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TNA Impact was back last night (Aug. 4, 2016) with the finals of the Bound for Glory playoffs. Let’s get right to it.
In the ring, Jeremy Borash is in the ring with EC3 and the Miracle Mike Bennett & Maria Kanellis. Mike Bennett talks about how Ethan's aunt Dixie is still out to get him. He thanks EC3 for helping him beat Drew Galloway in the finals last week. He reminds Carter he has a pinfall win over him already, which is something he has over Carter that no one else does.
EC3 tells the Miracle that he’s trying as hard as he can not to hit him here and now. Bennett says he's going to win tonight and then win the title at Bound for Glory, which will be within a year of being here, which would be half as long as it took Carter to win the title. EC3 tells Bennett he can bring his wife and Moose and whoever the hell else he wants. He's going to win tonight.
Moose's music hits. Bennett attacks EC3 when he turns to look at Moose and this soon becomes a 2 on 1. Moose delivers a sky high to the One Percenter.
This was a simple opening segment to establish the main event and to remind new fans and those who somehow already forgot that EC3 and Mike Bennett have had a major feud against each other quite recently in the past.
The promos both men cut served their purpose and then Moose shows up to remind us that outside just Maria, who Carter had to deal with during his last feud with Bennett, the big bad Moose is also going to be lurking. Not much to be said about this segment since all of the major happenings will be during the main event match it’s setting up.
James Storm defeats Eli Drake to win the King of the Mountain title.
As Storm is celebrating, Bobby Lashley's music hits and he comes out. Lashley congratulates Storm for the victory. He then mocks sports teams getting wrestling titles after winning in their sports saying he doesn't run around with the NBA trophy when he wins something. Storm reminds Lashley that the Cowboy won the TNA title from Kurt Angle in under a minute. He says he can probably beat Lashley in 30. Both men make it known that they have something the other man wants. Lashley offers Storm the title vs. title match or Storm can just hand Bobby the belt. Storm accepts the title vs title match, which will be next week.
This was a really good match between Drake and Storm. It started slow but after some unsuccessful cheating by Drake it build to a frenzied finale where Storm won with the superkick. It a curious choice to have Storm win the title... until Bobby Lashley came out. Then it all made sense.
Original reaction had me questioning an established Storm defeating an up and coming Eli Drake. Drake has ton of talent who could use that belt to continue to elevate himself. There was a chance for Drake to get a win over an established TNA star to strengthen him, and Eli should get that in the near future.
However, if someone is going to lose the KOTM title to Lashley to build him up in his championship collection, it absolutely should be James Storm and not Eli Drake. Storm has a claim to the TNA title having been a former champion. Plus, it sets up a face for the heel Lashley to destroy for his newest gold. Eli Drake doesn’t look bad losing this title from Storm. It’s unfortunate he needed to lose the belt already, but the Lashley story is definitely worth it.
What they are doing with Lashley now is incredible. I’ve never been more interested in Bobby Lashley. He’s been on fire since beating Drew Galloway for the TNA title. He’s found a promo voice that works. He’s not an angry guy. He knows he’s the shit so he just chuckles when someone tries to talk big to him because he knows he’s going to kick their ass and take their title.
While it’s sad to see Drake lose the KOTM title, hopefully they’ll find something good for him going forward. But I’m all in on Lashley vs. James Storm as the Destroyer looks to add yet another belt to his collection.
Gail Kim defeats Allie and Sienna, allowing her to continue to try to earn a shot at the Knockouts title.
Allie is a treasure in the Knockouts division. She’s playing someone who doesn’t know how to wrestle and is completely clueless in general, and she’s making it pure gold. During this match, Sienna had to do all the work because Allie couldn’t be in the ring for more than a few moments before Gail would get the advantage on her. So she’d tag in, kick Gail a few times, and hurry and tag back out. All of her movements scream "I don’t know how to wrestle" which is probably difficult for a woman who knows how to wrestle.
Sienna and Maria play their parts to this bit very well too. Both are clearly annoyed by the overly bubbly, incredibly screechy individual. Maria continually snaps at Allie in the back. Sienna was annoyed by her being completely incompetent in this match. (My favorite moment was when Allie was trying to suplex Gail and Sienna shouted "Use your hips!" from the apron. Allie failed.)
I see Allie becoming a Rockstar Spud-esque fan favorite sooner than later. Enough abuse from Ethan Carter when they worked together got fans behind Spud huge and after enough abuse from Maria, a well time slap or strike to the face could get fans to pop for Allie.
Reby introduces Broken Matt Hardy. He comes down to the ring and has Vanguard One summon Brother Nero, who comes out to the usual awesome Obsolete entrance. Matt talks about how everyone always loved Jeff more because he's a spot monkey. The Broken One talks about how Jeff betrayed him when he forced them to give up the tag titles due to breaking his leg. Starting tonight, Jeff will embark on a journey to regain the World Tag Team titles that they never lost when he alone has to fight a tag match. Brother Nero is also banned from doing any moves off the top rope.
Jeff Hardy Obsolete Mule (and Broken Matt Hardy kind of) defeat Chuck Taylor and JT Dunn.
The Hardy brothers saga continues to draw back on things from their past to make it a rather well rounded story even given the ridiculousness of Broken Matt.
It was years ago that Jeff broke his leg soon after he and Matt won the TNA tag titles. When Matt had to relinquish the titles, they teased a heelish "I’m not going to trust anybody" nature at the time but then dropped it. Likely it was an angle they were debating and decided to go with "Will not die" Matt Hardy instead. But now it’s there and can be engulfed as part of this broad Hardys epic. Matt owns the Hardy name so he’s going to use that fact to force his brother to wrestle a bunch of pseudo handicapped matches as punishment while continuing to make money off of him.
(Speaking of, Josh Mathews says "Jeff Hardy" all the time and TNA probably owes Broken Matt a ton of money because of it. Wow to go, Josh.)
Matt Hardy was on Broken point tonight. He yelled at the crowd multiple times because they were chanting "Jeff" and not "Obsolete mule" or "Brother Nero." His chastising caused them to chant "Jeff Hardy" instead. (I swear, the Impact Zone is probably the only place that wouldn’t be cheering the hell out of Broken Matt, but that’s good in the context of this story.) He also pulled a "fan" out of the audience and bit him to the point his mouth was covered with his blood.
As for the match itself, it was good. These two are prominent enough on the indie circuit so it would look good as Brother Nero got his ass beat for most of the match. Jeff was able to finally hit a Twist of Fate and went to the top rope. Matt got in the ring and stood in front of him because he wasn’t allowed to go up top. Jeff did the Swanton over Matt but Matt ended up giving him a Twist of Hate, dragged him to the corner, tagged himself in, and got the pin while shouting "Delete!"
Grado and Mahabali Shera defeat the Tribunal and Al Snow
This wasn’t even a bad match. It was better than I expected. But this feud was never good and these teams have had one match (total between the teams) since Slammiversary, which was in June. So even those who did care probably don’t any more.
I worried about the Tribunal, a team that I was excited to see, starting with a Grado/Shera feud because I felt that would establish them as part of the comedy low card. And in the end, it pretty much did. There’s no reason to respect this team who can’t win a 3 on 2 handicapped match and have lost 2 out of 3 to Grado and Shera. All in all, it was a poor way to introduce a team.
Shera looked good in this match. He cleaned house and this spot is better for him than the push they tried to give him last year this time. People love Grado and Shera can benefit from that. While the Tribunal looked weaker from this, Grado and Shera could be a decent thunder and lightening tag team in a division that only had the BroMans as babyfaces.
Back in the barn with Rosemary and Bram, she is finally ready to tell him what happened there years ago. In the flashback, which happened on Valentine’s Day, her love Johnny put his hand on her leg and she stepped back and said she's not like the other girls. So she decided to make a potion to punish him. As she’s talking about this, Bram is looking to leave. He tells her they've all had their hearts broken on Valentine's Day and she should get over it. Rosemary starts to flip out. She picks up an axe and he backs up. But Crazzy Steve grabs him through the window and Abyss is there too. They drag his body out and put it in the trunk and drive off.
After multiple segments last week, this was very brief. They went with some misdirection here, making us believe she suffered a great tragedy in the barn. Instead of something horrible happening to her in the barn, it turned out to be the fact that the boy she loved was just interested in sex. Already in a frail state of mind, that set her over the edge. And when Bram was like "Whatever. Get over it" she got pissed.
It was great seeing Decay back in full force, dragging an unconscious Bram to their trunk and driving away. Decay fit well into the style of filming they were using to tell this story and these videos are a good way to tell some stories with the group from time to time. Now it’s time to see what Decay has planned next.
Probably kill Bram.
EC3 defeats Mike Bennett to become #1 contender to the TNA title
This was a good match (one that had a great series of reversals to finish) with plenty going on outside the ring as well. Early on, the story was EC3’s injury from the 2 on 1 attack earlier in the night. Then came some attempted interference. Maria got kicked out when she introduced a kendo stick into the ring. (She got kicked out, but the stick would continue to play a role.) While she was getting tossed, Bennett used the kendo stick and missed, getting a One Percenter from EC3. However, the ref didn’t get back in the ring soon enough and Bennett kicked out.
The Moose walked out of the crowd but before he could do anything, Eddie Edwards ran out from the entrance, through the ring, and dove onto him and those two fought through the crowd. While the ref was busy with that, Bennett then used the kendo stick and hit the Miracle in Progress but once again, the ref didn’t make it back soon enough and Carter kicked out. This lead to a bunch of reversals and EC3 hitting his finish for the 1-2-3.
While there was plenty going on, it wasn’t overbooked to the point that it took away from the match. Both guys got to work each other between the moments of run ins and interferences and both men got to kick out of a finish after a delayed pin attempt.
What all of those interferences highlighted was the one person who didn’t interfere: Drew Galloway. Drew Galloway had a promo from post match last week they played earlier tonight where he was livid at EC3 for costing him a shot at the finals. But he didn’t run out to get retribution. In fact, he wasn’t there at all. But with Moose, Maria, and Eddie Edwards, Drew’s absence was noticeable and has me wondering what is course of action is.
Now EC3 will main event Bound for Glory, which is a good choice. Carter has been without the title for almost all of 2016 and there’s a good story to be told for him going against his toughest obstacle (assuming Lashley still has the title which I assume he will) to get it back.
Pros of the Show:
- Lashley has been awesome in his role
- Broken Matt Hardy continues to be insane while their story continues to be thorough
- Allie is wonderful
Cons of the Show:
- The Tribunal’s entire intro to Impact was poorly done
This was another fun offering from Impact this week.
Grade: B