TNA Impact Wrestling Review - January 12, 2017

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Lashley def. Ethan Carer III in a TNA World Heavyweight Championship No. 1 Contender's Last Man Standing Match

EC3 calling out The Wolves was a logical follow-up to the events that occurred at last Friday's One Night Only pay-per-view where Davey Richards inadvertently cost EC3 the world title against Eddie Edwards. Lashley pointing out that EC3 has gone soft and criticizing him for resorting to unfunny comedy was interesting and might lead to what I've speculated for a while now with EC3 going heel. That would be the best thing for him in my opinion because although he connects with the crowd, he is much more comfortable in the heel role. As tired as I am of these two working against other, they have great in-ring chemistry and the subsequent Last Man Standing match was excellent, especially down the stretch. I'm not too thrilled about Lashley challenging for the championship yet again, but perhaps that's where they get the belt back on Lashley. Otherwise, why go back to a bout we've already seen several times?

Aron Rex and Rockstar Spud Attacked Robbie E

One of my biggest issues with Rex's TNA tenure was that he never seemed to have a gimmick. He apparently has one now, and well, it isn't exactly what I had in mind. Patrick Clark is doing something similar at the moment, and he plays that character well, but it just doesn't work for Rex for whatever reason. He had a plethora of personas in WWE, but this was just bizarre, and maybe that was supposed to be the point. And pairing him in a feud with an undercard competitor like Robbie E doesn't send the best message about how "high" of a priority TNA considers Rex, either.

Decay vs. The DCC Ended in a No Contest

Decay didn't really do anything to solidify themselves as babyfaces, so they had that working against them from the get-go. Despite that, they produced a pretty good match with a chaotic pace. The fans enjoyed the action and the non-finish kept the feud alive. However, James Storm, Bram and Kingston don't gel as a trio to me and I'm still not sure what The DCC all about yet. If they're anti-management, Anthem is now in charge and Dixie Carter and Billy Corgan (who Storm had on-air bad blood with) are gone, so I don't understand why they're angry as well as TNA's obsession with heel stables.

Braxton Sutter def. Mike Bennet

Sutter has really flown under the radar in the X-Division since debuting over the summer, but his involvement in this Maria-Allie angle has been a great use of him. He and Bennett worked well together and had a nice little match. Bennett's cockiness costing him the victory was a wise way to allow Sutter to score the victory and move the storyline along. I'm actually more engaged in this feud than almost anything else right now in TNA other than The Broken Hardyz.

Jade Confronted Knockouts Champion Rosemary

All right, so I previously mentioned Decay are babyfaces now, so does that make Rosemary a face, too? I would assume so if only because the crowd reacted favorably to her here, but her gimmick screams heel, not to mention she was definitely the heel in this face-off with Jade. At any rate, their Six Sides of Steel match a few months ago exceeded expectations, so I'm looking forward to what they can pull off in the Monster's Ball environment.

World Tag Team Champions The Broken Hardyz def. The Wolves

These two teams have had a handful of matches together over the past three years and each of their encounters has been entertaining. Of course, this was a different set of Hardyz than what we saw back in 2014, but it was an above-average television main event, nevertheless. The Wolves have been such a staple in TNA's tag team division for nearly three years that I'm happy they look to be focusing on the singles ranks going forward. Richards was distracted by Edwards at ringside, so expect that to lead to the two splitting up and eventually feuding before long.

Overall Show

I really liked the layout of this show as it started out with a newsworthy Last Man Standing match and concluded with a high profile tag team title match. There were a handful of solid matches over the course of the evening and the furthering of a few feuds. All in all, this was a stronger show I thought than last week's re-debut. I believe the Monster's Ball match as well as Brooke Adam's return were set up for next week's episode, so it will be a big night for the women, in addition to a possible world title match between Lashley and Edwards.