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I wouldn't say that this week's episode of Impact Wrestling was 'great'. It has some good moments, but overall, I felt like it was quite a dull watch.
In fact, I may even go so far as to say that except for the main event match, there weren't a lot of interesting things for fans. I will even go so far as to say that for a change, I thought WWE put out the better shows this week.
I suppose one may even be compelled to call this a show where only one match was worth watching. It did not help that Melissa Santos kept facing technical difficulties during the commercial breaks.
Not the best week for Impact Wrestling, I felt.
#1 Best: The main event
We had to wait almost 2 hours for the main event match, but The Rascalz and The North just stole the show and then some in an exciting back and forth match that pitted speed against strength, and told a hard-hitting story. It reminded us that while LAX may not be a part of the company for much longer (depending on their contract status) and the Lucha Brothers may be gone, but the tag team division is still as strong as it ever was.
Some purists may say that there were far too many false finishes, but then again the pace of the match was such that it wasn't felt at all. I also think that it was wise to not book a title change because The North needed a strong week to prove their dominance over the tag team division.
I loved the backstage interaction with LAX as well, with Daga involved in the fracas. Tag team wrestling is thriving in Impact right now!
#1 Worst: Fallah Bahh defeats Moose
Not long ago, Moose explained his displeasure at being kept out of the Impact World Championship title picture for so very long, in a heated promo. And then, this week, he lost to Fallah Bahh, a lower-card wrestler who's been treated as little more than a joke in the roster thus far.
I think that any kind of momentum or believability that Moose had dissipated immediately because many of us believed that he would go after Brian Cage next. You won't see Cage taking losses to Fallah Bahh on TV because he's the World Champion.
I mean no disrespect to Bahh, but because of the way he's been presented thus far, I did not think that this loss needed to take place. It was a poor booking decision to have Moose lose clean in this manner unless Bahh is going to be pushed to the top of the card.
We know that isn't happening!
#2 Best: The Su Yung Promo
This was a great week for promos I thought. I loved the fiery one that Rhyno cut announcing his arrival and I also loved the one that Michael Elgin cut on him. Moose was full of fire and intensity when he announced his intentions too.
But the promo of the night belonged to Su Yung who just chanted words in a foreign language in what was a truly singsong voice, scaring us to no end during the show. Rosemary is not as scary as she once used to be, turning babyface after becoming beloved by the fans, but Su Yung has just taken on her former role.
I would love to see more of Su Yung's mind games as she seemingly inserts herself into the title picture and into a feud with Havok. The Knockouts may be the best thing in Impact Wrestling, at the moment.
#2 Worst: Way too long a recap, too many commercial breaks
When an audience tunes in to watch your product, they want to check out the latest happenings. I doubt that there's an audience out there for the flashbacks. It is just an annoying distraction during the show which can take the audience out of things.
I have an even bigger issue with the number of commercial breaks during the show, which is just staggeringly high I feel. You come back from commercial, watch entrances and then go into a commercial break again, after sitting through a flashback. This happens on RAW and SmackDown Live all the time as well.
Is it any wonder that people just like to watch their wrestling on demand these days? With the streaming options available to us all, I wonder if these decisions are driving the live crowd away.
#3 Best: Tessa Blanchard battles a monster
I just loved the size discrepancy between Tessa Blanchard and Madman Fulton in the ring. It made for a compelling visual, and the two participants of the match told a great story in the ring.
Unlike other inter-gender matches, Tessa Blanchard does not mind taking the brunt of the punishment, making for believable and honestly, more intriguing contests. She did seem severely outmatched during the contest, eating a massive chokeslam that could have ended the match right there!
The match would conclude with Sami Callihan inserting a chair into the proceedings and Tessa Blanchard and Tommy Dreamer teaming up to take Fulton down. I wonder where this story is leading, in the weeks that follow from here.
Tessa Blanchard is a superstar in the truest sense of the world, and I think she's definitely a worthy contender to be the face of the company.
#3 Worst: John E. Bravo
There's something about John E. Bravo that just does not click with me. And I know that I'm a lot more open-minded about pro wrestling than many fans are, so I'm pretty certain that he's not bringing new views and eyeballs to the product.
There are some people who have an innate sense of comedy, like Stone Rockwell or even Joey Ryan, to an extent, but Bravo doesn't have it, at all. If anything, he takes up a spot that could have gone to a knockout on every single show.
Did we need two inter-gender matches this week, especially one which was not even a match per se? Jessicka Havok could have taken on someone like Kiera Hogan or even Rosemary instead of wasting her time in this pointless comedy program.
It's a lot like inserting someone like Bobby Roode into the 24/7 Championship picture, in my opinion.
#4 Best/Worst: The 6-man X Division number 1 contender's match
I've always been a fan of how Impact Wrestling builds characters, making us care about them during the course of a pro wrestling match. You could always throw skilled wrestlers in there, but the crowd won't necessarily care about them unless they know who they are. I felt like this was the case during the opening match.
There was a Rascal, there was a Deaner and there was Rohit Raju from the Desi Hit Squad. Because the show was in Canada, Petey Williams made his trademark appearance clad in the Canadian flag, of course.
But the rest of the field comprised only of unknowns and this was a problem. At the same time, the match was good, ensuring that it did not make it to the 'worst' column, in my books.
What do you think of Madison Rayne's 'locker room leader' gimmick, folks?
