Well, that's the second installment of the newly relaunched "TNA Impact" on AMC in the books and obviously we have some opinions on what transpired this Thursday night. We heard from TNA World Champion Mike Santana, who captured gold during the debut episode, defeating former champ Frankie Kazarian, and retained the title two days later at Genesis.
We also heard from Elayna Black, formerly WWE product Cora Jade, who put the TNA Knockouts Division on notice.
And, oh yeah, there was some wrestling too! Fans got to see the return of the Feast or Fired stipulation match. Indi Hartwell took on M By Elegance. Mustafa Ali challeneged one half of the TNA tag champs, Jeff Hardy, in the main event, which was followed by The System revealing it's newest member, as promised. But it wouldn't be pro wrestling without a few twists, right?
If you're just looking to see who won which match, sans opinion, check out our TNA Impact results page for January 22, 2026. If you wanna know what we thought of what transpired in Albuquerque, New Mexico, this Thursday evening, keep reading, because these are three things we hated and three things we loved.
There's something to be said for order of operations. When it comes to high school algebra, there's the reliable PEMDAS mnemonic, telling us to first sort out parentheses, then exponents, multiplication and division, followed by addition and subtraction.
It feels like there should be a similar guiding principle for wrestling bookers, though we're at a loss for what initials should be used to explain that a main event between a veteran talent and future hall of famer in multiple promotions like Jeff Hardy shouldn't be overshadowed by pay-per-view fallout.
None of this is to suggest that the fallout from TNA Genesis 2026 was unimportant, but if a non-match segment is closing the show after the match billed as the main event, it suggests the main event has little to no stakes in the booking future of the promotion, so why was it even the main event to begin with?
Each of these respective segments deserve to have room to breathe, so to speak, on the broadcast. But to have a main event that's not really the main event feels a little bass-ackwards. The reveal of the newest member of The System and subsequent betrayal of Moose and the former Fandango, known in TNA and beyond as Johnny "Dango" Curtis," were obviously important events for TNA to highlight during the first episode of "Impact" following the PPV, but maybe they didn't need to rate above the advertised main event of the broadcast.
Feast or Fired returned for the first time in three years on Thursday, as Eddie Edwards, Brian Myers, The Hometown Man, Mance Warner, Rich Swann, Ryan Nemeth, AJ Francis, Steve Maclin, Eric Young, Jason Hotch, John Skyler and the returning Trey Miguel (and breathe) competed for the four fateful briefcases. And, as the subtitle reads, it was really, really fun.
The gimmick really makes it easy for the contest to feel like a scramble, and while there is a wait until next week to find out what the results are, it takes on a Money in the Bank tone with the added twist of someone leaving the company. Naturally, the match started with a brawl between all the competitors aside from Swann and Miguel left in the ring. They shared a little reunion hug before getting into a brawl themselves. And thus ensued the mayhem, bodies flying every and each way before The Hometown Man claimed the first briefcase; per the stipulation, he had to touch the outside floor. Eric Young then grabbed at his mask and sent the briefcase flying, allowing Young to pick it up and become the first claimant of the match.
Maclin followed that up by repossessing the second case from Hotch and Skyler, then Mance Warner brought chairs into the mix and got into it with Eddie Edwards; he hit Edwards and set them up to drop him on them, but was instead dropped on them just as Francis was on the outside of the ring dropping Swann onto the apron. Trey Miguel claimed case number three after dropping Francis and fighting Ryan Nemeth off of him, and then, in the closing scramble for the fourth, Brian Myers sacrificed himself so that Edwards could claim it.
This match had a little bit of everything and played into each of the dynamics between the competitors, whether that be the Great Hands working together to win together presumably in a bid for the World Tag titles or Edwards getting the win with the help of Myers, given what they would go on to do in the main event. Warner brought an extremity. Miguel was a welcome return. Francis and Swann continued their personal conflict. But aside from all that, it was just fun. And that's all you could really ask for from a TV match, in this writer's opinion.
Written by Max Everett
I really hope I'm wrong, but the optics of the latest Feast or Fired aren't looking good for former TNA World Champion Eric Young.
Tonight, the likes of Eric Young, Steve Maclin, Trey Miguel, and Eddie Edwards claimed the four briefcases in the Feast or Fired match, with one of them containing a pink slip that will result in the carrier's immediate firing. Based on recent events surrounding the other three briefcase holders, it seems obvious that Young will reveal a pink slip in his next week. Basically, if you know what's up, you know what's going down.
Earlier this month, reports suggested that Maclin had inked an extension that will keep in TNA for at least a little while longer. While we don't know its exact length, I can't imagine it only being a few weeks.
In Miguel's case, Feast or Fired marked his return to TNA, which commentator Tom Hannifan further affirmed by announcing that the former TNA Tag Team Champion had officially re-signed with the company after his abrupt release from AEW.
Following his briefcase capture, Edwards helped welcome in two new members of The System, Cedric Alexander and Bear Bronson, while simultaneously casting out JDC and Moose. Given this, Edwards revealing a pink slip and subsequently being fired would not only feel odd, but also counterproductive to a new wrinkle to the fallout from Genesis.
Logically, that leaves Eric Young as the glaring candidate to be fired, and frankly, that's a let down. Feast or Fired has often kept fans on their toes and anxiously awaiting the results. This year, I feel the opposite.
Written by Ella Jay
We all knew that TNA World Champion Mike Santana was over, but after Thursday's promo, he might be over over.
Santana made wrestling headlines when he dethroned Frankie Kazarian for the TNA World Championship on AMC's premiere, and he continued to establish himself as the company's top guy when he flattened Call Your Shot Gauntlet Winner Nic Nemeth ahead of his opportunistic cash-in at TNA: Genesis. However, I'd argue that his emotional promo on "TNA Impact" did just as much to establish him as the babyface to see on Thursday nights if not more.
Santana's promo is a prime example of the sentimental babyface promo. While this promo is typically well-received by nature it's not hard to tap into your personal hardships in order to elicit sympathy from the fans it can easily become cheesy, detached, or uninspiring: a death sentence in the flashy world of wrestling. The sentimental babyface promo is a reliable one, but it takes a great babyface to take it from a "safe" promo to a genuine, organically over moment. Santana's Thursday promo allowed for the new TNA World Champion to put himself up there with Cody Rhodes and his story, with "Hangman" Adam Page and his anxious Millennial cowboy gimmick, and other crowd-pleasing babyfaces.
Santana using a voice message from his father was a great start, and not one that we typically see from wrestlers whose family members aren't also wrestlers. The tone was set immediately: this was going to be a very emotional night for Santana, who, as he openly admitted, faced injury, addiction, and mental health struggles on his professional wrestling journey. I can guarantee you, most of the members in that Albuquerque audience have experienced at least one of those struggles. Of course, we all know that people experience these battles, but Santana's transparent admission to all of those struggles voice cracks and tear-strained speech and all allowed for the audience to intimately identify themselves with him. Santana is organically over because he allowed the TNA crowd to see themselves in him: both in his struggles, and in his success. Santana proudly highlighted that, after every failure, he picked himself up by his boots and kept walking. That mantra's repetition only intensified that resilient message. Every time Santana picked himself up and kept walking, we were invited to step with him.
Wrestling is a reflection of life. We all have a story we want to finish, we all have an anxious Millennial cowboy somewhere inside, and we all want to pick ourselves back up after failures to keep walking. Santana allowed us to identify with his struggles, and his resilience, Thursday. Santana was over before, but this promo? He's over over now.
Written by Angeline Phu
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
Before I started doing the live coverage for TNA, I had very little exposure to M By Elegance, as I hadn't really followed her career across the independent scene. Conversely, I had seen plenty of Indi Hartwell matches in WWE across the years she had spent with the company and was quite familiar with her work. What's the point of me saying any of this you might ask? Well, I suspected going into this edition of "TNA Impact" that I would be a fan of their match and I was not wrong.
I will admit that I did think the post-match angle of Ash seemingly arguing with M only for it all to be a ruse for The Elegance Brand to gain the upperhand against Hartwell, Li Yng Lee, and Xia Brookside was a bit over-the-top and something that's been done by heel stables since basically the dawn of time in professional wrestling. With that said, I thought that the match between Hartwell and M itself was actually quite good. It turned out to be exactly the hard-hitting action that I thought it was going to be, given that I consider Hartwell and M to both be very good talents and honestly, my only real complaint about it was that it wasn't given more time.
Written by Olivia Quinlan
