Pride Nights are a wonderful way sports teams and organizations have celebrated the gay, lesbian, bi, trans and queer community and welcomed LGBTQ fans with enriching and empowering environments. Now, IMPACT Wrestling is joining the party.
IMPACT Wrestling will host its first Pride Night in Windsor, Ontario, on July 16. The event makes IMPACT the first major televised pro wrestling promotion ever to host a Pride Night and follows the release of the company’s first Pride photoshoot earlier this month.
IMPACT’s Pride Night will be held as part of its “Slammiversary Fallout” event one day after its annual anniversary pay-per-view event “Slammiversary.”
According to IMPACT, the pro wrestling company will partner with Windsor-Essex Pride Fest for the event and is offering a “Pride Ticket Package” that includes a private post-show meet and greet with out LGBTQ IMPACT wrestlers Gisele Shaw and Jai Vidal. IMPACT will donate a portion of all ticket package sales to The Trevor Project.
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IMPACT Wrestling and Windsor-Essex Pride Fest are also proud to tag-team for a Pride Night on Sunday, July 16, at St. Clair College in Windsor, Ontario, marking the first-ever Pride Night from a major pro wrestling company.
— IMPACT (@IMPACTWRESTLING) June 27, 2023
FULL DETAILS: https://t.co/evoKmyfoJH pic.twitter.com/QiNfgxvZcs
Shaw has also been named as an “Ambassador of Pride” for the Windsor-Essex Pride Fest alongside fitness expert and “The Amazing Race Canada” winner Craig Ramsey.
“Celebrating diversity is based on the notion that everyone has value no matter how different anyone might appear to anyone else. Craig and Gisele are inspiring in how they each champion this belief,” said Windsor-Essex Pride Fest’s David Lenz.
IMPACT’s decision follows the growth of Pride-focused pro wrestling events throughout independent wrestling over the better part of the last decade, including Game Changer Wrestling’s “EFFY’s Big Gay Brunch” events and multiple events held by the now-defunct Pro Wrestling VIBE.
It also comes days after IMPACT’s head of communications, Ross Forman, was named to the Outsports Power 100.
Major televised pro wrestling promotions, including WWE and AEW, have embraced the LGBTQ community to varying degrees during Pride month in recent years, mostly manifesting through Pride merchandise and photoshoots. IMPACT will now take that one step further outside of Pride month and in front of their TV cameras.
