TNA Impact Wrestling Review - February 16, 2017

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Moose and Brandi Rhodes def. Decay

I'm still not sold on the idea of Brandi entering a feud with a Rosemary over the Knockouts Championship. I might be getting ahead of myself because this could have merely been a one-off since Brandi didn't pin Rosemary, but that's my fear. To be blunt, Brandi is absolutely awful in the ring and doesn't come across as comfortable yet. I realize she's a rookie, but she should have received more training before being put on television in a wrestling role. Thankfully, she was fairly limited here as Moose and Crazzy Steve did most of the in-ring work.

Eddie Edwards and Davey Richards Brawled

While Edwards has never been the strongest talker, I thought he did fairly well for himself here, and the enraged passion he showed definitely helped his cause. Perhaps working with someone he's close with in Richards will bring the best out of him promo-wise. Richards also cut a quality promo and his logic for turning on Edwards is apparently that Edwards and his wife were never there during his road to recovery. Simple enough. They did a good job of setting up the night's Street Fight main event.

Jessie Godderz def. Kingston

The DCC haven't so far had that one rivalry that has defined them as a dominant force. Sure, they scored the victory over Decay in their short-lived program a few weeks ago, but that's about it. Their chase for the World Tag Team Championship went nowhere, and Ethan Carter III hasn't been seen since being attacked by them. Godderz has definitely improved in the ring as a singles competitor, but having him beat the newcomer Kingston in a forgettable match won't do the group any favors.

Tyrus Hosted Fact of Life with Eli Drake

I was critical of Drake turning on Tyrus last week because they hadn't been together long enough for the split to really mean anything. However, I thoroughly enjoyed this segment and what both men brought to the table. Tyrus can be a believable beast when in serious mode, and I'm glad Drake broke his silence because that's where he shines. Drake is such a sleazeball in that he cowered away from Tyrus here only to talk crap about him later on when Tyrus wasn't present. I can already tell this will be a fun feud, as long as it gets the creative development it deserves. 

World Tag Team Champions The Broken Hardyz def. Psicosis and Super Crazy to Win The Crash Tag Team Championship (World Tag Team Championship Was Not Defended)

Of course, only some footage of the match was shown, so I can't say how it was on the whole, but what I did see was solid. Just the angle itself with The Broken Hardyz traveling to Mexico and refusing to be paid was hilarious, as well as when Matt claimed that only "marks" wrestle for money. That got a laugh out of me. And then Vanguard 1 drinking with the women's wrestlers backstage was awesome as well. I don't know where this Expedition of Gold will ultimately lead to, but it's been a blast up to this point.

Brooke def. Sienna

This was a minor improvement over their last encounter yet slightly sloppy at certain points. She was never amazing to begin with, but Brooke is getting back into the wrestling groove, so I can almost excuse it. Meanwhile, Sienna is an underrated athlete in my opinion and it's a shame to see her subjected to losing so often. She can be the monster of the division if built up the right way. Again, though, this was a serviceable match, but it was too early to give Brooke her win back over Sienna.

Josh Barnett Confronted TNA world Heavyweight Champion Lashley

Barnett's TNA debut in this segment brought back bad memories of when Christian came back to WWE on the ECW brand and Todd Grisham said, "It's Christian!" without any hint of enthusiasm. This was a similar situation where the a majority of the crowd had zero clue who he was and Josh Mathews called the moment as if it wasn't special whatsoever. That alone killed this for me. The actual back-and-forth between Barnett and Lashley was passable, and I understand what they're trying to go for given Lashley's ties to MMA, but Barnett is past his prime. They tried this with Tito Ortiz and Rampage Jackson years ago and it failed miserably. Sadly, this company doesn't learn from their mistakes.

Eddie Edwards vs. Davey Richards in a Street Fight Ended in a No Contest

I didn't think they would be allotted too much time considering how close the match took place to the end of the show, but I was happy about that. Needless to say, this is a big money matchup for TNA, and I assumed they would go this route by not giving too much away because they can save the rest for a later date. The brief brawl they did have was excellent and Richards and Angelina Love looked like complete assholes here. Keeping Edwards in chase mode is wise, and already Richards has been cemented as one of the roster's most despicable heels.

Overall Show

There were a handful of video packages that aired throughout the night of Braxton Sutter's "bachelor party" with Mike Bennett as well as of Allie throwing a party for Maria, Laurel Van Ness and Sienna. None of them were tremendously funny, but they built toward next week's wedding effectively. The stuff with The Broken Hardyz was the highlight of the show, but the furthering of the feud between The Wolves was well done in addition to the Tyrus and Drake face-off holding my interest. That's enough to earn this show a mild thumbs up even if everything else didn't do much for me.