GFW Impact Review - September 21, 2017

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Johnny Impact def. KM in a GFW Global Championship No. 1 Contender's Match

I've never been the biggest fan of KM, but I thought he played he played his role well here as a foil for Impact. His mic work wasn't terrible, and Impact's was surprisingly good, too. I say "surprisingly" because he was a pretty poor talker during his time in WWE, but he improved immensely while in Lucha Underground. The subsequent match was short and sweet, even if it's always dumb for the babyface to put their title shot on the line when they don't have to.

Taya Valkyrie def. Ava Storie

Valkyrie can be a huge asset to the Knockouts division if they book her properly, and so far the company has done right by her with these dominant squash matches where she has been able to get over her signature moves. I enjoyed the post-match chaos even more with Valkyrie explaining her motives for being in Lucha Underground before Rosemary, Allie, Gail Kim, Sienna and Taryn Terrell came down and brawled with each other.

El Hijo del Fantasma and Pagano def. Impact Grand Champion Ethan Carter III and Eddie Edwards

The vignettes hyping up Pagano's debut last week didn't give us any idea as to who he is or what he's about, and his debut match didn't, either. He was fine in this match, but Fantasma was the real star of the team. This match wasn't given nearly enough time to reach its full potential, but it was well-wrestled while it lasted and it was smart for the heels to go over thanks to interference from the debuting Texano Jr. It looks like we're getting some sort of an AAA heel faction, which isn't shocking given GFW/Impact's working relationship with them. Also, I appreciate James Storm not immediately forgiving EC3 after the ruthless rivalry they had a few short months ago.

Kongo Kong def. Mahabali Shera

I had low expectations for this match, and somehow, it managed to be worse than I thought it would be. There were several embarrassing moments, one of which saw Shera attempt to do a springboard and barely graze Kong on his way down. This is was a total train wreck and I guess its only saving grace was that it didn't go longer than it did. Here's hoping Kong's decisive victory means this program is officially over.

Johnny Impact def. Texano Jr. in a GFW Global Championship No. 1 Contender's Match

Did anyone else feel like they were watching an episode of Lucha Underground during this bout? At any rate, despite being a charisma vacuum, Texano is a great wrestler, not to mention that he and Impact work well together, so this was an entertaining affair. It was still stupid for Impact to put his title shot on the line again, let alone once, and they could have just saved this for next week and stretch it out, but as a match, this was the best thing on the show.

GFW Global Champion Eli Drake def. Bronce

Unlike last week's GFW World Tag Team Championship match from CRASH where only highlights were shown, this championship clash was shown in its entirety. Granted, it hardly had a big fight feel considering Drake essentially squashed him, but the build-up was nice with both men receiving time to talk beforehand about why this was important to them. Impact vs. Texano probably should have headlined this edition of Impact, but this did succeed in putting over Drake as a strong world champion.

Overall Show

Let the record show that TNA/Impact Wrestling/GFW is already back to calling itself Impact/Impact Wrestling again coming off Jeff Jarrett's recent "leave of absence," but since these shows were taped before that happened, I will continue to refer to these shows as GFW Impact. Regardless, this was a solid show, and although it wasn't the most entertaining, it served to set up next week's Victory Road special and it did that effectively. The card will feature Allie, Gail Kim, and Rosemary vs. Sienna, Taryn Terrell and Taya Valkyrie, LAX vs. oVe for the GFW World Tag Team Championship, Trevor Lee vs. Petey Williams for the X-Division Championship, and Eli Drake vs. Johnny Impact for the GFW Global Championship. It's basically GFW's final major pit stop before Bound for Glory in November, so I'm looking forward to seeing how next week's event will shape up that card.