On Friday, Eric Young will get the chance to regain the TNA World Championship in Windsor, Ontario at the company’s Sacrifice event. But on Thursday’s episode of TNA Impact, Young was the one who got sacrificed – courtesy of a chain-assisted Spear by the champion Moose and his partners in The System. The attack was one of many moments on the show that finished the build to Friday’s event. But surprisingly wasn’t the closing segment of the episode. Instead, the main event was a match between Dirty Dango and Josh Alexander which – while a good match – seemed a bit of a curious closer for a “go-home” show.

 

Match 1: Mustafa Ali vs. Kevin Knight

A neat moment early on saw Knight hit Ali with a Running Dropkick when Ali was going for a Leapfrog, and the resulting collision looked great. But Ali whiplashed Knight’s throat over the ropes and took over. After a few minutes of being beaten down, Knight caught Ali up top and took him down with a Frankensteiner, and took over. But it was Ali’s turn to thwart a top-rope move, catching Knight climbing up and hitting him with a huge BackStabber off the top rope that looked awesome.

 

Knight fired back with a huge Clothesline that sent Ali to the floor, so Knight hit him and all of Ali’s secret service unit with a beautiful Springboard Plancha to the floor.

This brought out the Good Hands, who tried to make their way to the ring to help Ali, but they were stopped by Chris Sabin and KUSHIDA, and the two teams brawled on the floor. Though the action spilled into the ring at one point, Ali and Knight continued their battle. But the distraction eventually worked against Knight, as one of the Good Hands gave Ali his X-Division Championship belt which he used to clock Knight in the head behind the referee’s back. After that, the three-count was simply academic.

After the match, Ali and the Good Hands attacked Knight’s buddies, and then attacked Knight, with Ali hitting a 450-Splash on Knight’s arm to try to break it. Alex Shelley ran in brandishing a crutch to chase away Ali and the Good Hands, but the damage to Knight was already done.

This was a fine opener, and helped further the build for tomorrow night’s 6-man tag match at Sacrifice.

Winner: Mustafa Ali

A video package aired for the three-way match for the Knockouts Championship taking place tomorrow night. Challengers Xia Brookside and Tasha Steelz – whose number one contendership match ended last week with no winner – will both try to dethrone Jordynne Grace. Each of the women said that they would win the match.

In the back, the medic was checking on Kevin Knight’s arm, while Sabin, Shelley, and KUSHIDA looked on. The doctor said that Knight would not be able to compete tomorrow night, so Shelley said he would take his place. Shelley threw some shade at Sabin and KUSHIDA for throwing the towel in at No Surrender which cost Shelley the World Championship to Moose. They weren’t wild about his attitude, but agreed to team up with him tomorrow night.

 

Match 2: Ash By Elegance (w/ Iceman) vs. Angel Blue

Before the next match, Ash By Elegance’s stooge Iceman was in the ring with Ash’s competition, who he insulted before introducing Ash.

Angel refused to acquiesce to Ash’s demand to kiss her boot before the match, but then paid for her insolence by getting kicked with that aforementioned boot. Ash squashed Blue, beating her up and then ending things with Rarified Air.

 

This was quick. The Ash character is still new so building her up with squash matches is fine. At some point they will need to progress a story with her, but for now, it’s still in the introductory phase and it’s working.

Winner: Ash By Elegance

Steve Maclin cut a promo from his hotel room. He criticized Nic Nemeth and questioned Nemeth’s intentions in TNA, saying Nemeth is trying to big-time the promotion. He said that Nemeth fears him, which is why Nemeth is not there. Maclin stopped to answer a knock at the door of his hotel room. Off-screen, there were sounds of a fight, and then someone came back on camera. It was Nemeth who revealed himself as the knocker – and the guy who beat up and laid out Maclin who was shown unconscious on the floor.

 

Match 3: The Good Hands (Jason Hotch and John Skyler) vs. The Time Splitters (Alex Shelley and KUSHIDA)

There seemed to be some tension between Shelley and KUSHIDA as they made their entrance, but by the time they got to the ring, it seemed to have abated. They worked well as a unit early on, but KUSHIDA got sent into the corner where he bumped Shelley, and Shelley started chirping about that.

 

The Good Hands beat up KUSHIDA for a while until he was able to tag in Shelley, who fared well with some aggression, until the Good Hands doublte-teamed him to regain control. They isolated him in their corner, but he eventually escaped and tagged in KUSHIDA, and for a while they were on the same page and gelling again. Until some mistiming led to Shelley hitting KUSHIDA with an accidental Boot to the Head. The Good Hands couldn’t capitalize on the mistake, though, and shortly thereafter, Shelley aided KUSHIDA in taking out one of the Good Hands, allowing KUSHIDA to put the Hoverboard Lock on the other one who had no choice but to tap out.

After the match, Shelley and KUSHIDA had some uneasy discussions about their miscommunications, with both of them showing some frustration with the other.

The dissension between Shelley and his buddies is almost being played too obvious that it will lead to a heel turn by Shelley. But maybe that’s the point and the whole thing will be a swerve?  Either way, what’s plain to see is that the Good Hands are pretty darn boring.

Winners : KUSHIDA and Alex Shelley

Dirty Dango, with Alpha Bravo (formerly John E. Bravo) and Oleg Prudius cut a pre-taped promo. Dango’s gimmick is kind of silly but at least Oleg had a funny line, bringing up one of the Rock’s signature closing lines after Dango said it wasn’t about catchphrases. On the humour scale, this one fell far short of a Johnny Swinger promo.

In the back, the Good Hands apologized to Mustafa Ali for losing their match, but said their match allowed them to scout the Time Splitters before their 6-man tag match tomorrow. Ali said that he was replacing them with the Grizzled Young Vets as his partners for that match.

 

Match 4: Masha Slamovich (w/ Killer Kelly) vs. Dani Luna (w/ Jody Threat)

They started off with some hard ground exchanges, and then Dani used her power-lifter strength to hurt Masha, which is not often seen. Interference from Kelly on the outside let Masha take over with some submission attempts and some hard strikes. They had some hard back-and-forth action, with a highlight being Luna hitting a nifty Slingshot Blue Thunder Bomb.

 

Shortly thereafter, Luna hit the Luna Landing (a Fireman’s Powerbomb) for the win. The commentators noted that Threat had beaten Kelly, so now the challengers had two singles victories over the Knockouts Tag Team Champions.

This was a good match, though the crowd was dead for most of it. Not sure that people buy Threat and Luna as being the team to beat MK-Ultra, and the singles win here may not be enough to raise any doubt. That being said ,the match itself was good, and Luna looked impressive here.

Winner: Dani Luna

 

Match 5: Alan Angels vs. PCO

Alan Angels tried really hard and even had PCO down on the mat early on, but he crashed and burned on a Frog Splash attempt, and PCO mercifully ended it with a big boot, a Chokeslam, and a PCO-Sault.

 

This was a fast and simple squash match.

Winner: PCO

As PCO was heading to the back after the match, he was stopped by Kon who attacked him with a chair. Angels tried to show his support for Kon in the spirit of their past Design kinship, but Kon was having none of it. He grabbed Angels and wrenched his neck, leaving him laying. Kon went back up the ramp and exchanged in a chair duel with PCO and the two monsters slugged it out, fighting all the way up the ramp and through the curtain.

They showed clips from the Xplosion match between Rhino and Crazzy Steve, where Steve used a staple gun and Rhino missed a GORE! GORE! GORE! allowing Steve to retain the Digital Media Championship.

Then came a Crazzy Steve pre-taped promo, where he said he would beat everyone who faced him for the title.

 

Eric Young in-ring promo

Eric Young came to the ring and said he would do anything to once again win the TNA World Heavyweight Championship. He said that Moose may be bigger, faster, and stronger than him. But at Sacrifice tomorrow, EY is playing for keeps.

Moose came out to the entrance ramp to offer a response. Moose said that Young has been in TNA for a long time, but at Sacrifice his time would be over. He said that all of Young’s passion and determination won’t help him beat Moose for the title. Moose made his way down the ramp, and teased having a street fight with Young right then and there, but as Young braced for a fight, he was sneak-attacked by Moose’s System brethren, Eddie Edwards and Brian Myers. They beat up Young and then held him up so Moose could Spear him. Alisha Edwards then came to the ring with a chain. Moose wrapped the chain around himself and then hit Young with another Spear, assisted by the heavy metal.

 

They were going to do it again, but Team ABC – who defend the Tag Team Championship against Edwards and Myers tomorrow – ran in for the save.

This was a good final build for their title match tomorrow night. Not sure why this wasn’t the closing segment of the show, since one would think the world title storyline should be the focus.

 

Match 6: Josh Alexander vs. Dirty Dango (w/ Alpha Bravo and Oleg Prudius)

What’s curious to me is that the fans don’t sing Dango’s old WWE entrance music and start Fandangoing when he comes out, since that was the most entertaining thing about him. That said, this was probably his best match since coming to TNA.

Alexander outwrestled him early on, but some interference by Bravo from the outside allowed Dango to knock Alexander to the floor where Josh landed hard and tweaked his knee. Smelling blood in the water, Dango attacked the knee, hitting a couple of Dragon Screws  that had Josh writhing in pain.

 

Dango threw Josh in the ring and continued working the knee with various strikes and submission attempts, and smashing Josh’s knee into the ring-post repeatedly for good measure. Josh would try to fight back but Dango would stop any attempts by going back to the knee.

Dango looked to end things with a Broken Arrow, but Josh kicked out at the last second. Josh rolled away to avoid a Top Rope Legdrop and when Dango went to put him back in position, Josh surprised him with a German Suplex and buy himself a little time. Dango kept at it, even putting Josh on the top turnbuckle where Dango was planning something painful. But Josh was able to thwart the attempt, and he sent Dango flying to the floor where he landed on Bravo and Prudius. Josh then went up top and flattened all three of them with a Flying Somersault Dive, effectively taking both of Dango’s flunkies out of commission. Josh rolled back into the ring and played a bit of possum after that, suckering Dango into thinking he could put him away with the Top Rope Legdrop. Instead, Josh dodged the move, and when Dango hit the mat, Josh immediately clamped on an Ankle Lock and Dango had no choice but to submit.

This was a god match – and like I said, easily Dango’s best performance in the company. Alexander continues to put on good matches, and it’s only a matter of time before he’s back in the title hunt.

Winner: Josh Alexander

 

 

TNA Impact - March 7th, 2024
3.5

Alario Center - New Orleans, LA

As a go-home show, this episode was a mixed bag. For the most part it finalized the build for Sacrifice and did so pretty effectively. But the main event completely deviated from that, which was a curious choice – though, that being said, the match itself was very good.