TNA Wrestling: Hard to Kill (2024) -- Results & Afterthoughts

Singles Match

Steve Maclin defeated Rich Swann by pinfall

Tag Team Match

The System (Eddie Edwards and Brian Myers) defeated Frankie Kazarian and Eric Young by pinfall

Knockouts Ultimate X match to determine the #1 contender for the TNA Knockouts World Championship

Gisele Shaw defeated Alisha Edwards, Dani Luna, Jody Threat, Tasha Steelz, and Xia Brookside

From the little that I saw of Xia Brookside when she was a part of NXT UK, I was intrigued with seeing more from her and I'm glad that she choose to come to TNA after floating back around on the indies for a bit following her WWE departure once WWE shut that brand down. She can only get better in this environment, especially with this great group of girls to learn from. 

The more I see of Jody Threat, the more I love her gimmick and her in-ring ability. I'm surprised no one has signed her sooner than this. I thought her and moreso Dani Luna were the MVPs of this match in terms of who walked away from this contest looking the most impressive. I can't help but keep confusing Dani Luna with Kris Statlander though at first glance since they have a similar body type - at least how Statlander looked when she first started working for AEW. I really hope they have plans to build her up as she's an excellent addition to this current crop of Knockouts. 

I'm always glad to see Tasha Steelz in these multi-person matches like this, especially when she won the first one of this type last year. She came up short here, but I can still see her in the title conversation regardless. 

I was glad to see Giselle Shaw win this as I was starting to wondering if they were trying to bury her six feet under over the past year or two as if to hammer the point home that Scott D'Amore wasn't playing favorites with anyone. FYI Giselle Shaw and D'Amore have been dating for several years now. Giselle's in-ring talents are slept on a lot in my eyes as she's really animated in everything that she does. Sure, she's not one of the "flashiest" of female performers nor is technically sound, but she's got solid basics and her character is entertaining enough. I think she would make for a good future Knockouts champion if they want one to garner heel heat while they build up their next big female babyface for that division, especially the rumors about Trinity returning to WWE once she wraps up her current deal during this weekend's TV tapings. 

My only knock on this match was how abrupt this match seemed to end. It was a lot of great back and forth action with all of the women getting their spots in, only for the final three women to spontateously climb the ropes all at once, only for two of them to fall prematurely and Giselle snatches the X for herself. It just gave me the impression that the referee gave them the sign to go home to not waste too much time on this PPV. 

Singles Match

PCO defeated Dirty Dango (with Alpha Bravo and Oleg Prudius) by disqualification

When the DQ came up, I knew they weren't going to end it like this as that was going to be lame as hell for a PPV finish. Up to this point, the only thing I thought was cool here was PCO's entrance. He's definitely established himself to be the "new" Abyss in this revival of the TNA branding. There's no doubt in my mind about that. That being said, there's no way in fucking hell I wouldn't be laying prone or still to allow him to do some of those crazy dives on me, especially with his big ass doing them on ring aprons. 

Six-Man Tag Team Match

Rhino, Jake Something and PCO defeated Alpha Bravo, Oleg Prudius and Dirty Dango by pinfall

Now this was the epitome of a television match. This was nothing but an excuse for all of the heels, specifically Alpha Bravo, to get their asses kicked and hit with all of the babyfaces' finishers to send the crowd home happy. A complete waste of time at this point of the card in my eyes. 

I've said it once, I'll say it again. Jake Something is up there with Big Bill in AEW for the worst name in wrestling right now. It was funny when he first broke away from The Design, but now it's just fucking stupid, especially when he's jacked to the gills like that and should be taken seriously. 

Three-way Match for the TNA X Division Championship

Chris Sabin (c) defeated El Hijo del Vikingo and Kushida by pinfall

This was the first of two of the best matches on the entire card for the night in my eyes. Why did they book these two matches back to back was pure insanity. 

Before this match Scott D'Amore came out on stage with the head of AAA to announce and pen to paper in a new partnership between the two promotions. I thought it was a little confusing as I thought TNA/IMPACT already had an existing working relationship with AAA for as far back as I can remember, but in either case, that's cool that they are continuing to work together. 

I was really surprised to see Sabin retain here, but in hindsight, I see what they were doing. Sabin retaining here created a false sense of security in terms of having one half of the Motor City Machine Guns retain while leaving fans to assume that Alex Shelley would do the same in the main event. I knew El Hijo del Vikingo wasn't winning, especially when he's still pulling double duty with All Elite Wrestling as well, especially how we saw how that partnership between IMPACT and AEW went down. I know they wouldn't bother putting IMPACT/TNA's titles on their programming so that wasn't happening. Kushida is hot off signing a new deal with this company, so I could see them not wanting to jump right into scrapping him with gold right off the bat. They could always build to that title change down the road, so no loss here. We got an excellent match out of it here, so definitely no complaints from me. 

'Nuff said.

Four-way Tag Team Match for the TNA World Tag Team Championship

ABC (Ace Austin and Chris Bey) (c) defeated The Rascalz (Trey Miguel and Zachary Wentz), Laredo Kid and Mike Bailey, and Grizzled Young Veterans (James Drake and Zack Gibson) by pinfall

Going into this match, I didn't give a flying fuck about any of the teams involved nor who won this. I'll admit that by the end of this match, they totally won me over with the in-ring action. I was completely into it and vibing with all of the teams' chemistry. 

My biggest knock against this match was the poor camera work to follow the action. It's not just an IMPACT/TNA problem but a problem with mainstream wrestling as a whole as there's instances of this in AEW and WWE as well. It sucks when you have one high spot and the camera cuts or goes to split screen/picture-in-picture all while another spot is going on to the detriment of the match as the viewers at home can't see it to the fullest like the live crowd would. This problem could be remedied by a lot of the current wrestlers could take a moment to slow down, sell, and allow the room to soak in and appreciate the first big spot before going into another one back to back. I cannot stress this enough - less is more. I'm sure these guys' bodies would agree, especially those who are currently sidelined with injuries or currently working hurt/powering through them. 

I'll go on record saying that I didn't care for Grizzled Young Veterans when they were in NXT UK and NXT (as members of the Dyad), but I thought they pulled their weight here too. I think I'm at my wit's end of seeing ABC as a tag team. I wouldn't mind seeing Chris Bey having a singles run at this point, but I get why they want to keep their act together as IMPACT was short on significant teams for a good while now. 

Singles Match for the TNA Knockouts World Championship

This was Grace's Call Your Shot championship match.

Jordynne Grace defeated Trinity (c) by pinfall

Going into this match, the rumor mill had already spread the talk around the internet wrestling community about Trinity possibly wrapping up during this PPV and the following set of TV tapings to set up her return back to WWE. While I haven't seen anything official in terms of reports to these claims, I couldn't shake the feeling out of the back of my head. Despite the circumstances of how her and Sasha Banks/Mercedes Mone left WWE, a lot of things have changed since then. CM Punk (who was one of their biggest supporters for their walkout) is back in the company. Vince McMahon is all but completely checked out in terms of control of the current product. Triple H is firmly in control of the creative direction of the company following their merger/acquisition by TKO. Last but not least, Trinity's husband is still there and in a prominent role over the past few years, thanks to his role in the highly acclaimed Bloodline storyline. I'm sure she would love to go back and be able to share in that spotlight and momentum that he has going on right now. 

Let's not sell Jordynne Grace short either. The woman physically looks like a beast and is shredded in the best shape of her life. All of those physical improvements haven't taken away from her in-ring game in the least. If anything, it's complimented and enhanced it. Grace definitely lives up to her "Juggernaut" namesake as she effortlessly tosses these Knockouts around the ring and positions them where she wants them with ease. 

Update: (1/22/2024) As of this posting, Trinity has wrapped up with her time with TNA Wrestling after performing on the following weekend's TV tapings in Orlando, Florida where she took the time to show her appreciation to the fans and the company as a whole for her entire tenure in company over the past year. 

I think we can all guarantee that she's a lock for being a surprise entrant/return for the Women's Royal Rumble match this month. 

Ash by Elegance Makes Her TNA Debut

It's easy to take one look at the former Dana Brooke and think of Ashley Sebera's new gimmick that she debuted on this show as a rip off of what "Timeless" Toni Storm is doing over in AEW. She hasn't even shown us what the gimmick is supposed to be and there's a laundry list of complaints about it. It seems like it's going to be what WWE wanted "Emmalina" to be before they got cold feet about it - at least that was the impression I got from the vignette they aired on IMPACT the following week.