With Bound for Glory coming up in less than a week TNA has two shows left to build to their most important show of the year, in more than one way. Let’s check out our second to last Impact before the pay per view.
The first match-up of the night was a semi-final contest in the TNA Grand Championship tournament; Drew Galloway and Eddie Edwards had what I believe to be the best match since implementing the three round, point based system match-up. Going to the third round and utilising the judge’s decision allowed these to put on a great final round, making it seemingly impossible to make out a winner.
Post-match, Galloway grabs a mic and claims that TNA is rigged. A pro-wrestling company is rigged? No way. Drew then states that EC3 and Lashley better hope they don’t have to go on last because no one can follow Drew Galloway. That’s when EC3 comes down and Lashley as well, followed by Moose and Mike Bennett. We got ourselves a brawl and a main event.
Our second semi-final in the tournament sees Aron Rex take on Eli Drake in a nothing match, you’d be a fool to go out and watch this. The banter was lame and childish, above all else, Rex hit his patented spinning elbow which looked more like an athletic hug. So, at Bound for Glory, it will be Drew Galloway taking on Aron Rex to be the inaugural TNA Impact Grand Champion, could be okay.
The Knockouts Championship is continuing to be a letdown each and every week. Hopefully, at Bound for Glory, Gail Kim will win and move onto a feud where we can at least look forward to a good match at the end. We won’t even get that with this unfortunate set of circumstances.
This week, we had a public workout where Allie had to find an easy opponent for Maria to quickly beat. The random worker enters and is super grateful to be there. Maria distracts the ref with her brace, and Sienna choked a random lady from the internet. Maria pins her. Maria then asks for her next opponent. Maria says there isn’t one, some Asian influenced music plays and out comes a lady in all black shadow boxing and doing karate, very poorly I might add. It turns out to be Gail Kim. Good for her not living up to stereotypes.
For the first time in the illustrious history of ‘iMPACT Testing,’ we get a look at the X-Division. The newly crowned champion, DJZ has turned a new leaf saying that the first time he held this title, he was immature and issues an open challenge. By TNA standards I’d say he turns face within the next month. Either way, the challenge is accepted by Trevor Lee resulting in a nothing match hindered by time restraints. DJZ gets the win with the ZDT (a barrel roll DDT). Post match Andrew Everett and Trevor Lee beat down DJZ; Eddie Edwards runs into aid DJZ and issues a challenge for his X-Division title. This was the second beat down in the last hour broken up by a babyface running in for the save. Not cool TNA, not cool.
DJZ gets the win with the ZDT (a barrel roll DDT). Post match Andrew Everett and Trevor Lee beat down DJZ; Eddie Edwards runs into aid DJZ and issues a challenge for his X-Division title. This was the second beat down in the last hour broken up by a babyface running in for the save. Not cool TNA, not cool.
Instantly gaining cool points, we get the debut of Cody Rhodes in TNA. Walking to a Corvette, dressed in his Sunday best, in a short video perfectly hyping the son of the Dream. Going by simply “Cody,” he will make his debut October 2nd at Bound for Glory. Already, Cody has upstaged the debut of Aron Rex, rendering him obsolete in my books.
Speaking of being obsolete, let’s run through our weekly update in the Great War. Decay are in the ring where each person takes a turn directing their hatred at the Hardy clan when all of a sudden, in the crowd is “Broken” Matt Hardy. He states that his magic will not decay and is successful in getting the crowd to chant “Again” at least ten times.
It’s not done there; Brother Nero has something to say as well. Jeff says that once they’re done, Abyss won’t be beautiful, Steve won’t be crazy, and Rosemary won’t be rosy, they will wish to be broken but will be rendered obsolete! Matt then says, “They’re Bound for Glory,” and the lights go out. When they come back on, Crazy Steve and Abyss are tied up allowing Reby to attack Rosemary. Following the attack,
Following the attack, Reby says that she shouldn’t have come between a mother and her baby, because at Bound for Glory, Rosemary’s mother will be the one missing her baby.
For our main event, we have Bobby Lashley and Mike Bennett taking on EC3 and Moose in a tag match. In the ring, Moose shines. He was a stand out in this match for sure, showing off his incredible athleticism and command of a crowd. I wish I could say the same about his mic skills; that’s an area where it falls off a cliff. He’s hard to understand; in all honesty, he sounds deaf. But in the ring, he is fantastic for a former football player only wrestling for a couple of years. The match ends shortly with a sunset flip roll up by EC3, pinning Bennet for the victory. Post-match, Moose and Bennett brawl to the back while the “whole X-Division” came out to split up Lashley and EC3 consisting of four wrestlers. What a f**king
I wish I could say the same about his mic skills; that’s an area where it falls off a cliff. He’s hard to understand; in all honesty, he sounds deaf. But in the ring, he is fantastic for a former football player only wrestling for a couple of years.
The match ends shortly with a sunset flip roll up by EC3, pinning Bennet for the victory. Post-match, Moose and Bennett brawl to the back while the “whole X-Division” came out to split up Lashley and EC3 consisting of four wrestlers. What a f**king division! More wrestlers come down and the President, Billy Corgan announces that next week will be “The Road to Glory” where EC3 and Lashley will captain their teams in a Lethal Lockdown match where the winner gets to choose the stipulation for their match at Bound for Glory. Is it just me, or is it overkill to do a Lethal Lockdown match two days before your biggest pay per view of the year?!
3 out of 5