Tomorrow night’s TNA Genesis pay-per-view has undergone a few significant changes.
A new world title booking, along with a few key departures, have effected Saturday’s show from the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland, Texas. All of the changes were announced during the promotion’s debut episode of Impact on AMC last night.
The trilogy bout between Mike Santana and Frankie Kazarian will go down tomorrow. Shortly after Santana avenged his controversial loss to Kazarian on Thursday night to reclaim the TNA World Championship, Kazarian will get a rematch as part of this weekend’s show.
But Kazarian’s shot won’t just be any rematch. It’ll be contested under Texas Death Match rules, with Call Your Shot gauntlet winner Nic Nemeth as the special guest referee. Will Santana keep his second title reign alive under the brutal ruleset, can Kazarian pull off what would be another unexpected victory, or will Nemeth cash in his trophy to earn the gold? We’ll find out in the main event.
Genesis suffered a pair of losses this week, including the departure of X-Division Champion Leon Slater.
The 21-year-old, who is arguably one of the promotion’s biggest stars at the moment, is currently in Europe and unavailable due to visa issues, the company said on Thursday. He was originally scheduled to defend his title this weekend in a three-way against Cedric Alexander and Moose.
Instead, Alexander and Moose will now battle with Joe Hendry in a non-title fight.
TNA also said that visa issues caused a change to their top women’s match this weekend. Saturday was expected to see rising heel prospect Dani Luna get a shot at Lei Ying Lee’s Knockouts World Championship. Instead, Lee will battle with NXT’s Zaria, as confirmed yesterday.
Eight matchups are known for tomorrow’s show thus far. Another last-minute addition this week was a battle between Ryan Nemeth and Mara Sadè, a rivalry TNA has been slowly building with short comedy segments in recent weeks.
Here’s an updated look at the show:
- Rich Swann vs. AJ Francis
- JDC vs. Eddie Edwards
- Mustafa Ali vs. Elijah
- Ryan Nemeth vs. Mara Sadè
- Matt Hardy & Jeff Hardy vs. Dutch & Vincent (TNA World Tag Team Championships)
- Joe Hendry vs. Cedric Alexander vs. Moose
- Lei Ying Lee vs. Zaria (TNA Knockouts World Championship)
- Mike Santana vs. Frankie Kazarian (TNA World Championship) (Texas Death Match w/ Nic Nemeth as Special Guest Referee)
