By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
TNA Impact Hits
Mike Bailey vs. Leon Slater for the X Division Title: The best match of the night. This would not have been out of place as the X Division Championship match at Bound For Glory, but they set up a bigger match via the post match announcement that Bailey will defend against El Hijo del Vikingo. That said, the company needs to do more with Slater, who hasn’t had a meaningful program since he signed with the company.
Jordynne Grace and Masha Slamovich: A strong sit-down interview. I love that they didn’t shy away from the fact that Grace has beaten Slamovich in their three previous TNA meetings. Rather, they worked into the storyline nicely by having Grace say that it was tougher to beat her each time. Grace even went so far as to say that she was relieved whenever she held open challenges and didn’t hear Slamovich’s music. Both wrestlers did a really nice job of establishing their friendship, while also making it clear that it’s going to be a battle at Bound For Glory.
Josh Alexander and Steve Maclin: A quality verbal exchange followed by a heat building beatdown of Maclin by Alexander and his pledges Travis Williams and Judas Icarus. The trio looks like a Canadian version of Team Angle, which is fun. Maclin has done a terrific job of reinventing himself in TNA and it’s a shame that his title reign was cut short. Here’s hoping he can connect with the audience as a babyface.
Mike Santana fights The System: Much like authority, The System won. Santana looked good by plowing through Brian Myers, Eddie Edwards, and JDC, but he was eventually attacked from behind by Moose in the backstage area. In other words, Santana looked strong, but his heel opponent at Bound For Glory got some heat.
Nic Nemeth vs. Matt Cardona in a non-title match: I like that Nemeth got a chance to say that his pitch to defend his title in this match was shot down by Santino Marella. It got over that he’s a fighting champion who wanted to defend his title. The explanation that Santino didn’t want to mess with the Bound For Glory main event felt a little weak and they would have been fine just making this a title match, but at least they put some thought into it. The actual match was solid. I could have done without the distraction finish, but it was a logical move if they intend to go with Cardona in the title picture soon.
Ace Austin and Chris Bey chat with Matt Hardy and Jeff Hardy: The verbal exchange felt a little longer than necessary, but both teams did a nice job of getting over their respect for one another. They also made it clear that while they will team together in an eight-man tag team match next, it’s every team for itself once they face Brian Myers and Eddie Edwards in the Full Metal Mayhem match at Bound For Glory.
PCO vs. Rhino in a No DQ match for the TNA Digital Media Championship and International Heavyweight Championship: A soft Hit for the live crowd pleasing hardcore match. This was a Pick Your Poison match, meaning Matt Cardona picked Rhino to be PCO’s opponent. It felt like we needed a promo from Rhino to explain that he and PCO are friendly, yet he intended to come at him full force given that the titles were on the line. By the way, why is the International Heavyweight Championship still around? I got the idea of bringing it back for the show in Montreal where the title has history, but I don’t think the masses actually care about this revived championship.
TNA Impact Misses
Frankie Kazarian named special referee for Nic Nemeth vs. Joe Hendry for the TNA World Championship at Bound For Glory: Why? Okay, so I get that having a heel serve as the special referee adds a little more juice to the babyface vs. babyface match. I also understand that it’s possible Kazarian will win the Call Your Shot gauntlet match, which would add a new wrinkle to his involvement in the main event because he would hold a Money in the Bank style opportunity to cash-in. But there needs to be a storyline explanation for why Santino Marella’s character randomly opted to add a special referee to a babyface vs. babyface main event of TNA’s biggest show of the year. I hope there’s a logical explanation for this, but I can’t really think of one. I guess we’ll find out what they have in mind on next week’s go-home show.
Ash by Elegance vs. Brinley Reece: A soft Miss. As much as I appreciate the way Dana Brooke has reinvented herself, her heel work in this match felt over the top to the point that she came off cartoonish. Yes, her character is over the top in general, but in this case it made the match tough to watch because she took it a little too far.
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