It's been yet another several week break from Impact for me and I barely felt inclined to tune back in. A recent wrestling kick drew me into watching plus the fact that they are going to start building towards their biggest PPV of the year tonight made me figure that tuning in was worth a shot. Currently, TNA is coming off their mini-feud with GFW. Last week, they won the war in a Lethal Lockdown match. Sadly, something I wanted to see ended up going bland just weeks into the story and I didn't even watch the blow off. Sigh. Anyways, here we are.
Dixie Carter opens the show. The roster is surrounding the ring and Davey Richards, Eddie Edwards, Bobby Lashley, & Bram are inside. Drew Galloway comes out and Dixie congratules him & the rest of the winning team. After this, she calls out Eric Young who goes ballistic and I loved it. Except for the random inclusion that he has some sort of iron clad contract with TNA which is going to keep Dixie from firing him. Those kind of things seem so fake and spur of the moment, but it is what it is. Dixie's punishment for him is giving Chris Melendez, the war hero who got his prostethic leg taken by EY, one more shot at revenge.
1) Eric Young vs. Chris Melendez
This happened. I've always enjoyed watching Melendez simply because he's a spectacle to see in the ring, but this wasn't anything special. The crowd wasn't very hype and you knew the inevitable was coming so I kind of just waited for it. Minutes later, it happens. Melendez gets the pin after a series of offense including a sweet dropkick off the second rope. Nice pop for him as he gets his leg back.
Match rating - **
2) Gail Kim (c) vs. Jade - Knockouts Title Match
MIA YIM! I'm so stoked to see her in an actual match finally. Gail is pretty much the best opponent you can ask for in the KO's division in TNA so I was excited. This wasn't an all out awesome match however it delivered in the areas that I hoped for. Crisp exchanges, cool spots you don't typically see in women's match or on TV period like german suplexes & a hurricanrana. It was pretty much a sprint and a fun one. Kim retains.
Match rating - **1/2
3) Tigre Uno (c) vs. Kenny King - X Division Title Match
Dammit, I really need to quit getting excited for these X Div Title Matches. They all have so much potential yet never get the time to live up to it. Plus, it doesn't feel special or grab your interest so these guys always have that playing against them as well. Uno & King do stuff. A sick springing DDT variation from Uno is the only real highlight here. Uno retains as they try to say his reign has been memorable when nothing in the X Division has been memorable, arguably since Austin Aries' reign in 2012.
Match rating - **
4) EC3 (c) vs. Spud - TNA World Title Match
Weird placement having this in the middle of the show ahead of the #1 Contender's Match for BFG. These two have been one of the saving graces of TNA this year so you knew this would be good and it was. It went way shorter than expected, but it was still solid. Spud got the crowd fired up and ran through his stuff on EC3 aside from a few cut off's here or there. EC3 with a sit out powerbomb for a near fall. Spud kicks out and keep fighting. He hits a flurry of enziguri's and the crowd is semi-hot again. Spud backs up in the corner for another and gets caught in a neckbreaker which leads to the one percenter. EC3 retains.
Match rating - ***
The Revolution is in the ring. Yaaaay. That was my initial reaction. Then as the segment wore on, it actually became pretty fantastic. The stuff with Abyss felt so stereotypical and I hated it because everyone knows that Abyss has made his name. Storm saying he made him when he's so much smaller than him was just a dumb visual. Abyss is too late in his career to have even played part in a storyline like this. It looks dumb for a veteran to play into a game of manipulation like this so I'm glad he finally broke off. Abyss leaves and the awesomeness begins as Storm starts yelling at Manik who keeps standing up for himself and Shera. Storm slaps him down several times, but Manik keeps getting up and the crowd begins chanting his name. Manik stops him from slapping him again, takes the mic and says that Storm didn't make him as he unmasks! WHAT! TJP! TJP! TJP! As a long time fan of his, that was really cool. Out walks the man who is the subject of this whole segment, Mahabali Shera. He tries to fight Storm, but doesn't get his wish. Storm teases it then says "sorry bout your damn luck" before leaving. Guess that bout is being saved for BFG.
5) Drew Galloway vs. Bobby Lashley vs. Davey Richards vs. Eddie Edwards vs. Bram - #1 Contender's Match for the TNA World title
This is an elimination style match and it kicks off with a bang. Brawling proceeds all around ringside before The Wolves get back in and hit a huge dive on Galloway & Lashley. Davey & Eddie then hit more double team stuff on Bram which leads to his elimination. Due to some unfortunate circumstances, I missed a few minutes which happened to be when Davey & Eddie got eliminated together which I found weird to hear. Maybe they both tapped? Not sure. None the less, it comes down to Galloway & Lashley which I'm more than satisified with. They slug it out for a few minutes until Galloway dodges a spear and nails Lashley with a big boot for the three count. Action packed main event from what I saw. I feel like the ending could have been more dramatic though. Derailing Lashley should've taken more, in my opinion. Regardless, Galloway is headed to Bound for Glory to challenge EC3 for the World Title.
Match rating - **3/4
EC3 is in the ring with 8 minutes left on the show. He gives Jeff Hardy one more chance to "beg to keep his job" since he's threatening to fire him for not following his orders earlier in the evening. Hardy tells him to go ahead and fire him. EC3 makes another spill saying that if he does, Jeff won't have any source of income. Blah, blah. He makes Hardy get down on one knee to recite a self-loathing speech and kiss his title. Instead, Hardy says that EC3 can't fire him because he quits. Hardy awkwardly yells "I don't work here anymore!" He leaves and EC3 fires him anyway and says the show is over. Well. That escalated quickly.
No comments:
Post a Comment