Impact Wrestling Review
November 11, 2016
By: Gerald Bocook of Wrestleview.com
I love wrestling shows like last night’s Impact. We’ve seen this recently from TNA with the Night of Champions after Bound for Glory, and tonight, every match had a clear, identifiable purpose. In this case, every match was either for the World Heavyweight Championship, or a match qualifying for a shot at it. It’s simple story telling, requires little set-up or explanation, and works so, so well. Especially when you get some good wrestling out of it. Or fun wrestling. Sometimes they are mutually exclusive.
Bennett/Moose, Carter/Abyss, and the X-Division Triple Threat were all fine matches. No real complaints, and I think the right people won. Yes, even Trevor Lee. DJZ can’t be the winner of every dang match, and he has X-Division Championship fish to fry. Lashley vs Grado and Robbie E, though… What can I say? It was a nice, quick, fun match. I laughed a few times during it, and that’s what Grado and Robbie are good at. There were a dozen times I thought that match was going to be over, and even though I could see it coming, it was still painful when it came to pass. Good job, and I’m glad that Lashley doesn’t take himself so seriously that he can’t let a couple of guys get some comedy bits in. Also nice was no Lashley promo, so Lashley didn’t get a chance to take the piss out of his competitors before or after any matches. That was wondrous. Lashley is so much more fun when you don’t hear him be condescending to the entire roster.
Bennett/Moose was nice, but, man… Moose just loves missing the Game Breaker, doesn’t he? It must be up there with eating food on the list of things Moose likes to do. Maybe he should just drop the spin-out and go for the lariat? But is that the fun part? Bennett weasels his way to a win, and Maria getting ejected was wonderful, even if it involved us hearing her scream.
Carter/Abyss was way better than I was expecting it to be. They worked well here, and I thought the chokeslam on the apron was just nasty and beeeeautiful. Carter winning was a zero-dark-gibberish forgone conclusion, though. Poor Abyss.
Also, EC3. The person that writes your promos? Fire them. Out of a cannon. Into the sun. They’re terrible, and you sound like a doofus. And that’s the nicest way I can put it. And if you write your own promos? Get a professional to do it. See the preceding reasons as to why.
I liked the X-Division Triple Threat and the handicap match because they shook things up for the qualifiers. It wasn’t just static singles matches, and had Grado and Robbie E won, it would’ve actually changed the dynamic of the #1 Contender match, and I appreciate things like that. The triple threat was fun, and good lord, I hope DJZ is okay. He crashed his foot hard into that guard rail and you could tell it gave him trouble throughout. And they said he’s wrestling with a broken wrist? Crazy, man. I gotta say, yeah, I’m really glad DJZ didn’t win. I’ve just become so accustomed to it the last few weeks that it was nice for a change to see him not win.
Solid mic work from everyone at the open of the show, with one exception I’ll get to later. And yes, as stated in my write-up of the show, Ethan Carter III’s fake lame military jargon makes no sense, and that’s just obnoxious. My favorite part of the segment was probably Eli Drake being surprised by Miracle’s assault on Carter, though. He looked like he didn’t know it was coming, but was gonna go with it.
The story with Matt losing his memory was cute, and I felt it smart to not resolve it immediately. Let it linger on another week or so, let Señor Benjamin get some time off his feet, and don’t let the Lake of Resurrection be a deus ex machine. Good story telling.
Poor Al Snow. Not that he’s been around lately. The Tribunal needs a bit more oompf, though, something bigger than beating up a teacher. I hope they find it.
Gail Kim’s segment was looking ever-so-predictable, but, holy crap did it get crazy. It looked like pretty standard “I’m retiring” or “I’m hoping to face my bestest friend in the world/protégée/buddy/person I respect” territory, and then Decay hit the arena and it got crazy. They didn’t say anything (at least, not on the mic,) they just came down and dismantled everyone. Rosemary with the poison spit to Gail, Jade’s invite to the Red Wedding, and the fact that Abyss and Crazzy Steve got involved with destroying Jade was something we haven’t seen in awhile and was… kinda refreshing in an unsettling way. The eventual showdown between Rosemary and Gail Kim will be exciting if this segment was any indication.
Aron Rex and Jessie Godderz’ backstage fight was… that. Nothing special. You got what you came for; self-righteousness, cheating cowardly heelishness, Godderz taking his shirt off for no reason, lame Spider-Man-style insults, and Aron Rex wearing a pirate shirt. What even, I can’t. I can’t with this.
Eddie Edwards and Eli Drake had a good match as well. More than I expected from Drake, so it’s nice to see my expectations being upset. He was so close to winning, too, but I’m happy to see Edwards’ reign continue.
And the DCC revealing themselves was great. They made no indication that they were interested in the main event scene at all, as they’d been attacking guys lower on the card. But they made a statement tonight by not only mugging Edwards but finally unmasking. James Storm unmasking popped the crowd huge, and we suddenly have two more players in the main event scene. And yes, I know that the third man is Eddie Kingston, but they didn’t specifically say it or introduce him, and it will be interesting to see where he settles on the card.
Impact Wrestling continues to provide a fun show with solid in-ring action and even some intrigue. Keep it up, guys!