Do you believe that Joe Hendry wants to walk with Elijah? You should, because that’s what happened on Thursday night’s episode of TNA Impact when Elijah (formerly, WWE’s Elias) walked into the company and aligned himself with the World Champ. And the duo showed some harmony together – both musically and in the ring, when they faced Orlando and Eddie Colon (formerly WWE’s Primo and Epico) who also made their TNA debuts. In the end, Hendry and Elijah had the rhythm, and the Colons felt the blues and the beat. Which is to say, they got beat.

 

Joe Hendry’s Encore Concert

The show started with the TNA World Champion Joe Hendry in the ring for this special live edition, ready to regale the audience with another live concert.

The audio feed was all messed up during this segment, not syncing with the picture and skipping a lot. His first song referenced his appearance in WWE’s Royal Rumble match last month, and he name-checked Sheamus, the Miz, Roman Reigns, and referenced John Cena.

But the song was cut off by the music of the Colons, Eddie and Orlando (formerly known as Primo and Epico, respectively, in WWE). They said that they were serious professional wrestler, and they were violent people. The crowd reminded them that neither of them were Carlito. They made their way to the ring to attack Hendry, but before they could, the lights went out. And an ominous guitar strum played.

And out on the entrance ramp came the man formerly known as WWE superstar Elias, to a huge ovation from the crowd. He played a ditty at the top of the entrance ramp, announcing himself as Elijah and singing the news that he joined TNA tonight.

The crowd wanted to walk with Elijah, and he wanted to walk into the ring and join Hendry in taking out the Colons.

Cue the music for Director of Authority Santino Marella, and he came out to the ramp and booked a tag team match as tonight’s main event.

Afterwards, Elijah and Hendry continued the concert with a duet.

Fantastic opening segment.

In the back, Gia Miller interviewed Leon Slater who is taking on The System’s JDC in a No Disqualification match later on. Slater said that he doesn’t believe the System’s offer for him to join was made with respect. So tonight he was going to beat JDC and earn their respect.

Elsewhere in the back, Gia interviewed the Colons. She asked why they would target the World Champion. They said that TNA needs them and they were there to reverse TNA’s practice of having the wrong people at the top, like Joe Hendry and the Hardys.

 

Match 1: The Rascalz (Trey Miguel and Zach Wentz) (w/ Ace Austin) vs. Tyriek Igwe and Tyson Dupont (w/ Wes Lee)

The Rascalz surprised the NXT visitors by hitting them with stereo Moonsaults during their introduction and then following that up with Flying Dives to the floor. But the big men used their raw power to take over. This then became a battle of strength vs. speed with both teams getting in some offense.

Lee tried to get involved from the floor, which led to a confrontation with Austin who dispatched Lee with a trip on the apron that saw Lee embarrassed when he fell face-first.. The distraction let Igwe and Dupont take over again, but then they got razzle-dazzled by the flurrious moves of the Rascalz, and after a Meteora and a Swanton, the Rascalz got the win.

After the match, an angry Lee challenged the three to a triple tag match at Sacrifice on March 14th.

This was a fun one, and a good showcase for both teams.

Winners: The Rascalz

 

The First Class Penthouse

First Class (AJ Francis and KC Navarro) came out with a number of randos and Noelle Foley (yes, Mick’s daughter) for the season premiere of his new talk show segment.

We have a tradition here at Slam Wrestling, started by my fellow writer Tommy Martinez, that when something is bad, we try to not waste our dear readers’ time by making them read too many syllables about it. So we try to keep it to a total of 17 syllables. So, in that time-honoured tradition…

To call this segment

A horrible waste of time

Would be far too kind.

 

Match 3: Rosemary vs. Lei Ying Lee

Some mind games allowed Rosemary to take Lee to the Underground in the opening seconds, but Lee came back. The advantage swung back and forth a few times with Rosemary using lots of ground-and-pound, and Lee firing back with big strikes from every angle.

Rosemary went for As Above So Below, but Lee escaped and hit Rosemary with Thunderstruck (a Spinning Tornado Head Kick) that knocked Rosemary silly and prone for the pin.

After the match, as Lee headed to the back, she was sneak-attacked by Rosemary who sprayed the evil green mist into her eyes. As Rosemary cackled, a blind and in-pain Lee had to be helped to the back.

This was a fine TV match and the post-match angle suggests this feud will go on.

Winner: Lei Ying Lee

Sami Callihan was somewhere in the back among a bunch of equipment cases, and he welcomed everyone to Death Machine TV, a talk segment filmed guerilla-style. He took the camera on a hunt for Mance Warner. He found Warner in an equpment room hiding out with Steph DeLander and Sami went on the attack. He grabbed the camera and attacked Warner with it, leading to the camera feed being disconnected, and the segment ended abruptly with a test pattern shown on-screen.

In the trainer’s room, Tessa Blanchard interrupted the doctor who was taking care of Lei Ying Lee. The doctor refused to abandon Lee’s treatmetn to focus on Blanchard who was clearly fine. They argued for a bit and then Tessa stormed off.

 

Eric Young addresses the crowd

Eric Young and the Northern Armoury came out to the entrance ramp. Young boasted about his win over Josh Alexander last week, saying that he sent Josh packing. He said that under Josh, the Northern Armoury were mere pawns, but under his leadership, they will become champions.

Young said that he was the foundation of the company and the lifeblood of TNA. He then said that there is one other person who should be standing next to him, and that was Steve Maclin. He invited Maclin to come out and join him.

Maclin did not come out. Young said that he understands that Maclin has trouble trusting people. But that they are brothers. And that this business isn’t black and white, but rather blood red.

Young got the “What?” treatment here, but he rollef with it so it ended up being okay. The story between him and Maclin is a bit blurry, though, and this didn’t really help clarify things. Maybe next week.

 

Mike Santana’s AA meeting

They showed a video of what was purported to be Mike Santana attending an AA meeting, along with some other random attendees (ncluding one playing tribute to Dutch Mantell with that stellar moustache) who apparently didn’t mind being recorded at a meeting that is supposed to be anonymous… so much so that it’s in the name of the group!

Mustafa Ali and his Cabinet entered the room and joined the circle. He ungenuinely praised the group for overcoming their addictions and told them to keep up the fight. Everyone thought he was sincere, except for Santana who simply stared in silence straight ahead as Ali spoke to the group. As Ali left, he took a parting shot at Santana, telling him that things can change, but people like Santana won’t. Santana seethed in silence as Ali and his entourage left.

They showed clips from Tuesday’s episode of NXT where Moose made his surprise debut and confronted NXT Champion Oba Femi. The announcers talked about Moose defending his X-Division Championship against Lexis King this coming Tuesday. They also noted that the No Quarter Catch Crew will challenge the Hardys for the TNA World Tag Team Championship on the same episode.

 

Match 4: JDC vs. Leon Slater – No Disqualification match

After a bit of cat-and-mouse, the match spilled to the floor, where Slater was able to thwart an attack with a chair and use it on JDC instead. Slater then went under the ring and got a table which he set up on the floor – though neither of them were able to do anything with it quite just yet.

Slater hit his amazing Somersault Corner Dive that sees him leap clear over the ringpost and do a flip before hitting his opponent on the floor.

But his celebration was short-lived, as JDC recovered and dropped Slater with a Twisting Bomb onto a chair on the floor.

JDC continued the onslaught, battering Slater with a Singapore cane, but Slater fought back and repaid JDC with some Michael Fay treatment of his own (Google him, kids). Slater then set up JDC on the table on the floor, then dlimbed up to the top turnbuckle and hit a 450 Swanton Splash, driving JDC through the table to the floor. Wow.

Slater went for the cover, but JDC’s System brethren Brian Myers and Eddie Edwards ran to the ring and broke it up. They dragged Slater out of the ring and Double Chokeslammed him through a table on the floor. They and Moose threw Slater back into the ring where JDC was waiting to simply cover Slater for the cheap win.

This was a lot of fun, and mostly all of that was because of Slater and the crazy stunts he can do. And do it in a way that it’s not overdone. A couple of high spots during the match, so that they actually feel special when he does them, as opposed to doing way too many at a mile-a-minute to the point that they become a blur.

Winner: JDC

After the match, the System looked to swarm Slater 4-on-1, but the Hardys ran down for the save. The numbers game still were in the favour of the System, and they were getting a bit of an edge on the Hardys. Until NXT Champion Oba Femi made his TNA debut, coming down to the ring to even the odds. He threw out JDC, Myers, and Edwards, but Moose retreated and got out of there before Femi could go after him. The System headed up the ramp while the Hardys, Femi, and Slater stood in the ring in solidarity.

In the back, the System were all griping to Santino Marella about what had just happened, questioning him as to why he would simply let Femi enter the building. Marella was having none of their guff, and he made a matc for next week between Edwards, Myers, and Moose against the Hardys and Oba Femi. The System were very upset by this turn of events.

 

Match 5: Tessa Blanchard vs. ???

Tessa Blanchard had been ordered to wrestle on this week’s show, but she came out to the entrance ramp wearing her everyday non-wrestling clothes. She said that she wasn’t formally given medical clearance to compete tonight because the doctor wouldn’t see her earlier while he was wasting his time on Lee, who Tessa insulted.

As she jawed with the crowd, who were very much against her and letting her have it, Santino Marella’s music hit. He came out and said that he was sick of her weaseling her way out of competing. He told her that she is being ordered to wrestle next week, and if she doesn’t – for any reason – then she will be fired.

Cue the music for the Knockouts World Champion Masha Slamovich. She came to the entrance ramp and told Tessa that she wants to see her wrestle next week. Because she doesn’t want Tessa to get fired, at least not before Masha gets the chance to beat her up in the middle of the ring.

Masha said she was ready and willing to compete, so she would take on Tessa’s would-be opponent, and Santino green-lighted the match.

 

Match 5: Masha Slamovich vs. Mila Moore

Moore jumped Slamovich at the bell, and that only angered the champ. A Requeim later and this was over in seconds.

This was like the booking of Masha when she first started out, and it was perfect.

Winner: Masha Slamovich

After the match, Masha stared down at Tessa who hadn’t left the entrance ramp. Cora Jade slid into the ring behind Masha and attacked her, beeating her down and then hitting her with Jaded. With Masha out, Cora motioned that she was coming for the Knockouts title. As Jade headd to the back, she exchanged some words with Tessa, but Jade noted that her priority was taking Masha’s title.

In the back, Santino Marella and NXT-TNA Liaison Arianna Grace announced that Masha Slamovich will be defending the Knockouts Championship against Cora Jade at Sacrifice.

Ash and Heather By Elegance along with their stooge George Iceman barged in and demanded a rematch against Spitfire for the Knockouts Tag Team Championship, arguing that during the last match, the referee’s screw-up cost the Elegances the match.. Spitfire walked in and said that they would be happy to defend the titles against them one more time. Santino made the match, with the stipulation that whichever team lost would need to become the personal concierges for the winners.

Ryan Nemeth came out to the entrance ramp and announced that Nic Nemeth will be returning from suspension at Sacrifice. Ryan is trying too hard with his whiny voice, like a pale imitation of Vicky Guerrero’s “Excuse me!”

 

Match 6: Joe Hendry and Elias vs. The Colons (Eddie and Orlando Colon)

Early on, Elijah seemed to have the Colons’ number, hitting a big Flying Clothesline and then going for an “Old School” walk with Elijah, forcing the Colons to go to the floor and regroup.

Hendry fared well, too, even hitting Orlando with his Stalling Vertical Suplex. But some cheap double-team tactics by the Colons turned the tide, and they beat up Hendry for an extended period.

Eventually, Hendry found his second wind, and got the tag to Elijah. Shortly thereafter, Elijah was able to walk away with the victory for his team after hitting Orlando with a Spinebuster and then a Tombstone Piledriver.

This was a pretty standard TV tag team match. But ultimately this was all about giving Elijah the star treatment – and by that measure, it was bang on.

Winners: Joe Hendry and Elijah

The show ended with Hendry and Elijah celebrating their win.