GFW Impact Wrestling Review - July 6, 2017

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Lashley Interrupted Unified Impact and GFW World Heavyweight Champion Alberto El Patron's Celebration

El Patron still doesn't do anything for me as the company's lead babyface champion, nor is he a compelling babyface, but the crowds seem to like him, so that's a plus. This was a decent celebratory promo from him before Lashley interrupted and heated things up. I look forward to Lashley adopting an extra aggressive edge now that he's no longer champion. This segment set up the Slammiversary rematch for the main event effectievly.

X-Division Champion Sonjay Dutt def. Caleb Konley (Non-title)

We haven't seen too much of Konley in Impact Wrestling this year, but I've seen enough of him on the independent scene over the years to know that he is very good. He scored some offense over Dutt here and had an impressive showing, but this was largely a showcase for the X-Division Champion. It was cool to see Trevor Lee attack Dutt afterward and seemingly signal that being the next feud over the title. Dutt has been highly underutilized since dropping the belt a few months ago.

Eddie Edwards, Veterans of War and Grado def. Eli Drake, Chris Adonis, Fallah Bah and Mario Bokara

What a weird assortment of wrestlers. Literally none of these guys are involved in programs with each other at the moment, so while it was fine while it lasted, it was fairly formulaic and ultimately served no purpose. On the bright side, Grado is back after a long absence... or is he? The post-match angle with Joseph Park confronting him was intriguing, I will say. Does this mean Abyss won't be back full-time after all (and without James Mitchell)?

Matt Sydal def. Braxton Sutter

The commentators made mention before the bout of how Sydal is riding a wave of momentum at the moment coming off his series of victories in India, so it looks like he'll be focused more in the X-Division going forward. This was a well-wrestled match, but with both guys being babyfaces and no established issues between them, it was hard to get engaged in the action. Following his loss, Sutter teased tension with Allie, so expect Sutter to go all Marc Mero on her soon. They've been an on-air couple for only a handful of months, so breaking them up so soon seems silly to me.

Jeremy Borash Introduced the Super X Cup Competitors

I didn't start watching TNA until after the Super X Cup was a thing, but I remember it being a beloved staple by the fans. Thus, it's cool to see it being brought back with talent from various promotions and I really like this crop of competitors. Drago, ACH, Davey Richards and Andrew Everett stand out as my personal favorites and I'm looking forward to the matches we'll get out of the Super X Cup.

Dezmond Xavier def. Idris Abraham in a Super X Cup First Round Match

We've seen both guys make a handful of appearances on TV before, but we didn't know too much about them prior to this point, so the brief video packages that highlighted them and their stories were a nice help. Abraham has a unique look, but Xavier is a much more exciting performer and has plenty of potential to be a breakout star in this division. The Super X Cup is already off to a fun start with this enjoyable outing.

Undisputed Knockouts and GFW Women's Champion Sienna def. Rebel (Non-title)

It was noted by the commentators that Rebel has been touring in Japan recently, which is why she's been gone from Impact Wrestling. I really wish she would have stayed in Japan because she is an absolutely awful professional wrestler with an embarrassingly bad cowboy gimmick. Sienna is one of the best in the division, but not even she could make this passable. The best thing I can say about it was that it didn't last longer than it should have.

Lashley def. Unified Impact and GFW World Heavyweight Champion Alberto El Patron by Disqualification

Similar to their past encounters, El Patron and Lashley had a solid match, but it just never reached that next gear, let alone felt like a world title-caliber contest. Simply put, they don't have strong chemistry together. The finish was well done with Lashley on the verge of beating El Patron only for LAX to interfere, protecting him in defeat. LAX may have announced El Patron as their newest member, but he was totally out of it, so my guess is that El Patron will reveal he never joined the group.

Overall Show

As a follow-up to Slammiversay, this was a standard show with a world title main event and several enhancement matches taking place. It actually came across like a reboot of sorts with the company now using the GFW initials and storylines starting anew, so I'm curios what direction Impact Wrestling/Global Force Wrestling goes in from here. Next week, Gail Kim will make an announcement while Moose defends his Impact Grand Championship against Marufuji.