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Csonka’s Impact Wrestling Review 11.16.17

November 16, 2017 | Posted by Larry Csonka
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Csonka’s Impact Wrestling Review 11.16.17  

Csonka’s Impact Wrestling Review 11.16.17

OFFICIAL RESULTS
– Desmond Xavier, Sonjay Dutt, and Garza Jr. defeated Trevor Lee, Caleb Konley, & Taiji Ishimori @ 6:50 via pin [**¾]
Impact Grand Championship Match: Impact Grand Champion EC3 defeated Fallah Bahh @ 2:30 of round three via pin [**]
– LAX defeated oVe @ 13:02 via pin [**¾]
World Title Match: Champion Eli Drake defeated Petey Williams @ 17:36 via pin [***½]


– Follow all of my reviews at this link.

– You can read a review of last week’s show at this link.

– Gail Kim, Lashley, and ATT arrive earlier today.

– We get a video package for tonight’s World Champion Eli Drake vs. Petey Williams match.

Trevor Lee, Caleb Konley, & Taiji Ishimori vs. Desmond Xavier, Sonjay Dutt, and Garza Jr.: We’re starting with a match, which is always appreciated. Dutt and Lee into begin. They work some back and forth, Dutt hits a RANA and Ishimori tags in. They keep the pace quick, Ishimori hits a head scissors and they work into a stand off. Konley tags in and Dutt works him over with rights, and then hits the dropkick. Dutt trips up Lee and gets cut off when he climbs the ropes, allowing Konley to take control. Lee tags in, taking the heat on Dutt and covers for 2. Quick tags by the heel team, as they work over Dutt in their corner. Konley hits a knee drop, and grounds things with a chinlock. Dutt fights for a tag, runs Konley into Lee and Garza tags in and is still working with one arm, which I feel is a really bad idea. He puts together some offense, tags in Xavier who hits a dive. Ishimori cuts him off, hits charging knees and hits a double stomp for 2. Ishimori up top, but Konley tags himself in. Xavier knocks him into Ishimori, Garza tags in and they trade strikes. Xavier cuts him off with a 619, Dutt take out Lee and Xavier hits the spiral tap for the win. Desmond Xavier, Sonjay Dutt, and Garza Jr. defeated Trevor Lee, Caleb Konley, & Taiji Ishimori @ 6:50 via pin [**¾] This was an overall pretty good opening match, and a nice way to kick off the show. It was just missing a hot closing stretch to take it to the next level. I hope that the division actually starts to lock in some programs for these guys soon.

– We get a promo from Sami Callihan & oVe.

Impact Grand Champion EC3 vs. Fallah Bahh: I’d love to know what Bahh did to earn a title shot. EC3 mocks Bahh, and they lock up. Bahh roars at EC3, they lockup again and Bahh uses his as to escape EC3’s go behind attempt. Knees by EC3 follow, Bahh hits a shoulder block and EC3 powders to the floor. EC3 back in and he teases a slam, no dice as Bahh slams him down. Bahh hits his wacky rolling splash, and follows with shoulder blocks. EC3 powders again to the floor. Bahh follows and runs EC3 over as the round ends. Round One: Bahh. Bahh starts off round two with rights, and hits a corner spear. He misses the second and posts himself. EC3 takes control, laying in strikes to a downed Bahh. The knee lift follows, and another. EC3 lays in chops now, and grounds Bahh with a chinlock. Bahh fights to his feet, but EC3 hits a jawbreaker. The corner splash follows, and then a modified camel clutch. Bahh battles to his feet but the round ends. Round Two: EC3 Round three begins as they trade strikes, EC3 lays in clotheslines and Bahh won’t go down. Bahh hits a Samoan drop, and both men are down. EC3 lays in strikes, but Bahh hits chops and hits a corner splash. The belly-to-belly follows, but EC3 kicks out at 2. EC3 rakes the eyes but Bahh hits a cross body block. Bahh looks for a Yoko splash, but EC3 pulls him of the ropes and uses the ropes to pick up the win. Impact Grand Champion EC3 defeated Fallah Bahh @ 2:30 of round three via pin [**] I found this to be OK at best, with Bahh coming out of nowhere to be way too competitive with EC3. I get that EC3 will do anything to win, but needed to cheat against Bahh just felt wrong. They really have no clue what to do with EC3, he feels like a complete mid-card act these days. I am all for giving a guy a shot, but they could have at least built up Bahh first.

LAX (Ortiz, Santana, & Homicide) vs. oVe (Sami Callihan, Jake & Dave Crist): They brawl to begin, Callihan hits a shoulder driver on Ortiz and sends him to he floor. Callihan hits a suicide dive, Santana follows and then Homicide wipes out the pile with a suicide dive. Homicide throws a chair at Callihan, back in they go and Homicide goes for the gringo killer, but Callihan escapes. Low blow by Callihan and he posts Homicide as we take a break. Post break, Callihan and Homicide are in, but oVe isolate Homicide in their half of the ring, just beating him down. Homicide fires up and hits a bridging slam for 2, as Callihan made the save. Homicide and Callihan trade strikes, but Homicide is again cut off. Dave cuts of the tag, taking Homicide back to his corner as the quick tags continue. The belly to back suplex gets 2, Callihan tags in and Homicide counters the belly to back suplex and gets the hot tag. Santana & Ortiz both rush in and they double-team Dave, set him up top and Santana hits a high cross onto Jake. Callihan in, he slams LAX together but Santana fires back, but Jake catches him with a tombstone but it only gets 2. They now set up Santana for the all seeing eye, but Ortiz makes the save along with Homicide. LAX hits the street sweeper and picks up the win. LAX defeated oVe @ 13:02 via pin [**¾] This was another pretty good match, but considering the rivalry and what they’ve been through, it really lacked the heat and hate that they have been trying to sell. It came off too much as a regular six-man instead of a battle between six men that hate each other.

ATT & Lashley Return: Well it’s just Dan Lambert right now. Lambert is here to say, “I told you so.” His team exposed pro wrestling as a fraud, and they did at Bound for Glory. Anthem moved the TV o Ottawa to get their hands on some deflated Canadian currency. Impact promised Lashley his release, and he delivered, but Impact refused to honor the deal. Lambert had a release drawn up, and demands a member of management come out and sign it. Moose arrives and says it took 6 ATT guys to take him down. Moose calls him a dumb ass for giving his boys the night off. Moose threatens to beat down Lambert, and attacks. Lashley and ATT hit the ring and attack Moose, but James Storm arrives to make the save. Storm clears the ring, hits superkicks and drinks a beer. A goof in a neck brace arrives and yells at Storm, so he gets hit with a beer bottle. Storm says wrestling was here before Lambert and will be here after him. Storm says for 20-years, he’s been a pro wrestler. His mom believed in him and he lived his dream. In 2002 he was here when the doors opened on this company and he worked his ass off as part of AMW, and they proved that they belonged. And then they didn’t know what to do with him, and Beer Money was born. When the wrestlers come to the ring, they don’t think about what could go wrong, they live for the moment. Storm is fired the fuck up here, praising everyone backstage who makes him look good. He takes pride in professional wrestling, something ATT doesn’t know about. It’s all about respect, and doing what’s right for the fans. “I AM THE COWBOY, JAMES MOTHER FN STORM!” Strong gloating promo from Lambert to follow up on BFG, this feud will continue, with Moose looking for revenge and no he has a fired up James Storm at his side tonight for pro wrestling. Storm cut a great, emotional, and fiery babyface promo here. The James Storm goodbye tour begins…

– KM talks with Lashley and wants to join his team, Lashley tells him to prove himself.

– Eli Drake cuts a promo about being the world champion and runs down Petey Williams. Drake says if Williams can last three-minutes with him, he will be a Canadian hero, but he will never be the champion.

– We get a Petey Williams video package.

– Allie meets with Gail Kim and thanks her for sharing the ring with her and being an inspiration to her.

– We get a nice Gail Kim video package

Gail Kim Talks: Borash is in the ring and brings out Gail Kim. Before Kim can talk, Allie makes her way out to the ring. Kim talks growing up in Canada, and fell in love with wrestling, and decided that’s what she wanted to do. Not everyone can say their dreams come true, but with hard work and sacrifice, dreams can come rue and she’s living proof of that. She thanks the women she worked with like Trish, Lita, Molly Holly, Awesome Kong and Taryn Terrell. She’s at peace in making her decision to give up the title. She’s so excited to see what is next for Allie and the knockouts. She thanks the company, and the fans. She hands Borash the belt to “thank you Gail” chants. That was a nice, classy and thankfully not overbooked goodbye for Gail. And now the company has to move on without her, which I think is something they’ve needed to do in order to grow the division. Gail was great, but was always the safety blanket they went back to when they didn’t need to.

– Joe Park is in catering and no one wants to talk with him for what he did to Grado. He tells Grado that he knows he’s Abyss, and that we’ll never see Abyss again. Park gives him his VISA, but a Mountie arrives and says he has no Canadian VISA and takes him away.

– Jimmy Jacobs arrives and joins commentary.

World Champion Eli Drake vs. Petey Williams: Chris Adonis is out with Drake. They lock up to begin, Drake hits a shoulder block but Williams hits a dropkick and Drake powders. Back in and Drake takes control, but Williams picks up the pace and hits a head scissors and sets Drake up top, and into the tree of WHOA for the Oh Canada nut stomp. Williams trips up Drake, hits a dropkick and covers for 2. We take a break. Post break and Drake stuns Williams off the ropes and takes control, covering for 2. Drake choke shim out in the ropes, Adonis gets involved, and Drake then catapults Williams into the bottom rope. Drake follows with elbow drops, and covers for 2. Williams hits a desperation jawbreaker, but Drake cuts him off with a tilt a whirl back breaker, and covers for 2. Drake maintains the heat, keeping Williams grounded. Williams fires up, lays in chops but Drake hits a powerslam, covering for 2. Drake chokes out Williams, and then Adonis gets involved again, working over Williams. Drake now lays in elbows, slams Williams downs then misses the knee drop. Williams lays in rights, the Russian leg sweep follows and Williams covers for 2. The flatliner connects and Williams again, covers for 2. Williams calls for the destroyer, but Drake cuts that off. Drake lays in uppercuts, but Williams hits a slingshot code breaker and then a German suplex and knee strike. Drake counters the destroyer, and hits the running dump slam, covering for 2. Drake misses the second rope knee drop, and then misses a springboard moonsault, and Williams locks in the sharpshooter. Williams blocks Drake from the ropes, but Drake finally makes it. Drake fights off a suplex and slams Williams to the corner. Drake sets Williams up top but Williams hits the tornado DDT and then a suicide dive onto Adonis. Drake looks for the gravy train, but Williams hits the Destroyer, but Drake kicks out on a great near fall! Williams looks for it again, but Drake counters into the reverse piledriver for 2. Drake lays in rights, Williams counters the gravy train into a cradle for 2. Williams hits a powerbomb, but Drake turns the destroyer into the gravy train for the win. Champion Eli Drake defeated Petey Williams @ 17:36 via pin [***½] This was a very good main event, that I felt they played the right way. they kept the Adonis stuff to a minimum, gave Williams a ton of hope spots to keep the crowd interested and then gave us that one great near fall on the Destroyer. From there they worked a fun series of counters, leading to Drake retaining clean; these are the kinds of matches drake needs, not the cliché heel bullshit. Williams perfectly filled the role of challenger of the week, playing into the Canadian crowd, and giving us a break until Impact & Patron are back in the picture.

– End scene.

– Thanks for reading.

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“Byyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyye Felicia!”

7.0
The final score: review Good
The 411
Tonight’s episode of Impact Wrestling was an overall good show, with pretty good undercard wrestling overall, two good and strong promo segments with Storm & Kim and the very good main event.
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