Csonka’s GFW Impact Review 8.31.17

Csonka’s GFW Impact Review 8.31.17

OFFICIAL RESULTS
– oVe defeated Fallah Bahh & Mario Bokara @ 2:55 via pin [NR]
– Petey Williams defeated Caleb Konley @ 6:05 via pin [**½]
– Kongo Kong defeated Dick Justice @ 0:49 via pin [NR]
– Low Ki defeated James Storm @ 9:25 via pin [***¼]
– Eli Drake & Chris Adonis defeated Eddie Edwards & Johnny Impact @ 25:57 via pin [***]

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– Follow all of my reviews at this link.

– I reviewed the first four episodes of the Mae Young Classic, and you can check those out below…

* Episode 1
* Episode 2
* Episode 3
* Episode 4
* Csonka’s Early Mae Young Classic Takes

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– We see the arrivals of Eli Drake, Chris Adonis, Lashley, Dan Lambert & ATT. We see an argument between Jarrett & Lambert, where Lambert tells Jarrett to shove his olive branch up his ass.

– Next up are highlights from last week’s show.

Eli Drake’s Championship Celebration: Eli Drake & Chris Adonis make their way to the ring with cigars. They have lovely zebra print furniture in the ring. Drake has been working for 14-years, and while he should be happy, he’s pissed because it too so long. Even though he reached the top, he’s still hungry. He was at the pool earlier today and saw a cougar looking for a cubby. She wanted to give him his mother’s milk, and he joked about her plastic breasts. Long story short, he didn’t get much rest today, but his thirst was quenched. He is interrupted by Johnny Impact. Impact says Drake can mark out for himself, but everyone is sick of hearing him talk. Impact says he’s had more names than Drake has had championships. You can win a title, but it’s harder to keep it and he wants a shot at that title. Eddie Edwards now makes his way out. Impact lounges on the couch in the ring, and says he knows if he wants something you have to speak up. Edwards respects Impact, but says this isn’t AAA, and in GFW, he out ranks him because he’s been the champion. Edwards says the title belongs to him and he wants a shot. Drake tries to instigate a fight, and Jim Cornette arrives and says that the title scene is hot. Anyone can win that title, but to give the fans they want to see, he goes Teddy Long and books Eli Drake & Chris Adonis vs. Eddie Edwards & Johnny Impact. If Edwards or Impact get a pin, they get a title shot. If Drake gets the pin, he doesn’t have to defend against ether of them. This was a solid opening segment to play off of Drake’s title win and to start to establish the GFW title scene.

– Allie meets with Taryn and wants to know why she was so mean to “Miss Gail.” Taryn says she feels bad and has a message for Allie to deliver; Tayrn attacks her and lays her out backstage.

Fallah Bahh & Mario Bokara vs. oVe: oVe takes control almost immediately, working double teams on Bokara. OVee work quick tags, easily controlling Bokara as we see LAX watching on. Bokara hits a desperation German and Bahh tags in and hits a running cross body. But the leg drop misses, Bokara tags back in and runs into double teams. They work over Bahh, and then hit a dooms day cutter on Bokara for the win. oVe defeated Fallah Bahh & Mario Bokara @ 2:55 via pin [NR] This was another solid performance by oVe, they have been fine so far, but I wouldn’t say that they have been overly impressive. At least they are building momentum

– Jim Cornette talks about Moose getting to work TripleMania (which already happened). EC3 arrives and complains about not being on TripleMania, Cornette says he has a match with Fantasma.

Petey Williams vs. Caleb Konley w/Trevor Lee: Konley is sporting plain black gear like Lee. Konley attacks at the bell, Williams battles back and hits a RANA. The dropkick follows, but Lee distracts Williams, allowing Konley to choke him out back in the ring. Konley grounds the action, working a chinlock. Williams tries to fight back, but gets cut off right away. Konley picks up a near fall, and then hip tosses Williams to the buckles for 2. Williams hits the back elbow and kicks, the Russian leg sweep follows for 2. Williams looks to finish it, but Konley cuts him off, heads up top and misses the moonsault. Lee distracts Williams, but then shoves Konley into Lee and rolls him up for 2. Williams takes out Lee with a RANA to the floor, Code breaker by Williams, and the Canadian Destroyer finishes Konley. Petey Williams defeated Caleb Konley @ 6:05 via pin [**½] This was an overall average, but cleanly worked match. But also one that I felt failed to deliver an exciting and dominating reintroduction for Williams. This should have been booked as more of a showcase for him.

– Post match, Lee attacks until Dutt makes the save to clear the ring.

– Stand by wrestler Dick Justice gets informed that he’s up next.

– Taryn meets with Sienna and Karen Jarrett arrives to break things up. Sienna refuses to leave, and Karen yells at Taryn for her recent actions. Karen books them vs. Gail & Allie next week. She even teases a stipulation.

– Dick Justice looks lost making his way to the ring.

Kongo Kong vs. Dick Justice: Justice avoids a charge and tries to attack, Kong will have none of this shit and lays him out. Kong up top and the big splash finishes it. Kongo Kong defeated Dick Justice @ 0:49 via pin [NR] Squash

– Kong continues to attack post match, but Mahabali Shera makes the save and stands tall.

– Johnny Impact talks about tonight’s main event, he wants to win the GFW title, and plans to take the gravy train to Slam Town.

– We get an LAX club meeting, Konnan tells Low Ki to hospitalize James Storm tonight.

James Storm vs. Low Ki w/LAX: Ki attacks right away, working strikes and beating down Storm in the corner. Ki then takes the ref, allowing LAX to attack Storm. Storm fires up, and hits a sling blade. He then takes Ki on a tour of the buckles, but Ki cuts him off, allowing LAX to get in cheap shots. Ki grounds the action, and every time Storm looks to put together some offense, Ki cuts him off with kicks. Ki then attacks with head butts and body shots. Storm finally fights back and puts some offense together and finally hitting the Russian leg sweep for 2. Ki avoids the eye of the Storm and hits a double stomp for 2. Ki then misses a springboard high cross, allowing Storm to pick up a near fall. Ki cuts off the superkick with a shotgun dropkick, heads up top and misses the double stomp. Storm hits eye of the Storm, but Ki kicks out at 2. LAX is pissed, they try to distract Storm, and that allows Ki to hit a springboard kick for another near fall. Storm superkicks Ki, but Santana attacks him with one of the tag titles. Ki hits the double stomp and picks up the win. Low Ki defeated James Storm @ 9:25 via pin [***¼] This was a good back and forth match, the crowd was into the near falls, but the interference added nothing I wish they just would have done away with it, but that’s the LAX routine.

– Allie ices her head and Sutter is there to check on her. Garza Jr arrives and politely checks on her, but this angers Sutter who is back in dick mode.

– We get footage of the recent issues with Dan Lambert and ATT. Cornette claims that they are messing up Lashley’s head, The include some backstage footage with Jarrett & Lambert pushing and shoving while arguing. Cornette is sick and tired of all the bullshit.

– We get a pre-taped deal with Joseph Park, Grado, and Lauren Van Ness as they plan their wedding. They discover during this that Laurel is from Canada… bad news for Grado.

– AAA’s Pagano is coming.

– Taya Valkyrie is also coming.

– Next week we get Allie & Gail vs. Sienna & Taryn as well as Lee & Konley vs. Williams & Dutt.

Lashley Talks About His Future: We get a sit down with Dan Lambert & Lashley. Lashley says he wants to win titles in both sports, and doesn’t want to decide on one right now. Lambert says Lashley needs to focus on one thing before his MMA window closes. Lashley says he will run through everyone at TripleMania. Lambert says he has been doing Jarrett a favor, but Jarrett disrespected him and now they have a problem. Lashley will make a decision when it’s time.

Eli Drake & Chris Adonis vs. Eddie Edwards & Johnny Impact: If Edwards or Impact get a pin, they get a title shot. If Drake gets the pin, he doesn’t have to defend against ether of them. Adonis overpowers Edwards to begin. Edwards uses his speed, takes control and tags in Impact. Adonis quickly tags him down, and tags in Drake. Impact cuts him off with a dropkick, and Drake backs off. Impact maintains control, taking Adonis down and hitting a running shooting star press for 2. Adonis stops the momentum tags in Drake and it breaks down. Edwards hits a suicide dive, while Impact hits an over the post, twisting cross body as we go to break. Post break and Impact is working over Drake. Drake manages to tag out to Adonis, who uses his power to take control, with the powerslam connecting for 2. Adonis then locks in a camel clutch, Impact escapes, but Adonis slams him to the corner and tags on Drake. Drake continues to isolate Impact, working the heat. Edwards gets the tag, but the ref didn’t see it. That allowed Adonis to take over. He and Drake work double teams. Impact hits a PELE style kick to stop Drake’s momentum and we get wholesale changes as Adonis and Edwards tag in. Edwards runs wild, hitting the blue thunder bomb for 2. Edwards up top, Adonis slows him down, allowing Drake to hit the skylord slam off the top for 2. Post break and Drake cuts off Edwards, laying in the elbow drop and covers for 2. Adonis tags in, hits the clothesline and tags Drake back in. Edwards counters out, and slides into a tag to Impact. Impact is the old house of fire, hitting anything that moves and takes out both with a double rolling neck breaker for 2. Impact sets up Drake, heads up top, but takes too much time and has to bail out on his attack, rolling through right into double teams from Drake & Adonis, allowing Drake to cover for 2. Edwards is back in, saves Impact and it breaks down. Edwards & Impact both attack Drake, Edwards hits a RANA of the ropes, Impact up top and hits a 450 style elbow drop for the near fall. Adonis tosses Edwards, but he blind tags back in and hits a high cross to Drake & Adonis. Impact takes Adonis to the floor, but Drake hits a low blow and air raid crash to pick up the win. Eli Drake & Chris Adonis defeated Eddie Edwards & Johnny Impact @ 25:57 via pin [***] This was a good main event, and while I like that they got time, I feel that it went a bit too long. The work was good, they all worked hard, but it really lacked the peaks and valleys that a very good or great tag match with the double hot tag would usually have. I honestly think that if you trim the time and turn up the volume a bit that it comes off much better. Drake winning was absolutely the right call following his title win last week.

– Lashley, Dan Lambert, & ATT arrive. Lambert cuts a heel promo, running down everyone in the main event. Jim Cornette arrives and cuts him off, and says that if anyone of them touch the ring, Lashley will be suspended. Lashley calls off ATT, while Cornette announces Drake vs. Sydal for next week.

– End scene.

– Thanks for reading.

“Byyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyye Felicia!”

6.3

The final score: review Average

The 411

For next week, they booked GFW Champion Eli Drake defending against Matt Sydal, Allie & Gail vs. Sienna & Taryn as well as Lee & Konley vs. Williams & Dutt (they also announced EC3 defending against Fantasmo, but didn’t confirm if that was for next week), which I think was the best thing the show did. The Storm vs. Ki match and main event were good, but a lot of the rest of the show felt way too rushed, while the Lashley “MMA angle” is falling really flat, and doesn’t feel as if it fits at all into the show. There was also too much Cornette tonight. oVe continue to be two guys in masks who they have given us no reason to care about, who are they other than a pair of guys winning solid at best two-minute matches? Commentary is all in on them, pushing then hard but I just don’t get it. The show is far from bad, but I was hoping after the big title change to Drake last week that they would come out more aggressively this week with a “hey, watch us, we’re must see TV’ sort of show.