TNA Impact Review, Results, & Video (April 5, 2016): A Dish Best Served Cold

TNA Impact aired tonight (April 5, 2016) from Orlando, Florida with a special show billed as "Revenge." Let's see how it did.

Jeff Hardy defeats Eric Young in six sides of steel via pinfall

It may be good for all involved that EY is leaving soon. He's talented and he went all in on his "crazy" character in an admirable way but he is one of those guys who ran his course. While he did his best to build his "psychotic" character, it never seemed to fully click. Because of that, while this match told a story and had some fun spots, it wasn't anything to write home about. If you're more into his heel run, this may have been more for you.

They told a story with the match. Since EY is still hanging around with Bram, both men beat up Jeff Hardy outside the cell before the match even began. Hardy avoided a piledriver on the floor, the piledriver being the move that the story is based around, but they did enough damage to give Young the advantage when he finally decided to toss Hardy in the ring to start the match. Hardy fought back, even endured a pile driver through 4 chairs that were set up, and defeated Young by Swanton Bombing him off the top of the cage through a table. It was a finish that looked pretty dangerous.

Those were the only two high spots, but that's fine. Matches don't need a ton of dangerous spots to tell a story. Given the fact the pile driver was the crux of the story, it did feel like Hardy was up and ready to fight more really soon after taking it on the chair. Asides from that, the story told was solid.

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The Matt Hardy Brand (including Maxel) and Drew Galloway are in the ring for a "last words" promo prior to their main event title match. Hardy says that he should be champion because he is the epitome of what a champion should be. He has an entourage like a champion, he married like a champion, and he even procreated like a champion. He's worked for everything and has integrity unlike Galloway, who is just a thief.

Drew says that if there is one word to describe himself, it's passion. He isn't playing a character on TV. He is like this 24/7. Galloway goes on to say that Matt used to have passion but somewhere along the line, he became about manipulation. Hell, he even uses his infant son as a prop on a TV show. As Galloway goes on to say how he respects Matt's brother Jeff, Matt gets pissed and takes the microphone. The Iconic One says that he's nothing like his traitorous brother and just because Drew beat Jeff doesn't mean he's going to win tonight.

As Jeremy Borash, who is moderating, is about to close off, Tyrus takes the microphone. He reminds everyone that he won Bound for Gold match at Bound for Glory last year and because of that, he gets a title shot when he wants. And he may very well do it tonight. This leaves Matt Hardy looking upset.

Since they just announced this title rematch last week, they had to do the promo segment to build it this week. That was a good move to build just a little more towards the title match tonight. While the Jeff Hardy/Galloway match last week felt rushed (it was announced the week prior, which was a quick turn around for a marquee match), this one does not. Galloway and Hardy have already had promo segments prior to this one and this last one made the match tonight feel a bit more weighted than it did prior.

Kudos for not completely forgetting that Tyrus won a battle royal for a title match. That was a lingering plot point that was unmentioned for so long that I thought they may just forget it. While the idea of a Tyrus title shot doesn't particularly excite me, dropped plot points are always irritating. This now adds a wrinkle to Tyrus's relationship with the entire Matt Hardy Brand.

I have noticed this but not mentioned this yet, but Rockstar Spud is in full Rockstar mode like he was as an indie wrestler. He's got the leather pants, the leather jacket, and he's always sniffing and rubbing his nose like he just snorted a line of cocaine backstage. It's a perfect look for a member of an entourage and seeing a bit of a character change up, especially after a heel turn, is enjoyable. I eagerly await the documentary on his downward spiral. "From Bowties to Blow: The Rockstar Spud Story."

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Bobby Lashley defeats the Pope via pinfall in a Street Fight

After the match, Lashley serves the Pope two more spears. Ethan Carter comes out to stare down Lashley, who decides to leave. Then Mike Bennett attacks EC3 from behind with a chair and leaves him laying.

The post match happenings were entertaining. The match itself was pretty one-sided, with Lashley controlling a good portion of the match (which he should in this case) and it never really seemed like he was in trouble. That all served to continuing building Lashley has a dominant heel. A man who hasn't wrestled in four years should have very little chance again the Destroyer. And even though Pope found some advantage when he was finally able to employ some weapons, Lashley never seemed threatened.

As the match built his dominance, the post match spears illustrated that he's also a nasty heel as well. Even though Pope is difficult on commentary, his story here painted him as a pretty strong baby face. He stood up for his colleague and paid for it with a spear. Then out of pride, he took the fight to Lashley and demanded a street fight. Pope being the victim of Lashley is a good choice to paint Lashley as unlikeable. Plus, Pope was selling like a champ this match.

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After a commercial break, EC3 is able to get back up. He grabs a microphone and demands that Bennett comes out. Instead, he gets Maria, who he shuts down quickly, demanding to speak to her worthless husband. The Miracle obliges and comes out to tell Carter that he should stop blaming the Miracle for his failures. When Bennett came into TNA, EC3 was on top of the world but that's all over and Carter has only himself to blame. But if he wants to blame the Miracle, he can go right ahead, and if he wants to fight the Miracle, he can because it'll end the same way it always does: With the Miracle standing over Carter. However, when the One Percenter gets excited about having a match tonight, Bennett tells him it won't be tonight. It'll be next week.

Carter isn't having it. He chases the Miracle out of the stage and the two men brawl into the parking lot. Bennett is able to use a tire iron from a trunk and hit EC3 with and drives away.

I was kind of hoping the Carter segment was going to end after he was laid out by Bennett. One of my gripes about EC3 as a babyface was that he always seemed to have the upper hand. After doing the right thing and coming out to help Pope (albeit so slowly that the Pope took a second spear as Carter unbuttoned his shirt on in the entrance), Bennett takes advantage and then leaves Carter laid out in the middle of the ring. End the segment like that, and then the fans can hope next week that EC3 gets his revenge against a dastardly Bennett.

However, he got up by the next commercial break and the men cut promos on each other. The promos were fine by both men. Bennett continues to impress on the stick. Though I should say after I made such a point last week that he didn't need to say "bitch" to make his words mean something, he went with it tonight. (I do have less problems with a heel using it than a babyface.) Carter's role as a good guy felt a bit more natural here, though it helps that Bennett is playing such a good heel. EC3 did call Maria "toots" but since that's such an antiquated term, it came off to me as more silly than heelish.

Oh, by the way, the car that Bennett drives out of the arena in isn't his own. So you can add grand theft auto to his list of heel tactics.

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Jade defeats Madison Rayne and Gail Kim to become Knockouts Champion

I've been a big fan of Jade during her TNA run and I'm very happy she's the Knockouts champion. She deserves it. However, this match felt a bit like an afterthought on this show, which was a let down after the strong segment where Jade became #1 contender a couple weeks ago.

This match became a triple threat because last week, Gail inexplicably made herself a #1 contender's match that Madison won. Dixie Carter ruled backstage that since neither of these women have the power to crown a number one contender, Gail will have to fight them both tonight, which she had no problem doing.

Adding Madison seemed extraneous and didn't add anything to the story. Also, the prospects of another Gail/Jade one on one bout was exciting. And while it's likely we will get that match for Gail's rematch, Jade's first win deserved a little more impact than this short triple threat that never had time to come together.

Maria did get involved in this match, hitting Gail in the back with the title as the referee was outside tending to Madison (after Jade pretty much choked her out). So in the end, even though Maria may not have had the power to make Jade #1 Contender, her plan still yielded the results she desired. Even though this story has felt flat the last couple of weeks, it still has everything needed to heat up again.

And congratulations on Jade's well deserved title win.

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Shane Helms comes to the ring with Trevor Lee asking for Eddie Edwards answer from last week. (Last week he offered to tag with Edwards while Davey Richards is out.) While Edwards thanks him for the opportunity, he doesn't want to use his tag team title rematch with Shane Helms but wants to wait his partner to get healthy. Because of that, he declines the offer. It looks like both Lee and Helms are about to double up on Edwards, but Beer Money comes down to prevent that.

James Storm grabs a mic and tells them that any time they want some, come and get it. Helms and Lee leave and Storm continues, saying that Beer Money is the best there is and they are looking for competition. Decay comes out and Abyss tells them the last time they took the titles it was for fun. This time it is forever.

The two teams brawl until they are pulled apart by security.

There are a couple stories they told in this segment. There's the Eddie Edwards/Shane Helms & Trevor Lee story and the Beer Money/Decay story. The Eddie Edwards story looks to be building slowly, which works. Edwards is not a great promo, but he made his point and Helms was angered just by being told no. I'm interested to see where this ends up. Shane Helms could end up being used to get a lot of different guys involved. However as of now, the X Division still isn't anything important. Hopefully this will work towards that.

As for the other story, Decay still has that allure to them and I hope they are the team that takes the gold off of Beer Money. It's going to need to happen soon because Bobby Roode has already left TNA and they are going to need lose the titles before he does. I always wanted to see Beer Money get back together, but that became a "Be careful what you wish for" deal. I haven't found their dumb one liners about drinking beer funny and they haven't had any good feuds yet. While I'll miss Bobby Roode in TNA, I won't miss Beer Money.

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Drew Galloway defeats Matt Hardy via submission to retain his TNA Title

The questions surrounding this match going in is would Tyrus make this a triple threat match. The announcers made it clear that his title shot does not work like a Feast or Fired briefcase so he would have to declare his intentions before the match started. After the initial participants were announced, Tyrus gestured for a microphone to let us know his decision. However, before he could get it, Matt Hardy hit Galloway from behind forcing the match to start.

The announcers played that up as Tyrus just helping Matt get the upper hand. But I saw it differently. I saw Matt worried that he'd have to contend with two men instead of just one and forced the match to start before Tyrus had the chance to insert himself. That's more nuanced heeling than it being some big ruse just so Matt could get the first hit on Drew.

The match ended up being Drew trying to fight through Matt while dealing with Tyrus and Spud on the outside. However this match never felt over booked. The interference was mainly from Spud, who isn't a major factor, so it never seemed too much. And when that drugged up rocker wannabe crawled under the ring so the ref wouldn't see him and then crawled halfway out to choke Drew, I had to chuckle.

Jeff Hardy inserted himself when Tyrus dragged the referee out of the ring after Drew delivered the Future Shock DDT to Matt. With the score even, Drew locked in his Iron Maiden submission for the win.

Jeff's involvement helped further the Hardy Brothers feud. So far, this has been a fairly slow burn which has worked nicely. While it's clear they are on a collision course, it's not rushed. Given the fact this actually started prior to their UK tour, this feud has been three months running and has been told well. They haven't faced each other yet, but have been in each other's business enough to advance their angle. Also Matt's utter disdain for his brother is over the top but well done.

Drew continues to be the fighting champion and it is fun to see major title matches often. With Hardy out of the picture, this leaves his next challenger open. (Though they can always use Tyrus.) It'll be curious to see who becomes his next challenger.

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Pros of the Show:

• Fun main event
• Jade is Knockouts Champion
• Lashley is a good heel

Cons of the Show:

• Women's match felt short and not as impactful as a title change should
• Eric Young's character has become stale.

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