TNA Impact Wrestling: Open Fight Night Review - February 2, 2017

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

TNA World Tag Team Champions The Broken Hardyz Announced "The Expedition of Gold"

Considering The Broken Hardyz remain an extremely over act, it's cool that they'll be challenging teams from other promotions. But does this essentially mean they'll be taking titles from random wrestlers and be the tag champions of several different companies? I'm not sure how I'd feel about that. But of course, the most notable match that this "Expedition of Gold" will bring us is them vs. The Young Bucks, which I believe is set to take place over WrestleMania weekend.

TNA World Heavyweight Champion Lashley def. Jeff Hardy

I'm slightly surprised that they not only went with this match as an opener but blew it off so early into Lashley's reign. I remember these two clashed for the championship a few years back, but they have yet to engage in a full-fledged feud with each other. Maybe their mindset is that Jeff will be busy with the tag titles for a while, so they might as well do the match now. Whatever the case, this was a pretty good match with Hardy selling well for Lashley's offense throughout.

Sienna def. Brooke

Brooke was never the greatest in-ring wrestler during her initial run with the company, but she did improve from where she was when she first started. That said, this was a competent match from her and Sienna, though I'm more impressed by what Sienna is capable of at this point. Maria costing Brooke the match furthered their feud, but I'm not all that anxious to see Maria get back in the ring again after her subpar performance at Bound for Glory.

The DCC def. Decay in a Falls Count Anywhere Match

These two teams began their rivalry a mere month ago. Why rush to the conclusion so quickly? Especially at a time when the division is depleted for the most part. I'd say The DCC were idiots for not challenging the tag team champs, but apparently the commentators made mention of how because Jeff was in action earlier, they didn't have to defend their belts. That didn't make much sense to me, but nevertheless, this was a fun match in the time it was allotted. It didn't last long at all, but they were able to incorporate quite a bit into the time they had and The DCC came out of this looking better than they did coming in.

Impact Grand Champion Drew Galloway def. Rob Ryzin

Galloway pulled the old "I'll face an opponent of my choosing but it's going to be a jobber" and it added to his heel heat. Needless to say, the match was a complete squash as a result and it really didn't need to go longer than it did. I thought this was also effective in making fans want to see Moose get his hands on Galloway, because when he does, it will mean that much more. And you know the rematch is only inevitable.

Trevor Lee def. DJ Z in a Ladder Match to Win the X-Division Championship

Lee choosing a Ladder match was logical in that he injured DJ Z's leg the week prior, but this is the kind of match I wish would have been advertised in advance. The feud has largely meant nothing because Lee has lacked credibility for so long and DJ Z hasn't done anything all that memorable as champion. The storytelling here was well done, but I couldn't bring myself to care about the title changing hands because I've been conditioned to not get invested in anything involving the X-Division.

Ethan Carter III def. Eli Drake

As much as I loved the feud EC3 and Drake had going late last year, this match felt like it came out of nowhere because they haven't done anything to resume this rivalry in the past month or so. EC3 has instead been focused on the world title, and based on what happened afterward, I'd assume this was more of a one-off than it was an official continuation of the feud I enjoyed their previous encounter significantly more, but this was still a quality contest. The DCC proceeding to attack EC3 was interesting, but despite their victory against Decay, they simply don't come across as a threat, and I'm not too compelled by this pending program.

Overall Show

Last week's Genesis special was one of the best all-around editions of Impact Wrestling I have seen in seemingly forever, so I wasn't getting my hopes up for this week's show because I knew it wouldn't come close. It wasn't a perfect episode, but there was some solid wrestling as well as storyline progression, so it gets a mild thumbs up in my book. On a side note, I'm glad the Open Fight Night gimmick is back as it will allow for some unique opportunities in the future.