Scott D’Amore explains the decision to move IMPACT Wrestling pay-per-views to Friday nights.
Just days before Bound For Glory, IMPACT Wrestling EVP Scott D’Amore was a guest on Punch-Out with Josh Nason to discuss the future of IMPACT on TV and pay-per-view.
“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 this day and age. You see sometimes what we think is competition isn’t as much competition as we really think because people are going to watch it. 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. I’ll be totally honest with you, 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 where it’s not completely unheard of. I mean, there have been pay-per-views on Friday nights and there is so much competition on every night of the week these days that we looked at it and said, ‘You know what, Friday and Saturday are great nights to block for live events, let’s take a look and let’s see how the Friday night pay-per-views do.'”
“In some ways, Friday night is a night we might find that people are already in the wrestling groove, and they might decide they want to DVR SmackDown and Rampage and watch our show. Or watch SmackDown and Rampage and DVR our pay-per-view. They might want to buy and stream it at 11 o’clock at night or turn around and watch it the next day. One thing is we’ve always been open to trying different things. Sometimes you invent Ultimate X, and sometimes you come up with Reverse Battle Royal.”
Later in the interview, D’Amore was asked if he thinks IMPACT will be on a different channel than AXS TV one year from now. He elaborated on IMPACT’s plans to stay on AXS TV while mentioning the YouTube Insiders channel as an alternative.
“I mean, look, much like our policy with talent, and much like our policy with the company, we’re open to exploring anything. I can tell you this, I sit here and wear a couple of hats, I’m the EVP of IMPACT Wrestling, and I’m also the EVP of Anthem Sports and Entertainment Media Group. IMPACT is such a juggernaut on AXS TV for us. I know at times it is frustrating for fans. One of the reasons we added the show weekly on the YouTube subscription for 99 cents. We will always look to keep IMPACT 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, 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. The other thing is we’ll continue to work at other streaming platforms and opportunities.”
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