TNA Thursday Night Impact! premiere on AMC

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TNA Thursday Night Impact! premiere on AMC
Thursday Night Impact! Debut poster.jpg
Promotional poster featuring The Hardys, Leon Slater, Léi Yǐng Lee, Mike Santana, and Frankie Kazarian
Promotion Total Nonstop Action Wrestling
DateJanuary 15, 2026
City Garland, Texas
Venue Curtis Culwell Center
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The Thursday Night Impact! premiere on AMC was a professional wrestling television special produced by Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA). It marked the debut of TNA's weekly TNA Impact! program on AMC. The event took place on January 15, 2026, from the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland, Texas, and featured wrestlers from TNA and WWE.

Contents

Three matches took place at the event. In the main event, Mike Santana defeated Frankie Kazarian to win the TNA World Championship. In the penultimate match, The Elegance Brand (Heather by Elegance and M by Elegance) defeated The IInspiration (Cassie Lee and Jessie McKay) to win the TNA Knockouts World Tag Team Championship, and in the opening contest, Elijah and The Hardys (Matt Hardy and Jeff Hardy) defeated Order 4 (Mustafa Ali, Jason Hotch and John Skyler). The event also featured special appearances by Dixie Carter, AJ Styles and Bully Ray, the debut of Daria Rae, and the return of Elayna Black.

Production

Background

The event took place at the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland, Texas. Palacio de Convenciones.jpg
The event took place at the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland, Texas.
The TNA Thursday Night Impact! logo that was unveiled on December 2, 2025. Thursday Night iMPACT!.png
The TNA Thursday Night Impact! logo that was unveiled on December 2, 2025.

TNA Impact! is a professional wrestling television program produced by American promotion Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA). It first aired on June 4, 2004, on Fox Sports Net. It previously aired on AXS TV and TNA+ in the United States, owned by its parent company Anthem Sports & Entertainment. [1]

On December 2, 2025, AMC Networks and TNA announced a multi-year media rights agreement in which TNA Impact! will exclusively air on AMC and AMC+ for two hours every Thursday from 9–11 p.m. ET starting on January 15, 2026. The debut episode will take place at the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland, Texas. [2] Fightful Select reported that Thursday Night Impact! on AMC will utilize a production format consisting of live and taped episodes. [3]

On January 9, TNA announced the special appearance by AJ Styles, who last appeared at Slammiversary on July 20, 2025. [4] On January 13, TNA announced that Bully Ray will serve as the special guest commentator during the main event of the AMC debut episode. [5] During the show, Ray also worked as producer. [6]

Storylines

The event included matches that resulted from scripted storylines. Results were predetermined by TNA's writers. [7]

At Bound For Glory on October 12, 2025, Frankie Kazarian and Nic Nemeth won the 22-persion Intergender Call Your Shot Gauntlet for the rights to a trophy and contract that they can invoke anytime for one year for a championship match of their choosing. [8] On the November 13, 2025, episode of Impact!, various NXT wrestlers attacked TNA World Champion Mike Santana and Ryan Nemeth. Kazarian appeared to invoke his Call Your Shot Gauntlet title opportunity against Santana for the TNA World Championship, which he went on to win. [9] On the December 11, 2025, episode of Impact!, Santana revealed that he will get his contractually obligated rematch against Frankie Kazarian for the TNA World Championship at Genesis on January 17, 2026, at the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland, Texas. [10] On January 1, 2026, Santana revealed that TNA Director of Authority Santino Marella moved their match two days early at Thursday Night Impact!'s debut episode on AMC. [11]

Canceled match

TNA X Division Champion Leon Slater was originally slated to defend his title against Myron Reed at the event. Despite Reed signing with All Elite Wrestling (AEW) along with his fellow The Rascalz stablemates, [12] he was willing to fulfill his remaining obligation with TNA. The match was still shelved due to Slater not having a valid visa, leaving him unable to travel and work outside England. [13]

Reception

The show had 173.000 viewers, with a 0.04 share in the 18-49 demo. [14] The show had a negative reception and, according to Fightful, the backstage talent had a pesimistic reception of the event. [15] Thomas Hall and Himanshu Doi, both 411Mania's writers, reviewed the episode: Hall gave it a 3, calling it a "disaster", while Doi gave it a 6.7, but mentioning "For someone that would have been tuning in for the first time in a while, I don't think they did quite enough to hook those viewers in." [16]

Results

No.ResultsStipulationsTimes [17]
1 Elijah and The Hardys (Jeff Hardy and Matt Hardy) defeated Order 4 (Mustafa Ali, Jason Hotch, and John Skyler) by pinfall Six-man tag team match [18] 8:20
2 The Elegance Brand (Heather by Elegance and M by Elegance) (with Ash by Elegance, The Personal Concierge, Mr. Elegance, and Perez Hilton) defeated The IInspiration (Cassie Lee and Jessie McKay) (c) by pinfall Tag team match for the TNA Knockouts World Tag Team Championship [19] 9:30
3 Mike Santana defeated Frankie Kazarian (c) by pinfall Singles match for the TNA Heavyweight Championship [11] 17:00
(c) – the champion(s) heading into the match

References

  1. ↑ "IMPACT Wrestling Announces Move to AXS TV | AXS TV". Archived from the original on September 22, 2019. Retrieved September 12, 2019.
  2. ↑ TNA Wrestling Staff (December 2, 2025). "AMC NETWORKS & TNA WRESTLING ANNOUNCE AGREEMENT TO BRING TNA'S FLAGSHIP WEEKLY TV SHOW TO AMC: THURSDAY NIGHT iMPACT!". Total Nonstop Action Wrestling . Retrieved January 15, 2026.
  3. ↑ Lambert, Jeremy (December 2, 2025). "TNA On AMC To Be A Mixture Of Live And Taped Shows". Fightful. Retrieved January 15, 2026.
  4. ↑ TNA Wrestling Staff (January 9, 2026). "AJ Styles Returns to TNA Wrestling LIVE January 15 on Premiere of Thursday Night iMPACT! on AMC". Total Nonstop Action Wrestling . Retrieved January 15, 2026.
  5. ↑ TNA Wrestling Staff (January 13, 2026). "Bully Ray Will Be the Special Guest Commentator for the Main Event of Thursday Night iMPACT! On AMC Premiere". Total Nonstop Action Wrestling . Retrieved January 15, 2026.
  6. ↑ Martínez, Sebastián. "Bully Ray tuvo un papel clave tras bastidores en el debut de TNA en AMC". Solowrestling. Retrieved January 21, 2026.
  7. ↑ Grabianowski, Ed (January 13, 2006). "How Pro Wrestling Works". HowStuffWorks. Discovery Communications. Archived from the original on November 29, 2013. Retrieved March 5, 2012.
  8. ↑ Lambert, Jeremy (October 12, 2025). "Nic Nemeth And Frankie Kazarian Win Call Your Shot Gauntlet At TNA Bound For Glory". Fightful. Retrieved January 15, 2025.
  9. ↑ Thompson, Andrew (November 13, 2025). "Frankie Kazarian Defeats Mike Santana To Become TNA World Champion". Fightful. Retrieved January 15, 2025.
  10. ↑ Thompson, Andrew (December 11, 2025). "Mike Santana Challenging Frankie Kazarian For TNA World Championship At TNA Genesis 2026". Fightful. Retrieved January 15, 2025.
  11. 1 2 TNA Wrestling Staff (January 1, 2026). "Frankie Kazarian vs. Mike Santana for the TNA Heavyweight Title Now Set for the Premiere of Thursday Night iMPACT! on AMC". Total Nonstop Action Wrestling . Retrieved January 15, 2026.
  12. ↑ Lambert, Jeremy (January 14, 2026). "The Rascalz Signed By AEW". Fightful. Retrieved January 15, 2025.
  13. ↑ Thompson, Andrew. "Leon Slater Issues Apology For Not Being At TNA On AMC Premiere & Genesis PPV".
  14. ↑ Rubio, Antonio. "Se revela el dato de audiencia del estreno de Thursday Night iMPACT en AMC". Solowrestling. Retrieved January 21, 2026.
  15. ↑ Alvarez, Francisco. "El talento de TNA se mostró pesimista de cara al show del estreno en AMC". Solowrestling. Retrieved January 21, 2026.
  16. ↑ https://411mania.com/wrestling/halls-tna-impact-wrestling-review-debut-on-amc-1-15-26/
  17. ↑ Powell, Jason (January 15, 2026). "TNA Impact results (1/15): Powell's review of Frankie Kazarian vs. Mike Santana for the TNA World Championship, AJ Styles' appearance, Matt Hardy, Jeff Hardy, and Elijah vs. Order 4". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Retrieved January 15, 2026.
  18. ↑ TNA Wrestling Staff (January 14, 2026). "TNA Thursday Night iMPACT! on AMC Preview - January 15, 2026". Total Nonstop Action Wrestling . Retrieved January 15, 2026.
  19. ↑ Thompson, Andrew (January 8, 2026). "The IInspiration Defending Knockouts World Tag Team Titles Against Elegance Brand On TNA's AMC Premiere Show". Fightful. Retrieved January 15, 2026.
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