A TNA World Championship match is official for the Hard to Kill pay-per-view set for Saturday, January 13, 2024.
Impact Wrestling officially announced Thursday that current World Champion Alex Shelley will defend what will then be known as the TNA World title against Feast or Fired briefcase winner Moose at Hard to Kill.
Moose won a Feast or Fired briefcase containing a contract for a World title match at Impact 1000 in September. Shelley has held the World title since defeating Steve Maclin for the Championship at Against All Odds in June.
The World title bout joins a Knockouts World Championship match between Trinity & Jordynne Grace as the first two bouts set for Hard to Kill.
Hard to Kill will be held at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Here is the lineup for the show so far:
TNA Hard to Kill, Saturday, January 13, 8 p.m. Eastern time on pay-per-view —
TNA World Champion Alex Shelley defends against Moose
TNA Knockouts World Champion Trinity defends against Jordynne Grace
Dave Meltzer and Garrett Gonzales discussed the latest on Bray Wyatt and Josh Alexander on Wrestling Observer Radio.
Gonzales noted that there is no update on Wyatt, who is out of action due to a medical issue. Bobby Lashley stated on social media despite Wyatt’s absence, he will still compete at WrestleMania.
“If they knew he was on the show, they could at least promote it, even if he’s not there,” Meltzer said. “From what I understand he’s not in Vegas (home to Friday’s SmackDown taping) and the next to last SmackDown is tonight.”
Meltzer also brought up Josh Alexander, who announced on social media Friday he would have to pull out of future dates and vacate the Impact World Championship as he underwent surgery to repair a torn triceps on Friday. Meltzer put over the run he had while champion.
“Because of the nature of Impact, because of so much content with WWE and so much product with AEW, Impact falls by the wayside,” Meltzer said. “But Josh Alexander has done a tremendous job in the ring as Impact Champion.”
This past weekend Impact Wrestling held their Rebellion pay-per-view in Poughkeepsie, NY. The show was headlined by IMPACT World Champion Moose defending his championship against Josh Alexander. The main event bout went about 23 minutes and saw a brand new champion crowned, with Alexander hitting the C4 Spike to win the championship.
Moose held the IMPACT World Championship for a total of 182 days after winning the belt at the 2021 Bound For Glory event in which he invoked his ‘Call Your Shot Gauntlet’ championship opportunity to pin Josh Alexander for the title as he was celebrating with his family in the ring.
What proceeded between both Moose and Alexander turned out to be a very personal story that even featured Moose hitting the Lights Out (spear) on Jen Alexander, the wife of Josh.
During his reign as IMPACT World Champion, Moose successfully defended his championship against the likes of Mike Bailey, Heath, W. Morrissey, Zicky Dice, Matt Cardona, and Eddie Edwards.
On the episode of IMPACT immediately following Rebellion, Moose had a rematch against Alexander in which he lost to him once again.
I had the opportunity of chatting with the former champion all about his feud with Josh Alexander and of course his experience as champion.
“I don’t hate Josh, I actually respect him. I believe in the last year Josh has proved undoubtedly why he is one of the best pro wrestlers in the world and he prevailed at Rebellion and he prevailed again in our rematch that aired last night. I am happy to see what his run is gonna be like, he deserves it, he showed that he’s the standard of what professional wrestling is at IMPACT Wrestling.”
“I was happy with the match, definitely one of my better matches I’ve had,” Moose said in regards to the Rebellion match. “I know everybody says ‘Oh it’s Moose’s best match of his career,’ I feel like everyone says that after I have a good match because they forget about my last match. But it’s definitely one of my better matches. I knew it was gonna be good going in because I am working with a professional in Josh and he’s known for putting on great matches. So I knew I was gonna have a good dance partner.”
Moose also credited the story told for why the main event turned out the way it turned out. “It had people very invested in this match, when you have a super heel villain versus this babyface and everyone wants this babyface to win,” he said. “I don’t know if this is my favorite match in my career, but this is definitely my favorite rivalry that I have had in my eight years of professional wrestling because of how invested the fans were into the match.”
Moose became champion right around the time that IMPACT Wrestling began going back on the road. I asked Moose about the significance of holding the belt.
“I was happy. Usually when they put the title around you, the company is pretty much telling you that you’re gonna be the face of the brand. So when they told me what was going on and the plans they had, I was very proud because I’d been in IMPACT, other than Eddie, I feel I’ve been at IMPACT the longest and I had never been IMPACT World Champion, It was something that I worked my a** off to accomplish.”
Moose also explained how the timing of IMPACT making him champion made sense during the timeline of his run with the promotion.
“I know that a lot of people said that when I wrestled Austin Aries, I wanna say in 2017, maybe 2018; that I should have been IMPACT World Champion then, but honestly speaking, I don’t think I was ready to be champion. I think I was too new in my wrestling career. I didn’t understand what it meant to be champion yet, and I needed time to learn what being champion was all about… and I think they picked the right time at last year’s Bound For Glory to pull the trigger on it.”
Moose also recalls helping with positive vibes in the locker room. “You lead by example, that’s first and foremost,” he said. Moose says he also would bring smoothies and snacks for the guys to help build camaraderie and made sure to always show up extra early before call-time. He described it as a “hard responsibility”, but a “great feeling.”
The next IMPACT Wrestling pay-per-view is taking place on May 7th in Newport, Kentucky titled Under Siege. Announced so far for the show:
Impact World title: champion Josh Alexander defending against Tomohiro Ishii
Impact World Tag Team titles: Violent By Design vs. The Briscoes
AAA Reina de Reinas title: Taya Valkyrie vs. Deonna Purrazzao
Bullet Club (Jay White, Chris Bey, Doc Gallows, El Phantasmo, Karl Anderson) vs Honor No More (Eddie Edwards, Matt Taven, Mike Bennett, Kenny King, Vincent)
Josh Alexander has re-signed with Impact Wrestling.
Alexander made his return to Impact at Saturday’s Sacrifice event, laying out and challenging Impact World Champion Moose to a title match at the Saturday, April 23 Rebellion pay-per-view, while also announcing that he had re-signed.
Alexander’s Impact contract and US work visa had expired.
Alexander had been sent home in storyline by Impact executive Scott D’Amore. After his return and attack on Moose, Alexander stated that he had visited Anthem’s headquarters while he was sent home, and secured a multi-year contract with Impact that also guaranteed him the title match.
Alexander’s attack came after Moose successfully defended the Impact World title against Heath in Sacrifice’s main event.
Tickets for Rebellion went on sale on Friday. The event will be held at the Mid-Hudson Civic Center in Poughkeepsie, New York.
Moose’s title defense against Heath was one of six title matches at Sacrifice. Deonna Purrazzo retained the ROH Women’s World title with a win over Chelsea Green on the show, plus Trey Miguel retained the X Division title with a victory over Jake Something.
Three titles changed hands on the show, as Violent By Design won the Impact World Tag Team titles, Tasha Steelz defeated Mickie James to win the Knockouts World title, and The Influence defeated the IInspiration to capture the Knockouts World Tag Team titles.
