"Impact Wrestling" Taping Results From April 23, 2017 *SPOILERS*

The anniversary countdown continues. We’re just over two months away from “Slammiversary 2017” and that means “Impact Wrestling” will be doing a lot of TV tapings. They’ve recently wrapped up another cycle of tapings, which will take them up through the middle of May.

Here are the spoilers, courtesy of WrestleZone.com:

JB announces Josh will not be here tonight. Bruce Pritchard is in the ring & says he’s hired Tyrus for security after EC3’s actions & there will be a review of his actions. Lashley is introduced & he doesn’t care who wins the triple threat tonight. EC3, Magnus, & Storm come out & Bruce announced their three way match will be a no DQ, but if anyone of them touch before that, the match is off.

1. KMe/Sienna & Kongo Kongo w/Laurel Van Ness vs Mahabali Shera & Braxton Sutrer w/Allie. Shera gets distracted by Kongo outside & is rolled by KM for the clean win. Sienna & Laurel get Allie in the ring & are beating her up when Rosemary comes down to spray green mist at Sienna & gives Laurel a Black Wedding. She points at Allie & just leaves. Earlier on the ONO taping, Allie helped Rosemary, so this may be her way of paying Allie back?

2. A semifinal for the GFW tag team titles: FALLAH Bahh & Baraka vs VOW/Veterans Of War-Mayweather & Wilcox. Mayweather pins Baraka & they’re off to the finals.

Josh Matthews comes down to ring & calls JB to join him in the ring. He says has made a lot of mistakes since he’s been here. He apologized to Mike Tenay for taking his job, he’s unblocked the legendary Dave Penzer from Twitter, & even made up with Shark Boy. He says as the vice-president he wants to apologize to JB & offers a handshake. Joseph Park comes & advises him not to do it. Josh gets upset & says he will not apologize. JB wants to know who Josh’s partner is. Matthews say his partner will be revealed at the right time. Park says they don’t have to wait until Slammiversary & Josh says to bring a referee down & he will fight Joseph now. As the match is about to begin, Big Poppa Pump, Scott Steiner’s music hits! He chases Park outside, brings him back to the ring & lays him out. Matthews announces Steiner will be his partner at Slammiversary.

3. Mixed tag grudge match: Davey Richards & Angelina Love vs Eddie Edwards & Alicia. Josh is calling the matches with Pope after JB was chased to the back & Josh left. Alicia rolls up Angelina to win but she’s attacked after the match as Angelina puts her through a table while Davey holds Edwards back & tells him this is all his fault.

4. Three way NO DQ match to determine the #1 contender for the Impact Heavyweight Title: Magnus vs EC3, vs James Storm. Magnus & Carter work together against Storm for a lot of the match before Carter hits Magnus by accident with a Singapore cane & Magnus returns the favour. Everything was used: canes, chairs, trash can lids…The end comes when Storm hits The Last Call on Magnus; as he’s about to turn around to make the cover, EC3 gets a jumping knee to the back of Storm to knock him outside & steals the win. So it’ll be EC3 & Lashley at Slammiversary for the Impact Heavyweight Title. Good effort from everyone.

Xplosion match: Marshae Rockett vs Mahabali Shera. Apparently, this is also a no DQ-rare for an Xpolsion match-as Rockett hits Shera multiple times with a chair. KM comes out to give Shera his front first pump handle slam allowing Marshae to get the upset win.

Impact Tapings:

5. Grand Championship title match. Bruce Prichard (Tyrus is still with him), Scott Damore, & Dutch Mantel are the judges & they’re all at a table near the ramp for a different setup. It’s Eli Drake W/Chris Adonis vs the champ, Moose. Midway through the 1st round Drake clips Moose’s knee & works on it til the end of the round. Eli is awarded round 1. Drake continues to work on the knee for most of round 2; Moose comes back & is awarded round 2. I don’t agree with that. Moose hits a Sky High from the second turnbuckle early in round 3 for a very close near fall. Lots of back & forth action with Adonis grabbing Moose’s leg outside when referee Stifler had his back turned. It’s going to the judges & they declare Moose the winner of round 3 & he retains. Eli & Chris throw a fit at the judges. The crowd chants, “Happy Birthday,” to Moose after the match.

6. KO match: Amber Devine vs Allie w/Braxton. Allie wins a short match. There’s been a lot of short women’s matches at these tapings; I hope this isn’t a trend.

The Orange Blossom Quartet is introduced-i don’t know who they are or why they’re here. EC3’s music plays & he declared tonight a night of celebration. The Quartet plays a not good version of his theme. EC3 says he’s on the precipice of reclaiming his world title because: he cues the Quartet & they play a lame “Because he’s the #1 contender” in “The he’s a jolly good fellow” tune. Yikes. The band plays another horrible song before Alberto El Patron music plays. Karen & Bruce come out & makes Alberto vs EC3 for the GFW title in 6 sides of steel & the winner will face Lashley at Slammiversary for the Impact Heavyweight Championship.

7. GFW tag team championship tournament finals: The Impact Tag Team Champions, Santana & Ortiz, LAX-with Diamente, Konan, & Homicide vs VOW-Veterans of War: May-weather & Wilcox. While Mayweather is outside Konan hits him a pipe to the back of his leg. As Dave Hebner is trying to keep the rest of LAX away from Mayweather, Ortiz grabs one of the GFW belts hits Wilcox in the back & Santana & Ortiz perform their top rope blockbuster into a power bomb finisher to become the new GFW tag team champions.

8. Sonjay Dutt vs Andrew Everett, vs Low Ki for the X division title. Late in the match, Everett goes for a Shooting Star Press on Low Ki, he gets his knees up, drop kicks him in the corner & gets the Warrior’s Way to retain. Another solid, long X division match.

Before the main event Swoggle is shown & Spud attacks him from the crowd & beats with a hammer he gets from under the ring. I don’t get this at all.

9. Main Event: 6 sides of steel cage match for the GFW heavyweight title: Alberto El Patron vs EC3. The win can come by pinfall, submission, or escaping the cage. El Patron goes for the cross-arm breaker twice but EC3 escapes. Ethan counters a cutter, a TKO, a sit out powerbommb & it’s still not enough. Both men are at the top of the cage & EC3 gets caught upside down in a tree of woe; El Patron does a double stomp from the top of the cage, drags Ethan to the middle of the ring, hits a top rope splash to retain! A bit of a surprise finish to me. So it’s El Patron vs Lashley in the main event of Slammiversary. Excellent match! Alberto celebrates in the crowd afterwards.

Opinion: I’m sure I’m not alone when I’m getting tired of the Borash vs. Matthews feud. That’s the top story in the promotion right now and I have no idea why I’m supposed to care. Bringing in Steiner and Park as the partners is a bit of an interesting idea though it doesn’t help the notion that the company focuses on the past.