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TNA Impact: Grace shows mettle, beats Steelz, keeps gold

Bob Kapur

With the departures of Deonna Purrazzo and Trinity from TNA, there’s been a bit of a void of contenders for Knockouts World Champion Jordynne Grace. While a strong champion can lead to great stories, there’s in making them seem so dominant that the perception of the rest of the roster gets diminished in the eyes of the fans. TNA might not be there yet – but if every one of Grace’s title matches goes down like her virtual squash of Tasha Steelz in the main event of Thursday night’s episode of Impact Wrestling, it might not be a short wait. It was the second squash match of the show, which was otherwise focused on developing the card for the company’s next special event, Rebellion, taking place on April 20th.

 

Match 1: Leon Slater vs. Chris Bey (w/ Ace Austin) vs. Alan Angels vs. Jason Hotch (w/ John Skyler) vs. Kevin Knight vs. Jake Something

Mustafa Ali joined the commentary team for this one, as the winner will challenge Ali for the X-Division Championship at Rebellion. During Hotch’s introduction, Skyler made it clear that Hotch wasn’t in the match to get to challenge Ali, but rather to prevent anyone else from winning.

Within seconds, Knight had already done a huge Flying Somersault Dive to the floor to take out Hotch. And less than a minute later, he also hit a big Springboard Cross Body, taking out a coupe of other opponents in the ring. After a commercial break, Hotch and Angels formed an alliance, but that only lasted for a while, because Hotch left Angels to fend on his own when Jake Something confronted them. Angels tried, but his power would not be stopped. Until it was, when Angels convinced Knight and Slater to assist him in hitting a Face-buster Driver on Something.

The action quickened up, with everyone getting a couple of minutes in the spotlight, hitting big moves on anyone and everyone. At one point, Something smashed Slater off the top rope and sent him to the floor, while Knight did the same thing to Hotch. Something hit a big Powerbomb on Knight, but Hotch – with some assistance from Skyler on the floor- distracted Jake before he could make the cover. Hotch paid for it, though, when Something hit the Black Hole Slam and pinned him seconds later.

 

This was fine, though the pacing sometimes felt a bit strange – the two major high spots coming right in the opening minute was a bit jarring. Something winning is no surprise, since that’s the match they’ve been building to over the past week. Brining Slater in this way was a bit of an odd choice since nobody really knew him.

Winner: Jake Something

A video aired of Dirty Dango answering questions about his career while bullying and berating Alpha Bravo and Oleg Prudius. Dango’s criticisms ticked off Oleg who got upset and walked away.

In the back, Gia Miller interviewed AJ Francis and Rich Swann to get an explanation for Swann’s turning on Joe Hendry last week. Francis said that Gia will find out next week when they make a statement in the ring.

Deaner came to the ring and asked for a mic. He said that for the past few years, he has not been himself. He acknowledged his failures as a member and the leader of The Dewin. He said that he’s made some bad decisions in his life, but one good decision was following his childhood dreams to become a wrestler. He said he would let the fans make all his career decisions from now on.

The Grizzled Young Vets came out and insulted Deaner and the fans. They told Deaner they should take advice from them. And their advice was to retire and forget the fans. They got into the ring and tried to kick him out of the ring. Deaner said that he’ll see if the fans wanted him to leave; they did not. Deaner and the Vets started to fight, and this brought out Alex Shelley and KUSHIDA to make the save.

 

Match 2: The Grizzled Young Vets (James Drake and Zack Gibson) vs. the Time Splitters (Alex Shelley and KUSHIDA)

The announcers reminded fans of the recent tension that seems to be percolating between Shelley and his friends, KUSHIDA and Chris Sabin. But based on the early action of this match, it seemed they were still on the same page. Still, it didn’t take too long before GYV stepped up the aggression and isolate Shelley in their corner.

He finally broke loose and got the tag to a fresh KUSHIDA who hit the Vets with all the energy he’d been storing up on the apron. The wily Vets tried to withstand the offense, but the Time Splitters were unstoppable. Shelley hit Shell Shock on Gibson and then assisted KUSHIDA in getting the Hoverboard Lock on Drake, who had to tap out. After the match, Shelley and KUSHIDA celebrated together, presumably ending any lingering tension between them.

 

This was pretty good, which isn’t surprising given that both teams are strong. If this truly marks the end of the teased split between Shelley and his buds, Okada, and Chris Sabin, that wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.

Winners: The Time Splitters

They showed a sit-down interview with Hammerstone. He told interview Tom Hannifan about getting an opportunity with TNA back in 2018 but nothing coming from it. He said that put a chip on his shoulder, so he went around the world and succeeded there before coming back. He said he challenged Josh Alexander at Hard To Kill in order to show people that he could hang with the best. Hammerstone said that he had Alexander beaten but Josh rolled out of the ring to avoid being pinned, so that was a win in principle. He then went on to beat Alexander at Sacrifice, and ignored Tom Hannifan’s observation that Hammerstone had to cheat to win. Hammerstone dismissed that and instead focused on how much he punished Josh at that match, even stealing Josh’s headgear. Hammerstone said that he would hurt and beat Josh Alexander the next time they met in the ring.

 

Match 3: Crazzy Steve (c) vs. PCO – for the Digital Media Championship

The two fought on the floor at the outset, nearly resulting in a double count-out, but they eventually brought the fight into the ring. Steve wrenched the monster’s neck a couple of times, but PCO kept getting up in full attack mode. PCO took Steve off the top rope with a big Lungblower, and then hit a Legdrop off the middle rope before hitting the De-Animator that looked like it broke Steve in half.

 

PCO looked like he was going for the kill, but was distracted by the sight of Kon who walked to the ring carrying garbage cans full of weapons. Kon threw a bunch of them into the ring, but maybe shouldn’t have, since all that did was aggravate PCO who hit him with a Flying Somersault Dive and then used some of Kon’s weapons against him, leaving him laying on the floor. PCO set up some chairs on the floor, but before he could do anything, Steve reached out from inside the ring and raked PCO’s eyes, blinding him. As the ref pulled Steve away from PCO, Kon took advantage and slammed PCO onto the chairs on the floor. A weakened PCO staggered his way back into the ring where he was immediately rolled up from behind by an awaiting Steve for the 1-2-3.

This could have been so much more than it was. Too bad, because a Steve-PCO match could have been a really fun bloodbath if they were allowed to go there. Ultimately, though, this was merely a backdrop to continue the build for Kon and PCO – and look for that to culminate in a Monster’s Ball down the road, possibly at Rebellion.

Winner, and still Digital Media Champion: Crazzy Steve

Decay cut a pre-taped promo, saying that they wanted to cash in their rematch clause for the Knockouts Tag Team Championship against Spitfire. MK-Ultra walked in and said that Decay will need to get behind them in line for the title shot. Decay said they could have a match to see who gets the shot, and MK-Ultra agreed.

Eric Young came out to the entrance ramp. He acknowledged his loss to Moose at Sacrifice, but said that one thing he will never do is quit. He then turned his words to Frankie Kazarian, saying that Kaz made a mistake by coming after him. He said that Frankie thought himself to be rock and roll and wanted to be metal. So EY challenged him to a Full Metal Mayhem match at Rebellion.

 

Match 4: Ash By Elegance vs. Seleziya Sparx

Ash’s annoying stooge George Iceman did her ring introduction.

Sparx didn’t take kindly to Ash’s arrogance and tried to match Ash’s aggressiveness and strength. But it didn’t get her too far – in fact, it only got her beaten up. After a beat-down, Ash hit a Swanton Dive to end Seleziya’s night.

 

Or maybe it didn’t end, because Ash kept attacking Sparx after the match ended, driving a chair into Seleziya’s throat. She then lay a chair across Sparx’s body and was going to hit another move off the top rope, but Xia Brookside ran in and stood in Ash’s way. Ash backed down and glared at Xia as she and her stooge retreated up the ramp.

This was your basic TV squash. TNA could do worse than hiring Seleziya, and hopefully this isn’t the last we see of her.

Winner: Ash By Excellence

 

Nic Nemeth hit the ring. He said that when he debuted in TNA, he stood in the ring and confronted Moose. But Nemeth said he would never want to be handed a World Championship match. Which is why he first had to beat a former champ in Steve Maclin. And even after that, he was going to do what it took. But when Moose attacked him, that resulted in Nemeth getting the shot. And now that he had it, he was going to beat Moose and take the gold.

This brought out Moose and the rest of The System who made their way down the ramp and into the ring. Moose got into Nemeth’s face and said that Nemeth has had a lot of success, but throughout his career, he’s never been able to beat The System. Nemeth looked angry as The System left.

 

Match 5: Tasha Steelz vs. Jordynne Grace (c) – for the Knockouts World Championship

Not surprisingly, Grace out-muscled Steelz early on, using her power to batter and ground the challenger. Steelz tried to get spicey and fight back, but got flattened with a huge Spinebuster by Grace.

 

Steelz avoided a Juggernaut Driver and locked on an arm submission, but Grace picked up Steelz with the arm and drove her hard to the mat with a One-Armed Bomb.

Steelz avoided a Vader Bomb and then struck with a Sliced Bread, but could only keep Grace down for a 2-count. She then got Grace on the top turnbuckle and slammed her off the top. Grace got up and rocked Steelz with a Backfsit, a Clothesline, and the Juggernaut Driver for the pin.

This was a dominant performance by Grace. Given how definitively Steelz got beaten, it wouldn’t be surprising to see her get removed from TV for a while and repackaged or otherwise given a character shake-up. That was quite the burial. It’s interesting to see who they put Grace up against next, since most of the other Knockouts are involved in the Tag Team division, and Ash and Xia look to be tied up with each other. Maybe Alisha, to give The System more gold?

Winner, and still Knockouts World Champion: Jordynne Grace

 

 

 

TNA Impact - March 21st, 2024
3.5

St. Clair College - WIndsor, ON

With a few weeks to go before Rebellion, it’s early days in the build-up for that card. This show accomplished that with some matches and a few promos – this episode was more talky than usual, but they were short enough and pretty effective. While some of the matches on that show are now locked in, a larger question that needs to be considered is how they’re going to keep the Knockouts singles division interesting. Hope that question can get answered soon – and correctly.

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