GFW Victory Road Review - September 28, 2017

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

X-Division Champion Trevor Lee def. Petey Williams

I've enjoyed Williams' return to the company so far and he's picked up a few victories, but it was way too soon to give him a title shot since he and Lee were barely feuding. The real beef has been between Lee and Sonjay Dutt. Considering Bound for Glory is emanating from Canada (which is where Williams is from) this year, perhaps they're holding off on doing a title change until then, and if that's the case, I'm all for it. Could it be a Triple Threat also involving Dutt at the event? As for this match, it was good, but they can definitely do better.

GFW Knockouts Champion Sienna, Taya Valkyrie and Taryn Terrell def. Allie, Gail Kim and Rosemary

With so much talent in one match, it's hard to showcase them all simultaneously, but I thought this was a well-wrestled match where everyone was given their time to shine at one point or another. The heels dominated a majority of the match and ultimately scored the victory, helping them maintain momentum in the process, but where does the division go from here? A Rosemary vs. Valkyrie feud has been teased in the past, but I'm curious as to who Sienna will defend her title against at BFG. I surely hope GFW doesn't pull a WWE and just put them all in the same match.

Impact Grand Champion Ethan Carter III Saved James Storm From Texano Jr. and El Hijo del Fantasma

Storm is a very talented talker, so not only am I happy he's back on TV, it was wise to have him do most of talking in this segment as opposed to Texano (Fantasma wasn't terrible, though). EC3 coming to Storm's aid essentially solidified him as a babyface and I liked how they gradually built to Storm and EC3 shaking hands given their history as rivals. The only thing I could have done without in this segment was Storm referring to Texano as "Taco Bell."

oVe def. LAX to Win the GFW World Tag Team Championship

We didn't see too much of oVe and LAX in the ring together when they did battle in Tijuana due to it largely being a highlight reel, but they had good chemistry here and produced a solid match. LAX finally losing the titles didn't feel like it was as big of a deal as it probably should have been, and I would have waited until BFG to pull the trigger, but we'll see if oVe can continue to get over with the audience now that they're champions.

GFW Global Champion Eli Drake def. JOhnny Impact

Drake and Impact were given a ton of time to work with, and although the first half was slightly slow, they picked up the pace nicely down the stretch and produced an entertaining main event. Unfortunately, it went off the rails once the referee bump took place and then it was typical "TNA" booking from there. GFW had done such a great job building up Drake as a credible champion for the past month, so to close out this championship clash with that type of finish was disappointing. With Impact getting screwed out of the title, I would assume he'll get a rematch at BFG. By the way, what did Garza Jr. and LAX have anything to do with this?

Overall Show

I was looking forward to Victory Road for the potential it had on paper, but I wouldn't consider anything that occurred "must-see." The main event was going well until the final few minutes, the tag title change felt fairly anticlimactic, the segment with Storm, EC3 and the AAA guys served a purpose, and the other two matches were average at best. While this event fell flat for me overall, I appreciated its presentation with there being no filler in between the bouts. Here's hoping BFG delivers in early November.