The main take-away from this show is that Mike Knux now has an elaborate entrance involving two stilt-walking zombies, a clown, a masked strongman, and a knockout who twirls whips of fire. Needless to say, Kazarian -- who no longer even has an appletini drinking general friend to back him up -- had no chance.
The Wolves/Bro-Mans ladder match was fantastic.
Magnus's time will now be taken up by him reconnecting with his friend Bram, who is a little out of control.
Ethan defeated Angle because Kurt's knee kept buckling.
I appreciated how the heels wore black, and the babyfaces wore white in the evening gown match.
Gunner and Anderson had some quiet contemplation over the topic of what makes Samuel Shaw act as he does.
Rockstar Spud continues to heroically never backdown to those who threaten the Carters, although Spud is perfectly willing to fetch tea if need be. Spud had some pretty sweet genre savvy when he realized Ray was standing right behind him.
In other news, the authority figure who kept showboating in his matches, spouting corporate jargon about "entertainment" and "branding", and who rose to power thanks to the help of the supervillain behind aces and eights, has now officially turned heel. That's a bit of a relief to me, since I was afraid that TNA thought they had been booking MVP as a babyface.
It will be interesting to see who else turns along with him. This adds to the signs of Roode turning face. If The Wolves turn heel, that would enable the Beer Money/Wolves match to still take place, although that would require Storm to turn again. Perpetual tweener Austin Aries doesn't really need to act any different than usual. Samoa Joe can now stay a babyface, thankfully.
I wish they would have the Slammiversary main event be a King of the Mountain match with EY, MVP, Roode, Aries, and Joe, since everyone wants to get their hands on MVP and to get EY's belt.
I thought the entrance was interesting until Mike Knux, who is just a regular guy with a beard, came out and thought this is all for him? What's he supposed to be in the circus? It might have worked better if they introduced (or repackaged somebody) that actually fit in the circus, maybe a Prospero the Enchanter type from "The Night Circus".
Knux's father's carnival was wiped out by a flood. He spent the past couple of months there helping to fix their pinball machines, because Knux is an engineering genius.
His father wanted him to take over the carnival full time, but Knux's passions led him to return to the world of professional wrestling. He knew that he couldn't go it alone, so he brought his lover Rebel, and his friends The Freak and Crazy Steve back with him.
The Knux saga continues to develop TNA's theme for this year of pondering whether businesses should be family owned. While the Carters show the danger of nepotism, and evil-MVP shows the capriciousness of businesses owned by unrelated money-seeking shareholders, the Knux family is presenting a vision of how small-time family owned businesses offer the unique strength of providing multi-generational leadership. Knux felt a duty to help his father's employees get their livelihood back, so now their loyalty compels them to aid him in his pro-wrestling adventures.
When your peer group is the freak show at a carnival, you really need to be someone sort of insane to be Crazy Steve.
(Or you have to be a 'normal' guy be conventional standards! Crazy Steve filing his income taxes. Crazy Steve preferring to sleep on a mattress and not a bed of nails. Crazy Steve walking but not running with with scissors. Crazy Steve, not actually named Steve at all. Crazy!)
I like the idea, but it needs a lot of polishing. Mike Knux as the center of this doesn't work for me either. At least not with his guy who runs The Gravitron look. The stilt walkers are good, I'm all for having a sketchy clown back in wrestling and the theme music is top notch. The girl isn't Carny looking enough for me. She should dress more like WCW Daffney or Lydia.
I can get behind this before Adam Rose and his sugar high gang of Rosebuds, but they should have just let Jeff Hardy add this to Willow. He would have made it weirder and trashier.
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I think that we're supposed to forget about the fact that Vince is poisoning the WWF. I mean, when was the last time the announcers brought it up?? Dirk