MCMAHON’S GFW IMPACT REPORT 8/3: ECIII vs. Moose for the Grand Championship, Dezmond Xavier vs. Drago

MCMAHON’S GFW IMPACT REPORT
August 3, 2017
Taped from Orlando, Fla. (Universal Studios)
Aired on Pop TV

Announcers: Josh Mathews & Jeremy Borash with The Pope

Immediately following tonight’s Impact Wrestling, tune in to the PWTorch Livecast. Mike McMahon and Andrew Soucek will discuss tonight’s show with callers. Listen at www.pwtorchlivecast.com and call the show at 515-605-9345

— The GFW signature aired.

— LAX was in its clubhouse. Konnan said, “he’s in.” Konnan said tonight would be the biggest night in LAX history, and tonight they would unveil a new member. Konnan also said the main event of tonight’s show was LAX vs. El Patron, Dos Caras and El Hijo de Dos Caras.

— A video package aired on the Super X Cup.

— The Impact opening aired.

(1) DEZMOND XAVIER vs. DRAGO — Super X Cup semifinals

After a lot of back-and-forth action with dives and flips, Drago hit a dive to the outside early in the back that sent Xavier to the floor and the show went to a commercial.

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Back from the break, the match is in the ring and they each land simultaneous kicks which sends both to the mat. Drago was back in control at the 10:00 mark, landing a kick to the face from the ground. Xavier reversed a clothesline and hit a cutter for a double down. Xavier hit a running forearm. Drago slid to the outside and Xavier landed a diving swanton over the top rope. Drago hit a DDT off the top for a two count. Drago missed a dive in the corner and Xavier hit a kick to the back of the head. Drago caught a boot and landed a head kick for another two count. Xavier went to the top rope and hit the Final Flash for the win.

WINNER: Dezmond Xavier in 16:00.

After the match, Jeremy Borash interviewed Xavier on the ramp. Xavier said he needed to beat Drago to go the finals, and by doing so, he’s destined to win the tournament. Xavier said he would walk out the winner.

McMahon’s Analysis: Statement win for Xavier, who picked up a win over the guy a lot of people had picked to win the tournament. Xavier should win the finals as well, no matter who he faces. GFW needs to build a new star for the X Division, and that new star is Xavier. He can be an original star for GFW in that division.

– Backstage, McKenzie Mitchell interviewed ECIII. He said Moose was a good opponent, but he’ll also be battling the judges, not just Moose. ECIII promised he would win the match in one or two rounds. ECIII said he was in Moose’s head.

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– A video aired on Matt Sydal and his involvement in the old TNA as well as his recent run in GFW, including his budding rivalry with Bobby Lashley.

— McKenzie Mitchell interviewed Alberto Del Patron and his family backstage. El Patron said that you can’t trust Konnan, and everyone knows that in Mexico. El Patron called out his brother. He asked if he could trust his brother? He said that he knew Konnan and him became friends on Japan. El Hijo de Dos Caras told him not to worry, but El Patron said he wasn’t sure if he could trust him tonight. Karen Jarrett walked into the shot and said that family was everything, and she asked if they can’t trust family, then who can they trust? Bruce Prichard then walked in and said that there is a six-man match and he told the family to go get ready for their match. Prichard then said he needed to talk to Karen alone. Now.

(2) TREVOR LEE vs. MUMBAI CAT

Lee still has the X Division Title. Lee, wrestling with the title, threw the Cat to the outside and then punted him in the face from the apron. The Mumbai Cats switched places at ringside, with the other Cat coming out from under the ring. Lee rolled the Mumbai Cat into the ring and the Cat hit a series of clotheslines off the rope and then right hands. The Cat hit a kick and a DDT. The Mumbai Cat went to the top and hit a dive for the win.

WINNER: Mumbai Cat in 2:00.

After the match, Mumbai Cat took off his mask to reveal himself as Sonjay Dutt. Security came out with Prichard and Dutt grabbed a mic. Sonjay said that he was the rightful X Division Champion. Sonjay said to be the champ, you need to beat the champ, and he never beat the champ. Sonjay challenged Lee to a title match on Aug. 17 at Destination X. Sonjay said they should hang the belt and do it in a ladder match. Prichard told Dutt to leave. Sonjay said he was done, and then told security to take him away.

McMahon’s Analysis: Sonjay Dutt is the rightful X Division Champion, and he has been chasing his belt for weeks after Trevor Lee stole it. He fakes being one of the Mumbai Cats – clever – and then instead of taking the belt off of Lee and, you know, taking back what he’s been trying to take back for weeks, he went for the pin and allowed Lee to leave the ring without taking back his championship? Yes, that’s what happened.

Also, if you’re Bruce Prichard, who was the original Mumbai Cat? He clearly had to collude with Sonjay Dutt when they pulled the switch at ringside.

Logically, not a lot of this segment made much sense.

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– Borash plugged the weekend live events.

– Borash and Pope talked about Sonjay Dutt, showing replays of what happened in the last segment. Mathews said the ladder match in two weeks was official.

– Borash threw to a video on American Top Team, where Bobby Lashley trains. Several members of the MMA team were interviewed on Lashley. King Mo put over pro wrestling and said it was harder than MMA and it was more taxing on his body. Dan Lambert, the owner of American Top Team, said that Lashley needs to focus on one sport. One of the MMA fighters, Charles Rosa, kind of put down pro wrestling.

“Wrestling is what it is,” Rosa said. “We’re real fighters. We go here and put the work in. I know wrestling has the same thing, but this is real fighting,”

Lambert said if Lashley wants to be the best he needs to focus. King Mo said wrestling had elite-level athletes.

McMahon’s Analysis: I am in utter disbelief at how tone-deaf GFW must be in order for this to air on their television show. There were some really good parts of this, including King Mo talking about how pro wrestling was tougher than MMA. But in the same clip, there was an MMA fighter, who was a teammate of Lashley at American Top Team, who kept saying, “this is real fighting” over and over, and GFW aired that on it’s television show! This is unbelievable. It’s fine that GFW acknowledged Lashley’s MMA career. It’s even OK for GFW to recognize, on TV, that his MMA team wants him to focus only on MMA. But there is a right way and a wrong way to spin it. King Mo gets it. He was telling Lashley to do both sports, but also seemed to be making the argument that ATT wants him to focus on MMA because fo how taxing pro wrestling is on his body. He was putting over pro wrestling. He was insinuating that wrestling was tougher than MMA. But to allow that clip of the guy saying “we’re real fighting” over and over was beyond stupid. Yes, we know pro wrestling is not “real fighting” but I expect the pro wrestling show to not tell me that during the broadcast. I’m at a loss.

– Backstage, Joseph Park told Grado that he needed to get married tonight.

– Backstage, Eddie Edwards was supposed to be getting ready for a match against Eli Drake but he was getting beat up by Kongo Kong.

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– Back from the break, Kongo Kong kept beating up people backstage because Grado wants to marry Laurel Van Ness.

(3) ECIII vs. MOOSE — Impact Grand Championship match

Round 1 — Moose charged ECIII to open the round. ECIII quickly took control on the outside, though, and was choking Moose with his boot. ECIII continued to work over Moose for the rest of the round on the mat, shoving his face into the mat as the time expired.

Scores: ECIII, 29-28.

Round 2 — Moose missed a kick to start the round and ECIII hit him with a knee, sending him to the outside. ECIII charged Moose in the corner. Moose was on one knee and ECIII slapped him in the face a few times. Moose splashed ECIII in the corner with 30 seconds left in the round. Moose then hit a diving dropkick on ECIII, who was prone in the corner. ECIII went to the top and Moose hit another dropkick.

Scores: Moose, 29-28

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Round 3 — About one minute into the round Moose hit a kick and a powerbomb for a two count. ECIII hit a One Percenter for a near fall. Moose hit a sitdown chokeslam as time expired.

Scores: ECII, 30-28 (D’Amore 10-10, Dutch 10-10, Bruce 10-8)

WINNER: ECII via split decision to win the Grand Championship.

McMahon’s Analysis: I guess this is GFW’s way of trying to mimic and manufacture a judge controversy? The only problem is, to my recollection, in the one year this belt has been around, I can’t recall a round ever being scored a draw, yet two judges score the final round a draw. Felt a little “too good to be true.” Also, the element of surprise was gone as soon as they announced that Bruce Prichard score the round 10-8. Bruce is a heel (I think?) so the surprise was gone for the announcement that ECIII won. The match was fine, but the structure of the Grand Championship just isn’t working. It was a good idea to try something different and new, but this isn’t working. They need to abandon it and try something else. All the rounds are doing is disrupting the flow.

– A vignette aired on OVE, which will debut at Destination X.

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(4) MARIO BOKARA, FALLAH BAHH & KM vs. SUICIDE, BRAXTON SUTTER & GRADO

Early in the match, Sutter hit a dive on all three opponents to the outside. Suicide then followed Sutter’s dive with a dive. Grado then went to the top rope and was thrown off by Bokara. Grado was thrown to the outside but Suicide came in and hit a dropkick on Bokara. Bahh hit a cross body on Suicide. Sutter kicked Bahh. Sutter hit KM with a kick and he tripped over Grado, who rolled him up for the win.

WINNER: Suicide, Sutter and Grado in 4:00.

After the match, Grado grabbed a mic and said he really needed an answer from Laurel Van Ness. Park escorted Laurel to the ring. Grado thanked LVN for coming to the ring, and just as he was about to say something, Kongo Kong’s music hit and he walked slowly to the ring. LVN went to the corner. Grado tried to fight off Kong but he was dropped with a slam. Allie tried to get Sutter to help Grado but Sutter said no and went to the back. Kong went to the top rope and was about to splash Grado but LVN told her to stop and Park pulled Grado from the ring.

McMahon’s Analysis: Maybe that video package earlier has just put me in a bad mood, but I wasn’t a fan of this segment either. I do find Laurel Van Ness really entertaining, and I was even a fan of Kongo Kong beating up everyone near him (get him over as a monster) but the match felt random and very thrown together.

– Backstage, McKenzie Mitchell interviewed LAX. Konnan called her, “random white girl #5” and said a new era of violence was about to commence. Konnan said El Patron lied to him and his other mistake was trusting his partners. Konnan said revenge was best served cold.

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– ECIII came to the ring in jeans and wearing the Impact Grand Championship. ECIII said he was a top man in the company and he was the “grandest champion of all-time.” ECIII said tonight was for celebration. ECIII said the championship came into his life at a very interesting time. He told the championship he loves it. ECIII said they were getting out of here, and walked off through the crowd.

(5) ALBERTO EL PATRON, DOS CARAS & EL HIJO de DOS CARAS vs. SANTANA, ORTIZ & HOMICIDE

Dos Caras began the match with Homicide, landing some right hands out of a headlock. El Hijo de Dos Caras hit a dive on Homicide to the outside. Then, in the middle of the main event that they’ve been building to all night, Borash threw to a trailer for the new Pop show “Swedish Dicks” (no, I’m not joking).

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McMahon’s Analysis: Wrestling shows go to commercial mid-match all the time. Fine. I’m not a fan, but it’s not a mortal sin, either. But Jeremy Borash, in the middle of the main event, throwing to a trailer for some new Pop TV show? Excuse me while I go throw up.

Back from the break, El Patron landed dropkicks on Homicide. Ortiz slammed El Patron. Ortiz went to the top but El Patron cut him off. Ortiz hit a superplex on El Hijo de Dos Caras. After some battling on the mat, El Hijo de Dos Caras kicked Homicide in the head but he couldn’t make the tag. El Patron tags in and comes off the top onto Ortiz. LAX runs in one by one and El Patron is a machine, taking out LAX essentially by himself. Diamante chokes El Patron from the outside. In the ring, El Patron breaks away and suplexes Santana. El Patron went to the top but Santana cut him off. Santana set himself up for El Patron’s double stomp (because everyone has to set themselves up for that move). El Patron locked in a cross armbreaker and Santana tapped but there was no referee. El Hijo de Dos Caras hit the ring with a chair. He faked hitting El Patron and then hit Homicide. Santana missed a kick and El Patron again locked in a cross armbreaker. Low Ki then came out of the crowd and hit a double stomp on El Patron out of nowhere. Low Ki’s jacket had “LAX on the back.” Santana covered El Patron for the win.

WINNER: LAX in 18:00.

After the match, Low Ki stood over El Patron. LAX celebrated in the ring as Borash threw to some replays.