TNA Impact Wrestling Review - September 23, 2015

Ethan Carter III looks to finish off Rockstar Spud.

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Dixie Carter Called Out Eric Young; Chris Melendez def. Young in a Lumberjack Match

It's about time they started making a big deal about Bound for Glory in a few weeks. Yes, the build to the show should have started sooner, but better late than never, I guess. The announcement of the No. 1 Contender's match in the main event was well done and the transition into Young's match with Melendez was also nice. Young has morphed into the quintessential heel these past few months and this was great work from him on the mic. I loved his logic that he had an "iron clad" contract, and quite frankly, that was the only excuse he had from getting fired in storyline. I haven't been the biggest proponent of the Young-Melendez feud since it started, and even through this isn't saying much, this was their best bout to date and I'm glad it appears to have finally reached its end. My only question is, why wasn't this saved for Bound for Glory in two weeks?


Knockouts Champion Gail Kim def. Jade

They worked a well-wrestled match in the time they were allotted, but I imagine they could have an even better match if Jade meant more and wasn't cast as one of the whipping girls for Taryn Terrell. I was surprised by the amount of offense she got in against Kim, but I enjoyed the match, nevertheless. I liked the show of respect from Awesome Kong after the match and I'm excited to see them clash for the title at Bound for Glory. Hopefully they can play off their storied history on next week's go-home show and give it the special feel it deserves.

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Mahabli Shera confronts James Storm.

X-Division Champion Tigre Uno def. Kenny King

This was the first X-Division Championship match in a long while I actually found myself investing in, but not too much. After all, King is back in Ring of Honor as of last weekend, so you had to know he wasn't winning the title here (what he did he do to deserve a title shot, anyway?). That aside, it was a fun little match and Tigre has all the tools to be a good leader for the division. They just need to develop his character more, but that might be easier said than done considering his mic skills aren't strong at all.


TNA World Heavyweight Champion Ethan Carter III def. Rockstar Spud

There's so much history between these two that I wish this match wasn't simply thrown out on TV the way it was. Granted, it had build-up from last week which was better than nothing, and they worked yet another quality matchup, but six minutes? Really? It could have easily gone longer, but I'll take what I can get from this company. If nothing else, the post-match angle with Jeff Hardy finally snapping on EC3 built suspense for what would happen at the end of the show.


The Revolution Disbanded

Thank the lord! The Revolution is finally done away with, ending a sad streak of terrible heel factions in TNA. Hopefully this is the last one for a while, but it wouldn't surprise me if they kicked off their next one at Bound for Glory next month. The Revolution simply never clicked with me and it didn't help they were never booked to look like threats. I was happy to see TJ Perkins (Manik) finally unmask after all this and I have my fingers crossed it means they'll finally let him be him without the played out Manik character. It also depresses me to see Storm still on TNA TV given he legitimately left the company months ago.


Drew Galloway def. Lashley, TNA World Tag Team Champions The Wolves, and Bram in an No. 1 Contender's Elimination Match for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship

Did I miss Bram's face turn? He joined Team TNA last week to take on Team GFW and didn't receive any mic time on this show. His quick and decisive elimination also didn't do him any favors. Then again, it might have been for the better considering his current legal troubles and he won't have a part in the pay-per-view. The rest of the match was fine, but Galloway winning was the right move. He's had a strong first year in TNA and having it culminate with a TNA title win at Bound for Glory would be huge.


Jeff Hardy "Quit"

In a perfect world, I would have saved this segment for next week's show, but with Bound for Glory only a little less than two weeks away, I understood why they had to rush it. It ended in anticlimactic fashion in that Jeff quit and that was it. He'll obviously be back sooner rather than later (maybe even next week), but it was a weird payoff to this storyline they've been building up for the past month.


Overall Show

This was definitely one of the better all-around editions of Impact Wrestling in quite some time. All three title matches, albeit brief, were highly enjoyable and didn't feel completely random for once. Furthermore, there was plenty of storyline progression for Bound for Glory and I'm glad they bothering to make the show mean more than last year when it was completely neglected by the company. I'm sure we'll get more matches added to the card on next week's go-home show.

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