TNA Impact Preview (August 12, 2015): TNA vs. GFW!

TNA Impact airs tonight on Destination America.  It is the start of the latest set of tapings and there's plenty on the plate for an intriguing show.  Let's get right to what has been advertised.  Much like usual, this will be a spoiler free post.

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1)  Jeff Jarrett's in charge and he's bringing Global Force Wrestling wrestlers.

Last week, Bully Ray was attacked backstage by a mystery assailant.  Jeff Jarrett happened to be hanging out in Dixie Carter's office while she was dealing with the aftermath and he offered to run the show.  He has since said that he's not coming alone and instead bring a heavyweight, a tag team, and a NexGen (analogous to X Division) star.  He didn't say who in the video, though if you go on ImpactWrestling.com, you'll see guys like Sonjay Dutt, PJ Black (formerly Justin Gabriel), and Chris Masters to name a few.  A couple matches were eventually announced and we'll get them soon enough.

2)  The King of the Mountain title will be defended.

At Slammiversary Jeff Jarrett won the new King of the Mountain title, which is technically a TNA title.  Weeks later, Eric Young showed up at a GFW event and stole the title, which has not been mentioned on TNA television at all,.  Then he cut a promo that was aired on the GFW website saying that he was bringing that title home.

Will that finally be acknowledged tonight?  That remains to be seen.  It's mentioned that the title will be defended but there's no mention of who is involved.  That would imply Jeff Jarrett will be in action though.

3)  Awesome Kong vs. Lei'd Tapa

This is the one of the two TNA vs. GFW match ups announced.

If you're like me, you remember Lei'd Tapa for losing to Ivelisse on those horrible Gut Check segments but somehow was the one winning the kayfabe contract anyway.  Seriously, I'm not sure if I've forgiven her for that yet.  To compound things, she went ahead to have a horrendous run as Gail Kim's bodyguard before being let go.

To be fair, that was over a year ago and people improve with time.  So hopefully, this ends up being the hossette fight that it could be.

4)  Jessie Godderz vs. Bobby Lashley

Yeah, I've got nothing here.

This is a random match with no backstory.  Last we saw Godderz, he finally beat Robbie E.  Last we saw Lashley, he was... Ummm... Hmph... hold on let me check

Ah, here it is!  He beat Tyrus on July 9th.  Since then, maybe he was feuding with the BDC and it was all edited out.  But he wasn't on television.

5)  Ethan Carter celebrates his Full Metal Mayhem victory

Last week, EC3 defeated Matt Hardy in Full Metal Mayhem to retain his TNA title.  Now, he celebrates.  And it's always fun when the champ celebrates.  Last time, he had an a capella group.  Let's see what he comes out with tonight.

Also, we'll probably get an idea of who his next challenger is.

Here are Carter's take on Jarrett being in charge:

6)  Who attacked Bully Ray?

We touched on this earlier, but this is listed on front page of TNA's website as part of the show.  So chances are there will be an official reveal.  So who could it be?  My money is on somebody working for Jeff Jarrett.  I'm guessing Bobby Roode is an inside man.  But who knows?  Maybe it's Rikishi.

7)  The Wolves vs. Trevor Lee and Brian Myers

To go along with a women's match, they also added a tag team match up.  The Wolves, fresh off being edited out of TV for the last month, go head to head with Trevor Lee and Brian Myers.  I don't know much about Trevor Lee, but Brian Myers you probably remember as Kurt Hawkins from the WWE.  It'll be good to finally see the Wolves back in action.

It should be noted that only weeks prior to the tapings, Davey Richards had to back out of an Evolve show and was unable to fly because of a possible concussion.  Asides from articles like the one just linked with two sentences, I cannot find any thing else about him sustaining an actual concussion.  He tweeted out that he got "Knocked out" and couldn't compete which could easily imply a concussion.  Hopefully it was just a scare and he didn't work these tapings with a head injury.

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What we'd like to see

1)  An arrogant Eli Drake promo

Last week, Eli Drake got a win over his former Rising mate Drew Galloway.  Sure it took a hand full a tights and a hand on the ropes, but a win is a win.  I've come to enjoy Eli Drake's cocky personality and I cannot wait for him to rub his cheated victory into Drew's impassioned face.

2)  X Division action

Now that TNA has given us a bit of a reason to care about Tigre Uno, it's time to take advantage.  Either have him in an X Division match with some TNA talent or have him feud with a Global Force NexGen guy such as PJ Black.  But don't let us forget about him now that you've told us about him.

3)  Robbie E

I said it last week and I'll say it again:  Stop denying us Robbie E.  TNA turned him face and then just forgets about him for weeks?  He's just too charismatic for that.  We want Robbie E, dammit!

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TNA Impact airs at its usual time tonight at 9 PM Eastern on Destination America.  Who's watching?