2024 has already been a maddening year for Total Nonstop Action, in just the span of a few months fans witness the return of TNA Wrestling with the majorly successful Hard To Kill PPV followed up by the return of Okada and Josh Alexander vs. Will Ospreay Part 2 during the tapings.
By February TNA President, Scott D’Amore was gone in a moment that shocked everyone including the locker room with the next few months seeing the company try and in some cases fail to recapture the momentum they had at the start of the year.
Rebellion 2024 was the first PPV after D’Amore’s departure and while the in-ring action was solid, most of the energy the PPV’s are known for was lacking a little bit…Welcome to Distortion Media and here are 10 Interesting Facts About Rebellion 2024.
10. The Tessa Blanchard Rumor
Nothing fires up the Internet Wrestling Community more than a rumor; Sites like Reddit, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter aka ‘X’ have all become havens for anyone with a camera and microphone to presume and project their opinions on wrestling regardless of how right or wrong they are.
So it should come as no surprise that in the week leading up to Rebellion, the IWC began to speculate that former TNA Knockouts Champion and heat magnet, Tessa Blanchard might make her return to the company after videos hyping an impending return on IMPACT!
It’s not exactly clear who started the rumors, but the internet ran with and wondered how the company would use her after her controversial exit back in the summer of 2020.
Thankfully these rumors were put to rest when Blanchard mentioned on CMLL’s YouTube show, CMLL Informa that their are no plans for her returning to TNA and that she currently happy working in CMLL.
9. First Rebellion Since 2019 To Not Be a Sell Out
Rebellion 2022 & 2023 did good business for the company as evident by the fact that the tickets for both shows sold out, Rebellion 2024 was a different story.
The event took place at the Palms Hotel (the same location of HTK 2024) and the initial setup was to the sell tickets in order to fill the 1,180 seats that were available…However due to factors like the company hosting another PPV in the same venue not long after Hard To Kill and the backlash over Scott D’Amore’s sudden departure, any plans for a sold out 2024 Rebellion event seemed almost impossible.
Still the company was able to get an attendance figure of 1,150 which was close to their target number, but to no avail making this the first non pandemic Rebellion to not be considered a sold out show since the very first one in 2019.
8. Laredo Kid Became the 3rd AAA Wrestler to Win Gold in TNA
The pre-show to Rebellion 2024 is perhaps one of the best in recent memory with three matches on the show; The six way tag team match between the Rascalz vs. Chris Bey, Ace Austin and Leon Slater is easily one of the best and the team of Dani Luna and Jody Threat aka Spitfire successfully retained their Knockouts Tag Team Titles against Decay.
The second match on the pre-show saw AAA wrestler, Laredo Kid face off against Crazzy Steve for the Digital Media Championship after their scheduled match at Sacrifice was postpone.
The bout itself isn’t really all that memorable coming just shy of nine minutes with Laredo hitting his finisher to win; Laredo’s victory made him the first singles star who also worked for AAA to win a title in TNA, but it also makes him the third luchador to win a title in TNA/IMPACT with the other two being Pentagon Jr. and Rey Fenix who would become the world tag team champions in 2019 a few months after returning to AAA in June of 2018.
7. Mustafa Ali Made History Weeks Earlier
Mustafa Ali’s post WWE career has been pretty successful as he not only been able to compete on the indies but his also remained undefeated in matches against the likes of Mike Bailey, Chris Sabin, Alex Shelley and Rhino amount countless others.
In addition to winning the TNA X Division title at No Surrender (although he currently isn’t signed with the promotion), the former leader of Retribution was able to become a history maker mere weeks before his Division title match with Jake Something at Rebellion.
On March 28th it was revealed that Ali made it onto the cover of this year’s 2024 Pro Wrestling Illustrated with the kayfabe politician seen holding the X Division Title. Not only did this make Ali the first wrestler of Muslim and Pakistanian descent to win the X Division title but it also made him the first wrestler to appear on the cover of PWI with the X Division Championship since Samoa Joe in May of 2006.
Talk about making the X Division Great Again.
6. The Event Aired on Brian Myers’ Birthday
The System are currently the biggest thing in TNA as they currently hold the world, tag team, and one half of the Knockouts tag team titles and Rebellion ended up being a big night for the group until the surprise return of ‘Broken’ Matt Hardy put a stop to that.
Another notable thing regarding the System and Rebellion is that one of it’s key members was celebrating his birthday the same night of the event. Brian Myers (aka Curt Hawkins in the WWE) had rejoined TNA in 2020 and had been a fixture of the mid carder even winning the Digital Media Championship at one point,
By early 2024, Moose and Myers teamed with Eddie and Alisha Edwards to form the System and by Sacrifice both Eddie and Brian became the new tag team champions; The team was set to defend the belts against the Mike Bailey and Trent Seven aka Speedball Mountain at Rebellion with the event airing the same day as Myers’ 39th birthday.
5. Steve Maclin Actually Re-Signed with the Company
Some wondered if former IMPACT World Champion, Steve Maclin would be booked for Rebellion to which he was as he issued an open challenge at Rebellion.
At the event, Maclin announced that he re-signed a contract with TNA before issuing an open challenge which was accepted by a returning Mike Santana who actually canceled an appearance at Pro Wrestling Rev to make this happen.
Despite Maclin announcing on pay per view that he signed a new contract, fans bizarrely still wondered if the re-signing was legit, it wouldn’t be until days later that a graphic appeared on TNA’s Twitter account showing Maclin re-signing with the promotion.
Not exactly sure why fans needed this to be reassured that Maclin was sticking around, but hey at least his still here and that’s most important thing.
4. Matt Cardona Missed the Show Due to Injury
When Steph De Lander resurfaced in TNA on the March 28th edition of IMPACT! she became the new number contender for the Knockouts World Championship at Rebellion after surviving the first ever all female 8-4-1 match with De Lander securing the win thanks to the interference of Matt Cardona who was Steph’s running buddy during their time on the indies.
Initially Cardona was set be in Steph’s corner during the title match at Rebellion but those plans were scrapped when the former Zack Ryder was out with an injury to right pectoral muscle following a match.
This led to John Skyler and Jason Hotch aka The Good Hands being in the corner of De Lander as a last minute substitution.
3. De Lander’s First PPV Match For a Major Company
Jordynne Grace’s defense of the Knockouts World Championship against Steph De Lander at Rebellion was shaping up to be a potential match of the night what with all the hype and build-up surrounding it…Sadly all that hype couldn’t save this match for become a mess.
The first half of the match sees both women having a competitive match, then all of the bells and whistles come into play. Everything from a ref bump midway thru the bout and a collection of cameos from the Good Hands, PCO, Kon and Sami Callihan ended up ruining what could have been a good title match.
What gets lost in the shuffle about this whole debacle is that this match marked Steph De Lander’s first time wrestling on pay-per-view for a major wrestling company in North American, just a shame the match itself leads a lot to be desired.
2. The Injuries
Aside from some returns, good action and some disappointing finishes to some of the matches, Rebellion also saw a number of wrestlers getting injured as well.
According to backstage interviewer, Gia Miller via a post from TNA’s Twitter account both Eric Young and Josh Alexander suffered serious ear damage with the former temporarily being unable to compete and having to seen a plastic surgery to reattach the ear but the latter was still clear to compete.
Next up is Brian Myers, who got a shoulder injury at some point in his tag title match and was also unable to compete following the PPV (but of course that didn’t last long as he would be back in action the following month).
Finally, their was Hammerstone who was reported to have passed the concussion protocol and was allowed to compete; This soon changed in the month of May as a few more matches by Hammerstone lead to another concussion protocol test which wasn’t so good and lead to the former MLW star having to take some time off.
Hammerstone’s planned bout with Jake Something at Under Siege had to be scrapped with Rich Swann being added in as a last minute substitution.
1. The Only Rebellion with No Title Changes (On the Main Card)
The 2024 edition of Rebellion was pretty much an afterthought outside of the opening match and the returns of Callihan, Santana and ‘Broken’ Matt Hardy with the company still trying to regain it’s momentum not to mention a bit of a shake up behind-the-scenes that would occur in the months that followed.
This show did make history however as it’s the first Rebellion event in company history to not have any titles change hands on the official PPV.
From 2019-23, all of these shows have seen one or more belts change hands on the pay-per-view…But not the 2024 event as Mustafa Ali, Jordynne Grace, Eddie Edwards and Brian Myers, Spitfire (Jody Threat and Dani Luna) and Moose all escaped with their titles intact.
The only exception is the previously mentioned victory by Laredo Kid over Crazzy Steve for the Digital Media Championship, but if don’t include pre-shows into consideration that the point still stands.
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