ZEMA ION – Since the new rules were put into place, Ion has had two chances at winning the X Division title. In his first outing, he avoided losing the fall and being out of the title picture. However, lightning did not strike twice for the Filipino playboy when in his second attempt at glory he was pinned by champion Kenny King, taking him out of the title picture and placing him in this week's top contender's three-way.
CHRIS SABIN – This is the special element of this week’s match. After spending the majority of the last two years on the sidelines, Chris Sabin returned to the ring for the first time since June 2012. The former 4-time champion looks to return in style by reaching the top of the X Division mountain for the fifth time, but this time through the division's new system. After tearing the ACL in both of his knees, his future in the X Division and wrestling in general was in doubt, but Sabin made the bold decision to return to the division where he formerly ruled as champion. Going into this match, the question was whether or not Sabin would be able to use or adapt the style that made him a 4-time champion. Well, we soon found out.
While the match only got about 5 minutes, it was a pretty solid bout. Sabin looked good in his first match back and didn't seem to show much, if not any ring rust. His new entrance video and music looks and sounds very good (the theme sounds like an improved version of his 04-06 theme) and his new finisher looked very well done. The move looks like a variation of the Cradle Shock. In my opinion, not having the Death Valley Driver setup makes it look better, and getting rid of the twist into the slam makes perfect sense to do after two ACL tears.
The use of the X-Cam was again limited. I still don't know why they would cut to it during pin attempts, but again it’s still in the early stages so I'm going to give it some time to hopefully improve. This match saw all three men get some offense in (and some good looking sequences in too) with Sabin cleaning house at the end to round off an impressive return after a long time on the shelf.
With his win, Chris Sabin now moves on to face Petey Williams and Kenny King in what should be a fantastic X Division title match. Going off the recent schedule for the division, the match will probably take place on the taped Impact from Tupelo, MS in two weeks.
After losing to Sabin, Zema Ion becomes the first man to lose back to back matches since the new rules were put in place and finds himself in what I like to call no man's land along with Mason Andrews and Christian York. When we shall see any of these three men try to climb up the X Divisoin ladder is unknown, but we do know who will fill the empty slot left by Zema Ion in the next top contender's match.
On the April 25th edition of Impact, it was announced that TNA were introducing a new concept called "On The Clock." The concept was described as giving fans the chance to step inside the "Draft War Room" and play GM under certain circumstances, the first of which would be deciding who would be the next man after Chris Sabin to enter the top contenders match via the the third slot’s open door policy. The three choices were Rockstar Spud, Suicide and Rashad Cameron. The results were revealed this week, and the winner with 69% of the votes was Suicide.
When I went to vote, I weighed on the three options and ended up voting for Suicide. Rockstar Spud, who is already under contract with TNA, is locked to be brought up from OVW for an X Division match soon (according to Dixie Carter, very soon). Rashad Cameron is someone I would like to see involved. However, if he won the votes, I would expect TNA to use him like Mason Andrews to fill the slot, eat the pin and drop into no man's land with nobody knowing when he may return. This leads me to the third option.....
It will be interesting to see Suicide's return, and it sparks a lot of questions. Who will play Suicide? Will he have a new look? Will this be a one shot deal or a full-fledged comeback? Will he be unmasked?
The mystery still surrounds the character, at least for 69% of the Impact audience, so it should be cool to see the Dark Savior return to battle Zema Ion and either Kenny King, Petey Williams or Chris Sabin. Hopefully, it may give the X Division an interesting storyline to hook people along with the high energy action.
Due to TNA's intentions of only having an X Division match on the taped editions of Impact, Section X has become a bi-weekly column. However, I'm looking to change that and give you guys weekly editions of Section X, so I'm going to put you guys "On The Clock" and ask what you want to see covered in Section X on the weeks the X Division isn’t on Impact. It can be anything from wrestler profiles to past match/event reviews to Top 10's and whatever else you guys can come up with. Post your topic/theme suggestions in the comments below or tweet them to me @MisterTNA and I will reveal what made the cut in the next edition of Section X.
