Powell’s TNA Impact Hit List: Nic Nemeth vs. Eddie Edwards, Josh Alexander vs. Frankie Kazarian, Mike Santana vs. Myron Reed, Xia Brookside vs. Ash By Elegance

By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)

TNA Impact Hits

Josh Alexander vs. Frankie Kazarian: The “impromptu” match was a pleasant surprise. A case can be made that it should have been promoted, but it doesn’t seem like TNA officials live and die with the television ratings like the two bigger companies do. Kazarian has won me over with his performances as a heel and these two worked well together.

Nic Nemeth vs. Eddie Edwards: A well worked main event with a surprising outcome. Everything pointed to this being a bounce back win for Nemeth after he lost to Moose at Rebellion. Rather, Moose hit Nemeth with the title belt to set up Edwards stealing the win. This was followed by The System attacking Nemeth afterward while his brother Ryan was forced to watch from the front row. The System still feels cold as the lead heels, but the TNA creative forces are doing their part to establish them as a dominant faction.

Mike Santana vs. Myron Reed: Well, at least part of this was a Hit. The match was entertaining and Santana clearly needed to go over in his return to TNA television. But why did his win need to come at the expense of Reed, who has yet to be established in TNA? Reed is too talented to waste. On the bright side, Santana is the freshest of the three wrestlers who returned at Rebellion and the only one who has officially signed with the company. The post match angle with Steve Maclin sets up what should be a strong first feud for Santana.

Xia Brookside vs. Ash By Elegance: Going into the match, it felt like this needed to be more than just another squash win for Ash. It was time to move to the next stage and they did that by having Brookside steal a victory. The loss won’t hurt Ash, yet it put her feud with Brookside on the map.

TNA Impact Misses

Nic Nemeth and Matt Hardy: Nemeth has done really well in his big fish in a small pond role since arriving in TNA, but he struggled with his mic work this week. Nemeth was just plain unconvincing as he tried to sell the audience on the idea that he was second guessing himself after losing the TNA Title match to Moose at Rebellion. Meanwhile, the Broken Matt character returned with no explanation as to why he went from being regular Matt Hardy to being broken once he returned to TNA. The Broken Universe ran its course and now it feels like a bad nostalgia act. Only time will tell whether Hardy can breathe new life into it.

Sami Callihan vs. “The Good Hands” Jason Hotch and John Skyler: Callihan returning and beating up The Good Hands in a handicap match felt uneventful. In fact, Callihan’s return felt a little lost in the shuffle because he returned on the same night as Matt Hardy and Mike Santana. Meanwhile, I don’t understand why Hotch and Skyler are positioned as scrubs. It’s fine if the company doesn’t want to push them aggressively, but what good can actually come out of defining them down to the point that beating them does nothing for their opponents?