It’s a new year, with new goals for Mickie James and Alisha Edwards.
Both seasoned veterans in the professional wrestling business, James and Edwards have achieved much personal success inside the squared circle. Though they’ve only crossed paths a few times in the ring, the two do share a common tie, and love, to the same company currently: IMPACT Wrestling.
In a recent episode of GAW TV, James and Edwards spoke about their hopes for the company this year. “Well, I’m excited about going and venturing —we’re going back on the road more,” former Knockouts Champion Mickie James said. “I saw Chicago on the list coming up. I saw Canada coming up on the list. I’ve been trying to talk — I’d love to do a UK tour. IMPACT, they had a very strong market in the UK. So, I think where we’re going, where it’s going, and just got a part of that DAZN group, so as far as globally, their presence overseas and stuff is really big. I just think growth and maybe a new big network or a better — I don’t know, all kinds of things.”
“When I look at the product and I watch and I go, I think that we have some of the best wrestling, the best wrestlers, the storylines, and especially the females, the Knockouts division, is always killing it. Guys and girls alike, there’s a lot of people there that are just damn incredible. So, I can’t wait for all these eyeballs on it.”
IMPACT will be drawing more eyes from the Canadians in March, as they return to Windsor, Ontario for Sacrifice, but Alisha Edwards believes they need to think ever bigger. “That’s the biggest thing, is we need more eyes on IMPACT. We need to get it everywhere we can possibly get it. I feel like the best part about everything at IMPACT is that we all believe in it. It’s not like we want it to fail, we all want it to grow. So, every loop we get better and hopefully, we can be on national television and a real good big platform.”
Currently, fans can view IMPACT television programming on AXS TV, YouTube for IMPACT Insiders, and most recently, the DAZN streaming service for those outside the United States, South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. “It’s getting more traction,” Mickie James said, but the two would like to see its accessibility expanded even more.
“National television, like Spike, if we can get [the level of a] Spike back,” Alisha Edwards proposed. “I feel like with AEW, WWE and IMPACT, I feel like we’re on the same level as them and our product is as good as them, it’s just that we don’t have the eyes. We don’t have obviously the money, right? TNT and USA, they’re paying them to do what they do, right? We don’t have someone giving us millions of dollars to do what we want with [the product].”
“I feel like if we had someone paying us $1,000,000, we can do as great as AEW and WWE is doing right. So if that’s what we can do in 2023, that would be great. That’s kind of I think, what the entire roster wants, which is always good to see too. It’s like unity. We don’t have a group of people that are just kind of like bringing us down,” Edwards explained.
“Everybody that’s at IMPACT really believes in it and wants to be there. And if they don’t like it, if they don’t want to be there, if you’re not on team IMPACT, then you don’t need to be there,” James chimed in.
“There’s a lot of gatekeepers in the roster that are like, ‘okay, if you don’t want to be here, you’re not going to be here.’ Then they eventually just kind of fade out and go somewhere else normally. The ones that stick around are the ones that are usually a team IMPACT.”
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