Results
- Indi Hartwell def. Elayna Black (DQ)
- Matt Hardy def. Vincent
- Mustafa Ali vs. Chazz Hall (TNA International Championship)
- Xia Brookside def. Jada Stone
- Mike Santana def. Steve Maclin (TNA World Championship) (Recommended)
The System calls out TNA’s newest signing
This week’s episode of TNA Wrestling, taped earlier this month at the Sacramento Memorial Auditorium in Sacramento, California, opened with an appearance from The System. The heel TNA faction is carrying more gold, as, along with the TNA World Tag Team Championships held by Bear Bronson and Brian Myers, Cedric Alexander is now the X-Division Champion. Alexander’s win, a 22-minute victory on a live episode of Impact last week against Leon Slater, is worth checking out.
Eddie Edwards made the claim that The System is TNA’s most dominant force ever. Edwards, the one man in the group without gold, made it clear that he’s hoping to soon take down Mike Santana and earn his world title.
Everybody got a turn on the mic, with the newly-crowned Alexander going last. While he was excited to earn the title, he said his celebration was spoiled by the debut of Fabian Aichner (formerly Giovanni Vinci in WWE), who came out right after the match.
Alexander called out Aichner, and without hesitation, he appeared on the stage. Aichner said that he’s in TNA for “respect, redemption, and recognition,” and that his appearance last week was to get a spotlight on him.
“You know what? That X-Division title is looking real nice,” Aichner said. Just moments later, The System tried to attack Aichner. He took out three of The System’s members at ringside, leaving it to just him and Alexander. Aichner slammed Alexander on his stomach then tried to apply a headlock, but the X-Division champ’s teammates pulled him out of the ring to end the segment.
Daria Rae was seen backstage giving Steve Maclin orders ahead of his title match this evening: “Take out Mike Santana. Rip the heart right out of this company, and put the TNA title back on somebody who’s worth it.”
Arianna Grace causes opener to get thrown out
The first match of the night saw Elayna Black go head-to-head with Indi Hartwell, who was appearing on TNA TV for the first time in a few months. Stacks and Arianna Grace were at ringside to watch this one.
This match was short-lived, as Grace interfered just a few minutes in. She shoved Hartwell off the top rope, forcing a disqualification result. Grace got on the mic after and said her so-called “unfinished business” with Hartwell can now officially be declared finished.
Grace used her remaining mic time to complain about her recent TNA Knockouts World Championship loss against Lei Ying Lee, blaming her father, Santino Marrella, since he booked the matchup.
A frustrated Marrella came out and went after “stinky little brat” Grace and “stupid-face” Stacks. The comments frustrated Stacks, who got in Marrella’s face. This only further upset Marrella, who pulled out his Cobra and was ready to fight. However, this was stopped by Daria Rae coming out next. Rae basically berated Marrella to end the segment. This felt like a little much for a segment that ended with no real announcement/development/anything.
Willow helps Broken Matt Hardy score win
A dressing room meeting from The Elegance Brand turned into a scene out of a horror story. Their mundane conversation was cut short after the lights went out in the room. Once they came back on, a message written in lipstick on the mirror said “See you soon,” and was signed by Rosemary, Allie and Mara Sadè.
The next match saw Vincent and Matt Hardy go one-on-one. To prevent interference from their respective tag partners, it was decided that Dutch and Jeff Hardy would be handcuffed at ringside for the remainder of the match.
Vincent demanded that “Broken” Matt Hardy would emerge instead of the normal Matt. This demand summoned the Broken wrestler (along with Brother Nero, although the score bug still just billed him as Jeff Hardy).
The handcuffs didn’t stop Dutch from interfering, as he was able to sweep the legs of Matt from ringside early on. He continued to interfere as the match continued. Vincent, trying to anger Matt, went to ringside and attacked a handcuffed Brother Nero at one point. It became clear very early in this match that the handcuffing idea was flawed.
Hardy was on a roll late in the match, but his momentum was stopped after Vincent started to fake a foot injury. He suddenly shot up to his feet and tried to use one of his boots as a weapon, which Hardy immediately dodged. Hardy bit Vincent’s foot then hit a Side Effect for a two-count.
Hardy was setting up for a Twist of Fate, but Vincent dodged the move and tried for a roll-up pin. Vincent climbed to the top rope for a move but was stopped by Hardy, who bit his hand then yanked him down to the mat. Another attempted Twist of Fate was stopped by Vincent, who tossed Hardy into the ref, knocking him down.
Vincent took the handcuff keys out of the referee’s pocket and was about to free Vincent, but then the lights went out! When the lights returned, in the ring appeared Jeff Hardy alter ego Willow! The masked character struck Vincent twice with an umbrella, then fled the scene. Hardy gave Vincent a Twist of Fate for the pinfall win.
This was bad. This stipulation was silly and immediately became laughably flawed (there was more interference in this match than most regular matches!). A large amount of the bout was slow and plodding. I guess the reveal of Willow was neat.
Backstage, AJ Francis asked fellow musician Elijah to collab on a song, an offer he turned down. Francis told him he’d regret that decision.
The TNA Injury Report (notably no longer presented by Bioflex), told us that both Steve Maclin and Mike Santana are cleared to compete ahead of tonight’s main event. Thank god.
WWE ID’s Chazz Hall falls to Mustafa Ali
Santino Marrella announced that next week’s Impact will have the annual Champion’s Challenge match, multi-person tag matches that see the roster’s top champions face off against the top contenders. Marrella confirmed that this year, there will be both men’s and women’s Champion’s Challenge bouts.
Daria Rae announced Stacks vs. Marrella for next week. She also approved Eddie Edwards’ pitch to face Fabian Aichner in seven days.
The next match saw WWE ID talent Chazz “Starboy” Hall make his TNA debut, facing off against International Champion Mustafa Ali. I was looking forward to this one, as both Ali and Hall are fun.
Hall went on a fun run of moves early on, including a gigantic moonsault to the outside at one point. Ali got back into the match by yanking Hall out of a corner of the ring, slingshotting him into a cutter.
A Razor’s Edge out of the corner from Ali was countered by Hall into a hurricanrana. Hall came out of the corner with a pretty DDT, then hit his “Cosmic Swirl” standing splash for a near fall.
A Sliced Bread from Hall was escaped by Ali. Another move from Hall was countered into a roll-up pin from Ali which brought an end to the match. This one was enjoyable, but the finish felt way too sudden. I would’ve preferred it to go a little longer, especially with Ali getting some more moves in. But either way, Hall is one to watch for sure.
Xia Brookside takes down Jada Stone
Eric Young got in the face of a mute Steve Maclin backstage, warning him that whoever wins in tonight’s main event will have to “face me at my most masochistic.” Young became #1 contender by winning a battle royal last week.
Xia Brookside, who recently betrayed teammate Lei Ying Lee and turned heel, was in action next against Jada Stone.
Stone was favoring her left knee throughout the match. She was able to connect with a Split-Legged Moonsault out of the corner, but failed to pick up Brookside with a follow-up move due to her leg giving out.
Stone hit a Codebreaker then came off the ropes with a move, but had her legs taken out by a kick from Brookside. We then saw Brookside hit her new finisher, Darkside, for the pinfall win.
Mike Santana retains TNA title against Steve Maclin in rematch
The main event was next, with Steve Maclin attempting to take the TNA World Championship from Mike Santana. This was a rematch from the March Sacrifice event, which unfortunately ended after just two minutes due to Santana suffering an injury. As someone who was looking forward to that match months ago, I was happy to see they re-booked it and came into this one with big expectations.
They had a callback to Maclin’s injury early in this match, as he side-stepped a superkick attempt from Santana during their opening exchange. Santana sent Maclin out of the ring early on then delivered a top-rope dive to the outside.
Maclin ran Santana’s head into a ringpost then pulled a table out from under the ring. Santana started to sell a left knee injury after taking a weird landing after a move at ringside. He would continue to favor this leg for the rest of the match.
Santana started to mount a comeback after escaping a Figure Four. The champ tried for a Three Amigos, but Maclin escaped the third suplex. Santana came running off the ropes and caught Maclin with a beautiful Death Valley Driver.
Santana connected with a long series of punches then tried for a Rolling Buck 50, but Maclin prevented it by catching him in the back of the head with a forearm. Santana avoided Maclin’s usual Crosshair Spear in the corner, then hit the Rolling Buck 50 upon second attempt, earning him a near fall.
Santana connected with a pop-up powerbomb then a Blue Thunder Bomb, but it still wasn’t enough to put away Maclin. He tried for Spin The Block, but Maclin countered into an Olympic Slam. The challenger followed up with a piledriver for a near fall of his own.
Maclin draped Santana in the corner and finally hit his Crosshair Spear. But, the tough Santana once again kicked out.
Maclin brought Santana up to the top rope, hoping to deliver a devastating superplex which would send the champ through a table set up at ringside. Santana was able to avoid Maclin’s attempt, instead knocking him out of the corner and through the ringside table with a head kick. Back in the ring, a huge frogsplash out of the corner wasn’t enough for Santana to win via pinfall just yet.
Santana tried for his Spin The Block finisher, but Maclin unintentionally avoided it after collapsing to the mat. Worried that he hurt Maclin once again, Santana picked up his opponent and asked if he was okay. Maclin was playing possum, suddenly springing back up to life and connecting with a superkick, the same move that injured him back at Sacrifice.
Santana avoided a KIA from Maclin, knocked him down with a leaping lariat off the ropes, then finished the match with a Spin The Block. Santana’s TNA World Championship reign lives on.
These two delivered a stellar match here. After their first matchup ended with a scary, unsatisfying finish, it was nice to see them both get a second chance to put on a great performance. They were given a lot of time in the main event and put on a fun showing.
Final thoughts
While a lot of this show was just fine or not good, the main event was high-quality and elevated the episode significantly. TNA still has lots of issues to work out, but they have put on fun main events two weeks in a row now. If they can just keep doing that while working on their other problems, you’ll be hearing far fewer complaints from me.
Here’s what was confirmed for next week:
- Champions Challenge Tag Match
- Knockouts Champions Challenge Tag Match
- Santino Marrella vs. Stacks
- Eddie Edwards vs. Fabian Aichner
