TNA Impact Preview (April 12, 2016): Collision Course

TNA Impact returns this tonight (April 12, 2016) from Orlando and their big advertised match is a match against two of their younger top talent: Ethan Carter III and Mike Bennett.

Bennett was TNA's biggest signing of the PopTV era thus far, bursting on the scene alongside his very talented wife Maria during the Pop premiere. While he hasn't had that many matches, he's currently undefeated in the ones that he has had. And despite losing a couple matches via other means, his opponent tonight has never been pinned nor submitted.

EC3 and Bennett started their feud when the Miracle inexplicably cost Carter a shot at the TNA title during a triple threat match against the Hardy Brothers. Since then, the Miracle has continued to target EC3. He cost the One Percenter in a battle royal to become number one contender and last week, he attacked Carter after EC3 stepped up to Lashley to help the Pope during a post match beating.

There isn't too much reasoning behind Bennett's targeting asides from the fact that EC3 should still be considered one of the top dogs and Bennett is trying to make a name for himself. Last week, the Miracle accused Ethan of blaming him for Carter's poor fortunes during the last couple of months. Tonight, they finally go at it one on one.

Given the fact that the Miracle hasn't lost and Carter has never been pinned nor submitted, I worry that this match will end up using some creative acrobatics to keep both facts the same instead of giving one man a victory over the other. Personally, even (or especially) if it's by cheating, I'd like to see Bennett actually pin Carter to establish him a big threat. The loss wouldn't hurt EC3 at all.

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The only other things advertised as of now is:

1) Beer Money Open Challenge

Last week, after a brawl with the Decay, Beer Money issued a challenge backstage in a way that almost implied this could a multi-team affair. (Not that there are many teams outside the Decay and BroMans available.) A title change has to be coming soon with Bobby Roode's departure and each title match is a chance for that to happen.

As for the title, last week the announce team had the cohones to call the slim tag division "red hot" so this may also be a good chance to actually introduce another team to try to back up that claim.

2) Al Snow's apology

Last week, Billy Corgan ordered Al Snow to apologize for the beating he laid on Grado and Mahabali Shera all by his lonesome a couple weeks back. While this isn't one of the things advertised for tonight on the TNA website, it would make sense that we get his most likely backhanded apology tonight.

Last week, he told Corgan that he attacked the men because they didn't belong here. Tonight maybe we'll get a little elaboration. Either way, Al Snow is looking to be in some great shape.

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What we'd like to see:

1) Is the Pope back on commentary?

On the last Impact, the Pope had his street fight against Bobby Lashley, in which he was pretty thoroughly handled. However, he looked good as a performer and is can still cut a strong promo. The way they have been telling the story, the Pope will be returning to commentary, but they should try to find a way to keep him in the ring if that's something the performer is interesting in. The roster could use another wrestler and the Pope's value is not on commentary but as a wrestler.

2) What's next for the Hardy brothers?

The former multi-time tag champs have had a slow burning feud that's close to bubbling over. The latest chapter was last week, when Jeff neutralized Tyrus during Matt's TNA title match. This prevented Matt from cheating his way to victory. While these two will definitely be facing off some time, the question is when? This may be a program they try to stretch out to Slammiversary, one of their yearly PPVs, and not run on TV. That's probably a good plan too since the Hardy brothers fighting is still a marquee match up.

Tonight should be a good indicatory on where we are in this feud. Are we in the middle of this story or nearing the end?

3) Who is Drew Galloway's next opponent

Drew has a been a busy world champion, already besting both Jeff and Matt Hardy to retain his TNA title. Ethan Carter and Mike Bennett are still busy with each other and likely won't be ready to feud with Drew right away. Since Drew is having a title match a couple times a month, they will likely have someone else step up in the meanwhile as the two men who could both be top contender deal with their feud.

Last week, Tyrus reminded everyone that he has a TNA title shot coming to him so he's a good choice for a stop gap feud for now. Eric Young would be another good option on the way out the door.

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TNA Impact airs tonight at 9 EST on POP TV. Who's watching?