TNA Impact Wrestling Coverage: Not So Phenomenal

“This is a war of survival,” Hulk Hogan on this week’s Impact.

Last week, The Aces and Eights destroyed the entire TNA roster. In typical Impact Wrestling fashion, General Manager Hulk Hogan brought out four of the guys who got destroyed, Jeff Hardy, Kurt Angle, Samoa Joe and Magnus- and… congratulated them.

Taz’s usually facetious commentary actually made sense here. Why would Hogan thank these guys? Instead of bringing in a youngster or a fresh face to spice things up and face The Aces and Eights head-on, TNA continues to push old matchups that no one cares about.

Impact also featured several Bully Ray vignettes that showed how The Aces and Eights manipulated the company to accomplish their goals. While it was interesting, it didn’t continue to develop anything. Everyone who watches the show knows what the deal is. Even though all the footage was solid and Ray was charismatic, it felt like filler.

The most important part of the show was the changes to the X-Division. As of this week, every match within the division will be a three-way encounter. (Stay tuned for an exclusion podcast this week when we discuss our feelings on this.) It may not be a great move if you’re a TNA purist, but this week’s X-Division match was easily the match of the night.

The AJ Styles interview during the last quarter of the show could have intrigued, but like the rest of the show, the segment was lackluster. Taz first offered Styles a spot as a prospect in the Aces and Eights before James Storm cut a weak promo on the Phenomenal One.

With a lack of quality wrestling and lukewarm matches, this week’s episode Impact was passable at best.

Matches:

TNA Tag Team Champions Bobby Roode and Austin Aries vs. Chavo Guerrero and Hernandez: A drawn-out opener that was far from exciting. Roode and Guerrero traded offense early on and later Aries and Roode worked over Hernandez. But the offense was never high-impact. It was simply punches and kicks and reversals from Hernandez and Guerrero. Things got spicy where Hernandez went on a bit of a roll, but Aries countered a Powerbomb. Guerrero then hit the 3 Amigos and was about to finish off Aries with the Frog Splash, but Christopher Daniels and Frank Kazarian got involved, which allowed Aries to win via roll-up and a grab of the tights. After the match, Bad Influence beat down the champions.

Triple Threat: TNA X-Division Champion Kenny King vs. Sonjay Dutt vs. Zema Ion: A bit sloppy at the first, this match had some dangerous spots on the outside. There were a few botches as well, but these guys worked hard in the ring. It all paid off though. Dutt’s 450 Stomp was the move of the night. King then got the win with the Blockbuster after Dutt’s amazing aerial maneuver.

Matt Morgan vs. Joseph Park: This match was terrible. Park took a plethora of strikes. That’s all the match was. After a Discus Lariat from Morgan, Park went on a little run, but Morgan won with the Carbon Footprint.

#1 Contenders Match: Jeff Hardy vs. Samoa Joe vs. Magnus vs. Kurt Angle: All four competitors squeezed in their signature offense in a fast-paced but indifferent match. After a flurry of finishers, Hardy won with the Senton Bomb on Joe.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14230 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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