Austin Aries, the former TNA champion returned to Impact last night at the first set of television tapings held at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida.

This is Aries’ third stint with the company, following his first one in 2005 which lasted two years, and then in 2011 where he stayed till 2015. Aries went to NXT in 2016 and was part of the WWE cruiserweight division but his run there was less than stellar and was hardly used to the extent that TNA did in the past. He was released from WWE in July of last year.

On his first night back with the company, Aries received an Impact title shot against Eli Drake, a match that will air on Impact in a few weeks. The company even spoiled the result of the match on ImpactWrestling.com and all social media accounts to drive viewers to watch the show.

While he won no titles in NXT and WWE, his most successful run was in TNA where he won the TNA World title, the X Division title on six different times, and the TNA World Tag Team titles once with Bobby Roode.