TNA Impact Preview (Sept. 8, 2016): Deletion Battle!

TNA Impact is back tonight with its big sequel to the Final Deletion, Delete or Decay, tonight. Here are our five questions about Impact tonight.

1) Can the sequel live up?

The Final Deletion did well. It boosted ratings and a lot of people liked it. But for every Godfather II, there’s a hundred Weekend at Bernie’s 2. Can the Final Deletion sequel capture what people liked about it the first time? Finding that balance between so outrageous that it’s fun/funny and so outrageous that it’s stupid is difficult. It something they were able to do the first time. But can they find that sweet spot a second time as well?

This time, it’s not Matt vs. Jeff. That’s already happened. Jeff has been deleted when he lost to his brother during the last deletion event. (Hence why that was the Final Deletion — the finality was Brother Nero’s deletion, not that it was the final deletion event.) This battle is against the evil Decay, the tag team champion trio, who have taken to targeting Matt son Maxel now that the Broken Hardys have earned themselves a tag title shot.

There’s a trailer out there now, which looks to promise some of the same craziness we’ve come to expect from the Broken Hardy world. Tonight we’ll see how their second stab at the outrageous lands.

2) Is Bram still locked in the trunk?

About a month ago, we saw video of Bram and Rosemary out of the Impact Zone in a barn. When Bram wasn’t responsive to the story she was telling, Rosemary snapped and she and the rest of Decay attacked him and put him in the trunk of their BMW not to be seen since.

If he has been brainwashed by Decay since then, tonight would be the ideal time to reveal him. The Hardys have strength in numbers with both Hardy brothers, Reby, Señor Benjamin, and Vanguard One. Using Bram as an added number and as the surprise element could help them even the odds.

(I’d like to note while I’ve watched the Delete or Decay trailer a few times, I couldn’t tell if the Decay were driving the same time of car that Bram was locked in.)

3) Will tonight see the official beginning of the build to EC3 vs. Bobby Lashley?

EC3 vs. Bobby Lashley is official for the main event for the TNA title at Bound for Glory. While EC3 had won the right weeks ago, he ended up defending it against Drew Galloway two weeks ago. And Bobby Lashley had to defend his TNA title last week, which he did successfully. With those two having defended their spot, it looks like we’re off to the races with this one.

Carter and Lashley have been in the ring during promos, but not specifically to build this match. Carter is a hot promo and Lashley has really found his stride during his current run so these could be fun verbal show downs to build to the BFG main event.

4) Where does Gail Kim fit in with all the the Knockouts drama?

The last two weeks have been quite exciting for TNA’s women’s division, when two women who either haven’t wrestled in TNA or kayfabe don’t know how have held the title.

Two weeks ago, during a multi-woman match, Allie unknowingly won the Knockouts title to the crowd’s delight. However her boss, Maria Kanellis, did not share the sentiment. So last week, she forced her subservient assistant to lay down for her so Maria could pin her and win the title.

During all of this, Gail Kim hasn’t been seen. She recently earned herself a shot at the Knockouts title and this sets up a Gail/Maria collision that they were trying at Slammiversary until Maria’s broken hand delayed the match. While it seems like that’s the obvious course, the story they’ve told the last couple weeks more calls for Allie to be the one to take the gold from Maria.

Of course it’s possible that Maria retains against Gail Kim. Or Allie can betray Maria to help Gail win, though that isn’t as sweet as Allie being the one to take the gold off of Maria herself. Given her kayfabe inability to wrestle, they’ll need to give her time so they can say she’s been learning to wrestle, so we wouldn’t be able to get there right away no matter how they play it.

Tonight, Gail Kim will team with Jade to face Allie and Sienna. It’ll be interesting to see how well the two former Knockouts champions co-exist after both of them been somewhat screwed out of their title.

5) What’s Eddie Edwards’ Bound for Glory plan?

If you asked me a little over a month ago what Edwards would be doing at BFG, I would have said it looks like they are building up him vs. Moose. But then they had that match on Impact, which Moose won, and a backstage promo hinted at Eddie vs. Bennett anyway. Now it looks like Moose vs. Bennett at Bound for Glory is the plan, after last week when Moose had enough of the Miracle and laid him out in the ring.

Of course, he can fit into the X Division, but he was absent from the X Division Ultimate Gauntlet match for the vacated title. That felt like they were moving Edwards away from the X Division, especially because they didn’t give an explanation to why Edwards wasn’t involved. They could always have him go one on one with DJ Z for the X Division title, which he never got a rematch for. That’s a program that could work, but it feels like they’ve elevated Edwards far enough above the division.

Or it’s possible that they expect Davey Richards to be healthy enough in a month for Bound for Glory and plan to reunite them as the Wolves for the big show.

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