TNA IMPACT! Review 6/21/16

Hey guys, it is Josh Masterson, the internet’s resident TNA and EVOLVE freak. Today was my last day of school so now I can start doing Impact reviews somewhat regularly. I was pretty excited for this week’s episode of Impact as I enjoyed last week’s episode a lot.

Impact kicked off with a segment between EC3 and Drew Galloway arguing about last week, when EC3 accidentally cost Galloway his world championship match. They are both very good on the mic (Galloway’s solo promos get repetitive but he is great at arguing with people and obviously EC3 is fantastic). They acted like they were gonna have a match until the new TNA World Heavyweight Champion, Lashley, came out. First I want to say if you haven’t seen the match between them from Impact last week you definitely need to (and Slammiversary overall is very much worth watching). Lashley set up a tag team match between him and an unnamed partner against Galloway and EC3. The stipulation is that if Lashley and his partner win, the partner gets a title shot, while if EC3 and Galloway win, they both get title shots. Eli Drake came out and pretty much inserted himself into the match. He may be a pretty bad wrestler but hes very good on the mic and this segment did a good job at making me care about the tag match.

Drew Galloway and EC3 vs Lashley and Eli Drake

This match started off with some cool interactions between EC3 and Lashley that made it seem like it could’ve been something more than a typical TV tag team match, then Eli Drake came in and yeah. Galloway and EC3 struggled to work together due to their differences and Eli struggled to be interesting. Extremely basic match, with Galloway and EC3 earning opportunities at Galloway’s World championship. *1/2

After that match there was a cool backstage segment between Galloway and Lashley. Lashley has gotten a lot of criticism for his mic work over the years but he’s actually done pretty decent so far during this title reign.

The Decay came out and Rosemary cut a promo. The Decay isn’t as good as they were earlier in the year because of the lack of competition for them in the tag team division but Rosemary has really been fantastic in this role. Rosemary called out Bram and cut a great promo basically asking him to join the Decay. He said no and they attacked him. This feud could be interesting, Bram is very stale and desperately needs something to freshen him up, so maybe this could do that.

After this there was a backstage segment between Lashley and EC3. Lashley says by the end of the night he’ll decide who he will face next week. Lashley, EC3, and Galloway been featured very prominently on this show so far, which is very much a good thing. Tons of them is better than tons of Bennett. I’m a fan of Bennett but he isn’t good enough to be the main focus of the show.

Marti Bell vs Jade

Last week after watching a match from WSU from last year between the Dollhouse and Team Tremendous (which can be found on the Highspots Network, the show its on is WSU Cherry T) I said that I hope TNA finds a role for Marti during these tapings. A feud with Jade, who in my opinion should still be Knockouts Champion, is not exactly what I was referring to but I’m fine with it as it keeps both women on TV and relevant. This was actually a good match, one of the better TV Knockouts matches in recent memory. There was some fun brawling outside the ring early on and they told a good story throughout the match. This showed that when the girls get just a little more than a couple minutes they can put on pretty good matches. **3/4

Mike and Maria came out and cut a promo on how Maria was “assaulted” by Dixie Carter last week. For those of you who didn’t watch, Dixie got frustrated with Maria and slapped her in the face. Maria is so great, this segment was very entertaining. Billy Corgan also looked completely ridiculous so there’s that. Maria suggested that Dixie steps down as the president of TNA and Billy Corgan kind of sided with them, suggesting Dixie takes a brief leave of absence from running the company. Corgan really has no place having any type of on screen role so I’m not entirely sure why that’s a thing. Corgan really awkwardly decided that Bennett would get a shot at the X-Division Championship. Oh no.

X-Division Championship

Eddie Edwards (c) vs Mike Bennett

Bennett has no reason to be wrestling in the X-Division so I went in really hoping he would lose. TNA made a lot of progress with the X-Division at Slammiversary with the great four way and while some of that was hurt by the extremely short match between Edwards and Lee last week, they could get some of that back by having Eddie get a big win here. It pisses me off that this got significantly more time than any TV X-Division match that I can remember from this year. The match was just Eddie trying to make this somewhat resemble an X-Division match. I like Bennett but TNA just killed any momentum the division had after Slammiversary. That championship was been held by AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, and Christopher Daniels when they were three of the best in the world. It has been held by people like Austin Aries, Chris Sabin, Low Ki, and Petey Williams. Mike Bennett does not in any world belong on that list. Please fix this mess. *1/4

Rockstar Spud vs Braxton Sutter

Sutter was scheduled to face a jobber named Balam who was in a ridiculous outfit but Spud came out and cut a pretty good promo making himself Sutter’s opponent instead. This was a very short match, with Sutter making quick work of someone who though its hard to believe was one of the most interesting characters in the company at one point. Spud attacked Sutter after the match. I guess I’m okay with these guys having a little midcard feud, nothing wrong with that. **

After this they had a backstage segment to tell the viewers more about Sienna, one of TNA’s newest Knockouts, who won the Knockouts Championship at Slammiversary. I know I said earlier I wish Jade was still Knockouts Champion, but that has nothing to do with Sienna. I love Sienna, I have been a big fan of her indy work and had been hoping TNA would sign her since mid 2014. I’m looking forward to her match next week with Gail Kim, that should be good if they get time. I’m very happy that there are two Knockouts feuds going on at once.

Six Sides of Steel

Jeff Hardy vs “Broken” Matt Hardy

I was very excited for this match as Jeff and Matt’s match at Slammiversary was fantastic. A lot of people dislike this feud but I find it hilarious and I like it because it did a lot to make people care about Slammiversary and Impact lately. I wouldn’t like it much if the matches were bad but their matches have been very good so far. This was no exception, as it was a fun match. Nothing like the match at Slammiversary but it was still good. I loved that Matt kept having counters for Jeff moves, showing how well they know each other. ***

Final Thoughts: This was a decent show, nothing was that memorable but the main event was good and the Knockouts match was too, I can’t say I really disliked anything other than them ruining the small progress they made with the X-Division.

Final Rating: 6/10.

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