Sacrifice (2016)

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The 2016 Sacrifice (also known as Impact Wrestling: Sacrifice) was a

Five matches were contested at the event. The

The event notably featured the last matches of longtime TNA veterans Bobby Roode and Eric Young for the promotion who lost their respective titles at the event and also marked the first loss of Ethan Carter III, thus marking the end of his undefeated streak in TNA.^[1]

Storylines

On the January 26 episode of Impact Wrestling,

On the April 5 episode of Impact Wrestling, Tyrus confronted Drew Galloway and hinted that he wanted a shot at Galloway's World Heavyweight Championship, just like Galloway cashed in his Feast or Fired briefcase for a title shot and Tyrus had won the Bound for Gold at the 2015 Bound for Glory, so he would be cashing in the title as well. On the April 12 episode of Impact Wrestling, Tyrus and Matt Hardy defeated Galloway and Jeff Hardy in a tag team match, during which Galloway and Tyrus brawled with each other and then Galloway was injured by Bobby Lashley after the match. On the April 19 episode of Impact Wrestling, Tyrus declared his intention to cash in his Bound for Gold opportunity against Galloway, which Galloway accepted for next week, when he would be perfectly fine to wrestle and then Tyrus attacked McIntyre, setting up their title match for the World Heavyweight Championship at Sacrifice.

Event

Preliminary matches

The event kicked off with

It was followed by the debut of Eli Drake's new interview segment "Fact of Life", in which he called Jeff Hardy, Drew Galloway and his guests The BroMans dummies.

Later,

Sacrifice received mixed reviews from critics. Jason Powell of Pro Wrestling Dot Net said that the event "closed on a high note" and praised most of the matches while criticizing the Fact of Life segment, the Falls Count Anywhere match and the Valley of Shadows match.[2]

Larry Csonka of 411Mania rated it 6.0, considering it "another overall fine show from TNA, playing off of the previous week’s show well enough and changing the titles they needed to with the departures of (Bobby) Roode and (Eric) Young." He criticized most of the show, with the exception of the Fact of Life segment.^[3]

According to Garrett Kidney of Voices of Wrestling, the event was among the "long string of solid enjoyable Impacts that rarely rise above good but are pretty much never bad."

Graham Matthews of Next Era Wrestling criticized the inclusion of three

Aftermath

Sacrifice marked the last appearance of both Bobby Roode and Eric Young in TNA, who left the promotion after the event.^[4] Both men would go on to join WWE as members of NXT. Young would return to TNA in 2020.

Ethan Carter III demanded a rematch from Mike Bennett on the May 10 episode of Impact Wrestling, which Bennett accepted on the condition that EC3 must win three of his matches. EC3 would go on to win the matches, a