Results
- Matt Hardy def. Ryan Nemeth
- Heather By Elegance def. Mara Sadè (TNA Knockouts Television Championship Tournament Quarter-Final)
- KC Navarro def. Brian Myers (DQ)
- Eddie Edwards & Brian Myers def. KC Navarro & Fabian Aichner
- The Home Town Man def. AJ Francis
- Xia Brookside def. Wendy Choo (TNA Knockouts World Championship)
Matt Hardy takes down Ryan Nemeth ahead of tag title matchup
This Thursday’s episode of TNA Impact, taped last week from the Liacouras Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, opened with singles action, as Matt Hardy took on Ryan Nemeth. Commentary pointed out that, in the “City of Brotherly Love,” this was a match between two wrestling brothers. This served as a preview for Lockdown, where The Hardys will put their tag gold on the line against The Nemeths.
Matt was closing in on a win late, trying for a Twist of Fate onto Nemeth. Ryan escaped the move and tossed Matt into the ropes, allowing Nic Nemeth to grab Matt’s legs from ringside and trip him up. Ryan scored a high-angle DDT for a near fall. Jeff attacked Nic at ringside and put him in a headlock, a distraction which allowed Matt to score the Twist of Fate on Ryan for the pinfall win. A quick, punchy one here to open this week’s show. There’s no denying that the Hardys are limited, but I found this match to be inoffensive.
Backstage, Elayna Black told Xia Brookside that she’s confident Wendy Choo will take the Knockouts title off her tonight.
In an interview, newly crowned TNA International Champion Jason Hotch cut a great promo about how his win last week (which is worth checking out) proved that he’s not just a “sidekick” to Mustafa Ali.
Mara Sadè eliminated from Knockouts TV tourney in final TNA appearance
Quarter-final action in the TNA Knockouts Television Championship tournament continued, as Heather By Elegance faced off against Mara Sadè. Anyone who has read the news lately had a clue as to how this one would play out.
Sadè was gaining some steam late, but had a moonsault blocked by Heather, who tripped her up in the corner and caused her to land face-first on the top turnbuckle. Heather then came off the top with a Coup de Grace double-stomp to the chest for the pinfall win. Surprised this one didn’t include any interference/involvement from the rest of the Elegance Brand. Anyway, that’s the send-off for Sadè.
Heather will face Jada Stone in the TV title semi-finals. The other side of the bracket will see M By Elegance face Indi Hartwell. They keep teasing a possible all-Elegance finals, but I’d imagine Hartwell makes it to the finals to face Heather.
Backstage, after maybe a month of feuding, Moose finally called for a match against Frankie Kazarian.
Mustafa Ali was seen approaching Jason Hotch’s wife and child while he wasn’t in the room. Hotch’s wife refused to look Ali in the eye and kept a stone-faced expression. Ali said he’s hurt because Hotch “bit the hand that feeds him,” and because of that, “I have to do what I have to do” and take the title from him.
Ali, pretending to be comforting, put his hand on Hotch’s wife’s thigh and promised he would take care of her and her kid after he takes the title off him again. Ali was outright disturbing and disgusting here. He was incredible in this villain role.
Navarro wins match via DQ, The System gets payback in impromptu tag bout
Up next, we saw KC Navarro go head-to-head with Brian Myers of The System. Bear Bronson was tossed from the ringside area early on after getting caught tripping up Navarro. Before Bronson made his way to the back, Ricky Sosa (who is also feuding with The System), took a chair to his back.
Back in the ring, Navarro hit his modified 619 titled 305 and was gearing up for another big move. But, just as he was doing that, Eddie Edwards got into the ring and gave Navarro a spear to end the match via DQ. Fabian Aichner came in for the save.
TNA General Manager Santino Marella noticed that all four men around the ring were conveniently in gear and booked an impromptu match: Edwards & Myers vs. Navarro and Aichner.
Aichner was isolated in the early goings of this match, but gave Navarro a hot tag after scoring a moonsault out of the corner onto Myers. The babyface team got a near fall after an avalanche butterfly suplex from Aichner was followed up with a huge top-rope frogsplash from Navarro. A pin attempt was broken up by Myers.
Aichner scored a powerbomb to Myers; Edwards took out Aichner with a Boston Knee Party Shining Wizard, then Navarro dropped Edwards with a superkick. Alisha Edwards slipped Eddie a kendo stick while the referee was distracted. Navarro came charging at Edwards for a follow-up move but instead took a kendo stick to the chest. Edwards then connected with a small-package piledriver for the pinfall win. I honestly thought this one was fun.
The System was setting up for a post-match attack, but Ricky Sosa returned with his steel chair to prevent this attack.
Backstage, The Hardys bumped fists with The Righteous, showing respect for their match at the Hardy Compound a few weeks back.
Jason Hotch leaves Order Four, The Righteous return
Jason Hotch clearly caught wind of what Mustafa Ali did to his wife and tried to jump him backstage. Order Four’s other members got between them to prevent any blows from being landed. John Skyler, Hotch’s Great Hands teammate, said that maybe some sort of “misunderstanding” was going on. Hotch obviously didn’t take kindly to this description.
After a pull-apart, Hotch said he’s out of Order Four. He told Skyler to come with him, but Skyler wasn’t ready to leave. “I need this job,” Skyler said. “Alright,” a frustrated Hotch said before storming off.
In their first appearance since their loss to The Hardys in the “Righteous Deletion” match last month, The Righteous came to the ring for a promo.
The duo said that the match didn’t kill them, but changed them. “The lake of reincarnation didn’t wash us away; it showed what comes next,” Dutch said.
It seems like the group is looking to expand:
“Vincent and Dutch? We’re not looking for opponents,” Vincent said. “We’re looking for people that might be just dying like a flower but [have] just a little bit of life in them left, for them to bloom into something greater.”
Maybe this should’ve been a pre-tape, as the crowd was shouting over them, booing, and generally sounded disinterested the entire time.
A match between Alisha Edwards and Harley Hudson was set up through a backstage confrontation between them.
Leon Slater confronts Cedric Alexander
Before Knockouts title action in the main event, we saw AJ Francis face off against Philly’s own Home Town Man in the co-main event.
To get some cheap heat, former NFL player Francis spat on a Philadelphia Eagles jersey early in this match. He hit HTM with a spear and started to set up for a chokeslam, but then got distracted by rival Elijah appearing on the stage. Home Town Man caught Francis off guard with a roll-up pin for the win in a minute. Francis and Elijah will meet at Lockdown later this month.
A sit-down interview with X-Division Champion Cedric Alexander was crashed by rival Leon Slater. “Why don’t we talk about the fact that I pinned you in the middle of the ring last week?” Slater said.
Alexander vowed that not only will Slater never regain the X-Division title, he’ll do everything he can to “erase” Slater’s history in the business.
Xia Brookside fends off NXT’s Wendy Choo, next challenger decided
The final match of the night saw TNA Knockouts World Champion Xia Brookside face off against NXT’s Wendy Choo.
Choo had loads of momentum coming out of a break, scoring a Snooze Button Uranage for a near fall. Choo locked in her Dirt Nap sleeper hold, but Brookside escaped by running her opponent throat-first into the ropes. Brookside scored a kick to the stomach then hit her Darkside finisher for the pinfall win. The result was predictable, and this wasn’t that long of a match (a large portion of it took place in commercials), but it was enjoyable.
Brookside’s post-match celebration was crashed by Elayna Black, who has been eyeing the champ for weeks. They had a face-to-face in the ring to end the segment.
Nic Nemeth and a silent Jeff Hardy meet before title showdown
This week’s episode of Impact ended with a contract signing between TNA World Champion Nic Nemeth and Jeff Hardy. This was pre-taped, shot in what looked like a locker room.
Hardy was sketching with a marker as Nemeth walked into the room. As Hardy remained focused on his artistry, Nemeth dug into Hardy’s “Charismatic Enigma” nickname: “I don’t really see it [anymore].”
The champ continued ranting as a mute Hardy continued to sketch. “Jeff, I see through all your bulls***,” Nemeth said. He admitted that Hardy is a good wrestler, but said nobody is better in the ring than him.
“I know you can be [world champion], but it sure won’t be while I’m here,” Nemeth said. Nemeth signed, Hardy signed, that was it. Nemeth finished the segment by saying he will cement himself as the greatest wrestler in the world after he beats Hardy. Hmm.
Here’s the lineup for next week:
- Indi Hartwell vs. M By Elegance (TNA Knockouts Television Championship Tournament Semi-Final)
- Nic Nemeth vs. Jeff Hardy (TNA World Championship)
