TNA IMPACT! Review 7/5/16

Impact opened up with some very entertaining build for Final Deletion. After that Maria introduces Mike Bennett and he comes out and cuts one of his typical promos. Dixie comes out and announces a match for tonight, an Ultimate X where Bennett defends the title against the entire X-Division.

Ultimate X

Mike Bennett vs Trevor Lee vs Andrew Everett vs DJ Z vs Rockstar Spud vs Mark Andrews vs Braxton Sutter vs Eddie Edwards
This was a solid Ultimate X match with quite a few cool spots and one awesome one with Mark Andrews doing a moonsault off the Ultimate X structure. I loved how Bennett waited for everyone to do their flippy stuff and then went to go get the title. I typically hate the use of ladders in Ultimate X, but it was fine here because Bennett isn’t an X-Division wrestler. Hes never claimed to be one and doesn’t want to be one so why should he try to get the title the way everyone else does? It makes sense for him to try to take the easy way out. I also loved how even though Eddie easily could’ve used the ladder that Bennett brought in to his advantage, he didn’t want to take the easy way out and got the title the classic way. I’m very happy that Eddie is champion again as he is the kind of champion the division needs. **3/4

James Storm vs Eli Drake

I’m kind of disappointed that they’re already giving away this singles match because I really enjoyed the segment last week and wanted them to wait a little bit. This started off as a typical Eli Drake match and ended by DQ when Drake intentionally got himself disqualified after Storm hit a Last Call Superkick. This kind of reminded me as to why I shouldn’t get excited for Eli Drake matches because hes incapable of having anything more than extremely average matches, but I still for the most part enjoy him as an overall performer. The  finish doesn’t really bother me as it allows for the feud to continue. Even though the matches will most likely be far from being anything that much above average but it still gives both guys something to do and I’m sure the segments will continue to be entertaining. *1/4

Street Fight

Jade vs Marti Bell

I’ve been enjoying this feud so far and this was no exception. Definitely a step up from most of the Knockouts street fights, there were some really cool and brutal spots in this even though it was short and didn’t really have any flow to it. Fun little match, I like this feud a lot. This also made Jade look really good which is always a good thing. **1/4.

After this there was a segment building up the main event where Jeff assaulted drones with a guitar and Matt rode a lawnmower. This is so fantastic. Yes its ridiculous but you’re not supposed to take it seriously and if you are you need to lighten up and just enjoy the ridiculousness of this entire thing.

Next up was another segment with Billy Corgan, Maria, Mike Bennett, and Dixie Carter. I may be in the minority but aside from the inclusion of Billy Corgan I’m enjoying this feud. Bennett hinted at himself being involved in Destination X, so I guess he’ll interfere in the main event? This was a fine segment that did a pretty decent job at continuing this storyline.

Bromans and Raquel vs The Decay

Jessie shows a video of Rosemary and Bram making out and then the Bromans attack them on the ramp. This was a relatively fun match with Jessie continuing to show off his major improvements. Raquel also did a cool thing which was surprising. I love how they use Rosemary, she has quickly become one of my favorite characters in wrestling. **1/2

Next up was a segment to build up Eddie Edwards vs Lashley at Destination X. I love how they made the X-Division Champion look equal to the World Champion in this segment, that made me happy after the damage they’ve done to the X-Division lately. This is going to be a great match if they don’t have it be filled with interference which is sadly unlikely.

Final Deletion “Broken”Matt Hardy vs Jeff Hardy

Final Deletion was the best thing that ever happened to me. I loved it so much and again if you didn’t love it or at least enjoy it to some extent you really should stop taking stuff so seriously. I was engaged one hundred percent from start to finish and it was fantastic. I don’t want to write too much about it because I don’t want anyone to think if they read what is written about it that they don’t need to watch it. You need to watch this if you  haven’t already. I can’t star rate it because it was so different from any other wrestling matches that I have seen, but this is something that I will most likely never forget.

Final Thoughts: Obviously Final Deletion was the big story here but most of the episode is worth watching and there was some other good stuff throughout the show. None of the wrestling on the show was straight up bad, with the low point of the show most likely being Storm vs Drake but even that was fine as it continued to build that feud. Very easy show to get through and a great step in the right direction for Impact. The card for the upcoming episode looks fantastic featuring matches like Lashley vs Edwards and a four way between Gail, Sienna, Jade, and Marti for the Knockouts Championship. Unless the booking completely ruins it, which is pretty possible, that should easily be one of the best Impact episodes of the year. Since I’m posting this review so late, I’m able to look at the short term impact of Final Deletion and it was a massive success, getting TNA tons of attention. They broke their ratings record on POP TV and it was by far the most talked about TNA has been in years. Hopefully they can capitalize on this and keep their momentum going.

Final Rating: 7.5/10.