Powell’s Impact Wrestling Hit List: Johnny Impact vs. Garza Jr. for a GFW Title shot at Bound For Glory, Moose brings in a UFC legend for help and things get felonious, Rosemary and Taya Valkyrie

By Jason Powell

Impact Wrestling Hits

Johnny Impact vs. Garza Jr. for a GFW Title shot at Bound For Glory: A minor Hit for the ring work alone. It still seems ridiculous that Garza Jr. was selected to wrestle in the match that determined the challenger for the GFW Championship at Bound For Glory. It would be understandable if the guy caught fire with the fans, but this felt like the company just shoehorned him into the match. Fortunately, it was a quality television match and the right guy went over even if nothing about this felt as epic as it should have.

Rosemary and Taya Valkyrie: As much as I was concerned by the decision to turn Rosemary babyface, she has really clicked in this role and is one of the most over wrestlers in the company. She had a simple squash win and then called out Taya Valkyrie, who was one step ahead in that she sprayed mist into the face of Rosemary and then put her down with her finisher. This was a nice segment that made the heel look bright and launched the feud between the women. I guess this also explains why both women were left out of the Knockouts Title match at Bound For Glory. One can only hope that the winner of their BFG match will become No. 1 contender.

Allie, Dezmond Xavier, and James Storm vs. Sienna, Caleb Konley, and El Texano Jr.: McKenzie Mitchell nailed it in a backstage interview segment show hosted by calling this a “relatively random” six-person tag match. And you had to know Konley was taking the loss for his team given that he’s been pegged as Trevor Lee’s sidekick and has no persona of his own. Even so, it was a good, high energy tag match that showcased a couple of the feuds and featured the return of Xavier, who strangely disappeared from television after winning the Super X Cup tournament.

Pro Wrestling Noah video package: Eli Drake cut a brief yet highly entertaining promo before they shifted to footage of Eddie Edwards and Garza Jr. talking about their trip to Japan. Garza came off like a good guy while discussing his goals and his late uncle. Why do the wrestlers have to leave the Impact Zone to get this type of character developing storytelling?

Gail Kim and Taryn Terrell: A brief segment with Terrell heeling on Kim and the live crowd, only to have Kim come out and rough her up. A simple and effective way to continue their feud.

Joseph Park and Grado: An unintentionally timely skit with Park showing up with a carload of not exactly restaurant quality interns.

Impact Wrestling Misses

Moose and Stephan Bonnar: Moose calling in a mystery person (Bonnar) to help in his fight with American Top Team was a nice touch that likely kept some viewers watching to see who it would be. The payoff likely worked for some and was lost on others simply depending on their familiarity with the former UFC fighter. The Miss comes into play for the unintentionally hilarious way the supposed babyfaces handled their business. First, they not only parked in handicap parking spots in the empty ATT parking lot, they actually double parked in handicap spaces. Once inside the building, they committed a major act of vandalism by trashing the ATT trophy case and knocking over their merchandise display. Moose even followed that up by stealing a pair of socks. Yes, socks. Oh, and maybe the ATT title belt collection. And just when it seemed like the babyfaces couldn’t do anything more ridiculous, they sexually harassed the innocent woman at the front desk. I gave this a Miss, but this easily could have fallen into the “so bad it’s good” category even though that’s not what the company was going for.

OVE: The LAX side of the verbal exchange was solid. OVE didn’t say much, but the fact that they acted like they didn’t know what a 5150 Street Fight also implies that they don’t watch the Impact Wrestling television show. Maybe Pop isn’t available in Ohio? I want to like OVE, but everything from the odd obsession with their home state to their failed attempts at getting fans to chant the OVE name is making it difficult. It doesn’t help that they are repeatedly out shined by the coolest act in the company. My guess is that OVE will bring in some help of their own at Bound For Glory to counter all of the LAX members. If not, either they will look idiotic or LAX will look bad by putting them over despite the big numbers advantage.

Global Forged: A nice feature on trainer Jon Bolen, but they still haven’t given viewers any information on how the actual contest works. Is this a contest that will play out on Impact or on the Global Wrestling Network? Speaking of which, for a company that just launched a streaming service, they sure went light on the hype.