Genesis (2018) was the eleventh Genesis professional wrestling event produced by Impact Wrestling, which aired as a special episode of Impact! on Pop TV on January 25, 2018. Matches were taped for the event on November 8 and November 10, 2017, at the Aberdeen Pavilion in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Five matches were contested at the event. The main event was a Six-Sides of Steel match, in which Eli Drake successfully defended the Global Championship against Alberto El Patron and Johnny Impact. Also on the undercard, Moose defeated Lashley, Matt Sydal defeated Ethan Carter III to win the Grand Championship and Laurel Van Ness retained the Knockouts Championship against Allie. The event also featured highlights of an X Division Championship match between Taiji Ishimori and Andrew Everett, which took place at a Pro Wrestling Noah event on January 6.
Genesis was notably the last event to date to use the six-sided ring; Impact Wrestling would revert to using the four-sided ring beginning with the January 10, 2018, Impact! television tapings.
Production
Background
On September 18, 2017, it was announced that Impact Wrestling would hold the Bound for Glory pay-per-view event on November 5, and subsequent tapings of its television program Impact! from November 6 to November 10 at the Aberdeen Pavilion in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Storylines
Genesis featured professional wrestling matches that involved different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds and storylines. Wrestlers portrayed villains, heroes, or less distinguishable characters in the scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches.
At Bound for Glory, Eli Drake successfully defended the Global Championship against Johnny Impact due to interference by the returning Alberto El Patron, who was enraged on being stripped off the title and being replaced by Impact instead of getting his title rematch. After a confrontation on the November 9 episode of Impact!, Impact and Patron competed in a match on the November 30 episode of Impact!, which Impact won. Drake and Chris Adonis attacked the two competitors after the match until Petey Williams made the save for Impact. On the December 7 episode of Impact Wrestling, Impact and Williams defeated Drake and Adonis after Patron interfered to attack Drake. On the December 14 episode of Impact Wrestling, Patron, Impact and Williams defeated Drake, Adonis and Kongo Kong in a six-man tag team match after Patron took out Impact and pinned Drake. On the January 18 episode of Impact!, Drake defended the title against Impact and Patron in a three-way match which ended in a no contest due to interference by various wrestlers. It was later announced that Drake would defend the Global Championship against Impact and Patron in a Six Sides of Steel match at Genesis.
At Bound for Glory, Lashley and King Mo defeated Moose and Stephan Bonnar in a Six Sides of Steel match. The rivalry continued on the November 16 episode of Impact!, when American Top Team leader Dan Lambert negotiated Lashley's release from Impact, so he could focus on mixed martial arts. However, Moose interrupted it to attack Lashley but ATT members outnumbered him until James Storm made the save and the two cleared Lashley and ATT from the ring. ATT attacked Storm after he defeated Texano Jr. on the November 30 episode of Impact!, but Moose made the save, leading to Lambert challenging Moose and Storm to a tag team match against Lashley and himself on the following week's Impact!. Lashley and Lambert won the match on the December 7 episode of Impact!. On the December 14 episode of Impact!, Moose said Lashley could not beat him one-on-one without ATT's help but Lashley said he could fight Moose anytime. Storm then challenged Lambert to a match which Lambert accepted on the condition that if Storm lost then he would be forced to leave Impact. Storm accepted the challenge. Lambert defeated Storm, with ATT's help on the January 4 episode of Impact!, thus forcing him to leave Impact. After Moose and Eddie Edwards lost a match to ATT's Lashley and KM on the January 11 episode of Impact!, a match was made official between Moose and Lashley for Genesis.