Powell’s Impact Wrestling Hit List: DJZ and Andrew Everett vs. LAX for the Impact Tag Titles, Konnan returns and confronts King, Killer Kross speaks, farewell to the Impact Grand Championship

IF YOU STARTED PWBOOM PODCAST AUDIO, CLICK SPEAKER ICON (on the right half of the purple podcast box above) TO MUTE BEFORE LEAVING BROWSER WINDOW

By Jason Powell, Prowrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)

Impact Wrestling Hits

DJZ and Andrew Everett vs. LAX for the Impact Tag Titles: A strong tag title match to open the show. This really could have been the main event if they didn’t have additional LAX storytelling throughout the night. In fact, this was by far the highlight of the show. LAX regaining the tag titles is an interesting development. I wasn’t a fan of the way Z&E captured the tag titles without any sense of logic in terms of how they received the tag title show. Yet while LAX regaining the tag titles cuts the Z&E run short, the brief title reign did legitimize them as a quality team in Impact Wrestling.

Konnan and King: There were elements of the exchange that felt nonsensical such as Konnan returning for the first time in months and then questioning why Homicide hadn’t reached out to him. How would Homicide know he’s back? Even so, I continue to find LAX to be the coolest act in pro wrestling just as it was during its original form back in the day. I knew King was a good talker, but I have been truly impressed by the acting ability he’s shown during these segments.

Killer Kross: The video package left me with mixed feelings. Kross did a a fine job with his delivery and he’s off to a good start as the dark character. The video left me looking forward to seeing more of him and that’s ultimately why I put this in the Hit section. At the same time, logic was tossed out the window. Viewers spent weeks hearing about how Impact Wrestling management had hired extra security brought in law enforcement officials due the Red X attacks. The mystery man revealed himself to be Kross and now rather than being arrested, he is showcased in a sit-down interview and is apparently now a regular roster member. I prefer logic based storylines and I wish the creative team would go the extra mile to make sense of these things.

Austin Aries merges the Impact and Grand Championships: The horrific run of the awful Grand Championship is over! The belt was introduced by a previous creative regime that never got the rounds based division up and running before they left the company. The regime that followed kept the belt around and didn’t get anything out of it. The current regime also kept it going for a stretch before finally coming to their senses and putting that damn belt out of its misery.

Scott Steiner vs. KM: A minor Hit for the guy perceived by fans as being one of the biggest bullies in pro wrestling history beating the Impact Wrestling undercard bully. It’s too bad that Impact hasn’t gotten past KM doing the Biff Tannen impersonation. He’s a good talker and he has good size. I’m not saying he should be in the world title picture, but he should feel more important than he does. I enjoyed this segment and the silly comedy with Fallah Bahh that preceded it, but at some point they need to put consistent heat on KM or it won’t mean anything when Bahh puts him in his place.

Impact Wrestling Misses

Eddie Edwards video: Edwards breaking into his home while calling out for his estranged wife was unsettling. And while that’s obviously what Impact was going for, it was very uncomfortable to see a crazed husband ransacking his home while in search of his wife on a pro wrestling television show. I couldn’t help but think back to the darkest day in pro wrestling and that’s just not something I want to think about. I’m not insinuating that this is what Impact was going for, and I get that another viewer could watch this same footage and not have that come to mind. I can only tell you how it affected me and it was a major turnoff.

Pentagon Jr. and El Hijo Del Fantasma vs. Jake Crist and Dave Crist: There was nothing wrong with the actual match aside from that it didn’t feel main event worthy. Sure, Pentagon Jr. was recently the Impact World Champion, but Fantasma has been showcased poorly and the OVE duo have become Sami Callihan’s minions. In other words, these are four talented guys who should not feel out of place in a main event, but three of the four wrestlers just haven’t been booked in a manner that makes them feel like they belong there. By the way, why does’t Pentagon Jr. seem to care about regaining the Impact World Championship?


WE VALUE YOUR PRIVACY

Readers Comments (7)

  1. Glad to see the insistent “we used to be able to just not take fictional stories as reality but now we have to be overly sensitive 100% of the time” only gets worse.

    • And yet you always return to read everything on this site, ballbag.

    • I think I’ve been pretty consistent over the years with my preference for storylines that feel realistic. It’s one of the reasons that Lucha Underground just hasn’t been my thing. The Broken Universe was a rare exception.

  2. The Edwards angle didn’t strike me like that, and I wouldn’t say it made me uncomfortable. It’s just bad. I say that as a guy who really likes a lot of what Impact is doing, too. The thing about this though is they’ve taken one of the few solid babyfaces they have, and they appear to have tried to turn him into a psychopathic heel that he doesn’t have the range to play. Unless they’ve got plans in motion to bring Davey Richards back, and reform a heel Wolves team, why make that move?

    Another part to that angle that’s missed with me is how we’re supposed to be able to see inside Eddie’s mind, when he saw Sami in the mirror. And I know the company’s had some success with the hocus pocus stuff, but it takes a certain type of character (Rosemary, Su Yung, the Hardys, etc…) , and story to pull it off. What they did here pulled me out of the moment completely.

    I don’t want to sound full of gripes, though. I really, really enjoyed this show as a whole. I’m so happy Madison Rayne is being featured, and the LAX stuff has been fantastic. Kross’ character looks to have potential, too. And major, major props to the company for retiring the Grand Championship!

    • Well according to John Moore we are seeing that Eddie Edwards stuff all over wrestling right now. lol

      • I wouldn’t say we’re seeing anyone else try to go for such low brow storylines in other companies

        There is Ciampa and Gargano, but that’s just a serious version of this I guess

        The Eddie Edwards thing might just be another “Only in TNA” bad moment I suppose

        • You are like some of the women i have come across in my life. They bust my balls, give me a hard time, call me ugly and i think she doesn’t like me very much come to find out 9 times out of 10 the opposite is true. So i ‘ll just leave you alone and let you do your female thing until Impact wrestling gets you in bed and gives you what you really want !

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published.


*


This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.