TNA Impact live results: Champions Challenge, Edwards vs. Aichner
TNA Wrestling is back on AMC tonight.
This week’s episode was taped earlier this month at the Sacramento Memorial Auditorium in Sacramento, California.
Advertised for the show is a Champions Challenge match. The current male champions will face an all-star team, with Mike Santana, Mustafa Ali, Brian Myers, Cedric Alexander, and Bear Bronson against Leon Slater, Eric Young, KC Navarro, Elijah, and Frankie Kazarian.
Eddie Edwards will wrestle Fabian Aichner in singles competition.
The Director of Authority Santino Marella will take on his daughter’s partner Channing “Stacks” Lorenzo, with Arianna Grace in Stacks’ corner.
Tessa Blanchard will wrestle Harley Hudson in singles competition as well.
The lineup is below:
- Champions Challenge: Mike Santana, Mustafa Ali, Brian Myers, Cedric Alexander & Bear Bronson vs. Leon Slater, Eric Young, KC Navarro, Elijah & Frankie Kazarian
- Eddie Edwards vs. Fabian Aichner
- Santino Marella vs. Channing “Stacks” Lorenzo
- Tessa Blanchard vs. Harley Hudson
Our live coverage kicks off at 9 p.m. Eastern.
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And kick off it shall, so strap in because this Action is going to be so Total you’re going to feel like it’s Non-stop!
Men’s Champions Challenge Match: Mike Santana, Mustafa Ali, Brian Myers, Cedric Alexander & Bear Bronson vs. Leon Slater, Eric Young, KC Navarro, Elijah & Frankie Kazarian
A Champion’s Challenge match seems like a pretty good way to do that!
For those not in the know, the Champions Challenge is a match that pits all current TNA Champions against an “All-Star” team of challengers. So in this case, it’s 10-Man tag match. If an “All-Star” pins a champion, they get a shot at that title. Speaking of titles, here’s who holds the gold in TNA:
TNA World Champion: Mike Santana
TNA International Champion: Mustafa Ali
TNA World Tag Team Champions: The System (Bear Bronson & Brian Myers)
TNA X-Division Champion: Cedric Alexander (also of The System)
The challengers didn’t get a televised entrance, but the champions did and it ate up about 10 minutes of TV time. When things got underway, Elijah faced off against Myers. He went old school and walked the ropes to take Meyers down to the mat. That is literally everything that happened in the ring before the first commercial break.
When we came back, Meyers had been replaced by Santana and they took turns missing moves on each other, leading to a respectful staredown.
Eric Young decided he had had enough and he stepped into the ring and punched out Santana. Kazarian tagged in off of Elijah and ate a dropkick from Santana. Kazarian tagged in Elijah and we were back to square one until Ali grabbed a bind tag and the speed picked up.
Elijah caught Ali with a pop up powerbomb, but Alexander broke up the cover. That started a brawl as everyone entered the ring and started throwing hands. Elijah hit a chokeslame on Ali on the ring apron (the challengingest part of the ring!) and Slater hit the champions field with a flipping dive over the ring post.
Back from a commercial break, things had settled down (I guess they didn’t want to bore us with the results of the brawl) and Bronson and Elijah were throwing hands. Alexander and Meyers joined him for a triple team, but Elias evaded it.
Ali and Santana both reached for tags, so Santana knocked Ali off the apron and took it for himself. HJe took on Kazarian and Young (not sure which, if either, was legal) and threw them to the outside so he could dive on Young.
Santana went for a double stomp on Kazarian, but Kazarian had moved. Ali grabbed a blind tag and he and Santana got in each other’s faces. Navarro took them both down with a double dropkick from the ring post and then 619’ed Ali, followed by a DDT. Ali kicked out at two though.
Ali tagged in Bronson who beat up on Navarro for a few minutes before lifting him up in a military press and dropping him in the middle of the ring. Ali tagged himself in and Narvarro got one to Slater who nailed Ali with a spin kick.
Things started breaking down again with people going in and out of the ring and dumping opponents to the outside. Ali and Slater stayed in the ring and Slater hit a swanton 450, but Alicia Edwards put Ali’s leg on the ropes to break the pin attempt.
Ali grabbed the International Title belt, but the ref grabbit away from him. Navarro hit a Blessing in Disguise and pinned Ali to win the match and gain an International Title shot.
Match Result: KC Navarro pinned Mustafa Ali to win the match and an International Title shot
-Backstage, Ariana Grace and Stacks were interviewed. Grace said she was a more worthy Knockouts Champion than Lei Ying Lee. Stacks said he was going to send Santino and his smelly sock puppet to the retirement home.
-Back from commercial we heard some words from the Righteous. They challenged the Broken Hardys to come to the “Wicked Garden,” whatever that is. The commentary team didn’t seem to know, so we all collectively decided to move on to:
Tessa Blanchard vs Harley Hudson
Hudson tried to steal one with a quick rollup, but Blanchard countered and charged her. Hudson stopped her with a shoulder block and then a big boot. Hudson slipped out of the ring and pulled Blanchard under the ropes to drop a leg on her.
Blanchard then dropkicked Hudson to the outside and then drove ler left knee into the floor. Tossing Hudson back into the ring, Blanchard went back to working the knee, twisting it around the ropes and stomping it.
Blanchard tied up Hudson in an inverted nelson hold and then went back to pounding on her knee. Blanchard put on a modified figure four and twisted the knee even more. Hudson punched her way free and Blanchard lost her cool and they two started throwing hands.
Hudson hit a fallaway slam, but the damage to her knee was apparent. She hit a hip attack in the corner, but Blanchard kicked out of the cover with a scream. Hudson set her up on the top turnbuckle, but Blanchard powered back.
Blanchard hit double knees out of the corner, but Hudson wouldn’t stay down. Hudson countered a suplex into a neckbreaker and set up Blanchard in the corner. Blanchard came out of it though and hit a Buzzsaw DDT to get the pin.
Match Result: Tessa Blanchard defeated Harley Hudson
-Back from break, the Somallier of the Elegance Brand told Knockouts Champion Lei Ying Lee that she better not screw up their match tonight.
Direct of Authority Santino Marella vs Stacks w/ Ariana Grace
They locked up off the bell with Santino sending Stacks to the outside to collect himself. Back in the ring Stacks went for a kick but Santino grabbed his foot and worked him over into a pin attempt.
Santino went to the technical, forcing Stacks to used a rope break to get out of an arm hold. Stacks threw Santino into the corner, but fell victim to an arm drag off the rebound. Santino threw some jabs and then went for a splash, but Stacks got his knees up.
Santino asked for a time out to recover, but no dice as Stacks whipped him into the ropes. Stacks hit some punches and a high knee to the gut for a two count. Stacks then went for a splash, but this time Santino got the knees up.
Santino fired up and threw Stacks to the corner for a driving shoulder. He pulled out the cobra, but Grace jumped up and grabbed it from him. That let Stacks get a quick pin and win the match.
Match Result: Stacks defeated Santino Marella
After the match, Grace yelled at her father and Stacks attacked him. That brought out Indi Hartwell, who ran them off then grabbed a mic and challenged them to a mixed tag match, right here, right now. That summoned Daria Rae who reminded everyone that they don’t make matches, she does. She said that the match would happen next week because she’d love to see Stacks beat up Santino again.
-Backstage AJ Francis was shown demanding paperwork from someone. That someone said they’d have it tomorrow and AJ said Money, Money, Money and that was it.
Fabian Aichner vs Eddie Edwards w/ Alicia Edwards
Edwards arrived representing The System and based on Aichner’s intro, I assume he’s a Coldplay fan.
As the bell rang and I realized the Aichner wasn’t actually Lars Sullivan, Edwards sent him to the corner. Aichner gabbed a headlock and then trew a crossbody off the ropes. He send Edwards to the outside and then missed with a baseball slide.
Edwards went for a kick, but Aichner caught it and responded with a lariat. Getting back into the ring, Edwards shot Aichner into the ropes and then dropped a knee on his chest. Edwards chopped him in the corner and then whipped him off the turnbuckle.
Aichner fought back with a big boot into a spinning backbreaker. He suplexed Edwards and went for a cover, but Edwards kicked out. Aichner went for a powerbomb, but Edwards countered and drove him into the corner.
Edwards hit a backpack stunner, but Aichner kicked out at two. Alicia got involved, choking Aichner on the bottom rope. Edwards sent him to the outside and Alicia waved a kendo stick at him. The Ref saw it though and ejected her from ringside.
Edwards tossed Aichner back into the ring and went up top. Aichner scrambled up and grabbed him in a butterfly superplex. Edwards kicked out of the cover at two though.
The System (Meyers, Bronson and Alexander) came down to the ring to take Ariana’s place and Aichner dove over the ropes to take them out. He got back in and hit a DDT and then put Edwards in a choke hold. The rest of The System dove in to make the save and the match was ended in a DQ.
Match Result: Fabian Aichner defeated Eddie Edwards via DQ
After the match, Alexander hit a Lumbar Check on Aichner. The System then posed over a beaten Aichner.
Knockouts Champions Challenge Match: Lei Ying Lee & The Elegance Brand (Heather By Elegance & M By Elegance) vs Mara Sade, Xia Brookside and Elayna Black
So Lee is the current Knockouts Champion and the Elegance Brand hold the Knockouts Tag Titles. That’s it for the Women’s titles in TNA, so this would be essentially a trios match. The same rule as the Men’s match stands though in that if an “All Star” pins a champion, they earn a shot at that title. I’d like to point out that at not point before show time did TNA let us know who the All Star side of this match was.
Any way, Lee and Brookside started things off, but Brookside immediately tagged out and Black took her place. Black then decided she wanted nothing to do with Lee and Sade tagged in. She and Lee locked up with Sade going for a rollup, but Lee having none of it.
M tagged in just in time to take a sling blade from Sade. She bounced back and tagged in Heather who sent Sade into Black, causing a tag. Black and Heather fought with Black dropkicking Heather in the face. She drop toed Heather into the ropes and Brookside tagged in to deliver some running knees.
Brookside stomped a very elegant mudhole in Heather in the corner, but Heather countered with a dropkick and tagged in M who went coast to coast with a dropkick of her own. She went for a cover, but it was broken up by Sade and everyone started brawling.
Back from a break everything had gone back to normal and Sade and Heather were fighting in the ring. Sade dropped some wicked knees but Heather kicked out, Sade scoop slammed her then went up top, but M pulled her off the turnbuckle and Heather hit a lungblower.
M tagged in officially and they double teamed Sade. M it a senton, but Sade kicked out of the cover. Sade started a comeback, but M and Heather worked as a unit to keep her on her heels. The Elegance Brand refused to let Lee tag in and instead switched in and out to beat up on Sade.
Sade got a crossbody in, and Lee started jumping up and down for a tag. Brookside got a tag and Lee finally got into the match to face her. Black tried to help, but Lee kicked her in the head and started punching Brookside in the corner.
Lee hit an exploder suplex, but Brookside kicked out. Lee put her in the Warriors Way and connected, but Black broke up the pin. The Elegance Brand took her out and Sade then took them out. Lee and Sade were left and ran into eachother with a double clothesline.
Mr Elegance tried to help, but Kieth Jardine showed up and took him down with an ankle lock. In the ring, Lee fell victim to the damn nuumbers game and Brookside was able to pin her in the middle of the ring.
Match Result: Xia Brookside pinned Lei Ying Lee to win the match and earn a Knockouts Title shot.
Jeff Moss is a writer, creator and developer in animation, comics and pretty much anything else he can get his mitts on. Pro Wrestling has always been his passion for reasons even he doesn't understand.