So I had a choice between watching TNA’s latest PPV (Rebellion) or AEW’s latest PPV (Dynasty) and ultimately, TNA won out. It also helps that I’ve been following Impact for quite a bit and the shows were compelling enough to merit getting this PPV… but not compelling enough for me to check out the couple TNA+ premium shows in between the two major PPV shows for TNA.
In any event, we’ll touch on the Rebellion PPV rather quickly because, truth be told, outside of some returning faces to the promotion, there’s not much to say about this one. It was largely a pretty good show with some good action and that’s about it, really. But let’s dive in, anyway…
TNA X Division Champion Mustafa Ali defeated Jake Something in a pretty fun opener to retain the title. The story being that Ali thought Jake was too big to go for the X-Division title, probably not realizing that one of the more dominant champions to hold that title was a little man named SAMOA JOE. Regardless, I enjoyed this match quite a bit, with Ali being his usual great self and Something is… well, something to behold in the ring and I mean that in a good way.
Rick Swann defeated Joe Hendry with outside assist from some football player whose name I don’t recall. The match was fine – more of a thing to tease the involvement of this football player whose name I don’t recall, but for what it was, it was fine. I was mildly amused.
Frankie Kazarian defeated Eric Young in a Full Metal Mayhem match… basically an all-weapons, anything goes match, that wasn’t typical brutal in terms of action until the finish where Kazarian hit Young with his finish through a rable and all of a sudden, Young’s skull was split open, bursting blood. That was probably the most brutal thing that I’ve seen in this match and hopefully, he’s doing better because that was a scary spot. Other than that, this was every hardcore, weapons match you’ve seen ever… and they even brought back Abyss’ old spiked 2×4 gimmick, which they named Janice. Isn’t that cute?
Steve Maclin comes out for a promo, declaring that he signed a new TNA contract and is here for a match. TNA Director of Authority Santino Marella – yes, for those not following along, it’s THAT Santino Marella and he’s even doing the voice, which is certainly a choice – comes out and introduces Maclin’s opponent; the returning Mike Santana, former AEW guy and now former TNA alumnus, as he was part of the last version of LAX to grace Impact before going to AEW with (now former) partner Ortiz. So they had a decent little match that ended with Santana getting the win. A strong start for Santana and I’m curious to see how his singles run will turn out.
TNA Tag-Team Champions The System (xxx and xxx) defeated Speedball Mountain (Mike Bailey and Trent Seven) to retain the tag titles in a pretty good tag match. Bailey and Seven seemed like they had a chance to win the titles, but ultimately came up short because they were beat by the better team.
Josh Alexander defeated Hammerstone in a Last Man Standing match. Twenty minutes of hard-hitting action, Hammerstone looking like a monster beast of a man, and Alexander being the sly veteran who overcame the odds to get his shot in – a C4 Spike on the ramp was what ultimate caused Hammerstone to lose the plot and thus give Josh the win. Tremendously fun match.
TNA Knockouts Champion Jordynne Grace defeated Steph De Lander in a match riddled with run-ins galore to retain the title. Lander’s cronies tried to help, but then PCO came out… and then eventually, the lights went out and there’s Sami Callahan, back in TNA after a long absence. Of all the spots to bring this guy back, you do it here… okay, maybe there’s something more to this that I’m missing, but… yeah, Grace retains, Callahan’s back in TNA… that was a thing.
TNA World Champion Moose defeated “Wanted Man” Nic Nemeth to retain the title in a good, but not great main event. Don’t get me wrong; the match was fine. Nemeth is a top-level talent and Moose is also pretty top-notch in his own right, but for some reason, this felt like any other match rather than a big time World title match featuring a big time former WWE star. Maybe they were having an off night or something, but this match felt like it was missing something to really make it special.
So after the match, The System comes out to celebrate Moose’s victory… and then the lights go out. They’ve been going out quite a few times on this show; TNA needs to pay their electric bills more often. And the show ends with the return of “Broken” Matt Hardy… and I guess we have to wait for the eventual return of Brother Nero if and when Jeff Hardy’s AEW contract expires any time soon.
That was Rebellion 2024. Like I said in the intro, this was largely a show. Some decent-to-good matches, some returning faces to the promotion, but an otherwise above-average PPV offering from TNA. I’d be slightly disappointed, but let’s be real; holding a PPV on the same weekend at a presumably stacked AEW PPV event was going to be a difficult proposition and the bookers knew this, so that’s why we got this somewhat lighweight show.
Oh well, here’s hoping that Slammiversary (their next traditional PPV) turns out a bit better.
dtm666 