TNA Impact Results, Review, & Video (June 7, 2016): The Finishing Touches

TNA Impact returned last night (June 7, 2016) from Orlando with their go home show for the Slammiversary Pay Per View which is this Sunday. Let's get right into the results and reactions from tonight's offering.

The show opens with Broken Matt Hardy coming to the ring ( he still retains his "I am ICONIC" intro). He talks about how Jeff was jealous of him being champion. But after last week, he beat Jeff so bad, we'll never see Jeff again. Hardy then turns his focus onto the TNA title, saying he needs to reclaim what he never should have lost. The Broken one calls Drew Galloway down to the ring.

The champ answers the request. Drew tells Matt that he's lost his damned mind. Matt claims he deserves to be added to the main event at Slammiversary. Drew says he's got a personal score to settle with Lashley. Drew says the main event of Slammiversary is out, but to be the champion he wants to be, he's going to defend his title tonight against Matt.

Drew Galloway defeats Matt Hardy via DQ after Lashley attacks Galloway. Lashley goes for the spear, but Drew avoids and the two brawl out to the back.

This leaves Matt in the ring ranting that he should be champion until the lights go out and when they come back on, everyone in the audience is wearing Willow masks! And they're all chanting Willow! Four Willows walk out on stage and on the titantron, the real Willow tells Matt that Willow and Jeff are one and it is on for Sunday. Then Jeff Hardy's music and Jeff walks out (not as Willow). The men brawl as the show closes.

TNA opted to intertwine two of the big three feuds at the Pay Per View tonight which helped keep things fresh. Sure, we knew that Drew wasn't going to lose his title tonight and that the opponents of both men would make themselves known. But that didn't hurt anything.

When it comes to Drew and Lashley, the finish made sense. Lashley doesn't want to fight Matt Hardy for the title. He wants to beat Galloway for it given the deep seeded rivalry between both men. But at the same time, he does not want Drew to get a win going into the PPV. So of course he's going to take the chance to soften him up.

It was big when he finally missed the spear on Drew, allowing Drew to take the advantage. It's a subtle thing, but part the story they've told had to do with how vicious Lashley's spears are. It reminds us that if Drew is going to have a shot against the Destroyer this Sunday, he's going to need to avoid it at all costs. This match was already set going into tonight so this all just helped whet the appetite.

As for the Matt Hardy stuff, it continues to be a glorious, ridiculous, fantastic time. And while the content of the story has been silly, the story itself has been solid. That continued tonight even with the re-introduction of Willow. Willow has always been a laughable character, but he had to come back tonight.

Matt started his attack on Jeff by using Willow, by dressing as him. Willow may be silly to us, but he means something to Jeff and it took something out of Jeff when Matt stole him and used him against his him. After last week's attack, Matt claimed Jeff was too injured to work the PPV. So Jeff took back what was his and used his creation Willow to resurrect him so he is ready to fight on Sunday. The story may be ridiculous, but it is there. (A more devastating injury to Jeff last week would have helped sell this more, but that's nothing to dwell on.)

Yes, some of the Willow aspects were it's usual outrageous, like the one Willow who walked out on stage with a Willow mask but no shirt, which is probably some kinky Jeff Hardy role play. But the spot where the lights went out and the crowd around the ring was wearing Willow masks was actually really cool.

At this point, you're either all in on what they are presenting for the Hardy brothers or it's not for you. Tonight wasn't going to sway someone to the other side. As for me, I love how ridiculous it is and am having a blast watching it.

__________________________________

Sienna defeats Madison Rayne to become Number One Contender for the Knockouts Title.

After the match, Sienna tried to hit her finisher on Madison a second time, but Jade ran in to make the save. Jade holds the ring after a brief brawl.

This was a pretty brief match that did the job to build Sienna as a powerhouse. The match ended when Madison, who started selling a rather sudden back injury early in the match, landed a Northern Lights suplex because of her back. That didn't work well because the match had so little time to build the severity of the back injury.

The outcome to this match was obviously the right one. Jade is already feuding with Maria Kanellis and her crew, with Sienna being the muscle of that crew.

__________________________________

Eli Drake hosts the Championship edition of the Fact of Life. He says he's confident he'll punch Bram's ticket again this Sunday. Then introduces the tag team champions Decay.

Drake says he believes the Decay has a "methodical insanity" and asks their plan to take apart the BroMans at Slammiversary. The Decay talks about how they believe in things others believe don't even exist, like the madness inside us all. Abyss says he's beautiful, and that this Sunday, the BroMans will decay, decay, decay.

The BroMans, with Raquel, interrupt. Jessie Godderz ensures a win on Sunday to become three time tag champions. Rosemary suggests a fight now, since it'd be four on three. Raquel says they have friends and bring out Mahabali Shera and Grado to even the numbers. Grado says that Drake should be more concerned about Bram. Eli says that Grado and Shera should be concerned with Al Snow and the Tribunal. The Tribunal then attacks from behind and this turns in full on brawl, including Bram, who rolls in from behind the ring to take it to Drake.

Eli Drake, the Tribunal, and Abyss & Crazzy Steve defeats Grado, Mahabali Shera, the BroMans, and Bram

This was a segment to try to get all the undercard feuds represented. While it got everyone involved, it didn't help build any feuds that needed building. Bram and Eli Drake already have a well established reason to fight Sunday, so this worked with that.

However, the tag team feud did not add anything to the randomness of the feud. We didn't get anything to compliment the match. We didn't get a reason why people were fighting. Sure, the belts are on the line, but even that was barely mentioned. The Decay is an intriguing team and could have brought an added layer to this feud. What does this trio who march to the beat of their own drums think of the superficial BroMans? What are they going to do Sunday to beat them? That question was never answered even after Drake asked it.

The match itself was a typical 10 man match, where everyone got their stuff in. Eli Drake won after a low blow to Grado behind the ref's back.

__________________________________

Prior to the mixed tag, Maria says she chooses not to wrestle tonight and puts Allie in her stead.

EC3 and Gail Kim defeat Mike Bennett & Allie when Gail pins Allie.

After the match, Sienna comes in and takes out Gail, working on her knee, including a chair shot to her left knee that leaves Gail writhing in pain.

At the end of the match, Bennett tried to introduce a chair but EC3 caught him in the act and chased him to the back. There was no way one of these guys was going to pin the other tonight. They aren't giving that away in the go home show. With this feud, that needs to be part of the payoff at Slammiversary.

While I have some reservations of using Cherry Bomb to play a character who cannot wrestle, she's really good at her role. She yelled at EC3 in a high pitched voice that I didn't know was physically possible, and it was fantastic. Her character work as the bubbly, annoying, clueless protege has been great. Eventually, in story they'll need to get her to a capacity where she's wrestling matches, but for now, she's really entertaining her roll.

Taking out the knee of Gail at the end of the match was a smart move. Not only does it put some more heat on Maria and her stable, but it evens up a match where Gail would have had a huge advantage if both were at 100%.

__________________________________

Trevor Lee defeats Eddie Edwards to retain his X Division title

During the match, Edwards had to deal with Helms on the outside, who didn't really interfere too much early on. However, Andrew Everett ran out to get involved and that brought DJ Z out to try to even the odds. Still, Helms was able to hit Edwards with the title for Lee to retain the title.

This was a really fun match. While there was a lot of outside interference in the end, it didn't feel overbooked. It's been established that the Helms' Dynasty is going to have Lee's back. DJ Z has beef with them as well. And the one on one that lead up to the finish was really good stuff. It was one of the better X Division matches in awhile, partially because there were months of story behind it and it wasn't just about showing off their moves.

Later on, they announced Lee will have to defend his title in a fatal 4-way against Edwards, DJ Z, and Everett. While this felt like it should have been the match they went with at the PPV, it'll be a fun affair.

__________________________________

Braxton Sutter defeats enhancement talent

Afterwards, Jeremy Borash interviews Sutter, who said he's very humbled to be here and he's worked very hard to get here.

You don't see squash matches often in TNA because of their thinner roster. They must have big plans for Braxton Sutter (formerly Pepper Parks) to roll him out this way. I'm not familiar with his work beforehand and his offense tonight was more strike based. It will be interesting to see what else he's got as they give him more opportunities to show us.

__________________________________

Pros of the Show:

• More craziness with the Hardy's to send us to PPV
• The Gail Kim/Maria segment helps add to their pending match
• Really fun X Division match

Cons of the Show:

• No added reason to care about the tag title match
• The Knockouts Number One contenders match was too short to work the hurt back angle

Overall, this was a fun show heading into Slammiversary, which could be one of TNA's better PPVs in awhile.

Grade: B+