TNA iMPACT! Review - September 4, 2025

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Santino Marella Announced TNA World Champion Trick Williams vs. Mike Santana at Bound for Glory

Marella confirmed what we all expected he would at the end of last week's iMPACT!, but as I assumed, they probably wanted to save it for this show so they could end last week's episode on a cliffhanger. Nonetheless, at least Williams vs. Santana is now official for Bound for Glory. Santana showed up and cut a good promo vowing to win the title this time. Hopefully we get more back-and-forth between him and Williams on the mic in the leadup to the pay-per-view.

Frankie Kazarian def. Matt Cardona

Kazarian recently beat Jake Something and now he owns a win over Cardona, which makes sense if he's headed for a shot at Steve Maclin's TNA International Championship as he established afterward. Ryan Nemeth costing Cardona the win makes me think we might get The Nemeths vs. Cardona and Brian Myers soon. Kazarian vs. Cardona was a quality contest for the time it was allotted.

The IInspiration Saved Masha Slamovich, Xia Brookside and Lei Ying Lee from TNA Knockouts World Tag Team Champions The Elegance Brand During The Elegance Brand Knockouts World Title Celebration

I'm still not over the moon over Ash by Elegace being the new TNA Knockouts World Champion, but we'll see how she does in the role. This was a fairly standard celebration and the babyfaces crashing the segment furthered a few different stories with Slamovich facing Ash for the title at Victory Road and The IInspiration gunning for The Elegance Brand's TNA Knockouts World Tag Team Championship.

Indi Hartwell def. Jody Threat and Dani Luna in a TNA Knockouts World Championship No. 1 Contender's Three-Way Match

Although I thought Luna's heel turn was really well executed, I was worried she might win this, which would have been the wrong call. Hartwell was always the correct choice to challenge for the title at Bound for Glory, but Ash by Elegance being the champion she's chasing isn't all that appealing. The match itself was decent albeit underwhelming. Luna laying out both women afterward indicates we'll be getting her against Threat at Bound for Glory and maybe even her against Hartwell at Victory Road before then.

Eric Young Interrupted Joe Hendry

Young keeps talking about a "cleanse" and there's been zero indication of what that's supposed to mean. I guess we'll soon find out and whether it'll be as big of a deal as he's making it out to be. At any rate, this was a perfectly fine segment to set up their match for next week. I'm surprised they're not saving it for Victory Road, but I'm not necessarily complaining.

TNA World Tag Team Champions The Hardys and Mara Sade def. Order 4 (The Great Hands and Tasha Steelz)

Sade playing the Lita role while teaming with The Hardys was pretty cool. She's already been infinitely more interesting in TNA than she was as the fourth, silent member of The Meta-Four in NXT and she's adapted to the Knockouts division rather quickly. This was an entertaining outing with the right result. The Nemeths attacked The Hardys and Sade afterward. I don't now if it was officially announced, but their rematch for the TNA World Tag Team Championship looks likely for Victory Road.

Overall Show

None of the matches on the show were barn burners this week, but the action was serviceable and storylines were furthered heading into Victory Road as well as Bound for Glory. It was the usual average yet enjoyable effort on the whole, but the episode gets bonus points for being live as that tends to make a difference as far as the crowd energy is concerned.

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