TNA have announced a star-studded roster for their UK Tour next week, featuring retiring wrestling legend Kurt Angle’s last Manchester Arena show on Friday.
The Olympic Gold Medallist’s ultimate tour concludes by facing Drew Galloway in Manchester before Bobby Roode in London (Saturday) and Lashley in Birmingham (Sunday).
Full roster for UK tour confirmed as wrestling legend @RealKurtAngle says farewell https://t.co/sQhcJmsxe9 pic.twitter.com/13FXPcTcsd
— TNA WRESTLING (@IMPACTWRESTLING) January 20, 2016
The meeting between Angle and Scottish-born Galloway will be only their second, and a rematch from their highly-rated January 12 encounter.
Galloway, 30, was then pinned by the veteran – 17 years his senior – and has tweeted he is extra motivated to “bring a little extra to the UK rematch.”
It’s official, the rematch is on in the UK #AngleVGalloway2 Here’s the first war https://t.co/ImXHWFYDWs pic.twitter.com/ENs3Iq2ypq
— Drew Galloway (@GallowaySpeaks) January 15, 2016
Comments from @RealKurtAngle such as took him to the limit & 5 star match motivate me to bring a little extra to the UK rematch #IMPACTonPOP
— Drew Galloway (@GallowaySpeaks) January 20, 2016
The Maximum Impact 8 Tour also includes current Heavyweight Champion Matt Hardy and the returning Beer Money aside British guests Jimmy Havoc, Will Ospreay and Big Damo.
The hugely popular Beer Money tag team of James Storm and Bobby Roode are returning to the UK for the first time in five years.
TNA is focusing too much on Angle & not enough on ME for the #ImpactUK tour. This needs to be addressed, @TNADixie. https://t.co/VMuYM6yAvu
— ICONIC Matt Hardy (@MATTHARDYBRAND) January 21, 2016
Meanwhile the latter trio of independent talents from the British and Irish wrestling scene join the Tour following a social media campaign.
TNA President Dixie Carter said: “We wanted to know who the fans in the UK would most like to see on the Tour, so I put it out there on social media and the feedback was fantastic.
“We narrowed it down to the three names who got the most response and asked the fans to vote for their favourite.
“In the end the winner was Impact Wrestling.
“We won because the response was so incredible, and the vote so close, that we are bringing all three on Tour with us.”
UK fans will also see new TNA recruits and real-life husband and wife ‘The Miracle’ Mike Bennett and Maria Kanellis-Bennett, Grado, Eric Young, Gail Kim and more.
Manchester will also host the TNA-original ‘Monster’s Ball’ match for the first time where, similar to a Street Fight, the use of weapons is encouraged.
All three dates of the Maximum Impact 8 Tour will be taped for TV broadcast across 120 countries, including Challenge in the UK.
And the full and final line-up for the events can be seen at: http://impactwrestling.com/uk-tour-announcement/
Image courtesy of WrestleTalkTV via YouTube, with thanks.
