The Santana show is getting old, but in the best way possible

Let's address the elephant in the arena: TNA Impact on June 11 was essentially a one-man wrecking crew performance. Mike Santana putting his title on the line against Eric Young should have been the main event if it were up to me. Instead, they shoved it to the opening slot like a kid doing their homework while the TV is blasting. As Wrestling Inc reported, Santana cleaned house and looked like a legit star doing it.

The fan forums are, predictably, on fire. You've got the loyalists who think putting the strap on Santana was the birth of a new era. Then you've got the Skeptics, who are convinced the whole promotion is held together by duct tape and prayers. One user on the subreddit pretty much summed up the mood: 'Watching Santana carry the main event slot again is exhausting, but it's the only thing that makes me turn the channel to AMC every Thursday.'

Nic Nemeth showing up after the bell to lay down a challenge? That's the stuff bookers dream of. It feels greasy, it feels personal, and it actually gives me a reason to care about next week. Nemeth knows how to work a crowd into a lather, and pairing him against a guy like Santana is a classic 'big fight feel' setup that doesn't need a convoluted backstory.

The undercard remains a messy experiment in futility

We need to talk about the 'Three Things We Hated' column over at Wrestling Inc because they aren't wrong. While the title matches had teeth, the rest of the show felt like they ran out of coffee halfway through the writers' room meeting. A six-woman tag match is usually a guaranteed way to keep the energy up, but this one felt like it was moving through wet cement.

The contrarians are out in full force defending the technical aspects, telling everyone to 'appreciate the mat work.' Look, I love a good technical grapple as much as the next guy who spends too much time on Cagematch. But when the pacing hits a brick wall, you can't blame fans for checking their phones. The booking right now feels like a chaotic mix of nostalgia bait and 'throw it at the wall and see if it sticks' energy.

Take the Broken Hardys announcement for next week as a prime example of this identity crisis. You have people genuinely losing their minds with excitement because they need that high-octane weirdness back on their screens. Meanwhile, the purists think it's just a desperate attempt to drag in ratings from 2016. It's a binary choice at this point: either you love the kitschy madness, or you want TNA to focus on the grit of the current roster.

The verdict: Is the show actually worth your time?

Here is my take, and you can take it to the bank: The mid-card is a black hole of confusion, but the top-tier talent is doing superhero work to keep the ship afloat. Santana is the current ace, and his presence is the only thing keeping the promotion from dissolving into total obscurity. When he hangs up the boots for the night, the quality drop-off is roughly the size of the Grand Canyon.

If you're looking for consistent, high-level storytelling, you're in the wrong place. TNA is currently functioning as a high-variance gambling addict of a wrestling show. They hit a 10/10 with the opener, then proceed to fumble the transition segments until someone else steps up to save the broadcast. You don't watch Impact for a symphony; you watch it for the occasional, beautiful, car-crash violence.

Moving forward, the pressure is on the creative team to build around that intensity rather than relying on nostalgia stunts. Nemeth against Santana is the obvious play, and if they ruin that by overbooking it with run-ins or bad finishes, they're going to lose the last few holdouts. I'm staying tuned, but I'm keeping my expectations low enough to walk over them. It's a wild ride, even if the wheels are rattling off the frame.