{"id":215774,"date":"2026-05-01T13:09:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T18:09:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/?p=215774"},"modified":"2026-05-01T13:13:53","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T18:13:53","slug":"tna-impact-hits-misses-4-30-broken-universes-unwelcome-return-adam-brooks-as-alis-surprise-opponent-slaters-face-off-with-alexander-mr-elegance-and-hometown-man-undead-universe-spills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2026\/05\/01\/tna-impact-hits-misses-4-30-broken-universes-unwelcome-return-adam-brooks-as-alis-surprise-opponent-slaters-face-off-with-alexander-mr-elegance-and-hometown-man-undead-universe-spills\/","title":{"rendered":"TNA IMPACT HITS &#038; MISSES (4\/30): Broken Universe&#8217;s unwelcome return, Adam Brooks as Ali&#8217;s surprise opponent, Slater&#8217;s face-off with Alexander, Undead Universe spills over into real world"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-777611104\" class=\"pwtor-before-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><hr \/><b>SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)... <\/b>\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?show_id=3076978&theme=light&playlist=false&playlist-continuous=false&autoplay=false&live-autoplay=false&chapters-image=true&episode_image_position=right&hide-logo=false&hide-likes=false&hide-comments=false&hide-sharing=false&hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"140px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\r\n<hr \/><\/div><h3>HITS<\/h3>\n<p>(Warning: Not many Hits (Warning! Likely the Worst Impact since TNA&#8217;s AMC Debut)&#8230;)<\/p>\n<p><strong>Leon Slater Promo and face-off with Cedric Alexander:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m not sure if it&#8217;s the accent or purely the natural charisma but Leon Slater&#8217;s promos really hit home for me. He has fire, he has the material and he&#8217;s a serious person (which TNA is heavily lacking in currently). Cedric Alexander, as another serious character, is a good foil to Slater in the moment.<\/p>\n<p>The blow off to the Kazarian-Elijah Feud?<\/p>\n<p>This match was utter, mindless nonsense but I guess that the silver lining is that this almost certainly has to be the blowoff to the World&#8217;s longest feud with no legs, right?<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>MISSES<\/h3>\n<p><strong>The &#8220;Broken Universe&#8221; Expiration Date:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Are we revisiting the &#8220;Broken Universe&#8221; again, after about a decade since its origin across three different companies where it really only found success once? For a &#8220;challenger brand,&#8221; TNA sure does like to drag up a lot of tired acts, gimmicks and wrestlers from the past. The lights &#8220;on and off&#8221; nonsense only makes it that much worse.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Adam Brooks as Mustafa Ali&#8217;s big, surprise title opponent?:<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"pwtor-787836996\" class=\"pwtor-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>Is Adam Brooks really a big enough name to use as a hook for Mustafa Ali&#8217;s mystery title challenger opponent? I&#8217;d argue they should&#8217;ve just announced the match outright. The match itself was fine. Carlos Silva, especially with all the recent negative press he&#8217;s gotten recently pulling TNA wrestlers from scheduled matches with AEW wrestlers for no apparent good reason, really needs to stop inserting himself into everything so much. It&#8217;s legitimately hurting the brand.<\/p>\n<p><em>ARTICLE CONTINUED BELOW&#8230;<\/em><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Check out the latest episode of &#8220;Worse or Better&#8221; with Stephanie Chase and Josh White, part of the PWTorch Dailycast line-up: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spreaker.com\/episode\/worse-or-better-stephanie-josh-discuss-wrestler-and-team-names-throughout-the-years-in-a-roman-by-any-other-name--71691548\">CLICK HERE<\/a> to stream (or search \u201cpwtorch\u201d on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or any other iOS or Android app to subscribe free)<\/h3>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Worse or Better - Stephanie &amp; Josh discuss wrestler and team names throughout the years in &quot;A Roman by Any Other Name&quot;\" src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?episode_id=71691548&amp;theme=light&amp;playlist=false&amp;playlist-continuous=false&amp;chapters-image=true&amp;episode_image_position=right&amp;hide-logo=false&amp;hide-likes=false&amp;hide-comments=false&amp;hide-sharing=false&amp;hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"200px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>A &#8220;Walk with Elijah&#8221; Match being an actual Stipulation:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Yes. It&#8217;s as ridiculous as it sounds. We don&#8217;t need an incredibly dumb gimmick match between tired Frankie Kazarian and Elijah every week. In fact, we never need it, but alas.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The &#8220;Undead Realm&#8221; Spilling over into the &#8220;Real World&#8221;:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Who cares about actual immersion inside Professional Wrestling programming?&#8221; Said no competent booker ever. A world so completely different from the rest of the show is distractingly jarring (well, I guess we did actually get back the &#8220;Broken Universe tonight). None of this nonsense actually translated to inside the wrestling ring which is the heart and soul of a simulated sport and, therein, lies the problem with the &#8220;Undead Realm&#8221;. It is a much worse version of &#8220;The Fiend&#8221; Bray Wyatt&#8217;s &#8220;Firefly Funhouse&#8221; or The Wyatt Sicks failed act.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Explanation for Santino&#8217;s Reinstatement from Suspension:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>If Indi Hartwell was suspended, along-side Santino, why would her word as a star witness get Santino off of the hook? Why would the &#8220;board&#8221; suspend them, in the first place, if they just took her word for it a few weeks later? Logic isn&#8217;t much present in recent TNA programming.<\/p><div id=\"pwtor-3462432201\" class=\"pwtor-content-1 pwtor-entity-placement\"><!-- Tag ID: pwtorchcom_test_300x600 -->\r\n<div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __300x600\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p><strong>Mr. Elegance defeats the &#8220;Hometown Man&#8221;:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>While I get a kick out of the &#8220;Hometown Man&#8221; gimmick it really only works against serious, credible heel acts. When you pair a comedy act like the &#8220;Hometown Man&#8217; against a comedy act like Mr. Elegance and the Elegance Brand you get a lot of laughter and fun but zero investment. No one actually expects the &#8220;Hometown Man&#8221; to win and nobody actually cares about the Elegance Brand. It&#8217;s a recipe for apathy.<\/p>\n<p><strong>L\u00e9i Y\u01d0ng Lee &#8220;Going home to China&#8221; and Tommy Dreamer involvement:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>First of all, no one actually believed that L\u00e9i Y\u01d0ng Lee was going to &#8220;go home to China&#8221; and her acting might be lower than D-tier. Second of all, how many authority figures does TNA and who is calling the shots? We see Daria, Santino, Carlos Silva and Tommy Dreamer on a regular basis. I can&#8217;t even keep track of when Santino is suspended and when he&#8217;s not. Thirdly, Dreamer&#8217;s motivational speech to Lee might have been one of the worst of all-time. If I were her, that garbage diatribe might have actually convinced me to go home to China.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"PWT Talks NXT - PWTorch NXT Post Show (4\/28) w\/ Wells &amp; Lindberg\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/YYlbiUwV1Ms?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-2452975941\"><div id=\"pwtor-1709989912\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nTHANK YOU FOR VISITING<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>HITS (Warning: Not many Hits (Warning! Likely the Worst Impact since TNA&#8217;s AMC Debut)&#8230;) Leon Slater Promo and face-off with Cedric Alexander: I&#8217;m not sure if it&#8217;s the accent or purely the natural charisma but <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2026\/05\/01\/tna-impact-hits-misses-4-30-broken-universes-unwelcome-return-adam-brooks-as-alis-surprise-opponent-slaters-face-off-with-alexander-mr-elegance-and-hometown-man-undead-universe-spills\/\" title=\"TNA IMPACT HITS &#038; MISSES (4\/30): Broken Universe&#8217;s unwelcome return, Adam Brooks as Ali&#8217;s surprise opponent, Slater&#8217;s face-off with Alexander, Undead Universe spills over into real world\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":215775,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,28,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-215774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opnionandanalysis","category-specialists_hitsandmisses","category-specialists"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/post\/2026\/05\/Screenshot-2026-05-01-at-1.05.19-PM.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215774"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215774\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":215778,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215774\/revisions\/215778"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}