Impact Wrestling Review - April 20, 2017

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Impact Wrestling World Tag Team Champions LAX def. Jake Holmes and Joe Coleman (Non-title)

I've been a big fan of LAX and how they've been used since they returned last month, but Konnan doesn't add much to the act for me. I understand he's supposed to be their mouthpiece, but the "serious like a late period" line was pretty tasteless in my opinion. The match itself, though, was a decent showcase for the tag champs. I like the idea of an LAX and Decay feud because it gives Decay something meaningful to do for the first time in months. I assume whoever the crowd cheers for will be the babyfaces in this program.

Brice Prichard Made the X-Division Championship Match a Six-Way

Karen Jarrett's announcement of Impact Wrestling and Global Force Wrestling merging doesn't surprise me at all because GFW has been a dead brand for years. In fact, they taped a bunch of shows two years ago that never made the air. Sonjay Dutt returning was rather random (nor did he receive that loud of a reaction), but it's great to see him back because he was always awesome in the X Division. He, Andrew Everett and Gregory Shane Helms all had good mic work here and Prichard set up the main event nicely. Considering that's a pretty big match, why not advertise it in advance?

Knockouts Champion Rosemary def. ODB

ODB does absolutely nothing for me in the role of championship challenger because her character is very one-dimensional and she isn't the greatest wrestler. In fact, she's more of a nostalgia act at this point, so I hope this was a one-off for her in the title picture. That said, I'm glad they kept this match relatively brief and didn't drag it out longer than it needed to. It was fine for what it was and hopefully Rosemary moves on to defend against fresher faces.

Kongo Kong def. Chris Silvio

Aside from last week, this was my first real exposure to Kong in the ring and this was a dominant performance from him. He can move around very well​ for a guy of his immense size and his top rope splash looks impressive. The length of this match at a minute long was also perfect. It's encouraging that he'll be associated with Sienna, KM and Laurel Van Ness off the bat because that ensures he'll automatically elicit heat.

Impact Wrestling World Heavyweight Champion Lashley def. James Storm

Alberto El Patron's pre-taped promo laid it on too thick for my liking that he'd be facing Lashley at some point, but that didn't seem to bother the live crowd who rallied behind Storm, regardless. Although this was a solid match on the whole, there were a few things wrong with it. Firstly, they lacked strong in-ring chemistry. Secondly, you knew Storm wasn't winning as soon as Ethan Carter III showed up at ringside, and by then you could see his heel turn coming from a mile away. I'm not saying it wasn't the right move, but I wish it would have been a bit better executed. Nevertheless, as I talked about in a column I wrote earlier today, I hope we haven't seen the last of Storm in the main event scene despite the loss, and I'm guessing we haven't given a feud with EC3 is likely what's next for him.

Low Ki def. Sonjay Dutt, Suicide, Dezmond Xavier, Andrew Everett and Trevor Lee in a Six-Way Match to Win the X-Division Championship

I don't know much about Xavier whatsoever, but the commentators informed viewers of his background in CZW. Low Ki lived up to the hype as the sixth entrant and was a pleasant surprise. As fun as this match was, this should have been a one-on-one bout between Lee and Everett because that has been the real rivalry over the X-Division Championship for months. Throwing six competitors into one match is par for the course for the X-Division and I wish they'd move away from that in the future. Again, though, this was an entertaining main event and it was refreshing to have the X-Division guys close out the show for a change. Everett winning the belt from Lee would have made more storyline sense, but if Low Ki has officially re-signed, it was wise for him to regain the gold since he's the most notable name in the division now.

Overall Show

If you couldn't tell, this wasn't exactly a "live" edition of Impact Wrestling, as it was actually taped a few hours before it aired on TV. At any rate, I enjoyed this episode on the whole and the multiple title matches made it a newsworthy night along with the X-Division Championship changing hands. Speaking of which, Josh Mathews was back on commentary and him and Jeremy Borash bickering yet again after the main event ended almost took away from Low Ki's title victory. Basically, last week's main event meant nothing. Other than that, Impact Wrestling continues to deliver quality shows and I'm looking forward to next week for Moose vs. Davey Richards, LAX vs. Decay, and the re-debut of Crimson (now known as Anthony Mayweather).