Impact Wrestling ready to return to Windsor for first Canadian show in three years

Impact Wrestling is making its highly anticipated return to Canada next spring with its first two scheduled shows taking place in Windsor.

The last Canadian event Impact Wrestling held was in 2019 and the last Windsor show was canceled that same year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

"I think maybe we owe the world an apology because the last event that we actually ran before everything shut down was called Outbreak," said Impact Wrestling Executive Vice President, Scott D’Amore, "and then the event in Windsor that people were so excited about the return of and was the first event to get cancelled when everything shut down was called Lockdown. So we're going to be a little more careful with how we choose our names."

D’Amore continued, "Impact Wrestling making its Canadian return and choosing Windsor after everything the last few years has been is pretty exciting for all of us."

The wrestling company hasn't held an event outside of the United States since the onset of the pandemic. D’Amore told CTV News that bringing the shows to his hometown is "heartwarming" noting Windsor has historically had enthusiastic crowds.

"Windsor has been one of those hotbeds for Impact Wrestling," D’Amore noted, "When we started going back on the road, (Windsor) was one of the markets that really just embraced us, and it's not shocking."

He continued, "Obviously I'm a Windsor guy, I've had an opportunity to travel the world and see an awful lot of this world on every continent just about and I don't know, sometimes people call me crazy because I'm always so happy to return here but I really think we underestimate what we have here in Windsor."

Meantime, local wrestling historian Jamie Greer is writing his first book on Windsor’s wrestling history, with it expected to be complete in summer 2023.

Local wrestling historian and author Jamie Greer stands outside the former Windsor Arena (Chris Campbell/CTV News Windsor)"This is huge for Impact to come back to Windsor," Greer said. "Because when Impact was here for a couple of years, they were sort of coming back as they were kind of going through a bit of a reboot with the brand and so forth when our own Scott D’Amore was put in charge of relaunching the brand."

Greer explained Windsor has over 130 years of local wrestling history, noting Impact Wrestling continues to showcase a plethora of local talent. "The more I dug into it, the more I was fascinated by some of the stories."

He continued, "We’re part of their territory very much in the way back in the days when the shows were here, Windsor was a huge part of the Detroit territory for the National Wrestling Alliance. Well, now it really feels like Windsor is part of the Impact territory."

Greer made a handful of t-shirts depicting various well known wrestlers like Andre The Giant and Killer Kolwalski when they performed in Windsor at "The Barn" to help cover the cost of publishing the book.

"This was our Madison Square Garden," Greer told CTV News, "for almost 30 years up until the sixties, we had weekly shows right here every week."

He continued, "A lot of history. A lot of history here."

Impact Wrestling returns to St. Clair College on March 24-25 for Sacrifice and Sacrifice Fallout. The former being presented on Impact’s live streaming service, with the later show being taped for television broadcast.