Back in 2007, on a very special Thanksgiving episode of TNA’s Impact on Spike, Impact Wrestling would began a tradition that has left countless victims publicly shamed in front of their peers, and the world. That tradition is the Turkey Bowl. Throughout its various iterations, one thing remains true of the Turkey Bowl, and that is that at the end of the night a loser will wear a Turkey Suit.
The Tournament Years Of TNA's Turkey Bowl
Back in 2007, the Turkey Bowl was a special Thanksgiving tournament made up of triple threat matches. In the finals, the winner was said to receive twenty-five thousand dollars, but the wrestler who took the fall in the triple threat would be deemed the night’s loser. That loser would then be forced to put on a turkey suit. The first tournament also had the interesting twist of each opening round match consisting of a member of the Tag Division, the X-Division, and the Heavyweight Division. The first year would see the finals be a thirty-minute battle between AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, and Chris Sabin. Styles would be the loser on this night, and a very frustrated AJ would begrudgingly put on the suit.
The tournament format for TNA’s Turkey Bowl would only last one more year, with Alex Shelley ending up the turkey at the hands of Rhino. The Turkey Bowl would then disappear altogether, not to be seen again for three turkey-less years. When it did return, the tournament was scratched in favor of a single match with the shameful Turkey Suit stipulation attached. During the singles match years of Impact’s Turkey Bowl, losers included the lovable Grado, members of the BroMan’s Robbie E (NXT’s Robert Stone) and Jessie Godderz, as well as the team who lost to the BroMans in the 2015 Tag Team Turkey Bowl Match: Dewey Barnes and Peter Avalon during his Norv Fernum period. The only loser to escape ever having to wear the turkey suit was Robbie E, who may have been legitimately knocked silly in his match with Eric Young, and thus it was his heavy Robbie T who would end up the big turkey.
Impact Wrestling's Turkey Bowl: The Eli Drake Years
2017 saw another big change to both the branding, and the format of Impact’s yearly ceremony of turkey shame. NXT’s LA Knight, then Eli Drake, took it upon himself as champion to rename the match “Eli Drake’s Gravy Train Turkey Trot”. The match also was changed to being a ten-person intergender tag match where the loser of the fall was still destined to be transformed into a silly turkey live on television. The first Turkey trot featured a cavalcade of personalities including Chris Adonis, Dick Justice, Fallah Bah, and the now Santos Escobar. After being pinned, it would be the former Chris Masters who ended up being the sacrifice at that year's turkey shame ritual.
The following year saw “The Second Annual Eli Drake Gravy Train Turkey Trot” and would be the return of the five on five intergender tag format, and would be the final year fans were treated to any iteration of the Turkey Bowl tradition. The former Disco Inferno, Glen Gilberti, would take part in the match with other notably odd participants including Japanese Comedy Legend Kikutaro, Paul Burchill’s sister Katarina, and the returning and fun-loving Fallah Bah. The end of the match saw Gilberti, on the losing end of the pinfall, and Disco Inferno finally ascended to his final form as a turkey.
The End Of IMPACT Wrestling's Turkey Bowl
Eli Drake would depart Impact Wrestling in 2019 after some disparaging comments about intergender wrestling oddly enough, and would head for the NWA, and then eventually WWE’s NXT All of those things making it very unlikely for a return of Eli Drake’s Turkey Trot in any form or fashion, but the likelihood of the Turkey Bowl retaining its five on five format if it were to ever return does seem in the realm of possibility. Also worth noting that Drake's comments on intergender wrestling were not pointed at the annual Turkey Trot, but seemingly at a scheduled singles match with Tessa Blanchard set to take place at 2019’s United We Stand.
The shame of the turkey suit is a powerful motivator, and in some years led to some high-quality matches for families to enjoy on Thanksgiving night as they sat upon their couches full of too much stuffing. Nothing says Thanksgiving like pumpkin pie and a member of the X-Division dressed like a bird who is often slaughtered for a festive family meal. The ever-changing tradition of the Turkey Bowl seems dead for now, but the future is always full of shameful possibilities.