By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
TNA Impact Hits
Nic Nemeth and Josh Alexander meet before Emergence: The champion and the challenger engaged an excellent verbal exchange with strong dialogue that was true to their respective characters. I love that while they both got fired up and raised their voices while speaking passionately, yet the segment didn’t end in physicality. Rather, Alexander simply walked away. This was the type of mic work that you could show a non-fan and potentially sell them on the sports-like drama. I’m not always a big fan of Iron Man matches, but this one has the potential to be something special.
Mike Bailey vs. Rich Swann for the X Division Title: Does Bailey have bad matches? This was a good television match and a quality win for Bailey heading into the Ultimate X match at tonight’s Emergence special.
Hammerstone vs. Eric Young: Hammerstone showed improvement late in his MLW run and he’s taken it to a new level in TNA. It certainly helps to be working with veterans such as Young and Josh Alexander, but Hammerstone is holding up his end of the matches. In this case, Young played the veteran gatekeeper role by putting over Hammerstone clean.
Joe Hendry vs. Brian Myers: Another momentum building win for Henry. Only the Raw creative team would have a wrestler working a high profile NXT match lose this close to the premium live event. Anyway, Henry continues to be a rising star and it’s fun to see. But why in the world did they have the finish occur during a picture-in-picture break? Does it add a sense of realism that a match an end at any time? I suppose. Was it worth it? No.
Mike Santana vs. Eddie Edwards: If Hendry has a foot out the door to WWE, then Santana strikes me as a strong candidate to eventually become the top babyface in TNA. Nic Nemeth and Mike Bailey will have something to say about that, which shows TNA’s depth of strong babyfaces. I continue to enjoy Santana’s singles work and this match was no exception. Santana always showed good promo skills even though LAX had multiple mouthpieces, and he’s finally getting to show that he can deliver consistently on the mic.
TNA Tag Team Champions “ABC” Ace Austin and Chris Bey vs. Jake Something and Cody Deaner in a non-title match: A solid tag match with the champions getting a clean win. The aforementioned top babyface depth might explain why Something was heelish with his pre-match mic work and then stood by and watched AJ Francis and Rich Swann take out ABC after the match. This episode was taped before Swann was arrested and suspended indefinitely by the company. If Swann isn’t returning soon, it will be interesting to see if Francis gets a new tag team partner or if another team will challenge for the tag titles.
TNA Impact Misses
Jordynne Grace vs. Ash by Elegance in a Match By Elegance for the Knockouts Title: It turns out that a Match By Elegance is essentially a falls count anywhere match. Ash and The Concierge took full advantage of the No DQ stipulation that came along with it and that made Grace feel like she was more at risk of losing than usual. They had me until Grace delivered a chair shot to the head of Ash. It looked like Ash blocked some of the blow with her hands, but the lunacy is spreading to multiple companies. Why do promoters continue to allow this after everything we’ve learned about CTE?
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