TNA iMPACT! Review - January 23, 2025

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Santino Marella Revealed Matt Cardona as TNA World Champion Joe Hendry's First Challenger

Hendry kept his championship celebration short and sweet and that's totally fine. He set the tone for his title reign and I like that we didn't have to wait long to find out from Marella who Hendry would have his first title defense against in the night's main event. Cardona hasn't been gone from TNA very long (I believe his last match was at Bound for Glory in October), but his return was a cool moment, nonetheless.

Rosemary and Ash and Heather by Elegance def. TNA Knockouts World Tag Team Champions Spitfire and TNA Knockouts World Champion Masha Slamovich

This was a logical way of following up on the two women's title matches from Genesis. The match didn't get a ton of time, but it was good while it lasted. Much like she did at Genesis, Cora Jade showed up to confront Slamovich, this time distracting her from ringside and costing her the win. I assume this also leads to Ash and Heather by Elegance getting another opportunity at the TNA Knockouts World Tag Team Championship.

Eric Young Saved Josh Alexander from Judas Icarus and Travis Williams

I would've been totally fine with Alexander's "I Quit" loss to Mike Santana at Genesis being his actual swan song, but I understand him probably wanting to put over the rest of The Northern Armory on the way out. That said, do fans care enough about them for this betrayal to matter? I'd argue no. Young and Alexander have history, so Young making the save for Alexander made sense, but I don't think the fans will want to cheer for Alexander on the way out. Alexander and Young will face Icarus and Williams in a tag team match next week.

TNA World Tag Team Champions The Hardys def. The System (TNA X-Division Champion Moose and JDC) (Non-Title)

The Hardys feuded with The System for almost all of 2024, so I'm not sure why the rivalry had to be revisited here since they haven't interacted at all lately. Granted, it was Moose and JDC and not Eddie Edwards and Brian Myers (who The Hardys won the titles from), but I still don't know what purpose this was supposed to serve unless Jeff is going to challenge for the TNA X-Division Championship after pinning Moose here. Nonetheless, it was a quality contest and the crowd was super behind The Hardys throughout.

Mance Warner Attacked Sami Callihan

Well, this went over like a fart in church. The number "23" has appeared on iMPACT! a few times over the last month or so, usually during a segment involving Callihan and PCO. That led me to believe Callihan would be revealed as the one behind it and he'd attack PCO, but obviously, PCO's no longer with TNA, so even if that was the plan, that's not happening now. Instead, TNA went with the debuting Warner, who the crowd clearly didn't know because they sat on their hands when he attacked Callihan. I guess Steph De Lander is the new TNA Digital Media Champion, too? Why not retire that title when they had the chance? This whole thing was a mess.

NXT Tag Team Champions Nathan Frazer and Axiom def. The Rascalz

Needless to say, it was surreal to see a WWE title defended on TNA TV for the first time, and hopefully it won't be the last time. In case you forgot, The Rascalz became number one contenders to the NXT Tag Team Championship back in September but never got their shot due to Trey Miguel not being cleared to compete at the time, so I love that we finally got it. This was very enjoyable for the time allotted, but I wish it lasted longer. Wes Lee betrayed The Rascalz over the summer, so him costing them the titles was well done. We don't really need him feuding with them again, but I imagine this will set up The Rascalz vs. Tyriek Igwe and Tyson Dupont.

Mike Santana and Mustafa Ali Announced Their Intentions to Win the TNA World Championship

Santana setting his sights on the TNA World Championship following his feud with Alexander was expected, but what I didn't expect was Ali coming out and announcing that he's signed with TNA. His run with TNA last year was terrific but was too short, so it's wonderful that he'll be sticking around this time and entering the World title mix. Until then, though, sign me up for Ali vs. Santana.

Tessa Blanchard Addressed the Audience

Blanchard proved herself as still being an excellent wrestler in that match with Jordynne Grace at Genesis, and she did the same here with her mic work. It was actually one of the better promos I've heard any of the Knockouts cut in some time, at least in terms of her delivery. She did an effective job explaining how she runs the division now while also running down the audience. The key with Blanchard will be for her to be on her best behavior in order to maintain this push she's getting, though I do think a publicly apology for/address of everything she's been accused of over the years would help her cause considerably.

TNA World Champion Joe Hendry def. Matt Cardona

Although I didn't think Hendry would lose the title so soon after winning it (especially to Cardona), they did create some suspense down the stretch with some of the nearfalls and Bradshaw showing up. Speaking of which, can we get some clarity on what his involvement is in all of this? It's been months and there's been very little development. At any rate, this was an entertaining main event. I'm curious if Hendry resumes his rivalry with Nic Nemeth or if they go in different directions for now.

Overall Show

This was the first live edition of iMPACT! in seven or eight years and it had one of the hottest crowds iMPACT! has had in several years as well. The packed house looked great on television, too. For TNA's sake, I really hope they can continue riding this wave of momentum and doing big business (by their standards). They packed quite a bit into these two hours, but it made for a fun, exciting episode where you didn't know what would happen or who would show up. I'm really looking forward to the next live iMPACT! at Full Sail University (the former home of NXT) in February.

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