Impact Wrestling: A Haven for Drunks and Junkies in Wrestling

Poster child for Impact's laxity on drug use
Photo Credit: ImpactWrestling.com

There are a lot of exciting things happening in Impact Wrestling. Despite lack of direction, they have young guys who work exciting matches, and usually, shows can have as much good as they have bad. The bad can be really bad. However, as bad as they do in character, out of character, what they do, or should I be more specific, what they don't do is what is so infuriating. Two weeks ago, Matt Hardy was released from Impact ostensibly after getting into a single vehicle car accident, slamming into a tree. We all thought that maybe Impact was on the right track with their treatment of recidivist substance abusers, but then last night, Kurt Angle had his third drunk driving incident in the last five years. What was done? Nothing. Given the swiftness with which they handled Hardy, you'd think they'd have acted swiftly with Angle, right? ESPECIALLY since he was nailed earlier this year for something similar.

They didn't.

Granted, they could, but look back to the North Dakota incident this year. They didn't do anything to Angle at all. Look back at Victory Road too. They acted WAY too late when Jeff Hardy showed up to the arena (again, mind you) "in no condition to perform". Impact's long-term history when it comes to substance abuse is laughable enough that they deserve absolutely no leeway in judgment. So, what message do they send? It's loud and clear. Impact Wrestling is a haven for drug addicts and drunks. The only way you get fired is if creative has nothing for you, or you irritate Dixie Carter or someone above her in the pecking order. Obviously, that's why Angle and Jeff Hardy still have jobs. That's why Matt Hardy doesn't. It's clear as day.

So, why would anyone who toes the line even want to work there? I mean, all you have to do is get on someone's good side and anything you do is alright. What does that do to morale? What does that do to the people who don't do drugs or who don't run afoul of the law, ESPECIALLY when the people who do are the ones who get pushed to the moon? I mean, I hate going on conjectural reports about locker room morale, but when shit like this happens, and Angle isn't IMMEDIATELY reprimanded, then that smoke automatically says to me that there's fire. Absolutely.

The people who suffer aren't just the Austin Arieses and AJ Styleses of the world. It's everyone. For wrestling fans, all the work that CM Punk is doing to try and make this cool again will be undone because Impact will further the stereotype that carnies, junkies and white trash populate the ring, so of course the fans are the same. WWE suffers because no matter how stringent they make their Wellness Policy and no matter how much PR work they do with legitimate entertainment outlets (although Alex Riley and others have shown us this year that WWE has a LOT of work to do re: drunk driving), that they'll be lumped in with the old stereotypes because their biggest competition. Maybe David D. of The Smoking Section had it right with his idea that Vince McMahon needed to buy the company out for his own survival.

I'm beginning to sound like a broken record here, but c'mon son, how many more times are people going to be allowed to give Impact a black eye just because the brass likes them. They need to crack down, yadda yadda yadda. I can't even type it anymore. Hey, if Dixie and her bosses are happy running a fucking opium den, then it's their company. However, someone is going to die in their ring, and the fact that the government hasn't audited them is embarrassing. The wrestlers need to be shown consequence for their actions or else they won't learn. If Impact won't do it, Florida, Tennessee or Uncle Sam should.

The Fall Guy, Starring Terry Taylor

Pictured: The Worst

Via (who else) Cageside Seats

Another day, another S. Bruce expose on Impact Wrestling. This time, it's calling the former TNA to the carpet for their shoddy treatment of their administrative staff. Yep, it's not just the wrestlers who don't earn a livable wage. The executives and office staff do too. They often have to work ballbustingly long hours due to understaffing to make terrible wages. One guy, working 50 hours a week doing merchandise sales for them, took home $20K a year. $20K a year. That's fucking insane. Presumably, that's after taxes, since if it was before taxes, it's dangerously close or under the minimum wage line. Still, that's what full-time fry cooks earn in a year. Another high-ranking executive, who was not named but intimated to have a lot of responsibilities within the company, had to work part-time at Disney as a waitress.

In what seems to be the capstone of the piece, apparently, Terry Taylor, who has been named in several lawsuits against TNA/Impact, was apparently the primary fall guy for the company. Whatever Dixie Carter or other executive type Andy Barton wanted to heap on the wrestlers, be it a low-ball offer or a refusal to pay for medical, they made Taylor do it. In a way, I'm not surprised by this news; I figured out that this might have been the case listening to Jay Lethal's episode of the Art of Wrestling podcast. He spoke so glowingly about Taylor, and yet Taylor was supposed to be this monster. Well, turns out he was just a creation of Dixie's, albeit a spineless one who didn't have the courage to speak up for the wrestlers that he wanted to stand up for.

Now again, the natural defense here for Impact is "Well, those people didn't have to work for TNA!" And you'd be right if you said that to a point. The stranglehold that companies have on workers in ununionized labor is pretty bad. People say unions are corrupt, and I tend to agree with that, but they're absolutely necessary to keep regular industries from doing the same kind of shit that Impact is pulling and keeping America from becoming a third-world country. Livable wages, health care and having a friendly workplace aren't some magical luxuries, they're to be expected of a place that has people working for them. The moment you start denying that is the moment you deny yourself the opportunity to make a decent wage in your mind.