Impact Wrestling's Hall of Fame has had a rocky time since being established in 2012. Last year it was heavily rumoured that James Storm would be honored with induction, but under strange circumstances, no new addition was made. Well flash forward 12 months and the company announced that on this Thursday's show, the first new inductee since 2016 will be named. Follow Sportskeeda for the latest WWE news, rumors and all other wrestling news. The inductee is more than likely to be an ex-WWE wrestler when you consider the fact that every current inductee in the Impact Hall of Fame has wrestled or refereed (Earl Hebner) in the WWE. So here are three wrestlers who have a shot at making the class of 2018. #3 AJ Styles AJ Styles is currently starring in the WWE Yes, we admit this one is a long shot, but let's not forget that Ric Flair was inducted into the WWE Hall Of Fame during his time with TNA. AJ Styles will definitely go into the Impact Hall of Fame at some point because of his 11 year run in TNA, which has made him synonymous with the company. Inducting Styles next month would get a lot of attention for Impact due to AJ's current status as a top star in the WWE. The issue is that the WWE would most likely stop the 41-year-old from making an appearance at the ceremony and Impact would find it very difficult to avoid ridicule without physically having AJ Styles present. This makes an induction this year unlikely so Impact Wrestling will probably have to wait a few more years to put 'Mr TNA', into their Hall of Fame. 1 / 3 NEXT<doc-sep>Impact Wrestling returns tonight (Sept. 20) from Frontón México in Mexico City, Mexico. It is the first episode from the most recent set of tapings. Here’s what’s on tap for tonight: Austin Aries (c) vs. Texano for the Impact world title Impact announces their next Impact Hall of Fame inductee Will Rich Swann finally get his hands on Matt Sydal? Grado & Joe Hendry debut a new video oVe vs. Aerostar, Laredo Kid, & El Hijo de Vikingo Faby Apache vs. Alisha Edwards As per usual, here are our five questions about Impact tonight: 1) Will the new Impact Hall of Famer come from WWE? Impact will be announcing their next Hall of Fame inductee tonight. Most of the people who fit the bill are in WWE. AJ Styles is probably their biggest star of all time and the current WWE champion. Bobby Roode of Beer Money is in WWE. Samoa Joe is in WWE. Eric Young is in WWE. And there’s only so long they can keep these guys out of the Hall of Fame before it looks too meaningless. They could induct Awesome Kong, who most definitely deserves to be honored for her work in the promotion. (And with GLOW continuing to be a hit, it certainly would be a good time for it.) But there’s another thing that has me thinking the next member may come from WWE, and that’s the WWE/Impact meeting from the other week. Why would Impact officials and WWE officials meet? We know it wasn’t for a big purchase like the tape library. Yes, maybe it’s to get a good relationship to continue to use Impact footage on the WWE Network specials. But working out a one time appearance for someone in WWE to accept this Impact honor is a possibility. Can you imagine WWE Champion AJ Styles showing up to accept the Impact Hall of Fame induction? That’d be wild. And an Impact HOF wouldn’t be complete without him. 2) What will be the reasoning behind the title match? Austin Aries will be defending his title against Texano, a Triple A and Lucha Underground star, tonight. I’m sure the booking reason is to showcase a big match with a current champion of one promotion against a former champion of another to sell tickets and give the audience something to get excited over. But how will they explain it in the story? Why Texano and why does Aries agree to it? Aries isn’t a big time coward. He offered to defend his title against the larger Fallah Bahh last week and was victorious with no help from his goons Moose & Killer Kross. Perhaps that same hubris is all it will take tonight. This time he may need help from Moose & Kross, but that’s something he’s never had an issue with. He defeated Eddie Edwards that way. Hopefully they give us the “why” tonight instead of just telling it’s going to happen though. Matches for the top title should all have a reason. 3) Are Grado & Joe Hendry going to be an official tag team? It was a bit of a shock when Joe Hendry spurned the advances from Grado’s girlfriend Katarina to maintain his loyalty to his friend. That story looked to be going in the direction of a Hendry heel turn and instead he ended up doing the right thing. For now of course. They can always be playing a longer game to get us there. And that’s fine. The story already has taken a bit of a turn that we weren’t expecting. Perhaps that was just to draw us off the scent. If they don’t; however, they should throw their hats into the tag team division. Impact still has to grow the ranks of their tag scene. They did a good job getting us to this spot with Hendry and Grado on the same side. If they’re not going to break them up, may as well use them to freshen up the tag division. Either way, I’m excited for their new video tonight. 4) How rowdy will the Mexican audience be? When Impact went to Canada from Orlando, their crowds massively improved. Suddenly these were people showing up to see wrestling instead of to get out of the heat during a day at Universal Studios. And when the crowds improve, the overall presentation improves. Now they’re headed south of the border to an entirely new wrestling audience. I’m not someone who watches much Mexican wrestling. I’ve seen a couple TripleManias and noted that the AAA style was something I wasn’t really used to. So I wonder how the crowd will respond to a different style. Given there are plenty of talent on these shows who wrestle in Mexico, it will probably go well. Each match they announced tonight so far features talent the audience will know. And it’s not like the Mexican crowds don’t love wrestling. 5) Is Sydal vs. Swann the Bound for Glory plan? With Bound for Glory just a month away, they’ve still got to fill up the card. And a match that makes perfect sense is Rich Swann vs. Matt Sydal. Sydal has been trying to get Swann to become his student of the spiritual ways. Swann wants none of that. Now they have to figure out how to extend the feud and keep it interesting for a month until they actually meet up at the pay-per-view. (That is unless they decide to have a match prior that has a non-finish setting up the PPV match.) Impact Wrestling airs tonight at 8 ET on Pop TV. Who’s watching?<doc-sep>
What's the story? The news is now official. 'The monster' Abyss, one of the mainstays of Impact Wrestling/TNA has been announced for the 2018 class of the official Impact Wrestling Hall of Fame. ⚡️ “@TherealAbyss Was Announced For The IMPACT Hall Of Fame On IMPACT!”https://t.co/JSsoNgssEG — IMPACT (@IMPACTWRESTLING) September 21, 2018 I’m absolutely over whelmed with the response to my upcoming @IMPACTWRESTLING Hall of Fame induction. Thank you ALL for your messages. This is one of the highlights of my career. I’m over come with emotion. Thank you to everyone who ever supported me. This is for all of YOU!! — Abyss (@TherealAbyss) September 21, 2018 We at Sportskeeda Wrestling send out our congratulations and best wishes to Abyss on this highly prestigious achievement. Several other members of the sports entertainment fraternity also sent out their congratulations on social media. In case you didn't know... Abyss is one of the men who put Impact Wrestling on the map, having been associated with the company since 2002. He is a Grand Slam champion which makes him the biggest man to ever hold the X Division Championship in the company's illustrious history. He has also wrestled as Joseph Park, as recently as last year. Not long ago, Abyss was a part of the faction, Decay, where he showed a different side of his persona. He is a man who has done it all, and a deserved member of the Hall of Fame class of 2018. The heart of the matter The TNA Hall of Fame is a prestigious institution, honouring the men and women who built the company with their prowess in the wrestling ring. Last year, due to the uncertainty surrounding the stability of the company, there was no Hall of Fame inductee. Sting was the first man to be inducted in 2012, and Gail Kim was the previous inductee in the year 2016. Abyss joins some huge names like Kurt Angle, Jeff Jarrett and legendary referee Earl Hebner. The official ceremony will take place on the eve of Bound for Glory, next month. What's next? Abyss may have taken many bumps and bruises but he's still very much an active wrestler. He wrestled Kongo Kong as recently as this year and even put the 'new monster' over. It will be fun to see him have another run in the company. Do you think Abyss is deserving of the honour? Let us know in the comments below.