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Csonka’s GFW Destination X Preview
– Welcome back to column time with Larry. Today’s column is all about tonight’s GFW Destination X event. While it’s not a PPV, it is a big show and unless plans change, it’s also the last major stop before Bound For Glory. GFW Impact has been an extremely solid show, doing a nice job of building to this show, one they have made me excited for. Lets take a look at the card, how we got here and the usual preview style stuff. Have fun, feel free to share your thoughts and remember the only rules are “have a take, be respectful of other’s opinions and don’t be a dick.”
The Winner Gets a Title Shot of Their Choosing: Lashley vs. Matt Sydal: Lashley (unfortunately) dropped the title to El Patron at Slammiversary, but the one good thing that has come out of it is the fact that Lashley is fully back to giving no fucks and wanting to destroy people. Sydal won a special Sony Six match in India and was looking to turn that into a title opportunity. Unfortunately for him, Lashley was also looking to lock in a title shot, which led to Lashley laying out Sydal and then Sydal getting some revenge, laying out Lashley. The one thing I haven’t been a big fan of is the fact that this feels all too familiar to the Lashley vs. Edwards feud, with the over confident heavyweight over looking the X-Division star en route to their match. I think that they will have a good and possibly even great match, Lashley is a great base and Sydal sells power offense very well. With GFW running video packages, teasing Lashley being forced to choose MMA or wrestling moving forward, I can see then having Sydal win, pulling the upset and putting a fresh face into the main event mix. WINNER: Matt Sydal
Knockouts Title Match: Champion Sienna vs. Gail Kim: Sienna defeated Rosemary at Slammiversary to become the unified knockouts champion in a match that had potential but got labored down by overbooking (a staple of JJ & Dutch). They had a rematch on the July 27th edition of Impact, in a last knockout standing match. Sienna won in good match, with both ladies working hard and taking some rough bumps. But it just lacked drama down the stretch and KM’s bullshit added nothing to the match, actually taking away from it. And as I noted when Gail Kim came back for the Hall of Fame and then “made her big announcement” that she was returning and retiring at the end of the year, JJ & Dutch go back to what they know and are all too quick to make her the center of the division. It’s been a problem through out the history of TNA. Impact Wrestling and now GFW; everyone loves Gail, they think Gail is the queen of women’s wrestling and have no idea how to book her otherwise. I’m not saying to not use her, and I am not saying to job her out completely, but over the years they have failed to move on from Kim, failed to really push the next big knockout star because it’s all about going back to Kim. The biggest example of this was the year-long feud with Maria, which stalled the division and elevation of Allie (who got crazy over and then they dropped the ball on), Sienna and Jade (Mia Yim). With Kim coming back, Sienna gets to play the big bad so that Karen Jarrett can do her family Dollar impersonation of Stephanie McMahon and this all stalled Rosemary (who was feuding with Kim while injured to set up a big match but that got dropped), and who had been completely awesome. Gail will win the title soon, she may even retire with it (fucking horrible idea) but I don’t think it will be here. I think this is step one and the big tease, where she comes close but Sienna sneaks away again with the title so that Gail can have her big Bound For Glory moment. WINNER: Sienna
Super X Cup Tournament Final Match: Desmond Xavier vs. Ishimori: On the July 6th episode of GFW Impact, the company announced the return of the Super X-Cup tournament, featuring Davey Richards, Andrew Everett, Idris Abraham, Desmond Xavier, Taiji Ishimori, ACH, Drago, and Sammy Guevara. The field felt fresh, primarily made up of outsiders with the departing Richards bowing out early and Andrew Everett continuing to play just another guy. The tournament has been fun and completely rock solid, with the matches rating in at **½, **½, **¾, **¾, ***, and ***¼ (an average of 2.8 stars.) It has been a good use of who they signed (Desmond Xavier) and guys they are trying to lock down long term (ACH & Sammy Guevara). Drago and Ishimori have been a ton of fun here, so while the tournament hasn’t lit the world on fire and hasn’t been raining stars, it’s been a fun diversion to the usual program and a nice way to try and build a new star as they attempt to rebuild the X-Division as a whole. The Super X Cup Tournament was not only brought back to build a new and fresh contender for the X-Division title, but was also brought back to hopefully create a new star. While Ishimori kicks ass and is a fun guest star from NOAH, Desmond Xavier is under contract and they’ve really been pushing him hard with the personality profile videos, so it makes the most sense for him to win and for them to try and run with a fresh face. The match has a ton of potential and is one I am looking forward to. WINNER: Desmond Xavier
X-Division Title Ladder Match: Champion Sonjay Dutt vs. Trevor Lee: Trevor Lee was the odd man out when the company brought back Low Ki & Sonjay Dutt. Ki won the title, but Lee never got his one on one rematch for the title. Ki had injured Dutt in the match he won the title in, and that became the back-story for their feud as GFW headed to India. Dutt won the title in “good match/better moment” type of situation, and then the two rematched at Slammivesary, where Dutt retained in a good 2 out of 3 falls match. But post Slammiversary, Trevor Lee stole the belt, proclaiming that he was “the real champion,” wearing the belt everywhere and even “defending it” on Impact. Dutt rightfully wanted his belt back, but Bruce Prichard, who has been slowly working on his heel turn, sided with Lee and constantly kicked Dutt out of the Impact Zone. Dutt finally pulled one over on Lee, disguised as one of the Mumbai Cats, and pinning Lee on Impact. Dutt wants his property back, and offered a solution to the situation, a ladder match to see who the real champion is. Dutt’s return has been fun and gave long time TNA fans a dual feel good moment, as not only did Dutt FINALLY win the X-Division title, which allowed him to get rid of the “greatest X-Division talent to never win the title” moniker, but he did so in India, which meant the world to him and made the moment even more special. But while his return has been good, he’s missing that standout/great signature match to hang his hat on, He’ll have the chance here with Lee, who is a very good performer (unfortunately most of that greatness happens outside of GFW) and they will have all of the ladder match smoke and mirrors as an advantage to help them out. I don’t think Lee is the man to dethrone Dutt, and feel it would be a mistake to take the title off of him right now. WINNER: Sonjay Dutt
GFW Title Match: Champion Alberto El Patron vs. Low Ki: Alberto El Patron was brought in to be the man, Jeff Jarrett loves him, thinks he’s a big stars and wants him to be the big time Latino hero. He was brought in and “beat” Lashley right away, which was a big tease as he had to give the title back. He was then given the GFW title, which was the big set up for the unification match at Slammiversary with Lashley. He became the unified champion, and since then has been linked in a feud with LAX, which started when Konnan tried to recruit him into the group. Patron refused, and that led to LAX assaulting his father and brother in hopes of patron changing his mind. Patron still refused, but Konnan wasn’t done recruiting and brought in Low Ki. Ki cost the Patron family their match against LAX and officially joined the group. Ki’s involvement angered Patron, leading to this title match. Patron has had some good matches since his arrival, but his run hasn’t done anything for me as a fan, and I tend to find his matches and segments the furthest thing from must see TV. Much like Dutt, he’s missing that standout/great signature match to hang his hat on and to make him feel “like the man.” The good news is that when Ki is on, he’s spectacular and I feel that he’s the kind of performer that can pull Patron out of his usual bland formulaic match structure. I hope that is the case when they face off, but as far as the winner goes, I just don’t see Patron losing and I anticipate a ton of shenanigans, which will likely hurt the match. WINNER: Alberto El Patron
…EDIT…
BUT OF COURSE since I had this bad boy complete and put to bed on Sunday night, shit went completely sideways. Alberto el Patron was officially stripped of the title. He had been under suspension so that the police investigation in regards to the airport incident with Paige could play out. While Patron wasn’t the one that started the incident, it appears that Anthem pulled the plug on the title run, due to being unhappy with how Patron had treated the situation (and I’d wager his past issues played a part in that decision as well). I think all things considered that they handled the situation well, they suspended him and let the process play out. They had to wait to strip him because they taped so much TV ahead of time, and had to let that play out. Although I never would have hired him in the first place, too much baggage there.
The man is a walking time bomb, missing booking, constantly shitting on WWE for no real reason other than he can, and rumors that he has been abusive with Paige in the past. He also stopped working for THE CRASH because as usual, things weren’t how he wanted them. In a way this felt like GFW not only stripping him of the title, but Anthem looking to cut ties with him to avoid future headaches and to save some money in the process. I said long before Slammiversary that taking the title off of Lashley in favor of patron was a bad idea on several levels, but GFW had their new toy and decided to go all the way with him. But this is wrestling, and I can see him coming back, but I honestly hope not. He’s added nothing to the product outside of “some good Youtube numbers,” but has been a largely boring TV persona and already feels like he’s lost interest, he looks as if he has no motivation. If this is the end for him, I’ll be perfectly fine with it. But what about tonight’s show? How do they handle the title situation? There’s a few ways they can go to try and fix the situation…
1. The winner of Sydal vs. Lashley, which is for a title shot, gets the instant shot later in the night, facing Low Ki for the vacated title.
2. They bring in a surprise like Johnny Mundo (or a returning James Storm) and give one of then the title in hopes of keeping people happy and distracting fans from the situation.
3. They announce a tournament to fill the TV leading up to Bound for Glory to crown a new champion at the PPV.
– Make sure to join 411 tonight for our LIVE GFW Destination X coverage!
– End scene.
– Thanks for reading.
“Byyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyye Felicia!”
