Another very good Impact and probably the last one I'll get to see for awhile, since they're moving to Wednesdays after this week and that's the one night I'm always out.
This week wasn't terribly spectacular, but still the best wrestling program this week (not even going to give Smackdown the benefit of the doubt; if RAW sucked that hard, SD isn't going to be much better). We had an epic rematch of Team 3D versus the Hardys, but without the gimmicks it just wasn't the same. We didn't get a table spot, though we did get a "GET THE TABLES!"-spot. Kudos to Jeff for going out and doing what he does for 12 years or so. Matt is looking to be in good form as well.
"Bet-ter-than-Divas!" *clap clap clapclapclap* The Knockouts match was pretty good, though both Taryn and the Beautiful People were a bit sloppy this match. Damn Velvet is hot as bawls tho. IMO the best looking female in wrestling today. Wasn't the 4-star match I was hoping for but a nice, chaotic brawl that left champ Gail Kim still standing tall. I'm gonna miss the Knockouts
I largely skipped the silliness with EC3. Am I the only one who finds this trend of having performers get 'arrested' is kinda lame?
Low Ki came out and was Low Ki, though I notice he's not nearly as crisp or, well, stiff as he was in RoH. Granted, some years have passed since then. The Scramble was fun, 6-man elimination X-Division bullshit. The New York crowd loved the Homicide vs Low Ki brawl, and in the end the guy with the weird superhero costume will go on to challenge Samoa Joe. That'll either be an awesome match or a really awful one; I'm hoping the former.
A lot of the show was still pretty meh, but not as meh as RAW this week. It helps that it's much easier to pad out two hours, especially when you have a week to work on it in post-production. I'm pretty sure they filmed the current Bingo Hall sessions in successive nights.
That opening segment was the best infomercial that the WWE Network could possibly get. The tag team match ws s still a tremendous match though. The Abyss promo was really bad as I'd his feud with Bram. I think Bram has potential and is being wasted in a hardcore feud with Abyss poor MaMangy xxx never meant less. He is a afterthought.X division match while good had too many guys, should have been just Low Ki vs Homicide. Six man tag was pretty goof with a cheap finish. Lashley has won all his matches clean so I don't hsve an issue with it. TNA and Spike barely mentioning the change to Wednesdays is gonna cost em in the ratings. All in all much better show than last week.
Pretty good show, but g9 has a point that the opening had a trip down memory lane that was a good plug for the E's network. As James Caldwell pointed out the camera angles TNA used made Ki and Homicide look four feet tall.impact drew 1.1 million viewers after drawing 1.3-1.4 mil the last month or so which means preseason football really hurt them. Did the announcers ever mention the move to Wednesdays? They could have had a crawl saying it was mention. There was two mentions of the move one three second clip and another as the show ended. Meh. Crowd was terribly disrespectful during the Anderson match and the Knockouts match needed more time, IMO.
You know what was the BEST, thought? THAT MILLER HIGH LIFE AD. I lost count but I believe they managed to squeeze it in about 96 times over the course of a two hour show, JUST beating out (I'm told) its carpet bombing during "Mad Men."
Yeah, I have to admit the history lesson at the beginning did make me wanna go back and watch the original Hardyz/Dudleyz (with Kewl Xtreme Spellingz) reinvent the TLC match. Which, as King would remind you, is available for $9.99. At least Taz spared us that indignity Of course, if they don't do stuff like that, they don't properly get across the history between these two teams. It's hard when anytime you mention stuff you did in your previous job, WWE Network has that stuff available on demand.
I really don't understand g9's hate when it comes to doing hardcore matches in the Hammerstein ballroom. This is where ECW put on some of its best shows, and more than a few TNA stars are ECW vets; of course they'd want to rekindle some of that heat while they're in the building. And the easiest way to please a bunch of die-hard ECW vets is to throw hardcore at them. Make a few guys hit each other with weapons and bleed all over the place, and you send the fans away happy.
Hardcore gets a really bad rep among some wrestling purists, as it always has. But considering some of the awesome wars that were seen in ECW, which became so popular that WWE and WCW both ripped them off with their 'Hardcore' divisions, there's definitely a place for it. And it's not just in the bush leagues. If TNA wants to try and do something different by reviving Hardcore wrestling, especially when their competition is trying to do PG-level stuff (and doing it very badly), then more power to them. G9 can just change the channel as I mark out for the barbed wire.
Originally posted by Blind_GuardianYeah, I have to admit the history lesson at the beginning did make me wanna go back and watch the original Hardyz/Dudleyz (with Kewl Xtreme Spellingz) reinvent the TLC match. Which, as King would remind you, is available for $9.99. At least Taz spared us that indignity Of course, if they don't do stuff like that, they don't properly get across the history between these two teams. It's hard when anytime you mention stuff you did in your previous job, WWE Network has that stuff available on demand.
I really don't understand g9's hate when it comes to doing hardcore matches in the Hammerstein ballroom. This is where ECW put on some of its best shows, and more than a few TNA stars are ECW vets; of course they'd want to rekindle some of that heat while they're in the building. And the easiest way to please a bunch of die-hard ECW vets is to throw hardcore at them. Make a few guys hit each other with weapons and bleed all over the place, and you send the fans away happy.
Hardcore gets a really bad rep among some wrestling purists, as it always has. But considering some of the awesome wars that were seen in ECW, which became so popular that WWE and WCW both ripped them off with their 'Hardcore' divisions, there's definitely a place for it. And it's not just in the bush leagues. If TNA wants to try and do something different by reviving Hardcore wrestling, especially when their competition is trying to do PG-level stuff (and doing it very badly), then more power to them. G9 can just change the channel as I mark out for the barbed wire.
Because TNA has needed to built it's own identity and brand. It is very sad that twelve years into it's existence TNA still feels like a ECW and WCW nostalgia show a lot of the time and the fans at the ballroom treated it as such.
At this point, I do not understand the Storm/Sanada relationship. However, I did appreciate the use of Storm's barn for their vignette. Storm's barn was prevalent during the Storm-soulsearching plotline after he failed to vanquish Roode at Lockdown 2012. Perhaps the symbolism is meant to be that Storm wants Sanada to regain his independent fighting spirit there, much like Storm did. Or perhaps Storm being drawn back to the barn is a sign that both Storm and Sanada are spiritually lost at the moment.