By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
TNA Impact Hits
Nic Nemeth vs. Frankie Kazarian: A good main event. Kazarian has been getting a strong push as a heel, so it seemed like there was a good chance that the match would have a wonky finish. Rather, they went with a straight forward clean win for Nemeth, which was a pleasant surprise. Kazarian should have no trouble getting his heat back. The post match angle with The System beating down Nemeth, his brother, and Joe Hendry was pretty basic in terms of putting heat on the top heel faction, which still feels fairly cold to me.
Jordynne Grace vs. Allysin Kay for the Knockouts Title: Grace is the woman of the hour given that she will be challenging Roxanne Perez for the NXT Women’s Championship on Sunday’s NXT Battleground show. TNA has done an effective job of weaving in videos and commentary to push that match. This is a big week for Grace, so having her beat Kay was the right call. They are also doing a nice job with the slow build to Grace eventually defending her title against Ash By Elegance, who was at ringside during the match.
Mike Bailey and Trent Seven vs. Mustafa Ali and Campaign Singh: A nice tag team match. Unfortunately, Singh losing quickly established that his name is the only thing that’s really changed with Singh since joining Ali’s whacky politician act. While Bailey and Seven work well together, I continue to feel like Bailey being in this tag team is a waste when he should be prominently featured as a top singles wrestler.
Jake Something vs. Kon: A solid battle of the big men. The post match angle with Kon attacking Something was fine until the clunky spot where Kon could have done his neck snapping move on Something, but he had to wait for Eric Young to come out to distract him.
Gisele Shaw vs. Shazza McKenzie: More of an in the middle than a Hit or a Miss for Shaw’s babyface debut. Shaw is just getting started with the character so hopefully it will get better, but my first impression was that her babyface persona feels bland.
TNA Impact Misses
20th anniversary show: Eric Young delivered a speech and Tom Hannifan did his best to put over the special occasion, but the lack of production work was a disappointment. It was strange that there wasn’t a big video package or throwback clips celebrating the company’s history on the big milestone episode.
Laredo Kid vs. AJ Francis for the TNA Digital Media Championship: Moving the belt to Francis is fine since the company seems to have no interesting in consistently pushing Kid for some odd reason. But I care so little about the poorly named championship that I’d prefer to see someone throw it in a river. Seriously, the belt has no value and hasn’t given a boost to any wrestler who has held it.
Rosemary and Sami Callihan videos: Rosemary is a strong performer who always delivers her lines well. Maybe I’ve just seen one too many spooky Malakai Black promos that didn’t lead to anything, but I found myself struggling to stay focused on what she was saying. Meanwhile, Callihan’s zany talkshow bit is just not what I want to see from his character.
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