GFW IMPACT HITS & MISSES: Wrestling is Fake, Low Ki joins LAX, Bruce is everywhere, Pointless Main Event, EC3 Grand Championship promo, Xavier vs. Drago

By Andrew Soucek, PWTorch Specialist


SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...

HITS

Xavier vs. Drago: A good way to start off the night. It’s just kind of hard to complain about two talented, athletic guys going 15 minutes to open up a show. Though if I must (and I must), I would have preferred this as the match for the finals. Dezmond Xavier and Drago are the two most interesting wrestlers in the tournament, and I easily could have watched them battle another 5-10 minutes. Still, this is light years ahead of where the X Division was last year. It was also cool to see the post-match interview with a winded Xavier on the entrance way. It gave the match a more sports-like feel and helps you care about the competitors more. This is the direction the company should be headed in.

EC III’s Grand Championship Promo: One of the few good things on the show was EC III’s brief promo telling the Grand Championship how much he loved it. It was a fun, cocky little segment that really rubbed it in on Moose for losing. I’m still far from sold on this belt, but it at least gives Carter something to gloat about for a bit.

Low Ki Joins LAX: I’ve been complaining (imagine that!) nearly every week here that Low Ki has been woefully underutilized. Now they’ve found something for him to do again. Ki has joined LAX in their never-ending feud against Alberto El Patron and his masked family. Actually, the feud is only about a month long but feels like it started in 2012. I’d love to see a Ki/Patron World Heavyweight Title match with a solid build behind it, but that’s probably wishful thinking. Still, it beats Ki languishing in the X Division while Sonjay Dutt is pushed as the champ.

MISSES

Wrestling Is Fake: GFW putting this video on their show only provides further evidence that this creative team has no idea what the hell they are doing. In a package for Bobby Lashley, they featured soundbites of MMA fighters questioning if he should give up wrestling. One of those talking heads flat-out said that what they do isn’t fake. GFW aired this. By their own choice. It’s amazing that whoever directed it didn’t immediately say “Cut. Do that again.” But then it went past the editor. Then his boss. Then Jeff Jarrett. How is this possible? Within GFW’s own narrative, they should pretend they are real while their show is airing, otherwise there’s literally no point to anything they do. On “Game of Thrones,” they don’t have an actor from another HBO show jump in in-between scenes and say “Dragons aren’t real. It’s just a green screen.” Completely ridiculous. Wrestling needs to get over their insecurity that their content isn’t real. Millions of fans have accepted that; now the promoters need to. Also, within the world that wrestling promoters create, what exactly is the difference between MMA and wrestling? They’re both sports that revolve around hand-to-hand combat. Why couldn’t one guy do both if each one was real?

Bruce Is Everywhere: In the opening match of the show, Jeremy Borash and Josh Mathews talked about how Bruce Prichard approved of Trevor Lee’s actions of stealing the X Division Title. In the following segment, heel EC III complained about heel Bruce being against him. Then they came back from commercial and Prichard was in a video package complaining about wrestlers demanding things. The segment after THAT, Prichard appeared in a backstage segment with El Patron, his family, and Karen Jarrett. The following match with Trevor Lee featured more Prichard talk. And then he showed up at the end of the match. Finally, we got a little break. Then he came back for the Grand Championship match. Go. Away.

A Pointless Main Event: Last week, I ranted about El Patron beating all of LAX essentially five-on-one. This week, El Patron faced LAX and was given two partners. That’s basically setting up a massacre for LAX since one man could beat all of them up by himself. Besides that, the angle of if El Patron’s brother would turn on him was weak because no one cares about his brother. We don’t know anything about him! Also, where were the Veterans of War? They stopped an LAX beatdown last week, but this week they were apparently totally cool with it.

The Mumbai Cat: More cute GFW comedy here that Trevor Lee should be miles away from. Sonjay Dutt also looked like a fool in this segment, because he didn’t bother to try and grab his X Division Title back when he had the chance. He let Lee get away with it once again, then Bruce Almighty tossed him from the building once more. As great as it is to see Lee get some attention from the creative team, it’s really not the right kind of attention at all.


NOW CHECK OUT LAST WEEK’S COLUMN: GFW IMPACT HITS & MISSES: Destination X Hype, Sydal’s push, Trevor Lee, Rosemary vs. Sienna, Gauntlet match, Richards vs. Ishimori

6 Comments on GFW IMPACT HITS & MISSES: Wrestling is Fake, Low Ki joins LAX, Bruce is everywhere, Pointless Main Event, EC3 Grand Championship promo, Xavier vs. Drago

  1. More nonsense from someone who doesn’t like the show. Tell me, if you watch the Total Divas show does that expose the business? McMahon doesn’t even call it wrestling, it’s sports entertainment. Complete nonsense with your column every week. Get a job.

  2. Ever since Jarrett came back and has had power it’s gone back to what it was the last time he was here. “Jarrett is Russo”. When Corgan was in control this show was so much more fascinating to watch. Now it’s like a wannabe WWE Lite show. It makes me wish the original ECW was still around. Because that compared to this shit is the reason why GFW won’t be an alternative to anything and if anything, just a cure for insomnia now.

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