TNA Impact Preview (Oct. 20, 2016): Cody’s title match

TNA Impact is back tonight (Oct. 20, 2016) from Orlando, Florida headlined by a TNA heavyweight championship match. Here are our five questions about Impact tonight.

1) What stories will come out of tonight’s title match?

Eddie Edwards will defend his TNA heavyweight title tonight against newcomer Cody Rhodes tonight. Cody did not earn his shot. It must have been a signing bonus or something along those lines. He did defeat the Miracle Mike Bennett last week though.

I would be quite surprised if Cody Rhodes wins the TNA title. So instead, they’ll probably use this to spin off a couple stories. This may be part of the Rhodes family’s feud with the Bennetts. Or it could create something new.

As for Eddie, he’ll have another contender already waiting in the wings who can make their presence known during or after this match.

2) Who will become new number one contender?

Last week, Moose defeated EC3 (clean) to earn the right to face Bobby Lashley tonight. The winner tonight becomes number one contender for the TNA title. The former champ Lashley lost his automatic title rematch after attacking Eddie Edwards last week. Therefore he needs to win tonight’s match if he wants his rematch.

This Moose and Lashley confrontation is something they started building a month prior to Bound for Glory. While it may be part of a bigger feud down the road, it certainly feels like the first meeting has been rushed into.

It will be interesting to see how they end this match. Will it be a clean ending for the first time these two meet up? Or will they somehow be able to keep both men strong coming out of it?

3) Are the Hardys defending their titles tonight?

After Billy Corgan’s lackey Aiden O’Shea told the Tribunal that they’re on the bubble, the tag team decided to make a statement by attacking the tag champions from behind. Now tonight, the Tribunal (Basile Baraka and Baron Dax) will face the Broken Hardys.

There’s no mention of the titles being on the line so it is likely they are not. The question then would be is this a one off match or is the Tribunal going to somehow pick up a win to get a title match?

4) Where’s the Decay?

The Decay was off TV last week after losing their title rematch to the Hardy Brothers the week before.

Hopefully they’ll be back soon. They are one of TNA’s best talents. They shouldn’t be off of TV for too long. They should move onto something big after coming up on the losing end of the Hardys feud.

5) Will everyone have music tonight?

Last week, DJ Z and Mike Bennett’s music didn’t play. Word is it was due to the fact TNA owed money for the license to use the music and because of that the license was pulled. While most of their outside issues haven’t been directly noticeable in their on screen product, someone walking out to canned audience sounds instead of their own music is noticeable.

DJ Z nor Mike Bennett are advertised for tonight. It will be interesting to hear what’s played when they are next on TV.

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