IMPACT Genesis Review - January 25, 2018

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Matt Sydal def. Ethan Carter III to Win the Impact Grand Championship

I've been thoroughly enjoying the feud these two have been having over the last month or so with Sydal being portrayed perfectly as the underdog and EC3 constantly throwing his shortcomings in his face. They told a real solid story here with that in mind, and the in-ring action itself was also entertaining. It was merely a matter of time before Sydal captured the championship, so it was a cool moment when he did. This was way better than any other Impact Grand Championship match in recent memory, so please let this mean the rules with the rounds and whatnot will be abolished permanently going forward.

Impact Knockouts Champion Laurel Van Ness def. Allie

I have been critical of Van Ness' in-ring abilities in the past because I feel the "crazy" character she has limits her considerably, but this was definitely one of her better outings in a while. The pace was a little slow early on and not too exciting, but Allie worked well fighting from underneath and the final stretch was good. Van Ness retained the title by hitting Allie with the title belt when the referee was down, so Allie was protected in defeat.

Moose def. Lashley

Moose and Lashley have had terrific chemistry together in the past and this was another quality contest from them. I appreciated how it wasn't watered down with interference from American Top Team or Dan Lambert or even K.M. and instead, they were allowed to have the match they were capable of producing. Following Moose's victory, Lashley officially split from Lambert by putting him through a table. Here's hoping that ends that angle once and for all and we can finally move forward.

Impact X-Division Champion Taiji Ishimori def. Andrew Everett

Everett fell off the face of the earth a few months ago on IMPACT TV, and now he's back for some random reason receiving a title shot he never earned. Stuff like that always bothers me, but as a match, this was a fun little sprint. They weren't given a ton of time whatsoever, but at least they made the most of the time they did have. Ishimori returning to his home turf in Japan to defend the title was cool.

Impact Global Champion Eli Drake def. Johnny Impact and Alberto El Patrin in a Three-Way Six Sides of Steel Match

I haven't been enamored with this three-way feud over the title whatsoever since Bound for Glory, but I was glad they saved their strongest effort for last inside the cage. Any one of them could have realistically won the title and there were enough well-done spots to make it memorable. It helped that there never seemed to be a down period and it held my interest from start to finish. Drake retaining the title was the right move, and as a result, neither Impact nor Mundo can vie for the strap as long as Drake is in possession of it.

Overall Show

Genesis was undoubtedly the best top-to-bottom show IMPACT has had in quite some time. I'm actually happy it was an edition of IMPACT! Wrestling and not on pay-per-view because who knows how else they would have tried to fill the extra hour. This was great for a two hour show and all the matches delivered one way or another. The crowd wasn't too lively, unfortunately, but I believe this was the last show during a long stretch of tapings, so fingers crossed the new batch of episodes begins airing next week.