Impact Wrestling preview (May 18, 2017): Grudge match

Impact Wrestling returns tonight (May 18) with their fifth episode from the last set of tapings. As per usual, here are our five questions about tonight’s offering.

1) Are they only three men in the Ultimate X match?

Tonight, Low-Ki will defend his X Division title against both Trevor Lee and Andrew Everett in an Ultimate X match. In a division where they love to run multi-man matches, often with four or more, it’s surprising to see only three in tonight’s match. That’s especially with the four corners feel of the Ultimate X.

This is not a complaint, however. This should be a really fun match and the smaller field should allow the match to breath a bit. All men have a reason to be there. Low-Ki is the champion obviously. Trevor Lee is the man who lost his title and has yet to receive a rematch. And Andrew Everett is the man who jumped through hoops chasing Lee for the title.

It’s always possible that they throw in Suicide or Marshe Rockett or someone to pad the numbers. But this would do well as a three man main event.

2) Is this really the EC3 vs. James Storm payoff?

EC3 will face his adversary James Storm tonight. This all started when Carter cost Storm the title by hitting him over the head with a beer bottle. Last week, he lured the Cowboy to the ring and handcuffed him to the ropes to whip him with a leather belt.

It’s a bit surprising that their match is already tonight. This feels like a feud that could play out a bit longer, especially since Storm just got ambushed last week, the event amping up this fued. It’s possible that this isn’t the real payoff but instead just a cog in the greater tale.

This is a match they could build up for Slammiversary. which is in a little over a months time. But if they want to put EC3 in a title picture (there are so many) they could do that at the pay-per-view as well.

3) Why do we need GFW tag champions?

There’s an abundance of championships in Impact currently. In fact, you can say there are too many. Right now we have an Impact champion, a Grand Champion, Impact tag champions, a Knockouts champion, an X Division champion, a GFW champion, and a GFW women’s champion.

So why in the world do they need to crown new GFW tag champions?

Hopefully the plan is to unify all the titles into new Impact championships at Slammiversary. But even if so, why do they need to go out of their way to crown another set of tag champions when they don’t need to. They can tell a different tag title story.

Instead, they have started a tournament to crown the vacant GFW tag titles. LAX will face Laredo Kid and Garza Jr. on this episode in a tournament match.

4) What’s next for Rosemary?

By the looks of it, the Decay are done. With no one left from their ranks responding to the LAX funeral for them last week, it looks the group is no more.

That makes me wonder what will happen for the Knockouts champion. The fact that she didn’t interrupt last week makes me think a feud with LAX’s Diamante isn’t just around the corner.

Perhaps she’ll face whoever the GFW champion is when Slammiversary comes around. As of now, that champion is Sienna. However Sienna will have to defend that title against ODB tonight.

We also don’t know if Gail Kim is done with Impact or if she’ll be back at one point to claim the title she never lost from the woman who put her out.

5) Can the Allie/Braxton Sutter/Laurel Van Ness story reclaim its momentum at all?

The issues with Laurel Van Ness, Braxton Sutter, and Allie came to a head last February when Braxton left Laurel at the alter for Allie. It was quite the scene.

However since then, outside Laurel wearing the same wedding dress for the last 2 months, not much has happened with this story. Laurel met a big dude with tribal face paint named Kongo Kong who she controls. That’s about it.

Now, Allie and Braxton will face Laurel and Kongo in a one on one match. But is it too late to capitalize on what was a fun wedding bit? We’ll see if they have any tricks up their sleeve to try to move this story along tonight.

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