Impact Wrestling on Destination America
Wednesday, October 28
Soundstage 20
Universal Studios, Orlando, FL

Group Tag Team Specialists Match
Robbie E vs. Matt Hardy

They exchanged holds to start before Robbie gained advantage with a flying clothesline and a cannonball off the apron. Robbie went up top but Hardy snap mared him to the mat. Hardy hit a Side Effect for a near fall. Robbie hit a clothesline from the middle rope for two. Hardy hit a sitout powerbomb but Robbie kicked out. Hardy went for the Twist of Fate but Robbie countered into the Boom Drop for a close near fall. Hardy hit a Side Effect followed by the Twist of Fate for the win. Robbie E is one of the more underrated wrestlers on the TNA roster – he’s really solid and showed that here. He just hasn’t really had much of a chance to define his character since splitting with Jessie. This was a really solid sprint. ***

This is Group Tag Team Specialists as it stands:

Group UK Match
Grado vs. Drew Galloway

Before the match Grado took a selfie backstage with Matt Hardy – they subtitled Grado. I sing Like a Prayer to myself during every TNA Grado entrance. Grado managed to outwrestle Drew in the opening exchanges which amused Drew. He then proceeded to murder Grado with a big German suplex. Grado accidentally low blowed Galloway. This too appeared to anger Galloway so he chopped Grado and hit him with a belly to belly. Drew slapped Grado which caused Grado to fire up. Grado hit a uranage followed by a cannonball. Grado placed Drew in the corner but Drew hit a German out of the corner followed the Claymore (they finally named his running boot) for the win. Thankfully they devised a match that credibly had Grado working Drew’s kind of match (with Drew trying to bring some aggression out of Grado) rather than having Drew sink to working a comedy match with Grado. The match was much better off for it. **1/4

This is Group UK as it stands:

Group Wildcard Match
Crazy Steve vs. Aiden O’Shea

Whereas Galloway and Grado were smart enough to work a Galloway match rather than a Grado match, these two made the mistake of working a Crazy Steve match rather than an Aiden O’Shea match. And the frustrating thing about Crazy Steve is I’m still relatively certain that below the face paint and the clown dolls and the horns, below all the clown silliness is a fairly solid wrestler in there. We only ever get very brief glimpses of it though. O’Shea won with his clothesline which was known as the Boomstick while he was Jay Bradley. This could have been worse I suppose. 1/2*  

This is Group Wildcard as it stands:

Group TNA Originals Match
James Storm vs. Abyss

Abyss and Storm have wrestled twice before – both matches were three minutes long, one was  a Beer Bottle on a Pole match and neither was very good. Storm asked Abyss to leave and allow Storm win by count out before the match. Abyss declined. They brawled on the floor for a while before Storm drove Abyss into the ringpost. Storm grabbed a chair and wedged it in the corner. Abyss drove Storm into the chair and hit a splash for two. Abyss grabbed Janice but got it stuck in the turnbuckle pad. This distracted Hebner allowing Storm to clock Abyss with the cowbell but Abyss kicked out. Abyss went for a superplex but Storm countered into a sunset flip powerbomb and hit a top rope elbow for a near fall. Storm hit the Last Call but Abyss didn’t budge. Abyss hit a chokeslam but Storm kicked out. Storm grabbed a beer bottle, spat beer in Abyss’ eyes and hit two Last Calls for the win. This was the best match these two have ever had. **1/2

This is Group TNA Originals as it stands:

Supplementary segments included interviews with Robbie E (whose story in this tournament is that he is proving himself as a singles competitor), Matt Hardy (who commended Robbie E’s valiant efforts), Abyss (who made the rather sad observation that TNA originals are a dying breed), Grado (who didn’t know where he was), recaps of the Kong/Kim feud (which for some reason of all the Kong/Kim matches they showed highlights of they went for their throwaway match in April (as opposed to like four other better, more important matches from 2008 they could’ve went with)) as well as the demise of The Revolution, a feature on Mahabali Shera, and a preview of an interview that will air with Jeff Hardy next week.

Group X-Division Match
Tigre Uno vs. DJ Z

Uno controlled the early exchanges before DJ Z hit a nifty hurricanrana out of the corner. Zema walked into a spinning wheel kick which Uno followed with a dropkick in the corner. Zema dropped DJ Z on the rope and followed with a headscissors into the steps. DJ Z went for a superplex but Uno hit a front suplex. Uno went for a top rope crossbody but DJ Z took him out of mid-air with a dropkick. Uno avoided a tornado DDT and followed with a baseball slide while DJ Z was on the apron. Uno followed with a corkscrew plancha. Uno hit a huge hurricanrana for two. DJ Z nailed a ‘rana of his own and looked for the tornado DDT again. Uno escaped again, dropped DJ Z with a kind of reverse Shellshock but missed his split leg corkscrew. This opened the door to allow DJZ to finally hit the tornado DDT for the win. This was a really fun match – the action was crisp and fast paced while the story of the match was good and straightforward with DJ Z trying for his tornado DDT out of the ropes over and over until he hit it. DJ Z is great and this was a good showing for Uno. ***

This is Group X-Division as it stands:

Group Knockouts Match
Gail Kim vs. Awesome Kong

The last time these two main evented Impact it resulted in the second most watched video in the history of TNA’s YouTube channel. It is nice that they trusted these two to close the show. Kim started by attacking Kong’s arm. Kong knocked Kim off of the apron and took control. Kong missed a splash, Gail went for a head scissors but Kong was having none of it and dropped Kim with a clothesline. Kim finally made a comeback, knocking Kong out to the floor and hitting a splash off the apron. Kim locked on an armbar variation but Kong escaped. Kim escaped a chokeslam and followed with a DDT. Kim hit a top rope crossbody for two. Kong went for a spinning backfist and missed, then went for an Awesome Bomb but Kim reversed with a hurricanrana into a pin for the win. This was a better, and smarter, match than their Bound For Glory match. It was closer to the dynamic of their original matches that actually worked, rather than the back and forth bland exchange of moves that was their Bound For Glory match. **3/4

This is Group Knockouts as it stands:

Final Thoughts: While there was nothing standout on this show there was a lot of good, solid wrestling. Next week should be fun with Roode vs. Young and Davey Richards vs. Eddie Edwards.