GFW Impact Review - August 31, 2017

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Johnny Impact and Eddie Edwards Confronted GFW Global Champion Eli Drake

As I said last week, Drake has been one of my favorites in GFW for a while now and I couldn't be happier he's the world champion. He cut a great promo about how he reached the top of the mountain before being interrupted by his first set of challengers. For those of you who haven't been watching Lucha Underground for the past three years, Impact/Mundo has come a long way on the mic since his WWE days, and although this was a decent promo from him, he is way better on the mic as a heel than as a babyface. I'd also be hypocritical if I said he should be immediately put in contention for the championship considering I wasn't in favor of it when they did the same thing with Alberto El Patron when they signed him earlier this year. Edwards also played his role well and this successfully segment set up the tag team match for later in the night.

oVe def. Fallah Bahh and Mario Bokara

Based off how they played to the crowd here and faced heel opponents, I can now officially confirm (I think) that oVe are babyfaces. I still don't get their gimmick (has it even been explained yet?), but as wrestlers, they're pretty good in the ring. Their offense is getting more and more impressive by the week, so I hope they receive some character development soon because they can be a nice addition to GFW's growing tag team division if they do.

Petey Williams def. Caleb Konley

I remember Konley helping Trevor Lee during his X-Division Championship match against Sonjay Dutt at Destination X, but I'm not sure anything else is known about their alliance. Nevertheless, this was all about Williams' return to the ring and he looked fantastic for a guy who has been retired for a few years. This should have been more of a showcase for Williams than a competitive contest with Konley, but I did like how they built to him hitting the Canadian Destroyer because that's obviously what everyone was waiting for. Does Dutt coming to Williams' aid afterward mean we haven't seen the end of his feud with Lee?

Kongo Kong def. Richard Justice

Justice looks like a fatter version of Jack Black's character from Nacho Libre, which might be why I get such a kick out of him. Despite putting up a hell of a fight versus Kong (I kid, I kid), he was put away rather quickly. Kong continues to dominate the competition, but I'm still skeptical about his pending program with Mahabali Shera as I fear the matches are going to be beyond terrible.

Low Ki def. James Storm

It's crazy to imagine that both of these guys were apart of TNA's very first show over 15 years ago, as the commentary team noted. As for this match, I'm glad Storm is back after taking time off to recover from the concussion he sustained at Slammiversary last month. This was an enjoyable outing from him and Low Ki and the fire they showed was a terrific touch. The final few minutes were excellent as they picked up the pace, even if I wasn't fond of the interference from LAX. Here's hoping this wasn't the last we've seen of Storm and Low Ki against each other.

GFW Global Champion Eli Drake and Chris Adonis def. Eddie Edwards and Johnny Mundo

Unlike on SmackDown Live, this tag team main event was meaningful because there was something at stake. I figured one of the babyfaces would win, so Drake pinning Edwards was a pleasant surprise. They were given a ton of time to work and all of it was entertaining and well-wrestled. Granted, it didn't make much sense for Impact or Edwards to attempt to pin Adonis early on, but it was an above-average matchup on the whole. Meanwhile, I'm intrigued by the angle they're doing with Lashley and what his decision will be, but I could have done without Dan Lambert breaking the fourth wall and all the babyfaces and heels standing in the ring together like they didn't just fight in a lengthy bout.

Overall Show

Coming out of Destination X, it truly feels like there's a sense of direction in each of the divisions and the company has a general idea of where its going heading into Bound for Glory. Drake becoming the GFW Global Champion and Impact coming in reset some storylines for the better and it resulted in a real solid show here. There was quality wrestling and progression of feuds all night long and thus I was more than satisfied by the end of the episode. With two tag team matches and Drake vs. Matt Sydal for the GFW title on tap for next week, I'm looking forward to what the coming weeks will have in store for GFW.