Impact Wrestling Review - June 8, 2017

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Impact Wrestling World Heavyweight Champion Lashley Confronted GFW Global Champion Alberto El Patron

It's interesting that Lashley, who was never known for his fabulous mic skills years ago, actually outshined El Patron on the stick here, but that shouldn't have come as a surprise to anyone who has watched Lashley grow into an incredible heel champion over the last year. Patron was fine with what he had to say. Bruce Prichard, who looks like a bum of an authority figure at this point, announced both men would defend their titles later in the night.

X-Division Champion Low Ki def. Caleb Konley

We don't see much of Konley in Impact Wrestling for whatever reason and we know next to nothing about him, but as someone who has been following him on the independent scene for the past five years, I can tell you he's an excellent athlete. That was on full display here as he had an impressive outing against Low Ki. It was obvious he wouldn't win the title, but at least he looked good in defeat. Low Ki's eye injury looked legit, so I loved the visual of him and Sonjay Dutt coming face-to-face after Low Ki unintentionally busted up Dutt's eye a few months ago. I'm very much looking forward to the championship clash between Low Ki and Dutt next week, especially considering it will take place on Dutt's home turf of India.

Davey Richards def. Vikas Kumar; Ethan Carter III and James Storm Brawled

Kumar's name was never shown, just mentioned by the commentators throughout the bout, so my spelling of his name might be off. Regardless, this was a standard squash match for Richards. Kumar wasn't the smoothest worker, but thankfully the focus was on Richards and I thoroughly enjoy his aggressive offense. Meanwhile, EC3 and Storm didn't give away too much in their brief brawl and it appears they're headed for a Strap match at Slammiversary.

Impact Wrestling World Heavyweight Champion Lashley def. Impact Grand Champion Moose (Impact Grand Championship Was Not Defended)

I'm actually slightly shocked Lashley and Moose have yet to engage in a full-fledged feud together, but perhaps they will down the line once Moose is away from the Impact Grand Championship picture. You wouldn't expect them to be capable of half of the things they are in the ring, so I appreciated the effort they put forth here. There were a handful of clunky spots and it was boring at certain points, but they made decent use of the lengthy time they were given and it was a solid match on the whole.

Knockouts Champion Rosemary def. Laurel Van Ness

Van Ness won't be having many great matches as long as she's doing this crazy character because it limits what she can do, but this was exactly what it needed to be with the odds seemingly stacked against Rosemary with Sienna at ringside and the bout being kept short and sweet. Rosemary is officially a babyface and the cool thing is that she really hasn't changed too much about her persona other than embracing the audience. Rosemary vs. Sienna and Allie vs. Van Ness look like locks for the Slammiversary pay-per-view.

GFW Global Champion Alberto El Patron def. Chris Adonis

I believe this was Adonis' first one-on-one outing since coming to Impact Wrestling this year, not to mention it was a main event world title match, so officials must see something in him. I remember him having improved quite a bit six years ago, but he feels like a star that should have been much bigger a decade ago. Nevertheless, this was an average matchup that lacked crowd heat. Honestly, Lashley vs. Moose might have been better off in the main event slot, but I understand wanting to "send the crowd home happy."

Overall Show

The change in scenery as Impact Wrestling kicks off its highly touted India tapings definitely brought a fresh feel to the show and the audience was energetic over the course of the night. That said, this wasn't as monumental of a show as they constantly made it out to be despite the four title matches, but it was more wrestling-heavy than usual and there were a number of well-produced video packages on Shera, Jeremy Borash and Joseph Park, so it was an entertaining evening as a result. There isn't much that is must-see about this episode, but Low Ki vs. Dutt in next week's main event should be special.