GFW Impact preview (Aug. 24, 2017): Here’s Johnny!

GFW Impact returns tonight (Aug. 24) from the Impact Zone in Orlando, Florida. It is the second episode from the most recent set of tapings.

Here’s what’s advertised so far:

• 20 man gauntlet match to crown a new GFW champion
• Johnny Impact debuts
• oVe in action
• Grado says goodbye to America

And here are our five questions about tonight’s offering.

1) Is the next champion going to be the new face of GFW?

Tonight’s 20 man gauntlet match will crown a new heavyweight champion. (A gauntlet match in GFW is an over the top battle royal that ends with a match when it’s down to 2..)

When Alberto El Patron held the title, he was clearly their top guy. Is victor tonight going to be the same? Or are they going to move the title around more?

Despite the spoilers being out for a week, I don’t know who wins. But of the current roster, we can speculate. If they were going to go with someone to be a “face of the franchise” there aren’t many options on the current roster. There’s EC3, Bobby Lashley, and maybe Moose. (We actually don’t know if Lashley is in the match yet. Only Carter, Moose, Low-Ki, and Eli Drake are announced.)

2) Will Johnny Impact be in the match?

We know Johnny Mundo/John Morrison will be debuting for GFW as Johnny Impact (seriously) this week. We don’t know if he’s going to be automatically in the title match.

Even though he’s an instant main eventer for the promotion, there’s argument for not putting him in the match if he’s not going to win. (They could if they have a feud ready for him they can spin out of the match.)

If not, we may see an “I’m in Impact now” promo or perhaps a squash match. Whatever we do get, Johnny in GFW is a good thing since he’s extremely talented.

3) Is tonight a chance for Eli Drake to raise his status?

If you read my recaps, you’ll know I’m a big fan of Eli Drake. He’s a great talker and he’s put on some really good matches while in Impact. There’s no reason he can’t be hanging around in the main event scene.

Tonight, he has a chance to increase his standings. After mouthing off a bit too much to new leadership Jim Cornette, Drake has earned himself spot #1 in the gauntlet match. That means if he wants to win, he’ll need to survive the over the top battle royal phase AND then win a one on one match.

Even if he doesn’t win, he can come out of this looking really good. Each regime so far has talked up Eli but neither has booked him like a star. Here’s a chance for them to do so.

4) What’s the tag team division looking like?

With oVe debuting last week (and fighting again this week), it’s made the tag division feel bigger. Much of that is because it wasn’t big at all to begin with.

The tag champions LAX have been running things, but part of that is that competition is slim. Outside the Veterans of War, they haven’t had anyone challenging for those titles. The only other team that’s been together for a bit are Laredo Kid and Garza Jr., who are part of a talent share.

Impact really needs to either capitalize on these talent shares or bring in more teams like oVe. Because it’s still only a three team division.

5) How long are the returning wrestlers sticking around?

Last week, there were a few surprise returns.

One was Petey Williams, who had a presence in the X Division title match. It’s possible that he’ll stick around for the tapings, but it’s also possible they brought back an old school X Division guy for a one time pop. I mean who doesn’t love a Canadian Destroyer?

Taryn Terrell also returned, costing Gail Kim the Knockouts title. This is surely not a one off as it will set up a feud between the two. They had some great matches years back so this should be fun. My bet is she’s just back to work a final program with Gail.

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