Last week, Aries beat Anderson in a fantastic match to advance in the series and also take Anderson out of it. Mandrews debuted a new skater/surfer gimmick, and surfed on Tigre Uno’s back. His Johnny Ace cosplay didn’t help him though, as Uno won the match. Manik beat DJZ with a funky GTS, and in the main event, EC3 beat Lashley thanks to cheating. It was a very filler-heavy episode of the show, and quite skippable outside of the Aries match. The show begins with a recap of last week’s events and we’ll see Uno face DJZ, while the main event is Awesome Kong against Gail Kim.
Storm faces Abyss, and Robbie E faces Matt Hardy tonight. Robbie E comes down in the background while Josh talks about how Group Champions “is being called the toughest group to get out of”, and offers up no explanation as to who is saying this. Pope rambles about how his prophecies come true and we get an EC3 promo after last week’s show. Robbie E should logically be in the ring and we get a recap of the rankings for Team Tag Team Specialists. Robbie’s intro is finally over, leading to Matt’s. Pope says that Matt should get a Wrestletarium award – okey dokey.
Matt Hardy vs. Robbie E
They start things off with some mat wrestling before Matt throws Robbie’s head into the buckle. Robbie counters the bulldog and lands some corner shots. Josh recaps the Robbie E vs. Robbie G rivalry and Matt trips Robbie up on the apron. Robbie avoids being tossed into the buckle on the apron, and kicks Matt before hitting a somersault dive off the apron. Matt’s trapped against the apron and eats a big lariat. Pope buries Robbie E’s old gimmick like he was Leif Cassidy or Avatar and praises him for getting extreme. In what way has he become extreme? Kudos on the horrible Al Snow gimmick bashing, but they did at least give Snow a WWF gig. Robbie goes up top and gets snapmared down. Pope mentions the Wrestletarian award and tells Josh to trademark that. Well, given how WWE swooped in and got “Four Horesweomen”, might as well.
Big flying Hart Attack hits for Robbie. Matt gets the splash mountain powerbomb for 2 – he hasn’t busted that out for many years. Robbie avoids Matt’s weird movements before the Twist to hit the Boom Drop for 2. Matt hits a second Side Effect and Robbie pops up into a Twist of Fate for the win. This was pretty fun – Matt is dong surprisingly well in singles matches and he and Robbie shake hands and hug after the match. Josh tells us to update our leaderboards at home – as if anyone on Earth is doing that. Gail is interviewed about losing to Brooke in the series, and she says that Brooke was better that night – and tonight, she’s coming for Kong.
We get a recap of Robbie vs. Matt and Matt cuts a post-match promo about how Robbie E has grown. Robbie says he doesn’t feel like a loser because he earned respect and he’s becoming more serious. Matt is interrupted by Grado, who wants a selfie. Matt does the V1-AAAAHHH bit and blocks Grado’s face. Well, that was a thing. Grado comes down while the commentary is drowned out by Pope talking about Game of War and Drew Galloway. Josh puts Grado over as “one of the top 32 competitors in the World Title Series” of 32 competitors. Poor Grado. We get a Galloway hype video.
Drew Galloway vs. Grado
Grado cradles Drew for 2, and Drew just can’t lift him up because he’s too fat – so he hulks up and chucks him. Drew chops him big-time in the corner and Drew eats an accidental low blow a little later while Grado asks the ref to “check his bollocks”. Drew fights back with more chops and a big overhead belly to belly suplex for 2. Drew wants him to fire back, so he does and he plants him in the corner for the cannonball! Drew gets locked into a tree of woe, which leads to a German suplex and he then preps the foot for the Sick Kick/Claymore for the win. We get a history lesson on Gail vs. Kong – with clips of Gail beating Kong for the title at Final Resolution 2008. We then see a far too long recap of the Storm, Abyss, and Shera storyline. Aiden ‘O Shea is out to face Crazzy Steve in one of the more random matches we’ve seen on Impact in a while. Aiden is apparently from Chicago, and comes to the ring in a wifebeater and slacks.
Crazzy Steve vs. Aiden O’Shea
Crazzy Steve starts the match shaking his ass to O’Shea’s theme. Josh brings up that Aiden is from Chicago and of Irish descent, and Aiden steals his horn and plays keep away with it. Steve gets a jawbreaker and GETS THE HORN. The horn is blown into Aiden’s ears and shocks him, but he lands a solid punch to get the lead. Aiden tosses him into the buckle and pounces him down to the mat. Steve attacks the hand on the floor, but Aiden hits him with He Used to Call it the Boom Stick lariat for the win. Abyss cuts a promo on Storm and we see a Storm vs. Abyss hype video showing Storm’s title win and some of Abyss’s title wins. Jeff Hardy DVD ad.
We get clips of Kong vs. Gail from earlier this year on Impact, with Kong beating Gail with a counter-to-center ring Awesome bomb. Recap of Drew beating Grado earlier and we get a subtitled promo from Grado backstage. Pope and Josh talk for a bit about the World Title Series while Storm comes out to face Abyss, who is already in the ring. Storm talks about he and Abyss being one of the four guys left in TNA who have been in TNA since day one – giving fans some great entertainment. Storm tells Abyss to do the smart thing and let him win by countout – if Storm’s smart, why doesn’t he just ask for a win via pinfall to get more points? Abyss tells Storm that he’s still the Monster and refuses. Storm is in his weird orange camo gear that never needs to be seen again.
James Storm vs. Abyss
They start a clubbering and Storm lands a superkick to the gut, but Abyss gains control quickly for an ad break. WWE 2K16 ad. When we come back, Storm slams Abyss into the steps. Storm hops off the steps into a chokeslam setup, but he shoves Abyss into the post. Storm brings a chair in and Earl takes it while the fans chant for tables. The chair is put in the corner and they fight over a corner shot, but neither hits it. Storm lands some corner punches and eats the chair. Abyss gets a splash and gets 2. They plug Earl Hebner’s Hall of Fame T-shirt, which they somehow felt was something anyone would want to spend money on. Pope says “that is available, indeed”. Abyss brings his implement of death Janice into the ring, but it gets stuck in the buckle. Storm hits him with a cowbell for 2. So to recap, you can bring a chair into the ring in TNA, and a board with nails in it – but no cowbells. They fight up top and Storm gets a sunset bomb and a big flying elbow for 2. Abyss gets a chokeslam for 2. Storm takes a swig and spits it at Abyss, who is blinded and eats two superkicks for the win. They recap the World Champions group, which sees EY have zero points.
Recap of Storm vs. Abyss and O’Shea vs. Steve. Shera will face Kenny King next week and we get a JB interview with Shera. He says he’ll win the title and make his friends, family, and country proud. JB is excited to announce the India tour and Shera says that he’ll return home as World Champion. Pope puts over the Shera Shake dance craze. Brooke faces Madison Rayne next week as well. Next week, we’ll see a Jeff Hardy interview about the BFG main event – and we see a little clip of him saying seeing his brother hold the title win in their home state with his family was the best. We get a recap video of an Eric Young vs. Robert Roode rivalry. I’ve forgotten about any issue they’ve had recently, so this is actually a good thing. We see their history over the past year and are told they’ll face off next week in the World Title Series. Tigre Uno comes out to face DJZ.
DJZ vs. Tigre Uno
Uno starts this off with a quick legdrop and armbar. A hammerlock leads to Josh being buried by Pope for not calling the action. Josh responds by saying he just wants to see Pope do it so he can fail. Is Josh supposed to be a babyface? DJZ lands a corner kick and hits a corner rana. DJZ flips around and eats a spinkick. Josh says the X division is like playing a video game, which Pope confirms. Uno goes for a hopping something or other and gets necksnapped on the rope. DJZ lands a tilt-a-whirl headscissors into the steps. Josh says that a win here means that DJZ can make a valid case to get an X Title shot just by beating the champion – excellent point there. DJZ gets some shoulder thrusts in the corner and lands some forearms with Uno perched up top.
Uno counters a superplex, but leaps into a dropkick to the ribs for 2. Uno goes for his wacky pop-up DDT, which is countered. Uno gets a spinkick and a baseball slide kick. Orno rolls around and then…stops before doing a tornado dive. Uno gets a springboard dropkick a pop-up rana for 2. DJZ hits a running spinning rana and gets shotgun knees to the spine. Pope implies it’s Vintage Elijah Burke, but forgives Josh for not watching TNA before he came into the company. Boy is this a bizarre commentary team. DJZ finally lands his goofy DDT for the win. We get a highlight reel of Gail vs. Kong from BFG set to epic music – it actually makes it seem like a good match, so they did their job here. Gail comes down and Josh says the champions don’t have their championship titles because they don’t want any distractions while going after the World title.
Gail Kim vs. Awesome Kong
Gail tries to roll away from Kong, but gets shoved into the corner. Gail attacks the shoulder and lands some forearms before just getting clubbed down for a break. We come back to Kong tossing Gail’s leg on the mat before locking on a camel clutch. Gail goes for a handspring headscissor, but Kong flipped her around and hit a lariat. Kong lands a Mongolian chop and locks on a sleeper. Gail escapes and kicks away, but gets leg tripped by Kong. Gail locks on the standing Octopus stretch, but gets kryptonite krunched out of it. It gets 2 and Gail sends her to the floor and gets a flipping senton to the floor.
Gail gets a combination armbar/choke on the mat. Kong escapes, but eats a series of kicks. Josh announces that we have five minutes left in the match. Kong goes for a chokeslam, but gets DDT’d out of it. Gail lands some leg kicks and dropkicks, and gets 2 off a crossbody. Kong counters Eat Defeat, but goes for a powerbomb and eats a cradle for a loss. They had a pretty good match here, but nothing on the show topped anything Aries has done so far. Next week’s Davey vs. Eddie match has the potential to be quite good – as does Roode vs. EY. To see every screen taken for the show, just click here.