10 TNA Matches You Totally Forgot (That WWE Should Now Book)

Crossing the line again. 

Jeff Hardy AJ Styles
ImpactWrestling.com

As Total Nonstop Action at long last conclusively disappears from view, it will leave behind mixed feelings from fans and critics alike thanks to a decade and a half of schizophrenic action featuring a laundry list of past, present and future talent that stopped off along the way.

The TNA name was considered stained enough for company bosses to attempt a wholesale rebrand several years earlier, but the 'Impact Wrestling' tag was already too ingrained with the company's weekly telecast, and instead just muddied the waters from an identification standpoint.

Parent company Anthem Entertainment's recent acquisition of Global Force Wrestling came with the decision to push ahead with GFW as the new front-of-house, finally closing the book on one failed company Jeff Jarrett started to push ahead with another.

WWE has unsurprisingly been a benefactor of TNA's tumultuous final straight, picking up several key performers in the last few years that had spent prime spells working the reduced Orlando schedule and achieving a modicum of fame with wrestling fans thanks to the half-decent audience Impact had once established.

Subsequently, Vince McMahon's organisation now has the opportunity to repurpose several lost Impact Zone classics into brand new battles for the substantially broader WWE audience. What's old is new again, or at very least, new-looking.

10. Jeff Hardy Vs Manik (TJ Perkins)

Jeff Hardy Manik
ImpactWrestling.com

A routine clash between the 'Charismatic Enigma' and the anthropomorphised video game character on a September 2013 edition of TNA Impact saw Hardy pick up a win against the X-Division Champion in a non-title match designed to further Manik's feud with Chris Sabin and forge a brief union between the two fliers.

Underneath the mask stood former Cruiserweight Champion TJ Perkins, who now resides predominantly on 205 Live having struggled to find a foothold ironically as a retro game enthusiast despite being the chosen one to hold the re-introduced strap in September 2016.

Lost in the lightweight shuffle as a heel underneath dominant Champion Neville, Perkins and Hardy's return contest would offer the former titleholder an opportunity to remind fans why he was selected to carry the division in the first place.

Both Hardy Boyz have had no issue taking their lumps since their shocking reappearance at WrestleMania 33, and defeat to Perkins would be a welcome use of Jeff's talent and stature as a former (and potentially future) WWE Champion whilst his midcard tag team placement still allows for such a decision.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation for 10 years. Alongside the production of daily written, audio and video content covering WWE and AEW, he also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot on the UK's wrestling podcast charts with over 10,000 episodes and 70,000,000 total downloads. He also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House!, Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast, and has guested on long-running Sunderland AFC podcast Wise Men Say. With WhatCulture, he has provided in-person coverage of some of the biggest pay-per-views and Premium Live Events in wrestling history, including WrestleMania, Survivor Series, All In & Double Or Nothing in destinations such as New York, New Jersey, Chicago, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. He has also been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana, 411Mania and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in music and culture magazines The Crack, Pilot as well as Sunderland AFC's premiere fanzine A Love Supreme. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it every other Saturday at the Stadium Of Light, and at Cribs gigs nationwide.