Add as a preferred source on Google Jason Hotch is the new TNA International Champion, capturing the first title of his TNA career in the main event of the 7/30 iMPACT! from the Liacouras Center in Philadelphia.
Hotch got there by winning a locker room vote on the 7/23 show, with every member of the active roster getting one vote and nobody allowed to vote for himself. Ali — Hotch’s Order 4 leader — demanded a recount that never happened and tried to talk his own guy into forfeiting the shot before Leon Slater and a phone call from Hotch’s wife convinced him to take it.
The match was a violent one. The big spot came on the top rope, where Ali went for a superplex and Hotch reversed it, superplexing him off the top to the floor and through the announce table. Both men were checked on by medical staff, with Ali beating the count and Hotch sliding in at nine.
Down the stretch, Hotch missed a frog splash, and Ali pulled the referee into his path to draw an accidental punch from the challenger. With the official down, Ali hit a low blow and whipped Hotch with the belt, but John Skyler ripped the title out of his hands from the apron. When Ali went to steal it with his feet on the ropes, Tasha Steelz knocked them off, and the rest of Order 4 brawled to the back.
Ali hit a piledriver and connected with the 450 Splash, but Hotch kicked out. Hotch answered with a double stomp off the top, went back up for a frog splash, and got the three.
The win ends Ali’s 110-day reign, which began at Rebellion on 4/11, when he beat Trey Miguel with help from Steelz and The Great Hands. Hotch celebrated in the ring with his wife and daughter.