TNA Impact Preview (Dec. 15, 2016): Total Nonstop Deletion!

TNA Impact is back tonight (Dec. 15, 2016) with its season finale-esque show. Oh, and it’s filmed completely at Matt Hardy’s compound and call Total Nonstop Deletion. Here are our five question about Impact tonight.

1) Will any titles change hands?

For the first time in TNA history that I can remember, a title will be defended far from a wrestling ring in an arena. In fact more than one will.

Eddie Edwards will defend his TNA title against Bobby Lashley. The Broken Hardys will defend their titles against whomever shows up and tries to fight them. (Matt has tried to invite every tag team he can think of.) Rosemary, the Knockouts champion, will be in action but no word if her title is on the line. Sienna is the other Knockout announced for tonight so it’s possible they lock up for the title.

The TNA title would feel weird changing hands here tonight, especially since they are just starting an EC3/Eddie Edwards feud. Since this is a Hardy event and they are the tag champs, if any title changes hands, that would make the most sense. That being said, I don’t think any titles will end up changing hands, but this is Total Nonstop Deletion so we should expect anything.

2) Are all the matches going to happen at the same time?

If you take a close look at the trailer (and I did), you’ll see Eddie Edwards fighting Lashley while other people fight around them. This leads me to believe that every match is going to happen at the same time.

I mean, why not? Matt Hardy’s broken world is rather unconventional. It’s the perfect time to run three (or more) matches at the same time. That way they can skip all over the place to minimize lulls. Plus, random people can accidentally or purposely interfere in other matches adding to the unpredictability to this already unpredictable event.

3) Will the Bucks of Youth be represented at all?

Recently, Matt Hardy has challenged the Young Bucks to a big match on Ring of Honor’s turf. This led many to wonder weather the ROH tag champion Bucks will also come on over to TNA in a way to “return the favor.”

The chances are that Matt and Nick Jackson were not at Cameron to tape this. That type of thing would have leaked already. But it doesn’t mean they didn’t film a little something elsewhere to play towards the end of tonight’s show to build up a cross promotional Hardys/Bucks feud for 2017!

4) Who will King Maxel’s opponent be?

Matt’s son Maxel will be in the ring tonight against an unknown opponent. If you want to take a moment to re-read that last sentence, go right ahead. While Rockstar’s Spud obsession over him on Twitter hints that the Brit will be facing the Heir to the Hardy name, nothing is confirmed.

Spud is a good choice because he can lose to an 18 month old child and not really suffer too much since he’s a comedy act. And hell, Disco Inferno already took a loss to Maxell. I doubt Dave Batista will be Maxel’s opponent though.

5) Is two hours too long for this?

Tonight is quite the undertaking. For two hours, we will see Matt Hardy’s Broken Universe. We’ve never seen it this long. The Final Deletion was maybe 20 minutes (with a few 3-5 minutes scenes to set it up prior.) Up to night, all of Hardy’s bits were broken up with the Impact Zone in ring happenings to prevent it from wearing out its welcome.

But not tonight. Tonight it’s just the Final Deletion for 2-hours. And that lends the possibility of long lulls between the typical Hardy craziness. Hopefully they realize this and have enough going on at once (hence perhaps running all matches at the same time) so there’s always something going on. Check with say Matt and Abyss doing something nuts, then check in on the TNA title match, then show someone else showing up to the event. If they run it like that, they may be able to minimize long periods of inaction.

Tonight will be a big test for Matt Hardy’s Broken brilliance. He’s found great success with the gimmick and while this is certainly not for everyone, none of his events have been widely panned. However, two hours will give fans much more opportunity to tire of it.

We’ll see how TNA and Matt Hardy do their best to keep this entertaining the entire way through.

Total Nonstop Deletion airs tonight at 8 EST on Pop TV. Who’s watching?