I admit, I had lost interest in TNA with the recent turn of events, and stopped watching it. I caught Impact this week, though, so I thought of writing this up. I may be lost on some of the recent storyline developments, so apologies before we begin.
With that said, the recap for TNA Impact 11.11.2010, taped from the Impact Zone in Orlando, FL.
The show opens with Immortal crowding the ring, and that's an awful lot of people. Hogan and Jeff Hardy are missing, however. Kaz sets up a garbage can in the middle of the ring, which comes into the picture later. Bischoff taunts the crowd for a bit before presenting all the people who won their matches at Turning Point. First Abyss, "the smartest monster," and then the "MMA Specialist" Jeff Jarrett. Bischoff claims that JJ's MMA antics would be appreciated by the entire Gracie family. Over-the-top Bischoff is quite fun. Flair says no one dominates the sport like Immortal. Styles puts over Fortune and reiterates that Sabu is in the unemployment line due to them. Today, Stevie Richards will join him after Styles breaks his neck.
Bischoff introduces Jeff Hardy, who says something about hopes and dreams and the "invisibility of wind" that went over my head. He claims to have sipped from the "holy grail of Hulkamania" and become Immortal. Interesting metaphor. Hogan comes out now to present the new title, which is fucking atrocious (The W). Hogan puts over Flair and says that the time has come for everyone in the company to step up or get out. Hogan tosses the old belt in the trash, but Pope is pimpin'!
Pope promises to put Bischoff in a coffin and push it off a cliff. Nice. Joe shows up to tell Immortal that Pope isn't their only problem. Once he grounds Jarrett and chokes him out, his two hillbilly girlfriends aren't going to be able to help him. RVD shows up to say that the fun Immortal have had at his expense is about to stop. RVD promises to become TNA champ tonight. Matt Morgan shows up now and questions Hulk's cojones. Hulk promises that if it's a fight they want, it's a fight they'll get. 1 for 1: Overly long, but it got several points across. In WWE logic, this would lead to a four-on-four. In TNA logic, it leads to four different matches.
Backstage, Hogan rants about Matt Morgan. They make Joe v Gunner/Murphy, RVD v Kaz (if RVD wins, he's the #1 contender), and Morgan v Beer Money/Doug Williams.
Match 1: Mixed Tag: Robbie E and Cookie v Jay Lethal and Taylor Wilde Cookie specified prior to the match that she's not a wrestler, even though she is. It's good she did, though, because she was horrible in there. It's your formula tag, faces dominate while heels run away/cheat like bastards. A double team fails, allowing Lethal to get a nearfall with the Lethal Combination. While Wilde chases Cookie around, Robbie wins with the Big Boot (5 mins) to end this. 1 for 2 Far too sloppy with few redeeming points.
Team 3D come out for their retirement speech. They put over the match at the PPV and the Guns while the fans chant "please don't go." Ray runs down their history and says thank you to all the fans. Devon says it's time to move on. He says Ray is going to be a rockstar (in his dreams?) and he's going to train his kids to be wrestlers. Testify! Ray doesn't want to, though, and turns on Devon in a SHOCKING SWERVE~! Zuh? 1 for 3: Nonsensical. I have no interest in more 3D. Devon was right, dammit. Time to move on.
Eric Bischoff berates some young referee for screwing up but Matt Morgan comes up to save his ass. Morgan tells the ref to do the right thing tonight in Morgan's match and prove his worth.
Match 2: Samoa Joe v Gunner and Murphy. Why are these sods (G/M) still around? This is a total squash, Murphy eats a corner kick and Gunner eats Muscle Buster in one minute and that's that. Post match, Gunner gets choked out. Jarrett attacks with a nightstick, and puts on an Ankle Lock but Kurt Angle saves! Jarrett heads for higher ground. 2 for 4: Good to see some of the heels get their comeuppance.
Backstage, Bischoff shits a brick and leaves with Abyss as his security blanket. Flair says G/M are done. Good call. Hogan says they will handle it.
Eric is in the bathroom, but that is the place the Pope has chosen for his strategic assault! He fights off Abyss and abducts Bischoff.
Match 3: Kazarian v Rob Van Dan. The announcers mention something about Rhino's contract, which tells me he's gonna be involved in this match. RVD dominates for a short while but wipes out the ref, prompting Flair to come out with a chair. Sure enough, Rhino interrupts him and Gores RVD! Another SHOCKING SWERVE~! Kaz covers after the ref recovers and we're done in 3 minutes. 2 for 5: The match could've been much longer and better and they could've still ran the same angle. Another nonsensical turn and another guy I care not for. Post match, he attacks Dreamer with the chair as well.
Pope berates Bischoff in a secluded area with a vending machine. He puts his sunglasses and cap on Bischoff and tells him to rap like the Pope. That goes about as well as you'd think, and Pope drags him off.
Elsewhere, Hogan commands Abyss to wipe out Pope.
Match 4: TV Title: AJ Styles (c) v Stevie Richards. Remember when Styles said he'd defend the title at every TV show? TNA doesn't either. Styles dominates early with a sweet moonsault. Richards makes the comeback and drops him with a neckbreaker. Styles springoards into a StevenKick! Nice! Styles fights out of a powerbomb and hits a particularly sick Styles Clash for the clean pin at 6 minutes. 3 for 6: Stevie can still go, and this was fun.
Pope tries to make good on his promise by putting Eric in a coffin and wheeling it away. Abyss makes the save, but Pope knees the shit out of him. That allows Bischoff to escape the coffin and low blow him, however. Abyss and Bischoff load Pope into the casket and ram it into the stage.
Match 5: Matt Morgan v Beer Money and Douglas Williams. The heels use the Numbers Game (c - Michael Cole) and dominate for the better part of 6 minutes. Morgan fights out of a figure-4 as Bischoff comes out to tell Morgan that if he doesn't win, he doesn't get another title shot at Hardy. Eric on commentary is rather distracting. Morgan comes out of a Boston Crab and mounts a sustained comebacks. Clotheslines for all! Now Bischoff promises Morgan a title shot. Dumbass. We overshoot into Reaction once again, and Beer Money have had enough. Morgan turns a Williams crossbody into a fallaway slam and the Carbon Footprint finishes at about 11 minutes. 4 for 7 Decent contest. But Bischoff on commentary did more harm than good. Hardy distracts Morgan postmatch with a promo, but attacks him from behind in real time. Ingenious! Twist of Hate and Swanton leaves him standing tall.
End Show.
Wrestling Counter: 26 minutes.
The Score: 4 for 7: A decent show from TNA, who continue to book Immortal very strongly. But that has always been their staple. Where they tend to screw up is that the faces are never presented as any real kind of a threat and are wiped away in due course of time. Let's see if this version of Millionaire's Club v New Blood turns out any different.
Originally posted by used2bcool The Score: 4 for 7: A decent show from TNA, who continue to book Immortal very strongly. But that is always been their staple. What they tend to screw up is that the faces are never presented as any real kind of a threat and are wiped away in due course of time. Let's see if this version of Millionnaire's Club v New Blood turns out any different.
We've seen this dance so many times from TNA and even more from Eric Bischoff. The faces never rally to topple the big, bad heel faction. It always ends up being more of the same until the heels wipes out the faces to the point that they're no longer credible and the only way for the heel faction to fall is for them to fight amongst themselves. This isn't even the first time that Samoa Joe's been on the losing side of this battle.
Stay tuned in two months when AJ Styles turns face to fight Jeff Hardy and we get "dissension in the ranks."
Originally posted by used2bcoolI admit, I had lost interest in TNA with the recent turn of events, and stopped watching it.
Same boat as me. I can barely bring myself to skim recaps anymore (no offense!).
Originally posted by u2bcHogan comes out now to present the new title, which is fucking atrocious (The W).
We're supposed to hate it, though, right? I didn't watch the show, but is that how Taz and Tenay put it over? I mean, even Dixie is not impressed.
Originally posted by u2bcEric Bischoff berates some young referee for screwing up but Matt Morgan comes up to save his ass.
It's Bischoff's real-life kid, is what I read somewhere. Maybe we'll get him vs. Brian Hebner in the near future. Yay!
--K
Last 5 movies seen: Scott Pilgrim vs. the World *** - The Bride of Frankenstein **1/2 - Winter's Bone ***1/2 - The Girl Who Played With Fire *** - Zombieland n/a
I can't fathom ANYONE still having the time for those Bischoff opening talkfests. Can you imagine Vince still opening the show with a twenty-minute Corporation promo after ten years? And Bisch has been doing this as his only major angle for three years before the Corporation even existed. Immortal is the MEM is SEX is the Magnificent Seven is the New Blood is the nWo and on and on and on it goes.
The end of Stevie/Styles was ugly. They couldn't time the powerbomb spot, and Stevie tucked his head on the Clash, landing on his neck. Scary to see.
But Hardy's main event run-in was sharp. Not only is the Twist of Hate a slick new name, but he hit the Swanton, rolled to his feet, and straightened his tie~! That was sharp, exactly the subtle attitude change that makes his antichrist turn fun. He needs to stay away from the mic though. His sophomoric attempts at poetic rhetoric are embarrassing.
Morgan certainly looks like a contender, after all these years.
"To be the man, you gotta beat demands." -- The Lovely Mrs. Tracker
I only caught some of this and was a little bored. I can no longer take Hogan/Bischoff/Flair talking that seems to go on forever. The 3D break-up was inevitable after they lost and Bubba as a heel at least on the mic is always good, in singles competition, I don't know. I agree with what is being said about TNA doing these epic arcs with the big heel faction. There were some nice moments for the faces during MEM, but it ended in such a clusterfuck that no one realized it even ended. They need to have a game plan for the faces to win this thing without Sting or Kurt winning the belt.
Rhyno turning is not a shocking swerve since Bischoff did say there was a traitor in EV2.0 and Rhyno did "accidentally" gore RVD as well as get in his face last week to cost him the TV title. As long as they are getting rid of EV2.0, I am ok with that. Still, they need to have the faces align with a real leader. Also, as long as we consider Jeff's belt a joke that is ok to, I guess. I still don't know why WWE has a spinner belt after the amount of times John has lost that thing, but whatever.
Originally posted by Amos CochranAt least the Spinner belt doesn't look like something a 14 year-old Goth would cut into his arm after being rejected by his one true love.
Yet, the spinner belt is considered a real title while TNA acknowledges that Jeff's belt is a bit of a joke. I
Originally posted by Amos CochranAt least the Spinner belt doesn't look like something a 14 year-old Goth would cut into his arm after being rejected by his one true love.
Yet, the spinner belt is considered a real title while TNA acknowledges that Jeff's belt is a bit of a joke.
Originally posted by lotjxI still don't know why WWE has a spinner belt after the amount of times John has lost that thing, but whatever.
(edited by lotjx on 12.11.10 0800)
Because technically it hasn't been spinning (on purpose) for a long time and now is just a new era belt with lots of bling on it and nothing more.
TNA- at least they have decided on who the faces are gonna be. Joe, Pope, RVD and then a returning Kurt Angle as their leader maybe. That doesn't sound like a bad group to have, though it would be good if the MCMG join in so the numbers don't look so skewed. Though I guess if you involve the Guns it will mean they lose the titles to Beer Money first, or something like that.
Originally posted by Amos CochranI can't fathom ANYONE still having the time for those Bischoff opening talkfests. Can you imagine Vince still opening the show with a twenty-minute Corporation promo after ten years? And Bisch has been doing this as his only major angle for three years before the Corporation even existed. Immortal is the MEM is SEX is the Magnificent Seven is the New Blood is the nWo and on and on and on it goes.
Dude we've gotten plenty of as The Mcmahons turn over the last dozen years. It wasn't that long ago that Shane was taking out Legacy pretty easily. That said, I agree with the rest.
Originally posted by Amos CochranAt least the Spinner belt doesn't look like something a 14 year-old Goth would cut into his arm after being rejected by his one true love.
There's no defending the look of either title. They both look like dreck, the TNA title moreso.
Not a bad show. Styles Vs Stevie was very good match. Stevie can still go as others have said but they've done nothing with him. The Robbie E stuff is just awful. Rhino's turn makes some sense from the standpoint of his contract was up and the only way it would be renewed is if he turns on EV2. Rhino is a guy I like he shows good intensity can get over and works hard. Kaz Vs Rvd could have been really good but it got no time. Oh Hebner is just awful. You could tell pretty easily him giving his cues as well as telegraphing that he's gonna get bumped. He needed to retire ten years ago. Joe is just a side character in this Jarrett-Angle feud and it's sad.
Originally posted by Amos CochranAt least the Spinner belt doesn't look like something a 14 year-old Goth would cut into his arm after being rejected by his one true love.
And how does that not fit Jeff’s character/personality over the last 10 years? It’s a vanity belt, and they usually suck, but are made to appeal to the guy wearing it. Spinner belt, Smoking Skull, even Warriors’ interchangeable purple, yellow, and orange belts for the IC and WWF title back in those days. On top of that, the fans are supposed to hate it, so it must be working. They want the fans to be outraged that they threw away and desecrated the TNA belt. Yes it’s ugly, as it was intended, but it makes sense.
"I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ."
Originally posted by Amos CochranI'm astonished that people think TNA actually set out to make an ugly, shitty-looking belt.
It fits with Jeff's emo character and ugly/freaky appearance. They coudln't be so dense as to think the belt looks good, could they?
I agree with kentish: It's a heat machine. As Bischoff said on ReACTION: This represents the Immortal Era, and it's completely Hardyesque. Now, I don't think they've done enough to make people outraged by having "their" TNA championship trashed, but Hardy is creating a distinct persona that bleeds over into his title belt.
"To be the man, you gotta beat demands." -- The Lovely Mrs. Tracker
I'm sad we didn't get any follow up from the Turning Point brawl/angle with Mickie and Tara, considering the amount of time they spent on it at the PPV and how much the fans were actually *in to* it.
It's not the first time that TNA has done something really big on a PPV and then just not followed up on it for the next two tapings.
The main problem I have with Immortal is that I don't really care about them so all the build up in the world for a face team doesn't really give me anything to get behind.
Oh, and how gullible is Devon that he didn't see the turn coming considering Ray did pretty much the exact same thing earlier this summer?
Thread ahead: Big newz on Survivor Series, Cena, Linda and MORE! Next thread: Eric Young's contract expires; talks with TNA ongoing Previous thread: Recap of Matt Hardy on Shane Helms' show
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