TNA Impact Review + Victory Road 2024 Predictions

Top of the (whatever time of day it is) to ya! The “little promotion that could” continues to chug along with all the momentum that a company not named WWE or AEW could ask for. The partnership with WWE NXT is still going strong with no signs of slowing up, and the relationship- despite some complaints here and there from some fans- has been mutually beneficial as far as I can tell. With all this in mind, we take a look at this week’s episode of TNA Impact, and look ahead to Friday night’s special, Victory Road.

The show opens with a recap of last week’s show and the continuation of heated rivalries, capped off with the continued dominance of the faction known as the System. Our opening contest is Steve Maclin vs. Hammerstone. Hammer shows off his strength and power as Maclin fights from underneath. Maclin hits Hammer with his best shots, but nothing keeps Hammerstone down long enough. Maclin is able to counter the Nightmare Pendulum and roll up Hammerstone for the victory. Maclin makes the classic babyface mistake of remaining in the ring against a powerhouse heel after a roll up pin, and Hammer predictably attacks Maclin. Eric Young makes the save and Hammerstone gets tossed out. Hammer gets back to his feet and stares down the faces, and out comes Jake Something to do… nothing. He and Hammerstone look at each other, as if to telepathically agree to a team up, and we have a tag team match for Victory Road.

Match Thoughts: It was decent. Nothing spectacular about this contest, and it wasn’t helped by the fact that the crowd was pin-drop silent. I’ve been to a TNA taping and I understand that one can get tired from sitting for hours at a wrestling event. But I also feel that both Maclin and Hammerstone just aren’t connecting with the crowd. Maclin has never been an exciting character to me, and Hammerstone has yet to make an impact (no pun intended) in the company.

Following a heel promo by the System (Alisha is the biggest heat magnet of them all), we have match #2: Gisele Shaw vs. Heather Reckless. Shaw and Reckless wrestled before when Heather was an enhancement talent. With Reckless having been announced as the new TNA signee, the stakes are a little higher, as she wants to nab a ‘W’ on her first official night as a Knockout. The match is back-and-forth, with the story being Shaw’s power vs. Reckless’s speed and athleticism. Ash By Elegance and her personal concierge show up to get a closer look. Shaw appears to have the match in the bag until the concierge hops on the apron to distract the ref. Ash slaps Shaw behind the ref’s back, and Heather takes advantage with a springboard Spanish Fly off the ropes (think Liv Morgan’s Olivion- but this move looks a little better). Ash taunts Shaw while Reckless celebrates her win.

Match Thoughts: Nothing to set the world on fire from Reckless, but it was an impressive showing. With reports of Shaw exiting, the loss was no surprise. It was a little strange seeing Reckless (a babyface) celebrating a win that came with an assist from a heel, but we have a feud to move forward (Shaw vs. Ash), so we won’t get too hung up on it. I’m hoping Reckless will show and prove, as the Knockouts division needs some fresh faces.

A vignette airs showing the impending arrival of former WWE star Xia Li. TNA is the land of opportunity- especially for former WWE wrestlers whose careers never really got off the ground. We’ll see what happens.

Promo time: Matt Cardona comes out with his “property”, Mrs. PCO- Steph De Lander. SDL attempts to speak, but Cardona snatches the mic. Matt runs down Santino Marella for making him wrestle in a tag match at VR against Steph’s hubby PCO and Rhino. Cardona’s solution: his partner will be… Steph De Lander. Cardona threatens SDL with sending her back to Australia if she doesn’t follow orders. PCO comes out to confront Cardona, and Matt tries to use SDL as a human shield. Steph low blows Cardona, and he eats a chokeslam from PCO. The husband and wife celebrate while the announcers mull over what’s going to happen when the couple have to be on opposite teams. If this is Matt’s audition for the role of triumphantly returning to the WWE- I’m not sure if his performance here will blow Nick Khan and Triple H away.

Spitfire (Dani Luna and Jody Threat) are having an uneasy convo with Gia Miller about their “do or die” match against Alish Edwards and Masha Slamovich for the Knockouts tag titles. It at first seems like Dani wasn’t feelin’ Jody’s choice to put their partnership on the line, while Jody is convinced that they wouldn’t have gotten another title shot otherwise. The team ends the talk on the same page. I’m always amazed at how the Knockouts tag team division usually consists of two thrown-together teams at a time, yet the feuds over the titles still manage to be meaningful.

Next match is for the men’s world tag team titles as ABC defends against First Class (AJ Francis and KC Navarro) in a tornado match (no tags required). TNA is by no means perfect when it comes to having logical reasons for stipulation matches, but this one does make sense due to First Class using the blind tag miscommunication from last week as an excuse for their loss. The story of the match is ABC trying to quickly dispose of KC so that they can focus on double-teaming Francis. Francis proves to be too powerful for the champs, and that gives KC enough time to recover and show off his athleticism and give the champs the disadvantage. Francis does this weird move where he does a running knee into the corner and flips over the top rope to the floor- reminding me of his infamous botched top rope dive from Smackdown. At first, I thought it was just him not controlling his own momentum, then playing it off as he landed on his feet. But he did it twice in this match, so it was clearly intentional. Strange. A fan had a sign that read “AJ Francis Draws Top $$”.  Everyone has their own loyal following. The match concludes when Bey counters a Francis chokeslam with the Art of Finesse, followed by the Fold from Ace- 1-2-3. And still…

Match Thoughts: Announcing “Top Dolla” in a match will never excite me. But ABC doesn’t get enough credit for being one of the most talented tag teams in the business today. Navarro made up for the awkward visual of teaming with Francis by playing along with the First Class act as best as he could. ABC did a fantastic job with their tandem moves that overcame their bigger opponent, and now they can focus on fighting off the System.

A video package shows “The Octopus” Jonathan Gresham shedding his mask while still dealing with an internal battle. I thought the video was well done, though I honestly liked Gresham in the mask.

Remember when I mentioned the “sleepy” crowd earlier? Well, when you need something to wake them up- “say his name and he appears…” Joe Hendry’s music plays and out comes the sensation to a huge ovation.  Hendry calls out his VR opponent Josh Alexander. Josh is present, but he chose to hang out in the rafters rather than heading ringside. Hendry- in signature Hendry fashion- has a diss song prepared for Josh. The song mocks Alexander for never smiling, and calls him “Kurt Angle from Wish”- a line which the crowd happily sings along to. Josh is not amused, and cuts one of the best heel promos I’ve ever heard from him. He feels he should be the one getting the NXT opportunities instead of Joe, and he calls Joe a failure. Joe drops the comedic tone set by his song and fires back. Simple, yet effective promo exchange.

Backstage, we see a pissed off Jordynne Grace and some bad acting from Arianna Grace (no relation, because, you know, the latter is Santino’s daughter). A recap of the trouble Jordynne has been having with the lady from NXT whose previous gimmick was taking naps or something. I’m happy for a talent like Rosemary getting her chance to shine on WWE programming, but having her play second fiddle to Wendy Choo is not the most appealing use of her. Mike Santana lets us know that he has his sights set on Moose in a passionate pre-taped promo, and it’s time for the next bout.

The personal concierge is back out to introduce Ash By Elegance, and he insults the children of Louisville, calling them ugly. Well THAT was mean! Ash makes her entrance, and I have to say that while I don’t see her as Knockouts championship material just yet- the character is getting over with me. Wish I could say the same for Ash’s opponent Xia Brookside. I’ve seen every Xia match since she debuted in TNA and I still don’t have a solid reason why I should root for her. I’ll cut her some slack though, because she’s still young and there’s plenty of room for growth and character development. This isn’t to say that she’s bad in the ring; she just doesn’t stand out. The match was carried by Ash’s and the concierge’s heel work. Brookside gets a smack to her backside, but not in a sexual manner. The concierge does what he’s great at- distracting the ref. While doing this, Heather Reckless rushes to the ring and yanks Xia into the ringpost, allowing Ash to pick up the victory. That explains why Heather wasn’t bothered by her tainted win from earlier. Heather tries to raise the arm of Ash, but Ash declines.

Match Thoughts: This was all about advancing the character of Ash and thrusting Heather into a sidekick/protege role of sorts (as evidenced by the backstage angle of Heather potentially getting a “makeover” courtesy of the concierge).

TNA world champion Nic Nemeth basically repeats what he said in his promo from last week, and we run down the card of Victory Road.

Victory Road predictions:

(Pre-show)

Hammerstone and Jake Something defeat Eric Young and Steve Maclin

Leon Slater defeats Kushida due to Kushida being distracted by someone, maybe Kazarian

(Main card)

Nemeth retains over Moose

ABC retains over Edwards and Myers

Spitfire wins the Knockouts tag title from the Malisha 

Mike Bailey regains the X-Division title from Zachary Wentz when Wes Lee interferes

Grace retains over Wendy Choo

Joe Hendry defeats Josh Alexander

The Hardys defeat Top Class

Main event time. Eddie Edwards and Brian Myers of the System (w/ Alisha) enter, followed by the Hardys, who come out to a massive pop and “DELETE” chants. I will admit that I was a fan of the “Broken Hardys” gimmick back in the late 2010s before the Anthem era, however, I am SO glad Matt dropped the gimmick this year. It just wasn’t the same, and I think the Broken Universe needs to remain a fun memory. This was recorded on Jeff’s birthday, so Louisville is serenading him with “Happy Birthday” chants. Standard tag team match formula here (and I don’t mean that in a negative or mundane way. There’s an art to tag team wrestling): classic Hardys offense; heels get heat; babyface in peril, trying to make the hot tag, etc. The Hardys should definitely finish their careers as a tag team. Jeff has lost several steps, is sucking wind, and looks like every move he makes is painful. The faces foil the heels, and two Twists of Fate and a Swanton send the #1 contenders for the tag titles packing. 1-2-3, happy birthday Jeff.

Closing thoughts: One would think they would keep the System looking strong- especially seeing as how they’re the ones challenging for the titles in less than 24 hours. But I guess there’s nothing wrong with sending the people home happy. A solid “go-home” show for the Victory Road special as we are headed to Bound for Glory in a couple of months. If you haven’t watched this week’s episode yet and you are short on time, I recommend the ABC/First Class match and the Joe Hendry/Josh Alexander promo if you don’t have time for anything else. If you caught the show live or are catching up with it now- let me know what you think.

Thanks for reading. Peace.