TNA IMPACT! Review 8/11/16
Hey guys it is the internet’s resident TNA and EVOLVE fanatic back this week reviewing TNA Impact Wrestling. I’ve been extremely busy the last few weeks and have not had time to review Impact but I’m back this week.
EC3 came out to open up the show and cut a solid face promo that led to Lashley coming out and them going back and forth. Something that a lot of people criticize about TNA in recent years is how little they build to PPV matches so I can’t even say how happy it makes me that they have already began building to the Bound For Glory main event when it is nearly three months away. Storm interrupted and came out to build his main event match with Lashley. The two ended up brawling to the back and then Bennett and Moose came out to attack EC3 who ended up being saved by Eddie Edwards.
EC3 and Eddie Edwards vs Mike Bennett and Moose
I didn’t really have any expectations going into this match but it was actually a pretty fun match and a good way to start the show. Everyone worked hard, EC3 even did a suicide dive which was surprising and really cool. Nothing really special but it was a fun and pretty good match. They also teased tension between Bennett and Moose which was kind of strange as Moose has barely been with the company for 5 minutes. ***
Aaron Stevens (aka Damien Sandow) came out next and cut a really good promo. He got really good reactions throughout the promo and I think he’ll do well in TNA. He’s now going by Aron Rex. The only criticism I have is that it was kind of similar to the promos Galloway cut early last year and many others have cut after leaving WWE.
Gail Kim vs Marti Bell
This was a pretty rough match. I like both talents involved, Gail is to me the best womens wrestler of all time but the way TNA uses her in the last year or so doesn’t allow for her to show how good she is. This was a quick and story-filled match that was extremely skippable. I’m so ready for Gail to turn heel, seeing her always be the underdog against heel factions has gotten so tiring and dull. She had one of my favorite Knockouts championship runs as a face in 2014 after she defeated Angelina Love for the title but ever since losing the title since Havok I haven’t found her to be nearly as interesting. *1/2
“Broken” Matt Hardy and “Brother Nero” had a really entertaining segment going until the Tribunal came out. If they were trying to ruin the segment that is pretty much what they did.
Jeff Hardy vs The Tribunal
I liked it much better when the Tribunal was having segments and matches with Grado and Shera so that I could just fast forward them and pretend they didn’t exist but here they were wrestling my favorite wrestler ever so I kind of had to watch it. This was actually pretty entertaining stuff with the in ring action not being awful but that wasn’t the story, the real story was Broken Matt’s antics on the outside. N/R
After the match Jeff beat up the Tribunal and Al Snow a lot which was fun to watch and then he put himself through a table and Matt declared that Jeff is now broken. This was bizarre but very entertaining. No matter how out there this storyline gets it always keeps me invested somehow.
Galloway cut a solid promo here saying how he deserves to be world champion and he challenges EC3 to put his spot in the main event of Bound For Glory on the line. I’m kind of sick of fired up and angry face Galloway promos at this point but whatever. Don’t get me wrong, I really like him as a wrestler but he could benefit from a change in character here.
TNA World Heavyweight Championship and King of the Mountain Championship
Lashley (c) vs James Storm (c)
TNA did a really good job throughout the night of building up James Storm for this match and I was pretty excited for it going in. Lashley is in my opinion one of the best talents in TNA and has been making somewhat of a minor case for wrestler of the year, putting on really good to great matches consistently throughout the year (Don’t get me wrong there are tons of people ahead of him but hes top 30 or so) and James Storm really doesn’t get the credit he deserves, he has been great for so long. This started off a little bit slow but once it got going it was really good. There were some hot nearfalls, counters, and just some really good stuff overall late in the match. The main event scene has been on point in recent months with guys like Lashley, EC3, and Galloway killing it and this was even more proof that TNA puts on great matches when they stay away from overbooking. ***1/4
Final Thoughts: TNA has reached a nice stride in the last few months where they have at least one three star or higher match on most of their shows and the shows are overall very easy to get through. The opener was a pretty enjoyable match and the main event, as well as the build to it throughout the night, was really good. The other matches were skippable but the Aron Rex and Hardys segments were worth watching. Overall this was a really good show for TNA and hopefully they can keep this up next week.
Final Rating: 7.5/10
