5 dream matches in Impact Wrestling that we never got to see
Despite what Impact Wrestling says about its origin, the company is essentially WCW 2.0. Founded by Jeff and his father Jerry Jarrett in 2002 after the demise of WCW in 2001, they employed former WCW talents who were not given a contract after the WWE acquisition and also independent wrestlers.
It was/is always going to be an uphill task for TNA/Impact/GFW to compete significantly with the WWE given the budget of the two promotions and it is indeed commendable that Impact is still on air after 15 years.
However, an overemphasis on founder Jeff Jarrett as the main event player - basically Jeff booking himself as Champion over and over again - hurt the company and for every former WWE/WCW star like Kurt Angle and Christian who came on board and increased the popularity of the promotion with their work, there were people like Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair and Kevin Nash who came on board to hog the limelight and get an easy paycheck.
TNA could have taken the route of having these established names put over younger talent, but they never went full throttle with it. Future Superstars like CM Punk and the Young Bucks were never allowed to show their potential whereas washed up stars like Scott Hall and X-Pac were given title belts based on their reputation rather than anything else.
This list takes a look at all the dream matches TNA could have had with their amazing array of talent, but chose not to.
#5 AJ Styles vs CM Punk
The asylum days of TNA introduced a charismatic young wrestler named AJ Styles to the world. Signed to a non-exclusive contract with the company, AJ also wrestled at ROH and various independent promotions at the time.
Styles quickly rose up the ranks, capturing the X-Division, NWA World Heavyweight and Tag team titles to complete the TNA Triple Crown in no time.
Meanwhile, the promotion signed another up and comer in CM Punk and used the future "Voice of the Voiceless" as a mute lackey to Raven. Styles and Punk had already turned heads with matches in IWA: Mid-South (where Punk also wrestled Eddie Guerrero) and had a classic match at ROH to crown the first ever ROH Pure Championship.
But TNA never used their chemistry during Punk's time at the promotion. While AJ was built up as a singles star, Punk never rose from the sidekick role to Raven. Punk was released from TNA in 2004 without ever having a match against AJ.
"Not able to connect with the fans as a villain" - was the reason TNA gave for firing the man who would go on to scintillate wrestling fans in ROH and WWE with his amazing heel work which produced two separate 'Summers of Punk'.