Impact Wrestling goes live for first-time ever on AXS TV

Impact is gearing up for their joint PPV with NJPW by celebrating in a special way. Impact Wrestling will air live for the first time on AXS TV as a lead-in to the Multiverse United: Only the STRONG Survive PPV.

Tom Hannifan (fka Tom Phillips in WWE) explained on Thursday night’s episode of Impact Wrestling (Mar. 16, 2023):

For the first-time ever for Impact Wrestling on AXS TV, we will be live Thursday, March 30th from Anthem’s LA live studio in Los Angeles at 8 pm ET. This live studio broadcast will feature expert analysis as we count down to Multiverse United: Only the STRONG Survive.

That sounds like a smart hook to drive PPV purchases. It also seems like a low-risk move hedging on the possibility of lower TV viewership that night due to hardcore wrestling fans being consumed by the madness that comes with WrestleMania week. Impact has a busy schedule with the No Surrender event on Friday, March 24 and TV tapings over that same weekend. This Multiverse United hype special allows the fallout to No Surrender time to breath and also the ability to reflect the results of the PPV in the Impact universe for the TV episode on April 6.

The Multiverse United card currently includes:

• Impact World Championship: Josh Alexander (c) vs. Kushida
• Will Ospreay vs. “Speedball” Mike Bailey
• NJPW Strong Openweight Championship: Kenta (c) vs. Minoru Suzuki
• Knockouts Championship: Mickie James (c) vs. Deonna Purrazzo vs. Gisele Shaw vs. Miyu Yamashita
• Impact World Tag Team Championship: Bullet Club (Ace Austin & Chris Bey) (c) vs. Aussie Open (Mark Davis & Kyle Fletcher) vs. TMDK (Shane Haste & Bad Dude Tito) vs. Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin)
• X-Division Championship: Trey Miguel (c) vs. Rich Swann vs. Frankie Kazarian vs. Rocky Romero vs. Kevin Knight vs. Clark Connors
• Moose vs. Jeff Cobb
• PCO, Callihan, Fred Rosser, & Alex Coughlin vs. Eddie Edwards, Joe Hendry, Tom Lawlor, & JR Kratos

Multiverse United: Only the STRONG Survive airs on Fite TV starting at 11 pm ET on Thursday, March 30.

What’s your take on this special live episode of Impact Wrestling?