ROH and Impact Wrestling Reax - 10/20/16

Read on for my thoughts on yesterday's ROH and Impact Wrestling.
- ROH:
- Bullet Club promo:
It's a big time for these guys. ROH and NJPW will really take a hit if Cole and the Bucks jump to WWE in 2017.

OK, the "Five-Star Extravaganza" line was actually pretty funny. It's crazy there's a whole subculture (including wrestlers) obsessed with one man's opinion of their performance, even if it's in front of fewer than 1500 people.

Cole's one heck of a talker.

The Bucks even being a great tag team is laughable, but that's the whole point of their gimmick.

It's weird seeing the actual Bullet Club coming across as second-class compared to the people who left the group to go to WWE.

- P. B. Killers vs. War Machine:
Ugggggghhhhh.... a stereo suicide dive spot as the first moves of the night? Jesus.

I like when the big guys work like big guys. That doesn't mean they need to be immobile; there's just no reason for them to do the same thing smaller wrestlers are doing.

This is turning into a pretty good war.

More ADD wrestling. Now you've got to do a big MOVE going into break, even if takes out your partner, too. Stupid.

This has its alright moments. If these guys worked a more intelligent style, they'd be even better.

More cool flipzzzzzzzzzz.

I like the power being shown here.

And there's a finisher kickout. This show had been doing better, too.

I generally like both teams. Good action overall.

- Post-match:
Now THAT'S what a monster heel does. Just pure evil.

- Caprice promo:
I love the kneeling thing. The Cabinet is absolutely a face gimmick in my eyes.

- Cabinet vs. Kincaid/Giovanni/Shaheem:
Good start from a flashy standpoint.

Funny spot with both men going to a knee.

OK, the kneel spot can be overdone.

That suicide dive into a stunner was INSANE. One of the most amazing things I've ever seen, and here it is in a match Kincaid will probably lose.

Fine psychology so far. I'm getting further behind the idea of a trios division.

Good action as we continue after break.

Insane triple-team spot from the newbies.

More craziness all around, as expected. Kincaid's impressive on that front.

Dropkicks EVERYWHERE.

Lots of moves and frantic action. Fun from that perspective.

- Silas vs. Lethal:
Good beginning. I'm glad to see Silas get this kind of push.

Impressive back-and-forth.

Lethal's definitely one hell of an athlete with all those suicide dives.

I like what we see from Silas. It's often missing in ROH.

I'm really liking this. It's a good change of pace.

I would have bought Lethal getting the win off the elbow drop. I'm glad Silas isn't going down that easy.

Good action. I liked Silas avoiding the Lethal Injection.

I guess they figured the fans wouldn't be interested unless they included O'Reilly and Cole fighting, too.

Ehhhhhhhhh... that ending was OK, I guess. I wonder where Jay goes from here.

- Post-match:
Everyone fighting everyone here.

That was a pretty good ending. I'll be glad to get the final stages of O'Reilly vs. Cole.

- Impact Wrestling:
- Lookback:
I love the "last week on" kind of thing because a lot happens in people's lives in a week. Most people just watch the show, then don't really think about TNA until the next week.

- Cody/Edwards/Lashley/Moose:
Hey, I can't blame him for wanting to have some fun now that he's made his money in the business. Obviously none of it's real, but it's still a cool accolade to fight for a championship.

Man, I miss Dusty. He had such a legit down-to-Earth feel to him.

It's still funny Eddie Edwards is a World Champion. I haven't ruled out Billy Corgan saying that as a joke to see if Creative would challenge him on it.

Cody going to TNA's not a big reinvention. He's pretty much the same guy he was outside of Dashing/facemask Cody or Stardust.

Eddie's SO bland on the mic. He does have some alright fire, though.

Lashley killing both of them would work for me, although I've loved Cody's work for years.

- Lashley vs. Moose:
Lashley's an absolute force of nature. He's been one of the best parts of wrestling in 2016.

Lashley just KILLING him.

Yeah, Lashley should have gone for the cover after a second spear. He set himself up for that one.

I'm tired of big dives, especially from big guys.

Pretty solid back-and-forth here.

OOOOHHHH I definitely didn't like the no-sell of the superplex.

And now we're just in "hit a bunch of big moves" mode.

Talk about a war!

That was really good. Too many big kickouts, but in this case it was still really impressive.

- Tribunal/DCC:
Big night for the former Legionnaires.

HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAA even the new faction is throwing Dax and Baraka under a bus.

- Tyrus promo:
I think Tyrus' work on Fox News conflicts with TNA tapings, so we don't see him much.

- Drake/Rex/EC3/Godderz:
Drake is SO. SO. BASED. I loved him heeling the crowd for cheering him.

I'd think Drake would get along with the Intellectual Savior of the Masses.

"I love my title" is so bland.

Eli's definitely got the It Factor.

This NEEDS to be a tag team.

I hope we see Drake beat Edwards for the World Title. Like, before this segment ends.

That was pretty good going into break.

Damn, EC3 is not in a good mood, huh?

Good for EC3 to challenge Drake to prove he's World Champion level.

I love a big fight like this. TNA does a lot of them.

I'm ready for that tag match.

- Hardys promo:
LOVED that promo. Matt established some solid motivation for DELETING Tribunal. His family depends on the income generated by the Hardys being successful wrestlers.

- Hardys vs. Obsolete French Brother Neros:
It's not believable for people who weren't even NXT Tag Team Title level to stand a chance against the two.

Fine tag match action so far.

Twist of Fate party?

DELETE! DELETE! DELETE!

- DCC attacks:
Literally everyone in TNA hates Tribunal. Apparently even Al Snow abandoned them.

Well that was weird.

- Allie/Van Ness/Sutter:
I kind of like the idea of Sutter ending up with Allie if it's done well, i.e. it's more than "they're together in real life."

- Another DCC promo:
How was TNA able to hire these people?

- Lashley/Cody:
I like Lashley just wanting to destroy everyone. He was so dominant he held three different titles at once, then just dropped two of them because he could.

It's still SO embarrassing to see Eddie as champion.

- Maria/Allie/Van Ness:
This story has been pretty good.

BIG face moment for Allie.

DAMN. The new girl doesn't play around.

Allie between a rock and a hard place here.

- Lashley/Edwards:
TNA's backstage area is a really small place given how often everyone runs into someone.

Lashley overshadowing Edwards vs. Rhodes to a degree. I see him and Moose getting involved.

- Tyrus/Shera:
Well, this is strange.

But also pretty fun because of how odd it is.

HAHAHAHHAHA Tyrus' Internet reference.

This should be fun for how goofy it can be.

- EC3/Godderz:
That was good enough to set up a match for next week.

- Shera vs. Bennett:
I was hoping this would be some goofy comedy. But I can see why they'd want Shera to face someone who can help him progress as a wrestler.

Shera's got some impressive power here.

Fine for what it was; so much for Shera getting a super-push due to TNA's Indian TV deal.

- Z/Spud:
Ummm. What? I guess they ran out of stuff for the X-Division names to do as singles stars.

Z burying Spud was funny.

Well, we'll see what that leads to.

- Edwards vs. Cody:
Generic wrestling from generic wrestlers. I love Cody as a performer, but not this kind of style.

This is picking up pretty well.

Both men going hard. They both have that going for them.

Ehhhhh.... I'm not crazy about that ending. It was definitely unique, though.

- Edwards/Cody/Brandi/Bennett:
I was kind of hoping for a heel turn here.

That wasn't a bad ending at all.

More wrestling coming up.