By John Moore
TNA Impact Wrestling Hits
Lashley vs. Eddie Edwards: This might have been Edwards’ best match as TNA Champion. What’s even better is that he is no longer champion, which totally had to happen because he’s pretty much a dud on the microphone and as a character. The thirty minute iron man stipulation worked in the favor of this match as whoever put this one together did a good job with the sections. You had Lashley dominating early on with Eddie making the comeback with no extended headlock sequences that are usually prevalent for the wrestlers to rest. Lashley gained a lot here as he looked really strong to pick up where they were after he beat EC3 at Bound for Glory. I also like them going back to re-establishing Lashley’s Kesa Gatame submission as his go to closer weapon. Edwards gained from this too as they can now call him a former world champ and he looked really credible by the end of this match with Lashley barely holding on.
Rosemary vs. Jade: Really strong effort between Rosemary and Jade. We’ve seen some real clunkers as far as hardcore Knockouts matches are concerned. If I remember correctly, I believe these lame matches included Jade and Marti Bell, mostly due to Marti not being very good. It was good to see two quality workers put together something pretty decent to watch. The flaws come in the lack of real build and I’m a little vague as to what they were trying to reference with “Red vs. Blue”. I like Jade’s new short hair look but it would do her favors if they weren’t trying to establish her as Gail Kim-lite. I get that TNA unfortunately had to rewrite things due to Gail’s sudden injury, but they could do both of these talents a favor and build to a proper story? Also, let Jade be her own badass character rather than trying to carbon copy Gail Kim.
TNA Impact Wrestling Misses
Broken Hardys vs. DCC vs. Decay: Something seems off with everything other than the main event, and the Tag Team division is a part of that. DCC always suck. They never win and they have an empty gimmick. Decay was good, but now it seems like they are directionless. The Hardys are great but in 2017 it seems like they are in cruise control like they’ve been doing on the indie scene. Where’s Senor Benjamin and company? This match was really just the tag team division spinning its wheels and going nowhere. It would help if TNA found a way to reinvigorate the Tag Division, maybe even by scrapping the X Division or do what they were trying to do in early 2016 by putting together new tag teams.
DJZ vs. Caleb Konley vs. Trevor Lee vs. Andrew Everett vs. Marsche Rockett: Same X Division match, same ol’ meaningless spotfest. The only difference was Caleb Konley replacing Mark Andrews who left for WWE. Good for Andrews! I would like to say that there was some progress in the X Division with the post-match beatdown, but I’ve just been burned too many damn times with false hope with this pointless division.
Braxton Sutter and Laurel Van Ness: Don’t get me wrong, the two wrestlers played their parts very well even though Sutter can overact sometimes. The miss was the lame set. It was obviously taped in the backstage of Universal Studios, and not even the good part. Couldn’t they have taped this in some Florida restaurant? The obvious studio lights also ruined the segments.
Drew Galloway vs. Moose: This was really strange. Drew Galloway tried to cut a heel promo, yet he’s so good that the crowd just really picks his side. Moose isn’t doing anything wrong, he’s just placed against a really talented and popular dude. This week’s match also wasn’t as good as last weeks and they continue to essentially point out the weak points of this forced concept. I’m pretty sure Billy Corgan and Dave Lagana had a plan for this, but if the new crew doesn’t know where they were going then they should just scrap this thing. I also don’t like Drew going to his “Rising” theme as it reminds me of that bad faction they gave him with Eli Drake and Camacho, which was like the proto-DCC.
Loved that Rosemary vs Jade match. Brutal and fun. Obviously wouldn’t look right with most Knockout/Diva’s but Rosemary looked right at home in it and Jade didn’t back down at all.
I liked the Decay/Hardy/DCC segment but Matt’s voice sure sounded hoarse. Maybe just did too much screaming or something and hopefully he’s not too ill cos he seemed fine wrestling afterwards.
I actually liked Edward’s as Champion mainly cos I’m kinda tired with the main heavyweight champion often being a heel or turned heel to win it. Lashley has definitely improved on the mic over the last year but I can’t say I’ve been looking forward to him winning again.