Before “TNA Impact” goes live once again next week, the last batch of tapings was capped off with a title change, as Lei Ying Lee recaptured the Knockouts Championship. Beyond that, it was a fairly routine edition of the show, though there were definitely some things that caught the attention of our staff, for better and for worse. TNA Wrestling/X

So part of me understands the psuedo-business rivalry between Daria Rae and Santino Marella to an extent, and therefore why she does some of the pettiest nonsense purely to undermine him. Only to a certain extent but there is something of an understanding.

What I do not understand is why week in and week out she does her very best to make the show she is responsible for just that little bit worse. Bordering on terrible at best and boring as paint drying at best.

The World Champion tries to get the ball rolling on defenses, she vetoes that because why not? It just doesn’t really make sense, in storyline, for a general manager to actively want to plummet the show they are responsible for. And since Carlos Silva has appeared on TV multiple times, it also doesn’t make sense why he just sits by and lets her do it. Neither does it really make sense, pulling at that thread, for him to sit by and watch her screw Santino over time and time again. Does no one on the show watch the show?

It’s especially frustrating that she does this at a time when the product from a real life perspective is mundane and sometimes a chore to get through. Again there are moments of glimmering hope in the shape of Leon Slater, Mike Santana, and then tonight with Lei Ying Lee. But they’re nestled between the System, Moose, Alisha Edwards’ screaming, and Daria Rae being the worst manager even this writer, a former retail worker, has ever seen.

There is a potential to be better if she actually does something to explain her motive, the method behind the madness. Even when the Authority were making the show worse during their run in WWE, there was some explanation – maybe too much explanation, but nonetheless. It’s just frustrating that her role is that of disruptor without there being any reasoning, at least with that there would be a feeling of progress. At the moment she just does things to mess with the flow of the night on a whim, which leaves the product promising something better, only to pull the rug and do nothing to supplant that disappointment.

Written by Max Everett

Tonight’s main event between Lei Ying Lee and Arianna Grace was a solid conclusion to the show, ending things on a high note with Lee winning the TNA Knockouts World Championship for the second time. If one didn’t pay attention to any spoilers floating around, it likely served as a pleasant surprise, as Lee was even outnumbered due to the presence of Stacks at ringside. In the end, though, Lee won nonetheless.

Grace did a fair job as champion, but now was the right time to make a change. Not only is she contracted to WWE instead of TNA, but it also felt as though there was a limited number of directions to take her title reign beyond what they’d already been doing. Lee has a ready-made title feud lined up with Xia Brookside, which has potential to give TNA something it’s been sorely lacking: a storyline with the smallest amount of depth. The two faced each other last year for the title, but a lot has happened since then.

Lee’s previous reign ran from the tail end of 2025 into February of this year, but she faced almost no one on the TNA roster (apart from Brookside). Now that the championship is back in her hands, there’s plenty of opportunity to further establish Lee as a more prominent wrestler in TNA. Let’s just hope for plenty of title defenses to come.

Written by Nick Miller