TNA Impact Wrestling Results – August 18, 2016

The show opens with a look at last week when Bobby Lashley beat James Storm for the X Division Title, then we see Lashley find Aron Rex backstage. They have a silent staredown before Lashley walks off.

James Storm comes out to the ring and says he wants to cut right to the chase, and asks referee Brian Hebner to come out to the ring. He tells Hebner they’ve been friends for a long time, but last week, somebody f’d up, and he wants him to explain to the people what happened after he had Lashley pinned right in the middle of the ring. They look back at Storm hitting the Last Call and Hebner being out of position to make the count. Hebner says he did nothing wrong, and Storm says he’ll give him an opportunity to right the wrong and get him a rematch with Lashley right now. Storm is interrupted by the new TNA President, Billy Corgan, and he knows James is upset, but he’s not sure what he wants him to do because the referee’s decision is final. Games are won and lost in the fourth quarter, and there’s nothing he can do. Storm says this is wrestling, the fans want a rematch, and so does he. TNA is about listening to the people, and Corgan says he’s a TNA original, and he’s out here begging. Corgan says it’s about wins and losses, and he lost. Maybe it’s got nothing to do with his damn luck, maybe he just can’t win the big one. Storm says, “I can’t win the big one, huh?” He goes under the ring, rumps out a toolkit, grabs a monkey wrench, and he says he helped build this damn company, and he will tear this sonovabitch apart limb by limb by limb, and Corgan is nothing but a stupid rock star to him. Security comes in for Billy Corgan’s protection, and Storm takes a big drink of beer, then he says rock stars need security, and the boys take care of the business themselves. He warns security not to touch him, then he says Corgan comes into this company and knows nothing about him. AJ Styles and Bobby Roode left, and he stayed here because he loves this company, and he tells Corgan not to tell him anything about begging. Storm smashes a bottle over a security guard’s head, and Corgan calms him down and says his actions here have proven his point. Storm says he’s beaten the crap out of a lot of men in his life, but he’s never had the chance to beat the hell out of a rock star, and if their paths ever cross again, he’s going to smash Corgan’s pumpkin. Storm leaves the ring and heads to the back, and Corgan says he has a message to put in his pocket on his way back to Nashville: he’s suspended indefinitely.

Mike Bennett is backstage with Maria and Moose, and the game’s been stacked against him from the start, but Moose is his gamebreaker. Moose says Eddie is good, but he’s better and stronger, and he knocked the baddest football players on their asses, and it’s going to be easy for Eddie. Bennett says Moose does what he says when he says it, because he’s on to the TNA World Title.

James Storm is leaving the Impact Zone, and tells the camera crew to leave him the F alone as he gets in his car, stops to rub his brow in consternation for a moment, then speeds away.

Time for our opening match…

Eddie Edwards vs Moose

Eddie tries to unload on Moose with some chops as the bell rings, but Moose easily overpowers him, tossing him into the corner and hammering him with hard forearms. Eddie sidesteps a charge and sends Moose to the floor, hits him with a baseball slide, and drills him with a running knee off the apron. Moose isn’t going down, and Bennett distracts Eddie just long enough for Moose to kill Eddie with a HUGE bicycle kick and a powerbomb onto the apron. Eddie flops lifelessly to the floor, and the referee backs Bennett off as Moose rolls Eddie into the ring and covers for 2. Moose hits a snake eyes and casually covers with his boot on Eddie’s chest for 1. Moose drills Eddie with a dropkick to the face for 2, then he leaps to the top rope and springs out with a crossbody, but Eddie drills him with a dropkick on the way down, then unloads with kicks and hits the shining wizard. Eddie covers, but Bennett has the referee distracted, allowing Moose to recover and hit a pop-up clothesline for a close 2. Eddie dodges a spear, hits a leaping enziguiri, sits him on the top rope, another enziguiri, and he goes for a top rope Frankensteiner…and hits it! Eddie takes Bennett out with a dive to the floor, but takes too long coming back in, goes to the top, and Moose grabs him and swings him out into the sky high for the win.

Winner: Moose

Great match, Moose is such an amazing talent. Big get by TNA, and they’ve handled him great so far.

Maria and Allie are backstage, and Maria tells Jade that she knows she and Gail will have a great match tonight, and if she doesn’t win this match, she’ll never get another title shot as long as she lives. Jade says she wants to whoop Maria’s ass, and Maria says to take it out on Gail.

Gail Kim vs Jade

Gail Kim has comments backstage before the match that she has all the respect in the world for Jade, but she’ll do whatever is necessary to get ahold of Maria. They start off trading basic holds until Jade gets a flying headscissors out of nowhere. They trade chops, Jade comes out on top, and she unloads on Gail with a flurry of kicks. They wind up out on the floor where Gail hits a crossbody off the apron, but Jade catches Gail and gives her a Roderick Strong gutbuster right there on the floor. Jade’s back is achy as she rolls Gail back into the ring, but now Gail hits a flying headscissors of her own and mounts a comeback. Gail hits a flying senton for 2, then goes for a top rope crossbody…and Jade moves, then Jade goes for a Lionsault, Gail moves and gets a rolling cradle on Jade for 2. Jade drills Gail with a kick to the skull, she goes for what looks like an F5, but Gail rolls her into a small package, and they roll on top of the referee, which seems to save one of them, and Gail hits Eat DaFeet and goes for a cover, but Sienna comes down to ringside, drags Gail to the floor, and hits the AK-47 on the floor.

Winner: Gail Kim by DQ

Sienna comes into the ring and hits the Silencer on Jade, sending her FLYING, and Maria comes out to the top of the ramp and says Gail has failed, and will never get another chance to be the Knockouts Champion again.

Bobby Lashley comes in to interrupt an X Division discussion, and Braxton Sutter says he knows Lashley is the X Division Champion, but he doesn’t have to be a prick about it. Lashley says he has an announcement that’ll affect all of them, and DJ Z says he took him to the limit, and the winner of their match tonight should get a shot at him because he knows he can beat Lashley. Lashley laughs it off and walks out.

DJ Z vs Braxton Sutter vs Mandrews vs Rockstar Spud

Jesus Christ, another one of these. It’s the same guys having the same match over and over. Listen, they do spots until DJ Z hits a double DDT on two guys for the win.

Winner: DJ Z

It was a match.

We look back at last week when Drew Galloway challenged EC3 to put his Bound For Glory title shot on the line, and then we see EC3 backstage saying he’ll answer that challenge…after this commercial!

Dixie Carter finds Billy Corgan backstage and asks him what happened out there with Storm, and tells him they’re all stressed with everything going on.

Ethan Carter III is in the ring as we go back to the arena, and he asks Drew Galloway to come out to the ring to get his answer to the challenge. Drew Galloway comes out and EC3 says that for a snake in the grass, Drew will probably be surprised at his answer. Drew says he won’t be because he knows EC3 will say no, because he knows he can’t beat Drew and that’s why he won’t put it all on the line. Drew has had three chances to get his title back and EC3 screwed them all up, and he just wants what’s rightfully his. EC3 says the challenge is accepted, but the lights go out and then Aron Rex makes his entrance. He says hi, and says everyone’s been watching Impact Wrestling, and it’s because they’ve been making waves. This thing between EC3 and Drew is what he grew up watching and what he loves. The fans chant TNA at them, and Rex says he was out here talking about opportunity, and both of them want an opportunity to rise to the top, and seize the opportunity. He’s known them both a long time and respects them both, and he’s excited to see this one, and so is everybody. He had an idea and talked to Impact management and said he wants to see a clear cut winner, so they will have a special referee, and that…would be him. Rex puts his arms around both men, then he walks off.

Eli Drake is backstage and says James Storm fumbled the opportunity of a lifetime at the goal line. He made that title important, but then Lashley comes in and says he dominates everybody here, and he can see that Drake is eyeing his titles, and he heard what Drake was saying a few weeks ago. Drake says Lashley made history, and he might just take those titles from him, and all Lashley has to do is follow him out to the ring and pull that trigger. Lashley says he doesn’t have time for Drake because he has bigger fish to fry. He bumps into Sienna on the way out, he strokes her title belt, she doesn’t dig that, so he goes, “Easy, girl!” and walks off. Come on, really?

We see Broken Brother Nero walking around looking forlorn, and Broken Matt Hardy had a vision last week, and he will counsel him on his addiction of coming off the top rope and off of ladders. He says the ladder is obsolete (Nero yells OBSOLETE! along with him), he will be at ringside and will pull all the ladders out of the ring. Nero says he’s obsolete, and Matt is laughing a lot.

Eli Drake is in the ring and the fans are chanting “DUMMY…YEAH!” at him. Drake tells us to rewind our mind and ask if we saw him last week, then fast forward and they do this whole video retrospective of James Storm and he cried about not holding the title for five years and his mommy not loving him, and he came out here and lost to Bobby Lashley. He saw Bobby Lashley backstage and said they have to talk about this King of the Mountain Title because he could feel the shivers running down Lashley’s spine. Lashley has an announcement tonight, and it should be that he doesn’t have enough tinder in his loins to face Eli Drake. Mahabali Shera comes out and says, “YOU DUMMY YEAH, YOU SHUT UP AND FIGHT ME!”

Eli Drake vs Mahabali Shera

Shera does his best impression of a wrestler and actually doesn’t mess too much stuff up, but Drake hits a Michinoku Driver out of nowhere for 2, then hits the BLT for 3.

Winner: Eli Drake

Dixie Carter and Billy Corgan find Bobby Lashley backstage and want to know what his big announcement is. Lashley says he doesn’t have to run anything by them, and he’s going out too the ring where everyone will be watching.

Bobby Lashley comes out to the ring and says only the best hold the gold, and he has all the gold. It’s been his mission to collect all the gold from the beginning, and he calls Dixie Carter and Billy Corgan out to join him for his announcement. He loves the fact that they have no idea what he’s going to do and he has all the power. He’s no dumb wrestler, he’s a businessman, and the announcement he’s about to make will change the company. Dixie says the World Champion is the top guy in this company, and Corgan says what he’s done is truly impressive, but wants to know what else he wants. Lashley is glad he asked, because he’s going to unify the titles: the X Division and King of the Mountain Titles are going away, and he is the true, undisputed World Champion of professional wrestling. Dixie says he has no right to make that decision, but Lashley says he is because he won all the titles. Corgan says if Lashley wants to defend the titles separately, that’s cool, but he’s the new TNA president and he calls the shots around here. Lashley says the King of the Mountain Title is garbage, and he makes it something. He throws it on the ground and says now it’s nothing. Lashley says the X Division made TNA what it is, but he ripped the heart out of the division and destroyed those guys, and there isn’t a single guy in the division who can beat him, so there’s no sense in him defending that title. He throws the X Division Title on the ground and says it means nothing now, and Dixie says how dare you disrespect those titles. Lashley says that since they chose to disrespect him and his announcement, he’ll see them at Bound For Glory. Corgan says what he just did was a turning point in this company, and Dixie says he will defend that title before Bound For Glory. Corgan says there will be a battle royal next week, and the winner will challenge him for the TNA World Title.

Billy Corgan is backstage and says Bobby Lashley just vacated these titles, and we’ll crown new champions soon enough.

Drew Galloway will face Ethan Carter III for a shot at the TNA World Title at Bound For Glory next week with Aron Rex as the main event, but right now, it’s main event time!

#1 Contender’s Match: The Bromans vs The Tribunal vs Trevor Lee & Andrew Everett vs BROKEN Matt Hardy & Brother Nero

Brother Nero in his new evil, obsolete outfit throws a ladder into the ring, everyone starts brawling, and we go to commercial.

We’re back, and Brother Nero is getting beaten up by the Tribunal while the Bromans go at it with the Helms Dynasty. The Tribunal suddenly attacks Matt at ringside as the other teams fight over the ladder in the ring. Nero jumps off the top rope and takes out both Tribunal guys on the floor as the Bromans nearly kill Trevor Lee with a double press slam he barely gets over on. Matt finally gets in the ring and bites Andrew Everett’s hand, then bites Trevor Lee’s ankles. Matt then bites the faces of both Bromans, then drags Raquel onto the apron by the hair…and she slaps him. He likes that, though, and expresses it long enough that the Bromans beat Matt down clubberin’ style. Jessie powerslams Matt and Robbie comes off the second rope with a fistdrop. The Tribunal is back in and they go for the contract, but the Bromans drag them back down and hit one of them with a BroDown off the ladder. Robbie gives one of the Tribunal guys Hertz Donut onto a ladder as Matt menaces around ringside and then smashes the tall Tribunal guy’s face into the apron over and over and might have somehow made his teeth worse than they already were. Lee and Everett double team Jessie and then go for the ladders as Brother Nero splashes beard Tribunal guy on the floor. Matt dumps Everett to the floor, gives Lee a Side Effect onto a ladder, and then Everett hits Matt with a missile dropkick. Everett sets up the ladder and climbs, but Brother Nero is going up in the corner and uses another ladder to swing clear across the ring and knock Everett to the floor. Matt sets up a ladder on top of Brother Nero and easily climbs the ladder and grabs the contract.

Winners: Matt Hardy & Brother Nero

No real surprise here, but Matt was gold in this one. I also like Brother Nero’s new BROKEN persona.

That’s it for this week, I’ll be back on Sunday to discuss Impact and more with Dave Scherer on the Stu & Pid Show!

Credit: PWInsider