TNA Emergence 2024
August 30, 2024
Old Forester’s Paristown Hall
Louisville, Kentucky
Watch: TNA+
TNA Wrestling heads back on the road this Friday (August 30) for their latest live special, Emergence. Held at the Old Foresters’ Paristown Hall in Louisville, Kentucky, the sold-out show will be main evented by a 60-minute Ironman match for the TNA World Championship between Nic Nemeth and Josh Alexander.
Countdown to Emergence
Frankie Kazarian vs. KUSHIDA
Having reached the final two of the six-man elimination main event at Slammiversary, Frankie Kazarian continues pursuing the TNA World Title. His latest attempt to gain a World Title shot saw him enter the qualifiers for Ultimate X, with a view to winning the title and activating Option C, just as he did in 2022. That bid failed, though, as he fell short in a three-way alongside Alexander Hammerstone and Kushida.
Kushida, meanwhile, has been spinning his wheels of late, beating Rich Swann and Jonathan Gresham in recent singles matches but without much of a push.
These two have only faced one-on-one once before, on a Honor Rising show eight years ago, although I suspect this time we’ll get a different outcome. While he’s at least tangentially pushing for the title, they should be keeping Kaz strong. Prediction: Frankie Kazarian
Steve Maclin vs. Eric Young
Even though they seemed to have him primed for a babyface turn that only I was excited about, Steve Maclin is back to being an intense, brooding heel. Nice work, Mr. Dreamer.
Maclin has been targeting Eric Young in recent weeks, calling him out in backstage segments and repeatedly saying that he’s ‘watching’ his matches. Young, meanwhile, has been on the losing end of a feud with Alexander Hammerstone after beating him at Slammiversary.
Maclin has more long-term direction out of these two, but with another live special in two weeks (Victory Road 2024), I can see Young going over here to set up a rematch. Prediction: Eric Young
PCO vs. Matt Cardona’s “Mystery Monster”
The previously announced PCO vs. Matt Cardona bout will no longer take place. Instead, PCO will face a “Mystery Monster” of Cardona’s choosing.
Man, Matt Cardona’s buzz has evaporated to a big old pile of nothing, hasn’t it?
Having been out of the promotion for 9 months, Cardona returned post-Slammiversary to crash the wedding of PCO and Steph De Lander (don’t ask). Since then, he’s claimed that De Lander is his (she’s been his valet in TNA and elsewhere) and he attacked PCO on his honeymoon with De Lander (seriously, don’t ask). De Lander, meanwhile, keeps making crying faces in knock-off SNL skits.
I’m not sure why I’ve explained all that – simply, it sucks. This match has got a giant swinging red sign hanging over it that says we’re getting a swivel the hips turn from De Lander, as she stabs PCO in the back and aligns herself back with Cardona. Prediction: Matt Cardona
Jordynne Grace & Spitfire (Jody Threat & Dani Luna) v Ash By Elegance & The Malisha (Masha Slamovich & Alisha Edwards)
As referenced earlier, with another live special just two weeks after this one, a couple of the matches on this show seem like simple set-ups for featured bouts on Victory Road. This is one of those.
Jordynne Grace has continued her feud with Ash By Elegance since Slammiversary but that seems to have run its course, particularly as Grace beat her on the go-home show. That leaves the teams feuding over the tag titles, with Spitfire desperate to get a rematch against the cheating heel champions The Malisha.
While the match probably won’t be anything special, it does represent simple, logical booking. The babyfaces go over, keeping the champion strong and setting up a tag title match in the process. Prediction: Jordynne Grace & Spitfire
Joe Hendry, Mike Santana & The Hardys vs. The System (Moose, Eddie Edwards, Brian Myers & JDC)
While the current booking regime runs counter to many of my personal preferences for professional wrestling, I will credit them with doing a pretty good job of keeping The System relevant after Moose, Eddie Edwards, and Brian Myers dropped their titles at Slammiversary.
They’ve had issues with all four men on the other side of this eight-man tag over recent months, with the most recent focus being between Moose and Mike Santana. Those two had a great singles match on a recent episode of TV, with Moose going over with one of the best spears he’s probably ever hit.
Regardless of the internal TNA stories at play here, the overarching narrative coming into this is that Joe Hendry is challenging for the NXT title two days later. With that in mind, and TNA presumably having bigger plans for him themselves, there’s no way that his team lose here. Prediction: Joe Hendry, Mike Santana & The Hardys
Six-way Ultimate X match for the TNA Wrestling X-Division Championship
Mike Bailey (C) vs. Riley Osborne v Laredo Kid vs. Zachary Wentz vs. Jason Hotch vs. Alexander Hammerstone
If I were a booker (perish the thought) and I’d just had a popular babyface end a lengthy reign of terror by a cheating champion, you’d think that I’d use the first live special after that title win as a spot to give him a good, workrate, placeholder title defense. You know, put the wrestling in that division back on the map without testing his reign too much.
Well, I’m not a booker.
The people who do have the pencil decided that the best follow-up to Mike Bailey beating Mustafa Ali was to book a six-man Ultimate X match with the added caveat that Bailey, who’d won the title just a week or so earlier, had to win a qualifier to participate. If he’d lost that match, he’d have had his title vacated. Baffling, truly baffling.
Booking gripes aside, this fairly eclectic lineup should deliver a fun match that will likely end up resembling every scramble or ladder match you’ve seen this year.
Riley Osborne is the token NXT representative but won’t win, nor will Laredo Kid – this promotion doesn’t push luchadors. Zachary Wentz has had a push of late, often winning falls in tag matches, but I can’t see him winning here, particularly as there could be angle with Wes Lee ahead of their match at NXT No Mercy. Jason Hotch is a good prospect but very low on the totem pole, while Alexander Hammerstone is there for the comedic value of him trying to climb the structure and, more seriously, to serve as a big base for dives and power offense. That leaves Mike Bailey, who should never have been in this spot to start with. Prediction: Mike Bailey
60-Minute Ironman match for the TNA World Championship
Nic Nemeth (C) vs. Josh Alexander
Having won the title at Slammiversary, pinning Josh Alexander along the way in the six-way elimination match, this will be Nic Nemeth’s third TNA World Championship title defense.
I have a suspicion it’ll be his last.
Josh Alexander turned heel in the Slammiversary main event; honestly, the story made complete logical sense. It was positioned as the company’s best wrestler and longest-reigning World Champion, boiling over at the fact that a meme wrestler with much less talent like Joe Hendry was more over than he’d ever been.
Alexander called out Nemeth for a title match on TV, saying he couldn’t beat him in a straight match, and they duly went to a 30-minute draw. Now, they run it back under 60-minute ironman rules.
While good, the production and the work in the opening few minutes of their TV match made it very obvious that it was going to a draw. Here, knowing it’s going long, will change the feeling and the vibe of the match.
I have no doubt that Josh Alexander can deliver in this stipulation. Even though I hate the notion that the promotion’s best technical wrestler is resorting to low blows (all heels have to go for the lowest hanging fruit, obviously), he’s gone long in the promotion before and been excellent doing so. Nic Nemeth is more of an unknown. He’s always prided himself on being a cardio king inside the ring and out (…) but he’s also in his mid-40s and the only Ironman match of his that I remember was a decidedly dull affair with Seth Rollins in 2018.
Booking-wise, I can only foresee Alexander winning. This could well be a contractual title run for Nemeth, like he had in NJPW and AAA, and the bigger picture feud that they’ve setup for this title is Josh Alexander and Joe Hendry. That seems like the projected Bound for Glory main event, and I think the first building block falls into place here. Prediction: Josh Alexander
