TORONTO | NASHVILLE -- IMPACT Wrestling kicks off 2019 with a new, action-packed extravaganza – back where the company built its legacy.
IMPACT Wrestling presents Homecoming on Sunday, January 6, live on pay-per-view from the Nashville State Fairground Sports Arena, commonly known among professional wrestling fans as “The Asylum.”
Longtime, high-flying fan-favorite Johnny Impact is the reigning IMPACT World Champion. At Homecoming, he puts the title on the line against “The Machine” Brian Cage, arguably one of the strongest and most athletic wrestlers to ever step foot in the four-sided ring.
Johnny Impact (John Hennigan) also has been capturing headlines this fall as one of the most popular contestants on the current season of Survivor, airing Wednesday nights on CBS TV, though he was eliminated from the $1 million grand-prize and is now a member of the jury to vote on the show’s winner.
Third-generation wrestler Tessa Blanchard, the reigning Knockouts Champion, puts her title on the line at Homecoming against Taya Valkyrie, who married Johnny Impact this past June. Blanchard is the granddaughter of wrestler Joe Blanchard, the daughter of Tully Blanchard and the stepdaughter of Magnum T.A. Blanchard also is the stunt-double for actress Florence Pugh in the upcoming movie Fighting with my Family, a Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson-produced film.
Also confirmed for Homecoming is an Ultimate X match to crown a new X-Division Champion.
IMPACT Wrestling celebrates its 17th anniversary in 2019, but back in the early-2000s, when the company was known as Total Nonstop Action (TNA) Wrestling, it ran weekly pay-per-view events originating from The Asylum. The company was based in Nashville and The Asylum was its home arena.
IMPACT Wrestling is now based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and is a subsidiary of Anthem Sports & Entertainment Corp.
Over the years, IMPACT Wrestling has been the home to many of the biggest names in professional wrestling history, including Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Sting, Kurt Angle, Kevin Nash and Ken Shamrock – who was the company's first-ever champion. IMPACT Wrestling also has been a breeding ground for the next generation of stars, such as A.J. Styles, Samoa Joe, Bobby Roode and Eric Young, among others.
• World Champion Johnny Impact will be in Nashville on December 11 and is available for in-person media interviews. He also will be available for phone interviews on that Tuesday, time permitting. To schedule an interview with Impact, contact Ross Forman.
• Tickets for Homecoming are now on-sale at IMPACTWrestling.com including a few remaining VIP Packages, which include front-row seats to the pay-per-view and the next night’s TV Taping for the company’s flagship weekly TV Show, Impact! The Monday night show also will originate from The Asylum in Nashville.
About IMPACT Wrestling
IMPACT Wrestling is one of the world’s largest wrestling entertainment properties, creating more than 200 hours of original content annually across television and other digital platforms. IMPACT Wrestling specializes in creating premium content, events, products, merchandise and music, as well as the management and promotion of professional wrestlers. The roster features such greats as Johnny Impact, Eli Drake, Moose, Eddie Edwards, Sami Callihan, Brian Cage, Pentagon Jr., Fenix, Matt Sydal, Rich Swann, the high-flying X-Division, plus the lovely and lethal Knockouts, including Tessa Blanchard, Su Yung, Allie, Rosemary and Taya Valkyrie. Its highly successful flagship, IMPACT!, broadcasts in more than 120 countries around the world, including Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Pop TV in over 80 million homes in the United States, Fight Network and GameTV in Canada, Sony ESPN in India, 5Spike and Fight Network in the United Kingdom, SuperSport in Africa and ranFIGHTING in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, among others. IMPACT Wrestling also streams a 24-hour channel on Twitch.tv and is a top 10 sports video producer on YouTube with over 1.9 million subscribers, 36 million monthly views and 1.5 billion all-time views. IMPACT Wrestling launched the exclusive Global Wrestling Network (GWN) app in October 2017, showcasing over 3,000 hours of library and current programming, as well as content from leading independent professional wrestling organizations around the world.
Contact:
Ross Forman
Head of Media Relations
IMPACT Wrestling
(847) 542-9350
RForman@impactwrestling.com