13 Names That Need to be Inducted Into the Impact Wrestling Hall of Fame

Despite taking a year off in 2017 and rumors about its ultimate demise, the Impact Wrestling Hall of Fame is returning next month at Bound for Glory, with the latest inductee to be revealed next Thursday night.

One of my biggest problems with the Impact (formerly TNA) Hall of Fame is the early decision to induct big, mainstream names that would draw attention, instead of honoring the men and women that laid the early building blocks for the company to succeed.

Did Sting, Kurt Angle and Team 3D deserve a spot in the Hall? Absolutely. 100%. But it rubbed me the wrong way as a long-time TNA Wrestling fan – dating back to the early days of weekly PPV – that certain Day One pioneers weren’t the very first class of inductees back in 2012 when the whole thing started.

And now, for many incredible talents that paved the way and kept Impact going for years, despite constant criticism, drama, power struggles, takeovers and assurances that “they’ll be dead by the end of the year”, it’s too late.

Any legitimate Impact Wrestling Hall of Fame must include AJ Styles, Samoa Joe and Bobby Roode – full stop. You could also make a case for Ron Killings, who was also there from the very start and competed in some of the biggest main events of the early TNA days. Unfortunately, the likelihood of that ever happening now seems incredibly slim.

To prevent this trend from continuing, I put together a list of thirteen names that absolutely deserve to be inducted into the Impact Wrestling Hall of Fame this year. Each name on this list contributed something irreplaceable to the early years of TNA, and helped to create a legacy that in many ways can still be felt today.

OH, and none of them are currently signed to WWE, so there’s actually a chance of getting them for the ceremony…