TNA iMPACT! Review - January 1, 2026

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

The Elegance Brand (Heather and M by Elegance) def. Angel Warriors

I don't believe this was officially billed as a number one contender's match for the TNA Knockouts World Tag Team Championship, but it's safe to assume it was implied that the winners would be getting the next shot since The IInspiration were shown watching from backstage. The match was decent, but the focus was more so on Dani Luna going after Xia Li, which will likely lead to them facing each other for the TNA Knockouts World Championship at Genesis.

Mustafa Ali def. The Home Town Man

Home Town Man is perfect for this sort of role, and it's worth noting he's actually won his fair share of matches since starting this gimmick last year. That said, this match was all about Ali and giving him a win, so I had no issue with it being kept on the shorter side. Order 4 attempted to continue attacking Elijah afterward, only for Elijah to make the save. Ali and Elijah will face off at Genesis, so this served as basic build for that.

Arianna Grace Explained Her Actions

TNA desperately wants its top angle right now to be Grace betraying her father Santino Marella and getting mega heat for it. She did definitely get booed here, but I'm not sure how long that heat will last. Pushing her and Channing Lorenzo as a power couple in TNA is one thing, but i fail to understand why the NXT undercard competitors are still around. Their presence in this segment was pointless, but the promo itself from Grace was fine.

Mila Moore, Victoria Crawford and Tessa Blanchard def. Jada Stone, Jody Threat and Indi Hartwell

Moore, Crawford and Blanchard getting a live music entrance was, uh, interesting. I'm not even saying it was terrible. It was just odd for a random edition of iMPACT!. Speaking of random, this six-woman tag team match was exactly that. This was well worked, but it probably lasted a little longer than it needed to. Hartwell really has fallen with all of these losses, hasn't she?

TNA World Tag Team Champions The Hardys Interrupted The Righteous

We've gotten a lot of talking from The Hardys and The Righteous since this storyline started, and honestly, I don't hate that. TNA could benefit from focusing more on the storyline side of things and it makes sense for this feud specifically. The Righteous aren't clicking quite yet, but I'm still a fan of theirs and look forward to them challenging The Hardys soon. Why not give them a quick squash win before then?

Myron Reed def. Zachary Wentz and Trey Miguel in a TNA X-Division Championship No. 1 Contender's Three-Way Match

I remember we got a Rascalz three-way or four-way at some other point within the last year and this was rather similar to that one. The action was enjoyable and the outcome was genuinely unpredictable. That said, I would've preferred to se Wentz or Miguel win since we already saw Reed unsuccessfully challenge Leon Slater for the X-Division title back at Victory Road in September. I won't complain about getting another awesome match between them, though.

The System Challenged TNA X-Division Champion Leon Slater, Cedric Alexander and TNA World Tag Team Champions The Hardys

With JDC wrestling his retirement match at Genesis, The System wanted to have one final match together on next week's iMPACT!, so they threw out the challenge to Slater, Alexander and The Hardys, all of whom teamed together at one point or another in 2025. That sounds like a damn fun matchup on paper, so this segment existed to set that up and I'm glad it was brief.

TNA World Champion Frankie Kazarian def. Bear Bronson

I'm baffled that TNA didn't do more to build up Bronson ahead of time as a legitimate threat to Kazarian and the TNA World Championship. I get that he won a number one contender's Battle Royal a few weeks ago, but were there video packages profiling who he is and I just so happened to miss them? The last time this dude was on a prominent stage in wrestling, he was booked like a total joke in Iron Savages in AEW. Hopefully his strong showing here turned some heads and convinced viewers he has potential. It was a quality main event despite the outcome never being in doubt. Post-match, Mike Santana made it official that he and Kazarian will meet one-on-one for the TNA World Championship not at Genesis but rather on the AMC premiere episode in two weeks.

Overall Show

Good on TNA for not only airing an original edition of iMPACT! on New Year's Day but also headlining it with a TNA World Championship main event. Granted, it was far from a marquee match, but I appreciate the attempt to do something significant. The rest of the show was a bit thrown-together, but it was largely solid. Making that AMC premiere as big as possible should be the goal right now, and there's still more that needs to be done to ensure that's the case.

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