Impact opened this week with Bobby Roode, still firmly gripping his belt and basking in the audience's hate. He recapped his match against RVD at Sacrifice and stated that everyone in TNA had tried to one-up him, and all had failed – and that meant that in one week's time, he becomes the longest-reigning World Heavyweight Champion in the history of the company. And he's going to throw a party.

There was just one thing – he needed to call out Hulk Hogan and let him know some preparations had to be made.

Hogan obliged, and Roode began reading out his demands – glitter, imported from Canada, a redecorated locker room, M&Ms – only green ones. He would have gone on, but Hogan just had one thing to point out: Roode hasn't broken any records yet. Next week is Open Fight Night after all, and we all know a title has to be defended – and it just seems to be the Heavyweight Championship's turn.

As Bobby Roode spluttered, Hogan explained he'd done a little poll backstage to see who might be interested – and when he called out the candidates, wouldn't you know it but almost the entire locker room fronted up.

Obviously, that wasn't going to be practical, so Hogan decided to narrow the field to four contenders, to be decided in a series of matches: Bully Ray vs Rob van Dam; Mr Anderson vs Jeff Hardy; Samoa Joe vs Kurt Angle; and a wildcard battle royal for the rest of them.

After the ad break, the first qualifier match was up: Bully Ray vs Rob van Dam. Bully entered first, continuing a fine heel tradition of tearing up a fan's sign on his way to the ring. RVD followed, clearly nursing a few injuries from Sacrifice.

There was some back-and-forth, with Bully consistently working over RVD's bandaged knee. It all looked about to turn when RVD rolled out of the way of a splash and superkicked his opponent, but then he missed a climactic drop kick from the top rope and Bully took him out with a modified 3D.

We returned from an ad break to a recap of Christopher Daniels and Kazarian's postmatch celebration backstage at Sacrifice, proudly bearing their new tag team belts. From the same event, Angle reflected on his victory over AJ Styles, whom he thanked for putting on a great fight.

Backstage once more, and Bully Ray had a go at the fine Kardashian sisters, whose anti-bullying campaign appears to have personally offended him. Joseph Parks arrived to apologise for getting in the way at Sacrifice; the thing is, his brother Abyss warned him he was getting too close to the fire, and he thinks Bully Ray is that fire.

Continuing the recap motif, we flicked to some coverage of TNA's signing of MMA fighter “King Mo”. Somebody to be looking out for in the future!

Backstage once more, and Gail was seriously unhappy about her announced triple threat championship match against Brooke Tessmacher and Velvet Sky. Madison seemed ... less than engaged in the conversation, but when Gail asked her if this was about some guy again, she denied everything and skipped away – leaving Gail to the attentions of Brooke and Velvet, who decided to remind her that people who keep cheating to win shouldn't complain about things not being fair.

The second Open Fight Night qualifier commenced – a wildcard battle royal. The “wildcards” in question were newly-returned newlyweds Eric Young and ODB, who were united against Crimson, leading to the first triple elimination of the night as he clotheslined them both over the top rope – and went a bit too far. It looked like Magnus was going to escape the same fate when he held fast to the top rope, but a well-placed dropkick from Austin Aries pushed him over the edge.

Meanwhile, Madison Rayne appeared at the top of the ramp, clearly fixated on one of the competitors below and twirling her hair.

Robbie T (the big one) made a serious go of eliminating Garrett Bischoff, who clung to the ropes with a truly admirable tenacity. Suddenly, betrayal loomed in the form of Robbie E (the short loud one) tipping his own bodyguard over the rope. As E stood there making his excuses, Devon came up from behind to ruin his evening.

Returning from the ad break, the remaining contestants were Gunner, AJ Styles, Austin Aries, Garrett Bischoff, and Devon. Devon was soon eliminated in a classic trope of the battle royal, charging at Bischoff, who pulled down the top rope to help him over. Bischoff made the same mistake as Robbie E, taking a moment to gloat while AJ Styles lined up a dropkick and threw the poor boy out.

Gunner recovered in the corner while AJ and Austin Aries battled. Aries, thrown head-first at the ropes, blocked with his shoulders in a way I had thought unique to Kofi Kingston! AJ went over the top rope but returned with a springboard, Gunner flipped Aries out, AJ picked up Gunner on his shoulders and unceremoniously dumped him over the top rope for the win.

A well-deserved ad break followed.

After a quick recap of the photos scandal, AJ Styles took to the mic, trying to explain that things aren't always what they seem to be. Daniels and Kazarian appeared to defend their own allegations – saying that sure, one photo might be taken out of context, but video doesn't lie. And they have video, too – which they proceeded to play. The audience watched what to all intents and purposes looked like AJ Styles and Dixie Carter having a private rendezvous in a secluded hotel – and AJ stormed out of the ring.

Backstage, Kurt Angle and Samoa Joe confronted each other over their upcoming match and their fraught past – and the rest of the locker room had to pull them off each other.

Mr Anderson wasn't there as he was reviewing the footage from his match at Sacrifice against Jeff Hardy – and you know what, he could concede that it looked like Jeff kicked out before the three-count. And that meant he was happy to give Jeff another chance tonight.

The third qualifying match between Anderson and Jeff Hardy was next. Action quickly spilled out of the ring and a series of two-counts were exchanged. After both men were down for a count of seven, Hardy built momentum with a cross-body into a two-count, a Russian leg sweep – though Anderson countered the pin – and Whisper in the Wind for a two-count. Hardy's Twist of Fate was countered by Anderson, but Hardy countered in his turn and took a thoroughly earned pin.

In the aftermath, the competitors hugged – clearly no hard feelings here.

After a short recap of Bobby Roode's continuing champion-ness, we went into the penultimate match of the night – the Knockouts Championship triple threat.

Predictably, Brooke Tessmacher and Velvet Sky focused on the champ Gail Kim at first, but once Gail rolled out of the ring they had to deal with each other. After a few quick two-counts, Gail dragged Velvet out by her foot and went for Brooke. As Gail applied a Boston Crab on Brooke, Velvet took the opportunity to apply a dragon sleeper hold on Gail.

This little ensemble was broken up with no one tapping, and Velvet misjudged a charge, knocking herself into the turnbuckle. Gail applied an awesome octopus hold on Brooke, but once again Velvet intervened to turn the whole thing into a roll-up for the two-count.

Velvet and Brooke then sparred until Gail took out both with a missile dropkick from the turnbuckle. Brooke countered an attempted Eat Defeat but ran straight into Velvet's In Your Face finisher – and Gail took advantage by rolling Velvet out of the ring and stealing the pin.

The final match of the night was the fourth qualifier for next week's Open Fight Night – Samoa Joe vs Kurt Angle. Joe was quickly on the attack, but Angle rolled out of the ring to cut his momentum. Each dominated in his turn, as Bobby Roode entered the arena to sit on commentary.

After the ads, Angle laid into Joe – Joe managed to get a two-count – Angle hit him with three consecutive suplexes. Each man took his turn on top, Joe applying the sleeper hold, Angle the ankle lock. Things went to the top rope, both looking like this could be their moment to shine, and in the end Kurt took the pin.

Results

Open Fight Night qualifying matches

• Bully Ray def. Rob van Dam
• AJ Styles def. Gunner & Austin Aries & Garrett Bischoff & Devon &Robbie E & Robbie T & Magnus & Crimson & Eric Young & ODB
• Jeff Hardy def. Mr Anderson
• Kurt Angle def. Samoa Joe
• Gail Kim def. Brooke Tessmacher & Velvet Sky – Knockouts Championship Match.