Impact Wrestling review 07/21/16 (Six sides of steel, Bound for glory playoffs and state of knockouts address)

Shows, Top Story, TV Shows

I’m going for a slightly different format this week. As we already have excellent highlight and recap articles here on the site, I’m going to look to give more analysis and opinions. I’m just trying to figure out how best to write these articles as I go.


Matt and Jeff Hardy’s segments on Impact continue to be pretty crazy, and this Impact looks like it will be no different from the start of this show. I for sure am not complaining, the more and more they do it, the further I become used to it, and suspend my disbelief. Similar to Lucha Underground really.

Lashley has just grown leaps and bounds in the promo department. He looks so much more comfortable on the microphone; the difference is night and day from his early days in the WWE. I do really hope that they hold off on Lashley vs Moose, for as long as possible, I’m already hyped for that match. Speaking of being good at promos, Mike Bennett. Bennett has become an asset to Impact very quickly in his tenure in TNA.

Moose seems like a very good signing for TNA. Admittedly, I’ve only seen a few matches of his in ROH. However, the man looks like an absolute beast. I’m still not so sure about him playing to the crowd’s chants of “Moose” as it does seem like he’ll be a heel. It will be fun seeing him figure it out in TNA; I’m thinking he will probably be stronger as a face.

You’d have to search pretty hard to find people who are fans of Dixie Carter being an on screen presence. I am not necessarily one of those people. However, I must admit, I’ll settle with the role she played in the early part of Impact this week. A quick appearance, on the video screen, playing the babyface authority figure that lays down the law and sets out the show. There is no need for her to be involved more than that. Dixie can have personal problems with certain members of the roster – Maria and Bennett for example – they never need to be settled though, they can just speak down to each other. William Regal and Kevin Owens in NXT is a perfect example.

The bound for glory playoffs is good. It gives real purpose and reasons to matches, and gives a focus to the show in what is a lengthy break between pay per views – it’s smart. I am a bigger fan of the bound for glory series – TNA’s former build up to bound for glory, which involved everyone facing each other, with an overall league type format. However, I can understand going with this format. Impact will need a few more stars back for injury, as well as establishing a few stars, before it can run a tournament as large as the bound for glory series. The series may be a little long winded for some as well; it’s just my personal preference.

James Storm is often forgotten a little, he possesses a hell of a lot of talent, and he is a very strong babyface. Hopefully more emphasis is put on him in the coming weeks; however, he lost out in the first round of the bound for glory playoffs – which isn’t promising.

Impact’s roster has been stepping up their promo games as a whole recently. Eddie Edwards also cut a very solid promo on this show. Edwards has cut some really good promos for a few weeks in a row now.

I’ll make this note, which has nothing to do with Impact. As someone from the UK, I’ve watched my fair share of live streams of wrestling shows over the years. While I get all WWE shows on Sky nowadays, with Sky Go, Impact is not shown live in the UK. So I still have to watch this show live via a live stream. I feel bad for any of you who are American, and are subjected to such awful advertisements on a regular basis. Now, the UK’s ads aren’t great, but some of these ads are cringy as all hell, and are attempting to sell a lot of awful products.

The EC3, Drew Galloway feud has so much intensity to it. Both men are so good at their jobs, and they both manage to stay obviously babyface, while having a pretty vicious feud. Both men know their way around the ring, and are both gold on the microphone. Speaking of gold on the microphone, Eli Drake. Drake was given a chance by Impact, and he has knocked it straight out of the park. The way he has the crowd reacting to him is very impressive.

So Tyrus has this new gimmick of being “The fixer”. I mean we’ve seen that the man behind Tyrus is very versatile, so I am very much willing to give him a chance with it. Seems like it wouldn’t be a gimmick with limited potential though.

Allie, formerly Cherry Bomb, is killing it with the comedy in Impact right now. However, she does have more potential than just that. While in the short term, her current position is good, I hope it leads to a more serious character in the future. The knockouts division looks pretty thin, basically five full time wrestlers. With Madison turning in this segment, just two of them are babyfaces. We are really going to need some reinforcements in the division, especially some babyfaces. Chelsea Green was signed recently, I’m sure she will be around sooner or later. There are of course, plenty of female talents on the indies.

I’m a big fan of both Drew Galloway and Bram. Both men served up an entertaining match on Impact this week. Both are heavy hitters, and I have noted before how I think both guys have fantastic looks, looking truly “legit”. I really hope Bram’s current storyline with Rosemary ends with Rosemary double crossing him. I love Decay, and changing them like this, especially now, seems a bad move. Plus Bram needs to be on his own, he has been playing second fiddle alongside others for too long now.

A fantastic match between Eddie Edwards and Lashley. I never expected these two to have as much chemistry as they do. I’d for sure love to see them go at it again. I’m not keen on Lashley as the X Division champion, I get the storyline, it’s alright, but I’d prefer they’d just let X Division guys go at it for the title. Hopefully when Lashley drops the X Division title, they give the whole division a real chance to shine like it used to. I did love the chaos to end the show this week.


A good episode of Impact this week, I’d go as far to say very strong, 8/10. Impact has consistently produced very solid programming this year. I rarely find myself bored during an episode of Impact. The show keeps me engaged and interested, and this episode was no exception.

I am 18 years old, and a journalism student at university. I write about professional wrestling and soccer. Twitter - LewisMichie0