The Impact Zone, also known as the Impact Wrestling Zone, is the professional wrestling nickname for any one of three sound stages at Universal Studios Florida in Orlando. Its nickname was derived from Impact!, a weekly television series produced by Total Nonstop Action Wrestling which broadcast from this venue. Between 2004 and March 2013, TNA taped their broadcasts from Soundstage 21. As part of the agreement with Universal, TNA was not allowed to charge general admission to events held at the Impact Zone, with the exception of VIP packages. This meant the company sometimes looked for alternative venues to host their large pay-per-view events. After March 2013, TNA left Universal Studios and began to tour nationally. TNA returned to Universal Studios on November 21, 2013, using Soundstage 19, which is smaller and holds fewer people than Soundstage 21. Until April 2018, the company continued to tape most of its programming at Universal Studios, with occasional tapings at other venues, switching between Soundstages 19, 20, and 21. Since April 2018, Impact has not returned to Universal Studios, instead choosing to tape from venues in the U.S, Canada, and Mexico where they are able to charge for admission.
History
Initial usage
Soundstage 21 was originally known as the Extreme Arena and was used for the game shows Nickelodeon Guts and Global Guts from 1992 to 1995. In 1996 World Championship Wrestling began taping their syndicated wrestling shows WCW Pro and WCW Worldwide from Soundstage 21, now dubbed the WCW Arena. WCW continued to tape the shows and occasional episodes of WCW Saturday Night until 1998 when Pro was canceled and matches for Worldwide were taped before WCW Thunder. In 1999 the roller derby show RollerJam was filmed from the building. The show was canceled in 2001 and another wrestling company called the XWF began taping their shows there.
Home venue of Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (2004–2013)
In May 2004, TNA announced that they would be starting their first nationally broadcast television show, TNA Impact on Fox SportsNet which would be taped at Universal Studios as part of an agreement reached with the theme park. Accordingly, TNA leased Soundstage 21 for the purposes of putting on wrestling events for an indefinite period of time. TNA also moved several of its main offices down to Orlando from their original home in Nashville, Tennessee. From June 2004 to March 2013, TNA taped its flagship show, Impact! as well as its secondary show Xplosion from the Impact Zone. They also aired every monthly pay-per-view in company history from that location until October 2006 when Bound for Glory was broadcast from the Compuware Arena in Detroit. They also hosted a special viewing of The Best Damn Sports Show Period that was entitled the Best Damn Wrestling Event Period. In August 2006 at Hard Justice, a fire sparked in the rafters of the Impact Zone. The fire was the result of pyrotechnics igniting a burlap sandbag. The sound stage was evacuated for approximately 20 minutes while the Orlando Fire Department inspected the resultant damage and the building in general. Afterwards, the audience was allowed back in and the show resumed with only one match canceled. On January 31, 2013, Total Nonstop Action Wrestling announced that they would be taping their weekly show, Impact Wrestling from different venues around the United States, with the first live show on March 14, 2013, from the Sears Centre Arena near Chicago. The final two episodes of Impact Wrestling filmed at this location were on February 28, 2013, and March 7, 2013. After this, TNA cleared out the venue and ended their contract with Universal Studios.
TNA's return to Orlando (2013–2018)
TNA returned to Universal Studios on November 21, 2013. A smaller version of the road set debuted that night along with new lighting structures and new seats in the smaller venue that is 16,500 square feet. From 2014 to 2016, the company taped its programming in Soundstage 20, which is the same capacity as Soundstage 19. However, in January 2017, the company taped TV from Soundstage 19 again, during which tapings the TNA name was dropped for good. In March 2017, the company returned to Soundstage 21, the original Impact Zone, for the first time in four years. For the April tapings, the company once again used Soundstage 20. Soundstage 19 was used for the July and August tapings. The company was originally scheduled to hold their flagship Bound for Glory pay-per-view along with multi-day tapings there in November, but they instead moved the event with the following tapings to Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The company returned to Orlando in January as they held their first tapings of 2018 at Soundstage 19. The Impact Zone also hosted the first live Impact PPV of 2018, Redemption. After the April tapings, Impact began touring other venues and countries, leaving the return to the Impact Zone uncertain. Bleachers used in the Impact Zone went onto sale on eBay in August.
List of live pay-per-view events held in the Impact Zone
Until 2017, Impact Zone used to host the majority of taped One Night Only events as well, since these shows were usually taped along with Impact Wrestling episodes.
