TNA Thursday Night iMPACT! Review - August 27, 2026

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Leon Slater and Ricky Sosa Interrupted TNA World Tag Team Champions The Nemeths

Kicking off the show with the new TNA World Tag Team champs made sense, and I liked that it was the new duo of Slater and Sosa that interrupted them. I also appreciated how Slater and Sosa pointed out that they were undefeated as a tandem coming into this episode and how that was enough to earn them a title shot. This was a simple segment to set up the tag title main event. On a side note, Slater isn't recognized as the TNA X-Division Champion because he immediately relinquished it upon invoking Option C at Lockdown (even though he isn't getting his TNA World Championship shot until Bound for Glory).

Elijah def. Bear Bronson

The best thing I can say about this is that it appears Elijah's rivalry with A.J. Francis is finally over, or at least it looks that way. Does this mean Elijah is going to be feuding with The System going forward? Uh, sure, I guess. There really wasn't much to this match, and I'm not a fan of Bronson losing so quickly and decisively to Elijah, but it did Elijah a rebound victory after losing at Lockdown.

Trey Miguel and Jason Hotch def. Order 4 (John Skyler and Special Agent 0)

It was established earlier that Skyler would be in charge of Order 4 for the night in the absence of Mustafa Ali. Hotch must not be done with Order 4 despite losing the TNA International Championship back to Ali at Lockdown, which is fine because it's been the most interesting thing in TNA lately. This was a nice, well-paced tag team bout with the babyfaces going over. We heard from Ali on the big screen (from a hospital bed) afterward.

M by Elegance def. Jada Stone in the Finals of the TNA Knockouts Television Championship Tournament to Become the Inaugural TNA Knockouts Television Championship

I was stunned M made it this far. I'm even more stunned she ended up winning the entire tournament. Nothing against her, as she seems to be adequate in the ring and is a work in progress, but there were plenty of other women who would have been better off as the inaugural champ, including her opponent Stone. Nonetheless, they had a good match. We'll see if they can actually capitalize on M as a singles star (despite The Elegance Brand being super overexposed and over-pushed).

Zoey Serrano Attacked Indi Hartwell

Hartwell has been overlooked for some time now in TNA, so I'm glad she's now going to be involved in something significant with Daria Rae and the former Zoey Stark. Ideally, this should lead to her challenging for (and winning) the TNA Knockouts World Championship, but I'd be surprised if they rushed through Hartwell vs. Serrano over the next month before Bound for Glory in October. Regardless, this was a successful debut for Serrano, who is an excellent addition to the Knockouts division.

TNA World Tag Team Champions The Nemeths def. Ricky Sosa and Leon Slater

I have no idea why The Nemeths need the TNA World Tag Team Championship going into Bound for Glory while Nic Nemeth is already the TNA World Champion, but this was a logical match to do with him against Slater set for the Bound for Glory main event. The action was entertaining and the babyface duo gave the heels a hell of a fight before falling short. I'm curious what the rest of the build for Nemeth vs. Slater will consist of since Bound for Glory isn't until mid-October.

Overall Show

This was a quality post-pay-per-view edition of Lockdown. Some stuff was followed up on, but more importantly, the build for Bound for Glory is officially underway. It helps that the main event is set in stone and everything else will have to fall into place over the next month and a half. The first TNA Knockouts Television Champion being crowned and Serrano's debut were notable and the rest of the show was solid.

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