TNA iMPACT! Review - April 10, 2025

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Santino Marella Interrupted Ethan Page and Frankie Kazarian

It was cool to see Page start the show after ending last week's episode. He briefly talked about his history in the promotion and how he's beaten Joe Hendry before before Kazarian interrupted to do his usual shtick as well. They had a fine verbal exchange, but it only existed so Marella could come out to hype Hendry's announcement regarding the Rebellion match at the end of the night.

Ace Austin def. Mustafa Ali by Disqualification

I was looking forward to this match knowing that it had the potential to be great, but unfortunately, it was cut short by the disqualification finish. What we got was good yet way too short. The post-match attack on Austin along with Mike Santana making the save (before basically abducting John Skyler in the car when Ali attempted to flee the arena) were well done. On a side note, it'd be nice for Austin to find some consistent direction instead of being used as a utility guy in various feuds.

TNA X-Division Champion Moose def. Cody Deaner

I really liked how this was executed. Moose vs. Deaner in non-title action was already advertised, but because The System didn't believe in Deaner whatsoever, they agreed to give him an impromptu opportunity at the TNA X-Division Championship if he could outlast Moose in a two-minute match, which he did (largely because Moose didn't put him away when he had the chance). The crowd was really hot for Deaner, even though he never stood an actual chance of taking the title. Once it turned into a title matchup, Moose won almost immediately.

The System (Brian Myers and JDC) def. The Rascalz

The Rascalz saved Deaner from The System before they could do any damage, so that served as a seamless segue into this match. Myers usually teams with Eddie Edwards, but this was an enjoyable outing, nonetheless. The story was that everyone in The System needed to prove themselves, so Myers and JDC needed to win here to create more drama for Edwards' matchup against Steve Maclin later on.

A.J. Francis def. Sami Callihan and Mance Warner in a TNA International Championship Tournament First-Round Three-Way Match

It was announced that the winner of this match will face the two winners of next week's three-ways at Unbreakable in the finals on that same show to crown the inaugural TNA International Champion. That's a lot of three-ways, but I appreciate that they want to honor the greatest three-way in TNA history (AJ Styles vs. Samoa Joe vs. Christopher Daniels) from Unbreakable 2005. Callihan and Warner are still feuding, so it wasn't surprising that they took advantage of the lack of disqualifications here. This was fun and chaotic from start to finish. We subsequently found out that it will be Callihan vs. Warner in Barbed Wire Massacre at Rebellion.

Leon Slater def. Ryan Nemeth

Slater is an established ally of The Hardys and Ryan has been feuding with them since Sacrifice, so this was a logical match to do. I lose interest in most things involving Ryan, but this ended up being short and sweet. Slater losing Ryan would've been ridiculous, so I'm glad Slater went over (even if it was with an assist from The Hardys). Nic not making an appearance to help out his brother was strange, though.

Eddie Edwards def. Steve Maclin

I figured there was a small chance Edwards would lose considering he was the one who called out the rest of the group a few weeks ago, so the outcome wasn't totally obvious. They had the quality contest you'd expect from them. Not only did The System reassert their dominance with Edwards winning, The Northern Armory throwing a mask to Maclin afterward also furthered that story.

Frankie Kazarian Interrupted TNA World Champion Joe Hendry

Hendry revealed he sustained a serious rotator cuff injury in that backstage attack a few weeks ago but that he's going to defend at Rebellion, anyway. That's in addition to teaming with Masha Slamovich to take on Kazarian and Tessa Blanchard in a mixed tag team match at Unbreakable. I have to imagine that Hendry's "injury" is a work because how the hell could he cleared for both of those matches if it was real? This segment was what it needed to be, but the injury stuff feels forced. Perhaps they want to make the Rebellion main event less predictable.

Overall Show

I assumed we weren't getting an episode of iMPACT! next Thursday night with the Unbreakable event airing at 10 p.m. ET, but apparently that's not the case and there will be an episode. That seems unnecessary, but oh well. As for this show, it was solid and did its job in building toward both Unbreakable and Rebellion. The System's story was the focal point of the night and the TNA World Championship picture also took center stage, but I had no issue with either of those things, so this was a thumbs-up effort in my eyes.

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