safe to say all four ended up better off on their own rather than having full-time contracts with Impact/TNA, especially in Castle’s case. He looked sharp in that clip, but I doubt he would have risen through the ranks to become champ like how he won the ROH World Championship. Guevara probably would have been in that Rascalz territory of entertaining high-flyer but not top guy stuff yet. I don’t know enough about Ciampa to comment on his career. The most intriguing name is Moxley. He has the kind of charisma that makes you take notice, so he probably would have still made a name for himself no matter his spot on the card. However, I don’t think he would have been able to keep his sanity with backstage politics.
How many of the 18 did you know appeared in Impact/TNA? Who did they most miss the boat on with the prospects? Do you think any of the youngsters would have had better careers if they had remained with Impact/TNA?