It’s the second edition of Wrestling with the Rest, and this week, all three of our promotions have world titles on the line. Bandido’s ROH World Championship, Xia Brookside’s TNA Knockouts World Championship, The Broken Hardys’ TNA World Tag Team Championships, and Shotzi’s MLW Women’s World Championship are all up for grabs this week.
Did any titles change hands? Did any of these shows have must-watch matches? Both these questions and more will be answered as we recap and review TNA IMPACT!, ROH TV, and MLW Fusion for the week of July 5–11, 2026.
ROH on Honor Club, July 9, 2026 – An Old West Shootout
This week was back to normal as Ring of Honor returned to its 8 p.m. Thursday night timeslot, making it our first show of the week. In its return, Ring of Honor put out a show where pretty much every match, including the ones that looked on paper to be simple squashes, ended up being at least “good.” Even Satnam Singh’s match against fellow big man Bruss Hamilton was far more competitive than you would imagine from a match card which read, “Satnam Singh in Action.”
However, the cream of the crop was our main event, where ROH World Champion Bandido defended his title against a man whom he’d previously stolen an episode of AEW Collision with, “The Bounty Hunter” Bryan Keith. Yet again, the two outlaws had an incredible match, complete with the insane aura-off of Bandido’s gun taunt versus Keith spinning his poncho, Bandido’s bilingual trash talk, and the Bounty Hunter having a late-match rally where it really looked like he might upset the champion (as improbable as that sounded going into the match).
Though Bandido won the match, I do get to state a claim I will likely repeat often as these ROH reviews continue: Bryan Keith is perhaps the most underrated in-ring competitor under Tony Khan’s umbrella. Perhaps this is just loyalty going back to Bryan Keith’s Deadlock Pro Wrestling days, but I’ve been enamored with Keith’s wrestling for years. I can think of many matches in ROH, AEW, or the indie scene where Keith showed out, and even then, this is one of his better matches. Check this one out if you have the time.
Match of the Week: Juice Robinson & Ace Austin vs The Grizzled Young Veterans
Outside of the main event, the opening match of ROH TV was also a stellar tag match which really picked up as it went on. Much like Bryan Keith, I also find GYV to be incredibly underrated, hampered by a rough debut and too much time repeating the same slogan on AEW TV. Every time I’ve caught them wrestling in Ring of Honor, I’ve again been reminded why I was so into their work in the British indies, NXT UK, and (again) DPW. Combining that with my decade of loving Juice Robinson and my more recent adoration of Ace Austin, and this match was always going to work.
This match featured Ace’s flashy moves and Juice’s charisma popping the crowd while GYV did whatever they could to cheat and go for quick roll-ups. About halfway through the match, every single pinfall attempt looked like it could be the actual end, and every kickout or break up caused me to take a deep breath. I do spoil the result in the results below this, but here, I’m actually going to refrain from saying who wins because of the fun ending stretch. If you have the means, watch ROH TV’s show opener!
Wrestler of the Week: Mance Warner
Mance Warner didn’t mean to lie last week, but he did. When he said he could take on any competitor in any type of match, to include pure rules, he forgot one thing: he has no idea how pure rules work. During his pure rules match against Daddy Magic, both Mancer and Menard started the match by shaking the ref’s hands, shook everyone at ringside’s hands, and each proceeded to out of all three rope breaks in under a minute’s time. About two minutes in, Mance grabbed a chair and prepared to deck Menard with it, only to be admonished by the referee. Mancer looked up at Brandon Martinez and announced clearly, “I don’t know the rules!” before putting the chair down and switching tactics.
It was a 5-minute match which fell way outside of the expectations of any pure rules match, yet I am already excited at the prospect of Mance Warner picking up enough wins to challenge Lee Moriarty. Heck, as commentary put it, it might even take an outside-the-box thinker like Mancer to finally dethrone the longest reigning Pure Champion. I can’t in good conscience say that I ever want to see Lee Moriarrty lose anything, but if it were Mancer, I wouldn’t be quite as upset as I could be.
Results and Recap:
- A video package shows Bryan Keith ready to collect Bandido’s bounty.
- The Bang Bang Gang (Juice Robinson & Ace Austin) def. The Grizzled Young Veterans
- Skyflight w/Christopher Daniels def. The Frat House
- A vignette plays where Lio Rush again struggles to touch his ROH TV Title, but this time, once he does, black slime oozes off of it and attaches itself to his hands.
- Bishop Kaun def. Royce Isaacs
- Mina Shirakawa & Queen Aminata def. Kaci Lennox and Sahara Se7en
- Caprice Coleman interviews Action Andretti, who says relationships are built on trust, and he doesn’t know the Blackheart. Andretti says he didn’t know Lio was that crazy and he cannot associate with weirdos. He also says Lio’s actions must have hurt Lacey Lane, who had just joined Cru.
- Lethal Twist def. Serpentico & Los Colons after Lee Johnson removes Serpentico’s mask
- Backstage, Beef again states that he and the Premier Athletes want the 6-Man titles. Ariya Daivari speaks over him, restating that they want the 6-Man Titles, which Mark Sterling and Tony Nese cheer on while Beef looks confused about being dubbed over in real time.
- Pure Rules: Mance Warner def. “Daddy Magic” Matt Menard (with judges Chris Heri, Madison Rayne, and Jerry Lynn)
- Isla Dawn def. Kelsey Raegan, then keeps attacking her after the bell
- Satnam Singh def. Bruss Hamilton
- Rosario Grillo returns to ROH and introduces KayJay Impala and Hayden Seal as Il Cartello Grillo, a new threat to Ring of Honor.
- The Rascalz (Dezmond Xavier & Zachary Wentz) & The Von Erichs def. Nathan Cruz & Il Cartello Grillo
- Tehuti Miles def. LSG
- ROH World Championship: Bandido [c] def. Bryan Keith
TNA IMPACT! July 9, 2026 – Championship Tuesday
TNA’s Knockouts division has been one of the (and at times THE) most premier destinations for women’s wrestling in North America, and this show was a showcase of that status. When commentator Tom Hannifan called this episode of IMPACT! “Championship Tuesday” during the opening, three of the four matches with title implications were women’s matches, including two matches in the Knockouts TV Title tournament and a no disqualification match for the Knockouts World Championship in the main event.
Following up from last week’s IMPACT! and Slammiversary, Léi Ying Lee got her contractual championship rematch for her Knockouts Championship, which she lost to former friend Xia Brookside under dubious means at TNA’s big summer show. However, cheating or not, one clear victory that Brookside gained at Slammiversary was taking out Lee’s leg prior to using the exposed turnbuckle. Though TNA doctors had cleared Lee, the TNA injury report noted that Lee’s leg still wasn’t at 100%.
During the match, Brookside made extensive use of a leather belt, beating Lee with it and, at one point, using it to get leverage on a submission, pulling Lee’s leg close to her head. Lee tried to bring in a kendo stick, but even this ended up in Brookside’s hands. As the match went on, Lee’s leg couldn’t fully support her, and every attempt to take the match to a more hardcore level resulted in Lee getting hurt even more, culminating with Lee punching the chair Xia was using as a shield and going down due to Xia’s Darkside finishing maneuver. It was a great main event, though I would not personally call it the best Knockouts division match of the night.
Match of the Week: TNA Knockouts TV Title Tournament, Round 1: Gabby Forza vs Jody Threat
One thing I didn’t mention in the ROH review was how hard-hitting the Bishop Kaun and Royce Isaacs match was, but TNA upped the ante by adding some stakes. Most of the tournament matches I’ve seen have had fairly unpredictable results going into them, and between newcomer Gabby Forza and tag team specialist Jody Threat, neither woman was a sure-fire winner here. However, this unpredictability, plus the fact that these women were hitting each other like heavy bags, made this match incredibly fun to watch. Each woman hit an insane lariat on the other, and at one point, Jody Threat hit a wild crossbody the likes of which I’d never seen before. My favorite line from this match, courtesy of commentator Matthew Rehwolt: “Big difference between barbells and humans, but Gabby Forza doesn’t know the difference!” It’s a big gnome versus a huge threat, and once again, I’m fully recommending this one, so if you don’t want it spoiled, check it out on YouTube before we get to the recap section.
Wrestler(s) of the Week: Ricky Sosa and Bear Bronson
As I mentioned last week, I’m going to have to actively refrain from giving this spot to Leon Slater every week, but not only do I think Gabby Forza and Jody Threat had the stand out performances of the night, but I also think Slater was almost matched in terms of impressiveness with two of the other competitors in his match. Ricky Sosa is a rising star in TNA, hailing from Belgium and bringing with him a banger theme song which got him popular on Twitter a few months back. Every time he comes to the ring, I cannot help but join with Ricky, the crowd, and his song, as the chant goes, “Bang! Bang! Sosa! Sosa!” It helps that he’s also a very quick and flashy athlete in the ring, doing fun dives and big leaps to and fro.
However, I was also very impressed with Bear Bronson, whom I’d heard had been reinventing himself in TNA and on the indies since leaving AEW last year. Though his name is getting thrown around as a star of the hardcore independent scene, this match also showed that Bronson simply stands out as a big man, especially when going toe-to-toe with fellow great big man Dutch of the Righteous. However, I couldn’t ignore how smooth Bronson looked as he launched off the apron and hit a shoulder tackle to Dutch at ringside. The move was quite…impactful, if you will.
Results and Recap:
- TNA World Tag Team Championships: The Broken Hardyz [c] def. The Great Hands w/Tasha Steelz, after which Mustafa Ali comes out with Special Agent Zero, stares at the Great Hands, and makes a phone call.
- In an interview, Léi Ying Lee says Xia wanted a championship more than friendship, but tonight, Xia also gets a fight. “That title belongs to a real warrior,” Lee says.
- Frankie Kazarian hosts “The King’s Speech” with special guest Moose. Kazarian says he imagines that Moose’s family will likely be traumatized after the Eddie Edwards match. Moose says that his family is fine and he’s ready to move on from Edwards and get back to dominating TNA as the face of the franchise. Kazarian gets offended, and Moose asks who crowned Kazarian as “king.” Both men run down their histories as pillars of TNA, then Moose realizes they’ve never fought 1-on-1 and challenges Kaz. Kazarian says no, instead introducing A. J. Francis. Francis says Moose left the NFL the year before Francis got there out of fear, but when Moose challenges Francis to a match, manager Expressions Oozing says they accept…but for next week.
- Backstage, Elijah says he wants people who’ve agreed to walk with Elijah to know that they’re walking somewhere, and the promised land they’re headed to is the TNA World Championship.
- TNA Knockouts TV Title Tournament, Round 1: Indi Hartwell def. Vicious Vicki Venuto
- TNA’s weekly injury report shows that the Elegance Brand’s personal concierge is still out after Rosemary’s mist, Léi Ying Lee is cleared but working with a bad leg, Allie sustained a neck injury last week, and (breaking news) TNA World Champion Nic Nemeth is in the best shape of his life.
- In a video, Fabian Aichner talks about growing up in Italy, being inspired to be something by watching Arnold Schwarzenegger as a kid and later stumbling upon wrestling. Aichner believes that he can become X-Division Champion because he has the mentality of a gladiator.
- Leon Slater & Ricky Sosa def. The System (Brian Myers & Bear Bronson) and The Righteous
- Ryan Nemeth approaches Daria Rae and Santino Marella backstage to warn them that he thinks KC Navarro is going to besmirch his brother’s good name tonight. Santino tells Ryan to just let KC vent, but Daria tells both men that she believs Ryan has the right to defend his family’s name if KC does go out there and badmouth the champ.
- TNA Knockouts TV Title Tournament, Round 1: Jody Threat def. Gabby Forza
- Mustafa Ali looks in a mirror and says that change is needed, so next week, there will be a State of the Order address, with attendance mandatory. Whom Ali was speaking to off-screen remains a mystery.
- KC Navarro comes out and says he demands answers for why Nic Nemeth attacked him last week. The TNA World Champion comes out and says he thought he could make Navarro a star, but Navarro just doesn’t have “it.” Navarro says he busted his butt for 11 years to get to TNA and knows he has “it,” but even more so, because Navarro beat Ryan Nemeth last week, he peoved Ryan does not have it. Ryan attacks Navarro from behind, and Nic tells KC that no one on the roster belongs further away from Nemeth than him and that KC better never come near his family again.
- TNA Knockouts World Championship/No DQ: Xia Brookside def. Léi Ying Lee
MLW Fusion, July 11, 2026 – Contra at War
One of the biggest feuds in Major League Wrestling today is between Contra Unit and the recently formed Contra Mercs. After Mads Krule Krugger was betrayed by his former teammates in the original Contra and was hit in the head with a spike, Gallows and Anderson found him wandering in a swamp and decided to bring Krule into their group with Shotzi, also bearing the name “Contra.”
Where the original Contra Unit is currently an evil, propaganda-using cabal of mostly Japanese stars, the Contra Mercs like to get drunk and high together and support each other in their battles, using the Contra name and getting cheered while the original group retains their villainy. Tonight’s show featured reference to Contra in every match, with the opening match being focused on KUSHIDA’s Middleweight Championship, Contra Unit’s Okumura battling Labron Kozone, the Contra Mercs’ Shotzi defending her Women’s World Championship, and the main event seeing the Mercs take on the Unit. All the while, commentary repeatedly makes mention that Contra Unit have been taking orders from mysterious advisor called “The Serpent.”
Rather than follow any sort of tag rules, the main event was a brawl the whole time, mostly focusing on Krule and Contra Unit’s replacement for him, “The Butcher of the Caribbean” Kananga, who even wears a mask similar to Krule’s. The two never really brawled in the match, instead beating up their smaller opponents; however, when they did finally face off, Ikuro Kwon grabbed at Krule’s ankles for a distraction. Kwon spat red mist in Krule’s face—ending the match in a DQ—but Krule chokeslammed Kwon anyway. Kananga attacked the distracted Krule and tried to hit him in the head with another spike, but the Good Brothers made the save. Though the Contra Mercs won this battle, it’s clear the war is far from over.
Match of the Week: Magnus vs Titan
In a match with title implications for MLW’s middleweight division, two of CMLL’s brightest youngest stars did battle in a match that made both of them seem pretty great. Between beautiful dives, a powerbomb to the outside that I thought was going to kill Titan, and some fun transitions into submission holds, this match was a great lucha showcase to start the show. Another bonus: as someone who didn’t know either of these men’s finishers going into the match (and still isn’t sure what they are now), this match was especially fun to watch as both men started hitting super high-impact moves towards the backend of the match. Magnus’s job as a heelish base is sort of thankless when crowds are primed to see masked men do high-flying moves and pop the crowd, but he played his role well in this match and saved Titan’s life just as many times as he seemingly endangered it. Lots of fun!
Wrestler of the Week: Shotzi
I wasn’t sure how to wrap my head around the Contra feud last week because both sides seemed like heels to me, but now that I’ve seen how the crowd reacts to her entrance, I can confirm that Shotzi is not just a good guy, but an incredibly over one. Much like Magnus in the opening match, Shotzi was the recipient of a lot of flashy moves, but I do appreciate the way that Shotzi put her body on the line for Kira’s international spotlight. Commentary stated that Shotzi has seemed right at home since joining MLW, and I concur. It’s nice to see her treated like a star, and it’s even cooler to see that she comes off like one.
Results and Recap:
- Titan def. Magnus, then grabs a tequila from Don Gato and daps him up.
- MLW updates us on their upcoming supercards, with Blood and Thunder coming up in 4 weeks and one of their biggest shows of the year, Fightland, coming up in 9 weeks.
- In a video originally posted on social media, the new incarnation of the Skyscrapers call out the Good Brothers, saying that they’re ready to end things with them because the Skyscrapers have been dominating them for months and are also better looking than them.
- In response to last week’s Contra Unit propaganda videos, the Contra Mercs say the “only Contra that matters” is ready to bring the pain and that Shotzi is going to defend her title tonight because she’s crazy.
- A very brief video shows a woman dressed in white fur, breathing heavily in a snowy environment. The video cuts briefly to a human heart being covered with dripping blood before returning to a shot of the lower half of the woman’s face, all while a wolf howls in the background.
- MLW Women’s World Championship: Shotzi [c] def. Kira, then also grabs a bottle of tequila from Don Gato at ringside.
- A new edition of Shotzi’s “Graveyard Shift” talk show is announced for next week with special guest Scarlett Bordeaux.
- Labron Kozone def. Okumura.
- Rich Bocchini introduces the “new” Skyscrapers, and Donovan Dijak takes issue with this label, saying that there’s nothing new about the tag champs and that they are the only, the TOWERING Skyscrapers. Josh Bishop adds that the Skyscrapers are the baddest tag team in MLW history. When asked what’s next, Dijak responds, “Any damn thing we want,” while commentary makes note that the Skyscrapers are now rolling three-deep (still including Bishop “WWE SmackDown’s Baron Corbin” Dyer).
- GBOT, formerly known as Gallus and now with a name meaning “Glasgow Boys on Top,” say they’re not just here to make up the numbers but instead to win tag gold, singles gold, and anything else MLW has to offer.
- Contra Mercs (Krule & The Good Brothers) w/Shotzi def. Contra Unit (Ikuro Kwon, KUSHIDA & Kananga) by DQ when Kwon spits red mist in Krule’s eyes. After the match, Kananga tries to hit Krule with a spike, but the Good Brothers save him and both sides brawl.
Another week down, and the three shows’ differences are starting to stand out more. While I like that TNA IMPACT! has a fairly standard “sports entertainment” set up and MLW Fusion reminds me of a more old school Saturday-night type show, I feel like ROH’s more match-based show — mostly lacking in the story department — actually won them the week. I really liked most of the matches Ring of Honor put out this week, but if an of these three shows piqued your interest, maybe give them a watch this week.
However, if you still don’t have the time or quite enough interest, don’t fret. We’ll be back with another edition of Wrestling with the Rest next Monday!
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