Cero Reviews Impact Wrestling 1/19/2017: Galloway vs Moose

[cero2k]

Impact Wrestling
January 19, 2017

We start with a recap of the Lashley vs ECIII Last Man Standing match from last week and Wolves involvement.

Race for the Case Match
Mahabali Shera vs Trevor Lee vs Jesse Godderz vs Crazzy Steve vs Broken Matt Hardy vs Brother Nero vs Eli Drake vs Tyrus vs Kingston vs Bram vs "The Miracle" Mike Bennett - 5/10
This is pretty much the Feast or Fired gimmick. The change in the gimick is that you win briefcases with numbers, and two weeks from today, it will be Open Fight Night, where the number dictates the order on which you choose to challenge, no idea if #2 can challenge people that were already in the #1's match.

Eli Drake captured the first briefcase, it's red, not sure why the color should matter. Trevor Lee soon after caught the blue and while leaving the match decided to jump on top of everyone from the top turnbuckle. Bunch of brawling more, we got some fighting between Steve, Matt Hardy, DCC, and Godderz until he DCC captured the yellow briefcase. And finally Jeff Hardy got the last briefcase, interesting that it almost seemed like Matt was allowing Jeff to grab the briefcase for himself. Match wasn't long considering that 4 briefcases were won, but it was more than enough if there's no build up and it's just some spots and wrestling is kept to a minimum. The match did its job.

Get got some more replays from Moose's debut. Not sure why somthing that happened half a year ago matters right now.

Drew Galloway Promo - Great. Reminds us that he has a clear win over Eddie Edwards, but right now he wants the title he was supposed to win before the injury.

Lashley/Eddie Edwards Segment - Lashley called out Eddie. I was about to talk shit about Eddie wearing a backwards cap as the champ, but I suddenly realized that he looks like a UFC champ, and kinda liked it. Lashley was awesome in his promo, I'd say it was a babyface promo if Eddie didn't have more babyface fire to his promo, which unfortunately wasn't as good. Lashley challenges Eddie to a 30 Minute Ironman Match! Lashley and Eddie started to fight until Davey made the save for Eddie.

Maria Makes A Phone Call - Great, but Braxton didn't answer, Maria left a message.

Maria and Brooke Tessmacher meet - Maria talks shit, Brooke confronts her. It was ok.

Deonna Purrazzo vs Brooke Tessmacher - 5/10
Madison Rayne is again in commentary. Is there any promotion aside from NJPW that Deonna doesn't work for? Apparently Deonna and Brooke have a history, they wrestled 3 yrs ago in one of those Knockout Knockdowns PPVs. They actually played a bit here with how they both needed the win here, Brooke to show she had no ringrust and Deonna to finally get her due. Match was ok, not as sloppy as usual.

Post Match - Sienna came out and took out Brooke Tessmacher. Josh still felt necessary to ask if Maria had sent here out. To quote Pope: "Are you kidding me!?" Seriously Josh, get your shit together.

Maria/Braxton Segment - Maria was awesome and I like backstage Braxton. Maria wants Braxton to stop trainnig Allie. She whispers something to Braxton, I just assumed she said she was gonna torture Allie or something.

Fact of Life - AWESOME! Great intro by Tyrus, I can't stop loving when Tyrus talks. Segment was used to reveal the briefcase numbers. Tyrus confirmed that once a match is called, there is no changing the match. Drake is first and gets 4. LMAO at DCC's mime work, they get number 2. My body is ready for comedy Bram. Trevor Lee got number 3. Brother Nero got briefcase 1. This was hilarious, Eli's facial expressions were awesome. Tyrus was awesome. I need more of this in my life.

Braxton/Allie Segment - Braxton broke up with Allie. Braxton is an amazing actor to pull it off, not even in kayfabe i'd be able to break up with Allie.

Aron Rex & Man-servant Spud vs Robbie E & Swoogle - Squash?
I still not fully understand what the gimmick is, not sure if he's becoming a woman, trans, Gorgeous George, or Goldust. Robbie E made fun of Rex wearing lipstick, not babyface enough for 2017, but babyface enough for Impact Zone fans. Match was total comedy with Rex pinning Swoggle after Spud hits him with a gimmick. Not that good, but i wanna see where this Rex gimmick goes.

GENESIS commercial - Next week we're getting KO Monster's Ball between Rosemary and Jade (reportedly amazing) and the 30 Minute Ironman Match between Eddie and Lashley. Next show sounds awesome.

Jade/Rosemary Build Up Video - Awesome, got me excited for Monster's Ball

Laurel and Braxton Segment - ok, you really can't stop but side with Braxton for having to deal with these annoying chicks, but you also hate him for having to deal with these hot chicks. This really needed a visual of Allie seeing Braxton and Laurel leaving.

Moose/Galloway Build Up Video - Great, both guys were good, especially Galloway, but at this point I really just wanna watch the match.

Impact Grand Championship
Moose (C) vs Drew Galloway - 6.5/10
First round was quite bland, these guys are chopping/uppercutting each other and aside from a piledriver, you really can't think that either dude deserves points for 'aggressiveness' or 'physicallity', anyway, Galloway won 1st round. Second round was more submission and if you ask me, Galloway definitely won that round, but Moose took it for drama reasons. In the 3rd round, Galloway low blowed Moose, which resulted in a point deducted from Galloway, which was to open a good story that Galloway was definitely losing that round, but then win it via pinfall, except all that happened within 30 seconds. I liked what they tried, but time was just too short to pull off, you have to believe that at least half of that grade is all about the idea they went for.

Two things I wasn't going to mention, but I guess I should. (1) Before some commercials, they have these little 5 second promos kinda cliffhanging what is coming after the break, I kinda like them. And (2) there were so many Galloway 'Career Moments' throughout the show that you kinda feel they're building to a title win, right?

OVERALL THOUGHTS:
We only had 3 matches and the Rex thing, plus it felt like less segments than usual, but it really made the show easier to watch. We got some storyline developments, an awesome Eli Drake segment, and a title change. Looking forward next week looks great.

[Big Red Machine]

Impact Wrestling
January 19, 2017

We start with a recap of the Lashley vs ECIII Last Man Standing match from last week and Wolves involvement.

Race for the Case Match
Mahabali Shera vs Trevor Lee vs Jesse Godderz vs Crazzy Steve vs Broken Matt Hardy vs Brother Nero vs Eli Drake vs Tyrus vs Kingston vs Bram vs "The Miracle" Mike Bennett - 5/10
This is pretty much the Feast or Fired gimmick. The change in the gimick is that you win briefcases with numbers, and two weeks from today, it will be Open Fight Night, where the number dictates the order on which you choose to challenge, no idea if #2 can challenge people that were already in the #1's match.

Eli Drake captured the first briefcase, it's red, not sure why the color should matter. Trevor Lee soon after caught the blue and while leaving the match decided to jump on top of everyone from the top turnbuckle. Bunch of brawling more, we got some fighting between Steve, Matt Hardy, DCC, and Godderz until he DCC captured the yellow briefcase. And finally Jeff Hardy got the last briefcase, interesting that it almost seemed like Matt was allowing Jeff to grab the briefcase for himself. Match wasn't long considering that 4 briefcases were won, but it was more than enough if there's no build up and it's just some spots and wrestling is kept to a minimum. The match did its job.
I assume the colors are just a new (and probably more effective than numbers) way to help you tell the cases apart. It would also prevent something like Eli Drake's attempt to steal Grado's case last year, but that's probably me putting more thought into this than they did. If they had thought about that, they would have mentioned it.

Get got some more replays from Moose's debut. Not sure why somthing that happened half a year ago matters right now.
It's padding. Welcome to Impact.


Maria/Braxton Segment - Maria was awesome and I like backstage Braxton. Maria wants Braxton to stop trainnig Allie. She whispers something to Braxton, I just assumed she said she was gonna torture Allie or something.

Braxton/Allie Segment - Braxton broke up with Allie. Braxton is an amazing actor to pull it off, not even in kayfabe i'd be able to break up with Allie.
I've decided that I might actually keep watching the Maria/Allie stuff each week because it's been so fun.


Aron Rex & Man-servant Spud vs Robbie E & Swoogle - Squash?
I still not fully understand what the gimmick is, not sure if he's becoming a woman, trans, Gorgeous George, or Goldust. Robbie E made fun of Rex wearing lipstick, not babyface enough for 2017, but babyface enough for Impact Zone fans. Match was total comedy with Rex pinning Swoggle after Spud hits him with a gimmick. Not that good, but i wanna see where this Rex gimmick goes.
I think Dave said that Rex used to pitch this all the time in WWE and they kept shutting him down. Now we know why.

GENESIS commercial - Next week we're getting KO Monster's Ball between Rosemary and Jade (reportedly amazing) and the 30 Minute Ironman Match between Eddie and Lashley. Next show sounds awesome.

Jade/Rosemary Build Up Video - Awesome, got me excited for Monster's Ball
It'd just be nice if they actually had a reason to justify their stips.


Laurel and Braxton Segment - ok, you really can't stop but side with Braxton for having to deal with these annoying chicks, but you also hate him for having to deal with these hot chicks. This really needed a visual of Allie seeing Braxton and Laurel leaving.

Moose/Galloway Build Up Video - Great, both guys were good, especially Galloway, but at this point I really just wanna watch the match.

Impact Grand Championship
Moose (C) vs Drew Galloway - 6.5/10
First round was quite bland, these guys are chopping/uppercutting each other and aside from a piledriver, you really can't think that either dude deserves points for 'aggressiveness' or 'physicallity', anyway, Galloway won 1st round. Second round was more submission and if you ask me, Galloway definitely won that round, but Moose took it for drama reasons. In the 3rd round, Galloway low blowed Moose, which resulted in a point deducted from Galloway, which was to open a good story that Galloway was definitely losing that round, but then win it via pinfall, except all that happened within 30 seconds. I liked what they tried, but time was just too short to pull off, you have to believe that at least half of that grade is all about the idea they went for.
So the rules here allow him to blatantly kick the guy in the nuts and then win via pinfall? That's such bullsh*t.

[cero2k]

Jade/Rosemary Build Up Video - Awesome, got me excited for Monster's Ball
It'd just be nice if they actually had a reason to justify their stips.
Monster's Ball was in as Rosemary telling Jade if she wanted a shot, she'd would have to take it under Rosemary's rules. Cage match i figured was all just to keep Maria/Sienna/Decay out

Impact Grand Championship
Moose (C) vs Drew Galloway - 6.5/10
First round was quite bland, these guys are chopping/uppercutting each other and aside from a piledriver, you really can't think that either dude deserves points for 'aggressiveness' or 'physicallity', anyway, Galloway won 1st round. Second round was more submission and if you ask me, Galloway definitely won that round, but Moose took it for drama reasons. In the 3rd round, Galloway low blowed Moose, which resulted in a point deducted from Galloway, which was to open a good story that Galloway was definitely losing that round, but then win it via pinfall, except all that happened within 30 seconds. I liked what they tried, but time was just too short to pull off, you have to believe that at least half of that grade is all about the idea they went for.
So the rules here allow him to blatantly kick the guy in the nuts and then win via pinfall? That's such bullsh*t.
i really liked the idea of a dude needed the pinfall because of loss of points, but it does open a can of worms, there's no reason for the next guy to just come in, decimate a dude with a chair until he gets 10 pts deducted and pin him. They really need Josh to explain that it's all Ref discretion and then have a match end by actual DQ. Hopefully that sets things right

[Big Red Machine]

Jade/Rosemary Build Up Video - Awesome, got me excited for Monster's Ball
It'd just be nice if they actually had a reason to justify their stips.
Monster's Ball was in as Rosemary telling Jade if she wanted a shot, she'd would have to take it under Rosemary's rules. Cage match i figured was all just to keep Maria/Sienna/Decay out
No. The cage was done just because Rosemary wanted it.

Impact Grand Championship
Moose (C) vs Drew Galloway - 6.5/10
First round was quite bland, these guys are chopping/uppercutting each other and aside from a piledriver, you really can't think that either dude deserves points for 'aggressiveness' or 'physicallity', anyway, Galloway won 1st round. Second round was more submission and if you ask me, Galloway definitely won that round, but Moose took it for drama reasons. In the 3rd round, Galloway low blowed Moose, which resulted in a point deducted from Galloway, which was to open a good story that Galloway was definitely losing that round, but then win it via pinfall, except all that happened within 30 seconds. I liked what they tried, but time was just too short to pull off, you have to believe that at least half of that grade is all about the idea they went for.
So the rules here allow him to blatantly kick the guy in the nuts and then win via pinfall? That's such bullsh*t.
i really liked the idea of a dude needed the pinfall because of loss of points, but it does open a can of worms, there's no reason for the next guy to just come in, decimate a dude with a chair until he gets 10 pts deducted and pin him. They really need Josh to explain that it's all Ref discretion and then have a match end by actual DQ. Hopefully that sets things right
But this is TNA. When have they ever considered how one finish will affects future finishes? Or even how one important storyline segment will affect others?

[Big Red Machine]

Impact Wrestling
Lashley/Eddie Edwards Segment - Lashley called out Eddie. I was about to talk shit about Eddie wearing a backwards cap as the champ, but I suddenly realized that he looks like a UFC champ, and kinda liked it. Lashley was awesome in his promo, I'd say it was a babyface promo if Eddie didn't have more babyface fire to his promo, which unfortunately wasn't as good. Lashley challenges Eddie to a 30 Minute Ironman Match! Lashley and Eddie started to fight until Davey made the save for Eddie.

The amount of people I've seen talking about Eddie's outfit this week is staggering.

[cero2k]

Impact Wrestling
Lashley/Eddie Edwards Segment - Lashley called out Eddie. I was about to talk shit about Eddie wearing a backwards cap as the champ, but I suddenly realized that he looks like a UFC champ, and kinda liked it. Lashley was awesome in his promo, I'd say it was a babyface promo if Eddie didn't have more babyface fire to his promo, which unfortunately wasn't as good. Lashley challenges Eddie to a 30 Minute Ironman Match! Lashley and Eddie started to fight until Davey made the save for Eddie.

The amount of people I've seen talking about Eddie's outfit this week is staggering.

ha, so i wasn't the only one.

[cero2k]

listening to Tom Lawlor's review, apparently i missed something about Matt Hardy having a premonition that the green briefcase was the one to go for and so Jeff got #1

[Big Red Machine]

listening to Tom Lawlor's review, apparently i missed something about Matt Hardy having a premonition that the green briefcase was the one to go for and so Jeff got #1

See... this is the sort of way I'd prefer these premonitions to be used. For something that couldn't quite be set up some other way.