Impact Wrestling Review
November 4, 2016
By Gerald Bocook of WrestleView.com
The show began with Brandi Rhodes, Maria, and Sienna. Brandi’s better on the mic than she is in the ring, and better than Maria or Sienna. Maria’s delivery is infuriating, and not just because she’s always talkin’ crap. She just has a weird inflection. She puts the wrong emphasis on the wrong syllable.
The vignettes throughout the night about Eddie Edwards were nice, as some might not have cared about him until a couple months ago, so them going over his TNA history was nice. It let you know who he was, what he’s about, and what being World Heavyweight Champion means to him in a way that no backstage promo could. Nicely done.
Aron Rex, once again showing that maybe he’s not as good as everyone says he is, cheating to win his match and retain the Impact Grand Championship. They played up him messing around with a towel, which doesn’t seem like it should mean anything. But, this is pro wrestling, where male cheerleaders can battle undead wizards. Who knows?
The match itself was really good. Jessie Godderz is great in this format, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he eventually becomes Impact Grand Champion. Lord, that’s weird to say. Aron Rex also continues to make this turn that’s still fairly gradual.
We got another Team X Gold match, a triple threat, and are there only three teams in this thing? Eh. We got to see what happens if you don’t follow the ref’s rules; you don’t get disqualified, you get kicked out. That’s nice, and could lead to some interesting situations. Here, it lead to Spud getting his butt kicked. All is right with the world.
We got an okay match. I’m still weird on this format, but we’ll see.
The conflict between the Hardy’s and DCC was great. All around loved it. Great brawl before the match, Brother Nero taunting the DCC to come gets some more, a complete massacre of a match ending with the disqualification, and the awesome backstage segments. I’m starting to like the Hardy’s out of the ring more than inside because of stuff like this. I liked that they had the Immortal Jeff Hardy pop back up. That was one of the best bits from DELETE or DECAY’s aftermath, and I’m glad to see these crazy throwbacks popping up. Matt forcing the forklift driver to try and run over one of the DCC members, then the attack on the top of the forklift with the second mask on the man, Matt getting knocked off… It was just great, and fun, and entertaining, and I loved it. “JEFF IN THE BOX!” is maybe my favorite thing in the world right now.
Ethan Carter III had a promo. That’s a thing that happened. He thought he was going to get one over on Eli Drake, but Eli got it over on EC3, and I liked that. It’ll be a good match. I’m sure the Drake/Carter feud’ll continue afterwards, and I hope Drake gets a good shine off of Ethan Mid-Carder III.
The main event was fantastic. But before I get to that, I just have to reiterate; these “Lashley don’t care” promos have got to end. Bobby. Dude. For real. Eddie Edwards beat you. Twice, now. If the next time you’re on the mic you call him a “feel good moment”, or say he’s nothin’, or downplay his accomplishment, you’re a joke. Lord, it’s obnoxious.
Anyway, the match. Great match. Lashley looked good when he wasn’t playing to the crowd or playing overconfident. He was up to shenanigans, he outright cheated, and he was about to wreck another poor referee for even suggesting that the match was over cuz Lashley was a cheater. Lashley acted like a man desperate to win… except when he didn’t. He’d nonchalantly cover, he’d take his sweet time, and it was great to see it catch up to him at the end of the match. Edwards was on fire, and it was awesome to see Lashley sent flying with the Boston Knee Party. Glad to see Edwards with the Championship still, and his match next week against Eli Drake should (hopefully) be good.
Overall, a great show filled with great wrestling, a fun backstage brawl, a fantastic main event, and strong segments (except for Maria and Ethan Carter III.)