Impact Wrestling this week did a good job of keeping my
attention throughout the whole show. The Joker’s Wild Tournament took up the
majority of the show, building up nicel into the gauntlet match, whilst there
was also some nice build for next week’s special edition of Impact Wrestling,
Destination X.
Will Chris Sabin cash in his X Division title?
Fifth Member Revealed!
The major story of the show revolved around whether Chris
Sabin would cash in the X Division Championship that he won back on last week’s
Impact Wrestling. Now, I have no problem with this as a concept being the main
hook of the show, however it certainly wasn’t help with Sabin announcing his
decision already at the end of last week’s show. Therefore, we had an air of predictability
running throughout the show. I mean what would have happened if Sabin had said
no? Would Destination X just be cancelled? The other story running throughout
the show was the idea that there was a new member of the Main Event Mafia.
After Magnus joined the Sting, Kurt Angle and Samoa Joe last week I was
intrigued to who might be joining the group.
We kicked off the show with Bully Ray telling Sabin that he’d
be better of not cashing in his X Division belt, as Bully will beat him anyway,
especially with his family around. It was another good promo from Bully Ray,
who has really found a niche in this role, still continuing to produce some of
the best work of his career. Bully went on to reject the Main Event Mafia offer
of a fight next week which drew the Mafia out to the entrance ramp. Kurt Angle did
a good job of explaining the plan behind the challenge, stating that next week
they’d take out every single member of Aces and Eights, so that the World
Heavyweight Championship match would be one on one. Sting then made the
announcement that the fifth member of the Main Event Mafia would be revealed
later tonight. As far as opening segment’s go this one was pretty damn good,
setting up bigger segments for later in the night and setting the scene for
next week.
There were couple of backstage segments thrown into the mix
as we built towards the final segment. Firstly, we got a continuation of the
Bully Ray and Brooke Hogan storyline, with General Manager Hulk Hogan asking
Brooke what was going on. Brooke said she was trying to keep her business and
private life separate and focus on the Knockout’s Ladder Match later on. If
only Brooke had done so in the first place, we might not still be suffering
this dire storyline. I can’t understand why TNA have acknowledged that Brooke
has got engaged in real life, because in for one, in storyline she is still married
to Bully Ray and for two, if you’re going to acknowledge a real life occurrence
for Brooke, then it leaves you open for criticism when Bully Ray is also
already married in real life! In other segments, we saw Sting and Angle talk up
their newest recruit for the Main Event Mafia as they awaited a phonecall in
what was essentially filler and didn’t add much to the show.
In the final segment, we saw General Manager Hulk Hogan come
out first to talk up Destination X next week and invite X Division Champion
Chris Sabin out to the ring to find out his decision regarding the World
Heavyweight Championship. Sabin cut a decent, if not familiar promo about how
he was following his dreams by going after the World Heavweight Championship,
but before he could hand over the belt, World Heavyweight Champion Bully Ray
headed out to the ring and this is where the segment really found its feet for
me. Bully continued to try to persuade Sabin not to cash in next week, maybe
focussing a little bit too much on Hulk Hogan during his promo for my liking.
It was then Sabin’s time to shine as he cut a fantastic promo, where you could
see him grow in confidence as it went along. Sabin talked about how he’d
already beaten Bully Ray before in Team 3D’s retirement match and kicked out of
the 3D. His passion really came through the television screen and that made him
feel like a perfect opponent for Bully. Originally when I heard this match
might be happening I wasn’t particularly excited by it, but thanks to good work
from TNA, Bully Ray and Chris Sabin in the last few weeks, I now can’t wait to
see Chris Sabin get his shot at the Championship. We finished up with Aces and
Eights coming out, presumably to take out Sabin, only for the Main Event Mafia
to head to the ramp, reiterating their plan for next week and revealing their
newest member…Rampage Jackson. This seems like a good decision for me, it
allows Rampage to be visible on the product, whilst training at the same time
and should make him look like a badass, building to a match with Kurt Angle somewhere
down the line.
Bound For Glory Series Joker’s Wild Gauntlet Match: Magnus vs. Samoa Joe vs. AJ Styles vs. Kazarian vs. Bobby Roode vs. Mr. Anderson
Throughout the show we had a number of tag team qualifying
matches for this gauntlet, with the teams picked out at random by Jeremy Borash
and Christy Hemme, we’ll talk about those in more detail later on. Now, a
gauntlet in TNA is unlike a gauntlet you will see in WWE or numerous other promotions,
which have more of a “Winner stays on format”, a TNA gauntlet is similar to WWE’s
Royal Rumble with two competitors starting the match and another entering at
regular intervals. To spice things up a little once we reach the final two
competitors, the match becomes a regular one on one contest. So basically what
we had here was six-man royal rumble match!
Now, the winner of the Gauntlet would receive 25 points in
the Bound For Glory series. Now this isn’t something I was particularly happy
with as the Bound For Glory Series concept should be enough on it’s own to tell
the story and giving away 25 points here dilutes the other one-on-one contests
that we will see later on in the Series. It also allows TNA to quickly change
the ranking whenever they want, by throwing in these extra matches, which means
the long term story telling that should be used for the Bond For Glory Series
is lost, which will hurt the eventual winner and reduce the chance of other
wrestler being elevated and new stars created.
Magnus and AJ Styles started the match, with some decent
action but we were basically treading water here as we waited for the next
competitor to join the match. That next competitor was Bad Influence’s
Kazarian. It was more of the same here, with some nice displays from Kazarian,
but mainly each man trying to get each other over the tope rope. With Samoa Joe
heading down to the ring the match picked up, as we began to get a bit of psychology
involved, with Joe and Magnus working together to get the upper hand over
Styles and Kazarian. With Styles and Kaz fighting back they then turned their
attention to each other, with Styles eliminating Kazarian with a back body
drop. Mr. Anderson was the next man to enter, albeit during an advert break and
then Bobby Roode was the final man to enter. With five men in the ring there
was a lot of pushing an shoving with one man sat in the corner which wasn’t particularly
gripping stuff to watch. Some nice work between Bobby Roode and AJ Styles, lead
to Styles’ elimination with Roode having him perched on the top rope, with Mr.
Anderson run by with a clothesline for the elimination. Samoa Joe and Anderson
were then the next to be eliminated with Joe charging at Anderson for a
clothesline and both men heading over the top rope. It was a spot we’ve seen
hundreds of times before, but it worked well here.
Down to a final two of Bobby Roode and Magnus, the match
certainly hit it’s strongest period. The two put in another solid encounter.
Roode worked over Magnus, until the Brit got the upperhand by thwarting Roode’s
superplex attempt, but missed his top rope elbow drop. Roode went for a
Fisherman Suplex, with Magnus countering into the Mag Daddy Driver to pick up
the win and the 25 points in the tournament. Another good short bout between
Magnus and Roode it would be nice to see what they can do given a bit more
time. Did this win do much for Magnus? Well, yes he got the 25 points and is
now the runaway leader of the Bound For Glory Series, but it didn’t really help
to elevate him any further than he has been in recent weeks. He’s already
defeated Bobby Roode in singles action and didn’t actually eliminate any one in
the battle royal.
Best of the Rest (In The World)
The other big match of the night was Taryn Terrell and Gail
Kim in a rare knockout’s Ladder Match, with the winner becoming the number one
contender for Mickie James’ Knockout Championship. After Terrel and Kim’s
brutal Last Knockout Standing Match at Slammiversary there were high
expectations for this one to deliver the same kind of brutality, which for the
most part it delivered upon. It wasn’t exactly a wrestling classic, but that
isn’t what was needed and we moved from painful spot to painful spot these
women really have to be commended for what they were willing to do in the ring.
Both took bumps off the ladder, with some nice worked spots including Kim
locking in the figure four around the ladder and Gail ducking being irish
whipped in the ladder, only for Terrell to send the ladder straight back at
her.
It looked like Terrell might have won the match after
hanging Kim over the side of the ladder with a sleeper hold, but once Kim had
fallen, Terrell was unable to grab the contract because of an injured knee
thanks to Kim’s Figure Four on the Ladder, it was a nice touch to the match
that really helped you get behind Taryn. The ending saw Terrell counter Kim’s
Eat Defeat into a Dragon Sleeper Hold close to the ropes, only for Kim to begin
to tie Terrell’s hair to the ring ropes. Kim escaped the hold and easily pulled
down the contract. It was a clever ending, but didn’t really suit the match,
feeling somewhat of an anti-climax. I was surprised that Kim won the match, as
the logical progression would have been for Terrell to move into a program with
Mickie James. However, I won’t complain about seeing Mickie James vs. Gail Kim
even if we’ve seen it a load already.
Elsewhere in the night, Aces and Eights voted for a new Vice
President. This storyline has been going for a while with both Mr. Anderson and
DOC squabbling over the position, with little real progression, so it was nice
to see it concluded here. Bully Ray decided to stay out of the vote, which
predictably saw each wrestle pick up a vote alternatively as we went along the
line. With Wes Brisco and Garrett Bischoff voting for Mr. Anderson, and Taz and
Devon choosing DOC, it went down to Knux’s vote. It seemed like DOC could count
on Knux’s vote, but Knux switched and choose Anderson making him the new Vice
President of Aces and Eights. It was a well done segment, but really this
should have been done weeks ago.
In the pick of the qualifying matches for the Joker’s Wild
Gauntlet, we had Christopher Daniels teaming with Austin Aries to take on
Kazarian and Bobby Roode. This is where the “random” drawing really came into
it’s own, with Daniels and Kaz being adamant they would be drawn together, they
refused to face off for most of the match, with the other member tagging out as
soon as the other tagged in. Roode and Aries had no problem squaring off though
and produced some good action, as expected. With Daniels eventually having to
break up a pinfall attempt by Kazarian to keep his team in the match, we saw
the first signs of trouble in Camp Bad Influence. The end saw Aries attempt a
Brainbuster on Kaz only for Daniels to tag himself in and end up walking into a
small package from Kazarian for the victory. There looked to be problems
between Daniels and Kaz, but The Fallen Angel eventually came to, raising Kaz’s
hand in victory. It was a very well worked match, with interesting psychology
and solid in ring work from all four guys, who should all be considered top
guys for the company.
Elsewhere in the qualifying matches we saw, Jeff Hardy and
Joseph Park teaming up to face Samoa Joe and AJ Styles. Now if it was Abyss
teaming with Jeff Hardy we could’ve been in for an absolute classic, however it
wasn’t and we weren’t. Don’t get me wrong it was bad for a four minute tag team
match, but it won’t be remembered for particularly long. Styles and Joe worked
over Hardy for the first few minutes, with some nice tag team work, before
Hardy made the hot tag to Park. This would have worked if the audience didn’t
like Joe and Styles more than they like the Park character. With Park working
over Joe and Styles, he took to long to celebrate ending up getting hit with a
Springboard forearm from Styles and caught in the Rear Naked Choke from Joe,
leading to the submission victory for Joe and Styles.
The other contest saw Jay Bradley team up with Hernandez to
take on Magnus and Mr. Anderson. It was another unremarkable and short match,
with some decent wrestling throughout but nothing that really made you sit up
and take notice. This Bound For Glory Series is really helping Jay Bradley in
my eyes though, despite not winning yet, having him as a regular on television
is will definitely help him in the long run. In a nice twist ending, where many
would have thought the desention would come between Magnus and Anderson,
Bradley tripped Hernandez, allowing Magnus to get a roll up victory to advance.
Finally...
What have I learnt from this week's Impact Wrestling?
1. TNA has a short memory, not remembering what happened on their last show
2. Magnus is clearly going to be the guy at the top of the Bound For Glory Series for a long time.
3. Gail Kim and Taryn Terrell are two of the toughest women in main stream wrestling.
Bound For Glory Series Standings
1. Magnus - 49 Points (Non-Mover)
2. Samoa Joe - 19 Points (Non-Mover)
3. Jeff Hardy - 17 Points (Up One)
4. Christoper Daniels - 14 Points (Up One)
5. AJ Styles - 12 Points (Down Two)
6. Austin Aries - 7 Points (Down One)
- Hernandez - 7 Points (Down One)
- Mr. Anderson - 7 Points (Down One)
9. Bobby Roode - 0 Points (Non-Mover)
- Jay Bradley - 0 Points (Non-Mover)
- Kazarian - 0 Points (Non-Mover)
12. Joseph Park - (10) Points (Non-Mover)
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