Andrew’s Impact Wrestling Rating & Analysis: 10/18/2019

Bound for Glory is Sunday! How does the go home play towards Impact’s biggest show of the year?

Between Sami Callihan & Brian Cage, Michael Elgin & Naomichi Marufuji and Taya Valkyrie & Tenille Dashwood – it’s easy to be excited for the Pay-Per-View.

Things seem pretty fleshed out, but we still need the final entrant in the X Division 5 Way Ladder Match. So does Rohit Raju or Sabu get that spot?

Before reading on, watch this Callihan promo. This is one of the best promos of the year, regardless of company.

.@TheSamiCallihan delivers one final message before challenging @MrGMSI_BCage for the World Championship this Sunday at Bound for Glory. #BFG

What else will unfold TONIGHT on #IMPACT? pic.twitter.com/9QW7JqBYJv

— IMPACT (@IMPACTWRESTLING) October 18, 2019

Ratings:

• Fallah Bahh vs Michael Elgin: Elgin wins via Elgin Bomb – ** 1/4
• Jake Crist vs Chris Bey: Crist wins via Super Cutter – ***
• Rich Swann w/Willie Mack vs Rhino w/RVD vs Josh Alexander w/Ethan Page: Swann wins via 450 Splash – **
• Sabu w/Super Genie vs Rohit Raju w/Gama Singh: Double Count Out – *
• Over the Top Rope Battle Royal: Shera wins – **

Analysis:

Fallah Bahh vs Michael Elgin – Elgin dominated the early portion of the match with strikes, rolling forearms and suplexes. Fallah was able to absorb a lot of punishment and make a few solid attempts at winning the match. However, with the fact that Fallah’s character is still in rebuild mode and Elgin is building for his Bound for Glory match with Naomichi Marufuji, we knew who was winning this. Solid opener and Fallah is easy for the crowds to get behind, but no real surprise here.

Jake Crist vs Chris Bey – Chris Bey has been on fire last few weeks. This is his second IMPACT! appearance and he was on 205 Live recently. He’s been showing why he should get signed, and this match was no different. He held his own very well and even pulled off a cool looking Springboard FameAsser. It wasn’t enough to overcome the strikes and balanced attack of the X Division Champion. But it was a damn good match and Bey is really doing a lot to raise his stock the last few weeks.

If @The_Ace_Austin wins the X-Division Title at Bound for Glory, he may finally… you know…

▶️ https://t.co/sWu6SEiYN7#IMPACT pic.twitter.com/FGx03WwN3O

— IMPACT (@IMPACTWRESTLING) October 19, 2019

-If Ace wins I riot…

-Really great video package hyping the Ken Shamrock vs Moose match. Went back through all the steps and both wrestlers made their cases fairly well. Ken had the best line though. “I’m gonna take his ankle home with me and mount it on my wall”. Good stuff

Rich Swann w/Willie Mack vs Rhino w/RVD vs Josh Alexander w/Ethan Page – This match set things up nicely for the Triple Threat. Rich Swann got pushed around early since he’s the smallest guy in the match, so we got some nice power based back and forth with Rhino and Josh. Rhino hits the Gore, but Ethan Page pulls the referee out. Before Kid Ref can see who pulled him out, Ethan falls and feigns that he was down the whole time and pins the blame on Willie Mack. So Rhino slides out to confront Willie, which Rich gets back in the ring, hits the 450 and picks up the win. So the heels did a great job at sowing dissension between the two baby face teams. Now it’s less of a handicap match and more of a straight forward free for all.

Sabu w/Super Genie vs Rohit Raju w/Gama Singh – Well umm…this happened. Much like we’ve grown to expect from Kid Ref matches, he lets the wrestlers play a bit if they’re known to use weapons. So we get Sabu using a chair, Super Genie interference and a table spot…but this was just a mess. Sabu paid more attention to Super Genie, screaming at her to get in position for spots, than to actually put on a decent match. So double count out, shmuble count out. This was just bad.

Over the Top Rope Battle Royal – IMPACT! is really pushing the intergender thing it seems. We had four Knockouts (Rosemary, Havok, Keira Hogan and Jordynne Grace) mixing it up with the Impact midcard, and Eddie Edwards. Johnny Swinger was the first one eliminated in comedic fashion, and the rest of the Battle Royal flowed as one would expect. The Knockouts had some nice story interaction where Keira eliminates Jordynne to further their dislike of one another, Rosemary eliminated Havok, but Havok reached up and eliminated Rosemary. Aside from that, the only real story was this Eddie Edwards versus the world story. The final four were Eddie, Reno Scum and Shera, so the three heels naturally pick on the babyface. After getting rid of Reno Scum, Eddie is harassed by the eliminated team and distracted so Shera takes advantage of it. Shera winning earns him the number 20 spot for the Call Your Shot Gauntlet match at Bound for Glory, and Eddie being runner-up, gives him number 1. Can Eddie finally overcome everything working against him?

Overall Score: 5/10

Well this…this just felt like it was there. No Melissa on Twitch definitely takes something away from the experience and a few longer video packages were really just filling time and getting across the major stories of Bound for Glory. Things were set up decently, and Impact does some pretty good video packages, but it was just a flat feeling show.

Bound for Glory has some great matches, some nice history and is setting up to be the pinnacle PPV for Impact Wrestling. Hopefully the Call Your Shot Gauntlet brings back some classic names (Taylor Wilde, Shane Douglas, or Chris Harris come to mind). Could also be cool if maybe Jimmy Jacobs or Lance Storm getting involved. But either way, the PPV has been built well, this episode just felt more like a means to an end instead of a big push.

Here’s to hoping Bound for Glory is more 2018 than 2017. Stupid Abyss versus Grado, worst damn match of 2017. Oh wait, now I’m gonna get caught in my feelings about that trash match.

Let’s just hope for the best! -walks off mumbling-