Csonka’s Impact Wrestling Review 11.09.17

Csonka’s Impact Wrestling Review 11.09.17

OFFICIAL RESULTS
– Matt Sydal defeated Sonjay Dutt @ 15:35 via pin [**¾]
– GHC Title Match: GHC Champion Eddie Edwards defeated El Hijo del Fantasma @ 9:07 via pin [***½]
– oVe (Jake & Dave Crist) & Sami Callihan defeated Ray Steele, Phil Atlas and Burke @ 1:57 via pin [NR]
– Allie defeated KC Spinelli @ 7:13 via pin [**¾]

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– Follow all of my reviews at this link.

– You can read a review of last week’s show at this link.
– My Bound for Glory review is here.
– I talk the mistakes of Bound for Glory at this link.

– Tonight is the fallout from Bound for Glory.

– Borash and Mathews start us off in the ring, welcoming us to the show and sharing some things that we’ll see tonight. I appreciate the mix up in how they open the show.

– We get highlights from Bound for Glory.

– Impact World Champion Eli Drake, accompanied by Chris Adonis, make their way to the ring…

Eli Drake says, lemme talk to ya dummies…: Adonis introduces Drake. Drake gets a split reaction, and says he called his shot at BFG and knocked it out of the park. Johnny Impact worked for years, watched all the tapes and put in all the effort to become the champion, but someone told him the wrong story. But he had to face Eli Drake, and he failed. The night was perfect, minus Patron, who got involved in his business. Drake doesn’t care about Patron, and he’ll feel mistreated once he works his way up to Drake. Drake has the night off, because no one is left to challenge him. He doesn’t want to stay in Canada, because it’s garbage. Petey Williams arrives and looks to have some words for the champ. Williams says he’s not here to stop Drake from leaving because no one wants him here. Williams then says Drake never beat him, and he is the Canadian Destroyer. He’s never been world champion and challenges Drake for the title. Drake tells him to settle down and says he has the night off. Drake says ok, but not tonight. Maybe next week. Williams heads to the ring and takes out Adonis but Drake attacks. Williams cuts off Drake but Adonis saves him. Good opening segment, Drake had good command, and I liked Petey challenging him in Canada as they can play into the hometown hero/underdog angle and it gives Drake a challenger until his next program is established, keeping him away from Impact & Patron for now.

– Johnny Impact arrives.

– Drake defends against Williams next week.

The answer is yes. It's official! @iPeteyWilliams vs. @TheEliDrake for the #GlobalChampionship!#IMPACTonPop pic.twitter.com/ZkYz7Dqsax

— IMPACT (@IMPACTWRESTLING) November 10, 2017

– Jimmy Jacobs arrives at commentary and joins them.

Matt Sydal vs. Sonjay Dutt: They shake hands and we’re friends to begin. Dutt grounds the action right away, but Sydal quickly gets back to his feet. Sydal works the arm, grounding the action as commentary largely ignores the action, focusing on Jacobs. They pick up the pace; Dutt hits a RANA and grounds the action again. Jacobs then leaves commentary, thankfully. Sydal hits a RANA, trips up Dutt and hits a standing moonsault for 2. Sydal follows with kicks, and starts focusing on the leg. Sydal follows with the Muta lock, maintaining control. Sydal works a half crab, but Dutt makes the ropes. Sydal works the leg in the ropes, and follows with a crucifix for 2. Dutt hits a desperation dropkick, covering for 2. The head scissors follows for Dutt, but Sydal cuts him off, covering for 2. Sydal heads up top and Dutt cuts him off with a big right. Dutt follows him up and they trade strikes, and Dutt hits a superplex. Both men are down, and we take a break. Post break (about 4-minutes), and they trade leg kicks and Sydal hits a spin kick, covering for 2. Sydal hits the Russian leg sweep, and goes back to the leg into an ankle lock variation. Dutt escapes and rolls to the floor, but Sydal follows and continues his attack on the leg. Back in and Sydal covers for 2. Dutt hits an enziguri and tornado DDT. Dutt up top but Sydal moves and cuts off Duttt, heads up top and hits the shooting star press for the win. Matt Sydal defeated Sonjay Dutt @ 15:35 via pin [**¾] This was an overall pretty good match, with some smart work from Sydal, but it lacked a really hot closing stretch to get it to the next level. The post match was interesting and well done.

– EC3 arrives and says he came here to congratulate Sydal on another win, “whooopity doo!” Sydal wins, that’s what he does, and then he comes up short when it counts. Sydal beat Lashley and then choked when he got his title chance. At BFG he had a chance for the X-Division title, and choked again. Sydal excites and delights, but he’s missing a killer instinct. EC3 has that killer instinct, and is the best guy here. EC3 says he is a killer, and Sydal is just a nice guy. Maybe in another life, Sydal could have been “reborn” as a winner. Great stuff from EC3, embracing his true asshole side; I’m down for a match with the two.

– We get a GWN exclusive flashback, featuring Team Canada (Roode, Young, & Williams) vs. Sonjay Dutt, Amazing Red and Hector Garza. Really fun stuff, I really miss Hector Garza; dude was so great.

GHC Champion Eddie Edwards vs. El Hijo del Fantasma: The match is under NOAH rules, 60-minute time limit and they get a 20 count on the floor. They shake hands and we’re under way; this was set up at Bound for Glory when Fantasma gave Edwards a cradled piledriver on the apron. They work a fast paced opening stretch, with Edwards hitting an overhead toss. Edwards follows with chops, but Fantasma cuts him off with a tilt a whirl back breaker, covering for 2. The dropkick follows and Fantasma covers for 2. Edwards starts to fight back, but Fantasma gets a roll up for 2. Charging knees follow, Fantasma takes Edwards up top and hits a RANA for 2. Fantasma up top Edwards cuts him off and he follows with rights and heads up top. Edwards hits a superplex and both men are down. They struggle toothier feet, Edwards hits the corner attack and blue thunder bomb for a good near fall. Fantasma hits a RANA and another; the knee strike follows and he covers for 2. Edwards to he floor and cuts off the suicide dive, and they work to the apron and Edwards looks for a tiger bomb, but Fantasma escapes only to get kicked to the floor. Edwards now hits the suicide dive. Back in they go, but Fantasma hits a suicide dive to take control back. He rolls Edwards back in and but Edwards hits a flapjack, but Fantasma counters the tiger bomb with a RANA. Edwards then decapitates him with a lariat, tiger bomb and Fantasma kicks out for a good near fall. Fantasma cuts him off with a running kick, he heads up top and Edwards avoids the attack, hits the Boston knee party and follows with the die hard flowsion for the win. GHC Champion Eddie Edwards defeated El Hijo del Fantasma @ 9:07 via pin [***½] This was a very good back and forth sprint that I really enjoyed, both guys were great here.

– We get highlights of ATT’s win at BFG.

oVe (Jake & Dave Crist) & Sami Callihan vs. Ray Steele, Phil Atlas and Burke: Callihan attacks at the bell and runs wild. Callihan and his boys work triple teams, and then double teams. Callihan and oVe control with ease, Atlas tries to fight back, but gets triple teamed. They hit a triple team doomsday cutter for the win. oVe (Jake & Dave Crist) & Sami Callihan defeated Ray Steele, Phil Atlas and Burke @ 1:57 via pin [NR] This was a dominant squash, as it should have been.

– LAX, with Homicide, arrives and attacks, running off Callihan & oVe.

– Global Forged winner Hakeen Zane gets interviewed, but Johnny Impact tosses him aside and says he wants to kick Patron’s ass tonight.

– From BCW: Allie vs. KC Spinelli: Spinelli bullies Allie around to begin, and Allie gets fired up and lays in strikes. Spinelli cuts her off and beats her down. Allie avoids the charge and hits a clothesline, covering for 2. Spinelli stuns Allie off the ropes, and takes control back, tossing Allie around by her hair. Spinelli dances around and hits a corner attack, and then whips Allie to the buckles but Allie fires up and dropkicks her to the buckles, covering for 2. Spinelli hits a neck breaker, covering for 2. Elbow drops follow and Spinelli again covers for 2. Allie fires back, hits clotheslines and hits the sliding corner elbows. Allie covers for 2. Spinelli hits a perfect plex for 2. Allie hits the code breaker, covering for 2. Spinelli hits a lariat, but Allie kicks out at 2. Spinelli heads up top and misses the moonsault. Allie hits a DVD, and that gets the win. Allie defeated KC Spinelli @ 7:13 via pin [**¾] This was a pretty good back and forth match, with an interested crowd. But I felt that it lacked drama, as it just felt like they kept exchanging moves, and didn’t make me care. They worked really hard though, and it was enjoyable.

– Alberto arrives and says he’ll kick Johnny Impact’s ass.

– Allie cuts a promo; she’s happy about her win and says Gail has a big announcement for next week.

– Next week, LAX & Homicide vs. Callihan & oVe, Drake vs. Williams and Kim’s announcement.

– Impact attacks Patron backstage as they brawl into catering. Patron shoves Impact into Braxton Sutter, so he and Impact brawl and Caleb Konely gets involved. Sutter & Konley pair off as Impact and patron continue their battle. They brawl outside of the building, Impact attacks with a trashcan, but Patron tosses him into a fence. Patron talks shit and says Drake has his title, and now they brawl back into the building. Patron fights off security, Impact joins in and they brawl back to catering, and Impact slams patron into a wall and chokes him out. Patron beats on Impact with a wet floor sign, they are both blown up. Patron climbs a conveniently placed ladder, and gets on top of a trailer, but Impact parkors his way up and goes after him and kicks Patron back to the floor. Impact dives off onto Patron and security and we take a commercial break in the middle of the brawl. Post break and the fight continues with Patron using a pipe, but Impact keeps fighting and they brawl into the arena in front of the crowd. Security is back again, patron rants on the mic that this is his company. Security holds Impact back, and patron rants about the office screwing him and holding him back. Impact gets in the ring but Patron walks off. Impact says Patron isn’t even the pride of his father, and they brawl again. They beat up security, and Patron hits a cheap shot and lays out Impact with a DDT and then another. Patron takes out security, and works a hanging arm bar in the ropes and refs try to stop him. Patron stands tall to close the show. This was a bad, 20-minute brawl to close the show. It theory a brawl made sense, considering what happened at BFG, but this was way too long and lost steam and heat the longer it went on. It was a bad and really flat way to close the show.

– End scene.

– Thanks for reading.

“Byyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyye Felicia!”

6.1

The final score: review Average

The 411

While I was not a fan of Bound for Glory, I thought the post PPV show started out good and was enjoyable. The Drake promo was good and set up a match for next week, Sydal vs. Dutt was enjoyable and set up an angle with EC3 & Sydal, and the Edwards vs. Fantasma match was very good stuff. The Callihan & oVe squash was solid and what it needed to be and helped setup a match for next week, and Allie’s match was pretty good, even if it lacked any drama. But the lethargic, flat and lifeless 20-minute brawl crushed any momentum the show built, knocking a good show down to an average one. But hey, they got what hey wanted, it’s the Alberto show. Unfortunately for us…