Impact Wrestling Coverage: Hammer Time Again and New Tag Team Champions

AJ Styles’ decision whether or not to join the Aces and Eights was the main reason to tune in this week.

And TNA naturally played coy and continued to delay the inevitable again. Rather than have Styles join TNA or Aces and Eights, Frank Kazarian and Christopher Daniels hit the ring and asked The Phenomenal One to join Bad Influence.

Talk about a mess.

Of course, Styles didn’t make a decision. Although it’s annoying at this point, Styles will face James Storm next week. Although the decision as to which camp Styles will join must wait, at least he’ll be back in the ring.

Away from the drama outside the ring, the title matches were some of the best in quite some time.  The opening two out of three-falls match for the Tag Team titles was quick, but enjoyable, while the World Title Metal Mayhem match was hardcore wrestling personified.

With a nice balance between promo and in-ring action, this week’s TNA impact was stomach-able, even if it wasn’t overtly exciting.

Matches:

Two out of Three Falls: TNA World Tag Team Champions Austin Aries and Robert Roode vs. Hernandez and Chavo Guerrero: The champions won the first fall extremely quick after a Roode Spinebuster. But after Aries missed a top rope splash, Guerrero rolled him up to win the second fall and even things up. Exhausted, Guerrero tagged in Hernandez, who delivered essentially all of his offense. Then it all got frenetic. As the champions got the advantage again thanks to quick tags and submission work, Hernandez hit a double clothesline to change the tempo once again. With the hot tag, a refreshed Guerrero looked ready to get the win after five snap suplexes. After some miscommunication, Guerrero and Hernandez nearly lost the match, but Guerrero was resilient. A Hernandez double suplex on both Roode and Aries set up a Guerrero Frog Splash, on both Tag Team Champions, to earn the win and the titles.

Taryn Terrell vs. Gail Kim w/Special Referee ODB: Kim is no-nonsense and Terrell found this out the hard way after several strikes and counters. Kim also wasn’t afraid to resort to heel tactics every chance she got. But ODB was one step ahead of the conniving Kim, who tried to win the match with a handful of trunks. Once caught, Kim let her guard down long enough for Terrell to win with a rollup of her own. After the match, ODB and Kim took the fight backstage.

Rob Terry vs. Joey Ryan: A quick match that saw Terry destroy Ryan with a Powerslam and a front Spinebuster.

Full Metal Mayhem: TNA World Champion Bully Ray vs. Jeff Hardy: These guys were in their element in this hardcore battle. Although Hardy hit several moves early on, Ray hit the high-impact maneuvers when they counted, including a Superplex and a reverse suplex through an upside-down ladder. Hardy changed the tide after a Twist of Fate on the outside and then a Swanton Bomb through a table, but after Taz gave Bully a hammer, the champ climbed the ladder and smashed it across Hardy’s face. Unable to stay on the ladder, Hardy fell through a table and Ray retained his title.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13819 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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