There have been all sorts of buzz around the Impact brand as of late, and for good reason Austin Ariesis new Heavyweight Championship. Finally the reign of Roode has been snapped, and now a new era can begin.
Professional wrestler Austin Aries (real name Dan Solwood) at a wrestling event on November 26, 2007. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Aries winning the strap is Impact Wrestling’s way of letting fans know that yes on any given night any man can become champion. It also gives the high octane professional wrestling company just the person they need to take things to the next level.
Tip of the cap to Bobby Roode though, who was somehow able to get the entire professional wrestling world against his character enough to where the Impact brand was worth watching again. People hated Roode so much that they just wanted to see him lose the belt.
Week in and week out Bobby showed why it was in fact the ‘It Factor’ and it should be interesting to see how long the star will go without his strap.
Personally this fan is hopeful that Aries will have a long reign with the World Heavyweight Championship, as the young lion can pull out a number of matches with anyone on the Impact Roster.
Need a last man standing bout, Aries can do that easily, falls count anywhere-no problems there. Heck if you wanted to even do an Ultimate-X bout for the Heavyweight Championship it can now be done.
Aries can go toe-to-toe with just about anyone on the roster and make it a five-star caliber match. For now though this fan has a feeling that the rivalry with Roode has just gotten started and that will mean good ratings for the brand for a while.
Another step the company needs to take is to get star A.J. Styles away from the current storyline he was on. This whole Jerry Springer, Baby Daddy, possible love story with president Dixie Carter is doing nothing for one of the longest tenured stars in the company.
The shame of the whole storyline was that fans would have bought a great feud between Styles and rival Christopher Daniels without it. Any smart fan knows that these two have been good friends, and can understand the idea of Daniels just wanting a piece of whatever success that Styles’ has had with Impact.
Picking-up some big momentum during Destination-X was Samoa Joe, who it feels like it has been forever since the fans have seen an interesting storyline for. A potential future rivalry between Joe and Austin Aries is something that should be looked into and hopefully done very soon.
It has been a good time to be a fan of the Impact wrestling brand again, this fan who has been out of the loop for the longest time thanks to the storyline may find herself back into the brand again, and if the company can just continue by giving great wrestling again, and continues to highlight guys like Austin Aries they may even have a chance of capturing the attention of fans in bigger market.
Sunday night by crowning Aries as the champ, is only step toward hopefully bigger and better things for TNA/Impact.