I wish I had more to say, because Elayna Black truly gave us nothing!

Black, formerly known as WWE’s Cora Jade, made headlines when she made her TNA debut at last Thursday’s “TNA iMPACT” debut on AMC, and, between her cult following and experience in TNA (through “NXT”), it is not a matter of if she wins the TNA Knockouts World Championship, but when. As this Thursday’s episode of “iMPACT” came and went, everyone was wondering just how Black was going to follow up her high-profile debut. Sure, she wasn’t scheduled for a match, but surely, this promo segment was going to give us something to hold onto!

Black spoke for about two minutes (and didn’t say much in that span).

Again, I wish there was more for me to hate, but Black simply didn’t provide enough material for me to critique. Black’s address post-debut was a simple declaration for the TNA Knockouts World Championship. No date, no place, no plan: just operating off of vibes and a dream. With Black’s completely nothingburger promo out of the way, how does TNA expect this headline-making signing to follow up on her debut momentum? Does she have any momentum left following that dud of a promo segment?

It doesn’t help that current TNA Knockouts World Champion Lei Ying Lee was wrapped up with The Elegance Brand, who targeted Indi Hartwell earlier Thursday. Nobody is expecting Lee to play double duty, but if TNA knew that they wanted to push Black for the immediate or imminent world title scene…then why book Lee in that segment? Lee doesn’t have a reason to be involved with The Elegance Brand — especially not when this is looking a lot like an Ash by Elegance and Lee feud over the TNA Knockouts World Championship. With all due respect to Ash, she’s already had a Knockouts World title reign. If you’re going to have Black immediately gun for the title, then don’t have the current world champion start a feud with a former titleholder. That doesn’t make sense in any world.

If the plan isn’t to give Black an immediate title opportunity then why not give her someone with whom to feud? I’m assuming that, by debuting, she’s clear to compete, but she didn’t even have to compete tonight specifically. Just having someone come out and interrupt her promo would’ve given her something to do over the next few weeks. That way, Black gets more accustomed to TNA’s style of wrestling, the crowd warms up to Black, and the momentum from this signing doesn’t go to waste.

Can you believe I’ve put more effort into this critique than Black was allowed to give with her promo? Something must’ve gone long. There’s no way Black’s promo was meant to be that short.

Right?

Written by Angeline Phu