TNA Impact Preview (May 3, 2016): Turning the Page

TNA Impact returns tonight to follow up their Sacrifice special from last and to start building their next big feud. And that feud looks to be a TNA title feud between Drew Galloway and Bobby Lashley.

Lashley turned heel after he defeated Kurt Angle in his retirement match. Still working tweener during the match, he became a full villain afterwards when he speared the retired Olympian multiple times. Multiple men ran down to help Angle and most received the same fate as Kurt. One of those men was Drew Galloway, who had beaten Kurt in one of his farewell matches.

Winning the world title kept Drew and Lashley apart, but after Drew participated in a tag match involving the Hardy's and Tyrus a few weeks ago, the Destroyer reared his head again and speared Drew multiple times post match. This caused some damage to the champ's ribs, which he had to battle through when he defended his title successfully against Tyrus last week. Now his focus is turned to Lashley, who he is going to call out tonight.

If Lashley accepts, this could prove to be the biggest challenge of Galloway's title reign.

What else is on the show tonight:

1) The Miracle Mike Bennett opens Impact

Last week, the Miracle did what no other man has done before him: He pinned EC3. It was nothing dominant, but it legit happened. He was able to get Carter in a pinning position while Carter had a submission hold locked in. He didn't dominate Carter but he didn't cheat to get to that moment. And no matter how he got there, he was the first to do it.

The way they set up the pin is interesting and I am curious to see how they continue this story. It was a legitimate pin so Bennett can't be derided for cheating at the end. He did what his character always seems to do. He saw an opportunity to take an advantage and he made the most of this moment.

A win over Carter should vault Bennett high in the card, perhaps even a title match down the road. More interestingly will be how this affects Carter, who has not been having the best 2016 thus far. The streak was one of the last things he had going.

2) Bram defends his King of the Mountain title in a KOTM match.

Bram defeated new NXT star Eric Young last week to win the King of the Mountain championship. Unfortunately for the wild man, he cannot rest on his laurels. Because tonight, he has to defend it against Jessie Godderz, Andrew Everett, Eddie Edwards, and E Li Drake in a KOTM match.

The KOTM match will always be a convoluted one, but they have the chance to advance a couple stories here. The BroMans started the feud last week against E Li Drake during the premiere of Drake's new talk show (which was really terrible by the way.) And Eddie Edwards has been feuding with Shane Helm's crew of North Carolina talent, of which Andrew Everett recently joined.

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What we'd like to see:

1) So what's the plan with James Storm?

James Storm and Bobby Roode lost their tag team titles last week to the Decay as Bobby Roode leaves TNA, possibly for NXT alongside Young. This leaves James Storm (who left a brief stint in NXT for TNA) high and dry. They can continue to feud him as a solo against the Decay in the interim. They can also find him a new tag team partner (he does still have the Feast or Fired tag team briefcase.) Or he can get back to attempted murder by use of locomotive. We'll just to have to wait to find out.

2) What's Maria's plan for the Knockouts?

Two weeks ago, Maria won control of the Knockouts in a ladder match. While she talked up some plans in vague terms last week, we didn't actually see any of them. Part of that was because she was interrupted by Gail Kim. This lead to a match between Gail and Rosemary (who may be working for Maria) in a match that Rosemary would win.

The idea of Maria controlling the most unpredictable member of the Knockouts is interesting. Hopefully we get to see her flex her creative muscles with her control.

3) More of the Al Snow story

Last week took a small break from the most recent Al Snow angle. It's an angle I've been a fan of thus far because he's the villain representing the "old school" ways of wrestling. The hero of the story is the antithesis of that in Grado. We haven't seen Grado in awhile because Al Snow broke his hand. Unfortunately, Mahabali Shera has been the man they've used as the babyface in the interim. Unfortunately, no one really cares about Shera in comparison to Al Snow and Snow is fighting getting cheers in this story. Let's hope they find a way to rectify that soon.

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TNA Impact airs tonight at 9 eastern on PopTV. Who's watching?