TNA IMPACT HITS & MISSES (3/5): Moose on a Mission, Nic Nemeth vs. Leon Slater, TNA fans chanting “What?!”, Tessa Blanchard, TNA’s (barely) celebrities

HITS

Lining up contenders for the Knockout Championship:

Much like AEW is doing with its Men’s World Championship, TNA is making a valiant effort at attempting to build up their women’s wrestlers with lesser name value to a main event level. It’s also good to signal to the audience that everyone’s eye is on the prize. It adds more prestige to the titles which should be the ultimate and foundational goal of almost all Pro Wrestling angles. I see much potential in Lei Ying Lee, Jody Threat and Dani Luna who all appeared or were mentioned by commentary in tonight’s Arianna Grace-Jody Threat Knockout’s Title match.

BDE & Rich Swann vs. Sinner And Saint (Judas Icarus & Travis Williams) vs. The Righteous (Dutch & Vincent) vs. The System (Bear Bronson & Brian Myers) for the TNA World Tag Team Championships #1 Contendership:

This was a good, maybe great, match but it felt all but a formality that the System would be winning here. It seems as though they were, by far, the most qualified team to get the future title match with the Hardys and that’s the story that’s been being told since the debut on AMC, they weren’t going to pivot now. That being said – I continue to enjoy the star power circling the tag team division right now. It’s the only significant differentiation I can currently think of between TNA and AEW-WWE.

Rosemary Vignette:

Rosemary is a Knockout’s legend (much like ODB who appeared in a much worse segment as I discussed in my misses). There was something strange, unique but also compelling about her vignette tonight. I really liked the background and the camera angles added a level of spookiness that works for the Rosemary character.

Moose having his former Atlanta Falcon teammates in the front-row:

The only “stars” that I can really understand mentioning tonight were Moose’s former Atlanta Falcon teammates who were sitting in the front row to support him. They made sense being there as a big part of Moose’s past. Particularly, John Abraham who is a likely Hall of Fame candidate as Moose mentioned in his promo. I also liked Moose’s vitriol and intensity when talking about not only beating but destroying Moose. I have a sneaking suspicion that Alisha Edwards might prevent this from happening.

Moose on a “systematic mission” to take down the System:

MJF is the king of this in AEW, lining up obstacles for the babyface to knock-down. I think this time tested storyline actually works even better for the badass Moose. I’m excited to see the Moose-Cedric Alexander street fight match next week.

Elayna Black-Mara Sade match:

This match surpassed my expectation and Elayna Black is a wrestler I can now say with a fair amount of confidence. This may sound like the faintest of praise but I think it actually speaks to how far Black has come. When she was in NXT I thought that she was eye-rollingly bad. Now she gets real, legitimate heat for being an “uncool” heel. She knows what her job is and she does it.

A.J. Francis meets “The Hometown Hero”:

It’s admittedly a guilty pleasure but I do get a kick out of the Hometown Hero gimmick. He’s a step-up form a jobber with a gimmick who makes him worthy of more than jobber TV time.

Nic Nemeth vs. Leon Slater:

I think that it might be impossible for these two phenomenal athletes to have even an okay match.

Fantastic athleticism but also a good story being told about both guys being ready for the other’s finisher. A “well scouted” match one might say. I loved Slater paying homage to A.J. Styles with the “Styles Clash.” One critique that I have is that I wish that they would go a higher-level direction for Slater rather than Eric Young, while they still have Slater if he is eventually WWE bound.

ARTICLE CONTINUED BELOW…

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MISSES

TNA “celebratory bragging” about barely celebrities:

Was it really worth it to essentially lead off the broadcast mentioning some celebrities who weren’t even on this week’s episode (some were) who are barely even celebrities? Mama June, Lillian Garcia, Jelly Roll, Teddy Swims and Westside Gunn. Of those celebrities, I’d argue that Jelly Roll is the only truly relevant name in the here and now. It’s kind of embarrassing and makes TNA look like an ultra-cheap version of WWE. I’m not really seeing a TNA “identity” on AMC.

Tessa Blanchard’s “Stable”?:

I’m not the biggest Tessa Blanchard fan, to begin with, but I don’t see much in Victoria Crawford or Mila Moore (collectively the “Diamond Collective”). The only thing that I like about the stable is the name, but Crawford and Moore are rather bland. Blanchard is capable of good to great matches and she does carry herself like a star. I just think that she’s lacking in the mic and charisma department in TNA upon her second run with the company.

Ash by Elegance is a “Mark”? I don’t care:

What is the Elegance Brand even doing? I feel as though they have zero consistency in their promos from week-to-week? There’s no connectivity. I didn’t think that TNA could get lower than prominently featuring Perez Hilton on their AMC debut show back in January but they might have proven me wrong by involving Mama June in the Elegance Brand in-ring segment tonight. TNA does know that it is 2026, correct? The one small silver lining of this segment is the return of Knockout’s legend ODB, although her promo abilities are clearly a bit rusty.

“What” chants during Moose’s promo.

C’mon TNA fans, be better. We’re still doing “What” chants in 2026? Particularly during a Moose promo who is one of TNA’s current biggest stars? The Atlanta crowd was all around bad tonight with the Mama June chants on top of these “What’s”.

Frankie Kazarian “talk show” segment:

I can’t stand “talk show” segments. It screams WWE in their worst creative years.

I can’t stand Elijah’s tired gimmick

I can’t stand Kazarian’s unfunny, cringey gimmick. It’s go-away heat.

When all three come together, you get a terrible segment and that’s what we got here. Even untalented AJ Francis made an appearance for some reason.

Tommy Dreamer-Carlos Silva-Rosemary segment:

Why does TNA continue to have four on-air authority figures? My preference is for zero.

Have we ever really explained who Carlos Silva is since TNA debuted on AMC?

The magic disappearing and reappearing stuff feels very corny and I’m not sure that TNA has the budget to make it look good even if I was in favor of it.

Daria Reinstating Steve Maclin after losing the “Feast or Fired” stipulation:

TNA has successfully made me not care or give any credibility to the “Feast or Fired” matches and stipulations moving forward. If an authority figure can simply retroactively go back and reinstate a wrestler who opened the “fired” briefcase then what is the point? Lack of coherent and consistent structure slowly erodes fans’ immersion and investment in the product. Also – I don’t really care to see Maclin Vs. Santana. It’s a cold program coming on the back of a nonsensical, multi-week angle. It’s DOA, in my opinion and I really feel for Santana who feels like he’s been cut off at the knees several times during his title quest and follow-up.