TNA Impact Wrestling Review - October 13, 2016

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Lashley Attacked TNA World Heavyweight Champion Eddie Edwards

Where Edwards excels as a wrestler, he lacks as a talker. His promos have never been that great, but then again, Lashley wasn't either and he's emerged as the best mic worker in the entire organization, so perhaps there is hope. This was a fine first promo for him as champion, but having Lashley attack him right from the get-go didn't do anything to establish his credibility or disprove that his upset victory over Lashley was a fluke.


Impact Grand Champion Aron Rex def. Jessie Godderz

It's been a month or so and these MMA-style matchups have yet to grow on me. I guess it doesn't help that Rex faced a member of The Tribunal last week before facing an equally irrelevant Godderz this week. Thus, I didn't have any reason to believe he was going to lose, even though he was down the first two rounds. Above all else, Rex hasn't done anything to stand out as special thus far, which is disappointing.

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The Tribunal Attacked World Tag Team Champions "Broken" Matt Hardy and Jeff Hardy

It looks like that because Jeff helped Matt win the World Tag Team Championship, he isn't in Brother Nero mode anymore. Despite that, they are still on relatively decent terms. They had a fun back-and-forth on the mic before being ambushed by The Tribunal, who I couldn't care less about. They are far less of a threat to the titles than Decay, but I have hope the Hardys can make the feud worthwhile.


Cody def. Mike Bennett

This was a match I thought they were building to down the line, but apparently not. They gave it away two weeks into Cody's TNA run, though I realize he isn't staying long. That said, it was a great match between two bright up-and-comers. Cody has been around for a while, but I feel only now he is beginning to hit his stride. Cody winning clean was a surprise, but beyond his TNA title shot next week, I imagine this will culminate in an intergender tag team match at some point.


X-Division Champion DJ Z def. Marshe Rockett

I liked the little introductory package they aired for Rockett, but I'm still curious as to how he earned a title shot after losing his debut match the week prior. Once again, the X-Division competitors contested an enjoyable matchup, but there is little reason to care about the division at the moment. They're just having matches at random without any real rivalries, so there was never a question of who would win here.


Knockouts Champion Gail Kim def. Maria in a No Disqualification Title vs. Power Match

I'm glad they established earlier in the evening that none of Maria's posse could interfere so I wasn't left waiting for them to get involved. Maria's character doesn't have much wrestling experience, so this was good for what it was with that in mind. I'm just beyond ready for them to move on to something new, and what that is, I don't know because the Knockouts division is fairly depleted. Maria is an awesome on-air personality, but it will be refreshing to see her out of the dictator role as the leader of the Knockouts for a while.


Moose def. Ethan Carter III

Both guys did an effective job of building up the bout throughout the night and giving it a big fight feel. Granted, it was difficult for them to have a memorable match when they were given seven minutes to work with, but they produced a solid match, nevertheless. I'm actually shocked EC3 has now lost clean twice in the matter of two weeks after not being pinned for nearly three years. Perhaps a heel turn is in the works? Anyway, the post-match face-to-face confrontation between Moose and Lashley was well done and that's a match I'm looking forward to next week.


Overall Show

This show was eons better than whatever we received last week. The Impact Grand Championship match didn't do much for me, but I like how there are several stories surrounding the main event scene right now and everyone is gunning after the TNA World Heavyweight Championship. I'm excited for new feuds to develop now that we're moving beyond Bound for Glory.