TNA Impact Preview (July 21, 2016): New TNA Time, Same TNA channel

TNA Impact is back tonight on it’s new night and it’s new time of 8 EST (as opposed to 9 EST), filling the opening that was left by SmackDown. Here are five questions we have about the show tonight.

1) Are we going to get a real finish between Eddie Edwards and Bobby Lashley?

Last week, Bobby Lashley and Eddie Edwards had a title vs. title match at Destination X. Unfortunately for them and those who were curious to see an outcome, Mike Bennett and his new cohort Moose interrupted the match, resulting in a no contest. Dixie Carter ruled that the two would do it again this week, this time in a steel cage.

The steel cage stipulation is to help ensure a winner. While the non-finish last week was a bit to be expected and forgivable because they used it to debut a big new TNA signing, doing it two weeks in a row would be poor form. If they do that, fans will have a tougher time believing that stakes that are made for a match mean anything. Plus, it’s more intriguing story wise to do something like have Bobby Lashley hold up the X Division.

Plus I need to know if we’re getting that Davey Richards screw job.

2) What does Matt have in store for Jeff this week?

Last week, Matt announced that instead of firing his brother Jeff (because he can do that now that he’s deleted him), he’s going to keep him in TNA to try to make as much money off of him as he can. While we still don’t know how any of this works contract wise, Jeff is clearly in for a long haul.

And there’s this:

It looks like Matt is making Jeff do the dirt bike trick that ended in Jeff breaking his leg from last year. More mental games from the Broken One.

3) How will the Bound for Glory Playoffs work?

TNA Bound for Glory is in October, but it is typically the pay-per-view (PPV) that they build to the most. It’s their top show of the year and it was even when they had 12 a year instead of 2. In the past, the had the Bound for Glory Series, which was a point based round robin tournament where a group of guys would fight each other and the those with the top four in points ended up in a playoff format to see who main events BFG against the champ. It was a good idea in theory but the practice never seemed to live up.

There much word on the playoff system. We know who is in it: EC3, Drew Galloway, James Storm, Broken Matt Hardy, Brother Nero, The Miracle Mike Bennet & Eli Drake are in it.

We have three matches announced for tonight:

Bram vs. Drew Galloway

EC3 vs. Eli Drake

Broken Matt Hardy vs. James Storm

Is this the only time these men will face each other? Does this have a point system? If this is a single elimination playoff, and the TNA preview video hints at that, it’d be over pretty soon and Bound for Glory is a ways away. Having a number one contender for 3 months and having to kill time until them doesn’t sound the most exciting.

4) What’s next for Moose and Mike Bennett?

Mike Bennett alongside his wife and First Lady of Professional Wrestling Maria Kanellis is declaring war on TNA and its president Dixie Carter. Bennett promised he’d ruin Destination X last week. He tried a couple times and all it resulted in was a loss to DJ Z. It wasn’t until he brought Moose out that he was actually able to do some damage.

It was a really cool moment. What now? Are they going to try to hold stuff up still? Is Moose going to start gunning for the title? It’ll be interesting to see what the new signee is up to next.

5) What’s the plan for the Knockouts?

It feels like the last few weeks, the KOs have been in a holding pattern. Jade defeated Marti Bell in a street fight a few weeks back in a match that felt like a feud ender. Sienna recently retained her KOs title against both Gail Kim one on one two weeks ago and then against all three of those previously mentioned women last week. It feels like it’s time to go on to the next direction.

Jade is owed a rematch so that’s a possibility. She can go against Sienna, the power of the Maria Kanellis stable. Gail still has a match against Maria as soon as Maria is cleared. Unfortunately there aren’t many options because TNA doesn’t have a lot Knockouts and 3 of them (Sienna, Allie, and Maria) are lumped into one unit. That just leaves Marti Bell, Jade, and Gail Kim. Four entities is not enough to tell different, fresh stories. They really need an influx of some more female talent to freshen things up. In the meanwhile, I’d be fine with them dropping the Rosemary and Bram story and move her into a Knockouts feud.

Maria Kanellis is going to issue a State of the Knockouts tonight so maybe we’ll get a hint at the next direction.

TNA Impact airs tonight at 8 EST on Pop TV. Who’s watching?