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.