TNA Emergence 2024
August 30, 2024
Old Forester’s Paristown Hall
Louisville, Kentucky
Watch: TNA+
TNA’s first live special since Slammiversary, Emergence, emanated this past Friday (August 30) from a sold-out Old Foresters Paristown Hall in Louisville, Kentucky.
In the main event, Nic Nemeth put the TNA World Championship on the line against Josh Alexander in a 60-minute Ironman match.
Countdown to Emergence
Frankie Kazarian def. Kushida
I just want KUSHIDA to do something, anything different with his character. I love the guy’s work but he’s been the exact same for more than a decade and despite time in WWE and repeated murmurings of a heel turn, there’s never been any change in his demeanour or gimmick. He’s the embodiment of spinning your wheels and it means that he’s nigh-on impossible to care about in this promotion or any other.
He’s still a capable worker, as is Frankie Kazarian, and unsurprisingly this was two professional wrestlers having a professional wrestling match. It lacked something to take it to a gentleman’s three but it did what is was supposed to – give the more pushed commodity a win. **3/4
Countdown to Emergence
TNA Digital Media Championship & Canadian International Heavyweight Championship
PCO (C) (w/Steph De Lander) def. Mahabali Shera
So PCO put his title on the line against “Matt Cardona’s Monster”, which transpired to be Mahabali Shera, but there was no sign of ‘Ice Cold’ Cardona himself. Great work, team.
PCO has been very hit or miss since his comeback and that variance is growing wider and wider all the time. Shera, who despite various attempts to make him work remains green and not very good, is not the person to help PCO to a hit.
Shera hit a nice spinebuster and PCO started with some good urgency but this nearly fell apart by the end and there were a few blown spots. *1/2
Six-man Ultimate X for the TNA X-Division Championship
Zachary Wentz def. Mike Bailey (C), Laredo Kid, Jason Hotch, Alexander Hammerstone & Riley Osborne
Mike Bailey’s first X-Division title reign saw ‘Speedball’ threaten the all-time defenses record held by Christopher Daniels. His second ended in under six weeks.
Zachary Wentz will now go into NXT No Mercy with the X-Division title in his possession, which is something, but him winning didn’t feel like any special or organic moment.
As a match this was fine. There were some cool spots, even some novel ones, but also a lot you’ll see in every scramble every weekend. Jason Hotch and Riley Osborne had some nice moments but they also had some awkwardly telegraphed ones too.
As expected, Alexander Hammerstone (great tan game, brother) was a lot of fun but the finish was all about Bailey and Wentz, with Wentz knocking the champ off the structure before claiming the title. ***
Steve Maclin def. Eric Young
Much like Kazarian and KUSHIDA on the pre-show, this was two professional wrestlers having a professional wrestling match but this was much more entertaining.
Essentially, these were two big jocks who wanted to prove that they were tougher and harder than their opponent. So, we got a lot of peacocking early on from both and then a series of hard-hitting stiff strikes and exchanges.
Maclin won with a takedown rollup, a spot that works less well with heels than faces, but he shook hands with Young afterwards which suggests this might be a one-and-done match or maybe the formation of a new team. ***
Jordynne Grace & Spitfire (Jody Threat & Dani Luna) def. Ash By Elegance & The Malisha (Masha Slamovich & Alisha Edwards)
I really felt for these ladies because this got thrown off course barely a minute in as Alisha Edwards was shoot knocked out during a dive sequence.
The other five did well to adjust on the fly but the match existed in a weird atmosphere because the babyfaces had the 3-on-2 handicap advantage. That meant the style of match they wanted to work didn’t really fit and it ended up feeling like more of a training exercise.
As expected, the babyfaces went over, presumably ending Grace’s feud with Ash and setting up Spitfire for a tag title shot, although one suspects they might have to wait a while for that. **1/4
TNA World Tag Team Championship
ABC (Ace Austin & Chris Bey) (C) def. First Class (AJ Francis & KC Navarro)
KC Navarro got the call up to First Class here, replacing Rich Swann who is currently in rehab for alcohol-related issues. Although not in ideal circumstances, I’m pleased to see him in this spot. He’s got great potential and being in a TV company full-time should help him smooth out some of those rough edges.
He looked okay in what was a perfectly fine TV-level tag match without much drama. AJ Francis was inoffensive, as while there were some cumbersome movements and awkwardness, he also hit an absolutely fantastic Chokeslam.
The ABC retained in just under nine minutes, and now presumably have bigger fish to fry against the likes of The System and The Hardys moving forward. **1/2
The System (Moose, Eddie Edwards, Brian Myers & JDC) def. Mike Santana, Joe Hendry & The Hardys
On paper this looked like being a basic, serviceable eight-man tag to engage the live crowd and that’s exactly what we got.
The babyfaces beat up the weakest part of The System, JDC, early on before the heels turned it around and they built to the hot tag to Joe Hendry. Hendry, who I thought would win because of his impending NXT title challenge, didn’t do a ton here but he was over.
His team lost though, although he wasn’t involved in the fall. That was Eddie Edwards and Matt Hardy, with Edwards kicking him low (because, repeat after me, no heel in this company can ever win clean or decisively) and hitting him with the Boston Knee Party. ***1/4
60-minute Ironman match for the TNA World Championship
Nic Nemeth (C) def. Josh Alexander 3-2
Not only did Nic Nemeth’s title reign not end at Emergence, he was put over as strongly as humanly possible in a 60-minute match against the promotion’s best worker.
He led 2-0 after 25 minutes, lost two falls in quick succession after being hit with a foreign object, and then won the match by pinning Alexander with his own move. Add in surviving all of Alexander’s big offense and you’ve effectively made ‘The Most Wanted Man’ into ‘Superman’.
On the whole, there was a lot to like and a lot of stuff that I wasn’t a fan of.
I’ll start with the bad. One of my main issues was the crowd. Those people have bought a ticket to have a good time, I get that. However, a group of people that wanted to make themselves the special attraction – within the first five minutes we had them trying to start the dreaded “We want tables” chant and then one for the Spirit Squad (oooh, edgy). There were Joe Hendry parodies later on, as well as a lot of USA! USA! stuff which led me to keep my volume down real low.
From a kayfabe perspective, Nemeth looking so strong made Alexander look weak, particularly in a match style famed as his speciality. Alexander using foreign objects doesn’t vibe with his gimmick at all (or even his reasons for turning) but unfortunately, the booking team driving this promotion don’t seem to think that it’s possible for heels to ever win or wrestle clean.
That said, the decisive manner in which Nemeth was booked as better than Alexander was refreshingly different in modern wrestling, so I appreciated that.
I also appreciated the work they put in. There was one ref bump to waste time but otherwise this was solid and a far better constructed use of the time than I’d anticipated.
Nemeth’s amateur wrestling credentials were a factor early on in a great grappling sequence and they played into the way Alexander, who was excellent here, works. Alexander was always trying to snag the ankle lock but his first attempt to do so saw him get overzealous and rolled-up for the first fall.
Nemeth’s second came after a fun, back-and-forth exchange and they then went into my favourite sequence of the entire match. A great-looking headbutt from Nemeth popped off Alexander’s headguard but secured the Canadian the angle to roll through into the Ankle Lock again. Alexander applied it for ages, with the story seemingly going to be that Nemeth was being stupid; he’d survived that hold but he’d compromised himself for the rest of the match. That was true initially, with Alexander brutalising the ankle and then trapping it to smash Nemeth’s face with forearms. However, Nemeth eventually stopped selling, and it was the referee bump and foreign object that levelled the scores.
Down the stretch there was no ankle selling but a lot of great intensity, with both guys conveying a real sense of desperation. There was a terrific tumble to the outside, a Lawn Dart into the corner from Alexander and some sloppy (in a good way) headbutts from Nemeth. Then, with 22 seconds left, Nemeth went 3-2 up with a C4 Spike of his own.
All in all, the work was really good and they held my attention for the full hour. However, Nemeth didn’t take one clean fall or tap out at any point and that’s counter-productive levels of protection long-term. As you can tell, this was a thought-provoking match and that’s why I’m going notebook but I could easily watch it again and hate it. ****
Post-match, John Bradshaw Layfield came out and whispered something to Nemeth. The champion then nodded and celebrated to end the show. Quite why Nemeth needs The Bradshaw to come in as his mentor now, I don’t know.
Also, why is JBL everywhere?
Final Thoughts
Emergence was a fine middle-of-the-road show from TNA. There was nothing bad, but nothing must-see either. The main event made my Notebook, but I imagine a lot of people won’t like it. While I found it thought-provoking, it wasn’t good enough for me to earnestly recommend you plonk yourself down and lock in for 60 minutes. Ultimately, this was a setup show for Victory Road in two weeks, and it did the job.
