I’m assuming this Xplosion will be similar to the No Surrender one, where this is still final lead ins to Sacrifice. There is something interesting in catching the last few sprinkles after we know how Sacrifice played out. We get a little Trent Seven vs Trey Miguel prior to their Countdown to Sacrifice match, and it seems like the GYV will be in action…so squashing some team that doesn’t matter. Or at least that’s how I interpret that. Let’s find out, shall we?

Ratings:

• Grizzled Young Vets vs Richard Adonis & Braxton Hunter: Grizzled Young Vets win via Grit Your Teeth – SQUASH
• Trent Seven w/Mike Bailey vs Trey Miguel w/Zachary Wentz: Trent wins via BirmingHammer – ***

Results:

Grizzled Young Vets vs Richard Adonis & Braxton Hunter

Wasn’t the Adonis kid one of the ones that got fed to Kon a few weeks ago? Free win for GYV. 

The GYV completely work over Adonis, chain wrestling 101 and then a little bit of bullying in their corner before they get sick of Adonis and tell him to tag out to see what the whitest name in the history of 80s movies has to offer. Drake just lets Braxton get some free shots in, Gibson blind tag and then a quick tandem attack leaves Hunter seeing stars. Gibson just bullies him, Scoop Slams, insulting kicks to the back of the head, Locomotion Corner Rush that punctuates with Drake tagging back in and laying out Braxton with a Water Wheel Kick.

This match has not been close or competitive, but it helps to get across GYV’s aggressive side. Hunter tries to Jawbreaker and then crawl to a tag, but Drake jumps off Hunter for the Poetry in Motion on Adonis, sending him flying from the apron. Lariat, into Doomsday Device and Grit Your Teeth!

TNA+ Flashback Moment: Mustafa Ali vs Chris Sabin, X Division Title, No Surrender 2024

Don West, You’ve Got to be Kidding Me! Trending Topics of the week:

5. Frankie Kazarian suspended until Sacrifice

4. Sacrifice Knockouts Triple Threat

3. Nic Nemeth vs Steve Maclin

2. Sting’s Final Match

1. Alexander Hammerstone officially signed with TNA Wrestling!

Around the Ring with Gia Miller, this week’s interview, Giselle Shaw! Gia brings up past jobs, and Giselle was a flight attendant at some point. Its a lot of quirky little conversation, so this continues Gia’s trend of charming little interviews.

TNA+ Flashback Moment 2: AJ Styles vs RVD, TNA World Heavyweight Championship, Sacrifice 2010

Trent Seven w/Mike Bailey vs Trey Miguel w/Zachary Wentz

Trey and Wentz do some early antics by Ric Flair Elbow Dropping Trent’s towel, and just general sophomoric chidings. Trent takes the first few moves, feeds Trey into the corner and that’s when Trey finds a few openings. A clubbing forearm to the back of Trent sends him into the ropes, Wentz clocks him and Trey goes for a middle rope choke spot. Trey hits his Back Elbows, Knee Kick, Back Flip over the downed opponent, combination. He punctuates it with a weird Elbow thing, so looked kinda dumb. So thankfully Trent catches Trey going to the top rope and sends him on a Superplex ride back to Earth.

Two Knife Edge Chops from Trent, Trey tries to duck the third, eats the DDT instead. A few quick moves after including a Tilt-a-Whirl Side Slam for 2. 7 Star Lariat attempt is blocked, and then Trey hits a multitude of kicks to rock Trent. Move to the top corner, takes too damn long and Trent hits an Avalanche Flowsion! Wentz puts Trey’s foot on the rope to break the pin. Bailey chases Wentz, Trey posts Trent and then tries to use the ropes but Wentz pushes his feet off the ropes.

Bop & Bang into a 7 Star Lariat but only for 2. BirmingHammer set up, float over, tries to go into the Bitter Flowsion but Trey reverses it into a DDT for 2. Lethal Injection attempt from Trey, Knife Edge Chop to the back into BirmingHammer for the win!

Overall Score: 6/10

Well this wasn’t as good as last week, but the main event was pretty solid and lead into the outcome for Sacrifice. So Around the Ring was charming and the main event was good stuff. Also it’s hard to complain when you get some Fortune era TNA, Ric Flair having issues with Nature Boy Jay Lethal and AJ facing off with RVD is always fun.

I do personally wish the Don West Top 5 was more akin to stuff he’d pop over instead of just matches and dirt sheet talking points. Add some personality to the Top 5. Like Don West would love to talk about Dango’s wrestling school, hell Don West would make the number 1 the phone number to sign up. Make it a gimmick instead of just a hollow attempt at paying tribute to Don.

Quick and dirty is, this isn’t a complete waste of time, there’s a few things to enjoy. So hey, at least this one was fun.