AS I SEE IT
Bob Magee
Pro Wrestling Between the Sheets
PWBTS.com
F4wonline reported last Wednesday that Collision will go
head-to-head with TNA Impact twice in the month of July,
with a possibility of this being an ongoing issue once a
month.
Listed on the July TNT schedule, Collision will air on
Thursday, July 2 at 8:00 pm ET, taped in San Diego the
previous night after with Dynamite with a listed runtime of
2 1/2 hours, due to the debut of TNT Boxing that Saturday,
July 4 which kicks off a series of monthly events in
conjunction with DAZN (plus getting viewers on July 4 would
have been difficult at best).
That could mean Collision is pre-empted once a month,
depending on the unreleased TNT Boxing schedule unless it
moves to TBS for that particular week. The second Thursday
Collision is set for July 30 at 8 pm Eastern as the show
airs live from Detroit, MI. It's running then owing to
Saturday being night one of WWE SummerSlam.
With last week's Mystery Wrestling/Fighting Back: Wrestling
With Cancer Infinite Rumble 21-hour streaming marathon (held
on June 21/22) raising $34,661 (CA 24,415.56)...and
with this Wednesday being July 1, it occurs that it's never
too soon for a thought about Christmas in July.
First, on Thursday, July 16 at 5:00 pm ET to Friday, July 17
at 5:00 pm, Fightful.com will be doing a 24-hour charity
stream on the Fightful Overbooked YouTube channel. The
stream will benefit NAMI (National Alliance on Mental
Illness), the US–based nonprofit organization that offers
educational classes and trainings on mental illness for
people living with mental illnesses, their families,
community members, and professionals.
In addition, there's what PWBTS and my AS I SEE IT blog have
called the giving season, typically starting in early
September. Last year, wrestling fans were far more generous
than at any other time in the 11 years that I've done lists
of promotions throughout the US and Canada helping their
communities for the Holidays.
Independent promotions throughout the United States and
Canada held events to help their communities during the
Giving Season through wrestling shows, Comic-Cons, playing
video games, 10-day marathons sitting on top of a trailer,
bowling parties, online trivia contests, chicken BBQ's,
portrait sittings, Twitch streams, GoFundMes and a dozen
other means.
There are still others with unique relationships like
Pittsburgh's Enjoy Wrestling has with Planned Parenthood,
where Planned Parenthood both sponsors Enjoy Wrestling, and
uses those shows as an outreach opportunity for the women's
reproductive health care services Planned Parenthood
provides.
Each week during these eleven seasons of giving, I've posted
about those events, and how they helped their
communities. In all these events, these promotions asked
fans to do one small thing. But that "one small thing" meant
the world to someone you will never meet. One can of soup
meant that someone was fed for a meal. One box of rice meant
that a family was fed for weeks. One warm coat meant an
older person won't shiver uncontrollably when they walk to
the market or to a doctor's appointment. One toy meant that
a child is allowed a moment of innocence and joy, often the
same child who has gone through fear and deprivation for far
too long.
One "small thing" that was anything but small.
The Holiday season of 2025 was preceded by a 40-day
government shutdown that resulted in up to 42 million
Americans not receiving some or all of their SNAP benefits
on time. The effects of this shutdown and the resulting "Big
Beautiful" legislation continued into 2026; with the new
budget legislation resulting in 4 million being off SNAP
benefits permanently, 46% of them children. That meant that
men, women, children, and folks beyond the binary have been
going hungry. It meant that at a such a time like this,
every can, every box, every can, box or bag of food might
well the only thing that keeps people from starvation.
The numbers you'll read below are proof that despite all the
hatred in the real world during 2025 and since, there's
still goodness in wrestling fans and in people in general.
In the 2025 Giving Season, 154 indie promotions in
28 states and 5 Canadian provinces held a
total of 219 shows and events...
From that list, a final figure for the season comes to
27,179 toys, 28,975 pounds (well over 14 TONS)
of canned/non-perishable food, $714,450.91 US in
cash donations.112 backpacks/sets of school supplies,
a van filled with winter jackets and clothing, another 50
winter coats, 2 boxes of bedclothes/linens, 20 Halloween
outfits, a "number of large bags" of pet food and more.
So.....It may be a hot July day as you read this, but it's
not too soon for local independent wrestling promotions to
think about what efforts they can undertake to help their
communities during 2025's Holiday season. Given the
political environment, more help will be needed from every
private source possible to help the hungry, the sick, the
cold, the homeless, sexual/domestic violence victims, animal
welfare, and too many more. Indies, start thinking about
what you can do now. If you're aware of shows your local
indie is scheduling this Christmas, let me know at the
addresses below.
If you'd like to contact me, you can do so at my
bobmagee1@hotmail.com account or to through Facebook
Messenger at https://www.facebook.com/bob.magee.180, direct
message me at https://twitter.com/BobMage70323520, or
contact me at BlueSky at
https://bsky.app/profile/bobmagee940.bsky.social
