My World w/ Jeff Jarrett - TNA Slammiversary 2017 [Show Notes] (Patreon)

Observer 6/5/17:

The only title change at the tapings in Mumbai was Sonjay Dutt winning the X title from Low Ki. That makes sense since they were in India, where Dutt is popular because of his heritage, and they’ve been doing a storyline where they played up that for as long as Dutt was with the company he had never won the X title. They did a big celebration similar to what WWE did with the dancers with Jinder Mahal, but the Impact angle and plans for all this were made in March, before WWE even started the Mahal push.

The report we got is that the India tapings had an awesome responding crowd. Nobody knew what to expect coming over but were very pleased and the belief is the TV will come across far more major league than the Orlando crowds. Also, the company believed they really made strong strides in the relationship with Sony Six.

Notes from the 5/30 tapings in Mumbai.

This should make up most of the next two weeks of television. Low Ki pinned Caleb Konley. Low Ki was bleeding from the eye after a dive by Conley. Sonjay Dutt came out wearing an eye patch and said that now Low Ki knows how it feels. So they are turning the accident where Dutt got his eye busted into a storyline. Dutt talked about how they wrestled years ago in New York and said there’s no Homicide or Hit Squad to help Low Ki and now they’re in Mumbai, India and challenged him to a title match. Low Ki accepted. Davey Richards beat Indian wrestler Vinaash Verma with the ankle lock. After the match, EC 3 came out and whipped Verma with a belt until James Storm made the save. Rosemary beat Laurel Van Ness when she shoved Van Ness into Sienna on the apron and rolled her up. Van Ness and Sienna attacked Rosemary until Allie made the save with a broom and hit both of them with it. Rosemary took the broom away from Allie and they teased her attacking Allie with it and dropped it and smiled at her.

EC 3 came out and said his name was Ethan Singh III and had an Indian translator with him. He claimed to be partly Indian way back and then started insulting India and Indians and then ripped on Sony, who promoted this tour and airs the show, and Impact. The translator refused to translate him ripping on India and its people so EC 3 started whipping the translator with a belt until Storm made the save. Storm got the belt but EC 3 ran off. Storm helped the translator up. Josh Matthews, as a wrestler, beat a local enhancement guy called Sandeep, who was an overweight guy who was supposed to be a non-talent. Matthews won with a swanton and camel clutch, or perhaps they’ll call it the Steiner recliner since he’s teaming with Scott Steiner on the Slammiversary PPV. Matthews wouldn’t let go of the hold. So instead of Jeremy Borash or Joseph Park making the save, since they are the guys Matthews is facing on PPV, they had Mahabali Shera make the save. Shera was supposed to pick Matthews up, but botched it, but they can edit that off television. He did it again. Bobby Lashley ran in to attack Shera. Lashley took out Shera and Matthews put Shera in the camel clutch. Alberto El Patron then ran in and made the save, and the segment ended with Alberto and Shera posing together.

Braxton Sutter beat Trevor Lee with a neckbreaker. Sienna and Van Ness came out and they complained about Allie hitting them with a weapon. They challenged Allie & Rosemary to a tag team match and joked that Rosemary may not even show up. Shera won a 10-man Rumble gauntlet match for the Sony Six Invitational Trophy. In the match were Suicide (Konley), Matt Sydal, Richards, KM, Swoggle, Eddie Edwards, Rockstar Spud, Kongo Kong, Moose and Shera in that order. It came down to Shera and KM and they had a regular match which Shera won with a pump handle slam. Shera hugged his father and brother and the CEO of Sony Pictures. Bruce Prichard and Scott D’Amore presented the trophy to Shera. Moose came out for an interview. Eli Drake and Chris Adonis (Chris Masters) came out to confront him. Drake mostly talked about how Moose

is a kiss ass to Prichard. This was to set up a tag match at Slammiversary with Moose and a mystery partner against Drake & Adonis.

Alberto came out and the fans were cheering him big-time. He promised he’d beat Lashley and become the undisputed world champion at Slammiversary. Yes, undisputed. Lashley came out and said he was the realest wrestler in the business and could beat Alberto in the cage or the parking lot. Prichard came out and talked about how both guys should defend their titles tonight against mystery opponents. Lashley then beat Moose to keep his title with a spear after twice kicking out of Moose spears.

Alberto then beat Adonis to keep his title with Del Rio style double foot stomp. After the match, Adonis & Drake attacked Alberto until Moose ran in and Alberto and Moose cleaned house. The final match saw Dutt winning the X title from Low Ki. Low Ki ripped off Dutt’s eye patch. Dutt won with a tornado DDT and Hindu press and they had the babyfaces come out and do an in-ring celebration with champagne of Dutt winning the title. Dutt celebrated with Shera’s father and said that he won the title for the entire nation of India.

Notes from the 5/31 tapings. This should be for the final shows leading to Slammiversary.

Dutt came out with Punjabi dancers, basically the same deal that WWE did with Mahal, except Dutt is a babyface. Shera was celebrating with Dutt. Dutt said it took him 15 years to win the title and he was happy to win it in India. He promised to be the greatest X division champion of all-time. Low Ki came out to congratulate him. He said Dutt had luck but made use of his luck to win the title. He said since he gave Dutt a shot, that Dutt should give him a shot. Dutt agreed and asked for it to be 2/3 falls at Slammiversary. Low Ki agreed and shook his hand. Then Low Ki turned on Dutt and also attacked Shera. He hit the double foot stomp off the top on Shera. He was about to do the same to Dutt, when Sydal made the save. Swoggle and Spud brawled all over the crowd to set up a street fight later.

Van Ness & Sienna beat Allie & Rosemary. They first teased Rosemary not coming out as her music played and she wasn’t there. But she came out of the crowd to attack them. KM helped out Van Ness & Sienna leading to Sutter coming out and chasing KM to the back. Sienna pinned Rosemary to win after a Van Ness curb stomp. Shera pinned KM. The deal is Shera was injured by Low Ki and the doctors tried to stop him from coming out. KM destroyed him early but Shera came back and won with the Sky high. Kongo Kong came out and they laid out Shera with Kong laying him out after a splash off the top rope. Shera had to be helped to the back. They announced the Sony Six X Division Invitational, which was a six-way elimination match like they do in Mexico with Sydal winning over Trevor Lee, Richards, Suicide (Caleb Konley), Sutter and Edwards. Suicide pinned Sutter. Lee pinned Suicide. Richards was DQ’d for hitting Edwards with a chair. Edwards was then also DQ’d for hitting Richards with a chair. Sydal then pinned Lee to win using a shooting star press.

Drake & Adonis came out. They got the crowd to chant “Moose.” They joked that Moose rhymes with Bruce and that maybe Prichard was his partner. Moose came out and said he doesn’t have a partner because all his friends are tied up, saying Edwards is fighting Richards, Alberto is fighting Lashley and even Rosemary is fighting Sienna. Moose then said his partner would be DeAngelo Williams. Drake and Adonis then laid out Moose. The CEO of Sony Pictures in India along with Prichard and D’Amore presented Sydal with his trophy for winning the six-way. Alberto & Storm beat Lashley & EC 3 via DQ. EC 3 started whipping ref Brian Stiffler with a belt and Brian Hebner came out to order a DQ. Alberto grabbed a chair and chased Lashley away and posed with both the Impact and GFW belts. Sydal & Dutt beat Trevor Lee & Low Ki when Sydal used a shooting star press on Lee for the pin.

They did several contract signing ceremonies. They did one for Rosemary vs Sienna, Edwards & his wife vs. Richards & his wife, EC 3 vs. Storm and Lashley vs. Alberto. Lashley and Alberto had a brawl. Prichard then announced a match with Lashley & Richards & EC 3 & Kong vs. Alberto & Edwards & Storm & Shera. Drake & Adonis beat the Mumbai Cats. Sutter & Allie & Rosemary beat KM & Van Ness & Sienna when Rosemary pinned Sienna with Red Wedding. Alberto & Storm & Edwards & Shera beat Kong & Richards & EC 3 & Lashley. Shera came out first and all the heels destroyed him until Alberto came out. The idea is that Shera was too badly injured and he was taken to the back and the faces were down 4-on-3. Shera came back out several minutes later and made a hot tag and even got a near fall on Lashley. Shera hung Kong on the top rope and Alberto did his double foot stomp on Kong for the win, and there was a big celebration when it was over. The main event saw Swoggle beat Spud in a street fight. They had a dwarf from India as the guest ref. They used a million different objects. Spud pulled the refs pants down. Swoggle and the ref pulled Spud’s pants down. Swoggle put Spud through a table for the win and Swoggle and the ref celebrated.

Observer 6/12/17:

While in India last week they taped in a TV studio that held 500 people. Everyone in the crowd was paid 250 to 400 rupee (between $3.80 and $7.60) to attend, so even in a small studio they not only didn’t charge for tickets but paid people to attend. That’s common for television shoots in India and wouldn’t have the same stigma if you did that in the U.S. Fans were instructed who to cheer and boo, and they were very good at doing so. They were told the villains would come from the left side of the stage and the heroes from the right side. The waves that may make the air were also instructed by the M.C. and not something the audience did spontaneously. However, EC 3 did have very legit heat when he came out as E Singh 3, and the crowd really loved Mahabali Shera and Sonjay Dutt.

Jeff Jarrett was telling reporters that they are scouting more talent from India.

The company is running its first house show since 2015 on 8/5 in Staten Island, NY, at the Staten Island Yankees Stadium. The plan is to run a series of house shows starting this summer

It is confirmed that DeAngelo Williams, 34, currently a free agent but a legit star running back with the Carolina Panthers and Pittsburgh Steelers, will be teaming with Moose at Slammiversary against Chris Adonis & Eli Drake. Adonis was injured on the 5/30 show in Mumbai and hospitalized, but did work the next day

The company announced on 6/5 that James Storm would be announced as their 2017

Hall of Fame inductee. Usually, the announcement is made on the Slammiversary PPV and the induction is part of the Bound for Glory show.

Observer 6/19/17:

The first show from Mumbai, India was notable because the show itself when you were watching it looked like it was from the Impact Zone. The two studios are remarkably similar and they didn’t dress the studio up to look different. The crowd was more enthusiastic, partially because they were prompted to be and because it was something new to them. The out of the ring video features were very good for the most part. It’s too bad they ruined their goodwill to the audience and WWE put out so much product and Impact established itself as being so secondary that for most fans there simply isn’t the time to watch it. The serious wrestling is good and Bobby Lashley has been booked better as world champion than WWE champions. Still, there is way too much authority figure backstage stuff. The first show had four different Bruce Prichard segments in what seemed like 45 minutes. I think Prichard is very good as far as he’s a good talker, knows how to talk to a wrestling audience. I’d rather have a more babyface authority figure just because the heel stuff is overdone, but I’d rather they were used sparingly instead of as almost the guy who is carrying the show. Also, in 2017, the Rockstar Spud vs. Swoggle thing just feels really out of place

Torch:

The June 8 episode of Impact Wrestling on Pop TV, featuring week one of the tapings from India, drew 318,000 viewers among those watching live and later that same night on DVR. The good news for Impact is it was the highest viewership since Apr. 20 and the second highest since the 2017 peak of 344,000 on Mar. 16. It was well above the 287,000 it drew last week and well above the 286,500 May average. The bad news is it still fell below last year’s viewership on the same week of 326,000.

•Impact Wrestling has announced a special ceremony to honor the victims of the terrorist attack at the Pulse Nightclub a year ago this week. Their release, issued to PWTorch, states the following: “For most of the past 15 years, Impact Wrestling has called Orlando its home arena, filming TV shows at Universal Studios Florida. Therefore, the Pulse Nightclub tragedy also brings extra meaning to all of the IMPACT wrestlers, referees, production crew and front-office staff… On the next Monday that IMPACT Wrestling is in Orlando, which will be July 3rd, the company will have a special ceremony to honor all of those impacted by this tragedy, which directly impacted the LGBTQ, the LatinX and other communities of color.”

Observer 6/26/17:

Because Jeremy Borash and Josh Matthews will be wrestling at Slammiversary on 7/2 in Orlando, the announce team for that one show only will be Robert Flores, who is a wrestling fan, with Don West, who is back working with the company. West probably should stay. Flores being in the spot showed that Mike Tenay turned it down since he’s been the first choice all along

Ross Forman has been hired to head up media relations. Forman had worked for the company for many years, and then they had a split. He had worked for WCW for years prior to that

Konnan on his podcast noted that Jeff Jarrett wants an LAX vs. Aerostar & Drago match for the tag titles on the 7/2 PPV show. That’s notable for a lot of reasons. First, it would put Konnan, who is the head of Crash, in a match against two wrestlers under contract to AAA, which hates Konnan. Also, Aerostar & Drago are both under contract to Lucha Underground. I’m presuming Lucha Underground gave the okay, because up to this point, Lucha Underground hadn’t allowed its talent to work for any other television promotion and even had threatened TNA not all that long ago about a video from the Crash with the Hardys that included a referee who had a Lucha Underground contract. That asks a lot of questions on why Lucha Underground changed its tune on this. Lucha Underground talent are still uncertain about what is next because nobody has heard anything about any future tapings

Observer 7/3/17:

The Al Snow, Shane Helms and Pat Kenney releases weren’t budget cuts, but the feeling by management that seven agents for a two-hour weekly television show was overkill, since the booking team and Bruce Prichard were all serving as agents as well. The idea is they are reallocating funds to get new talent and improve the production. When Jarrett came in to run the wrestling end, he was going to use his guys in those roles.

The Slammiversary PPV on 7/2 in Orlando goes head-to-head with the second night of New Japan show in Long Beach (that won’t make much of a difference as there are probably only a little more than 10,000 U.S. subscribers to New Japan World although it may hurt this show slightly).

The tag title match politics are interesting because Konnan will be working against a tag team from AAA. Originally the idea was that Konnan had said he wouldn’t work with people from AAA since the groups are feuding, but they must have gotten him to okay it since he’d talked about it already. That also means Lucha Underground okayed it and changed their policy about not letting their talent appear on anyone else’s television since Drago and Fantasma have Lucha Underground contracts covering U.S. television. Dragon & Fantasma are at all four days of television next week so it’s not just PPV. They are looking at adding more talent from AAA for the August tapings and Impact is hoping to put together a deal for co-branded live events. That’s interesting because Lucha Underground had an underground buzz and has some hot talent as far as the indie level goes like Pentagon & Fenix and Impact has to figure out a way to tap into that type of audience and no longer be considered uncool

Buddy Dyer, the mayor of Orlando, has declared 7/5 as Impact Wrestling Day in the City. He will also appear at the tapings on that day and will ring announce two of the matches

The company sent out a press release that Impact Wrestling has acquired Global Force Wrestling. The deal essentially is that the company Anthem Wrestling Entertainment is the new parent company of Impact/TNA Wrestling, and that Jeff Jarrett will be on the board of managers, be the Chief Creative Officer (the role he’s held already) and also be cut in for an ownership stake in the new company.

In the release announcing this, they stated that all the Impact and GFW titles will be merged at Slammiversary, although that had been decided months ago.

The Press Release:

IMPACT Wrestling Acquires Global Force Wrestling

NASHVILLE | TORONTO – Anthem Wrestling Exhibitions LLC, a subsidiary of Anthem Sports & Entertainment Corp. and parent company of IMPACT Wrestling, announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Global Force Entertainment, LLC d/b/a Global Force Wrestling.

Jeff Jarrett, the founder of both IMPACT Wrestling and Global Force Entertainment, will join Anthem Wrestling Exhibitions as a member of its board of managers, equity owner, and Chief Creative Officer.

“We are thrilled to be joining forces with Anthem as a partner to build the business,” said Karen Jarrett. “This partnership will be complementary of our strengths and bolster our capabilities to grow the IMPACT Wrestling brand. Ed Nordholm as President and Jeff Jarrett as Chief Creative Officer make a great tag team”

“We are excited by the progress we have made with IMPACT Wrestling since acquiring the business in January,” said Ed Nordholm, president of Anthem Wrestling Exhibitions. “Jeff and his team have been instrumental in this success and we are pleased that we have reached an agreement on the basis of which we can combine our businesses to continue to grow. Slammiversary XV will be a fitting occasion to bring the promotions together and merge the titles under the new IMPACT combined belts. By combining our resources and talent, we can produce the best product for our global audience.”

Observer 7/10/17:

TNA SLAMMIVERSARY XV POLL RESULTS

• Thumbs up 60 (84.5%)
• Thumbs down 11 (15.5%)
• In the middle 0 (00.0%)

BEST MATCH POLL

• Tag title four-way 24
• Alberto El Patron vs. Bobby Lashley 14

WORST MATCH POLL

• Sienna vs. Rosemary 25

Impact Wrestling did another round of rebranding this week, as at television, the new graphics read “GFW Impact! Wrestling.”

So the promotion’s call letters are GFW, for Global Force Wrestling, the name of the promotion Jeff Jarrett attempted to start and ran 13 weeks of television tapings in Las Vegas in 2015, but was unable to sell the show in the U.S. or the U.K.

The GFW tapes were acquired by Anthem as part of the deal where Jeff Jarrett became a stakeholder in the new company, and will be used for some of the commitments to “One Night Only” specials in India that will air on PPV in the U.S.

Just about everyone on all sides felt the TNA name had too much negative baggage. When Billy Corgan attempted to purchase the company, he noted one of his earliest moves would be to change the name.

Slammiversary on 7/2 from Orlando was the first show under the new banner, which included unification of the Impact, formerly TNA, and GFW titles with GFW champion Alberto El Patron beating Impact champion Bobby Lashley in the main event, and GFW women’s champion Sienna beating Impact champion Rosemary. The titles are now called GFW titles although the women’s division will be called Knockouts rather than women.

Slammiversary was generally well received, although it likely did very little business. The negatives are that the Orlando crowd is just so dead and gives the show a tired feeling, and the booking seems out of date in the sense every match seemingly had to have gimmicked finishes rather than what is in vogue in the company’s that are growing around the world, which is winners and losers using finishing moves. It feels like those in charge are trying to replicate the wrestling finish and booking style that used to be, because American wrestling was filled with that, but that fan base was dwindling, as opposed to being up on current trends in the business.

Those at GFW claim the PPV number tripled that of last year’s show although it’s not like last year’s show did any significant business. But that’s still a positive as far as the TV audience isn’t significantly different, so the build and hype for the show beat that of the year before soundly.

Another issue with this group is that as compared to WWE, ROH and New Japan, the quality of wrestling isn’t that strong. They are getting better and the new hires include some solid wrestlers. That wouldn’t matter so much if they were on Spike and drawing big television numbers and their storylines were working. But they are doing small television numbers and it’s an audience where the bullshit fake pro wrestling stories don’t resonate.

The promotion was trying to push its international connections, and opened the show with Alejandro Morez of The Crash, Yusuke Fuma of NOAH, Dorian Roldan of AAA and Ed Nordholm of Impact/GFW on the stage. Jeff Jarrett has been good with a certain cutting through of politics, because not only did they have someone from The Crash and AAA on the same stage, but also had teams from each promotion in the same match. From a Mexico standpoint, this was like a show in Mexico where you’d have Eric Bischoff and Paul Heyman together on the same stage and with ECW and WCW talent in the same tag team match against each other.

They tried to replicate Final Deletion with the Jeremy Borash & Joseph Park vs. Scott Steiner & Josh Matthews match, where much of the match was pre-taped with a ton of gimmicks. But in the end, the decision was made not to change the announcers so the threesome will be Borash & Matthews & The Pope, so the entire reason the feud existed from the start was shelved, likely because Jarrett probably liked Matthews as a heel announcer.

The biggest mainstream story coming out of the show was DeAngelo Williams, a former All-American and NFL Pro Bowl running back with the Carolina Panthers and Pittsburgh Steelers, doing a pro wrestling match, teaming with Moose against Chris Adonis (Masters) & Eli Drake.

To say Williams looked impressive would be the understatement of the year. He had only three days of training with his opponents and Scott D’Amore. Even though his spots were obviously choreographed and the table didn’t break right on the finish, he was significantly better than even guys like Kurt Angle were in their first match. I’ve never seen a guy in his first match close to as good. At 34, he would be old to start, but there’s not a doubt in my mind that if he wanted to be, he’d quickly become one of the best wrestlers in the business. Lots of guys have great athletic ability, but he had a sense of timing that it usually takes guys more than a year of training to get and sold like a guy with several years experience. There are guys in NXT who have been there daily for three years who aren’t as advanced as he is.

But it’s a moot point, as Williams, a longtime fan, only wanted to do it once. Because the current style of pro wrestling is so physically demanding at the top level, unlike in years past when ex-NFL stars would go into pro wrestling, now, for the most part, if you’re an NFL star, by the time you’re out of the game, you’re body is thrashed. With Williams, you’re talking about a running back with 2,699 carries between college and pro football. Like Kevin Greene, who also had great natural aptitude for pro wrestling, when he got out of football, he wasn’t interested in beating up his body more. With Williams, who is now a free agent, he’s still interested in playing football this coming season.

With Borash and Matthews wrestling on the show, Robert Flores, who is a big fan, did the announcing with Don West. West did a good job in putting over the excitement of the matches and I have no idea why they have The Pope and Matthews announcing and not West.

1. Santana & Ortiz won a four-way over Garza Jr. & Laredo Kid, Taiji Ishimori & Naomichi Marufuji and Drago & El Hijo del Fantasma in 15:10 to retain the GFW tag team titles. Santana & Ortiz, or LAX, held both the GFW and old TNA titles so there was no need to unify. They billed this as stars from three different companies, The Crash, NOAH and AAA as challengers. This was all kinds of moves back- and-forth. Marufuji seemed a little off in the six-sided ring. Drago & Fantasma looked good. Diamante at ringside tripped Fantasma the first time he tried his best tope in wrestling. Drago at one point slipped and fell off the top rope. There was a triple moonsault to the floor spot. Marufuji did a flip dive on Santana. Ishimori did a dove on

Drago. Fantasma did his tope on Marufuji. Homicide interfered and hit the Gringo killer

on Garza when the ref was distracted. Drago did a tornillo dive on Ishimori. Laredo Kid did a Spanish fly on Santana for a great near fall. LAX did a double-team blockbuster on Laredo Kid for the pin. Konnan, after the match, vowed that there would be a new member of LAX coming.

***

2. Moose & DeAngelo Williams beat Eli Drake & Chris Adonis in 10:34.

Gary Barnidge, an NFL player and Austin Dillon, a NASCAR driver who won this year’s Coca Cola 600, were in Moose & Williams’ corner. Moose & Williams came out with cheerleaders, which included local independent wrestlers Amanda Keiner and Mila Naniki. Robert Flores kept calling Adonis by his old name Chris Masters. Drake tried a springboard move and slipped off in a real big botch. Williams tagged in and hit a Samoan drop and a standing moonsault on Drake. Moose did a crossbody off the middle rope to the floor on Adonis & Drake. Adonis & Drake set up a table And Adonis put Moose on the table. Drake went to the top rope but Williams shoved him off. Moose put Adonis on the table and Williams splashed off the top, but actually overshot so the table didn’t break. Williams pinned Masters. The announcers pushed that Williams did better than Dennis Rodman, Karl Malone or Jay Leno. I mean, come on. Moose called an audible since the table didn’t break, and brought Drake back to the ring and power bombed him through the table.

**3/4

3. Ethan Carter III beat James Storm in 10:37 in a strap match.

The angle that set this up was Carter whipping Storm 31 times, so Storm immediately whipped Carter over and over. EC 3 came back choking Storm with the strap and whipping him. EC 3 pulled Storm off the top rope and pulled out handcuffs. EC 3 tried to handcuff Storm to the ropes, but Storm managed to handcuff EC 3 to the ropes. So Storm whipped EC 3 32 times. Brian Hebner came out to unlock EC 3. Storm used EC 3's one percenter for a near fall. EC 3 pulled on the strap and Storm’s head went into the post. EC 3 hit the one percenter but Storm kicked out. Don West pushed that he’d never seen anyone kick out of the one percenter when EC 3 just had a few seconds earlier. Storm hit a superkick, but then collapsed. The idea was it was a delayed reaction from the ringpost spot. EC 3 gave him a pedigree and pinned him.

They had medical personnel all around Storm.

***

4. Joseph Park & Jeremy Borash beat Scott Steiner & Josh Matthews in a no DQ match in 10:51. Matthews was billed as the company’s Vice President of Digital Media. Steiner wore a shirt. His arms aren’t nearly as big as they used to be, but he’s still 53 and pretty big. When Borash wanted Matthews, Matthews tagged Steiner. Matthews did a plancha on Park but bounced off him. They all went backstage and then they cut to a pre-taped segment. Steiner & Matthews were chasing Park & Borash, who were on foot, in a cart. Borash & Park sprayed Steiner & Matthews with a fire extinguisher. Later, Steiner threw a guy who was in one of the Hardys videos driving a truck, out of his truck and they took that over. They ended up with Matthews and Borash in a swimming pool.

Borash backdropped Matthews into the pool. Steiner and Matthews were beating up Borash in the pool when Shark Boy showed up and bit Matthews in the ass. James Mitchell showed up and gave Park the Abyss mask.

They ended up showing back up in the arena, where Chef Robert Irvine (Gail Kim’s husband) shoved down Matthews. Borash speared Matthews but Steiner attacked Borash. Matthews used the Steiner recliner on Borash. Mitchell and Abyss showed up. Mitchell gave Abyss a bag of thumbtacks and he gave Matthews a black hole slam into the thumbtacks. Borash used a frog splash on Matthews and in landing, thumbtacks cut up Borash’s hands something fierce and Abyss got the pin. This was entertaining for what it was.

5. Eddie & Alisha Edwards beat Davey Richards & Angelina Love in a Full Metal Mayhem match in 8:35.

A lot of spots here. The stuff with the women didn’t look good at all. Alisha did a crossbody off the top onto everyone. Love hit Alisha with a garbage can. Edwards & Alisha used garbage can lid shots on both of them. They put a garbage can over the head of Richards & Love and started nailing the garbage can with a kendo stick. Edwards power bombed Alisha on Richards for a near fall. Richards gave Edwards a brainbuster on a chair for a near fall. Love brought out thumbtacks for the second straight match. Richards put thumbtacks in Edwards’ mouth and Richards kicked him in the mouth but Alisha saved. Love was bleeding from the bridge of the nose. Alisha power bombed Love off a ladder and through a table. Richards and Edwards were both near the top of the ladder when Edwards gave him a sunset flip over the top of the ladder into a power bomb through a table and got the pin.

*1/2

6. Sonjay Dutt won 2/3 falls to retain the X Division title over Low Ki in 18:14.

Low Ki worked the match in a suit and tie, as he has at times of late. He did that at a Tokyo Dome show and New Japan people were furious and have claimed they would never use him again. Low Ki won the first fall when Dutt did a springboard huracanrana, but Low Kid turned it into a sunset flip and then used a double foot stomp at the 7:28 mark. In the second fall, Low Ki tried a double foot stomp but Dutt cradled him at 5:11. The third fall was at 3:35. Dutt kicked out of a Ki Krusher. Low Ki dropped him on the top turnbuckle and went for the Del Rio double foot stomp, but Dutt grabbed him by the tie and threw Low Ki off he top rope. Dutt then used a moonsault double foot stomp on Low Ki for the pin.

This was a good match, but it was marred by the quiet crowd and trying to do a wrestling match after two straight matches with tons of weapons.

***

7. Sienna beat Rosemary to unify the GFW and Impact Knockouts titles in 10:32.

Gail Kim came out before the match. Rosemary came out with some weird looking women, who were played by local indie wrestlers Kaci Lennox, Raegan Fire and Shaniah Arlynna. They tried to make it look like Rosemary was a star with the entrance. It was tough putting the women in this position as the crowd was dead. Plus, the wrestling itself was bad. KM (the former Kevin Matthews, but not using the name because of Josh Matthews) and Laurel Van Ness came out at the start of the match but Sienna told them to go to the back. Rosemary did a plancha off the top to the floor. Sienna used the silencer, which used to be called the pounce period by Monty Brown, for a near fall. When Rosemary kicked out, they said nobody had ever kicked out of it. Rosemary used the red wedding.

Van Ness came back out and pulled referee Earl Hebner out of the ring to stop the count. Van Ness was hitting on Hebner. Allie came out with a kendo stick to chase Van Ness to the back. They were both sprinting. Sienna used a belt shot but Rosemary kicked out. The kicking out of the belt shot got a good easy pop. Rosemary went for the mist, but Sienna put her hand over Rosemary’s mouth. The idea was that Rosemary blew it and it burned Sienna’s hand. Sienna then put her hand with the mist in Rosemary’s eyes and put her in a guillotine. The finish was clever as far as old finishes went, but just came across as out-of-date.

*1/4

Jeff Jarrett came out and talked about his family being with him, and told the fans they were his wrestling family and how his family has been in the business for 70 years. It was Jarrett doing his charming politician speech thanking the audience. They were lukewarm as far as reacting. He told Bobby Lashley and Alberto El Patron that they’d better bring their A game after what had already happened.

8. Alberto El Patron beat Bobby Lashley in 18:07 to retain the GFW title and win the Impact title.

Alberto came out with his father, Dos Caras, and his brother, El Hijo de Dos Caras. Lashley came out with King Mo Lawal, Dan Lambert, the owner of American Top Team (Lashley’s manager and the gym that he trains at), as well as several ATT fighters including Jeff Monson and Marcus

“Conan” Silveira. Once the match started, everyone left ringside except Dos Caras and Mo. Alberto tried a dive but Lashley hit him with an uppercut. Mo slammed Caras’ head into a table. Caras chopped Mo, who sold it like a pro. Lashley powerslammed Alberto on the steps. Lashley missed a charge into the post. Alberto used a superplex off the top rope. Lashley did a power bomb for a near fall. The crowd was dead for this. Alberto used a back stabber for a near fall. Alberto missed a tope and crashed on the floor. Alberto used an armbar but Lashley did a one arm power bomb to get out of it. Lashley used a Death Valley bomb off the middle rope for a near fall. Alberto got a near fall with a double foot stomp. Lashley finally hit the spear but Alberto kicked out. Alberto tackled Lashley through the ropes. Mo was after Dos Caras, but in Mexican tradition, Dos Caras nailed Mo with a low blow. Lashley shoved and slapped Dos Caras. Alberto posted Lashley and pinned him after a double foot stomp. After the match, Jarrett, Scott D’Amore, Ed Nordholm, Marufuji and El Hijo del Fantasma gave both a hand, but the crowd just wasn’t with it at all.

***1/4