Impact Wrestling Review: An Undisputed Champion Is Crowned, An Original Departs

By Chris Featherstone

This episode of Impact Wrestling was geared to crown an undisputed world heavyweight champion for the company. When AJ Styles defeated Bully Ray at Bound for Glory to become champion, he defiantly made it known that he was not going to stick around in the company. As a result, a tournament was held to crown a new champion, in which Magnus won. However, AJ Styles was not ready to relinquish his reign as champion that easy.

Bro Mans vs. Joseph Park/Eric Young
Clearly, the objective of the night was to eliminate any person that could be aligned with AJ Styles to lessen his chances of becoming champion. In this match, Eric Young was the target, as he was virtually forced to go backstage as a result of his "wife," ODB, getting attacked by Gail Kim and Lei'D Tapa. Unfortunately, for Joseph Park, the Bro Mans were right there to capitalize on EY's departure, as well as prevent Park from being in AJ Style's corner with the post-match attack.


EC3 vs. Samoa Joe
This time, AJ Styles' respected long-time opponent Samoa Joe was the target. Thankfully, his match with EC3 did not end up being a pinfall victory, but instead a no contest with Rockstar Spud interfering and EC3 hitting Joe with a monkey wrench (When has that ever been deemed a no contest? Isn't that a disqualification? I suppose the greater emphasis is still having EC3 "undefeated"). If EC3 really wants to move up in the TNA rankings, feuding with someone like Joe would significantly help. Hopefully this plants the seeds for a future rivalry between those two, seeing how his feud with Sting seems to have an expiration date soon.


Kurt Angle vs. Bad Influence
This was a good match to build some momentum for Kurt Angle. It did not look good for Bad Influence as a team getting undefeated by one man, but Daniels and Kazarian can put anyone over and still look good as a team. Moreover, Angle needs as much steam as possible leading into Genesis, because he has been poorly booked over the past few months.

Bobby Roode vs. Sting
This match made the show a mini-Lockdown, but it worked. Sting still showed some ability in the ring, although wrestling rather sparsely as of late (the majority of wrestling fans would feel this being a good thing). The fact that it was not a clean win also did not make Sting look bad, especially since there is a rather high chance than he will be putting over Ethan Carter III next week at Genesis.

Magnus vs. AJ Styles
For what it's worth, this was a pretty solid match. While AJ Styles is a no-brainer, Magnus has shown that he can put on good matches with just about anyone he wrestles. I am sure it was not a surprise (for those who were not aware of the spoilers) that AJ lost this match, seeing how Magnus is the future of the company and just won the title. However, the manner of how he won the match was incredibly chaotic, but it made Styles look like a valiant opponent. Hopefully we will get to see AJ Styles back in TNA soon.


What are your thoughts on Magnus, EC3 and Rockstar Spud being the three top heels in TNA? Is that a recipe for disaster, or an opportunity to create a resurgence in the company? Sound off below.

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