Destination X (2013) (aka ''Impact Wrestling: Destination X'') was a special episode of ''

Impact Wrestling Impact Wrestling (stylized as ''IMPACT! Wrestling''), is an American professional wrestling promotion based in Nashville, Tennessee. It is a subsidiary of Anthem Sports & Entertainment. Founded by Jeff and Jerry Jarrett in 2002, the promot ...

'', produced by

Total Nonstop Action Wrestling Impact Wrestling (stylized as ''IMPACT! Wrestling''), is an American professional wrestling promotion based in Nashville, Tennessee. It is a subsidiary of Anthem Sports & Entertainment. Founded by Jeff and Jerry Jarrett in 2002, the promot ...

(TNA), which took place on July 18 at the Broadbent Arena in

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...

. It was the ninth event under the

Destination X Destination X is a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event held by Impact Wrestling currently in the month of August. The event primarily revolves around the X-Division, the 2005, 2006, 2009, and 2010 events had Ultimate X matches. It w ...

chronology. Unlike the previous events, this event was not held on

pay-per-view Pay-per-view (PPV) is a type of pay television or webcast service that enables a viewer to pay to watch individual events via private telecast. Events can be purchased through a multichannel television platform using their electronic program guid ...

(PPV). Six matches were contested on the event, including one taped for a future episode of ''

Xplosion Xplosion may refer to: * Impact ''Xplosion'', an American TV series *''Xplosión'', a 1993 album by Vico C *"Xplosion", a song by OutKast from their 2000 album ''Stankonia ''Stankonia'' is the fourth studio album by American hip hop duo Outkas ...

''. In the

main event In sports, a card lists the matches taking place in a title match combat-sport event. Cards include a main event match and the undercard listing the rest of the matches. The undercard may be divided into a midcard and a lower card, according to ...

Chris Sabin Joshua Harter (born February 4, 1982), better known by his ring name Chris Sabin, is an American professional wrestler. He is currently signed to Impact Wrestling, and is also known for his work in Ring of Honor. After being trained by Scott D ...

defeated

Bully Ray Mark LoMonaco (born July 14, 1971) is an American professional wrestler, currently signed to the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) and Impact Wrestling under the ring name Bully Ray. He was previously known as one-half of The Dudley Boyz tag tea ...

to win his first World Heavyweight Championship in what was Sabin's Option C match, which he invoked by vacating the

X Division Championship The Impact X Division Championship is a professional wrestling championship created and promoted by Impact Wrestling. It debuted on June 19, 2002, at the taping of then-TNA's second weekly pay-per-view (PPV) event. The current champion is Trey ...

in exchange for a World Heavyweight Championship match at Destination X. The undercard featured first round tournament matches for the vacant X Division Championship and a match between

Austin Aries Daniel Healy Solwold Jr. (born April 15, 1978), better known by his ring name Austin Aries, is an American professional wrestler currently signed to the Control Your Narrative wrestling promotion. He is best known for his time with Impact Wrest ...

and

Bobby Roode Robert Francis Roode Jr. (born May 11, 1976) is a Canadian professional wrestler signed to WWE, where he performs on the Raw brand. He is currently inactive due to undergoing neck surgery. Roode is known for his 12-year tenure for Total Nonstop ...

in the 2013 Bound for Glory Series.

Production

Background

On January 11, 2013, TNA announced that there would only be four pay-per-view events in 2013 and instead beginning pre-taped One Night Only events in place of them. Destination X was also dropped as a pay-per-view event and TNA resumed it as a special edition of its primary television program ''

''. Destination X was held by TNA as an

X Division The X Division is a high-flying, high-risk, fast-paced style of professional wrestling seen in Impact Wrestling (formerly Total Nonstop Action Wrestling) and since then in various NWA member promotions. Its tagline is that "It's not about weight ...

-exclusive event since the 2011 edition. Beginning with the 2012 edition, Destination X also became a staple for the X Division Champions to invoke Option C, which required them to vacate the title to earn a shot for the World Heavyweight Championship at the event.

Storylines

Destination X featured professional wrestling matches that involved different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds and storylines. Wrestlers portrayed

villains A villain (also known as a "black hat" or "bad guy"; the feminine form is villainess) is a stock character, whether based on a historical narrative or one of literary fiction. ''Random House Unabridged Dictionary'' defines such a character a ...

heroes Heroes or Héroes may refer to: * Hero, one who displays courage and self-sacrifice for the greater good Film * ''Heroes'' (1977 film), an American drama * ''Heroes'' (2008 film), an Indian Hindi film Gaming * ''Heroes of Might and Magic'' ...

, or less distinguishable characters in the scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches. At

Slammiversary XI Slammiversary XI was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) promotion, which took place on June 2, 2013 at the Agganis Arena in Boston, Massachusetts. It was the 11th anniversary cel ...

on June 2, 2013, after the Ultimate X Match where

won the

, TNA general manager

Hulk Hogan Terry Eugene Bollea (; born August 11, 1953), better known by his ring name Hulk Hogan, is an American retired professional wrestler. He is widely regarded as the most recognized wrestling star worldwide and the most popular wrestler of the 19 ...

announced that just like in 2012, the reigning X Division champion would have the option to voluntarily vacate the title in exchange for a World Heavyweight Championship match at the 2013 Destination X special. Sabin was noncommittal as to whether he was going to cash in for the World Heavyweight title shot. On the June 27 episode of ''Impact Wrestling'', Sabin lost the title in a three-way match (also involving

Kenny King Kenneth, Ken or Kenny King may refer to: Ken King * Ken King (born 1971), American politician and businessman * Ken King (ice hockey) (1952–2020), Canadian sports executive Kenneth King * Kenneth George King or Jonathan King (born 1944), Englis ...

) to

Suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and s ...

. Hogan then came out and announced that the real Suicide (

T. J. Perkins Theodore James Perkins (born September 3, 1984) is an American professional wrestler of Filipino descent, better known by the ring name T. J. Perkins (or simply TJP) currently signed to New Japan Pro-Wrestling where he is a member of the Unite ...

) had been knocked out backstage and that the Suicide in the ring was an impostor. Hogan then gave Suicide until the end of the night to either unmask or be stripped of the championship. Suicide then unmasked, revealing himself to be

. Aries confessed to being the person who jumped T. J. Perkins, explaining as he was the one who came up with the idea of the X Division Champion having the yearly right to exchange the X title for a match for the World Championship (and the one who traded in and won last year) and announced that he would be challenging

for the World Championship. On the July 4 episode of ''Impact Wrestling'', Sabin defeated Aries and Manik in a three-way match to regain the X Division Championship. The following week on ''Impact Wrestling'', Sabin vacated the title in exchange for a match to wrestle for the World Heavyweight Championship against Bully Ray at Destination X.

Event

Before the Destination X episode aired live on television, a match took place between Joseph Park and

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...

for the July 24 episode of ''

''. Park performed a

frog splash Aerial techniques, also known as "high-flying moves" are maneuvers in professional wrestling using the ring's posts and ropes as aids, in many cases to demonstrate the speed and agility of smaller, nimble and acrobatically inclined wrestlers prefer ...

on Devon from the middle rope for the win.

Preliminary matches

The opening match was a part of the 2013 Bound for Glory Series between

and

. After a back and forth match, Austin nailed a

brainbuster A brainbuster is a professional wrestling throw in which a wrestler puts the opponent in a front facelock, hooks their pants or thigh, and lifts them up as if they were executing a vertical suplex. The wrestler then falls onto their back so that ...

on Roode to win the match to score seven points in the BFG Series tournament and picking up his second consecutive win over Roode at Destination X. It was then announced that three triple threat qualifying matches would take place at Destination X and the winners of the three matches would compete in an

Ultimate X match The Ultimate X match is a type of professional wrestling match created by Impact Wrestling (formerly Total Nonstop Action Wrestling aka TNA), mainly used in their X Division. It is considered the signature match of the X Division. Match format ...

on the July 25 episode of ''Impact Wrestling''. The first qualifying match pitted

Sonjay Dutt Retesh Bhalla (born April 7, 1982) is an American professional wrestler currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW) as a producer and manager. He is best known for his time with Total Nonstop ActionImpact Wrestling under the ring name Sonja ...

against

Homicide Homicide occurs when a person kills another person. A homicide requires only a volitional act or omission that causes the death of another, and thus a homicide may result from accidental, reckless, or negligent acts even if there is no inten ...

and

Petey Williams Peter Williams III (born August 26, 1981) is a Canadian professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE as a backstage producer. He is best known for his time in Impact Wrestling, where he is a two-time X Division Champion. He is also k ...

. Dutt nailed a moonsault double foot stomp on Homicide for the win. In the next qualifying match, Manik took on Chavo Guerrero Jr. and

. After a back and forth action, Manik executed a '' Death from Above'' on King for the win. The final qualifying match pitted

Greg Marasciulo Gregory "Greg" Marasciulo (born March 30, 1987), better known by the ring name Trent Beretta or Trent?, is an American professional wrestler signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW). He is also known for his time with New Japan Pro-Wrestling and Ring ...

Rockstar Spud James Michael Curtin (born 30 January 1983) is an English former professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE as a writer on Raw. During his time as an on screen performer in the company, he worked under the ring name Drake Maverick. H ...

and Rubix. Marasciulo executed a back-to-belly piledriver on Spud for the win. The match was followed by a confrontation between the Knockouts Champion

Mickie James Mickie Laree James (born August 31, 1979) Additional January 6, 2017. is an American professional wrestler and country singer. She is currently signed to Impact Wrestling. She has also had tenures in WWE and the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA ...

and

Gail Kim Gail Kim-Irvine (born February 20, 1977) is a Canadian-American retired professional wrestler, currently signed to Impact Wrestling, where she serves as a producer. In Impact Wrestling she was the inaugural and record setting seven-time Knockou ...

, which led to both women brawling with each other until several referees separated them to break up the brawl.

Main event match

In the main event,

defended the World Heavyweight Championship against

, who invoked his Option C for the title shot. Ray's faction

Aces & Eights Aces & Eights are an American stable in the promotion Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), initially consisting of a group of masked wrestlers before their identities were revealed. It had the gimmick of an outlaw motorcycle club; members of ...

interfered in the match on Ray's behalf and The New Main Event Mafia interfered in the match. Near the end of the match, Mr. Anderson handed over a hammer to Ray and then the referee was knocked out when Sabin performed a missile dropkick on Ray. A brawl occurred between Mafia and Aces & Eights and the two teams left the ring and then Ray tried to hit Sabin with a hammer but Sabin avoided it and then Ray tried to execute a '' Bully Bomb'' but Sabin hit him with the hammer in the head to win the title.

Reception

Destination X was a very successful episode of ''Impact Wrestling'' as it experienced an increase in ratings and viewership numbers. It received a 1.2 cable rating and a viewership number of 1,494,000, the largest since the January 31 episode of ''Impact Wrestling''.

Aftermath

On the July 25 edition of ''Impact Wrestling'', Manik defeated Sonjay Dutt and Greg Marasciulo in the Ultimate X finals of the tournament to win the vacant X Division Championship. Bully Ray and Chris Sabin continued their feud over the TNA World Heavyweight Championship after Destination X. The week after Destination X on the July 25 episode of ''Impact Wrestling'', it was announced that on the

Hardcore Justice Hardcore Justice, originally known as Hard Justice, is an annual professional wrestling Impact Plus event produced by Impact Wrestling. It was originally introduced as a pay-per-view (PPV) event held by Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) in 200 ...

special, Chris Sabin would defend his title against Bully Ray in a steel cage match, which was won by Bully Ray.

Results

References

External links

Destination X 2013 at Pro Wrestling History
{{TNAPPV, Destination X Destination X Events in Louisville, Kentucky 2013 in professional wrestling July 2013 events in the United States Professional wrestling in Kentucky 2013 in Kentucky