TNA Bound For Glory 2013 Review

I honestly wasn't expecting a lot from this Pay-Per-View heading into it, and that isn't a great way to be heading into what is supposed to be TNA's biggest show of the year. The build up had included a couple of decent episodes of Impact Wrestling, but whilst I tended to come out of the show feeling entertained, they didn't really make me want to watch this show any more, mainly due to haphazard booking and the awful heel turn of Dixie Carter dominating most of the show.

The show kicked off with a promo video outlining the lead up to the main event, that would see AJ Styles challenge for Bully Ray's World Heavyweight Championship. I thought this was very well put together, and TNA had clearly put some effort into the production of the video, but Styles spent most of the video talking about his issues with Dixie Carter, instead of his opponent. The Styles/Ray build up should of written itself, but TNA have some how managed to balls it up.

X Division Championship Ultimate X Match:

Jeff Hardy

Versus

Austin Aries

Versus

Chris Sabin

with Velvet Sky

Versus

Samoa Joe

Versus

Manik ©

The main feeling I got coming away from this one was that a lot of talent had been wasted. This wasn't the greatest showcase of any one of these guys talents, and a lot of them looked uninspired by their situation. There was some decent spots thrown into the mix, like a Suicide Dive from Samoa Joe onto Jeff Hardy and a well worked hurracanrana spot that saw Manik take Chris Sabin to the outside, but with nothing particularly stringing them together, which with a lot of history between all five of these guys was pretty mind numbing. The Ultimate X stipulation wasn't used to it's full extent with very little interaction with the structure, and towards the end of the contest it became more of a Ladder match, which I kind of defeats the point of Ultimate X. If they wanted a Ladder Match, then they should have just gone ahead and made it a Ladder match. The finish involved Chris Sabin using Velvet Sky as a distraction for Jeff Hardy, allowing him to sneak up the Ladder and after some battle with Hardy, grab the belt to win his seventh X Division Championship. Whilst the finish was a little clichéd, it work well enough here with Sabin's character development, but I think if they'd have had Sky turn heel on Hardy, by pulling him from the X structure then it would have been much more effective than what was actually shown. It wasn't exactly terrible, but with the talent and history involved it should have be a lot better.

Winner and NEW X Division Champion: CHRIS SABIN (11 Minutes, 50 Seconds)

It's nostalgic replay time! Tonight's theme is AJ Styles' greatest hits, which seems a bizarre choice seeing as in storyline TNA President Dixie Carter is trying to push Styles out of TNA. The first video shows Styles becoming the first X Division Champion on 19^th June 2002, at TNA's second weekly PPV, in a bout that also involved Jerry Lynn, Lo-Ki and Psicosis, which TNA should have looked at when putting together the multi-man X-Division match that opened the show.

Bad Influence are out next to complain about not being booked on the show. Kazarian calls it a travesty, and the crowd seemed to agree with him and so do I. Bad Influence have routinely been the most entertaining part of any TNA show for over a year and a half, and should have been a bigger part of this show. Eric Young was out to warn Bad Influence that they had awoken a monster (Kazarian and Daniels had attack Joseph Park during the Pre-Show on Spike TV) and out came Abyss routinely destroying Bad Influence with a series of signature moves. It was teased that Abyss might turn on Young as well, but instead Abyss simply picking him up from the corner. As a short segment, this didn't have a lot wrong with and was a good way of reintroducing Abyss to the fold after far too long. A feud between Bad Influence and the Abyss/Young duo has potential, although Bad Influence are on the brink of becoming too popular to be heels due to TNA's constant mistreatment of the duo.

Backstage in the Interview area, a dapper Jeremy Borash interviewed World Tag Team Champions James Storm & Gunner about their upcoming title defence against The Bro-Mans. I was really impressed with Gunner here, this is certainly the best promo that I can remember him delivering, he came over as an old-school ass kicker and if TNA go down that root with him I can see him doing pretty well for the company. Storm's promo was loud and humorous, as we've come to expect from the Cowboy, messing around with JB. This interview was a nice addition for the show, as was needed to give some context to the upcoming tag title match.

World Tag Team Championship Match:

The Bro-Mans

with Phil Heath

Versus

James Storm & Gunner ©

Good acceptable tag team action. The crowd was pretty dead for the start of this one, as it built slowly with The Bro-Mans effectively working over Gunner in their corner, until an impressive Super Fall-away Slam allowed Gunner to make the hot tag to Storm. From here, the match really got going for me, with a series of exciting and well worked near falls for both teams began to get the crowd interested, with a Spinebuster/Backstabber combo from Storm & Gunner on Robbie E, being a particular highlight. The finish saw Robbie E distract the referee by throwing a title belt into the ring, allowing The Bro-Mans to double team Storm hitting a Heart Attack on the Cowboy to pick up the pinfall victory and win their first World Tag Team Championship. The only problem I had with the finish was that it wasn't particularly clear what had happened to Gunner, which isn't the fault of the performers, it had more to do with poor camera and editing work. If they run with The Bro-Mans as champions, and make them look credible on Impact Wrestling for a few weeks then they could lead to some entertaining moments and potential for feuds, and it also gives a chance for both Storm and Gunner to move back into pursuing singles gold.

Winners and NEW World Tag Team Champions: The Bro-Mans (11 Minutes, 50 Seconds)

Footage was shown of Kurt Angle's Hall of Fame evening the night before, with speeches from clips of speeches from Samoa Joe, Magnus and Sting, before Jeremy Borash introduces Sting for the actual induction, it was all a little confusing. Sting put over Angle as a family man, before bringing out the man himself. Sting presented Angle with his Hall of Fame watch, I'm guessing they left the meaningful speeches for the night before, as Sting honestly looked like he didn't want to be there. Bizarrely, Angle went on to turn down the induction saying that he didn't feel like he deserved the induction because of the mistakes he'd made in his life, before leaving the ring. The crowd didn't have a clue to react here, and I'm not sure anyone in TNA had even thought about how they wanted the crowd to react either. I thought it was pretty tasteless of TNA to use Angle's very real personal matters as storyline, it's not like it's never been done in wrestling before, but it just didn't sit well with me.

More AJ Styles based nostalgia was on the way, this time Styles's World Heavyweight Championship win at No Surrender 2009, in a five way including Kurt Angle, Matt Morgan, Hernandez and Sting, with the crazy confetti and the TNA roster flooding the ring straight after. They were really playing up Styles' past achievements, it would have been nice to have seen some Bully Ray moments as well, just to shrink the giant signposts that TNA were planting with these videos.

Backstage, TNA President Dixie Carter met with Ethan Carter III (Formerly WWE's Derrick Bateman) with it being revealed that Ethan was Dixie's nephew, I'm happy to see how that unfolds for now, even if Dixie was giving one of the hammiest performance I have ever seen, reciting her lines in a weird rhythm. Dixie told Ethan that she had hand picked his opponent for tonight, which was mildly interesting at best.

Knockout's Championship Three-Way Match

Gail Kim

Versus

Brooke Tessmacher

Versus

ODB ©

This was not half bad, but it had a potential to be a lot better. The three women involved in the match didn't really connect with the three-way concept, with a lot of one-on-one stuff with the two heels each taking turns against ODB. The early parts of the match felt like everyone was simply going through the motions, with Gail Kim especially spending a lot of time on the outside. They pulled out the Figure Four on the ringpost, which is always impressive, and nice sequence that saw ODB unable to Superplex both women, leading up to a near fall for Tessmacher after an elbow drop on Kim. Following a ref bump, they went for the finish, where it looked like ODB had the win after a Delayed Vertical Suplex on Tessmacher and BAM on Kim, in what looked like a decent finish to the bout, but this is TNA so all was not as it looked. With ODB about to get the win, out came Lei'D Tapa, and for some unknown reason instead of going for the pinfall, ODB went after Tapa and was quickly disposed off, Tessmacher quickly went the same way, with Kim simply falling into the pinfall to win her third Knockout's Championship. It was then revealed that Tapa was in cahoots with Kim, leading to obvious parallels to be drawn between the two and AJ Lee and Tamina Snuka in WWE. I think this ending would have been more effective if this had been used to re-debut Lei'D Tapa, instead of the strange re-introduction on Impact Wrestling a few weeks back.

Winner and NEW Knockout's Champion: GAIL KIM (10 Minutes, 25 Seconds)

Backstage, new interviewer Gil Corsey attempted to catch up with World Tag Team Champions The Bro-Mans, and ended up getting showered in protein shake, in what was pretty funny segment. I still have hope for The Bro-Mans Tag Title run after this. Corsey also looked like a good addition to the broadcast team, bringing an energy to the show that was lacking in a lot of areas.

Up next in Jeremy Borash's interview room was Bobby Roode. Roode did a good job of his promo with some intense delivery as he continues to play his role down to a tee, even if the content and storyline that he's having to deal with at the moment is pretty poor. Roode finished off by saying that he would make Kurt Angle tap out in their bout later tonight, which felt refreshing for a heel, as it's become so easy for guys to simply play the cowardly heel and get away with it.

Bobby Roode

Versus

Kurt Angle

In terms of in ring action, this was by far the strongest match on the card, building up nicely with some solid amateur style wrestling at the beginning. At times, Kurt Angle looked a little bit slow, but that's understandable considering the amount of time that he's had off, his age and everything else he's had to deal with over the last few months, and those limitations were worked round very well and with the way the match built didn't end up effecting the bout that much. Everything in the bout felt like it was done with a purpose, with both men bringing their impact moves to the contest, before the focus of the bout moved to their respective submission holds. The highlight of this bout for me, was a really well done false finish, with Angle transitioning Roode's Cross Face into an Angle Slam, with the crowd absolutely hooked. Then the match was ruined. With Roode passed out from Angle's Ankle Lock, the referee went to raise Roode's hand to check if he was out and accidentally put Roode's hand on the ropes, causing the rope break. It was just felt so stupid and looked like they were trying to pull a screwjob angle, but they weren't. I was pulled straight out of the match that Angle and Roode had worked so hard to get me interested in. The actual finish was just as silly, with Angle hitting a Super Angle Slam on Roode that saw both men down for an extended period of time, Roode managed to get to his feet first and fall onto Angle to pick up the pinfall victory. For me, this one needed a definitive finish, but left more questions open than it answered.

Winner: BOBBY ROODE (21 Minutes)

After the match, they had Angle put onto a stretcher with a silent crowd, before Angle refused the medical help and left on his own. With so many people concerned about Angle's real life health, I thought it was really distasteful to have people believe he had suffered an actual injury here. I'm not sure where they are going with Angle at the moment, but for his sake I'd hope he is at least used sparingly by TNA from now on.

More AJ Styles nostalgia was up next, this time showing Styles retaining the World Heavyweight Championship against Sting at Bound For Glory 2009. They were really building up the main event, and showing a truly classic Bound For Glory main event that people were truly invested in, put a lot of pressure onto Styles and Bully Ray to deliver something good in their match later on.

It was then backstage were Bully Ray talked to members of Aces & Eights who were not shown on screen. I'm guessing they wanted people to think they had re-signed some of the members that had left the group, by not showing them, whether anyone truly believed that Mr. Anderson, DOC, Devon or even D'Lo Brown would be getting involved in the main event, who knows?

Ethan Carter III

Versus

Norv Fernum

It was time for Ethan Carter III's début, and on the biggest stage TNA has to offer, they decided to pit him against Norv Fernum (PWG's Peter Avalon) in an enhancement match. For what is was, this match was okay, and if it was on Impact Wrestling I would have had no problem with it, but this a PPV, the biggest pay-Per-View of the year supposedly. Carter picked up a quick victory after a mild comeback by Fernum, hitting a Headlock Driver to get the pinfall. Carter has potential, and I enjoyed his run on NXT a short while ago, but this wasn't a great way for him to début.

Winner: ETHAN CARTER III (3 Minutes, 25 Seconds)

Magnus was up next in Jeremy Borash's Interview room, cutting a so-so promo on his upcoming match with Sting. Magnus failed to draw me in for most of the promo, mainly due to his tone and rhythm of delivery, which at times could have done with changing pace and tone to make his words really begin to stand out. Understandably, Magnus did look nervous here which probably effected his performance on the mic, which is usually pretty sound.

Magnus

Versus

Sting

This was not the match it needed to be, in order to make Magnus look like a star. Where we should have had the young rookie digging deep to defeat one of the best of all time, we had Magnus beating up an almost elderly looking Sting, before a slow comeback by Sting, including one of the worst looking Scorpion Deathlock's I have ever seen, it looked more painful for Sting to put Magnus in the hold, than it did for Magnus. The finish saw Sting asking Magnus to bring it, with Magnus quickly locking in the Kings Lyn Cloverleaf to pick up the submission victory. Magnus will become a star sooner of later, and he's not far off at the moment, but this did nothing for the Brit. If this isn't Sting's last match, there is something very wrong in TNA.

Winner: MAGNUS (11 Minutes, 5 Seconds)

In the final build up for the main event, Jeremy Borash welcomed World Heavyweight Champion Bully Ray into his Interview Room, with Brooke Tessmacher in tow, who had apparently recovered from Lei'D Tapa's attack earlier in the night. Ray continued to be a beacon of light in crumbling mess that the Aces & Eights storyline has become, with a stellar promo based around Guns N' Roses track “Welcome to the Jungle”, as he sent a message to AJ Styles. Ray's transformation from tag team specialist to one of the best heels in the business is one of the true success stories in TNA, and it would have been nice to see some focus put onto that during this show, as well as the AJ Styles hype videos.

World Heavyweight Championship No Disqualification  Match

AJ Styles

Versus

Bully Ray

with Brooke Tessmacher

These two wrestlers had the potential to put on a compelling World Heavyweight title main event, but once again TNA thought otherwise and decided to send in the cavalry with a series of run ins and ridiculous shenanigans, with the bout descending into chaos within minutes. In between a distraction from Garrett Bischoff and Knux doing his best 911 impression, Ray and Styles actually manage to scramble together some decent action, showing a spark of what could have been if this bout had been left to play out naturally, with a crazy spot that Ray move out of the way of a springboard 450 splash that sent Styles crashing straight through a ringside table, being the pinnacle of the action for me. They repeated the spot where Bully Ray removes the protective cover of the ring for the third, I didn't enjoy the spot the first time it was done at Slammiversary and I didn't enjoy it here either, and it just seemed unnecessary after Styles had already taken a ridiculous bump through the table. Of course, Dixie Carter had to make her presence felt in the bout, keeping Styles from winning by shouting some stuff at referee Earl Hebner, I'm not sure why the whole build up has been around Carter, instead of the two guys in the match and her input here only dragged the match down again, especially with the logic lapse that was the coming. I thought the closing stages of the bout were actually really well done by Styles and Ray, with Styles looking convincing fighting from underneath after taking a serious beating from Ray, pulling out last gasp move the Pele Kick, before delivering a chair shot and hitting Spiral Tap to pick up a pin fall victory and win his second World Heavyweight Championship. On it's own the end was fine, but in context, why the hell didn't Dixie just stop it again? Overall, the effort that Ray and Styles put into this one shouldn't be discounted, because both men worked incredibly hard throughout the contest, but there was just too much going on and taking the focus of the match for me to really enjoy what they were doing.

Winner and NEW World Heavyweight Champion: AJ STYLES (22 Minutes, 35 Seconds)

The show finished up with images of AJ Styles celebrating in the crowd, whilst Dixie Carter looked on mournfully, similarly to many of the fans who paid money to watch this pay-per-view.

Overall, Bound For Glory 2013 wasn't a vintage year for TNA's “biggest” event of the year. Whilst at time the action within the matches was good, it was often let down by poor booking and an over reliance on “swerve” finishes. The talent still remains within TNA, but until that talent is allowed to breath and then used correctly, TNA will continue to put on disappointing shows like this one. At least there's only four of these a year now though, eh?

Quick Results

X Division Championship Five-Way Ultimate X Match

Chris Sabin def. Jeff Hardy, Austin Aries, Samoa Joe and Manik ©

World Tag Team Championship Match

The Bro-Mans def. James Storm & Gunner © via Pinfall

Knockout's Championship Three-Way Match

Gail Kim def. Brooke Tessmacher and ODB © via Pinfall

Bobby Roode def. Kurt Angle via Pinfall

Ethan Carter III def. Norv Fernum via Pinfall

Magnus def. Sting via Submission

World Heavyweight Championship No Disqualification Match

AJ Styles def. Bully Ray © via Pinfall

TNA Impact Wrestling 26th September 2013 Review

Whilst the in ring action continues to be strong on TNA's Impact Wrestling, the booking continues to be questionable. This means I find Impact Wrestling to be a frustrating watch, for the most part, as the talent is there, but they just need creative to start coming up with right ideas for the right people!

Six Man Tag Team Match: 

Main Event Mafia 

(Magnus/Joe/Sting) 

vs. 

Aces & Eights 

(Knux/Brisco/Bischoff)

The show started with World Heavyweight Champion and President of Aces & Eights Bully Ray, accompanied to the ring by Brooke Tessmacher, talking over the end of last week's Impact Wrestling, where Dixie Carter turned on AJ Styles, saying that he didn't need to worry about beating Styles at Bound For Glory because Carter was so far into Style's head that Ray already had the match won. It felt strange that this was the only real continuation of their feud which has barely even got going yet, with only three shows left to build for the main event of what is supposed to be their biggest show of the year, TNA are cutting it fine. With Bully about to switch gears, he was interrupted by the rest of his faction, as Knux, Wes Brisco and Garrett Bischoff headed down to the ring. I was fairly impressed with Knux's delivery of his promo to Ray, about how he should be putting his brother in Aces & Eights first, instead of Tessmacher. Bully's reaction here was perfectly pitched as he continues to be spot on in almost all aspects of his performance, putting all three members in their place, announcing that if they lost the six man tag with Main Event Mafia later in the night, then they would be removed from the club. I quite liked this opening segment, and if I'm honest I'm enjoying the breakdown of Aces and Eights storyline, but there is just too much going on at the same time, that it's difficult to care about any of it.

The build for the main event continued, with a number of backstage segments. First up was a lovely little segment, with the Main Event Mafia that saw Sting and Samoa Joe acting as mentors to Magnus, as it seemed that EGO were beginning to get into the head of the Brit. There was also a nicely placed tease of tension within the group, with the whole scene working for me. The complete opposite for me was a pep talk between Aces & Eights members Knux, Brisco and Bischoff, with some truly horrendous acting from Brisco and Bischoff, that completely took me out of the moment. Luckily, it was long before EGO turned up, with Bobby Roode, Christopher Daniels and Kazarian being caught backstage airing their grievances with Main Event Mafia, including a fantastically hilarious promo from Christopher Daniels. Those three guys could probably have a show on their own and I'd still watch.

The main event started with Magnus dominating for the Mafia, including a really nice looking suplex on Garrett Bischoff, before things quickly broke down with both sides fighting around ringside. Main Event Mafia were quick to dominate, as the three Aces and Eights guys continue to come off as inferior, rather than as equals to their opponents. Unfortunately, it was time for another interference from EGO, where absolutely nothing happened. They turned up, attacked Magnus and then ran away, with the match more or less continuing as normal. I'm not quite sure what EGO were meant to actually be doing here, it just made the match overly busy, and is beginning to confuse the flow of the stories. I know they're setting up for a potential feud between the Mafia and EGO for the future, but they should rap up the long running feud between the Mafia and Aces and Eights before trying to build a new feud.

The attack did however give the guys in Aces & Eights a chance to show us what they can do, and they did a surprisingly good job working over Sting, whilst the moves were basic, it was enough for the situation, with Knux continuing to look like the standout of their group, working the crowd quite effectively, with Sting doing a good job of looking old and jittery, well, because he is old and jittery. Of course, it was all building to hot tag to Samoa Joe, who came out and destroyed all the members of the opposition, and when they tried to mount a comeback by triple teaming Joe, it was quickly quashed by Sting delivering Stinger Splash to everyone, before Joe locked in Rear Naked Choke on Brisco to pick up the submission victory. I wasn't sure about this one heading in, but it turned out be a good fun bout that played to everyone strengths, and despite the EGO interference which I could've done without, it was an enjoyable outing that told a solid story. After the bout, Bully Ray was back out, and demanded that Brisco hand over his jacket and leave the group, and with Brisco refusing to do so, Ray was quick to punish him, hitting a vicious looking piledriver. With Brisco out, Ray forced Knux and Bischoff to remove the jacket, with Knux having to hand it over to Ray. I was kind of uninterested with this whole segment, I just simply don't care enough about Brisco for it to mean anything, especially when we've seen bigger names like Mr. Anderson, D.O.C and Devon all leave the group recently.

Hulk Hogan Offers AJ Styles a Contract

So last week Dixie Carter turned heel on AJ Styles, and naturally this week continued that storyline, with a backstage segment between Carter and Sting opening the show. I thought this was a nice way of setting up the change in character for Carter, by involving a character that has been closely associated with her and quickly showing the change in their relationship. I thought Dixie actually did a fairly good job in this segment, getting her new role over well, but to be fair all she had to do was look at her phone and pretend she didn't want to speak to Sting, hardly a push for the TNA president. Whilst I wasn't behind this storyline at all, at this point, I was willing to give Dixie Carter a bit more time to prove herself. 

Later in the show, Hulk Hogan came out to the arena to give his thoughts on the situation. Impressively, Hogan managed to keep things short and actually make some sense. He obviously condemned Carter's actions from last week, whilst asking the crowd if they wanted to see Styles stay with TNA, which of course got a decent amount of reaction from the crowd. Hogan pleaded with Styles to listen to the crowd and stay with the company, before revealing that later tonight he would call out both Styles and Carter to fix the situation they were in. This is where I questioned the whole point of this segment. Was it just to give Hogan some more television time? Because this easily could have been bolted on to the final segment of the show, where they really could of built up Hogan's appearance throughout the show. It just seemed severely backwards to me, when they could've given some younger talent a chance to show what they can do in the ring.

After a short clip of Styles backstage, saying he was looking forward to seeing Hogan out in the ring, which was a nice way of building towards the main segment. I'm really beginning to like the styling of TNA's backstage segments and interviews, it's one of the few  things they are doing different from the competition and it does stand out. In the final segment of the show, Hogan came out to call out AJ Styles with a contract in hand, this time Hogan really struggled with he had to say and at times it was quite difficult to watch, especially when he couldn't remember the name of the companies biggest pay-per-view of the year, instead saying Styles was going to main event “T for TNA”, who the hell knows what that is. With Styles coming out Hogan plugged Hulkamania one more time, before offering Styles the contract, with Styles signed without much persuasion. It felt like Hogan felt like he needed to be there to help Styles get over with the audience, and he clearly didn't. Styles has been around TNA long enough now that he should be seen as a star in his own right, but let's not go into the amount of times TNA screwed up with Styles.

Pretty much straight after Styles had signed the contract, out came Dixie Carter, doing her best Stephanie McMahon impression. Unfortunately, Carter's best isn't very good and this already ropey storyline was dragged down pretty quickly. She ripped up Styles' contract, and even made Styles leave the ring...so we're left with Carter and Hogan in the ring...which one of these is facing Bully Ray at Bound For Glory? Carter went on to give Hogan an ultimatum, saying that either he get on her side, or she will make him leave the company. I'm just not interested in this story at all, Carter isn't a strong enough actress to carry off the roll that she's been given, she genuinely seems to be a nice person and the bad boss act just doesn't suit her, in my opinion. However, she did get a fair amount of heat from Little Rock crowd, but will people continue to tune in to see this storyline play out? I'm not so sure. Will people be buying Bound For Glory to see the antics of the dastardly Dixie Carter? I doubt it.

Best of the Rest (In The World)

Austin Aries was also on Impact Wrestling this week, first turning up in another backstage segment, that was used to hype an appearance from Aries later in the night, with Aries on top form. Later on, Aries came out to the arena, discussing what he'd be doing after coming up short in the Bound For Glory Series, saying it didn't matter where he'd be on the card at Bound For Glory, he'd make sure that he'd be the main event. Another strong promo from Aries was cut short by the returning Kenny King. I was really impressed by King on the mic, we haven't seen him do a lot of talking in TNA and it was a good reminder of the skills that he possesses. King ran over when he won the X-Division championship, as well as the how he lost the belt to Chris Sabin and when Aries used the Manik gimmick to steal the belt. It felt like they might be building towards a possible Bound For Glory match between the two, however they quickly hotshotted it, with Aries challenging King to a fight right there, King refused before punching Aries and attempted to lay the boots in before running away, once Aries launched a comeback. Aries called for a referee and the match was on.

Before the referee even managed to get down to the ring, Aries had jumped on King and began laying in the punches. Once we came back from the advert break, King was bleeding quite profusely, I'm not sure whether this was an accidental occurrence or whether there was a blade job, but the blood certainly felt oddly out of place in this bout and definitely took away from the action in the ring. The action itself was of a pretty high standard, with Aries and King fitting each others styles well. After both men had had spells in control, the match really gort going when King reversed a Brainbuster attempt from Aries, and they launched into an ROH style sequence with a number of stiff looking kicks and strikes, finishing up with a Spinning Kick from King for a near fall. The finish saw Aries dodge a front kick, sending King into the tunrbuckles, before Aries delivered a trademark drop kick and hit the Brainbuster to pick up the pinfall victory. For the time this bout got it was a very strong contest, lasting only five minutes, but I think given extra time and sans the blood this could have been outstanding, and should have been allowed to build to Bound For Glory, however a backstage segment between Aries and Chris Sabin teased they might go in that direction instead.

Talking of Chris Sabin, he was in action against Manik with Manik's X-Division Championship on the line, and Sabin's girlfriend Velvet Sky at ringside. Those expecting a particularly highflying spotfest would have been a little disapointed with this one, as the bout was storyline heavy, including Sabin attempting to remove the mask of Manik (a bit pointless seeing as we've already seen his face!) and then feigning a knee injury linking back to the story they were running a few months back with Sabin chasing the World Heavyweight title. Sabin was on the outside with Sky selling the injury for sometime, before sending Sky into Manik to take advantage of the situation. The action did pick up a little later on, with Manik spending a lot of the bout in control and showing off a nice variety of highflying moves.The finish Sabin using Sky as distraction, attempting to get a sneaky roll up pin cover on Manik, with Manik quickly reversing into one of his own and picking up the pinfall victory to retain the X Division Championship. I thought this was pretty decent match overall with some nice action, but once again know that these two could put on a hell of a lot better, if not hampered with a fairly silly story to tell between Sabin and Sky.

Elsewhere, there was a fun six person tag team bout, with Joseph Park, Eric Young & Knockout's Champion ODB teaming up to take on The Bro-Mans and Gail Kim. Joseph Park has really found a new lease of life working alongside Eric Young, and his facial expressions in this one were spot on, just pure comedy the whole way through the match. Even when The Bro-Mans were trying to work over Park it was funny, with both Jessie Godderz and Robbie E doing a great job as comedy heels. They pulled on several wrestling cliches, like Park building for a hot tag, only for the referee to be distracted by the heels, which was done so well that it was difficult to point out how often it has been done before. The finish saw the face team dominating Jessie with all three faces hitting diving moves on the former Big Brother USA star, with ODB picking up the pinfall victory. Wrestling should always be fun to watch, and this was from start to finish, it's difficult to find anything to moan about here!

Finally...

My final thoughts on this week's Impact Wrestling

1. TNA likes to complicate things, it's Bully Ray vs AJ Styles at Bound For Glory focus on that and build something quickly.

2. I've never wanted someone to leave a company, as badly as I want Hulk Hogan to leave TNA.

3. Austin Aries and Kenny King should have been ten minutes long and on Bound For Glory.

TNA Impact Wrestling: Last Chance Thursday Review

My overall feeling when watching Impact Wrestling continues to be one of frustration. The show this week was dominated by the return of Hulk Hogan, who has been missing for a month on television, as well as the conclusion to the Bound For Glory Series. Yes, that's right, the conclusion to the Bound For Glory Series. After messing up with the schedule, they had to end the series early, with most wrestlers still have three or four matches still to go. All that needed to be done was someone sit down at the beginning of the Series and map out where the matches were going to take place, who would win and the stories they wanted to tell within it, it really was that simple! The matches were all good, but I found it hard to concentrate when everything felt so rushed.

Bound For Glory Series Match: 

AJ Styles (22) 

vs. 

Bobby Roode (34)

With this being Must Win Thursday, the Bound For Glory Series took up the majority of the show, with TNA rushing to clobber together an ending for the Series. This match was built up to with a backstage segment between Bobby Roode and EGO stablemate Christopher Daniels. With Roode delivering a last minute prep talk to Daniels about how both of them needed to win tonight on their own, due to General Manager Hulk Hogan apparently saying that if any of EGO interfered in the match tonight they would be removed from the Series. It was a nice little build up segment, but I couldn't help feeling that EGO hadn't really had a chance to get going before the Series had finish. They need at least a month and a half of building themselves up as a trio, before the end of the Series, and it felt like TNA had something else in mind had they actually cared to check how long they had left.

Then came the moment that got everyone talking. AJ Styles apparent “Pipe Bomb” promo. I guess what's good for one AJ is good for another, huh? It took a while for Styles to hit his stride with the promo looking shakey and seemingly nervous at the beginning, stuttering and falling over his words, but when he got going this was actually a fairly decent promo, which felt like it came from a real place, talking about being held back and being Dixie Carter's go to guy, although it suffered from attempting to keep to storyline at the same time, making it feel like Styles was holding back, as well as an over-thought production. Also, whilst AJ Lee had the Bella Twins attempting to ruin her promo on Raw this week, AJ Styles had the Ohio crowd. They relentlessly ripped into Styles throughout the whole promo, with some pretty disrespectful chants, that the promo didn't warrant, that certainly seemed to effect Styles' rhythm. I think if Styles had done this promo straight after his match last week, he would have gotten a much more positive reaction. It wasn't quite up to the standards of a CM Punk or AJ Lee pipebomb, but for someone who isn't considered a “promo guy”, this was a damn good effort.

The match between Styles and Roode was a good, solid television contest. We saw some more of the “Phenomenal” AJ Styles coming back into his game, obviously the pace that we saw before isn't quite there yet as Styles has been wrestling a much slower style of wrestling recently, but there were a number of nice spots, including a couple of springboards and a Moonsault off of the ramp onto Roode that looked very nice indeed. There was also some reversals and transitions, the pick of the bunch for me being Roode reversing a Springboard Forearm attempt from Styles in a Crossface submission hold almost seamlessly. Roode did spend a good period of the match in control, using a few submission holds to keep hold of Styles, as well as a Brainbuster for a near fall, it's was a shame that neither Taz or Mike Tenay picked up that it could've been a message to Austin Aries who turned down Roode's invitation to join EGO last week, as it was the closest this match got to any psychology.

The ending was heavily focused on submissions, with both men looking to gain the maximum points in the Series, with Roode using a Crossface and Styles using the Calf Killer. This produced the only awkward moment of the match, when Styles seemed unsure about how to lock in his own submission. The finish saw Roode get the bottom rope, to break the Calf Killer, and with Styles attempting to lock in the move again, Roode sent Styles into the turnbuckle, although when he attempted a Fisherman's Suplex, Roode got caught in a Small Package from Styles for the pinfall victory and seven points in the Bound For Glory Series, leaving him on 29 points. It was an exciting ending that played off the submissions well, and allowed for a little more story to build up to next week, as although Styles finished outside the final four of the Series, an announcement made later on by Hulk Hogan will give him renewed hope.

Aces and Eights Conflict and The Return of General Manager Hulk Hogan

The other big storyline running through Impact Wrestling this week was the return of General Manager Hulk Hogan after a month long absence, as well as the continuing issues for the Aces and Eights faction. With the show opening with World Heavyweight Champion and Aces and Eight's President Bully Ray and Brooke Tessmacher heading to the ring, it was clear that while Tessmacher isn't a particularly great actress, she is effective in her role as Bully Ray's “main squeeze” as Taz likes to put it. With Ray in the ring, surrounded by his Aces and Eight's stablemates, Ray spoke about Devon losing the match against the Main Event Mafia last week, before asking Garrett Bischoff, Wes Brisco and Vice President Mr. Anderson what had happened last week. Bischoff and Brisco are truly awful on the mic, and with either yet to show anything in the ring, you have to wonder why these weren't the first two names brought up in TNA's budget cuts. Ray went on to turn on Devon, calling him a sidekick, pointing out Tito Ortiz as the only man he needs. It was a nice swerve, and with Ray giving Ortiz his own Aces and Eights coat, we began to see disension from the ranks of the group with Mr. Anderson standing up for the group due to their being no vote to induct Ortiz. I thought this was pretty strong opening segment, setting up some future angles and bringing some fresh direction for the group, with Ray removing Devon's name patch from Ortiz' new cut being a nice little touch to finish the segment.

The backstage camera's caught up with Hulk Hogan a number of times throughout the show, firstly showing him entering the building, before asking him a number of question which Hogan decided not to answer, and finishing off by having Jeremy Borash waiting outside Hogan's office, revealing that he had no news from Hogan. Personally, I would have rather not seen Hogan until he made his return, because by the time he entered the arena for the final segment, we've already seen him two or three times and haven't actually learned anything. TNA seems to have a habit of doing this for big returns or debuts, like we saw a few months back when Rampage Jackson debuted, and it really does take away from the moment later on in the show. Elsewhere backstage, Mr. Anderson seemed to be building for a revolution, attempting to get Knux, Brisco and Bischoff to side with him. It's all getting a bit NWO Wolfpac at the moment, I'd rather see Anderson just break out on his own, than have two splinter factions. Also, Bully Ray, spoke with Tessmacher and Ortiz, telling Ortiz to make sure Anderson doesn't step out of line.

With Hogan heading to the ring, there should have been a warning that one of the worst promos in wrestling history was about to occur. Hogan rambled and meander through what he was supposed to say and it was clear that he had next to no idea what he was talking about. Within the ramblings, Hogan announced that there would be another Gauntlet match in the Bound For Glory Series next. Basically, this is another cheap way to get the people they want into the final four, rather than actually, you know, booking it from the start! With Hogan still having more to say, he was interrupted by Bully Ray. Before Ray could get started, Hogan revealed that he had the divorce papers from his daughter, Brooke and that Ray was no longer married. Well, they needed a way to explain why Brooke was no longer on TV, I guess. At least it's all over now. Hogan then went on to make two matches, the first one will see Ray defend his title against a member of Aces and Eights at No Surrender in two weeks. If it isn't Mr. Anderson I'd eat my hat, but that also makes a complete mockery of the Bound For Glory Series. The second one, would see Hogan excel himself, as he announced that Bully Ray would defend his title against Sting, this week. What he meant to say was that Bully Ray face Sting next week in a non-title match. It's not often I'm stuck for words, but seriously how can you be that wrong? At least Hogan remembered Ray's opponent and didn't call out The Ultimate Warrior or something, as Sting headed down the ramp to close the show brawling against Ray.

As far as I'm concerned Hogan is TNA's main problem at the moment, not only is he massive drain on their funds, but he doesn't seem to have a clue what is going on in the company. On numerous occasions when he's been handed the microphone, he messed up his lines or says something that isn't correct. The fact that TNA are still closing with segments that feature Hulk Hogan and Sting says a lot about the companies current direction, when they have so much in-ring talent, as showcased in the Bound For Glory Series matches on this very broadcast, that deserves that spot. I also have no desire to see Sting face off against Bully Ray again, and would rather Sting hang up his boots for good. In all honesty, Sting should have retired shortly after Bound For Glory 2009, as that bout with AJ Styles was probably his last memorably good match. Whilst TNA has bucket loads of talent in it's reduced roster, if the booking continues to be as hap-hazard as it has been in recent months the company is going to struggle to grow over the next few years, and I can see a number of talents begin to up sticks and move elsewhere. 

Best of the Rest (In The World)

Elsewhere, Main Event Mafia came to the ring with a lot to say about the last couple of weeks. They were clearly missing one man, and that man was Magnus, who is currently trying to sort out some problems with his US work visa. First to speak was Rampage Jackson, who delivered a pretty good promo dealing with his interactions with Tito Ortiz over the last few weeks, claiming he would get to Ortiz before their Bellator fight on November 2^nd. It's just a shame that using a wrestling storyline to build to an MMA fight, is just plain ridiculous, because Jackson is pretty good promo. Samoa Joe was up next, with another strong promo, explaining how no one from the locker room would step up and join them last week, apart from AJ Styles. Joe brings a lot of passion to his promos and pulls you in almost instantly, it's a real shame that TNA didn't have him in the final four of this years Bound For Glory Series, because if anyone deserves a big push in TNA, in my opinion it's Samoa Joe.

Sting finished off the promo, by putting over AJ Styles strong and offering him a spot in the Mafia if he wanted it, and calling him down to the ring, leading into Styles' “Pipebomb” promo after the Main Event Mafia had left the ring. It was fairly enjoyable segment, with both Jackson and Joe coming across extremely well, and Sting at least looking better than Hogan. I'm not quite sure where the Main Event Mafia will go from here, obviously Sting is facing Bully Ray next week on Impact Wrestling, but with Aces and Eights seemingly falling in on themselves, the Mafia might end up being fairly redundant. Hopefully, Magnus will be back after next week for No Surrender, as he seems like the most logical option to win the Bound For Glory Series out of the final four.

In more Bound For Glory Series action, Jeff Hardy faced off against Kazaria. Prior to the match, Hardy cut a backstage promo, detailing last years Bound For Glory Series win, it was poor promo, even by Hardy's standards, topped off by Hardy getting his facts wrong about last year and no one bothering to correct it. Luckily, the match was better than the promo, with most of the match being fought a quick and exciting pace, with a few nice reversals. That was until Hardy attempted a Figure Four Leg Lock on Kaz, and actually managed to make The Miz's execution of the move look pretty good! The psychology was obviously that Hardy wanted the bigger points total, but really should have tried a move he could actually execute. The ending saw Hardy catch Kazarian off the top rope with a Twist of Fate, before heading up top and hitting a Swanton Bomb for the pinfall victory. Hardy is currently in the final four after this victory, but I would be surprised if he keeps his spot after next week's Gauntlet match.

By far the best action of the night, came when Austin Aries and Christopher Daniels faced off in the Bound For Glory Series. After a fantastic duelling promo segment backstage, during an interview with Jeremy Borash, the two have definite chemistry on the microphone and that translated into the ring as well. The match was packed with exciting reversals and fought at a lighting quick pace, typified by a lovely series which saw both men attempt dives to the outside only to be thwarted by the over. The finish saw solid back and forth section, with a number of reversals and near falls, before Aries began laying in the elbows on Daniels. With Aries running the rope he ran into a boot from Daniels followed by an uppercut, Daniels tried running the ropes, but Aries followed him, hitting a superb dropkick, before finishing Daniels off with a Brianbuster and picking up the pinfall victory and seven points in the Series. These two men have produced some of the most entertaining television TNA has had to offer in the last two years, and continue to deliver almost every week, it really is time the company started rewarding these two, especially Daniels.

There was also women's action this week, with ODB facing off against Gail Kim in a Two out of Three Falls match, where the winner would become Number One Contender to Mickie James' Knockout's Championship. It was enjoyable action from these two talented women, with the first fall going Gail Kim, with some good psychology seeing Kim focus on ODB's leg to set up for a Sharpshooter for a submission victory. The leg continued to play apart in the match, with some nice selling from ODB, as Kim went for a Figure Four Leg Lock only to be captured by ODB in a Small Package to level the match up a one fall a piece. The final fall saw some more nice work, with every ODB comeback halted by the leg, until Kim went for a roll up, only to see ODB lock in a Texas Cloverleaf to pick up a Submission victory and the win, it was a nice turnabout and a good finish to a well worked two out of three falls bout. Hopefully they can hold off the Mickie James and ODB title match until Bound For Glory, but with such a thin women's roster it might not be possible.

Talking of TNA's women's division, Velvet Sky returned to television this week. She was caught backstage, and talked about her absence at Hardcore Justice. We didn't really learn anything knew from this, with Sky only saying what she had said on twitter that it was a personal matter. Sky is pretty poor when talking, she sounds awkward and I can't bring myself to like her as a face, because she is just so annoying. The only interesting thing here, was that Sky's relationship with former World Heavyweight Champion Chris Sabin was mentioned on screen for the first time, even if the reference made no sense, as Sky's match was scheduled before Sabin's title loss.  

Finally...

My final thoughts on this week's Impact Wrestling.

1. AJ Styles' will always be better in ring, than he is on the mic.

2. TNA will always be better without Hulk Hogan involved.

3. The Bound For Glory Series hasn't lived up to it's potential this year. 

TNA Impact Wrestling: Hardcore Justice Part Two Review

I actually really enjoyed this week's Impact Wrestling as we got the second part of Hardcore Justice. The wrestling was strong throughout most of the card, with some nice developments in storyline as we head to Bound For Glory. Yes, there was an over use of recaps, and Tito Ortiz and Rampage Jackson continued to attempt to sell their MMA bout by having a wrestling storyline, but the main body of what was presented was pretty good.

Ten Man Tag Team Loser Leaves TNA Match: 

Main Event Mafia & ??? 

vs. 

Aces and Eights 

(Mr. Anderson, Devon, Knux, Wes Brisco and Garrett Bischoff)

The build up for this one saw a backstage segment from each team, as they discussed strategy for the match. This has become a regular feature of Impact Wrestling over the last few months and it works fairly well in building up to the main event match. With Aces and Eights members Mr. Anderson, Devon, Knux, Wes Brisco and Garrett Bischoff looking fairly confident in their promo, due to them believing they would be going into the match with a man advantage, the bulk of the promo was done by Mr. Anderson, who did a good job of getting the cocky attitude of his team earlier, they were clearly being set up for a fall later on. On the other side of the fence, the Main Event Mafia discussed their missing man in the bout, after having failed to recruit either Austin Aries or Tito Ortiz last week. There was a moment in this promo that really stood out for me, and that is when Magnus stood up to Sting and told him it didn't matter if they were a man down, because they were the Main Event Mafia. It's the first time we've really seen Magnus stand out as part of the group for me, and hopefully this trend will continue.

After the build up, there was a nice big match feel as the two faction headed to the ring. It looked like we might be about to see a handicap match between the two. This was not the case however, when AJ Styles music hit and he walked half way down the ramp, head bowed and hooded. Suddenly Styles' old music hit and he threw his hood back and out of nowhere the old “Phenomenal” AJ Styles was back. Now, at first I was a little disappointed to see the “Lone Wolf” AJ Styles end so abruptly, as although some people weren't a fan of the new character, I actually quite enjoyed it. However, with Kurt Angle taken away so abruptly, this was really the best move they could have made, and hopefully the fact that the show was taped and people knew the old AJ Styles was back on Impact Wrestling the rating will have gone up as well.

With Styles joing the Main Event Mafia in a mass brawl with Aces and Eights, everything else after this moment felt a little flat. It was by no means a bad match, but after the high point of Styles' character change, it was difficult for the in ring action to follow it. With the match settling down after the brawl, Main Event Mafia took control with Samoe Joe and Styles handing it to Brisco and Bischoff, it was an obvious decision seeing as Brisco and Bischoff are obviously the weekest member of either team, and have never really been built up properly by TNA. Now I'm not a particular fan of either man, but if TNA are going to have them around, they should at least have built them up with a few clean singles match victories. On the other side of the fence, Magnus was the one to take most of Aces and Eight's offence, which once again makes sense due to Magnus being the youngest man on his team, and allowed him to get the crowd behind well.

After the best use of Sting in month's as part of hot tag, the match began to break, and we returned to the mass brawl that we had seen earlier with bodies everywhere. Rampage Jackson also looked fairly good in his pro wrestling debut, granted all we really saw was a few clothesline and a body slam, but no one was expecting him to wrestle the whole match! The ending of the bout built up well with Sting looking to have match one with a Scorpion Deathlock on Knux, only for Devon to make the save. With Sting making a tag to AJ Styles, we got a glimpse Styles' trademark offence with springboards and strikes, but a lot of the time Styles looked awkward in the ring in exchanges with Devon and Mr. Anderson. With one last breakdown segment, Styles was able to hit Devon with a Styles Clash and pick up the pinfall victory for Main Event Mafia, retiring Devon in TNA. The ending was a little sloppy was saved by Bully Ray's reaction on the entrance ramp and Taz on commentary. Giving the Main Event Mafia the win makes sense here as it even the numbers between them and Aces and Eights, whilst also allowing Devon to move into D'Lo Brown's role backstage. I would suspect that this could very well be Devon's last match for TNA, and it's probably the right time for him to step away, his latest run with TNA hasn't been his best, but there is no denying he's had a great career spanning twenty one years and many of wrestling premier promotions.

World Heavyweight Champion Bully Ray's 

Championship Celebration

Impact Wrestling kicked off this week with World Heavyweight Champion Bully Ray on the phone, talking to his mystery woman, who we know is called Brooke about how they could reveal everything about them this week. Now, this idea was harmed by the announcement earlier in the week that Brooke Hogan had been released by TNA (Thank you, God), so we kind of knew that it wasn't going to be her. With Bully Ray hanging out with Tito Ortiz backstage they bumped into Vice President of the Aces and Eights, Mr. Anderson with some tension between Ray and Anderson being teased due to Ray not keeping Anderson in the loop. It was a nice seed planted for the inevitable turn of Anderson on Bully, and the two men played the moment pretty well, with Ortiz standing there like a plank.

With Ray and Ortiz heading to the ring later in the show, it was time for another great promo from Ray detailing his detailing the amount of times he'd shocked the fans, as well as burying Chris Sabin, adding another nail in the coffin of Sabin's awful World Heavyweight Championship reign. Ray handed the microphone to Ortiz and the segment quickly went down hill. With Ortiz talking about how he is going to beat Rampage Jackson in their Bellator fight in November, I still can't get my head around building an MMA fight using a wrestling storyline, people aren't stupid and it could very well end up turning MMA fans away from the fight. At this moment in time November seems a long for Impact Wrestling, when hopefully we'll see Ortiz and Jackson exit the company.

Luckily, Ray was quickly back on the mic to reveal another surprise this evening. Bully called out “Brooke” and of course Brooke Hogan's music played, and after sometime “Brooke” was to be revealed as...Brooke Tessmacher. I have to say I was shocked, I should have really seen it coming with the whole “Brooke” deal, especially with Hogan getting released, but I didn't. We haven't seen Tessmacher in four months, with her away filming for a reality TV series or something, and I'd even forgot she even worked for TNA anymore, with the flurry of releases we've seen recently I simply imagined she'd gone also. With Bully snogging the face off Tessmacher, which I think he enjoyed a lot more than her, with Ortiz once again looking on like a pervy plank, Ray finished the segment by declaring himself unstoppable with Ortiz and Tessmacher by his side, I foresee this playing a major part in the demise of Aces and Eights as we head towards Bound For Glory.

So Aces and Eight's lost one member in Devon, but gained two in Miss Tessmacher and Tito Ortiz in an interesting two weeks for the faction. It's good to see Tessmacher return for the Women's division in TNA and it will interesting to see if see becomes a factor in the title picture, but with the division looking heel heavy at the moment with ODB the only face they have, with Taryn Terrell and Velvet Sky out, it's difficult to see where a heel Tessmacher could fit in the division. As for Ortiz, I've made my feelings clear about him numerous times, he isn't likely to step in the ring anytime soon, his promos have been awful and he's taking the spot of an actual wrestler.

Best of the Rest (In The World)

Also this week on Impact Wrestling, we got the third of the special “Hardcore” themed Bound For Glory Series match, as Joseph Park, Hernandez, Jay Bradley and Christopher Daniels met in a Street Fight. Now the main story heading into this one was could Christopher Daniels pick up victory number three for his new faction, now named the Extraordinary Gentleman's Organisation, or EGO, as well as it being left open to whether Austin Aries would be joining the faction, with Aries saying he would deliver his answer later in the show, in a charismatic backstage interview. With three out of the four competitors currently proping up the Bound For Glory Series, I wasn't really expecting much from this one, with Hernandez and Jay Bradley especially looking like they were only there to make up the numbers.

What we got was actually a very entertaining bout that told a good story throughout. With an good dynamic between the four we saw Hernandez and Park teaming up to take down Daniels and Bradley with some nice double team offence, including Hernandez setting up Daniels and Bradley for a double avalanche in the corner. The match quickly broke down, with EGO attacking Joseph Park and then taking out Park's manager Eric Young when Young tried to help out. There was then some nice wrestling from Daniels and Hernandez, with Hernandez hitting Air Mexico out of nowhere for a big pop. With Daniels taking out Hernandez with an STO, Austin Aries made his presence felt making it look like he was joining EGO before hitting Daniels with a Brainbuster, to take Daniels out of the match and cement his face turn. There was then a good finishing section between Bradley and Park, with Bradley doing a good job of working over Park before hitting him with Brass Knuckles. Of course, Park saw blood, went crazy and picked up the pinfall victory after a Blackhole Slam. It was a nice twist on the Park character, and I'm actually starting to enjoy his role in TNA again, in no small part due to the wonderful Eric Young.

This wasn't the only EGO action of the night, as after they were interupted by World Tag Team Champions James Storm and Gunner, we got an inpromtu tag team battle with Bobby Roode and Kazarian representing EGO, with both teams competing in jeans. The majority of the match was pretty basic tag team action with Roode and Kazarian working over Gunner, before the World Tag Team Champion made an impressive comeback and looked really good, before tagging in James Storm. Storm certainly looks better than he did a few months ago and his time off has hopefully helped him recuperate any injuries that he had. With Storm on a roll we headed for the finish, with Kazarian attempting to hit Storm with the title belt, only to get a Last Call Superkick from Storm, however with the referee Earl Hebner distracted, Roode hit a low blow and rolled up Storm for the pinfall victory for EGO. I enjoyed the finish of the match, it was clever and presented the new faction well, even if the World Tag Team Champions lost.

There was also Women's action on the show, with ODB facing off against Gail Kim, in a good women's contest. ODB continues to prove that moving her into the role of a referee was ridiculous, as her talent lies when competing in that ring! Kim and ODB have a lot of chemistry in the ring, and they've wrestled multiple times for TNA, and with both spending time in control of the match we got to see a lot of what both can do, when given the time to perform. The ending saw ODB on roll, and about to hit BAM, only for Kim to slip down and use a Crucifix roll up to get the pinfall victory. There was a slight botch in the finish, in an otherwise sound match, which was a shame. This was essentially to give Gail Kim a victory over ODB, after ODB got the win in the triple threat last week. Whilst TNA's remaining women are incredibly talented, with ODB, Gail Kim and Knockout's Champion Mickie James typifying that, they really need to sign up some new talent to give the division some depth.

There was also X Division action with X Division Champion Manik taking on Sonjay Dutt. Yes, the X Division is back to regular matches rather than three ways, TNA really didn't give the three way concept much of a chance, but this is probably the right decision to make. The match was a great way to showcase the X Division with both Manik and Dutt using a number of highflying and creative moves throughout. However, it was harmer by a number of things, firstly Manik and Dutt both locking in the same submission hold, similar to AJ Lee's Black Widow, which looks so good it shouldn't just be used randomly, as well as the lack of any face/heel dynamic meaning the crowd didn't really know what to do. The finish saw Manik hold onto Dutt's hurracanrana attempt, and setting up for a Detonation Kick, before picking up the pinfall victory with a Elevated Double Chickenwing dropped into a Double Knee Gutbuster (that needs a name!). I liked the finish it was quick and exciting, a real good advertisment for the X Division, but it should have finished with the Detonation Kick.  

Finally...

What did I learn from Impact Wrestling this week?

1. AJ Styles' run as the Lone Wolf is done, and it was the best move TNA could have done under the circumstances.

2. The seeds for the demise of Aces and Eights could very well have been sown in this episode.

3. I'm going to go ahead and say it, I like Taz on commentary!