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Impact Wrestling retuned last night (Nov. 2) with the final episode prior to this Sunday’s Bound for Glory (BFG) pay-per-view (PPV). You can find the results at the live blog here.
A Plan Comes Together
The main event match combined the World title feud and the tag title feud as Johnny Impact teamed with Tag Team Champions oVe against World Champion Eli Drake and LAX.
Earlier in the night, Eli Drake made his way to the LAX clubhouse and was like a fish out of water. He came in wearing a backwards bandana and brought chips with guac to either endear himself to LAX or to purposely be a dick. Either way, it’s well in character. However, he did have a proposal Konnan was willing to listen to: Take out their opponents prior to Bound for Glory in the main event. Konnan made it known that he does not like Eli, but he’s willing to play ball for one night only.
The match itself was nothing to write home about. It ended rather abruptly when Johnny Impact scored a roll up pinfall. But after the match, the heels went into action enacting their plan.
The tag teams brawled into the back so we don’t know if LAX ended up getting a leg up on oVe. But Eli Drake, with Chris Adonis at his side, made sure that his title challenger was significantly weakened before Sunday. Drake and Adonis first exposed the corner turnbuckles and threw Johnny into it. Then they ripped up the canvas off the ring and Drake delivered the Gravy Train to Impact on the wooden boards.
It was nice to see the heels come up with a plan and then actually try to put it into action. So often, they’ll say they want to end their opponents before a bit match and then just settle for trying to win. This time, Drake meant what he said. He planned to hurt his challenge before BFG and he did. We’ll have to see if Johnny is affected by the attack this Sunday.
Drake’s overall story seemed to veer off course half way through this set of tapings. I wonder if he had more bits with Jim Cornette taped that they didn’t air because Cornette isn’t going to return to the company. Losing that aspect of the story has hurt because it was such a big focus. Eli was the champion that the boss hated and he didn’t give a damn about it. But then suddenly, that wasn’t a factor and because of that, he’s suddenly missing a big part of his championship arc. Despite that, he’s still successfully played an obnoxious, arrogant heel. It’s just a shame a big aspect of his initial championship story was forgotten.
Last Words
Dan Lambert cut another promo this week setting up this Sunday’s tag match between Lashley/King Mo and Stephan Bonnar/Moose. This time was much better than his last promo. It wasn’t nearly as long and the story was more focused on where it should be. He spoke about how his MMA guys are going to expose pro wrestlers as frauds who can’t really fight. And when fans see the truth, they’re going to stop showing up. Pretty much, Lambert is saying a loss by Moose and Bonnar on Sunday is going to put Impact out of business. (Little does he know, nothing kills this company.)
Outside that last promo that didn’t land, Lambert has been really good in his role as the spokesperson for Lashley and Mo. (Not that Lashley needs someone to talk for him.) This week, he did a really good job setting up the stakes and even putting over the opponents while threatening to tear them down. And he did all of this while continuing to be the biggest douche.
This story has had its issues. It started strong, but really slumped near the middle for various reasons. This segment, which was all Lambert, did a good job getting it back on track for Sunday.
Work Around
Gail Kim was interviewed by Jeremy Borash about her match on Sunday against Allie and Sienna for the Knockouts title. It focused on the fact that a decade ago, Gail won the first KOs title. And she plans to win it again on Sunday.
It was brief, but they had to edit out anything she said about Taryn Terrell. They did a pretty good job on the edit because it wasn’t obvious. This feud has likely been left off TV the last few weeks because of the fact Taryn is out but all of the footage they have has her in it.
It hurt for them to have to work around and it likely impacted the amount of filler we saw the last month. And more importantly, it didn’t allow them to build the PPV match the way they originally wanted to. Gail Kim’s big retirement tour has seemed to take a hit because they couldn’t feature her.
Also:
The Same Match
There was a six man X Division match that’s the exact same match they’re running on Sunday, just without the title on the line. The match was fun. Of course it was. With all that talent, that’s not surprising. But you can’t get much lazier than building a match by running the same exact match three days prior. Maybe they’ll turn it into an Ultimate X match, and since we already saw this match they probably should, but it’s still lacking any real creativity.
Outside the Impact Zone:
- Rosemary and Allie def. Sienna and KC Spinelli at Border City Wrestling
- Moose was involved in tag team action at Pro Wrestling NOAH
Pros of the Show:
- Lambert’s promo helped add the stakes to the Moose/Lashley tag match
- The X Division match was fun
- Eli Drake in the LAX Club House
Cons of the Show:
- Lacking the energy of a go home show
- Running the same X Division match we’re supposed to see in 3 days
This week was better than last. They still spend a decent amount of time outside the Impact Zone, but it was less than last week. Still, this week didn’t have the feel of a go home show. They played a bunch of hype videos and the announcers mades sure to talk it up, but when it came to the meat of the show, they didn’t really make it so I want to watch BFG more. Three of the feuds weren’t represented on the show outside hype videos, and that’s including two of the bigger matches: the Triple A/Impact feud and the Rosemary/Taya match. (Yes, Rosemary was seen wrestling in Canada, but that didn’t do anything to help hype that story.)
Hopefully at next set of tapings, they won’t try to tape 3 months at once because it really derailed the last 4-6 weeks of programming. They had to use a bunch of filler the last month. They had to deal with departures during that time that affected weeks of stories. The beginning of this taping was pretty good. But the last half definitely declined.
Grade: C
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