The Impact Zone (2004-2013) - The Something Awful Forums

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Sports Argument Stadium* > Punchsport Pagoda > The Impact Zone (2004-2013)

CaptainYesterday: Sep 14, 2011; The cock of the walk

In May of 2004, Total Nonstop Action Wrestling looked to expand. While Nashville had served them well for two years, the Fairgrounds Coliseum was no place to tape a weekly show on cable TV. TNA needed a small arena to tape from that would serve them as a base of operations for an indefinite period of time. A Soundstage in Universal Studios Orlando, formerly housing Nickelodeon Guts, Rollerjam, and, yes, WCW Pro and WCW Worldwide, became the choice. One month later, TNA iMPACT! debuted on Fox Sports Net. The first TNA match in the Impact Zone was Team Canada (Petey Williams, Eric Young, and Bobby Roode) vs. the Amazing Red, Sonjay Dutt, and Hector Garza.

From the cancellation of the weekly Pay-Per-Views in September until October of 2006, everything TNA showed on television was shot there. Eventually, some PPVs moved out of the Impact Zone, but the minor ones were still taped there (barring 2008, when TNA experimented with the idea). This was a double edged sword for Dixie & Co.: while the rent was free, they could not charge attendees.

After a few one-off tapings away from the Impact Zone in Las Vegas, Fayetteville, Macon, and England, TNA decided that Impact Wrestling, as it is called now, was to move away from the Impact Zone and be touring constantly. This, combined with the PPV count going down to four (all held outside of Orlando), meant the end of an era in wrestling. No longer was Soundstage 21 a Bucket List destination for a wrestling fan. Its time had come and gone.

The Impact Zone has seen wrestling from a 5-star classic to a -4-star disaster. Its seen legends walk down the ramp and Jersey Shore cast members walk down the ramp. At the end of the final One Night Only taping, Bobby Roode, involved in the first match in the Impact Zone, stood tall as the winner. While it may have had its moments as a cesspool of awfulness, you can't argue its place in the history of pro wrestling.

I never went to see a show there, but I know someone who saw Austin Aries win the World title at Destination X last year. I asked her about it, and she said she's sad to see it go. Did anyone here ever see wrestling at the Impact Zone, Impact Wrestling or otherwise?

# ? Mar 21, 2013 03:20

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# ? May 25, 2013 21:39

Cardboard Box: Jul 14, 2009; Grunkle Stan, what did you feed us?!

it's okay, they'll be back in the Impact Zone by the end of the year.

# ? Mar 21, 2013 03:22

EugeneJ: Feb 5, 2012

Before it was the Impact Zone, it was the XWF Arena:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBo5NhbKxOk

# ? Mar 21, 2013 04:10

Scirocco Griffon: Feb 3, 2012

My one memory of the Impact Zone will always be the infamous video of the production guy lecturing the crowd to behave themselves, because a small group of regular attendees had decided to be extremely disruptive during tapings to protest not being catered to enough. That will always define TNA a a whole to me for some reason.

On the plus side, now that the soundstage is freed up maybe the chances of a ~~Rollerjam~~ GUTS revival are better!

# ? Mar 22, 2013 02:24

EugeneJ: Feb 5, 2012

Scirocco Griffon posted:

My one memory of the Impact Zone will always be the infamous video of the production guy lecturing the crowd to behave themselves, because a small group of regular attendees had decided to be extremely disruptive during tapings to protest not being catered to enough. That will always define TNA a a whole to me for some reason.

Even better was the "Crucial Crew" youtube rant by the nerds who ended up ringside every show.

Anyone have that saved?

# ? Mar 22, 2013 02:25

HulkaMatt: Feb 14, 2006; MATSUYAAAAAAY

The roof! The roof! The roof is on fire!

# ? Mar 22, 2013 04:30

sportsgenius86: Jun 17, 2008; yo dawg randytar is back dawg

this thread needs mutantfans.gif

# ? Mar 22, 2013 12:03

Flameingblack: May 11, 2011; The world is a mess
And I am the one
Who will rebuild it

Scirocco Griffon posted:

My one memory of the Impact Zone will always be the infamous video of the production guy lecturing the crowd to behave themselves, because a small group of regular attendees had decided to be extremely disruptive during tapings to protest not being catered to enough. That will always define TNA a a whole to me for some reason.

On the plus side, now that the soundstage is freed up maybe the chances of a ~~Rollerjam~~ GUTS revival are better!

I kind of liked the charm the Impact Crowd had. After being told to stop cheering heels and to stop being "disruptive" the impact zone has completely sucked. I'm sure most of the actual TNA fans left as soon as they were being treated like that and were replaced by stand-ins and tourists who were only there to see Hulk Hogan as a novelty.

# ? Mar 22, 2013 13:03

John Cena: Oct 20, 2006; Outhustle, Outrespect, Out...loyal?

my favorite impact zone memory was the barbed wire christmas tree match

# ? Mar 22, 2013 13:14

Illinois Smith: Nov 15, 2003; Ninety-one? There are ninety other "Tiger Drivers"? Do any involve actual tigers, or driving?

EugeneJ posted:

Even better was the "Crucial Crew" youtube rant by the nerds who ended up ringside every show.

Frist off i want to say i have never like when wrestling fans attack outher fans but after what happen at sundays ppv i need to get off my chest.There is a group of guys that call them shelf the crucial crew they went to the Imact Zone for Genesis witch they got to see for free just to do stupied chants and just heckle the show to deliberatly try to ruin the show.Now im not talking about real fans who were unhappy the ring change im talking about a group of guys that went to Genesis with the intent to ruin the ppv i had to pay for. Even if TNA had keep the ring and Daneils had won his match they were going to wreck the show they planed it out in there little heads before they ever got in there cars to go.Now i see on youtube people ranting becouse TNA is not tweetting the fans right are you kidding me TNA treats there fan grate i went to a house show once met Beer Money,TBP,Joe,and a lot more a everyone of then were super oprrecitove of there fans and who were paying costamers the Impat Zone is free witch means that the fans are a studio audience just like a talk show or a game show would the crucial crew go to the price is right take a look at Drew Carry and start chanting we want Barker chap chap we want Barker chap chap and go on profanity base rants so all TNA did was ask the fans to behave dont forget the Impact Zone is in Universal Studos Orlando Florida aka Nickelodon im shore a place that calls them shelf a the frist place for to kids is not high on people chanting BULL _ _ _ _ these guys dont care abut TNA all they care about is making a spectacle out of them shelf at the exspince of eveybody else.Hey crucial crew next time you want to cat call Brooke Hogan for doing the samething everybody eles was doing and start singing dearing matches and making a fool out of your shelf do it on your dollar not mine.

# ? Mar 22, 2013 15:17

Flameingblack: May 11, 2011; The world is a mess
And I am the one
Who will rebuild it

I think I had a stroke halfway through that.

# ? Mar 22, 2013 15:21

I Before E: Jul 2, 2012

Flameingblack posted:

I think I had a stroke halfway through that.

I think he had a stroke all through that.

# ? Mar 22, 2013 16:00

CobiWann: Oct 21, 2009

I Before E posted:

I think he had a stroke all through that.

# ? Mar 22, 2013 16:33

LividLiquid: Apr 13, 2002; No longer livid.

HulkaMatt posted:

The roof! The roof! The roof is on fire!

Between that chant and Monty Brown and Eric Young's promos to kill the time, that was a really awesome moment.

# ? Mar 22, 2013 17:16

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# ? May 25, 2013 21:39

Skinty McEdger: Mar 9, 2008; The Flaming Scotsman.

LividLiquid posted:

Between that chant and Monty Brown and Eric Young's promos to kill the time, that was a really awesome moment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEqEas9hUAI

According to a radio interview brown did shortly after the event, one of the agents ran upto him looking for someone else to kill some time while they tried to sort out the fire. Brown was all "I got this" and jogs over to cut the promo.

Apparently the agent yelled after him asking what he was going to do.

"It's cool. I'm going to Pounce Tenay."

I almost wish he had gone with plan A.

# ? Mar 22, 2013 17:55

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Sports Argument Stadium* > Punchsport Pagoda > The Impact Zone (2004-2013)