Hey, where’s that guy in the banner?
I don’t know… ask me again when I decide to do NXT or even Smackdown, which I probably never will.
In any event, it’s the first Impact to air on AMC, which is apparently a big deal to have a wrestling show on a channel that primarily focuses on… oh wait, they do more than classic movies now? They have original content? Who doesn’t have original content these days? Why the fuck would they want someone else’s wrestling show when they could just make their own? They’ve got fucking money, no? They’re the Breaking Bad people, the Walking Dead people? Who the fuck said “Goshdarn, we need a fornicating wrestling show!” If they’re that desperate, why not call the Juggalos and get their show on the air? At least they have a guy that… actually, you know what? Never mind.
So I had this on the DVR and I figured… sure, why not give it a watch? New era (so to speak) on a new channel, may as well give it a dive and see if things are looking up or if this is going to be a one and done deal.
Although I gotta be honest… I miss Joe on this show, already.
*waits*
He’s not appearing, is he?
*sigh*
Now I don’t know what to believe…
So I’m not going to go through the whole show because despite the change in channel as well as a couple title changes, a couple cameos, and the debut of yet another heel authority figure, this was a perfectly fine edition of Impact that felt like a generally more hyped episode than anything truly significant or paradigm shifting (no pun intended). That said, some stuff happened that’s worth mentioning.
Of course, the show opened with AJ Styles making an appearance and get the crowd riled up. The set has been given a bit of a makeover from last I saw it; the ramp now has graphics, which seems to be the new thing, I guess. Also, AJ teases a possible World title chase, which would be a big thing if WWE allows the guy to wrestle at least one TNA match. Though, I’m not sure if I’m warm to the idea of bringing back AJ Styles for a match. Not saying that he shouldn’t, but when I watch the treatment and respect that TNA is giving AJ Styles nowadays because he is such a big star, it makes me somewhat irritated that he had to be a big star elsewhere for TNA to give him that kind of regard, when he could have been one of TNA’s signature homebrew superstars that could have led the company to that higher level instead of always playing second, third, or possibly fifth fiddle to whichever old timers were hogging the main event spotlight that week. And now here he is again, but now he’s the WWE old timer (still under contract, though) taking a spot from someone who could have benefitted. Funny how that works out, but setting that aside, AJ Styles having one last TNA match before his eventual retirement is a big deal of sorts and hopefully, they give him something worthy of the moment.
Oh, speaking of which, we had a Dixie Carter cameo that people booed… I guess she’s never going to get the Vince treatment of everyone worshipping the ground she walks on despite the dubious stuff during her tenure. I thought it was cool to at least acknowledge her role in giving TNA the life blood it need to keep going when it really needed. You can say what you will about her management of the company afterwards – especially towards the end of her tenure – but you really couldn’t have a TNA today without Dixie Carter, so I will be one of the few who will applaud on this night and hope she’s doing well these days.
Here’s the issue that I have with this show; other than maybe the main event and a couple new faces, they make no effort in giving us a rundown of what’s going on. Apparently, Santino gets a new assistant in Daria Rae (the former Sonya Deville) and her first order of business is to turn heel and bring back the former Cora Jade of NXT fame. Lei Ying Lee (the former Xia Li of NXT fame) issues an open challenge for her KO title, but two girls from NXT show up to answer the challenge… and that’s as far as I know. Apparently, there was supposed to be an actual title match, but visa issues were a culprit. Bad timing, I suppose?
Whatever video packages they show are dedicated to celebrating TNA’s past – particularly the parade of former TNA World Champions who have gone on to bigger and better things… which immediately has me wanting to watch some other show featuring those people. Then they do the same thing for all the women that USED to be in TNA. Don’t showcase the women that’s CURRENTLY on your roster, but also the TNA alumni that are now in other companies. What are we even trying to do here?
We also have INFLUENCERS and FORMER TALENT in the audience… with empty seats in the background. I mean, seriously, this show is supposed to be a big deal kicking off a new era and yet it feels anything but.
You know, I was almost tempted to pull out the banner that I used for TNA’s first night in Anthem – the one with the Cornette Face and the Celeste Face – because good lord, this show is an absolute mess. It was mostly video packages of TNA’s past, guest shots from celebrities and former talent, backstage bits, and no effort to bring new viewers up to speed on any of the shit that’s been playing out on TV recently. Hell, I’m not sure they did a good enough job to remind you that they’ve got a fucking PPV coming up in a couple weeks.
“But what about the matches?” you might be asking.
They only had three matches throughout this entire show. The opening match which saw the Hardyz and Elijah (the former Elias of WWE fame) defeating Mustafa Ali and his goons in a tag match, only to get beat up by them and more guys who run-in – the Righteous or something – but no effort is made to tell me who these people are. Hey, TNA. New network means new audience. Maybe try to bring folks up to speed on what’s going on here.
The other match is the Women’s Tag Title match that saw the Elegance ladies (don’t recall their names, but none of them are Ash/Dana Brooke, who I think walked away to deal with some stuff, so hope she’s doing well) defeated the IInspiration (the former IIconics of WWE fame) for the titles and now I understand why they did a showcase of all the former women talent in TNA because if THIS is supposed to be your TNA Knockouts division at its best… yikes.
Oh, and the IInspiration are apparently free agents now. Oops.
And then we get to the main event, which sees Mike Santana defeat Frankie Kazarian to win back the TNA World title that he never should have lost in the first place, but I guess we needed a big title win on this special edition of Impact. Gee, I don’t know. I figured trying to put on the BEST SHOW POSSIBLE would have been a better way to mark the occasion, but that’d be too much work. The match was fine, though the ref missed the finish and Santana had to do his move again before he got the win, so that was a mess… and apparently, they’re going to have a rematch at the PPV because… why?
Oh, and Bully Ray was doing commentary for the main event… for some reason. Wouldn’t have this been better had they put in AJ Styles? That would have made more sense, actually… but I guess not.
Look, I don’t want to rag on this show too much. The TNA of 2026 is a far cry from the TNA of 2017 when they debuted on Anthem and added an owl to their logo. There’s no dueling announcers on commentary, they didn’t do a title change involving departing talent with pretape material involving a kangaroo that made no sense, they didn’t trout out any former WWE talent talking about the good old days and how TNA sucks nowadays, and they didn’t try to give you promises of making TNA great again or some shit like that. Yes, you have a number of ex-WWE guys on here, but you’re always going to have a number of ex-WWE guys on here, even if some of them have new names.
Had this been any old episode of Impact, it would have been an otherwise subpar edition of the program that’s noted for a couple title changes and little else. But this is supposed to your big premiere on AMC, your first impression on a potential new audience to try and get them on board with your wrestling program for who knows however long this deal lasts. And on that front, this had done NOTHING to get me excited for more TNA or to want to watch more of this product via the weekly television or the upcoming PPV. This wasn’t terrible, but it also felt like a drastic waste of rime.
On top of that, I have questions that I’ll probably never get answers to… in particular, what does TNA’s run on AMC actually do for them? There hasn’t been any word of financial details that people can properly gauge, a good chunk of the roster have seen their contracts expire and are now on the market, possibly either to be scooped up by WWE or maybe even AEW to add to those bloated talent pools. They already had a scheduled title match nixed due to one of their champions being booked for a WWE tour overseas as well as various visa issues. And while I’m happy to see Daria get some semblance of regular employment in wrestling, her rehashing her heel authority schtick that got so tiresome in WWE (and just another HAF in TNA in general… ugh) is not something that inspires me… 0h wait, they’re gone too.
Ultimately, this show was a HUGE, MASSIVE MCSON-IN-LAW-NOSE-SIZED MISS for me. This was a chance for TNA to showcase all the great talent they had on hand, to put on their best first impression on a channel of significance, and to showcase the product that had seen a much deserved resurgence in the early 2020s. Instead, their first showing all but proved that the TNA that I enjoyed watching a year or two ago no longer exists, replaced with this poor showing with outside WWE influence tainting ever pore of this show in some form or fashion. Yes, some things were out of TNA’s control and they couldn’t do much in those cases, but for the things that were in their control, I’m afraid they didn’t do much there, either.
Sorry, TNA, but my viewership is in another castle… and this is the company Eric Bischoff said would be the number two promotion? Was he wearing his dunce cap when he said that? Well, to be fair, I guess he was half right. They were definitely a number two alright.
But you know what? This sour experience has given me a possible idea to look into for the future once the Nitro experiment ends in May… or maybe we can do it early since I’m not likely to touch the current products any time soon. I don’t know when or how; it’s just an idea that popped to mind. I’ll let you know what comes of it, eventually.
Later.
dtm666 