TNA Impact Wrestling Coverage: New Channel, New Champs, Kong Returns

A new X-Division Champion, a new TNA World Heavyweight Champion, the return of Awesome Kong and a new look on Destination America as well as a new voice in former WWE announcer Josh Matthews highlighted a damn good first episode of Impact in 2015.

The New York City crowd has always shown its love for Impact and this night was no different as each match was pay per view quality, with no filler or nonsense. The new, speedier paced show created more drama and it felt fresher than it has before.

While the company still has a long way to go before it can reclaim its “glory” days of 2005 and 2006, this week’s Impact was certainly a step in the right direction.

Matches:

Street Fight: Kurt Angle vs. MVP: This was almost like a counter and submissions match. Sure, they were in Street Clothes, but these guys were working. After MVP countered an Ankle Lock into a Katame variation, Angle hit the Angle Slam after MVP missed the Helluva Kick in the corner for the win.

TNA Tag Team Champions Abyss and James Storm w/Sanada and Manik vs. Davey Richards and Eddie Edwards: After Sanada and Manik interfered, Jeff Hardy (who was ringside with Matt Hardy and actually made the save for the Wolves at one point) accidentally hit Edwards, who then walked into a Last Call Super Kick to set up the win for the champs.

X-Division Champion Low-Ki vs. Austin Aries: A shorter, but competitive match that saw Aries counter a Dragon Sleeper and then a Top Rope Ki Crusher. With Ki on the top ropes just waiting to be hit, Aries hit an awesome Discus Elbow and then finished him off with the Top Rope Brainbuster to win back the X-Division gold.

Knockout’s Championship Battle Royal: Knockouts Champion: Taryn Terrell vs. Gail Kim vs. Havok vs. Velvet Sky vs. Angelina Love vs. Rebel vs. Madison Rayne: Havoc was on fire in this one, but Terrell was smart enough to eliminate the monster to retain her title. The coolest part of this match was the end however, as Awesome Kong made her return, taking out the referee with a massive Chokeslam.

TNA Champion Bobby Roode vs. Bobby Lashley: This was an awesome match as these two did everything to each other, including stealing their respective finishing maneuvers. Things got hairy however once Kenny King and Kurt Angle got involved, to only get even more nuts when MVP and two masked men, revealed as Low Ki and Samoa Joe, attacked Angle. The swerves continued as Roode’s pal Eric Young hit the ring with a chair to presumably make the save, to only nail Roode with the chair, allowing Lashley to connect with the Spear and reclaim the TNA World Heavyweight title.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13821 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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