10 Best Impact Wrestling Rivalries Between Male Wrestlers Ever, Ranked
Matthew Perez Impact Wrestling deserves more respect for all the great rivalries that existed in the promotion. Many male wrestlers added to their legacies or started creating one when working for Impact aka TNA. AJ Styles, Kurt Angle, Samoa Joe and Sting are just some major names to have important Impact stints.
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The best rivalries feature exciting matches and strong builds to make said matches feel like a big deal. TNA was criticized for dropping the ball with a lot of promising ideas, so even the best feuds have some flaws. That shouldn’t take away from the overall legacy of the top rivals. Each of the following feuds should be viewed as the best of the male wrestlers in Impact Wrestling.
10 Kurt Angle Vs Jeff Jarrett
The rivalry between Kurt Angle and Jeff Jarrett merging between on-screen and real-life issues makes it harder to judge today than most other older feuds. Many fans overlook that the first chapter of their feud before the Karen love triangle played out was the peak.
Jarrett had some of the best matches of his career against Angle from the rare babyface side. TNA went back to the rivalry when the personal issues came into play with Angle as the face and Jarrett as the heel. Both guys deserve credit for delivering great work in the ring despite the real issues in play.
9 Motor City Machine Guns Vs Generation Me
The Young Bucks’ TNA stint as Generation Me was viewed as a huge disappointment since they barely made money or had a long-term push. However, TNA did place them in an underrated all-time great tag team rivalry with their mentors the Motor City Machine Guns.
Incredible outings in a Full Metal Mayhem match, Ultimate X match, and various traditional matches always saw them stealing the show. Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley won most of the matches during their hottest run to make it easy to forget how great the Bucks were in this program.
8 Matt Hardy Vs Jeff Hardy
WWE couldn’t find any success with the feud between real-life brothers Matt and Jeff Hardy. Fans always preferred to see them on the same team to make it a tough sell when they feuded. Impact Wrestling surprisingly found more success than WWE when trying the Matt vs Jeff angle.
The matches delivered, but the bigger selling point was that Matt became the Broken version of his character. Impact was struggling to gain attention for a few years until the cinematic match between the Hardy Boyz created a lot of online attention to build back some momentum.
7 Bobby Lashley Vs Drew McIntyre
The careers of Drew McIntyre and Bobby Lashley showed the importance of Impact Wrestling in the mid-2010s, even if the company had less eyes on the product. Both outstanding talents rebuilt their wrestling reputations after WWE released them by having world title reigns in Impact Wrestling.
McIntyre and Lashley found strong chemistry for a rare pair to feud over both the WWE Championship and Impact Championship in their careers. This feud was arguably the best during a tougher rebuilding time in Impact. Neither man likely ever return to WWE without the strong Impact efforts, especially as rivals.
6 Jeff Jarrett Vs Sting
Jeff Jarrett was hated for having a dominant heel run as the top NWA Heavyweight Champion, much like Triple H’s reign of terror in WWE. There was at least a great payoff at the end of each run. Jarrett was planning to take time off and wanted to put over Sting in the biggest way possible.
TNA told a strong story of the Planet Jarrett faction making life tough for Sting over the course of 2006. Sting defeating Jarrett at Bound for Glory 2006 felt like a new peak in TNA history. Fans loved the feel good moment of Sting getting revenge and taking the top prize from Jarrett.
5 AJ Styles Vs Kurt Angle
No one was surprised that Kurt Angle and AJ Styles had great matches whenever they locked up in the squared circle. However, the longevity of them stopping and starting the feud throughout a few years added to the overall appeal historically.
Styles delivering strong performances against the biggest star in the company led to his profile raising. Angle was still motivated to prove he was the best in the world and stepped up against such a young hungry opponent bringing out his best.
4 Rhyno Vs Christian Cage
One of the most underrated TNA rivalries featured real-life friends telling the story of betrayal. Christian Cage and Rhyno used their real-life history as close friends when both were babyfaces. However, a heel turn for Christian showed him truly having no morals when betraying his closest TNA ally.
Rhyno had arguably the best rivalry of his career against Cage with the audience rallying behind him as a sympathetic figure looking for revenge. Christian won all the big matches, but both guys delivered in the ring every time for a tremendous feud.
3 Samoa Joe Vs Kurt Angle
TNA wasted no time booking their biggest dream match when Kurt Angle signed with the company. Angle’s first TNA moment saw him head butting Joe to start the war. The first three PPV matches for Angle all came against Joe winning two out of three matches.
Joe suffered at the start with some rare moments looking weak, especially when he foolishly trusted Karen Angle to lose a big title match. However, TNA paid it off perfectly with Joe winning the TNA World Championship for the first and only time by defeating his biggest rival in yet another great match together.
2 AJ Styles Vs Christopher Daniels
The feud between AJ Styles and Christopher Daniels had many chapters over the course of nearly a full decade. Both wrestlers broke out around the same time as early TNA homegrown stars that became the most beloved performers in the X-Division.
An Iron Man match took their first feud to the next level and made TNA realize that chemistry could always pick back up in the rivalry. Styles becoming a main event babyface in later years saw Daniels emerging as his top threat multiple times since fans always wanted to see them in the ring.
1 Bobby Roode Vs James Storm
TNA found massive success with Beer Money as arguably the best tag team in company history, but their breakup was an even better story. James Storm won the TNA World Championship from Kurt Angle before Bobby Roode, despite everyone expecting the latter to win the prize from Angle.
Roode’s jealousy led to him turning heel and cheating Storm in a title match to win the belt from his former best friend in the cheapest way. TNA had them feud for the next year with a couple of must-watch matches. Roode and Storm each reached new levels by teaming up, then by feuding as new main event singles stars.
