TNA’s Knockouts Champion held another open challenge on tonight’s episode of Impact, and it was another delightful crossover between TNA and WWE NXT. Answering the challenge was actually Arianna Grace, though she wasn’t the one facing Grace, as she introduced Karmen Petrovic as Grace’s challenger. Petrovic would give the Champ a solid run, but Grace was too much to overcome for the up and coming NXT star, and Grace retained her Knockouts Championship. She would later be ambushed however after the lights went out, and the pillow that was sitting next to her when they came back on indicates that her opponent on next week’s NXT will be the rather frightening Wendy Choo.
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An NXT Challenge
Petrovic came out swinging and gave the Champ some fits early, but Grace showed off her impressive power with a vicious spine buster into a cover, but Petrovic kicked out at 2. Petrovic tried to connect with a roundhouse at one point but then got her leg knocked back and put up top as Jordynne tried to bring the match to a close.
While Grace got Petrovic up to the top rope, the challenger was able to knock Grace back down to the mat and hit an impressive cross body. Unfortunately she missed with a strike and Grace capitalized, hitting the Juggernaut Driver and bringing the Title showdown to an end.
Lights Out
That wasn’t the full story though, as when Grace went to celebrate the lights suddenly went off and no one knew what was happening. Rosemary had been watching the entire match from the upper level, and many thought she might have attacked Grace, but when the lights came back on Rosemary was still up there and Grace was knocked out cold on the mat.
The big clue though was the pillow that was now sitting next to Grace in the ring, which is the trademark of NXT’s Wendy Choo, or it was before she went a more supernatural direction. Rosemary has been helping Choo on NXT in recent weeks, and now it seems Choo is returning the favor and attacking Rosemary’s enemy as well.
This also is a big clue as to who Grace will face when she heads to NXT for an open challenge next week, something she announced on this past week’s episode. Even if she doesn’t end up facing Choo one-on-one, you can bet that Choo and Rosemary will have some sort of effect on what happens next week, and we can’t wait to see how it all plays out.
What did you think of the match, and who do you want to see Grace on next week’s NXT? You can talk all things wrestling with me on Threads and Twitter @mattaguilarcb!
