Impact Wrestling’s Executive Vice President Scott D’Amore recently sat down with Wrestling Observer’s Josh Nason to explain why pay-per-view events were moved to Fridays and its future with AXS TV.
You can check out some highlights from the interview below:
On holding PPVs and Impact! Plus events on Fridays: “You know what, we want to try some different things. It is a busy night, but one of the things is the way people consume content differently in these days and age. But you see sometimes, what we think is competition isn’t as much competition as we really think. Because people are going to watch it. And you know, this isn’t as much of a live content-consuming world as it used to be. And there is great stuff out there on Friday nights.
“Now I’ll be totally honest with you, Josh. We may turn around and look at this in a handful of months and go, ‘You know what? Friday wasn’t the day to do.’ But it was one of those things, it’s not completely unheard of. I mean, there has been PPVs on Friday nights. And there’s so much competition on every night of the week these days, you know, that we looked at it and said, ‘You know what, Friday, Saturday are great nights to block for live events. Let’s take a look and let’s see how the Friday night PPVs do.’ In some ways, Friday night is a night that we might look at and say ‘Hey,’ we might find that people are already in the wrestling groove. They might decide they want to DVR SmackDown and Rampage and watch our show. Or watch SmackDown and Rampage and DVR our PPV. Or they might want to buy and stream it at 11 o’clock at night or they might wanna turn around and watch it the next day. You know what? One thing is we’ve always been, Josh, is open to trying different things. Sometimes you invent Ultimate X. And sometimes, you come up with Reverse Battle Royal.”
On if Impact would consider moving networks when their contract is up: “I mean, look, much like our policy with talent, and much like our policy with other companies, we’re open to exploring anything. I can tell you this: I sit here, I wear a couple of hats. EVP of Impact Wrestling; I’m also the EVP of Anthem Sports & Entertainment Sports Media Group. And like, Impact is such a juggernaut on AXS TV for us. I know it’s at times frustrating for fans. It’s one of the reasons we added the show weekly on the YouTube subscription for $0.99, you can watch the show every Thursday night, or whenever you feel like watching it. We’ve done that, we’re working on some other projects.
“We will always look to keep Impact Wrestling as one of the staples of AXS TV — and frankly, our other broadcast networks, both domestically and in Canada and such. But we will also look for other growth opportunities. For me, it’s a great opportunity to serve two masters. We got Impact Wrestling — like I said, which is so great on AXS TV, especially paired with New Japan. But if we’re out there and the right deal pops forward, we would be more than happy to sit in a room and book a deal with a different network. And the other thing, we’ll continue to work at other streaming platforms and opportunities.”
Do you watch Impact Wrestling PPVs on Fridays? Sound off in the comments section below, and follow eWn on our Twitter and Facebook pages.
