Sacrifice (2016)

Eric Young wrestled his last match in TNA at Sacrifice and was the defending King of the Mountain Champion heading into the event.

On the January 26 episode of Impact Wrestling, Bram formed an alliance with Eric Young. On the April 12 episode of Impact Wrestling, Bram and Young failed to win the World Tag Team Championship from Beer Money, Inc. in a four-way match also involving The BroMans and Decay after Young accidentally hit Bram. The following week, on Impact Wrestling, Young insulted the fans and vowed to leave TNA with his King of the Mountain Championship and ordered Bram to leave with him but Bram refused and said that he would no longer be Young's lackey and the title belt would look better around Bram's waist, which led to Young attacking him and ending their alliance, which set up a match between Bram and Young for the King of the Mountain Championship at Sacrifice.

Drew Galloway was the defending TNA World Heavyweight Champion heading into Sacrifice.

On the March 15 episode of Impact Wrestling, Mike Bennett attacked Ethan Carter III during his three-way match against Matt Hardy and Jeff Hardy for the World Heavyweight Championship, thus costing EC3, the title. The following week, on Impact Wrestling, EC3 eliminated Bennett from a gauntlet match to determine the #1 contender for the title and then Bennett interfered, causing EC3's elimination.> Bennett would wrestle EC3 on numerous occasions over the following weeks, which set up a no disqualification match between the two at Sacrifice.

On the March 15 episode of Impact Wrestling, Decay attacked The Wolves member Eddie Edwards, on which the World Tag Team Champions Beer Money, Inc. confronted Decay. This led to several matches between the two teams over the following weeks. On the April 19 episode of Impact Wrestling, Decay member Rosemary attacked Gail Kim during a ladder match and then kidnapped her and held her hostage throughout the show before bringing her to the ring where Abyss threatened to Beer Money that Rosemary would snap Gail's neck if Beer Money did not give Abyss and Crazzy Steve, a title shot at the World Tag Team Championship and Decay demanded a Valley of Shadows match for the title at Sacrifice, which Beer Money accepted.

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.

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 hardcore matches into Sacrifice due to it being the theme of Hardcore Justice event but considered it "an entertaining edition of Impact Wrestling on the whole".

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 steel cage match against Rockstar Spud, a last man standing match against Tyrus and a singles match against Matt Hardy by disqualification. As a result of EC3's disqualification win over Hardy, Bennett refused to give EC3 a rematch. However, on the May 31 episode of Impact Wrestling, EC3 was made in charge of the show and made a match official between Bennett and himself at Slammiversary.