Is Impact* the best wrestling promotion in history? *(Now TNA again, 2024)

[sek69]

It is wild to me that NXT barely was able to sell out tiny ass Center Stage and TNA is having their biggest house in ten tears tonight. That's not how I expected this partnership to work.

[El-P]

Wait until TNA gets a little *too much* hype and WWE puts the kibosh on that collaboration. 😅

At the point they are now, they will probably reach if not beat their biggest attendance ever. Like I said, the booking and product overall is not exactly setting the world on fire to me overall (despite some legit highlights), but this is fascinating to watch (and for the talent in the company, especially those who have been there for a while, it must be awesome). AJ Styles showing up in TNA again will be something though, for sure. 

[El-P]

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

LOLTNA indeed.

Like I said, the CUCK ERA. 

[The Thread Killer]

I can’t believe they are booking The Hardys vs The Dudleys in 2025. Matt Hardy can barely walk, and D-Von hasn’t wrestled in years, because he had a stroke, ffs.

Apparently D-Von has been doing DDP Yoga, lost almost 100 lbs, and is doing much better…but still. Does anybody honestly want to see these two teams face off at this point?

[El-P]

I'm all for that stupid shithead grifter totally embarrassing himself (in a match I mean, he's already embarrassing on a daily basis otherwise).

And if you thought the results were stupid, it's even *stupider* watching the actual stuff. I swear, in my wildest hater shitposting twisted mind's imagination I could not have created such a dumb fucking fuck booking. 

Leon Slater winning the X-div title after a great match and performance (he's an exceptional worker, as anyone who has watched him in RevPro before knows) and being put over by a "returning" AJ Styles was the sole highlight of this idiotic showing. Well Ali vs Cedric was very good but really now, I couldn't care less about a two weeks built feud based on a Mania pre-show from 8 years ago (and really, Cedric Alexander seems to have zero charisma nor promo ability). Ali is just too good for TNA at this stage of his career. Leon I wish would work *elsewhere* (wink wink nudge nudge).

The ladder match was a kinda fun clusterfuck, at least it was not as ridiculously slow and cluttered and awkward as the Full metal Mayhem from BGF. Still, when AJ Francis is the one taking the dumbest bump, you know you're not watching a classic or anything (although AJ Francis and dumbest kinda is classic). Wentz was like "fuck this shit, when am I back on NXT" and Ryan Nemeth highspot was arguing with some celebrity (I guess) at ringside. The finish was creative (unsafe, but creative, so probably a Jeff Hardy idea). If Myron Reed isn't signed (and I don't think he is), AEW needs to throw him money. He's been killing it on indies for way too long. 

Rest of the show ? Well, you got TNA hard workers (Maclin, Young) and fun performers (Ash and her crew) sent to the pre-show. Poor Jake Something having to do a job to that piece of trash Enzo, who is still doing the same mic work he was doing ten years ago. First thing Something did after that was post a picture of him and Beast Mortos on X (from when he was in IMPACT). Ya know that guy is a goner. He's really, well, something ! Sign him yesterday Coach TK !

You got Tessa Blanchard trying to get a good match out of Indi Hartwell. And failing. Holy shit Hartwell is *not good* (I never want to hear again about how the Performance Center is producing great talent, especially female ones, the best stuff NXT had lately was Jordynne Grace, Stephanie Vaquer and Giulia). But she's gonna get pushed because she's an NXT reject. Tessa, oh well. This ain't working. You can put Victoria Crawford with her, she still gets mostly a mix of apathy and "she's a racist" chant. Her beating the fuck out of Gia Miller was glorious though. Poor Gia. Get out of here too.

You got the System, you apparently turned babyface from absolutely nowhere after two years of being the biggest (and dullest) heel faction in the company. But since they were facing Dark State aka a bunch of NXT no names, I guess they *needed* to act like ones. Only win you gonna get TNA fans. That'll teach ya. Oh yeah, Cardona was there too (where isn't he, apart from where he begs to be ?), teaming with his old pal Bryan "resthold" Myers. Kinda the speedrun Temu version of the Cope/Christian angle I guess (since last week the System was still a heel faction).

And then yes, Jacy Jane vs Masha. Gaaawd. They made a point of saying Masha was trained and lived in NYC. They even dragged her teacher Johnny Rodz to sit at ringside. And they jobbed her out. I guess at *this* point people thought at least it was the garantee Santana was winning. Oh, sweet summer childs. Match was pretty good though. Jacy Jane and her faction's gimmick seems to be reduced to "We're slutty", but hey, I guess you gotta feed content for Booker T on NXT television, but she had a good showing against Masha. Still, she took most of the match and won. There you go. Carlos Silvia, the new president, was even there to hand the WWE talent their belts. The guy was on the pre-show talking about TNA could become the #2 company. Bwahahahaha. Sit in your cuck chair and shut the fuck up. He seems to be the dumbest TNA president this side of Dixie yet.

And then the main event. Joe Hendry has lost quite a bit of luster. Who could have predicted, uh ? Match was ok all things considered, although really Williams is a green-ass overpushed rookie who tries to be Booker T. Yuck. And then, the genius spot of the match had Williams act like he was legit injured, and everybody around selling it like it was actually *legit*. So of course that mostly killed the crowd because they thought something unplanned had happened. That's not called "heat", that's called "killing a match on purpose". And then when the finish happened with Williams stealing the pin, you could hear the crowd dying. You can see the people leaving immediately. The build of Santana following the great Ali feud had been the best thing easily in the last 18 months of TNA. Great promos, great vignettes. They got the biggest crowd (ever ? or not. You could see tons of empty seats too, so maybe the number is fake, which would not be surprising) in forever in fucking NYC ready to see Mike fucking Santana become TNA champ. And they, well, fumbled it, as the NXT-pilled crowd like to chant. They jobbed the child of NYC Mike Santana at the peak of his overness on the same show they jobbed NYC adopted Masha Slamovich earlier.

I bet even Vince Russo thinks it's dumb as fuck.

TNA be like TNA.

[Tenese Sarwieh]

They repeated the same mistake they made with the AEW partnership, failing to showcase their best talent and not delivering standout shows when they had the most eyes on them. Only this time, instead of working with someone like Omega, one of AEW’s biggest stars, they’re bending over backward for WWE developmental names like Trick and Jacy.

Hardys vs. Dudleys again? In 2025? Sinner & Saint should’ve had that spot at Bound for Glory. This was the perfect chance to cement them as TNA’s top tag team, not relive a rivalry from two decades ago.

[El-P]

TNA paying hommage to Hogan with the sentence "His contributions to this company will never be forgotten" is the most involuntary comical stuff I've heard in the long time. 😂

And so yeah, TNA coming off that "record breaking" Slammiversary with a live Impact show should draw well and be something special right ? Guess what, darkened building that looks half-empty, tons of empty seats visible as soon as there is enough light around. Tepid crowds reaction for everyone except basically Trick Williams, Leon Slater (good for him, should be in AEW), the Hardies and the main event of Joe Hendry (who is as clumsy as ever and honestly looks like he's already way past his overness peak) and Mike Santana.  Mara Sadè debuted to complete apathy. And if you don't know who she is either, it's the former Jakara Jackson, so yet another NXT reject getting signed by TNA so she may be able to get back on NXT TV eventually while being paid by another company (well, at least she seemed pretty decent or at the very least with potential, as opposed to Indi Hartwell). All in all, a complete dull-ass, nothing happening show. Carlos Silva is a regular Dixie Carter if he wants to go live 52 weeks a year producing that kinda stuff that makes MLW on Youtube look lively and thinks this can draw 500K viewers on TV.

Not sure my morbid curiosity for 2025 TNA will sustain for vey long.

[El-P]

WWE weaponizing TNA to try and get them opposing Dynamite, and Carlos "Dixie" Silva being opened to it is a car wreck waiting to happen.

[El-P]

So after losing the KO title to Jacy Jayne, TNA got their title back on NXT Heatwave. Ash by Elegance, who's already the tag team champion too, won the title back. By pinning Masha Slamovich. Because OF COURSE. 😂 

(I really hope Masha and eventually Dani Luna are getting out of TNA to a better place, and by that I don't mean NXT)

[El-P]

It's kinda fascinating how Joe Hendry has basically vanished from TNA programmings in the last few weeks. And really, when you look at his entire "rise", it speaks volume about how the WWE/TNA partnership works and how inept TNA's booking has been. He was getting over big time in 2024 thanks to his song getting viral. Then TNA fumbled (pun intended) and did not put the title on him at Slammiversary when he was seemingly at his hottest. At this point, he was already getting featured on NXT regularly. They finally had him win the title with the involvement of JBL, a nonsensical and lame storyline that went absolutely nowhere and was basically dropped despite playing a role in every big title match for the last few months.

And from there, what ? Well, nothing really. He never had a real feud as TNA champ. The closest thing was the short built Kazarian/Ethan Page three-way PPV match in Winter of 2025 (Page actually did the job). But his entire character and hype was that he was appearing in big WWE shows. He appeared in Royal Rumble as TNA champ, got treated like a geek (TNA fans applauded because it was great for TNA). He appeared at Mania as TNA champ, got treated like a geek (TNA fans applauded because it was great for TNA). Then lost the title to Trick Williams on an TXT show. 

And then... not much. He was plugged artificially into the Santana/Williams match at Slammiversary, which was pimped as the biggest attendance ever in the company's history (easily forgetting that AJ Styles showing up drew almost 3K on its own), a match Santana, in his hometown, should have won but lost, in similar fashion Hendry lost the previous year. He actually did the job there too. And from there, he's basically been in the background, letting the Hardies and Trick Williams be the biggest attraction in the company. He was last seen last week being dropped backstage by Eric Young, who's been given his hundreds variation of evil/deranged/maniac/cult leader persona yet. Oh, and they pimped him beating the Miz on a WWE houseshow in Europe. Contract is basically ending soon, and he's been heard on an NXT show tell the crowd he would be on NXT now a few weeks back.

So there. That's the "great" Joe Hendry story in TNA. Both how he was handled by the booking of his own promotion, not capitalizing when his popularity was at its peak (which he did not get from his pro-wrestling talent and/or booking, he was an undercard comedy character for a long while before his song got viral), and how WWE completely hijacked whatever hype he had. I fail to see how that benefited in any way shape or form to TNA. The talk of "record attendance" is well and good when it's artificially bumped by WWE guys, but the truth is, the weekly tapings are not looking that good (tons of empty seats in those way too big buildings), there's zero talk about PPV buys. And Joe Hendry himself has lost whatever creativity he had during his infancy days in TNA (not to mention his indie days) to milk his meme like there's no tomorrow, making his matches which always were pretty mediocre, even more patterned and meme-ish. I have no doubt he'll sell crazy merch for a while in WWE, where chants and sing-alongs theme are more important than having any kind of good match. But for all the hype and cult following, Joe Hendry's very short run at the top of TNA has been a whole load of nothing and basically window-dressing for WWE's predatory "collab".

[El-P]

So yeah, the Hardies vs Team 3D match at BGF will indeed, be a table's match. Because things could not get any worse. The Hardies at this point can have *good* matches with great teams like the Rascalz or Leon Slater & Cedric Alexander. They absolutely are effective at being the 50 years old Hardies. But with Bully Ray (I've seen him in MLP last year, it wasn't pretty) and D-von in whatever ring shape he'll be. Holy fuck. 

And yeah, they are pushing Indi Hartwell as the potential next champ. Because of course, she's basically from NXT, so she should be pushed ahead of much better talent. And really, I did not know anything about Hartwell before, I heard she did not have the greatest rep as a worker. Well, she's just *bad*. Like, when you can't have a good match with Tessa Blanchard (yeah, I know, but still), you're *bad*. And she really hasn't exactly shined as a character either. Seems like they just rest on the fact that "Well, she's Indi Hartwell from NXT", which for that crowd, seems to be enough (guess why ?). Meanwhile, Dani Luna is most probably gonna work against Mercedes Moné in RevPro, which is quite the interesting dynamic, as there's no way Moné drops the belt to a TNA contracted wrestler (my guess is that when she does, Kanji gets it). I would really like to see Luna and Masha go the Speedball/Josh Alexander/Ace Austin way after they finish with TNA.

And also, I've read the spoilers of the last tapings. They brought Ken Anderson back. At this rate I halfway except another EC3 run. (both guys whom, BTW, in their days have had underrated TNA stints, actually, but in 2025, yikes)

[NotJayTabb]

Luna I can see in AEW - she's already been released by WWE once from her NXT UK contract, and she feels like a better fit there. Masha feels like she'd go to NXT though, she's already appeared there a few times, and has wrestled WWE talent on some of those Bloodsport shows.

[El-P]

1 hour ago, NotJayTabb said:

Masha feels like she'd go to NXT though, she's already appeared there a few times, and has wrestled WWE talent on some of those Bloodsport shows.

Sadly yes, but she LOVES doing crazy shit on the indies and she's totally not fitting WWE at all. TNA totally screwed her title reign, not only by making her a generic babyface, but look also line-up the worst opponents possible : Cora Jade, Victoria Crawford, Tessa Blanchard (not bad on the in-ring sense, but it garanteed the audience would not care about bit about the match and would just chant performative "protest"), Léi Ying Lee. Fuck, Jacy Jane actually was her legit best opponent this whole time all things considered.

BTW, the women division is incredibly *wrecked*. Putting aside Ash,who is not very good at all in the ring but entertaining as a character because she goes 300% with it, they basically got the worse WWE rejects imaginable in term of in-ring talent : Léi Ying Lee, Indi Hartwell, Victoria Crawford, the IInspiration. It's crazy how *bad* this roster got with these signings (jury's out on Mara Shadé for now). When TAFKA Xia Li is the best of the bunch, holy hell.

Also, the idea of them going live every week should be killed, because the live TV shows are looking clunky as hell.

They are running Eric Young vs Joe Hendry (it's crazy how LESS over he is now, the reaction he got this week is nothing like he did 6 months much less one year ago, seems like the TNA fans have disengaged) next week. I would not be surprised if Young basically killed Hendry and ran him off the promotion, same way he did Josh Alexander. They may do it ad BFG I guess, it's not that far away.