By Jason Powell
Impact Wrestling Hits
Moose vs. Lashley: This is the match that I wish we were getting at Bound For Glory. Anyway, a minor Hit for a match that was entertaining while it lasted and had the crowd engaged. The finish with Dan Lambert interfering was logical given the tag match they are going with at Bound For Glory.
Eli Drake and Chris Adonis vs. Johnny Impact and Garza Jr.: A solid tag match that continued the feud between Drake and Impact that will culminate with their title match at Bound For Glory. Impact pinning Adonis, who seemed to kick out before the three count for some odd reason, wasn’t as big of a momentum builder for Impact as it would have been had he pinned Drake, but hopefully it’s a sign that the plan is to protect Drake with the goal of having him develop more in-ring credibility with viewers.
OVE vs. Phil Atlas and Brent Banks: The match was fine and the Border City Wrestling venue looked decent on television. This is another case of OVE working a competitive match with a team that has no credibility with Impact viewers, but Atlas and Banks were impressive enough throughout the course of the match that it ended up feeling like a quality win for the tag champions.
Petey Williams vs. Idris Abraham vs. Tarik vs. Kyomia: A minor Hit for a random four-way match from a BCW event, but the action was good and Impact Wrestling regular Williams got the win.
Impact Wrestling Misses
Overall show: The company did a better job of framing the matches from other promotions than they have in the past by labeling it as Impact Wrestling from around the globe. There was some quality in-ring action and some of the footage looked solid from a production standpoint. Unfortunately, this approach feels bush league and very little of it served as effective hype for the Bound For Glory pay-per-view. I’m not sure whether Impact planned this approach or if they simply ran out of first run material (I suspect the latter), but I don’t believe this is the type of show that most fans are looking for. Fans are accustomed to seeing a show held in the same venue that feels like nearly everything is happening within the two-hour time frame, not a collection of random matches from various venues. Perhaps the oddest thing about this show is the minimal hype for most of the Bound For Glory matches despite the fact that they clearly had time to work with. And didn’t this company just launch a streaming service? These are dark times for the Impact Wrestling television show and one can only hope that things improve beginning with the next set of tapings held after Bound For Glory.
Eddie Edwards vs. Naomichi Marufuji for the GHC Heavyweight Championship: This was the best match on the show and that’s pretty hard to screw that up, but the editing made it feel like an amateur hour broadcast. For that matter, it really didn’t play into anything related to the company’s biggest event of the year, which is less than two weeks away. If Impact simply ran out of their own first-run material and the company is trying to fill time then why not give viewers the full match?
James Storm and EC3 vs. El Hijo Del Fantasma and El Texano Jr.: The confusing footage from Mexico continues. Storm and EC3 were the heels to this crowd, which is fine, but then Fantasma and Texano suddenly (at least in Impact storylines) dislike one another. Will they magically get along at Bound For Glory or will the company play into this storyline?
Trevor Lee vs. Ultimo Ninja in Tijuana, Mexico for the Impact X Divison Championship: The pre-match footage of Lee in Mexico was entertaining. I just wish they would have taken some time to establish his opponent before the match. The match was decent even if the fans seemed like they could not have cared less. The hard camera shot was fine, but whenever they cut to another shot the footage screamed low budget to the point that this should not have aired on television.
King Mo video: Everything Mo said was perfectly logical and made the babyface duo of Moose and Stephan Bonnar look like the heels in this feud.
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