Two released WWE stars are now part of the new era of TNA.
Nic Nemeth, the former Dolph Ziggler in WWE, appeared following the main event of Saturday’s Hard to Kill that saw Moose begin his second World title reign with a win over Alex Shelley.
Nemeth and Moose went face-to-face before Nemeth hit a superkick and the Zig Zag before he left the ring and celebrated in the stands, avoiding a potential beatdown by Moose’s new faction called The System.
Nemeth’s first match in his new home is official as he will take on Zachary Wentz of The Rascalz as part of Sunday’s TV taping in Las Vegas, Nevada.
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Nemeth wasn’t the only former WWE star to debut as Dana Brooke appeared in the crowd during the Knockouts title match between now-former champion Trinity and Jordynne Grace.
Brooke, who was flanked by a gentleman, was identified as Ash by Elegance — a tie-in to her real name of Ashley Mae Sebera. She did not confront Grace after she won the title, nor was there an indication of what she was doing there.
Earlier in the night, former NFL running back and one-time TNA wrestler DeAngelo Williams made his return to the promotion for the first time since 2017.
Williams, who teamed with Moose at Slammiversary that same year, is now part of Moose’s new aforementioned faction. Williams hasn’t wrestled since that lone match although his performance impressed many at the time.
As of this writing, TNA has not formally announced any of the three are under contract.
Austin Aries’ attack of DeAngelo Williams, a dynamic high-flying main event, and a theatrical angle involving Su Yung and Madison Rayne highlighted this week’s episode of Impact Wrestling. The show again took place from St. Clair College in Windsor, Ontario, Canada.
The show opened with a video recap of the original LAX’s return, their beatdown of Konnan, and their union with King from a week ago. OG members Homicide and Hernandez then quickly steamrolled a couple of wrestlers in a quick match. Hernandez hit the Razor’s Edge on one of them. The announcers never mentioned their names.
King then cut a promo challenging the LAX members Santana and Ortiz to a 5150 street fight at Slammiversary on July 22.
Allie defeated Shotzi Blackheart
Blackheart, even while losing, stole the show here with her energy, excitement, and green hair. Allie controlled most of the match until she missed a running dropkick into the corner. Shotzi then hit a Kevin Owens-like powerbomb on Allie in the corner. Shotzi, as the announcers called her, hit a flying head kick, but then missed a dive off the top rope. Allie’s offense looks a lot like John Cena’s did early in his career.
Shotzi kept rallying back on Allie but missed a splash off the top rope, allowing Allie to hit a codebreaker for the win.
Commentator Josh Mathews asked if Chris Jericho would be proud of the move. Just as Allie was celebrating, Tessa Blanchard hit the ring and attacked Allie, heisting a hammerlock DDT. Commentator Don Callis said “Tessa Blanchard has a mean streak a mile wide.”
They showed a long video package promo building the Tommy Dreamer vs. Eddie Edwards match at Slammiversary.
They showed another video package of a mystery woman posing in a silhouette, prompting Callis to say, “Who is this woman — and I think I am in love.”
There was another pre-taped video segment featuring Impact World Champion Austin Aries talking about how he was looking forward to hearing an update later in the show from DeAngelo Williams about Moose’s training. He called Williams a “retired, washed-up football player.”
The Flashback Moment of the Week featured TNA Hall of Famer Gail Kim vs. Taryn Terrell, with ODB as the guest referee. Christy Hemme was the ring announcer for the last woman standing match. Terrell got the win after she hit an RKO off the stage onto the ringside mat for the victory.
We were treated to another promo advertising Slammiversary.
Mathews then interviewed Williams in the middle of the ring in front of the live audience. Williams is training another former NFL player, Quinn Ojinnaka, known as Moose, for his upcoming Slammiversary match against Aries.
“I said I’d never do this again, but I am back,” said Williams, who in 2017 had a highly-acclaimed one-and-done match.
Williams said he has been training Moose in the bat cave, but “I can’t say where because there are cheaters in the back trying to figure out what he is doing.” Williams said, “We’re trying to bring home that gold.” He called Aries, “Trash.”
Williams showed footage of Moose training, using weights, a heavy ball, and a sledgehammer. Williams called Aries a “crybaby” and said that Moose was going to take his title. Out came Aries, and Mathews left the ring.
The crowd chanted “Austin Aries,” but Aries responded, “Thank you, but I know my name.”
Aries then berated Williams, calling him an NFL failure who never won a Super Bowl.
“You were forced to retire because nobody wants your services,” Aries said. “Now you are stepping into my ring to be relevant using pro wrestling to be important.”
Aries then hit Williams with a left hook, with the microphone in his hand, dropping the former NFL player. Aries went to hit him with the chair, but Williams ducked and then kicked him in the stomach. Williams was about to hit Aries, but Aries instead kicked Williams between the legs.
“Three points,” Mathews blurted.
Aries then stood the chair up on Williams’ back and held the belt up high.
Eli Drake defeated Grado (w/ Katarina and Joe Hendry)
Drake has a million-dollar body and Grado had million-dollar charisma. The chubby Grado wrestles like a combination of Dusty Rhodes and Jerry “The King” Lawler.
Grado hit a hurricanrana off the top rope on Drake, who recently renewed his contract with Impact Wrestling. Grado then performed the Dusty elbow to drop Drake. He also pulled down both of the straps on his wrestling singlet, prompting Callis to scream for the technicians to digitize Grado’s flabby chest.
Drake, however, rallied and hit a clothesline for the win.
Katarina and Hendry then came into the ring. Katarina got into Drake’s face and Callis said, “look at her looking at Eli — and who can blame her, he’s hot.”
There was a backstage interview segment with Matt Sydal talking about his upcoming match with Brian Cage.
They announced that Tessa Blanchard would wrestle Allie at Slammiversary.
Moose, who apparently has the Brock Lesnar schedule because he has not appeared on TV in a few weeks, then did a telephone interview talking about his match with Aries.
In yet another interview segment, Madison Rayne called Slammiversary “the biggest night of the summer.” Seconds after the backstage interview started, she heard a weird noise from around a doorway. She chased it, but couldn’t find anything. When she returned, there was a white sheet with the words “your time has come” scrawled. She turned around and saw the tail of a wedding dress turning the corner.
Rayne chased the dress. She walked into a studio and the door shut behind her and locked.
Sami Callihan & OVE defeated Rich Swann, Fenix & Pentagon Jr.
This was a tornado match where tags were not needed and everybody was in the match at the same time. The match began with everybody superkicking everybody.
Mathews asked what is it about Callihan that makes him a leader? Callis responded: “Why don’t you ask me why David Koresh was a leader? Why Jim Jones was a leader? It’s sick. It’s a sickness. He’s able to lead the weak-minded, the Crist brothers and everyone in Ohio for that matter.”
Everyone in the match impressed, performing a series of aerial moves. Dave Crist superplexed Swann to hit everyone else outside the ring
Swann went for a hurricanrana and Callihan reversed it into a powerbomb. Jake Crist hit a diamond cutter on Swann from the top rope that was timed perfectly. Callihan eventually hit a double chicken wing into a shoulder breaker onto his knee for the victory. The crowd chanted “This is awesome” several times throughout the match.
Callis said it was “maybe the greatest tag match I have ever seen.”
As was previously announced, Pentagon and Callihan will wrestle in a mask vs. hair match at Slammiversary.
To end the show, they cut back to Rayne, who was still stuck in the locked studio room. She finally opened the door, only to see her world transformed into a dark, eerie nighttime set.
She walked slowly — when suddenly the undead brides came at her and were chanting “your time has come.”
The brides disappeared and then Su Yung appeared. She put her hand in Rayne’s face and said “your time has come,” as the show ended.
