wrestling / TV Reports

Csonka’s GFW Impact Review 8.24.17

August 24, 2017 | Posted by Larry Csonka
Eli Drake Eli Drake's GFW Impact Wrestling Wrestlecade WrestlePro
6.5
The 411 Rating
Community Grade
12345678910
Your Grade
Loading...
Csonka’s GFW Impact Review 8.24.17  

 photo GFW20Gauntlet20For20The20Gold_zpsymxfotzt.jpg

Csonka’s GFW Impact Review 8.24.17

OFFICIAL RESULTS
– oVe vs. The Heat Seekers @ 3:20 via pin []
Gauntlet For The Gold GFW Title Match: Eli Drake wins the title @ 52:25 [***]


– Follow all of my reviews at this link.

– I took a look at all of the recent GFW Arrivals & Departures.

– I also reviewed the latest GFW US Xplosion matches at this link.

– We get footage of ATT’s Dan Lambert arguing with Jeff Jarrett after the end of last week’s Destination X show. We get tons of pushing and shoving, with James Storm backing up Jarrett.

– Jim Cornette meets with the roster, telling them that Anthem can make them stars, but they have to put in the work. There are no free rides in GFW, and as long as there is no bullshit, there will be no issues with him. He even takes a light shot at Patron, saying that he doesn’t want to see anyone’s personal life plastered all over TMZ. Cornette wants a chaotic and kick ass main event.

oVe vs. The Heat Seekers: oVe run wild at the bell, and clear the ring and hit dives. Back in the ring they continue to keep control, working double teams. They are already more impressive than last week. It’s all oVe, as it should be. The double kicks finish Heat Seeker 1. oVe vs. The Heat Seekers @ 3:20 via pin [*¾] This was a solid little match, but this is EXACTLY what it should have been last week. oVe running through their opponents, hitting all of their moves and dominating. Overall a good segment.

– Drake and Adonis arrive to kiss Cornette’s ass, and Drake is trying to get out of being #1 in the gauntlet. Cornette makes him #2 instead of #1.

Taryn Terrell Talks: Taryn Terrell is here to explain her actions from last week, when she cost Gail Kim the knockouts championship. Terrell is out in some lingerie, so she’s obviously really serious tonight. Borash is there to conduct the interview. She says she and Kim used to be friends, and she even showed up for Kim’s HOF induction, but Kim didn’t thank her and doesn’t even follow her on Twitter. Terrell says Kim will lie and cheat on her husband, leaving him high and dry like she did to the knockouts division. She’s ere to help Kim retire. Kim makes her way out to the ring, but Borash holds her back. Terrell runs away, almost falling out of her top. This was only ok, it gave us some follow up to last week, but Terrell’s promo wasn’t exactly good.

– We get highlights of GFW’s live events in the Northeast from early August.

– Various stars cut promos on tonight’s gauntlet for the gold match.

– Lashley and the ATT crew meet with Cornette. He’s upset about their action from last week, and Lashley things he should be champion. Cornette tell Lashley he has to earn it. Lambert bitches at Cornette, and tells Lashley he has a chance to be the best again. Cornette & Lambert say that Lashley has a decision to make.

– We get a Taya Valkyrie video package; she’s coming soon.

– We now get a video of the Grado angle.

Grado Says Goodbye: Grado & Joseph Park make their way out to the ring. Grado says he promised he wouldn’t cry, but he is emotional because of the fans and their support. He has to go home because he’s being deported. He tried to get married, and thanks Park for all of his help. Park is sorry that he couldn’t do more for him. Park says he loves Grado and that the fans love Grado. Grado will miss wings (both bone in and boneless), cheese fire, mac & cheese, hot dogs, chili cheese fries but will miss the fans even more. He gets thank you Grado & please don’t go chants. Laurel Van Ness, no longer in the 8-month old wedding dress, makes her way to the ring. LVN says the past few weeks have been the happiest of her life and is a changed woman thanks to Grado. She calls him the peanut to her jelly & the BBQ sauce to her ribs. She has a question for Grado, and drops to a knee and asks Grado to marry her. Grado accepts and she plants a big kiss on him. Kongo Kong now arrives, but Mahabali Shera cuts him off and Kong backs off. I am not a big fan of the angle and don’t think that it’s been particularly good. It is interesting to see Laurel finally out of her funk, and am winning to see where it goes but as for this segment, I didn’t find it particularly good and felt that the acting was poor. There is also some great humor in Grado marrying a Canadian in order to get US citizenship.

– Cornette meets with Eddie Edwards, and they talk about their times in ROH. Cornette puts him over and says he and Anthem would be proud of he won the world title tonight.

– We head to the LAX clubhouse. They are making bank off of hos and their club business, while Homicide is controlling the border traffic. Konnan tells Ki to win the gauntlet tonight.

Gauntlet For The Gold to Crown a New GFW Champion: Eddie Edwards is #1, Eli Drake is #2. They will start off for 2-minutes, with a new man entering every 90-seconds after that. When it gets down to the final two, it is pin or submission to win. After some back and forth, Edwards controls with chops and #3 is Mario Bokara. He hits a big German on Edwards, and then he and Drake double team Edwards. It doesn’t last long as Drake turns on him and beats him down. #4 is Eddie Kingston. He attacks Edwards right away and then takes control, attacking Drake & Bokara. #5 is Braxton Sutter. He starts to run wild, but Drake cuts him off. Kingston and Sutter brawl, Edwards looks to toss Bokara, and #6 is standby wrestler Dick Justice. He isn’t sure what to do and tries to make friends. He does some squats to keep warmed up, and #7 is EC3. He wants to work with Justice, but it was a trap. EC3 kicks Justice in the balls and eliminates him. Post break Bokara saves himself from elimination #8 is Kongo Kong. He hits the ring and works over everyone with strikes. He tosses Bokara, and then Kingston. Everyone else attacks the monster; #9 is Suicide. He dives onto the pile and starts hitting arm drags. He tries to attack Kong, who quickly cuts him off. Drake then rolls to the floor to take a powder. #10 is Mahabali Shera. He and Kong go face-to-face and trade strikes, and Shera low bridges him and Kong is eliminated. Shera and Drake battle now, and Shera almost eliminates him. #11 is Chris Adonis. He helps Drake toss Shera, and Adonis then attacks Edwards. He and Drake work together, and #12 is Fantasma. H goes right after Drake & Adonis as we head to a break. Post break, Adonis and Drake continue to work together. #13 is Johnny Mundo Impact. He hits the ring and runs wild, eliminating Adonis. He then tosses Suicide. #14 is Garza Jr. He flies in with a missile dropkick, eliminates Sutter and then attacks Edwards. Impact and EC3 battle and #15 is Fallah Bahh. He hits shoulder blocks to all, turning Impact inside out. Impact cuts him off with an enziguri and EC3 & drake refuse to help as the rest try to attack Bahh. #16 is KM. He attacks Impact and then Edwards attacks with chops. Impact works over EC3 on the apron and #17 is Ishimori. He works over KM, as Fantasma tries to eliminate Impact. Drake looks to toss Edwards, while #18 is Lashley. He immediately tosses KM and Bahh. Ishimori attacks, but Lashley tosses him. #19 is Moose. He hits head butts and corner attacks, but Garza cuts him off by tearing off his pants. Moose eliminates him, powerbombing him onto the pile of bodies on the floor. Post break, Low Ki is in at #20. He gets to run wild a bit, and then faces off with Impact, but Ki cuts him off with a stomp and EC3 brawls with Fantasma, but while Fantasma fights him off, he ends up eliminated by EC3, Drake cuts off Moose, leading to Moose & Edwards eliminating EC3. Moose works over Ki, but Ki fights off the powerbomb into the dragon sleeper. Lashley then tosses Low Ki and we’re down to Moose, Lashley, Drake, Edwards, and Mundo. Post break, and everyone is brawling. Moose and Lashley go face to face, and they brawl. Lashley hits the spear, but Impact cuts him off only for Drake to take him out. Moose hits the pop up powerbomb on Drake, and then eliminates Lashley and we’re down to four. Moose counters an Edwards RANA, but Edwards drags him over the ropes and to the floor. We’re down to Impact, Edwards, and Drake. Drake cuts off Impact, lays the boots to him and almost gets tossed. Impact keeps attacking, but Drake’s hands hit the floor so he’s not eliminated. He pulls himself back in as Edwards works over Impact, and then Drake tosses Impact. They did a great tease of a Drake elimination, but he went THROUGH the ropes. We’re back to the final two men, with Edwards getting a near fall off of the crucifix. The blue thunder bomb gets another near fall for Edwards. Drake get a roll up and feet on the ropes for 2. Edwards up top now, but Drake hops up and is tossed off. High cross by Edwards, but Drake rolls through into the air raid crash for the win. Eli Drake wins the title @ 52:25 [***] This was far from the best Gauntlet match the company has ever done, but I found it to be a fun and entertaining match. the closing stretch was well done and there was no bullshit, Drake won clean and starts his run off the right way, surviving the entire match to prove himself. I’m not sure if Drake is the guy or not, but I really appreciate the fact that they took the chance to find out. He’s felt close to getting to the top several times, but the company would always pull back and go in another direction. They could have easily went with a former champion like EC3, Storm, Lashley or Edwards or even a new face like Impact, but they took the chance and why not. Patron shit the bed for them, they are in a huge transitional phase as they remove old talent and bring in a bunch of fresh guys and no offense, it’s not like Drake will tank the ratings. Color me interested.

– Lashley’s ATT pas attack another ref and Lashley has to call them off. Dan Lambert shoves down Scott D’Amore and ATT & Lashley leave.

– End scene.

– Thanks for reading.

 photo fe36ffd0-0da4-4e3b-a2d3-b026b341dd87_zps41ef5d61.jpg
“Byyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyye Felicia!”

6.5
The final score: review Average
The 411
We have a new GFW champion, and he’s a fresh face to the scene, Many fans of the company have been vocal for a very long time that they want Drake to get the big chance and it’s here now. Drake has been very vocal that he thinks he can run with the ball, but he’s never had the chance. And now is the time to take a chance and to take risks, the company and its roster are in a state of flux, throw some NEW shit at the wall and see if it works. It’s better than doing the same old shit. I felt the first hour was fine (6.0) and that the second hour was good (7.0), so we’ll call this week a 6.5.
legend