Impact Wrestling preview (Oct. 26, 2017): Pick It Up

Impact Wrestling returns tonight (Oct. 26) with their eleventh show from the last set of tapings. There are only two episodes until Bound for Glory.

Here’s what’s advertised tonight:

• Moose vs. Lashley
• Johnny Impact & Garza Jr. vs. Eli Drake and Chris Adonis
• Eddie Edwards defends his GHC title against Naomichi Marufuji in Japan
• Trevor Lee works down in the Crash promotion

Here are our five questions regarding Impact tonight:

1) What other matches will be added to Bound for Glory?

Here’s is officially announced for Bound for Glory:

• Johnny Impact vs. Eli Drake (c) for the Impact heavyweight title
• Allie vs. Gail Kim vs. Sienna (c) for the Knockouts title
• LAX vs. oVe (c) in a street fight for the Impact tag team titles
• King Mo & Lashley vs. Stephan Bonnar and Moose
• Abyss vs. Grado in a Monster’s Ball match for the rights to Grado’s visa

It’s not announced officially, but Rosemary vs. Taya in a first blood match is a probability.

That’d be six matches. There’s going to be some type of X Division title match which would make it seven. There had eight matches last year. EC3 and James Storm aren’t on the card yet so I’d bet their issues with Triple A will find their way on the show as well.

Eight matches and whatever they do with Alberto El Patron would be a pretty full card. But it’s also possibly they sneak something else on.

2) Can they right the ship prior to Bound for Glory?

For at least the last two weeks, Impact has been very lackluster. Much of this due to all the time showing video packings and the time spent showing Impact wrestlers at other promotions. While spending 20 minutes showing the set up and a match elsewhere could be a cool exhibition, they’re spending too much time with action that feels like filler. Sometimes it feels 50% of the show takes place outside the Impact Zone.

This week, Eddie Edwards has a match against Marufuji for his GHC title at Pro Wrestling NOAH. I believe we saw brief clips of the match two weeks ago, and if so, this is just rehashing what we already saw. However, if we’re getting the full match, Marufuji/Edwards could be fun. This isn’t the only person traveling outside the Zone as we’ll see X Division Champion Trevor Lee down at the Crash promotion as well this week. That could be 40 minutes of filler right there.

Bound for Glory is in less than two weeks and there are only two episodes of Impact prior. This is absolutely not the time to air a ton of filler. This is the time to start amping up the excitement to help sell their pay-per-view. But these shows, which were taped about three months ago, feel more like they’re trying to stretch nine episodes of tapings into twelve. Impact desperately needs to inject some excitement into their program or there will be limited anticipation for their big show.

3) Are Rosemary and Taya having a first blood match?

Last week, in the main event, Taya defeated Rosemary clean in the middle of the ring. However, when Taya tried to attack Rosemary further after the match, the Demon Assassin sprayed mist in her face. This led to Rosemary claiming that at Bound for Glory, she wants to paint the arena with Taya’s blood.

Given that they’ve both sprayed the red mist in each other’s faces, first blood is possibly. If not, it’ll be something hardcore where they can unload on each other.

4) Where does Garza Jr. fit into the title feud?

Garza Jr. suddenly found himself involved in the issues between Johnny Impact and champion Eli Drake. In fact Impact won his BFG title shot by defeating Garza.

Despite losing out on the main event of Bound for Glory, Garza Jr. has been hanging around this story. He saved Johnny Impact from a beat down from both Drake and Adonis last week and will team with Johnny this week against Eli and Chris.

So where does he fit in at Bound for Glory? Are they going to run him against Chris Adonis one on one? Is this going to turn into a fatal 4-way for the title last minute?

I’m a fan of Garza given his time in Impact, so it’s cool to see him involved in the title feud in some sense. Hopefully, this leads to something exciting for him in the future.

5) Are we going to see yet another American Top Team beat down this week?

Every time Moose and Lashley’s MMA crew American Top Team are in the same building, Moose gets the tar beat out of him. Surely, Lashley will have his boys in his corner tonight. So it’s entirely possible history will repeat itself once again.

But maybe this is the time that Moose finally gets one over on Lashley and Top Team. Perhaps he and Stephan Bonnar have an ace up their sleeve. Hopefully they have something planned so they can avoid yet another beat down prior to their tag match against Lashley and King Mo at Bound for Glory.

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