One year later, we’ve got people in the arena again.
I don’t want to do a deep dive on the AEW/TNA “collaboration” because that’s a can of worms too big for a mere PPV musings – besides, you can probably look at that here – but what it boils down to is TNA losing a bunch of people to AEW while only getting a couple nibbles of AEW talent in return.
The Inspiration (the former IIconic Duo from WWE) defeated Knockouts Tag Champions Decay (Rosemary and Havok) in the opening match. Apparently, this was their debut match, which obviously opens the door to #LOLTNA and their habit of bringing in ex-WWE castoffs into the promotion and giving them big pushes. That said, this was entertaining enough fare. I can’t recall a whole lot of memorable IIconics stuff, but they seemed fine here. They’d be gone in about a year before popping up again in 2025 and now they’re apparently with AEW… I guess? We haven’t seen them in a while.
Trey Miguel defeated El Phantasmo and Steve Maclin in a 3-way dance to win the vacant X-Division championship. Your fun moves match here is probably underselling the talent on display here, but regardless, this is the sort of match people usually associate with X-Division fare; fast, spectacular, and full of action.
Heath (Slater – a.k.a. the one with kids)/Rhino defeated Violent By Design (Cody Deaner and the late Joe Doering). The match starts off with Deaner and Doering beating the crap out of Heath for a good chunk of the match because Rhino was a surprise partner that came in late in the match… for the anticipation, see. Hey, you know what? I liked these two together when they were in WWE – one of the rare highlights of that company that I will rarely talk about and that’s a bit of a shame. So the fact that they got to team again in TNA for a little bit pleased me. Heath was/is a talented dude. Hope he’s doing well these days.
Moose won the Call Your Shot Gauntlet Match, which earns him a World title match at any point he wishes… ooh, foreshadowing. Anyway, this was every gauntlet match ever booked in the world in TNA. Some fun spots here and there, but just something there to pass the time until the eventual foregone conclusion… and yes, process of elimination and also keeping track of TNA results over the years meant that Moose would be the “chosen one” to get the next major heel push.
World Tag Team Champions Good Brothers (Anderson and Gallows) defeated FinJuice (David Finlay and Juice Robinson) and Chris Bey/Hikuleo to retain the titles. Perfectly acceptable tag match.
Mickie James defeated Knockouts Champion Deonna Purrazzo to win the title. Good match that I couldn’t really get into, if only because it reminded me of how much of a great talent Deonna happens to be and how it irks me that she isn’t being used more often in AEW. Mickie, as always, never missed a beat.
Josh Alexander defeated TNA World Champion Christian Cage to win the title and end the AEW alliance for the foreseeable future… though to be fair, once TK stopped doing his little attack ads, there was really no point in keeping this thing going beyond Kenny’s run as TNA Champion, which probably lasted longer than it needed to.
At the same time, however, I almost feel like TNA got cheated here, because sure Josh Alexander beating veteran Christian Cage for the title was a pretty big deal, but imagine how much of a BIGGER deal it would have been had he beaten Kenny for the title. Say what you will about Trick Williams’ run as TNA Champion last year, but once he dropped the title to Mike Santana at Bound For Glory, that was significant because it was an established TNA guy getting a big win over an established NXT name and eventual WWE Superstar. I’m not trying to downplay Christian here; big name and all that, father of the year, you know… I’m just saying how much of a boost this would have been for TNA to see the AEW guy who stole their World title in the first place finally get their comeuppance… and that didn’t happen because TK needed a big deal to happen on his Rampage show that’s now no longer on the air… oops.
And so when I hear people talk about how much of a bum deal the thing with AEW was, when this was the ultimate pay-off for TNA’s biggest show while AEW nabbed Don Callis and others, I can understand that viewpoint. But then I look at the WWE/NXT deal and I’m wondering how much of a better deal that was when TNA ends up losing some of their top talent to WWE, whether they are either being used below their means or not used at all… which absolutely depresses me to see.
Oh, and speaking of oops, Moose comes out and kills the new champion in roughly five seconds to win the title. And that’s how we end the show. It’s not quite the down ending that Hulk Hogan stealing the title from Yokozuna at Wrestlemania IX was, but not quite the happy moment this show should have gotten.
Meh.
Hey, for what it’s worth, I did enjoy the show. I thought it was a perfectly solid, perfectly paced match with no real sour moments. I guess you could argue that the end was a bit sour, but I thought Moose turned out all right with the run he was given and Josh would get his win back at the following year’s Rebellion PPV. Had I watched this live, I’d probably be less forgiving, but now? Eh, it worked out.
