2023 was a good year for the company in a of multitude ways: Wrestlers like Joe Hendry, Steve Maclin, Killer Kelly, Trey Miguel, Ace Austin and Chris Bey among others proved themselves to be rising stars in the promotion, Josh Alexander became the longest reigning world champion in company history…Until an injury forced him to vacated the belt and Scott D’Amore’s announcement of TNA Wrestling coming back in 2024 were all big highlights of the year.

Much of this goodwill can be seen in the eight IMPACT (now TNA) Plus Specials that aired at the time, some were absolutely brilliant while others were plagued with issues outside of a few rubbish matches, but more on that later.

Good or bad these shows perfectly summed up the company’s status at the time from both an in-ring stanpoint but a storytelling one as well…Here are Every 2023 TNA Plus Special Ranked from Worst to Best.

#8. No Surrender

The 2023 edition of No Surrender has one great match on the card, a few servable matches and everything else is either average or bad.

In terms of the servicable stuff: the Dot Combat Match between Joe Hendry and Moose was funny in all the right ways and The Bullet Club defeated Time Machine in a good six man tag team match which also served as the IMPACT Wrestling debut of KENTA.

When it comes to average there’s Steve Maclin winning a number one contender’s fatal four way and Mickie James retained her Knockouts World Championship against Masha Slamovich in a match where the only memorable spot was the Russian-American wrestler licking part of James’ face before Hardcore Country responses by biting Masha’s tongue.

The bad stuff is truly unforgivable with Kazarian and Kon having a boring opening match that nearly went 10 minutes, a Busted Open Radio segment between Bully Ray, Tommy Dreamer and Dave LaGreca which sucked out all of the momentum of the room…Somehow a match between Mike Bailey and Johnathan Gresham was left on the preshow but the Busted Open Radio guys made onto the show?!?!

The less said about The Hex vs. Death Dollz for the Knockouts Tag Titles the better with the match being borderline unwatchable not because of the action but due to an inability to hear the crowd due to mic problems and the production team really fumbling to keep the audio consistent with the commentary and ring announcers.

Thankfully, the show knew how to end properly with Rich Swann and Josh Alexander putting on some stellar performances against each other for the IMPACT World Championship…But yeah outside of this match, everything else is worth skipping.

#7. Final Resolution

The final Plus Special under the IMPACT Wrestling moniker, Final Resolution was a show which not only was a sold out event, but upon reflection helped to set up future events that would play out in the following year…By the way that little description I just gave you was better than most of the matches on the card.

Matches like Jake Something beating Jason Hotch, Rhino and Moose’s singles bout turning into a street fight, Tommy Dreamer defending the Digital Media Championship over Deaner and Jody Threat beating Alisha Edwards were pretty much uninspiring affair.

The tag matches turned out to be the bright spots on this show with Mike Bailey and a recently signed Trent Seven defeated the Rascalz, Jordynne Grace and Trinity beating Gisele Shaw and Deonna Purrazzo (in the latter’s final match in the company) and The ABC retained the World Tag Team Titles against Brian Myers and Eddie Edwards in the first of many times these two teams would face off.

The main event saw the dream team of Josh Alexander and New Japan’s Zack Sabre Jr. defeating the Motor City Machine Guns in a fantastic match; An underwelming show, that manages to be saved by a bunch of solid tag team matches.

#6. Sacrifice

Well this was a step up from No Surrender but that’s not really saying much; To be fair, this show was hit a few problems like Josh Alexander and Mickie James being unable to compete in their matches leading to them changed or cancelled respectively.

Still, there was some good action like the six man tag team main event, the titles bout for the X Division, Knockouts, Tag Team and Digital Media Championships, Deonna Purrazzo vs. Gisele Shaw and hey at least Bailey and Gresham got to compete on the actual show this time.

That being said, the show was not perfect from a few production issues to the Busted Open match between Dreamer and Bully, and the return of Tasha Steelz who turned babyface on her associate Savannah Evans only for Steelz to disappear without a trace weeks later…Regardless it was a much much better time watching this show then the one that came before it.

#5. Victory Road

Victory Road came off feeling rushed when it came to the booking and it certainly showed.

While there was some good matches like MK Ultra vs. Gisele Shaw and Savannah Evans for the Knockouts Tag Titles, there were also a few duds like PCO vs. Bully Ray, Crazzy Steve vs. Black Taurus, Trinity vs. Alisha, and 52 year old Tommy Dreamer winning the Digital Media Championship over Kenny King…Ugh…Okay?!?

So far so unremarkable, but thankfully there were four matches on here that helped to make this show worth watching; The Rascalz successfully kept their tag team belts over the Motor City Machine Guns, Lio Rush retained his X Division Title against Kushida in a great opening bout and a returning Jordynne Grace finally defeated her long time rival, Deonna Purrazzo.

The main event where Josh Alexander and Steve Maclin beat the hell out of each other in a grueling contest which saw the Walking Weapon coming out on top…A middle of the road show that had a number of stinkers but it also had some good to great matches towards peppered throughout.

#4. Emergence

Okay, now were getting into the good stuff on this list as the third IMPACT Plus Special this year to take place in Canada was home to the fourth annual Emergence event and it was pretty good all things considered.

The opening No Disqualification match between Eric Young and Deaner, Sanada vs. Jake Something and the four way Knockouts Tag Title match were all good, Swinger vs. King for the Digital Media Title was fine for what it was, the eight man tag team match was solid but took a long time to reach the finish due to a PCO run in, a shock return of Steve Maclin and some miscommunication between Josh Alexander and Alex Shelley.

Subculture’s Flash Morgan Webster and Mark Andrews put on the match of the night with The Rascalz, sadly for the boys from Wales it was Trey Miguel and Zachary Wentz who walked out as the new IMPACT World Tag champs and the main event between Deonna Purrazzo and Trinity for the Knockouts Championship was great follow up to their overly hyped and a bit underwelming first encounter at Slammiversary.

I mean outside of the ‘Back to School’ match between Eddie Edwards and Kazarian and of course you guessed it…a few production issues, the show was very enjoyable also huge respect to the company by starting things of with a ten bell salute for the late great, Windham Rotunda aka Bray Wyatt and the legendary Terry Funk.

#3. Turning Point

Turning Point holds a special place in the hearts of TNA fans in the United Kingdom as it was the first time in almost eight years the company ran a show in the U.K. and needless to say hopes were high that this event would deliver.

Things started off well with Eric Young and Josh Alexander having a sprited tag match with SubCulture with the Canadians picking up the win. Gisele Shaw had a good showing with Alex Windsor, Rich Swann beat Trey Miguel and Jordynne Grace beat Dani Luna in servable matches.

Joe Hendry took on Whatculture Wrestling’s Simon Miller in a wrestling match…and it was fine for what it was, Brian Myers and Moose beat former X Division Champions Frankie Kazarian and Chris Sabin in a tag match and Trinity ended her feud with Deonna Purrazzo beating ‘The Virtusoa’ for the third time in a row to retain the Knockouts World Championship.

Eddie Edwards and Will Ospreay were given closing duties in the main event and fresh off his five star classic with Mike Bailey at Bound For Glory, many wondered if ‘The Billy Goat’ could get another star rated bout against the former TNA Champion…He didn’t…but the match was great regardless.

Aside from the event looking like a poorly lit house show, the action was fanastic and great way for the company to return to the U.K….Also Leon Slater was signed after a match on the preshow, so that’s nice.

#2. Against All Odds

When an IMPACT Plus Special is so good that it could rival the stuff that occurred on the big four pay per views, you know you have done something right which is indeed the case with my final two entries.

The Expo Center and State Fair in Columbus Ohio was the location of 2023’s Against All Odds show and looking back this event really helped to set into motion things that would come to define IMPACT for the rest of the year.

Eddie Edwards and Kazarian competed in the first of several matches in their months long feud, Masha and Killer Kelly fought in a Dog Collar match which was more one sided then you might remember but helped to develop a future tag team in the Knockouts Division.

Trinity and Deonna beat Gisele and Savannah Evans in a tag match, the Ohio Street Fight saw Sami and the rest of oVe putting their issues with The Design to rest and the first ever 8-4-1 match like all of the previously mentioned matches were good and made Nick Aldis the new number one contender to the IMPACT World Championship at Slammiversary

Speaking of the IMPACT World Title, the main event saw Alex Shelley pulling off the biggest win of his entire career by defeating Steve Maclin to become the brand new World Champion and along with Chris Sabin beating his rival, Trey Miguel for the X Division Championship earlier that night, ‘The Machine Gun Era’ had officially begun in IMPACT Wrestling.

Add all of this with an impressive tag title match which saw Ace Austin and Chris Bey retain over John Skyler and Jason Hotch of the Good Hands and you’ve got a very solid night of Total Nonstop Action.

#1. Under Siege

However as solid of a night Against All Odds was, the case could be made that Under Siege was much better.

Outside of a servable opening bout between Nick Aldis and Kenny King, everything else on the card is tremendous: the six man tag match between The Design vs. Jake Crist, Sami Callihan and Rich Swann was great, Trinity vs. Gisele Shaw was awesome and the six way number one contender’s match did it’s job in making Alex Shelley look like a serious threat for the world title.

And then there’s the four title matches: Trey Miguel and Chris Sabin putting on a wrestling clinic for the X Division Championship, Deonna proves her superiority over Jordynne Grace once again by retaining the Knockouts World Championship in what would be Grace’s final match with the company…until Victory Road, and the ABC vs. Subculture match for the World Tag Team Titles should be in the discussion for one of the best matches of 2023…You heard me.

Finally, we come to PCO facing Steve Maclin in a No Disqualification match for the IMPACT World Championship which was violent, bloody and all types of Holy S##t from bell-to-bell and that’s even before mentioning the ending to the show where a blood soaked Maclin forces D’Amore to honor his promise to put the belt around his waist before a vengeful Bully Ray returns and joins forces with the champion to put Scott through a flaming table leaving fans super excited to see what would happen next on IMPACT.

A top tier Under Siege show which is saying something as this event tends to produce some of the best matches in the calendar year for IMPACT Wrestling…So of course it makes to the top of this list.

What do you think was the best TNA Plus Special of 2023? Leave your thoughts down below. Be sure to follow Lace ‘Em Up on X @laceemupoffice and you can follow me on X @hakeemfullerton and I’ll see you in the next article.