Storylines
The event featured professional wrestling matches that involve different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds and storylines. Wrestlers portray villains, heroes, or less distinguishable characters in scripted events that build tension and culminate in a wrestling match or series of matches. [4]
On the April 3 episode of TNA Impact!, TNA Director of Authority Santino Marella came to the stage for an announcement, interrupting a promo between self-declared co-TNA Digital Media Champions Steph De Lander and Mance Warner. After demanding De Lander surrender the title belt, Marella immediately deactivated it to replace it with the TNA International Championship. [5] [6] The inaugural champion would be determined via a tournament culminating at Unbreakable, consisting of three three-way matches where the winners meet in the three-way finals, in honor of the 20th anniversary of the three-way match between AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, and TNA X Division Champion Christopher Daniels that main evented the first Unbreakable event – a match considered to be one of the greatest in TNA history and that helped put TNA on the map as a major national promotion.
The first-round matches would be announced later that night – Eddie Edwards vs. Ace Austin vs. Steve Maclin; Zachary Wentz vs. JDC vs. Eric Young; and A. J. Francis vs. Mance Warner vs. Sami Callihan. [7] The latter match took place the following week, with Francis pinning Callihan to advance. [8] [9]
Sami Callihan, and Mance Warner and Steph De Lander had been feuding ever since the January 23 live episode of TNA Impact!, where De Lander confronted Callihan while carrying the TNA Digital Media Championship that she won in her "divorce" from on-screen husband PCO. Warner, De Lander's real-life fiancé, would debut and attack Callihan shortly after. [10] [11] Callihan and Warner would continually get into brawls for the next month, culminating in a street fight at Sacrifice which Warner won. [12] [13] Even after that, Callihan kept pursuing Warner and De Lander. On the March 27 TNA Impact!, Callihan, Warner, and De Lander had a war of words mediated by Santino Marella, but it ended when De Lander threw hot coffee into Callihan's face, kayfabe injuring his right eye. [14] [15] On the following week, Callihan demanded to be matched with Warner for the first round of the TNA International Championship tournament, replacing Zachary Wentz in their match with A. J. Francis. [5] [6] After both men failed to advance in the tournament, Callihan demanded that Marella give him one more match with Warner at Unbreakable, this time in Barbed Wire Massacre. [8] [9] The match was made official later that night. [16]
