Well, hey, that was a solid episode of “TNA Impact,” as far as episodes of “Impact” go. It was no coincidence that the show featured six matches and tighter promos, cutting out a lot of the kinds of segments that lead to recurring mistakes for this promotion. While there weren’t any titles on the line during this installment, the show continued to build up to TNA Sacrifice later this month, including by devoting some more time to the world title feud between Mike Santana and Steve Maclin. TNA Wrestling

Oh, friends. I can honestly say I’m extremely excited for where this TNA World Championship will go at Sacrifice in two weeks, especially now that Mr. Mayhem has introduced himself to Dr. Death for the first time.

Weeks ago, the champ, Mike Santana, warned Steve Maclin that after you knock on death’s door often, eventually he’ll open. Santana will play that role come March 27. Rather than cower, Maclin maintained his “front toward enemy” motto and introduced his alter-ego, who will put up a hell of a fight against Dr. Death.

What I loved about this promo from Maclin tonight was how he mentioned the fact that “The Realest” asks for pity from the fans, which in the former World Champ’s eyes, makes him look weak. Side note: Anyone who overcomes addiction is a warrior among the pack. But maybe Maclin is on to something. We all love to watch someone rise from the ashes of despair, but is Maclin right? Did we take pity on Santana only because we’re aware that he was a former addict? Would we have cheered when he won the title for the first time in his career at last year’s Bound for Glory? It makes you wonder.

Now, I know that WWE is involved with TNA behind the scenes, and that excessive gore is prohibited from in-ring contests. But how can’t there be any bloodshed when these two alter-egos meet in the ring? To watch these two sacrifice themselves for our amusement, that day can’t come soon enough!

Written by Brie Coder

With Sacrifice fast approaching, one of the storylines receiving the most attention has been Mike Santana defending his TNA World Championship against Steve Maclin. Unfortunately, from my perspective, the build has been downright boring.

In weeks past, Maclin was continuing to show up to work despite being fired, but not much was being done to keep him away. Maclin was then reinstated during last week’s show, and his title match against Santana was booked for the next big event. Nothing offensively bad so far, but there was no real hook, either.

They followed that up with their segment tonight, which saw Maclin “apologizing” to Tom Hannifan before things broke down into a war of words between Maclin and Santana. Maclin insulted the champion, and brought up his dead father, which just felt like a watered down version of the recent promo segment between CM Punk and Roman Reigns on “WWE Raw.”

As my esteemed colleague Max states elsewhere in this column, TNA feels like a company without any strong direction, and nowhere is that more evident than in the world title picture. Whoever wins between these two, does it feel like there is another strong challenger waiting in the wings? Frankie Kazarian is still hanging around, but the top of the card in TNA is pretty slim right now, and that needs to change if they want to make this show truly fun to watch on a regular basis.

Written by Nick Miller

Having watched TNA Wrestling properly now for the last several weeks, Order 4 and BDE have become some of my favorite talents currently signed with the company to watch on a weekly basis. For that reason, I was always bound to love it when they were thrown in the ring with one another with two other talented individuals in Rich Swann and Trey Miguel.

This is basically everything that you could want in a six-man tag team match: excitement, high flying action, a little bit of intensity, and a feel good babyface win. There may have only been a backstage confrontation last Thursday that set this one up and didn’t have a ton of long term storytelling that went into it, but it didn’t really need that seeing as it was just a bit of fun that this lackluster edition of “TNA Impact” benefitted from.

I also liked the inclusion of Tasha Steelz and Jada Stone in this one. It was pretty expected that Stone would show up at some point in light of the recent tensions between the two women, but it was still welcomed to see them have their moment to shine in the match and not be pushed to the side as the storyline between them continues to play out. It added that little extra something to an already great match, and made it that much more engaging to watch without taking away from things by having an interference or disqualification ending.

Written by Olivia Quinlan