TNA Impact returned last night (Sept. 15, 2016) from Orlando, Florida as they continued to build to Bound for Glory (BFG), which is only a few weeks away.
For all the segment by segment happenings from this week’s show, check out the live blog here.
An Unwelcome Diversion
Bobby Lashley opened the show tonight in the ring, saying his attack on EC3 left the challenger unable to compete for the title at Bound for Glory. So now he’s got that night off. But not so fast! Grado came down to step up... and immediately paid the price. So Bobby Lashley has the night off again.
But not so fast again! This time Moose, who has been gunning for Lashley since day one, stepped up to the champ and fared much better than poor Grado. In fact, after men fight for a bit, Moose is left wanting more as Lashley decides to retreat.
Eventually, with some added prodding by Mike Bennett, Lashley said he’ll take the fight. (Bennett was rather honest about wanting Lashley to soften up his BFG opponent.) However, when it came down to time to have their fight, Lashley told Moose that he’ll fight him, but on a bigger stage: Bound for Glory. Moose didn’t want to wait. So the men brawled again. Mike Bennett then got involved, always looking for an opportunity to get an advantage on his enemy, and Moose was double teamed by both the Miracle and the champ. But at the end of the show, Ethan Carter finally came out to enact some revenge from last week.
This entire story did not work well to set up the Bound for Glory main event, even though the story itself made some sense. (Outside of the fact that EC3 was cool to hang out in the back when Lashley was trying to give away his title shot but he just had to come out to save Moose from getting beaten up two on one.)
The real problem with all of this was the focus was taken too away from of the EC3/Lashley title fight. Usually I’m a big fan of when TNA tells stories with multiple intersecting characters with different motives. But tonight, it detracted from what they were trying to do.
Bound for Glory is in three weeks and the focus at this point should be Ethan Carter and the unstoppable Lashley. Subtly teasing a Moose feud with Lashley in the future is fine, but it was too much tonight. The spotlight was taken off the BFG main event and placed on Moose and Lashley when they’re still in the middle of telling the EC3/Lashley story.
Last week, the press conference between EC3 and Lashley was surrounding the fact that Carter had to be the one to beat Lashley because no one else could. Tonight, they show us that Moose is another guy who can stand toe to toe with Lashley. In fact, he did better than anyone else has. We don’t need to see that now. That just detracts from the stakes of the title match. Lashley has destroyed our heroes and Carter is the only hope. That’s the story. Not "Well if Carter can’t get it done, Moose acquitted himself well."
I suppose this could be leading to a Fatal 4-way for the title at Bound for Glory, but I’d prefer this just be an episode of Impact where they decided to focus on the wrong thing. A 4-way would be a disservice to both the Moose/Bennett feud and the Carter/Lashley feud.
Now that EC3 has returned after taking a beating from Lashley, next week they can get back on track getting us pumped for that match and not a match further down the road.
The Great War!
Tonight, we saw Matt Hardy, with the help of the Seven Deities, help rebuild Broken Brother Nero in the healing lake. (And a great moment where Jeff was emerged in the lake and reemerged as heel Jeff circa 2010 complete with his ugly ass personal title.) Matt then found a useless Vanguard One and asked the Deities to fill him with the essence that was deleted from Jeff Hardy. And then VG1 and Matt found Señor Benjamin in a broken down shed (possibly the shed where Bram was last taken).
In the Impact Zone, the Hardys (this time with Reby) and Decay have another verbal confrontation, again making it clear that Rosemary can hold her own with anyone, even the Broken Brilliance of Matt Hardy. Matt issues the next challenge for this feud, this time at Bound for Glory in The Great War.
We don’t know what that even means yet, but it’s bound to be big. And after seeing Reby hit a Twist of Fate on Rosemary, it looks like she’s going to be rather active in this one.
And Rosemary finally addressed Bram, who was last seen being tossed in the trunk of the Decay’s beamer. She said that since he wouldn’t submit, he was destroyed. But I still have a feeling he’ll be back.
There are also a few fun things that stuck out to me from Matt’s rescue missions:
- The lake by his house not only has healing potential, but it can revert you to past incarnations of oneself. We saw Jeff Hardy emerge as Willow, Abyss emerge as Joseph Park, and Jeff again as heel Jeff. I wonder who else will feel its changing effects.
- When Vanguard One was getting his memories back, they were mainly about his friendship with Señor Benjamin. But we also learned he’s a sore loser, seeing him lose to Benjamin in chess and then knock over all of the pieces.
- If Vanguard One was filled with the deleted essence of Jeff Hardy, is he Jeff Hardy?
Grand Championship
The tournament for the new Grand Championship continued tonight. I have decided to give this tournament and these matches more time before I form a final opinion.
The format actually isn’t bad: Three rounds where the competitors can win by pinfall, submission, or judge’s decision if it lasts three rounds. These rules even the playing field a bit because anyone who comes out aggressive can win. Plus, they can create drama by putting someone down two rounds and forcing them to fight more aggressively to pick up a pinfall or submission in the third round. There’s ample room for utilizing different psychology given the different rules of the match. All of that is rather positive.
The biggest issue now is why do we care? They’ve yet to give us a reason to care who wins this title or why they want to compete in this type of match. Some of that will take time because history doesn’t happen over night. But without a distinct division of men fighting for the title, like the X Division had when it was at its peak, it’s just a different title the people we watch all the time can hold. Since the cast of characters is the same, the gimmick aspect of the match is going to have to do much of the work to keep folks interested.
Aron Rex, who won his match against Trevor Lee by pinfall in round two, cut a promo saying he wants to meet Drew Galloway in the tournament. Right now, that sounds like a terrible idea. You don’t set up a grudge feud and then settle it in a 9 minute match that’s divided it into thirds. Grudge matches require the freedom to breathe and build in order to continue to tell the story of the feud. Hopefully, both men get knocked out of the tournament (perhaps due to the other) and that’s how they go.
Mahabali Shera lost to Eddie Edwards in another Grand Championship match later on, this one by submission. Four matches and none have gone to the judges, which is probably a good thing. Shera destroyed Edwards in round two and one of the judges actually gave the round to Edwards.
The Knockouts
The Knockouts story was told over two segments. In the first, Maria tried to throw a fake Hall of Fame induction for Gail Kim because she felt her own performance at Bound for Glory would overshadow Gail’s moment. Of course, it was all a sham. However, during this segment, Dixie Carter ruled that Gail would be allowed in the #1 contenders gauntlet (battle royal) later in the night. She would go on to win that.
It really was a tale of two segments.
The first segment was really strong, resting on the shoulders of the character work of both Maria and Allie. Maria was her usual insufferable self while Allie was a mixture of straight up sad and giddiness when she talked about Gail Kim, who she thinks is the best wrestler. In fact she got her a gift... that Maria just stomped on like the bully she is. Maria has done a great job making herself a villain here and Gail Kim, who has never been a really strong promo, got to benefit from it as the person who’s trying to shut her up.
The match itself was rough though. It was long, and much like most battle royals, there were stretches where there was nothing to focus on in the ring. They re-debuted Tough Enough’s Chelsea Green as Laurel Vanness. She took the place of Allie, who Maria demanded not wrestle. Raquel (Gabi from Tough Enough) was also in the match and it was clear that both of these women are still rather green. It was a stark comparison to the likes of Gail Kim, Jade, and Madison Rayne (who was actually eliminated by Vanness.)
By the time the match became a one on one match between Sienna and Gail, it was easy to be burned out from the length of the match and how disjointed it often felt.
Empty Arena Match
To explain the match, Josh Mathews said it was "for the safety of the fans" and so fans "didn’t have to watch someone intentionally try to hurt someone else." OK, so I can buy the first one, though people fight through the crowd all the time. But the second part? C’mon now. People go to wrestling shows specifically to see someone intentionally attempt to hurt someone else.
In general, matches in an empty arena are not going to be as good as a match in front of a crowd. The silences are awkward and the space between action is magnified due to that lack of ambient noise.
Because of those things, Braxton Sutter and Spud were behind the eight ball. They did what they could. There wasn’t much break in the action and it wasn’t too long. Braxton made sure to talk a ton of smack to fill the gaps and it actually helped strengthen his character.
He won by tossing Spud face first into the turnbuckle, pinned him, and left Spud bleeding out of his mouth in the middle of the ring.
The match itself was rather skippable but if this is the start of a more ruthless Braxton Sutter, that’s a benefit.
Pros of the Show:
- The Hardy/Decay feud
- Maria and Allie’s character work
Cons of the Show:
- Main event angle was too focused on Lashley/Moose
- The Knockouts Gauntlet match
Outside the Hardy/Decay feud and the continued great work of Allie & Maria, there was little that was very good about this show. It was an uncommon night where the main event angle didn’t hit. The Grand Championship hasn’t proved to be any failure, but it hasn’t proved to be something must see either.
Grade: C-