Powell’s TNA Impact Hit List: Nic Nemeth and Joe Hendry vs. First Class, Matt Hardy and Jeff Hardy vs. Ace Austin and Chris Bey, Leon Slater vs. Jason Hotch vs. Laredo Kid for a shot at the X Division Title

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

TNA Impact Hits

Nic Nemeth and Joe Hendry vs. “First Class” AJ Francis and KC Navarro: It’s not uncommon for a babyface champion to team with his babyface challenger heading into a showdown match. Typically, they self destruct and end up fighting one another. In this case, Nemeth and Hendry won the match worked well together, but they also added a touch of tension by using each other’s finishing moves. There are still have two weeks of television left before Bound For Glory, and I prefer the slow build as opposed to having a big meltdown this early in the build.

Jordynne Grace, Masha Slamovich, and Sol Ruca vs. Wendy Choo, Rosemary, and Tasha Steelz: The first thing that stood out about this opening match was that while the Skyway Studios crowd was small in numbers, they were a vocal bunch that provided a nice atmosphere. It’s never ideal to have the hard camera face the stage, but it’s certainly understandable in this case given that TNA was forced to change taping locations due to Hurricane Helene. The actual match was solid and did an effective job of building tension between Grace and Slamovich. The backstage segment with Grace finding Slamovich’s creepy “Kill Wall” left me with mixed feelings. I like the basic idea of this, but it was needlessly overproduced to the point that they had camera inside the room point at Grace when she opened the door.

Josh Alexander vs. Eric Young: A good television match with a weak finish. I get the idea of establishing the Sinner & Saint duo as threats to interference in Alexander’s matches, but surely where was a way to do that without making the referee look so oblivious. Nevertheless, there was more good than bad and I like the idea of Alexander giving a rub to Sinner & Saint.

Leon Slater vs. Jason Hotch vs. Laredo Kid for a shot at the X Division Title: Slater winning was expected and welcome in that it set up what should be a fun title match between him and Mike Bailey for next week.

Heather Reckless makeover: Ash By Elegance and The Concierge calling for filler and chanting “botox” was silly, over the top fun.

TNA Impact Misses

Moose and Mike Santana: Santana did his usual good mic work. But all of the talk about Moose being the face of the franchise feels as empty as The System labeling themselves the best faction in pro wrestling.

Matt Hardy and Jeff Hardy vs. Ace Austin and Chris Bey for a shot at the TNA Tag Team Titles at Bound For Glory: Well, it was fun while it lasted. Eddie Edwards and Brian Myers attacking both teams for the cheap no-contest finish was a big letdown. As usual, the heels were the only people in the world who didn’t seem to realize that this would lead to them being forced to defend their titles against both teams in a three-way match.