Eddie Edwards became the first wrestler to beat Lashley in nearly one year on Impact ...
Eddie Edwards is your new TNA World Heavyweight Champion after he upset Bobby Lashley on this week's episode of Impact Wrestling.
This one needs to digest a little bit. I’m not against Eddie Edwards winning the TNA World Title, and I think it’s a smart move by TNA to get the belt off of Lashley before he goes into a Bellator fight in a few weeks, just in case he gets embarrassed there. The last thing you want is your dominante world champion to suffer a first-round knockout loss.
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The finish of this match protected Lashley in the sense that it was a surprise win, out of nowhere. He got caught with a Boston Knee Party when going for a spear after appearing to have the match won. Everyone has a puncher’s chance, or a knee’s chance, in this case.
It’s a pretty clear indication that TNA is invested more in television than pay-per-view, though. We've known that for a while. That’s not a negative, either. Given their business model, they should be more interested with putting the title change on television. But this could make people think twice about ordering another TNA pay-per-view. I’d be interested in the buyrate for Bound for Glory, given the behind-the-scenes hype that was involved last week.
As for the main event itself, it was a good match, albeit short. My only complaint is that they had to cut away so soon after Edwards won. Lashley has been a dominant champion for a long time, and he finally gets beat and the audience doesn’t get a chance to celebrate that moment with the new champion. Instead, they cut almost immediately to some new Pop TV show, with Mathews plugging it as the show goes off air. I wanted that moment to be longer. Edwards deserved a longer celebration, and I don’t think I’m alone wishing that the audience had more time to celebrate along with him at home.
1. D.J. Z, Mandrews and Braxton Sutter beat Trevor Lee, Andrew Everett and Marshe Rockett in a Team X Gold match
They didn’t do a very good job explaining what Team X Gold is. Mathews said once a team becomes established, they will stay together. He also said that Corgan told officials to really be strict on the rules. Shouldn’t that be the case all of the time? There are rules for a reason, no? And what’s the end game here? If TNA is going to introduce a six-man tag title, not only do they not really have the roster depth for that, but it will be viewed as a rip-off of what ROH just began at their pay-per-view last week.
I’m all for TNA introducing new concepts, but they need to be better explained. I’m still not positive what the difference is between that match and a regular six-man. They just enforce the rules? Alright, I guess? It was just wasn’t clear if this was a one-off or a new division?
2. Gail Kim beat Sienna to retain the Knockouts Title
Madison Rayne was on commentary during this match. After the match, Gail was beaten down by Maria, Sienna and Laurel Van Ness.
But what about Madison, who has been a bit of a tweener but more a babyface, does nothing while Gail Kim is getting beat down? I know she went after Gail Kim a few weeks ago in an effort to get a title shot, but she has been treated as a babyface since then and was clearly a babyface on commentary. She’s sitting 20 feet away talking about how “this isn’t what the division stands for” but doesn’t decide to try to lend a helping hand. It just didn’t make her look good.
Honestly, it might have been better for her to not even be on commentary. Her stock didn’t raise much from being out there, and having her leave Gail in the wind to get her butt kicked only made Madison look like scared. And where’s Jade? It’s possible they’ll use this as a catalyst to make Madison Rayne a full-fledged heel, maybe joining Maria’s stable, but there was not a single hint of that in her commentary, so I doubt it. Madison was good on commentary, providing some insight on each competitor, but I wish they had her help Gail at the end of that segment.
3. Matt & Jeff Hardy and Decay wrestled in a Wolf Creek Cage match, but the finish was cut due to technical difficulties.
Cody Rhodes cut a promo with Mike Bennett
There have been two segments tonight where you could argue the heels have a good point. Earlier, Eli Drake talked about how ECIII had everything handed to him when he got to TNA. He’s not wrong. Now, Bennett complains that Cody was given a title shot while he was told he had to earn it when he came to TNA in January. Again, Bennett isn’t wrong. There’s also the idea that TNA just gave a former WWE mid-carder an automatic title shot, and how that automatically makes them look minor league, but we’ll leave that alone for now. That’s not a knock on Cody. I’m a huge fan. But he wasn’t even close to the World Title picture when he left WWE, that’s not how they presented him, so to give him an automatic title shot as soon as he joins the company sort of defines your title down from the competition’s.
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4. Aron Rex beat Baron Dax to retain the Impact Grand Championship
No offense to Aron Rex, but he “proved that he is the best” by beating a tag-team wrestler who hasn’t really been featured on television much for the last several weeks? He was trying to put Dax over, I think, but it didn’t fit. Unless this is the beginning of a heel turn, Rex sounds a bit delusional here. Not to mention he was dominated the entire match until he was able to get the submission. It felt like they planted some seeds at Bound for Glory to turn Rex heel and switch Galloway back to a babyface, and it was hard to tell if this was another step in that direction, or if they’re moving forward with him as a babyface and it’s just really not working. Time will tell.
5. Eddie Edwards beat Lashley to win the TNA World Title