Powell’s TNA Impact Hit List: Joe Hendry and Josh Alexander vs. Moose and Steve Maclin, Jordynne Grace vs. Izzy Dame for the Knockouts Title, Charlie Dempsey vs. Zachary Wentz, AJ Francis vs. Rhino for the Digital Media Title

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

TNA Impact Hits

Joe Hendry and Josh Alexander vs. Moose and Steve Maclin: The wildcard format came out of nowhere, but it provided a good explanation for these fairly random teams to meet in what made for a strong main event. It was a bit surprising to see the heels go over, but they did so with help from Frankie Kazarian. The only negative is that while this seemed like it was meant to serve as somewhat of a preview to the Slammiversary main event, it didn’t really leave me more excited about that six-way elimination match for the TNA Title.

Mike Bailey vs. Jonathan Gresham vs. Kushida for a shot at the TNA X Division Championship: The outcome was made pretty obvious given that they previously set up Bailey challenging Mustafa Ali and then walked it back so they could hold this No. 1 contender match. Nevertheless, this was a well worked bout. As awful as Gresham’s octopus ink gimmick is, Kushida countering with green mist got a rise out of the crowd. Likewise, I’m not a fan of the Bailey and Trent Seven pairing, but Ali attacking Seven while Bailey was forced to watch made for an effective heat generating moment.

Charlie Dempsey vs. Zachary Wentz: The better of the two NXT crossover matches. The match was brief and it came off like the finish may have been botched given the way they cut away from what was happening in the ring to zero in on Myles Borne attacking Trey Miguel at ringside. Either way, what we saw entertaining and they set the table for a six-man tag match for next week.

Jordynne Grace vs. Izzy Dame for the Knockouts Title: This wasn’t the most exciting crossover simply because Dame has not been featured prominently on NXT television. Nevertheless, Grace and TNA are benefitting greatly from the NXT working relationship. The NXT talent coming in helps mask the lack of depth in the Knockouts division while also keeping Grace’s latest title reign fresh.

JDC vs. Chris Bey: One of the better JDC matches in TNA. He played a pest heel for a long time and was never counted on to have good matches in a traditional sense. It was encouraging to see him put together a quality match with Bey, and I continue to enjoy the more serious persona that JDC is playing.

TNA Impact Misses

AJ Francis vs. Rhino in a street fight for the Digital Media Title: The pre-match attack by Francis and Rich Swann set the table for Santino Marella delivering a fiery speech that set up the former ECW mainstay with a street fight in Philadelphia. But the actual street fight lasted less than two minutes, presumably setting up some type tag team match given that PCO tried to help Rhino afterward.

Gisele Shaw vs. Tasha Steelz: A brief match that fell below my expectations for the wrestlers involved. Shaw is off to a flat start as a babyface.