TNA Impact Preview (Oct. 13, 2016): Cody’s debut match

TNA Impact returns tonight (Oct. 13, 2016) with the fall out of Eddie Edwards upset win over TNA champion Bobby Lashley last week. Here are our five questions about Impact tonight.

1) Is Eddie Edwards a transitional champion?

If it weren’t for spoilers galore, Edwards championship would have been quite the shocker (and for those lucky enough to avoid them, it probably was). Bobby Lashley had been a dominant champion from back in June at Slammiversary and had mowed through half the roster including the likes of EC3, Drew Galloway, and James Storm.

Edwards has been very valuable to Impact filling in wherever they need him and doing well in the process and this championship is a deserving reward. Whether it’s going to be a long title program remains to be seen.

For all his talents, Edwards isn’t the dominant wrestler that Lashley is. Prior to his win last week, he lost to Aron Rex (in a Grand Championship format match) and DJ Z. Both were clean losses. While there’s no harm in building a small program around Edwards and giving him some time as champ, he could easily be losing it in a few weeks. (Of this, I don’t know, having avoided any more world title spoilers.)

2) How long is Cody going to feud with Mike Bennett?

One of the names on Cody Rhodes’ post-WWE list was the Miracle Mike Bennett. And after staring down with him at Bound for Glory and on Impact last week, he’ll get to face him one on one tonight, in the process checking off the empty box.

I can’t imagine that this will be it between the Rhodes and Bennetts. Likely Maria and Brandi will get involved and this will probably pay off as a mixed tag.

But Cody has other things on this plate. He’s been promised a TNA title shot. Plus, there are plenty of other people he can do some work with in the months worth of tapings he was around. Without knowing if he’ll be back around when the next set of tapings rolls around, they could have tried to do many different things with him while they could.

Also, Moose is on the list too.

3) So is Maria the Leader of the Knockouts or what? And will she be after tonight?

Maria will get her Knockouts title rematch against Gail Kim tonight in a No DQ match. This means that any of her posse (Sienna, Laurel Van Ness, or Allie) can get involved legally. And that’s likely the only way that the odds would be somewhat skewed in the First Lady’s favor.

Billy Corgan, via his new help Aiden O’Shea, told Maria if she loses, she’ll lose the title of Leader of the Knockouts. This caused a bit of debate in the Impact Review thread last week regarding her vague title.

Dixie Carter stripped Maria of that title when Maria was KOs champion citing conflict of interest. That makes perfect sense. It was never made clear whether or not it was given back to her, but the argument could be made that she got it back after losing the title to Gail Kim at Bound for Glory.

Tonight, if she loses, she is no longer Leader of the Knockouts as per Billy Corgan. But if she wins, she is? Because technically, according to Dixie Carter, she can’t be Leader of the KOs if she holds the title but according to Billy Corgan the only way she can be if she holds the title. It’s a wild paradox, man.

4) Will any titles change hands tonight?

Along with the Knockouts title, the Grand Championship and the X Division title will be on the line again tonight.

Aron Rex will be defending the title against Jessie Godderz in what will likely be a run of Rex giving a bunch of random guys title shots and winning.

DJ Z will defend his X Division title against Marshe Rockett, who debuted in a losing trios effort last week. The signing of Rockett was announced months ago and this match could be the real introduction to him in a one on one match. It’s always exciting to see new talent displayed for the first time.

I would be neither of those guys lose their title. If someone does tonight, Gail Kim would make the most sense because there’s story to be told with Maria as champ.

5) What’s the plan for the Broken clan?

We’ll find out tonight as Broken Matt Hardy will let us know what is next for his Broken Familia. Last week, they dispatched of Decay in a rematch for the tag team titles. Now the world is theirs to play with. We’ll soon find out what insanity the tag champs are up to next.

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