Impact Wrestling results, review, & video (Oct. 11, 2018): Glory Bound

Impact Wrestling returned last night (Oct. 11) from Fronton Mexico in Mexico City. You can find the results of the show at the live blog here.

Main Event Implications

Austin Aries, Killer Kross, & Moose defeated Johnny Impact, Eddie Edwards, & Fallah Bahh in a match representing two Bound for Glory feuds (Johnny vs. Aries for the title and Eddie vs. Moose).

It was a really entertaining tag match and succeeded at teasing how good Johnny vs. Aries and Eddie vs. Moose can be. While saying “pay-per-view implications” is often just lip service, the way they booked this match, I believe this will have an effect on the two matches we see on Sunday.

When it looked like Johnny Impact was going to pick up the win over the champ, a big momentum boost headed into a title match, Killer Kross pulled him out of the ring and delivered a Saito Suplex on the floor. The announcers made sure to point out that this will affect Johnny’s neck, which was already injured from the attack Aries and his goons delivered earlier this month. Eddie Edwards received an apron powerbomb from Moose, a move that many promotions frame as a dangerous one.

I fully expect to see these sustained injuries play a part in their matches Sunday. It doesn’t add a ton, and surely you can watch Bound for Glory without seeing this. But there’s an added wrinkle that wasn’t there prior they can play with.

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Desi Hit Drama

Gama Singh had a solution to the losing efforts of Gursinder Singh and Rohit Raju. He made them fight each other this week. To make matters worse, the loser would be kicked out and had to return to India.

Both Rohit and Gursinder were very apprehensive in this match, having become close in their time as a tag team. It was that hesitance that cost Gursinder the match. Rohit seemed to hurt his shoulder, and Singh didn’t want to exploit it. Raju took the advantage of his opponent’s pause to hit a knee to the face and a flatliner for the win.

After the match, Rohit tried to help his former partner to his feet, but Gama quickly climbed into the ring and slapped him for doing such.

The story of the Desi Hit Squad was always about the boys relationship with the nasty Gama Singh and not about the matches they had together. It was a clever technique to use them as an “enhancement” tag team while telling that story until it was time to take it to the next level.

We’re at that level now. Over the last few months, they’ve done a good job of making us feel sympathy for Rohit and Gursinder while urging us to despise the crotchety Gama. At this point, I’m looking forward to when they decide to kick Gama to the curb and go on without him.

This is the type of storytelling that Impact does well. The Desi Hit Squad weren’t just the tag team taking losses. They used that to tell a story. If anything, Impact hasn’t been doing enough of that type of progression since Slammiversary

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Undead Realm

So, apparently, Allie doesn’t have a soul.

We learned that this week when Allie, with a mf’n hatchet in hand, approached Father James Mitchell as he played the organ in his creeper room. (Using Mitchell was a great touch and a nice nod to the very soon-to-be Impact Hall of Famer Abyss.)

The half dead bubbly one wanted Mitchell to let her back into to the undead realm to help Kiera Hogan. Throughout this conversation, we learned that those who get closed into Su Yung’s coffin lose their soul. Allie made a deal to return to the land of the living but she had to leave her soul behind.

Now she has a chance on Sunday to head back to the undead realm and retrieve Kiera thanks to James Mitchell.

I’m a sucker for the fantasy elements of wrestling so I definitely dug this. It’s a rather big reveal. (Not having a soul is a big plot turn.) It also answers the question of why Allie cares so much that someone gets closed in a coffin. It’s not just some insult. It’s a one way ticket to the undead realm.

Allie, why you’re there on Sunday, bring Rosemary back, won’t ya?

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Lose One Mystery, Gain Another

I was mistaken when I guessed we wouldn’t learn who would be Rich Swann’s mystery partner until Sunday. Turns out we did. Swann set up a video package that revealed it’d be Willie Mack! That’s a great choice.

The fact they decided to announce it makes me wonder if they felt people may be disappointed with any reveal that’s not someone like Neville. Now that won’t be an issue and people can get pumped for Willie Mack instead.

We will have one mystery as Eli Drake announced that he’ll be hosting another open challenge this week. It has to be someone from New York (so again, not Neville but Chris Jericho was technically born in New York). So we still have a mystery to mull over for the next few days.

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Other Happenings:

Ceasefire over: The LAX/OGz summit was the main event on this show, likely because it was Konnan in front of the Mexican crowd. The promos that King and Konnan cut were pretty much reminding us of the story up to now. Then K-Dawg dropped the bomb that the bosses have ended the ceasefire and a brawl ensued to end the show.

I’ve been long ready for this feud to end, but the promos from Konnan and King have done their job of keeping me completely from turning on it. I do want it to be over for good after Sunday though.

Warm Up: Tessa Blanchard hasn’t had the opportunity to stand face to face with her Bound for Glory partner since Taya Valkyrie wasn’t at the Mexico tapings. But she benefitted from getting to face a couple really good Mexican wrestlers. Her match with Faby Apache the other week was very good. And this week, she had another strong challenge against Keyra. Blanchard continues to look like a star and her matches in Mexico helped add to that.

For the Love of Scarlett: Petey Williams defeated Puma King, Jack Evans, & Trevor Lee in a match that was set up last week when they were all looking to impress Scarlett Bordeaux. I highly doubt it’ll make much of a difference when it comes to the Smoke Show.

Also, I’d like to see more Jack Evans in Impact.

Kiss Me: Grado faced Mexican wrestler Maximo in a losing effort this week. Don Callis called Maximo “The Mexican Grado” which was somewhat apropos. He’s a similar build and more of an entertainment act than a wrestler. (Though in the wrestling department, he seemed a step up from Grado.) His gimmick is he tries to kiss his opponent, which is what he did to Grado before rolling him up for a win. Grado got his revenge post match by kissing Maximo. It was a silly, unessential segment. I got a kick out of it.

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Pros of the Show:

• Six man tag with actual PPV implications
• Undead Realm!
• Desi Hit Squad story

Cons of the Show:

• First hour was rather light

Overall, a strong go home show headed into Bound for Glory, which was greatly needed after the last few weeks.

Grade: B+

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