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Tag: Impact Wrestling

  • TNA Impact 11/11 – World Title Series Week 6 Results – EC3, Ken Anderson, Matt Hardy, and Eddie Edwards

    Last week, Madison Rayne beat Brooke to advance, Bram beat Spud, and Manik beat Mandrews with a GTS. The Wolves collided in a very good match that went to a time limit draw, Mahabali Shera beat Kenny King, and Eric Young beat Robert Roode. Manik vs. Mandrews and Davey vs. Eddie were quite good, while EY vs. Roode wasn’t bad, it also wasn’t exciting in the slightest. The show begins with a recap of last week’s matches. Tonight, Madison faces Gail, while Matt faces Eddie Edwards, and Mr. Anderson faces EC3. Josh and Pope are in their green screen studio, and Pope is now doing Larry Zbyszko’s finger movements from the Nitro era. We see clips of Eddie Edwards destroying dudes while Madison walks to the ring. We get a wacky Ninja Queen video for Madison, which consists of someone singing “Ninja Queen” instead of Killer Queen while she moves plants around and is superimposed over footage of people talking. This was goofy and amusing. 

    Gail Kim vs. Madison Rayne

    They tie-up and Madison wins that exchange. Madison takes her down while Josh talks more about the ninja training. Pope gets a crack in about Josh not really wanting his honest opinion about Madison while Madison gets 2 off a crucifix that Gail reverses for 2. SOS cradle gets 2 for Madison. Josh talks about #worldtitleseries trending worldwide already. Madison gets a weak-looking Brogue kick onto Gail as she was draped over the second rope. Gail gets 2 off a blind dive crossbody and we go to a break. Gail sends Madison into the buckle with a wacky headscissor, but the corner crossbody misses. Gail comes in at 9 and then smashes Madison’s head into the steps. Gail gets a dragon sleeper, but Madison escapes and then kinda goes for a small package, but Gail puts her in a dragon sleeper again because Madison wasn’t at the right angle for the cradle. Madison gets a corner forearm and runs wild with chops and forearms mid-ring. A sliding crossbody gets 2 for Madison. Madison goes for the Rayne Drop, which got the win last week, but Madison gets cradled and loses. This was an excellent little match – easily the best women’s match of the series so far. Matt Hardy interview is up next. 

    We get a recap of Gail vs. Rayne, leading to Pope and Josh saying that two people in Matt Hardy and Gail Kim are in the field of 16. Matt is in a very squeaky room saying that he feels that he’s better now than he’s ever been and he’ll trend when he wins the series with an unbeaten record. They awkwardly around Matt vacating the title and Matt says that EC3 might’ve kept this going on for years, and due to EC3, TNA might not even have TV. Well, that’s an odd thing to say. Pope akwardly asks if Matt will take a night off with Eddie and Matt says that Eddie is the future of “this brand”, but tonight isn’t his night and he’ll be a victim of the Matt Hardy Formula. Eli Drake is out to face Jessie Godderz. Eli still has his goofy superhero vest on. Eli says E-li in the best way humanly possible and it at least helps him stand out in TNA. “The Man” Jessie Godderz, who is also “The Modern Day Adonis”, comes out in his giant robe.

    Eli Drake vs. Jessie Godderz

    Since Jessie’s finisher is the “Adonis Crab”, Josh talks about his favorite kinds of crab and how he enjoys having it served to him at a restaurant. Josh says that if Jessie wins the series, he’ll be on the cover of cereal boxes and getting all the TV show interviews. Eli gets a takedown, but Jessie gets a headscissor. Josh says that the World Title Series episodes of Impact are all on their Youtube channel, where you can “watch Dixie Carter explain the world title series”. Each guys tries to out-cheat each other with the hair while Josh talks about giving out World Title Series awards and talking about WHO WAS AT TNA HQ THIS WEEK!?

    Jessie gets a slick double wristlock suplex for 2. Pope pimps his PopeTV Youtube channel. Eli drives the leg down onto Jessie’s to wear it down. Pope talks about Eli being the prince of Eternia, which Josh buries him for. Jessie gets a back elbow smash and both guys try to cheat via tights pulling to win, but the ref is right there. This reminds me a bit of Martel vs. HBK at Summerslam ’92 with two heels trying to out-heel each other to win. Jessie tries to cheat with a cradle, but Eli escapes for 2. Jessie climbs up top, but gets crotched and Eli puts his feet on the rope for the win.

    EC3 is in front of the office of TNA Wrestling, which you might’ve seen from Finn Balor’s Twitter feed. EC3 and his grey and black checkered suit are angry and he’s here to deliver a check in person. Eli cuts a fantastic promo backstage about being tired from kicking so much keister. Josh names Matt Hardy, Gail, Drew, and Shera as possible MVPs. Match of the series goes to Davey vs. Eddie. Shera wins the Most Improved award. Storm gets the Biggest Disappointment award. Matt comes out in grey and white camo PJs to do battle and we see clips of his series matches. We get the same kind of clips for Eddie as he comes down.

    Matt Hardy vs. Eddie Edwards

    They exchange basic headlocks on the ground before Eddie gets a chinlock after a headstand. Eddie gets bonked into the buckle and placed onto the ropes for a sloppy Nightmare on Helms Street for 2. We go to a break and come back to Matt landing some corner lariats for 2. Matt takes an awkward leap over the top to the apron and eats a Yakuza kick. Big suicide dive takes Matt out for a bit. Pope says that the suicide dive is called that because if your opponent moves, it can end in catastrophe. Eddie chops away at Matt on the post and misses, so Matt starts getting the edge. Eddie avoids an apron Side Effect and lands an apron DDT. Matt eats some chops before fighting back with slaps and exchanging forearms. Double clothesline sends both men down. Matt avoids the backpack stunner and gets an awkward sleeper slam for 2. Matt gets a back elbow, but slips off the ropes before climbing up again and hitting a big kick for 2. Matt avoids a double stomp, but the Twist is countered into a cradle by Eddie for 2. Matt gets a super Twist of Fate to counter a superplex and wins. Very good match here.

    Recap of the BFG main event with Jeff Hardy costing EC3 the title. EC3 walks down the halls of the building and says that he grew up and spent a lot of time here, but now he just sees the legends on these walls as people he’s beaten. EC3 goes to Dixie’s office, full of TNA history like replica belts, photos, and a gigantic Kurt Angle WWE action figure. Ethan says he’s not a kid anymore – he’s a big victory machine and he’ll be World Champion again. He gives Dixie the check, and Dixie is upset. Matt cuts a promo on Eddie and says he’s a guy and a hell of a competitor. They play a “pop” the roster game and pick who will advance to the round of 16. Mandrews comes down the aisle to face DJZ.

    Mandrews vs. DJZ

    They exchange armbars and flips to start. Mandrews armdrags him to the floor. Mandrews hops on the steps and moonsaults DJZ. Mandrews tosses him in and gets a jawbreaker for 2. DJZ drops him on his head for 2 and then locks on a chinlock. DJZ hops around before hitting a springboard elbow. DJZ’s wacky springing DDT is countered with a pop-up rana by Mandrews for 2. DJZ goes up and eats a big kick and top rope rana for 2. DJZ gets a schoolboy for 2 and Mandrews runs wild with forearms and they fight up top for a bit. Mandrews shoves him down and an SSP is met with knees and a cradle for the win.

    We see video of Shera training by running across a bridge and working out in the gym. They play another game and Pope predicts a Roode win. Eric Young is pissed over his bubble being popped because he’d break Josh’s neck and he’s the most dangerous man in pro wrestling. Crimson talks about his opponent tonight, Micah, being an ass-kicker since birth. We see clips of Micah beating Crimson. We see EC3 in India cutting a promo from what sounds like a construction site. Josh says that the semi-finals of the series will be in December’s Impact shows from Mumbai. 

    Drew cuts a promo from his home, which like Matt Hardy’s house, features better lighting than the in-ring action. He says that he was motivated before, and while he was ripped off at BFG, he’s on track to fulfill his destiny. Next week, Brooke faces Awesome Kong while EY faces James Storm, and Bobby Roode faces Abyss. Josh talks about Anderson and EC3’s “rich history”, which we see in clip form. EC3 comes down and Anderson comes down adding “what and huh” to his intro. 

    EC3 vs. Ken Anderson

    They exchange chops in the corner and go to a break. After the break, Ken gets some Kobashi-style machine gun chops on the floor. Pope laments that there will be no “textbookality” here. Maybe that can be added to the next Mortal Kombat game – a giant textbook can fall onto your opponent’s head. They go to the floor where Pope says that Anderson has to be careful being in dinosaur land before stating the obvious and stating he was talking about Tyrus. Tyrus sweeps the leg for 2. Gutwrench suplex gets 2 and then locks on a chinlock. Double clothesline leads to another double down on the show. Finlay Roll hits as does the Kenton Bomb for 2. They fight up top and Ken gets the Lambeau Leap for 2. Tyrus pulls Anderson to the floor with two minutes to go. Earl argues with Tyrus before Ken bashes Tyrus with a chair. Earl is completely fine with this. Earl takes the chair out of the ring and EC3 low blows him, but avoids a Mic Check and wins with a jackknife cradle. To see every screenshot for the show, just click here.

  • TNA Impact Results 10/28: World Title Series Week Four with Matt Hardy, Drew Galloway, Awesome Kong, and Gail Kim

    Last week, Aries beat Anderson in a fantastic match to advance in the series and also take Anderson out of it. Mandrews debuted a new skater/surfer gimmick, and surfed on Tigre Uno’s back. His Johnny Ace cosplay didn’t help him though, as Uno won the match.  Manik beat DJZ with a funky GTS, and in the main event, EC3 beat Lashley thanks to cheating. It was a very filler-heavy episode of the show, and quite skippable outside of the Aries match. The show begins with a recap of last week’s events and we’ll see Uno face DJZ, while the main event is Awesome Kong against Gail Kim. 

    Storm faces Abyss, and Robbie E faces Matt Hardy tonight. Robbie E comes down in the background while Josh talks about how Group Champions “is being called the toughest group to get out of”, and offers up no explanation as to who is saying this. Pope rambles about how his prophecies come true and we get an EC3 promo after last week’s show. Robbie E should logically be in the ring and we get a recap of the rankings for Team Tag Team Specialists. Robbie’s intro is finally over, leading to Matt’s. Pope says that Matt should get a Wrestletarium award – okey dokey.

    Matt Hardy vs. Robbie E

    They start things off with some mat wrestling before Matt throws Robbie’s head into the buckle. Robbie counters the bulldog and lands some corner shots. Josh recaps the Robbie E vs. Robbie G rivalry and Matt trips Robbie up on the apron. Robbie avoids being tossed into the buckle on the apron, and kicks Matt before hitting a somersault dive off the apron. Matt’s trapped against the apron and eats a big lariat. Pope buries Robbie E’s old gimmick like he was Leif Cassidy or Avatar and praises him for getting extreme. In what way has he become extreme? Kudos on the horrible Al Snow gimmick bashing, but they did at least give Snow a WWF gig. Robbie goes up top and gets snapmared down. Pope mentions the Wrestletarian award and tells Josh to trademark that. Well, given how WWE swooped in and got “Four Horesweomen”, might as well.

    Big flying Hart Attack hits for Robbie. Matt gets the splash mountain powerbomb for 2 – he hasn’t busted that out for many years. Robbie avoids Matt’s weird movements before the Twist to hit the Boom Drop for 2. Matt hits a second Side Effect and Robbie pops up into a Twist of Fate for the win. This was pretty fun – Matt is dong surprisingly well in singles matches and he and Robbie shake hands and hug after the match. Josh tells us to update our leaderboards at home – as if anyone on Earth is doing that. Gail is interviewed about losing to Brooke in the series, and she says that Brooke was better that night – and tonight, she’s coming for Kong.

    We get a recap of Robbie vs. Matt and Matt cuts a post-match promo about how Robbie E has grown. Robbie says he doesn’t feel like a loser because he earned respect and he’s becoming more serious. Matt is interrupted by Grado, who wants a selfie. Matt does the V1-AAAAHHH bit and blocks Grado’s face. Well, that was a thing. Grado comes down while the commentary is drowned out by Pope talking about Game of War and Drew Galloway. Josh puts Grado over as “one of the top 32 competitors in the World Title Series” of 32 competitors. Poor Grado. We get a Galloway hype video.

    Drew Galloway vs. Grado

    Grado cradles Drew for 2, and Drew just can’t lift him up because he’s too fat – so he hulks up and chucks him. Drew chops him big-time in the corner and Drew eats an accidental low blow a little later while Grado asks the ref to “check his bollocks”. Drew fights back with more chops and a big overhead belly to belly suplex for 2. Drew wants him to fire back, so he does and he plants him in the corner for the cannonball! Drew gets locked into a tree of woe, which leads to a German suplex and he then preps the foot for the Sick Kick/Claymore for the win. We get a history lesson on Gail vs. Kong – with clips of Gail beating Kong for the title at Final Resolution 2008. We then see a far too long recap of the Storm, Abyss, and Shera storyline. Aiden ‘O Shea is out to face Crazzy Steve in one of the more random matches we’ve seen on Impact in a while. Aiden is apparently from Chicago, and comes to the ring in a wifebeater and slacks.

    Crazzy Steve vs. Aiden O’Shea

    Crazzy Steve starts the match shaking his ass to O’Shea’s theme. Josh brings up that Aiden is from Chicago and of Irish descent, and Aiden steals his horn and plays keep away with it. Steve gets a jawbreaker and GETS THE HORN. The horn is blown into Aiden’s ears and shocks him, but he lands a solid punch to get the lead. Aiden tosses him into the buckle and pounces him down to the mat. Steve attacks the hand on the floor, but Aiden hits him with He Used to Call it the Boom Stick lariat for the win. Abyss cuts a promo on Storm and we see a Storm vs. Abyss hype video showing Storm’s title win and some of Abyss’s title wins. Jeff Hardy DVD ad.

    We get clips of Kong vs. Gail from earlier this year on Impact, with Kong beating Gail with a counter-to-center ring Awesome bomb. Recap of Drew beating Grado earlier and we get a subtitled promo from Grado backstage. Pope and Josh talk for a bit about the World Title Series while Storm comes out to face Abyss, who is already in the ring. Storm talks about he and Abyss being one of the four guys left in TNA who have been in TNA since day one – giving fans some great entertainment. Storm tells Abyss to do the smart thing and let him win by countout – if Storm’s smart, why doesn’t he just ask for a win via pinfall to get more points? Abyss tells Storm that he’s still the Monster and refuses. Storm is in his weird orange camo gear that never needs to be seen again.

    James Storm vs. Abyss

    They start a clubbering and Storm lands a superkick to the gut, but Abyss gains control quickly for an ad break. WWE 2K16 ad. When we come back, Storm slams Abyss into the steps. Storm hops off the steps into a chokeslam setup, but he shoves Abyss into the post. Storm brings a chair in and Earl takes it while the fans chant for tables. The chair is put in the corner and they fight over a corner shot, but neither hits it. Storm lands some corner punches and eats the chair. Abyss gets a splash and gets 2. They plug Earl Hebner’s Hall of Fame T-shirt, which they somehow felt was something anyone would want to spend money on. Pope says “that is available, indeed”. Abyss brings his implement of death Janice into the ring, but it gets stuck in the buckle. Storm hits him with a cowbell for 2. So to recap, you can bring a chair into the ring in TNA, and a board with nails in it – but no cowbells. They fight up top and Storm gets a sunset bomb and a big flying elbow for 2. Abyss gets a chokeslam for 2. Storm takes a swig and spits it at Abyss, who is blinded and eats two superkicks for the win. They recap the World Champions group, which sees EY have zero points.

    Recap of Storm vs. Abyss and O’Shea vs. Steve. Shera will face Kenny King next week and we get a JB interview with Shera. He says he’ll win the title and make his friends, family, and country proud. JB is excited to announce the India tour and Shera says that he’ll return home as World Champion. Pope puts over the Shera Shake dance craze. Brooke faces Madison Rayne next week as well. Next week, we’ll see a Jeff Hardy interview about the BFG main event – and we see a little clip of him saying seeing his brother hold the title win in their home state with his family was the best. We get a recap video of an Eric Young vs. Robert Roode rivalry. I’ve forgotten about any issue they’ve had recently, so this is actually a good thing. We see their history over the past year and are told they’ll face off next week in the World Title Series. Tigre Uno comes out to face DJZ.

    DJZ vs. Tigre Uno

    Uno starts this off with a quick legdrop and armbar. A hammerlock leads to Josh being buried by Pope for not calling the action. Josh responds by saying he just wants to see Pope do it so he can fail. Is Josh supposed to be a babyface? DJZ lands a corner kick and hits a corner rana. DJZ flips around and eats a spinkick. Josh says the X division is like playing a video game, which Pope confirms. Uno goes for a hopping something or other and gets necksnapped on the rope. DJZ lands a tilt-a-whirl headscissors into the steps. Josh says that a win here means that DJZ can make a valid case to get an X Title shot just by beating the champion – excellent point there. DJZ gets some shoulder thrusts in the corner and lands some forearms with Uno perched up top.

    Uno counters a superplex, but leaps into a dropkick to the ribs for 2. Uno goes for his wacky pop-up DDT, which is countered. Uno gets a spinkick and a baseball slide kick. Orno rolls around and then…stops before doing a tornado dive. Uno gets a springboard dropkick a pop-up rana for 2. DJZ hits a running spinning rana and gets shotgun knees to the spine. Pope implies it’s Vintage Elijah Burke, but forgives Josh for not watching TNA before he came into the company. Boy is this a bizarre commentary team. DJZ finally lands his goofy DDT for the win. We get a highlight reel of Gail vs. Kong from BFG set to epic music – it actually makes it seem like a good match, so they did their job here. Gail comes down and Josh says the champions don’t have their championship titles because they don’t want any distractions while going after the World title.

    Gail Kim vs. Awesome Kong

    Gail tries to roll away from Kong, but gets shoved into the corner. Gail attacks the shoulder and lands some forearms before just getting clubbed down for a break. We come back to Kong tossing Gail’s leg on the mat before locking on a camel clutch. Gail goes for a handspring headscissor, but Kong flipped her around and hit a lariat. Kong lands a Mongolian chop and locks on a sleeper. Gail escapes and kicks away, but gets leg tripped by Kong. Gail locks on the standing Octopus stretch, but gets kryptonite krunched out of it. It gets 2 and Gail sends her to the floor and gets a flipping senton to the floor.

    Gail gets a combination armbar/choke on the mat. Kong escapes, but eats a series of kicks. Josh announces that we have five minutes left in the match. Kong goes for a chokeslam, but gets DDT’d out of it. Gail lands some leg kicks and dropkicks, and gets 2 off a crossbody. Kong counters Eat Defeat, but goes for a powerbomb and eats a cradle for a loss. They had a pretty good match here, but nothing on the show topped anything Aries has done so far. Next week’s Davey vs. Eddie match has the potential to be quite good – as does Roode vs. EY. To see every screen taken for the show, just click here.

  • TNA Impact Results 10-21 Lashley vs. EC3

    Last week, Matt Hardy beat Davey to advance in the series. Aiden ‘O Shea debuted on Impact and lost to Kenny King, who is now in ROH. Eric Young lost to Abyss after declaring himself to be God. Robbie E beat Eddie Edwards in a good little match, while Shera defeated Crazzy Steve while still wearing his “Khoya” gear because as Josh said, he wanted to be reminded of who he wasn’t. In the main event, Robert Roode beat James Storm, now in WWE, in an absolutely nothing match that didn’t even play off of their history beyond one “BEER! MONEY” spot.

    The show starts with a recap of the BFG main event, the injunction, the World Title Series, and the debut of Group X Division tonight. Andrews faces Mandrews and DJZ faces Manik. Anderson faces Aries, and EC3 faces Lashley. Pope talked about Group Future 4 being on the show tonight and how Aries and EC3 have one point each due to a tie. Aries faces Anderson next, but first we get some stuff between Aries and EC3 in the roundtable. Anderson picks Lashley to beat EC3, while Lashley just looks bored. Anderson comes down and does his full intro instead of just the “Anderson, Anderson” bit. Aries comes out with Thea Trinidad once again.

    Ken Anderson vs. Austin Aries

    Aries and Anderson exchange basic armwork mid-ring. They focus on the roundtable, with Anderson saying that he and Aries traveled the indies and EC3 asks just what those are. Anderson avoids the missile dropkick. Anderson clubs at the head and lands some shoulder thrusts, but only gets 1. Aries takes him down and gets a slingshot elbow, which Pope says is “shades of Austin Starr”. Oh dear God no. Anderson lays some punches into Aries in the corner before they go back and forth with body blows. EC3 not knowing what the indies are is the one thing that pisses Josh off about EC3, and then Pope says “EC3 was born into the big time – Impact Wrestling!” Ad break time.

    Anderson gets a series of elbows and lariats before getting a neckbreaker. Aries shoulders the stomach and flips over before Christy says that there are five minutes left. If nothing else, TNA has at least made time limits into a viable match finish again with this thing. Aries lands the missile dropkick while Thea claps away. Anderson gets the Finlay Roll by catching Aries in the corner and getting 2. Aries armdrags his way out of the Mic Check, and he goes for the brainbuster – but get crotched up top by Anderson.

    Aries boxes his way out of that situation and lands the 450 for a 2.5 count. Anderson gets a tornado kick for 2. Aries goes up for a superplex, but Anderson counters into the Lambeau Leap for 2.5. They mess up a Mic Check armdrag a bit, but wind up just fine with Anderson going up top and getting caught by Aries with a super brainbuster for the win! This was sloppy at times, but fairly good – Aries being included in this thing has really increased the match quality of the show. Josh says that Anderson has now been eliminated from the series. 

    Josh reveals that tonight, we’ll see the Bound For Glory PPV main event for some reason. Maybe they should’ve booked 64 matches for this thing or something, because that makes no sense to do now. In week one, it would – but not now. After a break, we see clips of Ultimate X highlights from BFG. Andrew Everett’s insane flip bump off the X aired a lot, as did Josh calling Shane Helms the greatest cruiserweight of all time. In a similarly ridiculous bit, he asks Pope if Tigre is the greatest X division champion of all time. Mandrews skates partially down to the ring, resulting in Josh calling him “one Dynamic Dude”.

    Tigre Uno vs “The Dynamic Dude” Mandrews

    Mark Andrews just can’t catch a break in TNA when it comes to names. So if Okada and Baretta are any indication, he should be signed by New Japan in a couple of years and be used to the full extent of his abilities. They flip around on the mat for a bit with some covers getting quick 2 counts. Mandrews does a skateboard pose during the “indy standoff” spot. While they’re wrestling a bit, Josh talks about exorcism live and then Pope says that’s not his job. Josh mocks him for leaving the Bound For Gold match before Pope says his career is over, so it doesn’t need resurrection. 

    Mandrews surfs on Uno for a bit, which is different than skating. Uno and Mandrws exchange gutwrenches, leading to a wacky lucha gutwrench submission by Uno. Josh talks about numbers for a bit and says that Anderson is absolutely out of this. Josh runs through every possible combination of things that could happen for the EC3 match in such a way that it comes off like minute 50 of an hour long math class where by the end, you just hear nothing and it’s just random noise. Mandrews flies over the top to attack Uno. Uno hits a German into the buckle and gets the win. The Bound For Glory main event airs next.

    But first, Josh recaps that Anderson lost and is now out of the tournament mathematically – but he can at least play spoiler for EC3. Aries cuts a promo backstage about setting the bar high because he demands it out of himself. Josh recaps that all of this is due to the BFG series and now, in the third week of the series, we see the match. They join it in progress after intros and throw some new plugs in with graphics for Valpak coupons. Drew hitting the Kryptonite Krunch on the steps onto EC3 is still crazy, and we go to a break after a 2 count.

    We come back to see EC3 suplex Matt over the top through Drew on top of a table. German suplex tower of doom hits. Three-way kneeling punch exchange leads to some chops. Frye-Takayama exchange from Matt and Drew leads to a double One Percenter for 2. EC3 shoves Jeff to get DQed, but Jeff won’t do it – so he kicks Drew low to force it as well. Josh and Pope point out that there are no DQs here. EC3 grabs a chair and goes to hit Drew, but Jeff takes it and hits him. In a nice bit, EC3 kicks the chair base out of Drew’s way before the Sick Kick. Matt hits the Twist on Drew to get his revenge on…EC3. And somehow, this story fell flat. EC3 shoving Big John over the table remains hilarious.

    Voiceover work recaps the injunction “We could not have a world champion – and Dixie felt that wasn’t the right thing to do”. EC3 is asked about the World Title Series and he talks about how we just saw the travesty that happened to him and he does this for him tonight. We go back to Josh and Pope pondering about what could happen with the points tonight. I can get a few lifetimes without ever hearing the phrase “group play”. Josh and Pope are going to play Swipe Left and Swipe Right with the Future 4 group. 

    They plug the Jeff Hardy DVD and resume talking about Group Wild Card. In a bizarre move, we see an “earlier tonight” graphic for Jessie Godderz vs. Crimson and just get clips of Crimson missing a shoulder charge and Godderz winning with the Adonis Crab. Jessie’s video package takes longer than the match. Jessie says that he isn’t all talk and he can back it up. He claims to be the best mix of agility, power, and flexibility – and he’ll be the next TNA World Champion. Between Jessie’s confidence and the clips of him just destroying dudes, this was effective – but bizarrely inserted into the show overall. Following up on clips of that match, we get clips of Eli Drake vs. Micah in a battle of former Rising members. They brawl and get a double countout and earn one point each. Why on Earth did they bother showing the full BFG match if they actually shot matches in full? 

    In a hilarious bit, Destination America makes sure to tell people to not attempt to do an exorcism themselves. Pope is against Grado, but for Brooke and Kong. Manik comes out and he has his mask on. Josh says that Manik went maskless at BFG and he didn’t win. Pope says that he didn’t wear the mask at BFG to make sure he could see every opponent at the PPV. Josh points out a team he likes that wears different uniforms each week and it changes things up. Pope says that he feuded with Suicide for a while and the advantage of a mask is that you can’t read its owner’s full facial expressions.

    They have now spent nearly as much time explaining Manik wearing a mask than they have building up some PPVs. Manik stomps a mudhole into DJZ while Josh talks about Helms being the greatest cruiserweight of all time. Pope says he could be the best, while Josh says the title was changed from blue to green due to Helms. Manik gets a snap suplex and then a back suplex before Josh buries Pope for calling a suplex a “souffle” since Solie at least knew the difference between a wrestling move and a breakfast order. 

    DJZ gets a series of atomic drops before awkwardly positioning his body into the ropes to miss a DDT attempt and Manik gets a cross armbreaker. DJZ dives off the top and eats a pair of boots before Manik misses a frog splash. DJZ misses his silly pop-up tornado DDT before Manik hits a bizarre version of the GTS with a back bump and a kick to the face for the win. We get a recap of a June 17 match between Lashley and EC3 with a weird blue filter put on everything. 

    Next week, Gail faces Awesome Kong – which Pope hypes up as a BFG rematch. God help us all if they choose to air that as filler programming too. James Storm faces Abyss next week and Robbie is hyped up as tying Matt Hardy on top of the tag team specialists group. EC3 comes out with Tyrus. Josh is now back on EC3’s side and points out that Matt didn’t actually beat EC3 to get revenge. Josh points out via math that Lashley is at least in a position to not be eliminated right now. 

    EC3 vs. Lashley

    Lashley dominates a tie-up, so EC3 stalls on the floor. EC3 comes in and gets pushed around, so he cowers in the corner. Lashley gets a beal and then hits a few lariats before a break. After it, EC3 dominates Lashley on the floor and tosses him into the steps. Lashley hoists him up and hits a spinebuster on the floor. Tyrus pounces into Lashley and he smacks into the post. EC3 gets some mounted punches and grinds away with a cravate. Lashley punches away, but is sent to the floor. Tyrus attacks Lashley again and Josh says that Tyrus could result in more fines for EC3. EC3 goes for a suplex, but it gets countered.

    Josh talks about Tyrus’s antics being a complete insult to Dixie and Billy Corgan’s edict about there being no interference in this. I guess that might’ve been in the full video, but they never mentioned that until this very moment on TV. EC3 and Lashley get into a punch exchange before Lashley gets a German suplex and chains it into an overhead belly to belly suplex. Lashley gets a powerslam for 2. Lashley rolls into a rear naked choke, but EC3 escapes thanks to Tyrus.

    EC3 gets the Stinger Splash, and there are two minutes left in the match. Lashley turns mounted punches into a running powerbomb. Lashley hits the spear, but Tyrus pulls him out of the ring. EC3 kicks out when Lashley comes in, and Josh gives Tyrus credit for making that happen and only saying it could’ve happened due to the break. Tyrus brings a chair in and eats a spear. That isn’t a DQ, and while the ref is distracted by Tyrus, EC3 low blows Lashley and wins with the One Percenter. Josh calls him a no good SOB, so for this segment at least, he is against EC3.  Well, there was absolutely nothing on this show worthwhile outside of the Aries match. Everything involving EC3 was a cluster, they really screwed up this thing feeling important just airing seconds of some matches – so you never really know when they’ll do that, and it marginalizes the people they do that to.

    To see every screen taken for the show, just click here.