TNA Impact live results: Moose vs. KUSHIDA
TNA World Champion Moose will take on KUSHIDA in non-title action with everyone banned from ringside on tonight’s TNA Impact on AXS.
The reason for the stipulation is due to last week’s brawl that involved Moose, Eddie Edwards, KUSHIDA, Alex Shelley and Kevin Knight.
In the second bout in their best-of-three series for the TNA Tag Team titles, ABC will face the Grizzled Young Veterans who picked up a win last week. With a victory tonight, James Drake and Zack Gibson would become new champions.
TNA Knockouts Champion Jordynne Grace will face Savannah Evans in non-title action. Evans was given one last chance by Gisele Shaw to prove herself following her and Jai Vidal’s firing last week.
Ash by Elegance (the former Dana Brooke in WWE) will make her TNA Impact TV debut in a live promo.
Other action includes Digital Media Champion Crazzy Steve defending against Rhino, Frankie Kazarian vs. Jake Something, and Joe Hendry vs. Deaner.
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Watching TNA in the post-Scott D’Amore era certainly has a different feel to it, doesn’t it? This was taped in Kissimmee, Florida, prior to all of the craziness from the last week, but we’ll see what the vibe is at next Friday’s No Surrender.
Frankie Kazarian defeated Jake Something
Two D’Amore guys opened things up as the newly-turned heel Kazarian continued to be just that. He is still ahead of Father Time at 46 years old and looking more like 26.
The two traded nearfalls at the closing stages, eliciting a “TNA” chant from an otherwise dead crowd. Kazarian got the pin after pulling Something from a seated position off the top rope, smashing his head on the top turnbuckle. He then stacked Something up for a pin and grabbed the bottom rope for leverage and his second straight win. Something’s three-match win streak was snapped.
Eric Young was shown watching Kazarian from behind the curtain and later cut a promo challenging him to a face-to-face confrontation in the ring next week.
TNA Knockouts Champion Jordynne Grace defeated Savannah Evans (w/ Gisele Shaw) in a non-title match
The backstory here: Evans was “fired” by Shaw last week along with Jai Vidal as she was tired of their efforts to help her out. Evans asked for another chance and Shaw suggested she take on Grace who she challenges at No Surrender for the title.
This was over quickly as after some back and forth, Grace hit a muscle buster out of the corner to pick up the win. Afterward, Shaw nailed Grace and Evans with her Ultimate X trophy (?) won at Hard to Kill. This felt like Evans’ swan song with TNA while I’m wondering how Shaw feels about the promotion given what happened to D’Amore.
– Gia Miller was backstage when she was interrupted by Ash by Elegance’s concierge and then Ash herself. She made an announcement that next week would be her TNA in-ring debut. I thought she was going to do this promo in the ring, but they are really taking their time getting her going. She debuted at Hard to Kill last month and still hasn’t been in front of the fans yet. Alrighty then. I will say her concierge is a great talker.
– Alan Angels did a backstage Sound Check interview segment with Simon Gotch. Gotch put over how tough Josh Alexander was in coming back from a broken neck five years ago, but that the details in his fairy tale comeback to being signed by TNA and winning the title was missing details: that it was Gotch who pushed him to the limits in Alexander’s comeback match. He is upset Alexander got the win and future opportunities that night while he got overlooked. Alexander then busted in and went face-to-face with Gotch until they got into a pull apart. This was unexpectedly good.
ABC (Chris Bey & Ace Austin) defeated Grizzled Young Veterans (James Drake & Zack Gibson) to tie up their best-of-three series
The Veterans won last week and with a win this week, they take home ABC’s TNA Tag Team titles. I kinda feel like the finale would make sense for No Surrender, don’t you?
The Veterans worked on the left arm of Austin that they injured last week for a long, long time. Bey eventually got the hot tag and after a few minutes, he got in trouble as well, barely kicking out of a Doomsday Device that got the crowd chanting, you guessed it, “TNA.”
After his own hot tag, Bey grabbed Gibson’s leg as the Veterans lined up for Grit Your Teeth, giving Austin an opening to ensnare Drake and get an impressive bridging pin for the win.
Because of the predictability of the winning team and the inevitable third match, this didn’t feel as dire for the champions. The Veterans also didn’t come off as desperate to win to end this thing and take home the titles.
– Dirty Dango, Oleg Prudius and John E. Bravo were at a racetrack. Dango said they were holding an open casting call for tag team challengers with under a year of experience. Dango namedropped Scott Norton and suggested a main event of Norton vs. Prudius. He also wondered where the Panda Energy car was. Dango certainly knows how to talk.
– Mustafa Ali was back with another politician-esque promo, putting over the X-Division and how he wants to be the leader of it. That led The Good Hands (Jason Hotch & John Skyler) asking for promo time saying how much they love Ali. X-Division Champion Chris Sabin, whom Ali will face at No Surrender, happened to be there and took issue with the Hands and some of their entourage, knocking one of them out and shoving Hotch.
Digital Media Champion Crazzy Steve defeated Rhino to retain
This was made after a confrontation both guys had on a recent edition of Xplosion. Steve defeated Dreamer for the title last month and Rhino is a former ECW guy as is Dreamer which I assume you know.
Rhino wanted things to be hardcore and brought out a table which Steve didn’t care for, putting it back after regaining the advantage. Rhino nearly had this won after hitting a TKO, but the champion rallied, distracting the referee by throwing a fork and nailing the challenger with the title belt for the pin to end a meh match.
The intent of the Digital Media title was initially supposed to be matches on, well, social media. Now it’s just a disinteresting title on the main show.
Joe Hendry vs. Deaner never got started
Before the, a retaliation video from AJ Francis aired on the big screen which distracted Hendry. Francis then came out and said from here on out, the show is now called TNAJ Francis. Hendry said he now understood how he felt when he did insult videos and that he was unprepared…except he wasn’t.
He then aired his own video to AJ Styles’ TNA music called Banned From Diving that focused on Francis’ infamous WWE dive that wasn’t and a plain looking guy named Steve that was in a Francis video.
Francis then got in the ring and laid out Hendry much to Deaner’s delight. Eventually, Rich Swann came out to even the odds and Francis walked away. This feud much continue.
– They aired Nic Nemeth’s recent appearance for the WWC where he was attacked by Steve Maclin after the match. Maclin and The Rascalz then talked to Gia Miller, but Trent Seven and Mike Bailey weren’t having it. Seven then challenged Maclin for a match next week.
Dani Luna (w/ Jody Threat) defeated Killer Kelly (w/ Masha Slamovich)
While the crowd was pretty quiet, I liked this because it felt different aesthetically and style-wise. In a short match, Luna picked up the win off a roll-up after Kelly got tangled up with Slamovich and Threat on the ropes. Afterward, Kelly and Slamovich laid out Luna and Threat which led to Knockouts Tag Team Champions Decay (Rosemary & Jessicka) coming out to make the save. Those teams square off at No Surrender for the titles.
Next week:
- X-Division Champion Chris Sabin vs. Jason Hotch in a non-title match
- Steve Maclin vs. Trent Seven
- Eric Young/Frankie Kazarian face-to-face confrontation
- The System (Moose, Eddie Edwards & Brian Myers) vs. Alex Shelley, KUSHIDA & Kevin Knight
- Ash by Elegance in-ring debut
New for No Surrender (next Friday):
- Josh Alexander vs. Simon Gotch
TNA Champion Moose defeated KUSHIDA in a non-title match
No one was allowed at ringside during the match after the events of last week where Moose, Edwards and Myers got into a brawl with Shelley, KUSHIDA and Knight. I have a feeling things might break down afterward because it’s wrestling.
Moose was dominant in the early minutes, using his physical force to toss KUSHIDA around. Every time KUSHIDA would rally, it was shut down quickly even after the NJPW star fired up after being slapped on the outside of the ring.
He eventually did get his shine, focusing on Moose’s right arm he injured during the match. He locked on the Hoverboard Lock, but Moose powered out of it. After a flurry of activity, KUSHIDA hit a surprise Code Red to nearly win the match.
In the end, Moose hit a spear to pick up the win in what was a fairly one-sided match until the last few minutes.
Afterward, Eddie & Alisha Edwards and Myers came out to celebrate and, wait for it, attack KUSHIDA. Who could have seen this coming? Shelley and Knight took their sweet time to come out to help and KUSHIDA roared back to life to even things out for another big three-on-three brawl. The babyfaces stood tall to close things out.
Overall, this was an ok edition of TNA Impact with nothing that stood out as must-see.