TV Review: IMPACT Wrestling #613 (Hardy & Tyrus vs. Hardy & Galloway)

On 12th April 2016, TNA aired the 613th episode on IMPACT Wrestling on POP TV, having taped the action on 18th March 2016 at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida, USA. Matt Hardy teamed with fellow Matt Hardy Brand member Tyrus to fight Jeff Hardy and TNA World Heavyweight Champion Drew Galloway with the winning side being able to choose a stipulation for IMPACT Wrestling #614's Hardy vs. Hardy clash and Ethan Carter III went one on one with "The Miracle" Mike Bennett...but was it any good? Let's take a look.

impact wrestling #613 match card

Match 1 - TNA World Tag Team Championship Four Corners - Beer Money Inc.: Bobby Roode & James Storm (C) vs. The Bro-Mans: Jessie Godderz & Robbie E vs. The Decay: Abyss & Crazzy Steve w/Rosemary vs. Bram and TNA King of the Mountain Champion Eric Young

Match 2 - Men's Singles - TNA X-Division Champion Trevor Lee with Gregory Shane Helms vs. DJ Z

Match 3 - Men's Singles - "The Miracle" Mike Bennett vs. Ethan Carter III "EC3"

Match 4 - TNA Knockout's Championship - Madison Rayne vs. Jade (C)

Match 5 - Men's Tag Team – The Matt Hardy Brand: Tyrus & Matt Hardy vs. “The Charismatic Enigma” Jeff Hardy & TNA World Heavyweight Champion Drew Galloway (Winner selects stipulation for Matt Hardy vs. Jeff Hardy match on IMPACT Wrestling #614)

hardy vs. hardy confirmed for next week

Matt Hardy kicked the show off surrounded by the Matt Hardy Brand, and continued to develop elements of his character, following being unsuccessful in regain the TNA World Heavyweight Championship on IMPACT Wrestling #612. Matt blamed Jeff Hardy for the loss and ripped into his brother in a passionate and slightly over-the-top promo. With Jeff quickly interrupting Matt, this segment boiled down to the pair agreeing to a match where the name "Hardy" would be on the line. Whilst parts of the segment bordered on ridiculous, both Hardy's put in entertaining performances and came out with some cracking lines throughout the segment. Jeff throwing barbs at his sister-in-law Reby Sky is always fun to watch, so I got a big kick out him saying “The only thing I'm scared of is your crazy bitch genes inside my family tree”.

beer money defeat the bro-mans, the decay and young & bram to retain the tna world tag team championships

Booked as an Invitational contest, Josh Matthews was for some reason surprised when the three teams advertised on TNA's website as being apart of the match actually accepted the challenge, but that's not surprising considering this is Josh Matthews.  The bout boiled down to mostly a ringside brawl before the contest fully got started, followed up by some fun stuff from the two babyface teams before some heel miscommunication from Bram and Eric Young, allowed James Storm to hit the later with the Last Call Superkick to pick up the victory. There was enough talent, enough variety in styles and enough on-going and past storylines to produce a world class opening match here. Unfortunately whilst most of the action was of a high quality, it was way too short to fully showcase the division fully and a big missed opportunity.

fast-forward...Jeff Hardy and Matt Hardy collide backstage and agree to a Tag Team bout later on with next week's stipulation on the line...

corgan steps in to control the knockout's division

I fucking hated this segment. For everything other companies have done to change how they present their female performers, this was a major step back for TNA in my opinion. The segment started fine, I suppose, with Jade refusing to give Maria her TNA Knockout's Championship, before Gail Kim interrupted and things quickly went down hill. I cringed when Gail said that her problems with Maria were "a little more important" than the title. Just no, Gail. No. The segment soon became an omnishambles, with The Dollhouses' Marti Belle and Rebel coming out and seemingly having some issues with Jade, whilst Madison Rayne and Velvet Sky of the Beautiful People also arrived to say something, probably. The women bickered about who was the "leader" of the Knockout's Division and all in all were made to look like silly little girls. I felt embarrassed for everyone involved. Billy Corgan then turned up to cool things down, because he's a man and randomly booked Jade to defend her title against Madison Rayne later on in the show for no reason and then made a match to crown a new Leader of the Knockout's for next week. Shit. 

fast-forward...Ethan Carter III cut a hot promo on his upcoming match with Mike Bennett tonight, backstage...

dj z defeats lee 

This was originally announced as Trevor Lee defending the TNA X Division Championship against Eddie Edwards, however the continuing Gregory Shane Helms sage saw Edwards taken out backstage and then Helms issuing the second open challenge of the show. Of course, DJ Z made his return to TNA after a two and a half month absence to answer the challenge. Lee and DJ Z did the best they probably could inside three minutes and both men worked hard to fit as much as possible into the contest. It should be obvious to anyone that three minutes of action is ridiculous, even more so when you consider this is the only ring-time that Lee has received since the end of February. After DJ Z had grabbed a surprise victory by turning Lee's Small Package Driver into a regular small package, Edwards was then perfectly fit to save DJ Z from a post-match attack from Helms in a confusing piece of booking. 

bennett defeats ec3 via disqualification

After some strong build-up over the last few weeks, I couldn't help but feel a little bit disappointing by the first meeting between Mike Bennett and Ethan Carter III. Things started well, with EC3 attacking Bennett before the bell rang which showcased EC3's frustration with his rival and an early spot that saw EC3 reverse Bennett's suplex attempt to hit one of his own on the ramp also stood out. I just wish that Bennett had sold the move a bit more in the latter portions of the bout, to really make the moment matter. For me, pretty much everything here felt very rushed, both in terms of the layout of the bout (EC3's comeback seemed to come way too soon) and in the flow and transitions of the action. Things certainly weren't as smooth as you'd want for a marquee contest. I did like the idea of EC3 getting more and more frustrated with Maria's involvement in the match, which would eventually climax with EC3 nailed his adversary with a steel chair to cause the disqualification. There's certainly more to come from the Bennett vs. EC3 feud and I'm hoping that the pair produce a much better effort next time round, as they're definitely capable of much better than what they showed here. 

fast-forward...Al Snow speaks directly to camera and says he was wrong to attack Grado and Mahabali Shera on IMPACT Wrestling #611 and that he's heading to the ring to call them out...

snow attacks shera again for reasons

If I could have cared any less about this segment, I probably would have imploded or something. It seems that the crowd felt the same way, as they were completely silent throughout the whole sorry affair. Al Snow was out to apologise to Mahabali Shera and Grado, with the former WWF Tag Team Champion calling out Shera. Grado was apparently still in hospital two weeks after Snow's attack and couldn't be there. With most of the audience on the brink of entering a coma, Shera agreed to be coached by Snow. Snow then snapped an beat the shit into Shera whilst the crowd chanted "You Still Got It", which probably summed up the entire shitty affair. 

fast-forward...Tyrus confronted TNA World Heavyweight Champion Drew Galloway backstage, with another reminder that Tyrus has a title shot and such...

jade defeats rayne to retain the tna knockout's championship 

This was a decent match that was torn apart by some of the worst commentary that has ever been broadcast on television. Josh Matthews and "The Pope" D'Angelo Dinero are the shits. Here's a couple of example of their arseholery. Matthews "Jade reminds me of Ronda Rousey" Dinero "She's like a hybrid of Ronda Rousey and Gail Kim". Any follow up on that guys? Nah, fuck it. Here's some more. Matthews "You can learn all about your favourite stars and knockout's on social media". Thanks Josh, you fucking prick salad. Jade would pick up a fairly swift victory with her weak looking STO to give her her first title defense. I was too busy noting down the piss-poor commentary to notice anything that made the bout stand out.

hardy and tyrus defeat hardy and galloway, lashley attacks galloway

The main event managed to rescue the show just a little, as Matt Hardy and Tyrus overcame Jeff Hardy and TNA World Heavyweight Champion Drew Galloway in tag team action to allow Matt to select an "I Quit" Match as his stipulation for next week's Hardy vs. Hardy contest. A sound tag bout, that was well structured to make the most out of the four performers and played out in front of a crowd who were hot for the action throughout. The build towards both Hardy's clashing in the ring was the main narrative of the contest, with Galloway being worked over in the World Champ in peril role. Jeff was all over his brother, hitting a number of Twist of Fate's and when Galloway managed to take out Tyrus with a Claymore Kick it seemed like Jeff would finally have the contest won. However, there was finally twist in the story as Reby Sky turned up to hand Matt a hammer behind the refs back, with Matt taking full advantage of the situation. The visual of Matt lifting a prone Jeff off the mat to hit a Twist of Fate was the strongest moment of the show for me and capped a solid main event off well. After the match, Lashley turned up and ripped apart Galloway with a series of Spears, making it clear that The Destroyer has his sights once again set on the TNA World Heavyweight Championship.

finally...

atpw scale rating - 2.78/10

The worst episode of IMPACT Wrestling for a very long time, certainly the worst episode of the show that's aired in 2016 so far. The main event tag bout was the shining light through the show and even that was perhaps only above average. The other marquee bout on the show between Ethan Carter III and Mike Bennett was another decent clash, but failed to live up to the hype. The under-card was highlighted by an fun opening segment with The Matt Hardy Brand and Jeff Hardy that would set up the main event's for this show and the next, but unfortunately pretty much the every other supporting moment on the episode was pure shite. The Knockout's segment, Al Snow trying to be relevant in 2016 and some of the worst commentary that has ever aired worked towards making this the shit-fest that it was.

Hopefully, with the Hardy vs. Hardy "I Quit" bout next week, TNA will be able to get back onto the level that they have been for the best part of 2016 so far.

TV Review: IMPACT Wrestling #612 (Young vs. Hardy *Six Sides of Steel*)

On 5th April 2016, TNA aired the 612th edition on IMPACT Wrestling, which had previously been taped on 17th March 2016 at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida, USA, on POP TV. The show featured Jeff Hardy and TNA King of the Mountain Champion Eric Young tangling inside the Six Sides of Steel and Drew Galloway defending the TNA World Heavyweight Championship against Matt Hardy...but was it any good? Let's find out! 

impact wrestling #612 match card

Match 1 - Six Sides of Steel - TNA King of the Mountain Champion Eric Young w/Bram vs. "The Charismatic Enigma" Jeff Hardy 

Match 2 - Street Fight - "The Pope" D'Angelo Dinero vs. Lashley

Match 3 - TNA Knockout's Championship Three Way - Jade vs. Madison Rayne vs. Gail Kim (C)

Match 4 - TNA World Heavyweight Championship - Matt Hardy w/Matt Hardy Brand: Rockstar Spud & Tyrus vs. Drew Galloway (C)

Commentary: Jeremy Borash & Josh Matthews

fast-forward...A recap of Drew Galloway's TNA World Heavyweight Championship defense against Jeff Hardy from IMPACT Wrestling #611 and the aftermath involving Matt Hardy, Bram and Eric Young aired...

hardy defeats young inside six sides of steel

It was great to see the show start with a big match that was full of plenty of action again. This has been a format that TNA has been using a lot over the past couple of months and it's a refreshing change to the usual TV format. The action started well before the bell had rung as Jeff Hardy charged to the ring with a table, after Eric Young had begun berating the crowd. The pre-cage match brawl has never been one of my favourite cliches and it's one that TNA has used a number of times over the years, with Young and Bram using similar tactics a few weeks ago at Lockdown. I think that it actually distracts from the potential big match feeling of that any potential contest could have and whilst we did see Young attempt to piledrive Hardy on the floor, there was no real reason for this start and we didn't see it built upon once Hardy and Young were finally alone inside the cage.

The rest of the bout was built around two major spots. The first saw Young halt Hardy's Twist of Fate attempt, before delivering a piledriver onto a handful of seated chairs. The spot looked fantastic and probably should have ended the match, but, of course, Hardy kicked out. The second spot however was the match-ender as Hardy hit a spectacular Swantom Bomb off the top of the cage with Young placed on a Table to take the victory. A huge moment and a great visual, however I wish that the match had built to it a bit better, with more near falls and just a bit more story it all. For a feud that has been bubbling for quite some time in TNA the two never truly made me believe that they had any real animosity towards each other, beyond the two moments mentioned. A case of a bout not meeting it's full potential more than anything else here and still a cracking opener to a TV show and the best match all evening.

fast-forward...Dixie Carter spoke to TNA Knockout's Champion Gail Kim and Maria to discuss their on-going feud, with Dixie placing Gail in a title match with Madison Rayne and Jade later in the evening...

tyrus threatens to throw a spanner into the tna world heavyweight championship picture

This was marketed as Drew Galloway and Matt Hardy's last face to face before their World Heavyweight Championship match later in the show in another case of TNA rushing stories and giving weeks of booking in one go. Whilst Hardy's heel character continued to tread proverbial water going over similar ground, Galloway impressed me here the most as he held himself well with the title and delivered his promo confidently. Whilst the two clearly do have issues with each other, it was clear that this segment was created with the next few weeks in mind as their was a strong focus on Matt's brother Jeff, which meant that the two never really connected over the microphone. The swerve that Tyrus still has his #1 Contendership that he won back at Bound For Glory in October was an odd one. Perhaps it was an attempt to add some intrigue to the main event later on? Whether that intrigue was actually added too, I'm not so sure.

lashley defeats dinero in a street fight

A fun Street Fight here that told a simple but effective story and allowed Lashley to continue to look like a beast in the process. Lashley spent most of the match in control, just dominating D'Angelo Dinero in "The Pope"'s first singles bout on TNA programming since July 2012. There were a lot of similarities between this match and Brock Lesnar and Dean Ambrose's match at WrestleMania 32, with both matches having the same basic storyline, as Dinero used the weapons available to take control and to get some level of revenge on the Lashley. I'd have liked to have seen this go a little bit longer, but as a way of continuing to build up Lashley as The Destroyer and simultaneously keep him away from the TNA World Heavyweight Championship picture it more than did it's job. We moved closer to a huge contest between Lashley and Ethan Carter III, as EC3 made the post-match save for Dinero, however the two were kept apart once again as Mike Bennett attacked EC3 with a steel chair. This would lead into the next segment. 

ec3 and bennett's issues heighten 

This was the highlight of the show for me. After Mike Bennett had attacked Ethan Carter III, EC3 called Bennett back to the ring and the two had a brilliant verbal joust. I thought both men were on top form on the microphone here, and made me sit up and take notice as the duo bought a passion to their delivery that made it feel like they genuinelly hated each other. Whilst I've been pleasantly surprised with the quality of EC3's babyface run, Bennett produced the stronger material here as he ripped on the crowd and talked about what's changed for EC3 since he (Bennett) debuted at start of the year. Bennett makes it easy to hate him, EC3 has been on fire since his babyface turn, I want to see what they can do together inside the ring! The backstage brawl that lead to Bennett escaping in parked car gave us just a tease of what it could be like and although I'd have preferred to have seen this next week to prolonge the story, it did top of the segment nicely.

jade defeats gail and madison to win the tna knockout's championship

With Women's wrestling taking a major stage this past weekend, it would have been nice to have seen TNA come out and remind us why their Women's division was once thought to be the strongest in television wrestling. With the match being a three way, comparisons to another bout that took place on Sunday evening would surely be running through every fans mind as they watched. Unfortunately, this bout was sloppier than a soup sandwich and uglier than a barrel full of hairy arseholes. Credit to the women for trying to do a handful of three person spots, but pretty much all of them failed to work, mainly due to poor timing. The finish was a shambles also, as Maria got involved and clobbering Gail Kim off the top rope with the flimsy looking TNA Knockout's belt, before Jade hit a weak looking STO for the win. A disappointing start to Jade's first title reign, I'm unsure why she stopped using the Package Piledriver as her finish. However after seeing some of the miscues in this match, it's probably as good thing she stopped! 

fast-forward...Backstage, TNA Senior Producer of Creative and Talent Development Billy Corgan suspended Al Snow for a week without pay for his attack on Grado last week and demanded a public apology...

edwards refuses to team with helms, beer money brawl with the decay

LOTS OF THINGS ARE HAPPENING! I wasn't interested in the Eddie Edwards and Gregory Shane Helms storyline last week and I was less interested this week. Basically, Helms wanted to team with Edwards and it was clear that Edwards was never going to team with him, but they dragged it out over a week. I mean, if there was one storyline that didn't need more time it was this one! Why doesn't Helms want to team with his protege Trevor Lee? The TNA X Division Champion has stood their for two weeks and hasn't had a match in over a month. At the moment the X Division is pretty much defunct anyway. After Beer Money had made the save for Edwards (Helms got all uppity about something or another and took off his horrible green jacket), the madness continued as The Decay interrupted their promo and they brawled around the ring. I've got a lot of time for The Decay and it was pleasing to see them booked strongly, but this segment was complete clusterfuck at best. 

fast-forward...Backstage, Matt Hardy cut a promo on his upcoming TNA World Heavyweight Championship shot, with Tyrus slowly walking towards him...

galloway defeats hardy to retain the tna world heavyweight championship

Not the greatest match technically that you'll ever see, but I had a lot of time for this TNA World Heavyweight Championship match. This bout was full of sports-entertainment frills and tricks, as Matt Hardy and his Matt Hardy Brand faction played their role well. The ridiculous amounts of shenanigans from Hardy got the crowd well behind Drew Galloway and drove the contest. A particular favourite of mine was Rockstar Spud crawling underneath the ring and attacking Galloway whenever he had the opportunity. I also had a lot of time for Hardy pretending to have an ankle injury, distracting the referee to remove his boot, therefore allowing Spud to jump off the top at Galloway and then with the refs attention on Spud, Galloway ended up taking Hardy's boot to the head! All these antics from Hardy meant that when Galloway forced "The Icon" to tap to Iron Maiden it meant a whole lot more. After defeating Jeff Hardy last week and Matt Hardy this week, Galloway closed the show holding the TNA World Heavyweight Championship looking like one of the strongest champions the company has had for a long time. 

finally...

atpw scale rating - 4.66

A strong opener with some major spots and an entertaining story based contest to close the show. So how did this show end up getting a below average rating on the ATPW Scale Rating? Well it certainly wasn't anything to do with Mike Bennet and Ethan Carter III's brilliant tete a tete which I thought was the strongest part of the entire show. It wasn't Lashley and D'Angelo Dinero's Street Fight either, which was a stellar effort and raised the stakes of Lashley's heel run. So what lead this show to have such a dissapointing rating? It was, of course, the dreadful Women's three way bout. Take that match away (and probably the weird clusterfuck segment with Eddie Edwards, Gregory Shane Helms, Trevor Lee, Beer Money and The Decay) and you've got a really good television show. With that contest I just can't give the show a higher rating for a two hour piece of TV. If there was ever a time to have a bad women's three way bout, it most definitely wasn't this week!

There's promise in key areas of the product at the moment, but I'm hoping to see improvements in the Women's, Tag Team and X Divsions over the next few weeks. 

TV Review: TNA Impact Wrestling #611 (Galloway vs. Hardy *TNA World Heavyweight Championship*)

Check out the review of last week's Impact Wrestling with a look at the TNA World Heavyweight Championship #1 Contender's Gauntlet here. 

On 29th March 2016, TNA aired the 611th episode of Impact Wrestling, having previously taped the event on the 16th March 2016 at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida, USA, on POP TV. The show featured Jeff Hardy challenging for Drew Galloway's TNA World Heavyweight Championship and a Six Man Tag Team match seeing TNA World Tag Team Champions Beer Money teaming with Ethan Carter III to take on The Matt Hardy Brand's Matt Hardy & Tyrus, as well as "The Mircacle" Mike Bennett...but was it any good? Let's find out!

impact wrestling #611 match card

Match 1 – Four on One Handicap Match – The Matt Hardy Brand vs. Ethan Carter III

Match 2 – Six Man Tag Team – The Matt Hardy Brand (Matt Hardy & Tyrus) & Mike Bennett w/Maria vs. Ethan Carter III & Beer Money

Match 3 – TNA Knockout's Championship #1 Contender's – Velvet Sky vs. Madison Rayne

Match 4 – Tag Team – Bram & Eric Young vs. The Bro-Mans

Match 5 – TNA World Heavyweight Championship – Jeff Hardy vs. Drew Galloway ©  

the matt hardy brand vs. ethan carter iii

Not a classic opening of Impact Wrestling here, in fact things ended up being a bit of mess. It felt like creative had three or four ideas to start the show and then decided to do them all. The fact that it went over 25 minutes and included two matches tells you quite a lot in and of itself. The Matt Hardy Brand kicked off the show, with Matt Hardy winding up the fans and taking shots at his brother, Jeff, before he was oddly interrupted "The Miracle" Mike Bennett and Maria. An odd heel vs. heel dynamic here as Bennett cut into Hardy for his age and claimed that nobody wanted to see him as TNA World Heavyweight Champion again, which got cheers. I'm not sure what the aim was here, in either the short term of the long term. The two were stopped from having a scrap by Ethan Carter III. Why would EC3 stop them from fighting? Well, he didn't really explain that, he just called The Matt Hardy Brand his three bitches and spoke to God about Bennett's career. EC3's creativity usual leads to a home run, unfortunately he struck out with this one. Hardy would then book himself and the rest of the Matt Hardy Brand (Tyrus, Rockstar Spud and Reby Sky) into a Four on One Handicap Match, because he can do that type of thing apparently.

After one weird arse set-up for the match, the contest was a pretty paint-by-numbers affair. Tyrus spent a lot of the match working over EC3 with a series of fairly basic moves (big clubbing blows and scoop slams) with the match seeming kind of directionless at times. The only stand out moment for me was Hardy holding EC3 so that Reby could slap him in the face repeatedly, which produced a sweet visual and showcased the relationship between Hardy & Reby particularly well. The finish featured some decent action between EC3 and Spud, but it'd come to a close when Bennett decided to interfere (he and Maria had stayed at ringside). EC3 had just locked Spud in a Cobra Clutch, so Bennett caused the DQ. After the previous segment, I just couldn't my head round the motives for Bennett stopping the match. Things got even more confusing when TNA World Tag Team Champions Beer Money made the save for EC3 and James Storm booked a six man tag bout to happen next. Seriously, can anyone just make a match? The rocky start continued...

the matt hardy brand and mike bennett vs. beer money and ethan carter iii

I wish that TNA had just start the show with this six man tag team match, because this was a much more enjoyable contest and an easier watch than what had gone before it. James Storm was in the face in peril role, with Tyrus doing a nice job of focusing on his ribs and The Pope actually doing a quality job of putting it over on commentary. EC3 and Bennett would eventually fight to the back, with The Miracle using Maria as a human shield, to advance their new feud. This would leave Beer Money alone with Hardy and Tyrus, with the crowd really into Storm and Bobby Roode as a duo, especially when they ran through their crowd pleasing come back sequence. I was surprised to see the heels pick up the win as Tyrus hit a heart punch and allowed Hardy to hit a Twist of Fate to get the pinfall on Roode. Seeing as the bout had basically become a regular tag team match, I'm not sure having the World Tag Team Champions lose, when the division is weak enough already, was the best idea. Well, after 25 minutes and a half minutes it was finally time for TNA to move onto something.

fast-forward...Jeremy Borash interviewed TNA Knockout's Champion Gail Kim, who revealed that Madison Rayne would face Velvet Sky in a Number One Contender's match later...Eli Drake revealed his disappointment with Jessie Godderz leaving him to rejoin the Bro-Mans in a weird backstage segment...

velvet sky vs. madison rayne - tna knockout's championship #1 contender's

Two stalwarts of TNA's Knockout division going at it to become #1 contender (alongside Jade who won a #1 Contender's bout last week) in an extremely average match. The ladies just weren't given enough time to produce anything memorable at all. However, with such an easy storyline to play off of it felt like both Madison and Velvet missed an opportunity here. Both are friends, but both want a shot at the title, but I don't think you'd have been able to tell that from watching the match. They just wrestled for a bit, and then Velvet won with a flash jackknife cover. The wrestling was fine, fairly smooth, but nothing that particularly stood. Here's hoping that TNA takes an interesting situation of both Jade and Velvet having a shot at Gail Kim's belt and with Maria still causing problems for the champ and turns into something with a bit more depth and bite to it.

d'angelo dinero calls out lashley

I've no idea who decided that D'Angelo Dinero would make a good commentator, because his promo here was absolutely all over the place. He basically just said his name a lot as he continually referred to himself in third person and got a bit angry about Lashley. There were some moments that worked but it was a very flabby piece of TV, that could have beneffited from some tighter editing in post-production. Things picked up when Lashley came out bringing things back to earth, as the segment moved naturally towards a scrap between the two. The fight was done well, with both Lashley and Dinero taking down officials and security guards in order to get at each other and including Dinero jumping off the top rope onto Lashley on the outside. Josh Matthews also ended up putting on one of his strongest performances here, adding to the sense of chaos well.  An up and down segment, but one that overall felt like it paid off strengthening the feud between The Pope and Lashley and presenting Lashley with someone to look strong against as he builds towards something bigger. 

bram and eric young vs. the bro-mans

After The Bro-Mans interrupted an Eric Young promo about Jeff Hardy, we got a pretty basic tag team match, that also featured Bram. Whilst it was simplistically put together it did manage to do a number of things here. The finish saw miscommunication between Young and Bram, which furthers their issues following Bram eliminating Young from the #1 Contender's Gauntlet last week well. We also saw the Bro-Mans take a sneak victory, which builds them back up as a team, after they lost on their return to Beer Money last week. Again nothing too memorable here, but at least it managed to strengthen a number of areas and build towards future episodes of the show.

fast-forward...In a surprise development, former WWE World Tag Team Champion, Al Snow returned to TNA attacking Grado and Mahabli Shera backstage, in a particularly violent skit...

gregory shane helms has a proposal for eddie edwards

This was another weird segment and a particularly odd piece of booking. It was billed as Trevor Lee addressing the state of the X-Division, however it was actually Lee's manager Gregory Shane Helms calling out Eddie Edwards and proposing that the two join together as a tag team. When the X-Division hasn't been on TV for three weeks and stars like Andrew Everrett, Mandrews, Tigre Uno and DJZ are nowhere to be seen, why not have an X-Division match here? I can't get my head building a storyline around Helms wanting to team with Edwards, in a situation that no one has asked for. I'm desperately hoping it leads to Lee breaking out on his own and Helms moving onto somewhere else (commentary maybe?) as this partnership just isn't doing it for me.

jeff hardy vs. drew galloway - tna world heavyweight championship

A good television main event here, as Drew Galloway had his first TNA World Heavyweight Championship defense in a competitive bout with Jeff Hardy. In their first time opposite each other, Galloway and Hardy had some nice chemistry as they worked a face vs. face bout in front of a split Orlando crowd. The contest unfolded nicely and told a satisfying story as the bigger Galloway dominated early on, before the veteran Hardy got frustrated at being unable to put the champ away with a Twist of Fate and Swantom Bomb and getting much more physical around the ringside area. Hardy going for a Swantom Bomb with Galloway on the steel steps on the outside, only to meet Galloway's knees, offered a great aesthetic moment. The Captain's selling of Hardy's ringside assault was brilliant, leading to another stand out moment when he desperately reached at Hardy and hit a Futureshock DDT to retain his title. It made Galloway look super tough and made the title look very important as he was willing to fight through the pain and do anything to keep hold of it. A clever piece of booking that gave Galloway a foundation for his title reign, after he cashed in his Feast or Fired briefcase to take the title from Matt Hardy. Easily the best piece of the show.

That wasn't the end of the show though, as Matt Hardy was out to reveal that he'd be facing Galloway for the belt next week on a special edition of Impact Wrestling entitled "Revenge". A strong emotive heel promo from Matt here that would eventually lead to Bram and Eric Young attacking Jeff at ringside and Matt fighting with Galloway. I was surprised to see the babyface's end up on top to close the show though, with Galloway taking out Bram & Young and Jeff hitting a Twist of Fate on Matt. It was, however, a set up for Jeff to announce that he'd be facing Young on next week's show inside a Steel Cage. A strong show close, that set up two big matches for next week's show.

finally...

atpw scale rating - 4.5/10

This was the weakest Impact Wrestling episode in about a month and a half, with a lot of confusing segments and weird piece of booking. It was luckily saved by a good main event World Heavyweight Championship bout between Drew Galloway and Jeff Hardy, which was followed by a nice closing segment that set up two big matches for next week. The segment with Lashley and D'Angelo Dinero was also strong. It was a shame however that stuff like Gregory Shane Helms asking Eddie Edwards to be his tag team partner, the weird 25 minutes intro with two matches and an awful lot of average wrestling made this show a bit of a drag. 

With Drew Galloway scheduled to defend his TNA World Heavyweight Championship against Matt Hardy and Jeff Hardy stepping inside a Steel Cage with Eric Young hopefully we'll see TNA return to the much stronger form it's been in for most of 2016.