TNA Rebellion Review - April 20, 2024

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Pre-Show: Leon Slater and ABC def. The Rascalz (Trey Miguel, Zachary Wentz and Myron Reed)

Although this was a random match with no storyline significance, I'm glad ABC and The Rascalz made the pay-per-view card in some capacity (on 4/20, no less) and it was cool to see Reed back with The Rascalz. What's stopping TNA from signing him full-time? Slater is an impressive prospect in his own right and it's an encouraging sign that he picked up the win for his team. This was fun and perfectly positioned on the pre-show.

Pre-Show: Laredo Kid def. Crazzy Steve to Win the TNA Digital Media Championship

This was a rematch from a recent edition of iMPACT!. They could have built up the feud a bit more and just saved their first encounter for this show. They had a well-worked match, but the finish came out of nowhere. Laredo is obviously talented, but Steve was doing really well in the role of champ and it felt too soon to take the title off of him. The championship doesn't mean much anyway, but I wasn't a fan of the outcome.

Pre-Show: TNA Knockouts World Tag Team Champions Spitfire def. Decay

The women's tag team title picture has been revolving around the same three teams for months and the matches have hardly been interesting. It might be time to do what WWE NXT recently announced and dump the tag titles for a women's midcard title. This was decent, but there was nothing out of the ordinary about it. Killer Kelly is gone for right now, so Alisha Edwards will apparently be Masha Slamovich's new tag team partner going forward (as revealed afterward).

Pre-Show: Cody Deaner Attacked TNA X-Division Champion Mustafa Ali's Protesters

On a pre-show that already had three matches (I assume it was an hour because this was a pay-per-view compared to the 30-minute pre-shows that the monthly specials usually have), I don't know that this segment was necessary. It established that Ali has "protesters" as part of his new gimmick, so there was that. At least this was kept short and segued seamlessly into the TNA X-Division Championship match kicking off the main card.

TNA X-Division Champion Mustafa Ali def. Jake Something

​Ali has been excellent since coming into TNA and this was another top-notch match from him. Of course, credit goes to Something as well, who had a strong showing and looked credible in defeat. Ali's character does a lot of cheating, so it will be interesting to see if he moves onto the next challenger after this or if the dirty finish means that there are more matches to come between them.

Rich Swann def. Joe Hendry

This was an average outing, but both guys are very good and are capable of better. Swann just joined forces with A.J. Francis as First Class, so he needed this win more than Hendry did. I just wasn't expecting former NFL star Shawne Merriman to get involved and aid Swann to victory. The explanation will presumably be that he and Francis have the football connection. I doubt he'll be part of the act going forward as this was likely TNA looking to get a "mainstream" moment.

Frankie Kazarian def. Eric Young in a Full Metal Mayhem Match

Being the seasoned veterans that Kazarian and Young are, it was no surprise that this was an enjoyable brawl. They made the most of the stipulation and it felt like a worthy blow-off to their rivalry. Kazarian winning was the right call, but unfortunately, the finish through the table was botched and it looked terrible. Hopefully Young is okay as he immediately started bleeding from the head.

Mike Santana def. Steve Maclin

Maclin showed up unannounced and acknowledged that he received a contract offer from TNA earlier in the day. I guess that means he'll be sticking around, but I'm not sure if that's been confirmed. Santino Marella booked an impromptu match between him and Santana, the newest member of the TNA roster. He's been expected to pop up in TNA for a while and it's a logical landing spot for him. This was a quality contest and an effective reintroduction for Santana.

TNA World Tag Team Champions The System (Eddie Edwards and Brian Myers) def. Speedball Mountain

Edwards and Myers have gelled into a terrific team. Every match they've had so far this year has been top-notch and this no exception. It was too soon to take the titles off The System (who just won them at Sacrifice), but Trent Seven and Mike Bailey had a hell of a showing and have also found great chemistry as a team. They kept things moving here as it was all action from start to finish. 

Josh Alexander def. Hammerstone in a Last Man Standing Match

Doing a Full Metal Mayhem match and a Last Man Standing match on the same show was definitely risky, but this was different enough to where it didn't feel like TNA went overboard with the gimmick matches. Of the two, I preferred Kazarian vs. Young as there too were many dull points during this matchup, a common issue with the Last Man Standing stipulation. Despite that, they put forth a commendable effort. I'm looking forward to seeing where both guys go from here now that Alexander has given Hammerstone his comeuppance.

TNA Knockouts World Champion Jordynne Grace def. Steph De Lander

Matt Cardona recently underwent surgery, so he wasn't at ringside, but there were tons of shenanigans regardless with The Good Hands, PCO, Kon and the returning Sami Callihan. Basically, it was completely overbooked and I have no idea why. This was a solid match up until all that stuff started happening. Why are PCO and Kon still going at it? Why would Callihan get involved? Did they not want to beat De Lander clean so they could set up a rematch?

TNA World Champion Moose def. Nic Nemeth; "Broken" Matt Hardy Returned

I've liked a lot of what we've seen from Nemeth so far in TNA, both in the ring and on the mic, but this was an underwhelming main event. For whatever reason, he and Moose were not on the same page and did not click, so the match never reached that next gear. I'm actually happy Moose retained because it would have been premature to put the belt on Nemeth so soon. Hardy coming back afterward with his Broken persona was a genuine shocker and I'll probably be in the minority of people who loved it. Hardy isn't winning the title (nor should he), but this is a smart way for him to generate some buzz before he decides where he wants to go next, not to mention that TNA is where his Broken shtick worked best, anyway.

Overall Show

All in all, this was another entertaining event from TNA. Hard to Kill (their last offering on pay-per-view in January) was better, but the matches mostly delivered and the returns of Santana, Callihan and Hardy were newsworthy. TNA needs to build up new names eventually, though, and I'm not getting the sense that they are right now. That said, I was satisfied once Rebellion was over, even if the last two matches were disappointing.

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