Impact has made a habit of showing matches from partner promotions featuring Impact talent. Fine. I’m not a fan of it, but fine. But airing a World Title match in that setting de-values the wrestlers and it de-values the title. The bleachers behind the wrestlers on the “hard camera” side were 30 percent full, at best. Not only was it a low-rent indie show, it was a fairly lightly-attended low-rent indie show. That’s not a knock on the show itself, a lot of these shows are run every weekend around the country and the product is just fine. But it’s hard to draw crowds. You would have assumed an Impact World Title match, with a former WWE champion that Impact thinks is a huge draw, would have drawn better, but that clearly was not the case. Yet, Impact chose to advertise and air the match anyway. Impact looked low-rent and minor league. Compared to WWE, that’s what it is, but Impact willingly portrayed itself that way. I can’t fathom the stupidity behind it. (1) TAIJI ISHIMORI def. TREVOR LEE to win the X Division Title If this leads to Lee toiling on the undercard then it’s a total waste. But if this leads to Ishimori and Dezmond Xavier feuding over the X Division Title, and Trevor Lee moving up the card to perhaps contend for the World Title later in the year, then it’s absolutely a net positive. (2) ECIII beat FALLAH BAHH & MATT SYDAL via decision to retain the Grand Championship Ugh, what a cluster. There was never any explanation why Bahh was a judge for a title match a few weeks ago, and the triple-threat gimmick doesn’t work when you’re trying to score rounds. I’ll give the wrestlers credit, because they tried to make it work, but they were booked in a lose-lose situation. Impact seems to have something with Bahh, though. The crowd is suddenly very behind the big man. (3) DAN LAMBERT beat JAMES STORM in a No DQ match — Storm is forced to leave Impact For all that Storm means to the company, they treated him like dirt in this segment. Getting heat on American Top Team is fine, but they played this up like it was just some ordinary wrestling angle. Longtime watchers of pro wrestling would assume that Storm finds a way to get back on TV in a few weeks. This was Storm’s last night in the company. His contract is up, he’s leaving. This should have been treated so much more special. If I’m James Storm, I view this as a slap in the face. They kicked him to the curb and then rolled into the next segment with little reaction. It’s a shame the way Storm and Gail Kim’s “final matches” were treated by Impact the last two months. I still haven’t figured out why Ethan Page has to be Chandler Park. Page was doing very good work on the indie scene and with EVOLVE, and yet he shows up in Impact in a lame gimmick that really has no future past comedy fodder. Page is one of the indie talents Impact should be looking to sign and cultivate. My fear is that this gimmick is a total waste for someone like him. Aside from that, Bolen looks good. I’m surprised they’re only using him for enhancement talent. He has a unique look and has the essence of an actual ass-kicker. This was … sad. (6) LAX beat OVE to win the Tag Team Championships Ortiz and Santana have been a breath of fresh air and LAX continues to stand tall despite the absurdity of the nonsense around them, sometimes. As Andrew Soucek pointed out on our PWTorch Livecast this week, it feels like LAX is on a different show sometimes, because they’re so cool, and nothing else on the show touches it right now.
