TNA Impact Preview (August 4, 2016): The Bound for Glory playoff finals!

TNA Impact returns tonight (Aug. 4, 2016) from Orlando, Florida with the finals of their Bound for Glory playoff between Ethan Carter III and The Miracle Mike Bennett. Here are our five questions we have about Impact tonight.

1) Who will win the finals?

It sounds like a cliche question but it’s actually an interesting one when you think about the fact the winner gets to go to Bound for Glory and challenge for the TNA world title.

EC3 is in the middle of a big feud with Drew Galloway that they may actually be able to draw out to be a major match at the Bound for Glory pay-per-view (PPV). If that’s the case, Bennett would walk out the winner here. However, that would set up a heel vs. heel match between him and Lashley (if Lashley holds the belt that long.)

If EC3 wins, that would set up the big Lashley/Carter feud they’ve been teasing for a little bit now, but that would mean that Galloway/Carter is going to happen to prior and if EC3 is the number one contender for the title during that feud, it kind of telegraphs his victory.

2) Is this too much time between naming a number one contender and Bound for Glory?

Bound for Glory is typically in October some time. (TNA hasn’t announced any details on their big show yet.) With a winner being crowned in the playoffs tonight, that would leave two months of a number one contender. Not that that is unprecedented. WWE does that yearly with their Royal Rumble and WrestleMania.

But with an often faster paced storytelling style in TNA, this may feel too long. Even in the WWE, it feels like knowing the number one contender for awhile drags on too much. Sure, the person who wins this match tonight can go on and have another feud (such as Carter having his Galloway feud) but it sure feels like a long time to build a match.

3) What happened to Rosemary in the barn?

Last week, we got a bit of an origin story as told by Rosemary to Bram regarding how she went from an innocent school girl to the demented Rosemary. It started with her mother throwing away their sick cat, to Rosemary learning she has a deceased brother who’s spirit is embodied in a tree (I think), to her using forest magic to make a local boy, Johnny, fall for her. Then, she alludes to an incident in the barn between her and Johnny but we don’t know what happened with her and this boy.

They cut the flashback with said boy moving his hand towards Rosemary’s lower extremities as she said “he wasn’t the man I thought he was,” which could be hinting that he sexually assaulted her. I’m hoping that this is just some misdirection and we learn that it was something completely different and something that keeps with the outrageous story they were telling prior. Like maybe he reached over Rosemary to grab his phone to order pizza, but he ordered Dominos instead of Papa Johns, which pissed Rosemary off. So she used her magic to turn him into a gnat or something. Because TNA shouldn’t be telling any stories that involve rape. I don’t trust them (or any wrestling promotion really) with such heavy, serious subject matter. So fingers crossed for transmutation into a gnat or something closer to that vain.

4) James Storm not drinking is a match stipulation?

I swore it was a requirement to get said match.

Last week, James Storm request a rematch for Eli Drake’s King of the Mountain championship (their first match ended with Drake getting himself disqualified). Drake acquiesced but James Storm had to agree to give up drinking and driving on the Boozer Cruiser and all of that.

It really sounded like he had to do that to earn the match but instead it’s what he is risking in the match. If he wins, he wins the KOTM title. If he loses, he stops drinking.

This could be the little tweak in Storm’s character that he could use to freshen things up for his 2016 TNA run.

5) Who will be the X Division’s next hero?

Bobby Lashley is TNA champion. He’s also X Division champion after defeating Eddie Edwards two weeks ago for the belt. Last week, DJ Z tried to win the title back for the division in a ladder match but came up short.

With the Destroyer holding that title with an iron grip, who’s going to step up next? Will it be new comer Braxton Sutter? Will Eddie Edwards pick himself up and try to reclaim what he lost? Perhaps it’ll be his tag team partner Davey Richards.

Whoever it is will have a major challenge in front of them because Lashley has been dominant.

TNA Impact airs tonight on PopTV on 8 EST. Who’s watching?