Impact Wrestling Turning Point (2021)

Background Turning Point was a pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by Impact Wrestling (then known as Total Nonstop Action Wrestling) between 2004 and 2012. In 2013, TNA discontinued most of its monthly pay-per-view events in favor of the pre-recorded One Night Only events. The event would be held as a special episode of Impact! in 2013, 2015, 2016, and has been a monthly special for Impact Plus since the 2019 event. On October 4, 2021, Impact announced that Turning Point would be held at Sam's Town Live in Sunrise Manor, Nevada on November 20, 2021. Storylines The event featured several professional wrestling matches, which involve different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds, plots, and storylines. Storylines were produced on Impact's weekly television program. entered Turning Point as Impact World Champion. At Bound for Glory, Moose last eliminated Matt Cardona to win the Call Your Shot Gauntlet, earning a trophy that he can use for a title match of his choice anytime. That match also featured W. Morrissey - who aligned with Moose for much of the match before being eliminated by him - and Moose's old friend turned rival Eddie Edwards. Later in the night, Josh Alexander defeated Christian Cage to win the Impact World Championship. However, Moose would later attack Alexander and utilize the Call Your Shot Trophy, effectively becoming the new Impact World Champion. The following week on Impact!, Moose would attack Edwards during a backstage interview, where they brawled into the arena and battered each other with various weapons. Impact Executive Vice President Scott D'Amore would later come out and announce that the two will face off for the Impact World Championship in a Full Metal Mayhem match. At the event, Anderson stole a pin on Bey after Robinson hit him with a frog splash, allowing for The Good Brothers to retain the titles. On the November 4 episode of Impact!, Laredo Kid won a number one contender's four-way match against Black Taurus, Rohit Raju, and Steve Maclin, earning him a match against Trey Miguel for the Impact X Division Championship at Turning Point. However, Maclin believed that he deserved another opportunity due to he has never been pinned or submitted. Scott D'Amore then booked Maclin in a match against Laredo Kid, where if he won, he would be added to the title match at Turning Point. At Knockouts Knockdown, Mercedes Martinez won the Knockouts Knockdown Tournament to become the number one contender for the Impact Knockouts World Championship. At Bound for Glory, Mickie James defeated Deonna Purrazzo to win the Knockouts World Championship for a fourth time. On the November 4 episode of Impact!, Decay confronted the champions on the set of Madison Rayne's "Locker Room Talk" to invoke their rematch clause, Since then, Austin had been wearing a shirt saying "I Beat Chris Sabin" (much in the same vain as Greg Valentine's "I Broke Wahoo's Leg" and Terry Funk's "Dusty Sucks Eggs" t-shirts). Miffed at Austin parading around in the shirt despite beating him uncleanly, Sabin challenged Austin to a rematch at Turning Point. == Event ==

Countdown to Turning Point Two matches were contested on the Countdown to Turning Point pre-show. In the first match, FinJuice (David Finlay and Juice Robinson) fought against the team of Raj Singh and Rohit Raju. In the end, FinJuice hit the Doomsday Device to gain the victory. Next, a tag team match was contested between Heath and Rhino against Violent By Design (Eric Young and Joe Doering) (with Deaner). Rhino and Doering trade punches with each other and tag in Heath and Young, respectively. Heath gets some strikes onto a tagged in Doering, but gets distracted by Deaner from ringside, who then gets ejected by the referee. Doering and Young tag each other to continue the assault on Heath, the former hitting a forearm and an elbow drop for two. Doering tags Young as he hits a sidewalk slam on Heath, allowing Young to hit a top-rope elbow drop for another two count. Heath avoids an attack from Young, who keeps him from tagging Rhino in the match. Doering tags in to beat down on Heath, who manages to get the tag on Rhino. Rhino goes after a tagged in Young with some clotheslines and a back body drop, absorbs some elbows from Young, and hits a belly-to-belly suplex for two. Rhino goes for the piledriver on Doering, but gets hits with a hockey mask by Young, who gets the pin. == Reception ==

Steve Cook of 411Mania reviewed the event and gave it a 6 out of 10, which was lower than last year's event that got a 7.5 out of 10. He praised the Austin-Sabin opening bout, the main event (despite the technical issue towards the end) and the surprise Jonah debut, but felt there were "rough spots" in between them, concluding that: "Unfortunately it didn't seem like most stuff hit the next level you'd like to see on a iPPV level event, and technical problems are always a drag, even more so when you're invested in what's going on. These things happen though, we just move on to the next one." == Aftermath ==

On the December 2 episode of Impact!, Matt Cardona opened the show to call out Moose, to which the champion would say that Cardona would never become a top star, questioned if he truly wanted to wrestle him, and regarded him as a "mid-carder". Moose and W. Morrissey would go on to attack Cardona before Eddie Edwards ran in to save the latter. Later that night, Edwards and Cardona defeated Moose and Morrissey in a tag team match after Cardona pinned Moose with a roll-up. After the match, Morrissey laid Moose out with a boot, making it clear that he wanted the Impact World Championship match Moose had promised him for weeks. Later, it was announced that Moose will defend the Impact World Championship against Cardona and Morrissey in a three-way match at Hard To Kill. On the December 9 episode of Impact!, Josh Alexander returns and calls Jonah out to come to the ring, but Impact Executive Vice President Scott D'Amore appeared instead. D'Amore told Alexander that he asked Jonah to stay home because of a situation like this, and announced that Alexander will face Jonah at Hard To Kill. == Results ==