TNA Impact returned last night (Aug. 25, 2016) from Orlando, Florida with multiple implications going into October’s Bound for Glory pay-per-view (PPV). Let’s get right to it.
Mike Bennett wins a number one contenders battle royal for the TNA title when he eliminates Eddie Edwards and Moose at the same time.
While there was a lot of filler in the battle royal, guys you knew just weren’t going to win, it ended up being fun. You can get a run down of the eliminations in the live blog, but the end came down to Moose, Mike Bennett, and Eddie Edwards. Bennett instructed Moose to go after Edwards and their brief back and forth opened up a window that allowed Bennett to eliminate both men. This continues the build of Moose vs. Bennett, which now feels like it’s inevitable and not just a possibility. Moose was NOT happy with Bennett at the end of this match and they’ve already shown he can be a bit of a hot head. It doesn’t help matters that through the nice, Lashley calmly stirred the pot when he he spoke with both men throughout the night.
Other notable take aways in this battle royal:
- Lashley was on commentary and he was really good there. Just like with his promos, he was cool and extremely confident. He continually called the winner of this the loser because they’d then just lose to him. He didn’t sound lost or take away from commentary at all. Instead he was entertaining, helping build his character during the battle royal without taking away from the action. Lashley continues to do some of his best work currently.
- They’ve done a good job of making Eddie Edwards feel like a major player in Davey’s absence. His feud with Bennett and Moose is a help, but his matches with Lashley were a major factor.
- Eli Drake may soon becoming a fan favorite as the fans love to chant "E-Li Drake" along with him. He shouldn’t be turned face just yet. There’s still more in him as a heel. But fans are going to soon realize he’s really talented and cheer him no matter what.
- Not only did Lashley put over Jessie Godderz multiple times on commentary, but the BroMan was one of the final four in this battle royal. Interesting.
- The first elimination was Baron Dax at the hand of his partner Basile Baraka. Maybe their tag team is done? It was wildly unsuccessful, but that’s because they were booked poorly. But it’s something to try if they’re going to give up the tag.
Broken Matt Hardy walks to the ring carrying a contract for the tag team title match against Decay (or as he calls it, a "majestic key that unlocks destiny.") He claims the titles are currently decaying and can only be restored by his broken brilliance. Jeff comes to the ring and says he's here to work, wrestle, and win for himself and the creatures.
The Decay come out from different areas of the Impact Zone, each cutting short promos on the Hardys.
Broken Matt says he knows which Decay member will try to kidnap King Maxel and he will reveal it tonight and then eat that person. Rosemary tells Matt they don't play by their rules but the Broken One says that the Decay don't even know his rules. Matt then says to pick one of them to fight his broken Brother Nero. Abyss takes the challenge.
Abyss defeats Brother Nero
After the match, Matt tells his brother he needs to stop being a stupid spot monkey and needs to learn to accept the fact he is broken.
There’s a whole lotta crazy in the feud and it’s great. The Decay are the only people not really confused/freaked out by the crazy Hardys. In fact, the tag team champs love it. Mid match, Matt revealed that it was Crazzy Steve that plans to kidnap King Maxel and then pretty much mauled his face. And Steve loved it. He laughed throughout it.
Then after Abyss defeated Brother Nero (with help of some mist from Rosemary when Nero was on the top rope), Matt looked a bit concerned about this group. They could be the only ones who keep up with his madness or even eclipse it.
The roll out of this feud was fun tonight and I hope they do at least one video off site a la the contract signing or Final Deletion. The Decay are a great trio and working alongside Matt Hardy, who is often viral amongst wrestling fans, could get them some good exposure to non-TNA fans who love Broken Matt gifs and vids.
Oh props to the Impact Zone tonight or to TNA for mic-ing the crowd better because they were on point with the "Obsolete!" responses to Jeff’s theme music (here’s a WhipClip video for those curious). And they were more than willing to chant "Delete!" over and over at any inkling. It made the segment more enjoyable to hear the crowd into it more.
Backstage, Billy Corgan books Knockouts Champion Sienna in a title match
Allie defeats Sienna (c), Madison Rayne, Jade, & Marti Bell to become Knockouts champion.
Wow. Didn’t see that coming. But I kind of love it.
The booking prior to this match was poor. I’ve never been a fan of booking the heel in an against the odds match up by a face authority figure, especially one that comes off as heelish like Corgan. But in general, the build to Gail Kim’s title shot has been rather lackluster. The booking was overall solid, but it just didn’t have any real fire to it.
In fact, the most entertaining part of it all has been Allie. She plays an easily flustered, overly bubbling, loveably annoying woman who has no clue how to wrestle but dammit if she’s not going to try her best. Her personality was too over the top for even her boss Maria, who has become consistently more frustrating with her somewhat incompetent assistant. That just endeared Allie to us more.
In the match, Allie wanted to help Sienna. She really did. She tried to perform a double suplex with the champ but for the life of her didn’t know which way to place their opponents arm for it. Maria kept insisting Allie get involved to help Sienna but when she’d tried, Sienna would yell at her to get away. Unfortunately for the champ, when Allie was trying to take Marti’s baton from her, she flung it back into Sienna’s face, which knocked her out of the ring. Marti knocked out Allie with said baton onto Madison, who had already been laid out prior. Then Jade runs in and dropkicks Marti, not realizing that Allie is technically covering Madison for the 1-2-3.
The facial expressions after the match were great. Maria was a utterly shocked and dismayed, watching all of her plans to control the Knockouts crumble before her. And Allie was just completely surprised (with likely some real emotions for winning TNA’s women’s title).
Now, they can have a story of either Maria trying to keep the belt on her assistant to try to maintain power. Or a story of Maria and Sienna trying to get the title back from her, turning against Allie and making her an even more sympathetic babyface. Both could be entertaining ways and could give the Knockouts division, which has been a bit lackluster the last couple months, a bit of a spark.
There is a taped segment with EC3 and Drew Galloway on a roof alongside a pool, apparently both being invited by management to iron things our prior to their match tonight. They takes some shots. EC3 wants to know what Drew's problem is and Drew says that he knows what it is -- it's all the times Ethan cost him the world title. Drew said he knows Carter didn't mean it but he asked him to stay out of his business and EC3 wouldn't listen. EC3 tells Drew he apologized by giving him the match tonight. The Scotsman warns him that he's going to be at a different level tonight. They take a final shot with a toast (to their cats!). EC3 tries to have a last word so Galloway shoves him in the pool.
I commend TNA for trying to do more of these off site videos to spice things up, but I felt this one didn’t help anything. In fact, it detracted.
It’s not that the men involved in the segment weren’t good in it. They sold what they were instructed to sell, to show that these guys are still friends but have some major issues. But that detracts from the heat they had built with each other over the last month plus.
The impression they were giving prior to this, despite being somewhat civil in the ring last week, was that they were really angry with each other and despite being friends at one time, they were headed away from that. That’s a better build for a match than two guys who just buried the hatchet with some scotch followed by some pool antics.
While these videos in general have been an overall addition to TNA and they should keep trying with them, tonight’s seem to detract from the animosity between these two men for their match later on.
Eli Drake is hosting the Fact of Life with the X Division. The vacant title is on his podium.
He informs us that next week, the vacant title will be on the line so one of these guys will be champion next week. To stir the pot, Drake wants them all to mention who they think has no chance to win the title. Rockstar Spud jumps in saying it's Sutter. Sutter calls Spud a little crybaby and makes fun of his braces, which he has because Braxton kicked his teeth out. This sets Spud on a long rant.
Drake tells all of them he isn't convinced any of them have the tingle in their loins to walk out with that title. DJ Z tells Drake that he knows nothing about the X Division nor the athletes in it. He also has a message for Lashley - someone will beat him from the X Division and it will be DJ Z.
Drake starts spamming the "Dummy button" and DJ dares him to do it one more time. As Eli is about to, Z pushes the podium down, and all of the X Division guys fight. DJ Z ends up standing with the title in the middle of the ring.
This was just a set up segment for next week’s Ultimate X gauntlet match for the X division title (don’t ask me what the rules for a gauntlet Ultimate X match is because I have no clue).
Spud was the star of this segment, going on a mint rant and reminding us that he’s a fabulous character worker as he run down everyone there. (Here’s the WhipClip video of his awesome rant.)
The problem? It shows he’s really the only character of the X Division. Sutter and Mandrews are just there. Trevor Lee and Andrew Everett really use Shane Helms for their mouth piece. They’ve got some silent charisma but there’s not much doing with them. And then there’s DJ Z, who is playing the role of "I stand up for the X Division" which is a bland role in general and not at all making him exciting.
DJ will probably win the title next week and good for him because he’s really good in ring and has put in a lot of time in TNA. But he’s been more interesting in past heel incarnations of obnoxious hair dresser and obnoxious DJ than as the guy who stands up for the X Division. He’s got some passion when delivering these promos so he could get it over, but X Division babyface as a character is an uphill battle.
EC3 defeats Drew Galloway to keep his main event spot at Bound for Glory.
After the match, Galloway vicious attacks special guest referee Aron Rex, who called the match down the middle, when Rex tries to shake his hand.
Heel Drew!
Drew’s turn was coming slowly since he lost the title. Mr. Passion for Wrestling couldn’t handle losing the biggest prize in TNA and it has slowly been breaking him down. He’s been looking for someone to blame and first focused on EC3, which was understandable. EC3 actually did cost him the title a couple times, even if it was inadvertent.
But now he’s just snapped, going after Aron Rex who refereed the match and called it down the middle. Rex’s involvement in the match felt out of place with his explanation "I want to referee this match because I want to make sure its fair" but it will get us to the Rex/Galloway feud that will hopefully be the springboard for the former Sandow to get things going. A full on heel Galloway should be fun with his ruthless nature. I’m curious to see how Rex plays off of it.
The match itself was really good, with both Carter and Galloway busting out big moves to try to put the other away. Drew even used the tombstone piledriver on EC3 to try to end it. Though in the end, when big moves didn’t work, it was a reversal of Galloway’s Future Shock DDT into a pinning combination that got EC3 the victory.
Carter will be headed to Bound for Glory to face likely Bobby Lashley but possibly Mike Bennett depending on who wins next week. And it looks like Rex and Galloway will have a date there themselves.
This was a fun main event match that set up the next feud and was the trigger for full blown heel Galloway.
Pros of the Show:
- Fun main event match
- Hardys/Decay is a feud full of crazy
- Allie’s surprise title win
Cons of the Show:
- Fact of Life segment demonstrated lack of characters in the X Divsion
- The EC3/Drew pool segment detracted from the heat of the feud
An overall solid offering from TNA this week as they continue to set up Bound for Glory.
Grade: B