I just finished watching Impact, and....well, it was watchable. It wasn't the show I thought it would be, that's for sure.
The 2/3 falls opener was Perfectly Acceptable Wrestling for the most part, with a head-scratching title change. Of course, considering the stipulation put on this match concerning Chavo and Hernandez, I should have seen this coming. They even brought out the damn Texas state flag with them. No way they were losing when I saw that thing waving around.
The short promo segment with Joseph Park and Devon was kind of funny. I think the crowd were actually booing Joseph Park, which made me chuckle for some reason. Brooke says wants a divorce, but apparently she's not getting one anytime soon.
The Gail Kim/Taryn Terrell match was made watchable by ODB's antics as the ref and the Taryn in general. I did find Gail chasing after ODB post-match amusing. Who wants to get physical with Taryn? My hand is up over here.
I see that Mickie vs. Tessmacher for the #1 contender spot is booked for next week. 2 faces, booked in a match to see who takes on the face champ? When the only heels are Gail and Tara, stuff like this happens. Since Mickie hasn't been seen on TV in ages, I'm 99% sure she's winning that match.
Once Pearce got eliminated from the Gutcheck thing, my interest in watching the segment went down considerably. They couldn't be any more transparent about this thing being a work at this point. Thankfully, Magno was sent packing with 2 no votes.
The "AJ & Friends" promo segment was alright. Adding Kaz and Daniels to the mix seemed rather peculiar, though. I don't see why those guys would want anything to do with AJ.
I have one word for the strange, random Rob Terry/Joey Ryan match: Why? This was basically a squash, and it made neither guy look terribly good. A waste of time.
The Full Metal Mayhem match was alright. Decent use of the tables. Brooke was sitting ringside, but she was sitting next to some dude in Aces & Eights gear constantly mugging for the camera. This match went the way I thought it would: Jeff Hardy took the big table spots, and Bully Ray gets the win. Brooke walks away in a huff, and.....that's it? Gee, that was underwhelming. Big group celebration in the ring at the end, but then again, I already saw that scene at the Sears Centre a month ago.
My favorite promo was probably the backstage segment with Matt Morgan and Hogan. It felt like foreshadowing, but it was effective. Joey Ryan's interaction with Brooke was amusing as well. There was a fair amount of stuff on this show that I didn't like all that much, namely the Rob Terry squash and the time-wasting Gutcheck business. The main event was solid, and the tag match was Perfectly Acceptable. Promos were decent, but not awesome or anything. I'll give this episode of Impact a borderline c-/C+. Considering the build for the April 11 show, I thought it would be better.
The triple-hit spot in the turnbuckle (Whisper in the Wind, falling onto the chair, then bonked by the ladder) was marvelous. I love Bully Ray. Shame that table broke at ringside when he nudged it. When Hardy hobbled up the ramp to get a table at the entrance and limp back with it, I was left wondering why he didn't just go up the ladder.
"To be the man, you gotta beat demands." -- The Lovely Mrs. Tracker
Daniels wins all of wrestling and geekdom with the I am a John Byrne shirt. Can I use my useless shop zone gift card that no one at Mania wanted to take even though I was told it would be fine, to buy that shirt? Yeah, the Wrestlemania glow us gone
I actually liked this episode since its the first time where Aces & Eight helped a good chunk of the show instead of bringing it down.
The Wee Baby Sheamus.Twitter: @realjoecarfley its a bit more toned down there. A bit.
Hardy is such a lucky man that he just missed the ropes on his final fall or he would have snapped his neck. Main Event had a clunky spot or two, but in general was a very good match. I figured Brooke was gonna turn, but I guess they are gonna stretch that out too. So Mickie isn't on TV in months and is in a number one contenders match next week. Makes no sense. Hope she beats Velvet and turns heel soon. Mickie's TNA run has been extremely underwhelming. TNA had just dropped the ball on gut check so badly I wish they would stop bothering. Sam Shaw and other scrubs are good enough to win gut check, but Pearce isn't? It's not like any of the winners are even used other then Brisco, who's inclusion made no sense any and Ryan lost, but is on the show and is just a jobber. Where's Jay Bradley, who could be a huge asset? He cuts a great heel promo and win and is never seen again.He would be a much better Aces and Eight member than Dlo or Anderson or Brisco or Garrett as would Pearce. Chavo and Hernandez tag champs again? Yawn. I like Aries and Roode a lot, but not together and I wish Bad Influence were the tag champs. All in all, a meh show and really other than the stuff with Bully nothing is clicking right now for TNA.
Originally posted by graves9He would be a much better Aces and Eight member than Dlobor Anderson or Brisco or Garrett as would Pearce.
And this is where the angle should go. "If TNA doesn't want you, Aces and 8s does. They don't see your value. They want you gone. With us, you never walk alone."
"To be the man, you gotta beat demands." -- The Lovely Mrs. Tracker
Bully Ray gingerly laying himself on the table after breaking the first one was pretty bad. Is the TNA budget so bad they can't put another table or two under the ring? I like the upside down ladder spot, but it is no wonder Hardy always seems to have a pill problem. I like garbage highspot matches, so it all worked for me in the end.
Its absurd for Adam Pierce to be participating in Gut Check. Virtually any former NWA champ should be in the TNA title picture by default. (With the exception of guys who WWE has made look like jobbers in the past. Sorry, Mr. Cabana.)
Yet again Bad Influences blocks AJ's attempt to turn heel! I love it. Kaz and CD made many plausible points as to why it might make sense for AJ to join them. Reform Fortune, AJ!
I'm a fan of Joey Ryan and of Rob Terry, but their match didn't click. Terry's terminator entrance video looks cool. I loved Brooke's brief flirtation with Joey earlier in the night.
Devon needs to step it up, and get back to defending his title weekly.
Originally posted by graves9He would be a much better Aces and Eight member than Dlobor Anderson or Brisco or Garrett as would Pearce.
And this is where the angle should go. "If TNA doesn't want you, Aces and 8s does. They don't see your value. They want you gone. With us, you never walk alone."
In fact, that would have been a better direction from the get-go: Have A&8 be revealed as guys who got "screwed" in the gut-check challenge. That would have been a bunch of guys who could work and felt like they had a legit beef with TNA. Why on earth is D-Lo Brown involved in this? Can anyone explain that to me in a way that makes even the least amount of sense?
Originally posted by graves9He would be a much better Aces and Eight member than Dlobor Anderson or Brisco or Garrett as would Pearce.
And this is where the angle should go. "If TNA doesn't want you, Aces and 8s does. They don't see your value. They want you gone. With us, you never walk alone."
In fact, that would have been a better direction from the get-go: Have A&8 be revealed as guys who got "screwed" in the gut-check challenge. That would have been a bunch of guys who could work and felt like they had a legit beef with TNA. Why on earth is D-Lo Brown involved in this? Can anyone explain that to me in a way that makes even the least amount of sense?
They needed a mole inside TNA management to get them access and manipulate things.
I really don't know why they bothered with the 2/3 fall stip when the first two falls are decided in about 90 seconds. I was getting ready for a 40-minute classic and wound up with a run-of-the-mill TV match. It's really a shame that they went back to Chavo and Hernandez, because there's really nothing for Aries and Roode to do at this point. They can't try for the tag titles at this point, because that feud is PLAYED and they can't go for the world title until the title gets taken off Bully Ray. And where do Chavo and Hernandez go from here? Feud with Bad Influence again? There's really no benefit to this decision and I can't say I like it.
Loved seeing Ray and Jeff kill themselves for our entertainment. The Ace-rference was a different kind of predictable, in the sense that you knew someone would cost Jeff that match. I'm just surprised we didn't get a Brooke turn, but I guess we're holding that off to a PPV.
AJ joining up with Bad Influence would make the least amount of sense, so don't rule out that this might actually happen. It'd actually be a total TNA move to foreshadow AJ breaking out into the world title picture, only to turn around and turn him into a comedy figure (circa the Christian Cage era) by pairing him with Bad Influence.
This really wasn't the breakout show I wanted it to be, but I can't complain about the free price tag.
Originally posted by graves9He would be a much better Aces and Eight member than Dlobor Anderson or Brisco or Garrett as would Pearce.
And this is where the angle should go. "If TNA doesn't want you, Aces and 8s does. They don't see your value. They want you gone. With us, you never walk alone."
In fact, that would have been a better direction from the get-go: Have A&8 be revealed as guys who got "screwed" in the gut-check challenge. That would have been a bunch of guys who could work and felt like they had a legit beef with TNA. Why on earth is D-Lo Brown involved in this? Can anyone explain that to me in a way that makes even the least amount of sense?
They needed a mole inside TNA management to get them access and manipulate things.
I meant more, what's in it for D-Lo, and why would any viewer care about it? D-Lo's a guy who's basically been off television for about five years. Who cares if he's a mole? And if they were so in love with the idea of a mole, shouldn't they have reintroduced D-Lo with some tv spots leading up to the reveal?
D'Lo was introduced as a management type months before he joined the Aces and Eights so he was technically reintroduced. He even replaced Al Snow as a gut check judge when Wes Brisco was in gutcheck.
I still want to know what D'Lo gained by affiliating himself with Aces and Eights.
I was hoping that D'Lo's justification for joining A&8 was something like D'Lo being jealous that Sting was the first person in the hall of fame rather than him. No one would have realistically thought that D'Lo deserves to be the first inductee (or maybe even in the hall of fame at all), but its the kind of thing that could certainly piss off a guy with a big ego.
Outside of Bully and Devon there's zero motivation for any of the Aces & 8s guys to be there. Why the Hell is former world champion Ken Anderson happy to play henchman for a guy who he was beating regularly two years ago? It's not like they're winning titles left and right.
Originally posted by Amos CochranOutside of Bully and Devon there's zero motivation for any of the Aces & 8s guys to be there. Why the Hell is former world champion Ken Anderson happy to play henchman for a guy who he was beating regularly two years ago? It's not like they're winning titles left and right.
To be fair Anderson when he joined seemed more focused on questioning the authority of everyone in Aces&Eights, but now Bully is in charge with the belt, he seems driven to turn AJ to the dark side. Aces have been winning a lot since Lockdown, I mean a lot.
The Wee Baby Sheamus.Twitter: @realjoecarfley its a bit more toned down there. A bit.
I thought last night's show was okay. It didn't feel like the epic sort of show that it was built to be, but it was still pretty solid. Aside from the main event, there wasn't really anything else on the show that felt important. The rest of the show wasn't horrible or anything, it just felt like it was there. The 2 out of 3 falls match was okay though, , it felt like the stipulation in this match was unnecessary and wasted. I've little interest in LAX 3.0 as tag champs and I don't think a huge number of non-Hispanic fans will either as they're just flat out dull. Gut Check was nothing tonight and I think we'll see Pearce as part of Aces & Eights. The KO match was what it was, as was Joseph Park and Terry vs. Ryan. The AJ Styles promo segment was solid as it raised another possibility of Styles' potential direction in joining Bad Influence, even though doing so would make absolutely no sense at all. The main event was the clear highlight of the show. Ray successfully defending his title without any help from Aces & Eights only seems, at least to me, to reinforce the notion that Bully Ray doesn't really need them. Just seems that Bully Ray is carrying a lot of unnecessary weight. Take the main event out of the show and, all in all, it would've been a very dry, bland show.
As I'm sure you're all aware, there's a big reality TV crazy going around. As I'm sure you're all aware, wrestling promotions, especially the WWE and any recent VINCE RUSSO run fed has been perverted by this reality crazy.
Thread rated: 5.26
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