Impact Wrestling Coverage: Fill Heavy

The TNA debut of Drew MacIntyre and the return of Mickie James as well as a 20-man Gauntlet match for a shot at Bobby Lashley’s TNA World Heavyweight Championship were the big talking points for this past week’s Impact.

It just wasn’t enough.

While it wasn’t a terrible episode, it was one that dragged and did little to build intrigue for next week’s show. With a lack of PPVs and events to build towards, TNA has a tough job of having to do more than hit singles every week.

Simply put, they have to provide must-see TV. While the Battle Royal was good TV, the rest of the show was just too drawn-out, with not even shock and awe to keep you in your seat.

If you love wrestling and came across Impact for the first time this past week, you’d have little reason to come back again. If TNA wants to take their product to the next level, they’ll have to cut as much of the filler as they can and lead more with their strengths.

Give 10 mins to Al Snow and Grado and 10 more to Tommy Dreamer would be a good place to start cutting.

Matches:

Matt Hardy, Davey Richards and Eddie Edwards vs. TNA Tag Team Champions Abyss and James Storm and Manik w/Khoya and The Great Sanada: A fun encounter with plenty of spots. Following the Twist of Fate/Double Stomp combo from Hardy and Edwards, Richards hit a Stomp of his own for the win. After the match however, Khoya hit the Sky High on Edwards and Storm finished off Hardy with the last call. Ironically, Manik, who was defeated in the match, got hit with the Blackhole Slam by Abyss.

Al Snow vs. Grado: This was a disaster. Snow is still in amazing shape and even if the fans didn’t care, it’s great to see him in the ring again. Wasting valuable time, Grado kicked out of Snow’s Snowplow. Later, Grado kicked out of Snow’s Moonsault as well. The second time Snow went for the move, he missed and then hit the Roll and Slice and the Flip, Flop and Fly., before hitting the Big Boot for the win. After the match, Samoa Joe, Low-Ki and Kenny King beat on both competitors until Drew Galloway hit the ring and made the save with the pipe.

Angelina Love w/Zema Ion, Robbie E and Jessie Godderz vs. TNA Knockouts Champion Taryn Terrell: Love hit the Botox Injection, but Terrell kicked out and a segment later got the win with the Cutter. After the match, Awesome Kong hit the ring and beat on Terrell, who refused to backdown. After Kong hit the Implant Buster, Gail Kim got involved.

Tommy Dreamer vs. Eric Young: An old-school hardcore match that saw Dreamer get bloodied. Following the low blow, Young got the win with the Piledriver.

20-Man Gauntlet for Shot at TNA World Heavyweight Championship: Lots of garbage in this Gauntlet as the entries of Crazy Steve, Khoya and Chris Melendez had little place in a Gauntlet match for a shot at the TNA World Heavyweight title. After all the eliminations, the entire BDC was left with Kurt Angle. However, Angle was vigilant and slowly eliminated the faction, starting with Low Ki and Samoa Joe, before he sent Kenny King out of the ring, leaving MVP alone with him. The two traded blows, but MVp ultimately got rid of Angle to earn the shot at Lashley.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13821 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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