Impact Wrestling is serious about becoming a more exciting brand of professional wrestling, and they’ve added one of the most exciting talents on the UK Independent scene for their upcoming tapings in Joe Hendry. And while the in-ring talent is the focus of the show, Impact understands how important talented backstage interviewers are, which is why they’ve added Alicia Atout to their upcoming tapings.

Ever since Don Callis and Scott D’Amore took over, Impact Wrestling has been on the rise, and they’ve built up a great deal of goodwill as a result of their successful Redemption Pay Per View. With Pentagon Jr. as their world champion and a Knockouts Division that is setting the standard for storylines in women’s wrestling, Impact has shown that they are serious about putting together a more engaging product.

While Impact has been criticized for bringing Rich Swann in for their upcoming tapings, as Swann was arrested for domestic battery and false imprisonment in December 2017, they also deserve praise for bringing in Joe Hendry and Alicia Atout.

Hendry’s addition to the June 1 and 2 tapings in Windsor, Ontario was announced by the UK-based professional wrestler on Friday. Tonight, Atout announced on her Twitter account that she will be a backstage host at the upcoming tapings.

NEWS! I'm so excited to share that I'm working the upcoming @IMPACTWRESTLING TV tapings this weekend as their backstage host! These shows will be seen in over 120 countries. This is an incredible opportunity and I can't wait to do more work with this company! ♥🙏 #BCW #Destiny pic.twitter.com/RcSMmXfDxz — Alicia Atout (@AliciaAtout) May 27, 2018

For those of you unfamiliar with her work, Atout is one of the most skilled interviewers in professional wrestling. She and Chris Van Vliet have given wrestling fans something of an embarrassment of riches in that department, and she does a great job of getting wrestlers to open up in interviews that are both informative and genuinely entertaining. You can view her interviews here (YouTube) and on her site AMBY. I especially recommend her interviews with Britt Baker and Marty Scurll.

Hopefully Impact Wrestling decides to sign Atout for more tapings than just this one, because, again, she is an exceptional talent. I hope this still means that Mackenzie Mitchell is doing backstage interviews, too, as she is also quite talented. (I especially love her reactions to the boisterous answers from the likes of Scott Steiner and Eli Drake.)

This is more exciting news from a promotion that seems to be far more in touch with the type of content the fans want and the type of talent they want to see on television each week. Despite my criticisms of some of their decisions, Impact, by and large, has a great pulse on the industry, and the opportunity they are sending Atout’s way is one example of this.