For the third year in a row I settled in on a January evening to watch Hard to Kill, but there were some firsts this time around. Impact Wrestling has gone back to it’s original moniker of TNA and brought in some new faces to their roster. It’s also the first show in three years that doesn’t feature Mickie James or Deonna Purazzo in some role, as both have moved on to a backstage role for OVW and to wrestle in AEW, respectively.
The commentary team of Tom Hanifan and Matt Rewholdt, one of the most underrated duos in the game, is on the call for the show. You may know them as Tom Phillips and Aiden English from WWE, and I bring them up because commentary can either be a boon or a hindrance to a wrestling show and in their case it’s the former. You cannot discount them and their roles in however far this turnaround for the company goes; making a show easier to listen to matters a lot.
Ultimate X: Jody Threat, Gisele Shaw, Tasha Steelz, Dani Luna, Alisha Edwards, Xia Brookside
Xia Brookside, previously of NXT UK, was making her TNA debut here. Buy it was another NXT UK, the recently signed Dani Luna, who was the big star here. As expected this was a spotfest with lots of dives and moves that were launched off of the ropes and off the trusses that held the cables. Luna and Threat both hit a lot of cool power moves, too. The finish saw Luna, Steelz, and Shaw racing to the center of the cables to get to the X and Shaw emerging victorious. Good opener.
PCO vs Dirty Dango
This was a DUD. PCO won by DQ after like two minutes after Dangos goons Brutius and Alpha Bravo interfered. That brought out Rhyno for the save. Then Santino Marella, the resident authority figure, came and declared that we were gonna have a six man tag team match. Which led to….
Dirty Dango, Alpha Bravo, and Brutius vs PCO, Rhyno, and Jake Something
Now this was much better. PCO lived up to his mantra (PCO is not human) by hitting a couple of moves off the top rope, just insane for a guy his age and his size. From there it was standard tag team stuff until Rhyno hit a gore on Bravo and PCO followed up with a moonsault for the pin. Not great by any means but a decent enough time filler.
TNA Knockouts Tag Team Title Match: MK Ultra (Masha Slamovich and Killer Kelly) vs The Decay
This was a surprise addition to the card that was not previously advertised. The Decay were making their return from the Undead Realm (you have to watch TNA to understand). Decay jumped on the champs out of the gate and dominated the early going. MK Ultra fought back but Havok overpowered them and the Decay would win the titles. Wasn’t quite a squash but definitely a hard hitting convincing win for the returning Decay.
Out came TNA President Scott D’Amore to make an announcement, that TNA has formed a partnership with AAA from Mexico. Which led to the next match.
X Division Title: Chris Sabin (c) vs Kushida vs El Hijo De Vikingo
This is what you expected with a ton of ridiculous, crazy spots. Yes, some of it was a bit too choreographed for my tastes but there was still plenty of good stuff that fit within the limits of what a proper pro wrestling match should look like and the ‘hey, look at me’ stuff didn’t overwhelm the match. Sabin retained here but this was a good introduction to Vikingo for anyone who hadn’t seen him yet.
Josh Alexander vs Alexander Hammerstone
This was the best men’s match of the night. Hammerstone put out an open challenge on social media and Josh answered it with an invitation to TNA. Hammerstone, finally free from MLW, made the most out of what may have been the biggest stage he’s performed on. This was a classic powerhouse vs wrestler match, with Josh working on the legs while Hammerstone threw him around like a ragdoll and pulverized him. Both guys landed a lot of heavy stuff on each other. It got a little indieriffic at the end with kickouts and trading big moves but outside of that no complaints here. Josh won with his C4 Spike finisher, but Hammerstone looked good in defeat. Hopefully this is the start of some big moves for him.
TNA World Tag Team Title Match: ABC (c) vs The Rascalz vs Grizzled Young Veterans vs Speedball Mike Bailey and Laredo Kid
Laredo Kid was filling in for Trent Seven, who had travel problems. This was a four corners style match with only two men allowed in the ring at a time. This was another really good match with lots of teamwork and cool double team spots from all four teams, and several fun two on two faceoffs. There were a couple of spots where guys got tangled in the ropes but other than that everything was well done. This is the best tag team match as far as ringwork that I’ve seen in a while, and ABC (Ace Austin and Chris Bey) need to be in the conversation for best tag team working right now after retaining the titles here.
As we got ready for the next match we were treated to the arrival of TNA’s newest Knockout, Ash by Elegance fka Dana Brooke in WWE.
TNA Knockouts World Title Match: Trinity (c) vs Jordynn Grace
Trinity’s run in TNA should serve as a recruiting tool for anyone outside of WWE or AEW that’s looking to prove how good they are. In eight months she got showcased in a major way, won a title, had some big matches against the best in the company’s division and proved to any doubters what she was capable of. If you find yourself a free agent and TNA gives you call you’d be wise to answer and hear them out.
As for this match, it was her best one since coming there and a damn good one on any scale. It was a great contrast in styles between her speed and aerial moves vs Grace’s power arsenal. Grace doesn’t just do a few power moves mixed in with the usual wrestling stuff, it’s her style as a worker and Trinity took all of her stuff like a champ while finding ways to get her offense in where she could. In the end Grace would get the win for her third Knockouts Title.
It’s no secret that this is the closing stretch for Trinity in TNA and that unless something unforseen happens she’ll be back in WWE soon. (Depending on when you read this, she may already be back.) This was as good a way to go out as anyone could ask for and a fine bow to put on her time in TNA. Even in defeat here she proved what she and a lot of us knew all along. It should also send a message that there is life outside of WWE if you believe that there’s more for you creatively than what they’re offering you. And with Trinity on her way out Ash gets her chance to continue in that tradition and show what all she can do with a bigger role.
TNA World Title Match: Alex Shelley (c) vs Moose
This wasn’t bad, albeit a bit too long at 21 minutes. There was also a pointless bit of almost outside interference when Moose’s faction came towards the ring but was intercepted by Shelley’s allies. After all that Moose would end up winning clean anyway. For a match whose main purpose was to set up a post match angle, they could have done less and gotten the same results. The match was good in its own right but Moose is a charisma vacuum, and he’s not a Dean Malenko who was good enough to occasionally overcome it, so it can be a bit of a chore to watch him. And him winning the title here just makes you go ‘man, I guess…’
Speaking of the post match angle….
Moose is in the ring with his newly won title only to be attacked by Nic Memeth, fka Dolph Ziggler from WWE!
The vision is pretty easy to figure out here – Moose is a placeholder to get us to title matches featuring Nemeth vs Josh Alexander and others. Judging by the reactions I saw online the people who were most upset about it don’t watch TNA much anyway and were never going to.
I on the other hand look forward to seeing Nic work with the talent they have there, and am thinking of the great matches that lie ahead.
Final Verdict
For the past couple of years Hard to Kill has been a good way to kick off the year in wrestling pay per views and this was no exception. The future looks bright for TNA after many years in the wrestling wilderness; after a long run of incompetent management Scott D’Amore seems to have put them on a path to continue gaining momentum. This was their biggest crowd in years and with the formula they’ve developed for bringing in people from WWE or elsewhere and maxing them out for as long as they have them, things are really looking up for them.
Good show to kick in 2024, as TNA starts it’s rebranding and it’s year off the right way.
Stroke of Genius 