GFW Impact Wrestling Spoilers – July 4th, 2017

GFW taped the following tonight in Orlando, FL for an upcoming episode of Impact Wrestling:

– In-ring segment with LAX: Konnan introduces Alberto El Patron as the newest member of LAX. Alberto asks Carlos what he is doing? They have been friends for a long time, but he said it was BS, he is not joining LAX. Konnan asks Alberto to join, not to forget what other places have done to him, he has to join them to have protection. Alberto says the company is doing great things, Carlos has just become a bitter man, Alberto doesn’t mind being a loner. Konnan says that they can start a Latin Revolution, Alberto says no, LAX attacks him. Lashley out, decimates LAX, save Alberto, and hands him the title before leaving.

– Naomichi Marufuji vs Moose for The Grand Championship. EC3 hit Marufuji with the belt during round 3, he tried to hit Moose after. No winner is announced.

– Trevor Lee vs. William Weeks. Trevor comes out with the stolen X Division Title. After the match, Sonjay Dutt attacks Trevor.

– Laurel Van Ness defeated Ava Storie. Grado and Joseph Park are out to talk to Laurel Van Ness. Grado has flowers and champagne. He introduces himself to Laurel, he says that she is the most beautiful woman he has ever seen. Grado asks Laurel if they can go out, eat some food, get some drinks, and watch some movies. Then suggests #netflixandchill. Before Laurel can answer Kongo Kong comes out and scares off Grado and Joseph Park.

– Lashley & Alberto defeat LAX, this was a non title match. Alberto says they make a damn good team to Lashley. LAX attacks Alberto, this time Lashley leaves Alberto to get beat down.

– Drago defeats Sammy Guevara.

– Sienna defeats Amber Nova in a non title match. After the match, Allie comes out and attacks Sienna with a kendo stick, Laurel comes out to Sienna’s aid, Rosemary Sienna. Gail Kim comes out. Gail removes Sienna and Laurel, Karen says next week it will be Rosemary vs Sienna for the title in a last KO standing match.

– Garza Jr, Laredo Kid, & Octagoncito vs Trevor Lee, Idris Abraham, and Demus 3:16.

– Sydal pins Low Ki to win the 3 way. Sydal says trust yourself and question authority, calls out Bruce Prichard. Bruce says he’s sick of tired of guys demanding spots, Sydal descended a title shot but so do other guys, out comes Lashley. Lashley says he is the only one who deserves a world title shot, Sydal says nobody wants to hear it from Lashley. Lashley says he’s telling Bruce to give him that title shot, he then spears Sydal and says that is only a start.

– These muscle dudes jumped out of the crowd and attacked Eli Drake and Chris Adonis.

– Eddie Edwards vs Moose vs EC3 vs Eli Drake. Eli Drake steals the pin on Eddie Edwards after Moose pulls EC3 out of the ring.

– LAX comes out attacking Dos Caras and El Hijo De Dos Caras, tells Alberto there are consequences. Konnan threatens to take off Dos Caras’s mask, Alberto out and says Carlos has taken this too far and to stop this nonsense. Konnan asks if he’s ready to join, Alberto says he will destroy them if he touches his dad, he will let them go if Alberto joins. LAX lets Alberto’s family go, Alberto says him and Carlos are no longer friends, Konnan says he needs a soldier. Alberto puts on the shirt… then attacks LAX. Alberto does not join LAX. Alberto lets everyone know they were a great crowd tonight expect Josh Matthews because he “f***ing sucks”. Alberto thanks everyone for making this one of the greatest days of his life, happy 4th of July!

Vince Russo’s The Brand Recap – RAW’s 3-point Failure, Kevin Owens’ New Documentary, The Death of Kayfabe, More!

Russo is joined on today’s show by his co-host Jeff Lane.

Russo says that Enzo Amore cut a terrific promo to open this week’s episode of Monday Night RAW. He hopes that WWE isn’t writing Amore off after his split with Big Cass, because Amore is a machine on the mic, and he proved it again on Monday. It’s also clear to Russo that Amore is writing his own promos, because there’s no way the same writers that write the rest of the show are writing his promos. Amore’s promos are simply on another level.

In Russo’s opinion, RAW fails every week because of three points:

1. The show is 3 hours
2. They split the brands, so they don’t have their entire roster available to them to use on Monday nights.
3. They don’t even utilize the top talents that they have on that roster.

It doesn’t make any sense to Russo that WWE chose to split there roster. When he almost returned to WWE in 2002, the first thing he talked to Vince McMahon about was undoing the brand split and merging the rosters again. In addition to this, the top stars on both brands are barely utilized each week. We saw all of RAW’s top stars for no more than a few minutes each on Monday night.

Conversation with the Big Guy Recap – Sexuality in Wrestling, Daniel Bryan’s Return to the Ring, Is Scott Steiner A Hall of Famer? More!

Ryback is joined on today’s show by his co-host Pat Buck.

Ryback and Buck open today’s show by sending their best wishes to Matt Cappotelli, who has just been diagnosed with a brain tumour. Buck remembers looking up to Cappotelli during their time working together in OVW, WWE’s former developmental territory, and he’s very saddened by the news that Cappotelli has to deal with this for the second time in his life.

Ryback says that Cappotelli is one of the strongest guys he’s ever met, and if there’s anyone who can beat this disease twice it’s Cappotelli. He clearly finds a way to take the positives out of negative situations, and Ryback is confident that Cappotelli will come through this yet again.

Ryback gives his thoughts on Netflix’s new show ‘GLOW’. He says that he doesn’t watch much television, but Buck urged him to watch it and he’s really glad he did. He was instantly hooked to the show after watching the first couple of episodes, and he thoroughly enjoyed the show as a whole.

Gail Kim Announces Retirement at Impact Tapings

At the most recent GFW Impact tapings, Gail Kim announced she will be retiring effective at the end of 2017.

As reported by F4WOnline, Kim came out Monday during the TV tapings at the Impact Zone to address the Impact Orlando crowd. During her promo, Kim told fans that while she would be returning to the ring once medically cleared, she would hang up her boots at the end of the year. Kim has not wrestled since October 2016 after suffering a back injury, forcing her to vacate the Knockouts Championship.

Gail Kim’s Accomplishments

During her career, Kim, 40, won the Knockouts Championship a record six times for a combined 710 days. Kim is also a former Knockouts Tag Team Champion with Madison Rayne. In 2015, Kim helped Team Hardy win the TNA World Cup. In 2016, Kim became the first Knockout inducted into the Impact Wrestling Hall of Fame. She also won the WWE Women’s Championship in 2003.

Vince Russo’s The Brand Recap – RAW Flashback Analysis, Undertaker Kidnaps Stephanie, Convincing Austin to Make the Save, More!

On today’s show, Vince and his co-host Jeff Lane will discuss the episode of Monday Night RAW from April 26th, 1999.

The night before this show was the Backlash PPV where The Undertaker kidnapped Stephanie McMahon. The end of that PPV ended with a cliffhanger, where Undertaker was shown kidnapping McMahon and that led right into Monday’s episode of RAW. Russo mentions how effective this cliffhanger was, and he wishes WWE would use cliffhangers more often in today’s product.

To kick off RAW, The Rock came out and cut a promo. As Rock was making his way to the ring Jim Ross was updating fans on Stephanie’s situation, mentioning that she still hasn’t been heard from. The Rock was then interrupted by Shane McMahon and The Corporation, signalling the beginning of The Rock’s babyface turn.

The Rock issued a challenge to Shane McMahon for a match later in the night and McMahon accepted which Russo really liked. McMahon wasn’t a chicken heel and he shouldn’t have been because he had two or three guys standing behind him.

Bad Sign for WWE Great Balls of Fire

Sunday’s WWE Great Balls of Fire event has not sold out yet and this isn’t a good sign especially with the likes of Brock Lesnar appearing on the card.

According to TicketIQ there are hundreds of seats are still available on Ticketmaster with prices ranging from $25-$700. On the secondary market, tickets have an average price of $148 with cheapest ticket available costing $42.

It will be interesting to see if the event will sellout within the next six days.

Paige Spotted Sitting Front Row at Slammiversary?

It was reported via PWInsider that Paige was backstage at Sunday’s Slammiversary event to support her boyfriend Alberto El Patron.

There is now there is speculation that she was actually sitting front row during the main event match of Alberto DEl Patron vs. Lashley. Several photos of a woman in a mask were taken and people were speculating that it was Paige under the mask:

“F*ck WWE” Chants Erupt After Slammiversary Goes Off the Air

After Sunday’s Slammiversary event went off the air, Alberto El Patron cut a promo and took another shot at WWE.

El Patron called refereed to WWE as “that f***ing company full of losers” and said that he would would happily fight Lashley again because they’re not “f***ing sports entertainer.” The crowd then erupted in a “f**k WWE” chant.

Booker T Not Happy With The New Day Mimicking His ‘N-Word’ Botch

Booker T talked about the New Day mimicking his famous “N-Word” botch from WCW on the latest installment of his Heated Conversations podcast. Here are some highlights of what he said:

Not Condoning New Day’s Mimicking: “I just want to make it publicly known that I don’t condone that at all especially coming off of Monday Night. We as a people, we gotta know when it’s time to speak up and when it’s time to shut up. My mother taught me that a long time ago. If you don’t know, it’ll come back and haunt you. [The WCW promo blooper] has haunted me for this many years. You put yourself in a situation for something to happen, just like Mike Tyson did, something can happen. For these young kids to understand and realize and be able to speak up for themselves…you know…then again, I spoke up because I was talent. I spoke up because I knew that I could speak up. I implore these young people out there to know exactly what they’re doing and how they are affecting our young people that are coming up. That’s the most important thing as far as I’m concerned. Me personally, I know I’ve made mistakes. That word that I said on national television in front of the world – I wish I could go back and erase it. I wish that I could take it back. I wish that WWE would never do something like that ever again.”

Not Needing it to Air: “Me personally, I don’t appreciate it. I don’t know if [WWE] knew that the parody was gonna go down because I know those guys do a lot of their own stuff. I don’t think that we as a company need to go that route. I think that parody should not have ever been shown on television because it wasn’t a great moment for us as black people. For us as black people, it was one of our worst moments. Just like the [Lamelo] Ball thing. The kid is 15-years old [and] I don’t blame him or anything like that. It was something that slipped out just like myself [in 1997], it was something that slipped out. For me as a person that’s trying to set an example for us as black people and for me to let so many people down – even the ones that thought it was the cool – even the ones that thought it was an anthem… …I want them to know that it was my worst day that I could have ever had being a black man and letting so many of our people down by calling us that word or saying that word in any realm [or] any form was definitely not right by any means. I wish I could take it right back. That one blemish is the only thing they have over my head that they could put out there to try to make me look bad in any way shape, form, or fashion. Of course, I could put a spin on it… … but does that make it right? No, it doesn’t make it right. It’s still a stain, a blemish, a mark that no surgical procedure could ever repair. So I just want young people to know exactly what they’re saying and when they’re saying it.”

Kurt Angle to Start Wrestling for WWE Sooner Than Expected?

It’s being speculated that WWE might end up booking Angle into a match sooner than previously expected.

Angle revealed earlier this week that he had not been tested by the WWE for in-ring participation yet. With SummerSlam around the corner WWE might end up using Angle to boost up their ratings and provide a spectacular main event for the biggest party of the Summer. Also, rumors of Angle’s current storyline setting up his feud with Triple H did go viral a few weeks ago so there might be some relevance to them.

While speaking to Esquire Middle East, Angle talked about the chances that he will compete in a WWE ring again.

“Well right now I’m just concentrating on my behind-the-scenes role as General Manager. I haven’t even had a physical yet and I don’t expect I will have one until they [the WWE] have some more detail of what they want me to do down the line. But is there a possibility? Yeah, there is a definite possibility! I think it’s more than likely it will happen. I don’t know if it has to do with this new story line that’s going on right now, but I’m sure that it will happen eventually. I still haven’t taken a physical though so I’m not going to get my hopes up until I do that.”

“My main aim would just be to contribute and wrestle some of the younger guys. There’s a lot of great talent right now and I’d love to be able to mix it up with them. I would also imagine that, being who I am, I’d get a pretty high profile match at Wrestlemania if I did wrestle again. And yeah, I think everybody wants a title-run. I’m 48 years old – I’m still in great shape, I can still go pretty hard in the ring, but then again there are other talents out there that need the title more than I do. Don’t get me wrong it would be a lot of fun if I did get a title run, but at the same time as long as I’m contributing and helping out the company I’d be happy with that.”