TNA IMPACT! Review 8/25/16

Hey guys it is the internet’s resident TNA and EVOLVE fanatic, Josh Masterson, back this week with my Impact review.

World Heavyweight Championship #1 Contender’s Battle Royal
Robbie E vs Jessie Godderz vs Eli Drake vs Basille Baracca vs Baron Dax vs Grado vs Mahabali Shera vs Mike Bennett vs Moose vs Eddie Edwards

This was a pretty long and uninteresting battle royal. I love battle royals when they are good but this wasn’t. There were very few high points and it was just very dull which isn’t surprising looking at most of the talents involved. Bennett winning is whatever, he’s been very overexposed but that match will be a fine TV main event and they continued building to the eventual Bennett/Moose split.  *

Broken Matt came out and cut a very good promo as usual and eventually Brother Nero came out. Rosemary appeared and talked for a bit, she is so great in this role. Abyss and Crazzy Steve appeared in other parts of the arena and both of them talked. This was a highly entertaining segment that set up Brother Nero vs Abyss. Broken Matt and Rosemary are two of the best characters in wrestling and everyone did well here.

Brother Nero vs Abyss

This was kind of entertaining at times but was also an overbooked mess where what was going on in the ring was not the main thing that was going on. Unless you’re really invested in this story it isn’t really worth watching. *

After this there was a backstage segment where Maria and Sienna were bullying Allie because she forgot to tell them that Sienna had a title match and then another match building up Bennett and Lashley’s title match.

Knockouts Championship
Sienna ( c) vs Marti Bell vs Madison Rayne vs Allie vs Jade

This wasn’t a remotely normal match as a lot of it was them continuing the story of Allie not knowing how to wrestle. I’ve seen some people complain about that because she has had a successful indie career and people think it’s dumb but I think it’s been really entertaining. Her winning the title was a great moment but at the same time Sienna basically did nothing as champion which is really disappointing because she is great and I was hoping she would have a good and long reign after they messed up Jade’s reign the same way. Even though Sienna losing the title soured it a little bit they’re doing a great job at setting up Allie as a sympathetic top face and I’m very happy for her. *½

Next up was Eli Drake’s Fact of Life segment with the X-Division (which was depressingly only 6 people). The weird thing to me was that Eddie Edwards wasn’t with them even though only a couple months ago he was the main guy defending the X-Division to Lashley. Rockstar Spud was the highlight of this segment, having a bunch of great lines as he insulted the rest of the X-Division but Eli Drake also did well. It broke into a brawl between all the X-Division guys and ended with DJ Z holding up the title. I hope he does end up winning the title next week, he is great and has never gotten the credit he deserves.

Winner Main Events Bound For Glory
EC3 vs Drew Galloway

This was a great match and a really good way to end what was a pretty rough show. I’m glad they didn’t make this an overbooked mess like they often do in important matches. When TNA lets their top guys just go out there and wrestle it is always so good and this was an example of that. Galloway’s post match heel turn was good and I’m glad it happened as Galloway’s character has been really stale in the past couple months. ***¼

Final Thoughts: The Hardys/Decay and Fact of Life segments were very good, Allie winning the title and the main event were great. This was very much a step down from the last couple weeks, especially the wrestling, but there were still some enjoyable moments that made it worth watching.

Final Rating: 6.5/10