TNA Genesis (OR, do you believe in Joe Hendry?)

The broadcast begins with Matt Rehwoldt, joined by Tom Hannifan, informing us that this is the new beginning, this is TNA Genesis, fair.

Camryn Wright sings the ‘murican national anthem, to a mostly respectful crowd, though there is occasional crowd response to certain words which was odd but anyway.

It is 19 January 2025, we are live from the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland, Texas, with a pleasingly healthy sized crowd. We’ve heard a lot less from TNA in the past year than we had from their previous 2+ decades, and that’s a good thing.

Match #1 sees TNA X Division Champion, Moose (whose entrance music is a surprisingly catchy version of what feels like a Mozart piece. I’m sadly not sufficiently cultured that I can place the specific score, and it’s really going to bug me until I figure it out but I digress. Moose defeated Ace Austin to retain. I’m not particularly familiar with either but they did good. If I can find a reliable means of (legally) obtaining regular video of TNA I’d be happy to watch both regularly.

Match #2 pit The System (whom I believe Moose is also part of?) of Brian Myers & Eddie Edwards against Eric Young & Steve Maclin. Young & Macklin won. Again, not familiar with at least half these guys. Young and Myers were part of WWE for a while and I know Edwards from Ring Of Honor but Steve Maclin is almost completely unknown. The action is ‘grittier’ but two matches in and I have no complaints.

Match #3 is ‘Spitfire’ (the UK’s Dani Luna, and Jody Threat) the TNA Women’s Tag Team Champions Vs. Ash by Elegance (formerly Dana Brooke in WWE) and Heather by Elegance. Dani Luna was passable but the match was just painful. I don’t like to just state ‘this was bad’ without just reason but this was bad. On the plus side, Ash by Elegance did not spend any time flexing for no reason so that was nice.

Apparently ‘earlier tonight’ Frankie Kazarian defeated Leon Slater, so that was a thing which would have been nice to see.

Match #4 is Jordynne Grace, who I need to say I prefer with brown hair but, she’s a muscley little thing and I’d be scared to wrong her, against Tessa Blanchard, who ‘is a racist’ according to the Dallas crowd. I had heard rumblings of unpleasantness but neither are UK-based and I’ve not really followed either with any great interest. Blanchard takes the win by Pinfall.

‘The Walking Weapon’ (where I am from, you would absolutely NOT be referring to yourself as a weapon but each to their own) Josh Alexander against Mike Santana, whom I am vaguely familiar with from his LAX days) in an “I Quit” match is match #5. This was just brutal, in the best possible way. Santana in particular had some colourful ways of informing the referee that in fact no, he did not wish to quit. Santana wins after threatening to have Alexander ‘bite the curb’ (ring steps) while his hands were zip-tied behind his back. Post-match, true to his word, Alexander shakes Santana’s hand, endorsing him as the standard. He also ‘quits TNA’. Drama.

Match #6 gives us the TNA World Tag Champs, The Hardys against The Rascalz. All 4 have had time in WWE, though I don’t believe either team were there at the same time as the other. Matt no longer seems to be ‘broken’ though still does the ‘delete’ gestures during his entrance, as does Jeff, with considerably less gusto. Before the match can begin though, ‘Fraxiom’ (WWE’s Axiom and Nathan Frazier, the NXT Tag Champs) place a couple folding chairs at the bottom of the ramp and get an up close and personal perspective of the match. Drama again. Of course, the rumour mills are in full force, asserting that the WWE/ TNA working relationship is simply a precursor to WWE buying TNA, time will tell. Mid match, Trey Miguel inadvertently dives through the ropes onto Fraxiom, leading to them being escorted backstage. I understand there may be a cross-promotional storyline there so this will probably play out on NXT at some future date. A decent match, with the Hardys being noticeably slower than in their heyday. A swanton bomb is all she wrote though as the Hardys retain.

In a Knock Outs Championship match, Masha Slamovich downed Rosemary in a Clockwork Orange House Of Fun match to retain. This was brutal. Both these women are simply insane.

Main event time, and I believe in Joe Hendry as he challenges Nic Nemeth for the TNA World Championship. The one major criticism I had about Joe Hendry, aside from him being born circa 50 miles too far to the East, was that he sells like John Cena, which is to say, badly. I’d be lying if I said the match was anything other than decent but, an entire show with (almost) no matches which were anything less than decent isn’t a bad situation to be in. I rather like 2025’s TNA. I digress however for, after 19 minutes and 8 seconds we have our second* ever Scottish World Heavyweight Champion of the modern professional wrestling era, as Joe Hendry scores the Pinfall victory to raise his first ever World Title.
*Yes, the UK Wrestling Archive do recognise the ICW World Heavyweight Championship, which currently has a Scottish title holder, and has previously had several others, however since they were no longer featured on the WWE Network, they no longer have what could realistically be considered a sizeable global audience.

I debated whether to post this review of TNA Genesis. It had neither the spectacular highs nor hilarious lows which other major promotions have been capable of the last few years. It just kinda was. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, especially when your aim is to steady and then grow your fanbase, something which Genesis did rather well. As I mentioned at the start of this writing, IF I can find a cost effective method of watching the weekly shows going forward, I’d be happy to do so, and you should too.

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Opinions are my own. I am in no way affiliated with/ or incentivised by, any of the promotions or wrestlers referenced. I have no bias towards any single promotion and any suggestion to the contrary is made insincerely, in bad faith, and in ignorance of this stated fact. Any and all links were valid at the time of writing.