This past Sunday, Impact Wrestling was finally turned into Global Force Wrestling and presented its first pay-per-view of the era with Slammiversary. The show featured 2 huge unification title matches, a couple of feuds finished off in a couple of gimmick matches and the relationships that the Jarretts have in the world of professional wrestling were shown off during an international tag team title match.
The face of the new Global Force Wrestling was contested in a unification match between Impact Wrestling Champion Bobby Lashley and Global Force Champion Alberto El Patron. Huge shows like this always see the babyface end the show as the champion so the promotion can show the huge celebration in the ring with all the babyfaces and this was no different. The match itself was very bland and not Lashley’s best work, I’ve been very critical of Alberto El Patron’s work in the past, but I wasn’t expecting much from him so he held up his end of the match. El Patron won the match and the unified titles, but why? Lashley has been on a dominant streak since winning the Impact Wrestling Championship from Drew Galloway at Slammiversary 14 and would have represented the brand new company very well. El Patron has flaked out on WWE, Lucha Underground and AAA. If you are going to make somebody the face on GFW, I could think of a number of guys outside of El Patron.
My pick for who should have been the face of the Global Force Wrestling brand is Ethan Carter III. He still was put in a prominent match at Slammiversary opposite NWA-TNA, TNA, Impact Wrestling, GFW original James Storm in a strap match to, hopefully, end this feud. At one point during this brutal match, EC3 took 32 strap shots to the back. He overcame all that, and had to hit two 1%’s (his finishing move) to win the match. I still got the sense that things between the 2 aren’t over, but after this big gimmick match they should be. Bound For Glory will be GFW’s next big super-show and this was the big victory that EC3 needed to provide him momentum into the summer and fall. He’s still GFW’s franchise player and I’m expecting them to treat him that way going forward. As for Storm, I feel the end could be nearing for him. The GFW landscape is changing and there might not be room for him. GFW is expected to name the next member of its Hall of Fame on the August 17th Destination X show and I’d think Storm would be the perfect choice for that.
Another match that was intended to be the blowoff to a months-long angle was the “Full Metal Mayhem” match between Davey Richards and real-life wife Angelina Love against Eddie Edwards and his real-life wife Alicia. When you think “Full Metal Mayhem” (or a TLC match in WWE) its a brutal match that I never thought would include women, but GFW/TNA have been progressive when it comes to these gimmick matches with women. It was a short affair with The Edwards’ getting their revenge on the heels. This was also the last match for Angelina Love, who breathed a ton of life into Davey Richards’ singles character. Even with the major victory, this also leaves Edwards in a bit of a holding pattern because of all the singles talent that is now coming through GFW. It’s amazing to think at the beginning of the year, Edwards was the World Champ, then lost it due to his old partner Richards turning on him, which set up the possibility of an internet “dream match” and it turned out to be a little disappointment in the end.
One thing that clearly wasn’t a disappointment was the 4-way GFW tag team title match. This contest showed off GFW’s affiliations from around the world as LAX battled tag teams from AAA (El Hijo Del Fantasma & Drago), The Crash (Garza Jr. & Laredo Kid), and Pro Wrestling NOAH (Naomichi Marufuji & Taiji Ishimori). This was an all-out complete spot-fest that opened the show and it could not have gotten the crowd more hyped. The teams from AAA and Pro Wrestling NOAH aren’t regular tag teams, but they were able to keep up. LAX retained the titles, but with all the affiliations that GFW now has around the world, they might not be able to hold onto them for long as there are better teams in those promotions. I’m hoping LAX will go down to Mexico and over to Japan, much like I hope that the Global Force Champion would do as well, and maybe make these titles a true world title.
Those were the main highlights of the show. Global Force Wrestling is entering a new landscape in wrestling and they have a little bit of everything for everybody. Whether you like destroyer heavyweights, like Lashley or Kevin Mathews, or you love the Japanese strong-style ala a Naomichi Marufuji, or the high-flying lucha libre characters like Drago and El Hijo del Fantasma, GFW is trying to find something entertaining for everybody. This is the kind of stuff that Dixie Carter should have been trying to put out the whole time, but Jeff Jarrett has GFW going in the right direction.
Recent Comments