The winds of change may be coming for TNA Wrestling and could be courtesy of Alex Hammerstone.
TNA Sacrifice took place Friday evening and one of the featured fights was a rematch between Hammerstone and former TNA World Champion Josh Alexander. The Walking Weapon walked out with the first victory at TNA Hard To Kill in January but this time it was Hammerstone who came out victorious, but not without nefarious actions.
During the match, the official was down in the corner as Alexander had Hammerstone in a standing switch, and Hammerstone decided to rip a page out of Ric Flair’s book by low-blowing Josh and then hitting him with his Nightmare Pendulum for the 1-2-3 victory.
As a means to rub salt to the wound, Hammerstone stole Alexander’s signature wrestling headgear as a “souvenir,” but Alex was far from being in a jovial mood in a post-match promo.
“You were looking past me like I was insignificant. Well who’s insignificant now, Josh? You talk about how you wanna be World Champion again using me as a stepping stone? Look at me! I’m what world champions are made out of.”
Hammerstone then went to go over Alexander’s extensive list of injuries he’s sustained recently in his career and decided to give him a new moniker.
“You are not the Walking Weapon, you are a walking liability. The future has started, Josh and it’s leaving you behind. You’ll be lucky if you step into the ring with me again and the only thing I take from you is head gear.”
Being a former MLW World Champion, one can only imagine that Hammerstone has the TNA World Title in his sights. He may have to go through Moose, who retained his gold against Eric Young in the main event of Sacrfice.
TNA Sacrifice will take place on March 8, from Ontario Canada, the promotion confirmed this week.
In a statement, it was confirmed that Sacrifice 2024 will take place at the campus of St. Clair College in Windsor and that there will be a taping of TNA Impact! the next night. Tickets for the show will go on sale on January 13 at 10 AM ET. Names announced for the Windsor shows include IMPACT/TNA World Champion Alex Shelley, Brian Myers, KUSHIDA, Chris Sabin, Moose, Tommy Dreamer, and Jordynne Grace.
BREAKING: TNA Wrestling RETURNS to Windsor, Ontario, Canada for TNA #Sacrifice and #TNAiMPACT! Mark your calendars for Friday, March 8th, and Saturday, March 9th! Tickets go on sale January 13th at 10AM ET!
Windsor, Ontario is no stranger to TNA Wrestling. The city is the home of several TNA stars including Josh Alexander, Gisele Shaw, Bhuphinder Gujjar, and TNA Wrestling President Scott D’Amore. The city is also home to Petey Williams whose name is synonymous with TNA and is a two-time X-Division Champion.
Last year, IMPACT Wrestling hosted its Slammiversary event at the St. Clair College Campus. The show saw Alex Shelley retain the IMPACT World Championship from Nick Aldis while Trinity kicked off her Knockouts World Championship reign by dethroning Deonna Purrazzo.
The 2012 TNA Sacrifice pay-per-view opens up with Earl Hebner trying to get Bobby Roode’s World Heavyweight Title belt so he can hang it high for the Ladder Match tonight. Roode rants on Hulk Hogan and says to tell Hogan he will be getting that belt back tonight. Roode tells Hebner to get out and we go to the Sacrifice opening video.
Rob Van Dam beat Jeff Hardy and Mr. Anderson in a Three-Way Match at Tuesday’s Impact Wrestling taping in Orlando, Florida (airing this Thursday on Spike TV) to become the No. 1 Contender to the World Heavyweight Championship. He will face Bobby Roode at Sacrifice, which takes place May 13 in Orlando, Florida.
The show kicked off with Hardy and Anderson confronting Roode and staking their claim for his title. Impact Wrestling General Manager Hulk Hogan appeared and made a match for the No. 1 Contender’s spot with Hardy, Anderson and Van Dam.
Kurt Angle stated on Twitter that he will face AJ Styles at Sacrifice. This is a rematch from Tuesday’s Impact Wrestling taping.
— Sting successfully defended the TNA World Heavyweight Championship against Rob Van Dam at tonight’s TNA Sacrifice pay-per-view.
The thirteen minute match concluded with Sting dropping Rob Van Dam with the Scorpion Death Drop for the win.
Mr. Anderson, who won a 25-Man Battle Royal last Thursday on iMPACT! to become the No. 1 contender to the TNA World Heavyweight Championship, confronted Sting following the match. Sting will face Anderson next month at Slammiversary, which takes place June 12.
— WWE.com editor Craig Tello posted a photo on Twitter of an iMPACT! Wrestling billboard located near WWE’s headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut. The image, however, has since been removed. He posted the following the tweet:
“Just saw a #TNA billboard in Stamford on the train to work @WWE. They re-booking the Invasion angle? #IWantWrestling…to stop recycling.”
A singles match between AJ Styles and Tommy Dreamer was announced on tonight’s episode of TNA iMPACT! for this Sunday’s TNA Sacrifice pay-per-view event.
A match between Brian Kendrick and Robbie E was also announced for the event.
Chyna was revealed tonight on iMPACT! as Kurt Angle’s mystery partner for their Mixed Tag Match vs. Jeff and Karen Jarrett
Meanwhile, Chris Harris was revealed as Matt Hardy’s partner for their TNA World Tag Team Championship Match against Beer Money, Inc.
The announced card is as follows:
TNA World Heavyweight Championship Match
Rob Van Dam vs. Sting (c)
Mixed Tag Match
Kurt Angle and Chyna vs. Jeff Jarrett and Karen Jarrett
TNA World Tag Team Championship Match
Matt Hardy and Chris Harris vs. Beer Money, Inc. (c)
TNA Women’s Knockout Championship
Mickie James (c) vs. Madison Rayne
TNA X Division Championship Match
Kazarian (c) vs. Max Buck
Challenge Match
AJ Styles vs. Tommy Dreamer
Hernandez and Anarquia vs. Shannon Moore and Jesse Neal
— TNAWrestling.com has announced the following three matches for TNA Sacrifice, which takes place May 15 on pay-per-view.
TNA World Heavyweight Championship Match
Sting vs. Rob Van Dam
X Division Championship Match
Kazarian vs. Max Buck
Abyss vs. Crimson
— TNA Slammiversary will take place on June 12 at the Impact! Zone in Orlando, Florida.
— TNA Wrestling president Dixie Carter posted her first message on Twitter today in nearly two months. She wrote, “My thoughts & prayers are with all those effected by the horrible storms yesterday and today. So devastating.”
— TNA announced today on its Facebook account that tonight’s Sacrifice pay-per-view will open with the three-way #1 Contender’s Match to the TNA Tag Team Championship between The Motor City Machineguns, Beer Money, Inc. and Team 3D.
— Orlando Jordan is expected to do something “controversial” during tonight’s Sacrifice pay-per-view. He is scheduled to face Rob Terry in a match for the TNA Global Championship.
— Qualifying matches for Slammiversary’s annual King of the Mountain bout will begin Thursday on iMPACT!. This week’s episode is being filmed tomorrow.
Props to f4wonline.com for some of the info used in this report:
– There has been talk of Lacey Von Erich leaving “The Beautiful People” and turning babyface.
– Taz recently talked to Hulk Hogan about bringing Mike Knox in, but “The Hulkster” reportedly had no idea who he was. Eric Bischoff, on the other hand, vaguely remembered him. Nonetheless, there is said to be slight interest in using the recently released WWE star.
– A match pitting Samoa Joe against Matt Morgan could be a late addition to Sunday’s Sacrifice pay-per-view, but a final decision had not been made as of yesterday.
— It was announced yesterday on TNA Today that backstage announcer Christy Hemme is getting married this weekend in Hawaii. Hemme and her beau, Charley Patterson, got engaged last December.
— TNA’s next road pay-per-view is expected to take place in October for Bound for Glory. Company officials view Bound for Glory as its biggest show of the year, and thus it will be an exception to the rule as far as holding televised shows outside Orlando. In fact, it is the only televised event the company currently has scheduled outside the Impact Zone. (source: www.pwtorch.com)
— TNA’s latest edition of Before the Bell previews the main event for Sacrifice “that has the world buzzing” — “The Phenomenal” AJ Styles vs “Mr. TNA” Rob Van Dam, for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship. You can view the episode here.