Impact Wrestling preview (Mar. 8, 2018): Crossroads

Impact Wrestling returns tonight (Mar. 8) from the Impact Zone in Orlando, Florida with the sixth episode from the most recent set of tapings.

Tonight is the Crossroads special and it’s a loaded show. Here’s the line up:

• Austin Aries (c) vs. Johnny Impact for the Impact world championship
• Laurel Van Ness (c) vs. Allie for the Knockouts championshiop
• Taiji Ishimori (c) vs. Matt Sydal (c) X Division title vs. Grand Championship
• LAX (c) vs. the Cult of Lee for the tag team championships
• Bobby Lashley vs. oVe

As per usual, here are our five questions about Impact tonight:

1) How lit will the main event be?

For the first time ever, at least according to Impact, Johnny Impact will face Austin Aries. And the gold will be on the line.

These men are two great workers. Johnny Impact has been a great wrestler for a long time now. I don’t follow much Triple A, but he’s put on plenty a show in Lucha Underground. And for my money, Austin Aries is one of the most fun to watch in the ring. Just the way he moves in there is so fluid and exciting.

Hopefully, the talent will lead to a fire match, but that’s not always a given. Sometimes, people don’t have the chemistry despite having the skill. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that’s not the case tonight and these men put on a stellar performance tonight.

As for the finish, I’d be surprised if Austin Aries loses his title this soon, but we’ll found out for sure tonight.

2) How many people will we be saying goodbye to tonight?

As is well known, there is talent working this tapings that have since left the promotion in EC3, Laurel Van Ness, and Bobby Lashley. Will this be the final time we see some of them in Impact?

Laurel Van Ness will defend her title against Allie tonight. Now, it’s not a lock that she loses it. There is another month and a half of tapings left so it’s not a given. But on the other hand, after this show, they’ll need to start building to their live Redemption PPV, which is a show where none of these three will be factored. So they’ll need to say their goodbyes prior to really ramping up that build. If Laurel loses tonight, is this the end?

Lashley is part of a handicapped match against oVe since Eddie Edwards is out after his orbital bone injury, which we’ll talk about in a moment. My bet is he’ll go out in a one on one match, perhaps putting over Sami Callihan, but it’s also possible that oVe lay him out completely tonight and he gets stretchered out to never be seen against.

And EC3? Well he’s not on this show. It doesn’t mean that he won’t do something though.

3) Will the spiritual advisor make an impact tonight?

Last week, I wondered if Matt Sydal’s spiritual advisor is going to be a person or just something he talks about all the time. But during the episode, the announcers kept asking who the person was, making me think it’s definitely a going to be someone.

Given that Matt Sydal has been really entertaining with this new gimmick, I predict he’ll be walking out with both titles. And if he’s going to be a heel, he’ll probably get some illegal help from his spiritual advisor.

4) If the Cult of Lee lose, who would be next in line?

This is my occasional reminder of how thin the tag team division is. You have oVe, LAX, and the Cult of Lee. So unless they have some new tag teams waiting in the wings, this feud is likely going to keep rolling forward.

That would mean either a title change or a smoz finish the doesn’t have an end of feud finality.

5) What’s up with Eli Drake?

Since losing his rematch for the Impact world title against Austin Aries, Eli Drake has been MIA. He doesn’t have a match tonight.

But he’s still a factor in their future and it’ll be interesting to see where he finds himself after the dust settles tonight. Could he give us a hint of this evening?

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