On October 24 2020, at Impact Wrestling’s biggest event of the year Bound for Glory Impact featured the best talent they had to offer. This was showcased in the main event as the now-former world champion Eric Young took on one of the greatest underdogs in wrestling today, Rich Swann had over come so much during his professional wrestling career as well as in his personal life. But with a lot of heart he gave his all and left everything in the ring to become Impact World champion. As we’re now on the road to Hard To Kill let’s take a look at some potential future challengers.
Chris Bey:
The former finesse division champion has set his sights firmly on the current Impact world champion and keeps laying down the challenge to the champion for a title match. However, Rich Swann doesn’t appear to be particularly interested in facing off against the ultimate finesse. But nobody can deny that in such a short amount of time Chris Bey has proven himself to be one of the biggest breaks out stars of 2020, not just in Impact Wrestling but the business as a whole. Bey is on the lookout to make history and to become the youngest male competitor to win the Impact Wrestling world championship, at the age of just 24 he is already a former X Division champion and has held multiple championships across many independent promotions across the world. It was announced recently that Bey would be taking part in the NJPW Super J Cup, maybe at the upcoming monthly Impact plus special Final Resolution Saturday night will turn into Satur-Bey should Rich Swann give Bey the match he clearly wants Bey could walk into the new year as Impact World Champion.
Sami Callihan:
The history between the World champion Rich Swann and The Draw Sami Callihan has been very well documented over the last few years in Impact Wrestling. But as I’m sure many of you are aware this rivalry transcends just Impact Wrestling. These two phenomenal competitors used to be as close as brothers before eventually drifting apart. Sami has never forgotten about the way he claims Rich betrayed him, this rivalry first started in Impact all the way back in 2018 but then it was a very personal and intense feud over the X division championship which culminated at the 2018 Rebellion pay-per-view in a brutal no disqualification match. But of course, this rivalry as picked up again and now with the World Championship on the line it seems more personal and vicious than ever before. The two did, of course, lock horns in a fantastic match from Turning Point over the World title but Callihan doesn’t seem finished yet.
Eddie Edwards:
The former two-time Impact World champion Eddie Edwards has been a very big ally and friend to Rich Swann over the years but more so recently. Eddie has stood side by side with his friend in his battle with Sami Callihan, Ken Shamrock and the former world champion Eric Young. Eddie has helped the world champion battle his foes and has been taking quite the beating himself over the recent weeks on Impact. In particular on last week’s episode on Impact as Sami Callihan drove his baseball bat into the eye of Eddie Edwards once again. This happened because Eddie came out to the ring in an attempt to help his friend Rich Swann, Edwards could, of course, left Swann to take the beating of his life from Sami and Shamrock but instead chose to help him. Now, of course, it is more than likely that Eddie is simply being a good friend and wants to help Swann get Sami and Shamrock off his back, but there is a possibility that Eddie is looking to get an opportunity at the world championship out of this.
Moose:
Mr Impact Wrestling had seemed to have lost his way, despite many people pegging him as a future Impact world champion it just didn’t seem to happen for him. So he resorted to stealing the TNA World championship which had been kept in the office of Impact Management. He re-introduced the championship at the Rebellion television specials, he proceeded to hand out invitations to wrestlers in order to create challengers to his TNA World Championship. Eventually, however, he would run into EC3, he would square off against EC3 at Bound for Glory in an undisclosed location match, in which EC3 would make Moose see the error of his ways and showed him how to control his own narrative. Since then Moose has had his sights set on Rich Swann and what he deems to be the secondary title in Impact, the Impact Wrestling world championship. Moose have also been attacking the friend of Swann, Willie Mack in order to send a message to the champion perhaps to build a feud and a possible unification match.
Willie Mack:
Chocolate Thunder is, of course, the best friend and former tag team partner of the Impact World Champion and as of late has been on the receiving end of several beatings from Moose. Moose has been using those attacks as fuel to get under the skin of Rich Swann. This has to be frustrating to Willie Mack and as many people have been speculating a potential heel turn for Mack or maybe even Rich Swann could well be on the cards. Since his run as X Division, Champion Mack seems to have had a slight change in personality and isn’t quite the fun-loving smiley wrestler we’ve been used to since his debut in 2018. Mack like most professional wrestlers does have aspirations to be world champion. Could that be at the hands of his best friend and tag team partner? Mack does have a reason to be angry with Swann after leaving him to face both members of The North in at the last Hard To Kill due to Injury.
We are now officially on the road to Hard to Kill and a true competitor/ challenger has yet to fully reveal themselves to the Impact Nation or to the World champion himself. Could we see the TNA and Impact Wrestling world championships be unified? Could it be Friend vs Friend? Or even a brutal match between two former brothers in arms over the most prestigious championship in Impact Wrestling? There is still lots and lots of time before we reach the first big Pay-Per-view on Impact Wrestling’s calendar.
Don’t forget to watch Impact Weekly on AXS TV every Tuesday in the US, and in the UK every Wednesday on Free Sports TV at 10 pm and Circa 2 am on the IMPACT Plus app.