By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
TNA Impact Hits
Mustafa Ali and Mike Santana summit: An excellent segment. Ali hit hard when he ripped into Santana for being an addict. Santana fired back with his latest strong promo, which left me more confident than ever that he is a future TNA World Champion. Ali and his crew putting the boots to Santana and then leaving an alcoholic beverage next to him was heavy. Ali’s gimmick is typically too sports entertainment for my taste, but he played his part to perfection in this case. Ali and Santana have successffully heated up their feud in short order.
Joe Hendry vs. Hammerstone for the TNA World Championship: A good night for Hendry with a quick and comedic win over Ryan Nemeth followed by a good win over Hammerstone. I have been a fan of Hammerstone’s work going back to when he started to click early in his MLW run. He’s always been jacked, but this is the first time I remember feeling like he added too much muscle mass, which made him look stiff and less mobile. The match was still solid. I was disappointed to read that Hammerstone’s contract with TNA has expired. His TNA run started strong with the Josh Alexander feud, but he didn’t become the consistent main event player that I thought he could be.
Tessa Blanchard and Cora Jade vs. Knockouts Champion Masha Slamovich and Lei Ying Lee: A solid preview match for two Sacrifice matches. Blanchard pinning Slamovich after Jade’s belt shot was the right call. Sure, Jade is challenging Slamovich tonight, but she’s merely on loan from NXT. Blanchard is under TNA contract and this was a step toward her eventual showdown match with Slamovich.
JDC vs. Cody Deaner: The live crowd had a blast with this match. Deaner’s mid-card man of the people gimmick always gets a nice reaction from the fans. This isn’t something that just anyone could make work. Deaner is a good talker with a likable personality. He gets over with the fans even though he loses most of his matches.
Wes Lee vs. Laredo Kid: An entertaining match with the expected outcome of Lee going over. The post match angle was basic and gave a simple final push to the six-man tag match for TNA Sacrifice.
TNA Impact Misses
Eddie Edwards vs. Leon Slater for the “Not WarGames” advantage: The match was well worked. I’m surprised that Slater didn’t get more protection while taking the loss, but it’s always a good idea to give the heel team the advantage in a WarGames style match. More than anything, the overall build to the cage match falls in the Miss section. They didn’t do a great job of making the single cage WarGames style match feel important and there are no real stakes involved. It feels like someone wanted to have a WarGames style match without putting the work in. The strange thing is that they easily could have built up a feud with The System to go against five babyfaces. Rather, they inserted the Colons, who haven’t been in TNA long enough to develop a feud intense enough to feel like belong in this type of match.
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