Impact Wrestling #671 Review (25/05/2017)

On 25th May, Impact Wrestling aired their 671st episode, taped at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida on 23rd April. Ethan Carter III, James Storm and Magnus battled to become #1 Contender to the Impact World Heavyweight Championship, KM & Kongo Kong tagged up against Mahabali Shera and Braxton Sutter leading to Rosemary making her presence felt when Sienna and Laurel Van Ness attacked Allie, as well as appearances from Lashley, a returning Scott Steiner, Joseph Park, Davey Richards and Angelina Love. But was it any good? Let's take a look...

• ICYMI - Low Ki is dominating the X Division (I'm not sure why they included this as there was no X-Division content on the show) and Ethan Carter III attacked Bruce Pritchard after getting told to grow some balls last week.

Prichard, Lashley, EC3, Magnus and Storm Segment

Nothing says hot wrestling TV show in 2017 like starting with a Bruce Prichard promo. Fair play to Prichard for selling his ribs from the Ethan Carter III attack the other week, but there really was no need for him to be in the ring at the start of the show, considering all he really did was introduce World Heavyweight Champion Lashley, whilst Tyrus stood about awkwardly. I feel having Lashley open the show alone in the ring would have been much more effective and given the open a much crisper pace, as with three contenders having to make entrances also the segment was already very stop and start. After Lashley had claimed to be "the man to beat, who can't be beaten", which is a great line by the way, we Ethan Carter III, Magnus and James Storm interrupting each other to lay down their cases for why they'd win the upcoming Triple Threat #1 Contenders bout. Out of the three, I was surprised with the performance of Magnus on the mic, with Brit sounding dynamic and at times irreverent as he referred to his opponents as "ham sandwiches". The segment closed with Prichard telling EC3, Magnus and Storm that if they touched each other before the main event that the bout would be cancelled and they would be suspended indefinitely, whilst also bizarrely making the match No Disqualification despite it being a three way. 

KM & Kong def. Shera & Sutter

A dull opening tag bout here, that did very little for me, but luckily the post-match segment with Rosemary [Courtney Rush] saving Allie [Cherry Bomb] from an attack by Sienna [Allysin Kay] and Laurel Van Ness [Chelsea Green] was much fresher and got a strong reaction out of the crowd. The tag match plodded along with not a whole lot of note. There wasn't much that was actively bad, but there certainly wasn't anything to shout about with even the Braxton Sutter [Pepper Parks] hot tag feeling humdrum. By the time, Kongo Kong hit Mahabali Shera with a headbutt from the apron allowing KM [Kevin Matthews] to get a school boy roll-up victory with a handful of tights, the match had gone at least five minutes too long and I'd be surprised with some of the Impact Zone hadn't fallen asleep. Whilst Sienna and LVN chasing Allie around the ring in the match was probably the worst portion of the bout, their involvement after the blokes had brawled to the back was the saving grace of the segment. The two laying the boots into Allie made them look like massive dicks, with LVN's nutter bride gimmick adding a weird edge, before Rosemary's music hit and the Impact Zone woke up. The Knockout's Champion staring down Sienna and LVN, before spraying green mist in Sienna's eyes and hitting Red Wedding on LVN got a great reaction, with Rosemary looking like the bad ass bitch she is in the process. With the history between Rosemary and Allie on the Canadian indies, I'm very interested in seeing how this storyline plays out and hopefully we get to see them bring their rivalry to Impact Wrestling after a brief partnership. 

VOW def. Bah & Bokara in GFW Tag Team Championship Tournament Semi-Final

A straight-forward tag, but head and shoulders above the previous bout with the Veterans of War shining in their victory, whilst Fallah Bah and Mario Bokara looked more than capable in their roles. I felt like Mayweather [Crimson] in particular looked much better than I remember him being here, hitting a nice series of moves, including a Falcon Arrow, during the face shine as well as showing good timing in the finish as he came crashing into the picture to deliver a big boot to Bah on the outside. The crowd was into VOW, chanting "USA" throughout the heat sequence before the hot tag to Wilcox [Jax Dane] headed straight into the finish, with Veterans of War hitting M.O.A.D. (Fireman's Carry Flapjack and Cutter combination) on Bokara to send them into the Final against current Impact Tag Team Champions LAX (Ortiz [Angel Ortiz] & Santana [Mike Draztik]). After the previous confrontation between the two teams and their juxaposed idealogies should produce an intense match and I'm actually surprised we didn't see LAX head out to at least stare down with Mayweather & Wilcox post-match. 

Mathews, Borash, Park and Steiner Segment 

SCOTT STEINER IS BACK! He may be twenty years past his prime in the ring, but by Jove he's back on Impact Wrestling and heading to Slammiversary. Steiner was revealed as Josh Mathews partner against Jeremy Borash and Joseph Park [Abyss] for the 2nd July PPV. The build to Steiner's appearance was actually rather well done with Mathews initially attempting to apologise to Borash before losing his rag when Park came to ring, leading to Park challenging Josh to a fight and just after the bell rang, Steiner's music hit and the crowd popped. Mathews shone in this segment as his initial grovelling being relatable to everything people hate about no back bone politicians before exploding into his cutting promo on JB and Park, calling them "Tweedle dee and Tweedle Dumbass" before stating "I'm giving you two the rub", which you could tell he had a lot of fun with. The selling of Borash and Park when Steiner came out was ridiculously hammy and camp, whilst having D'Angelo Dinero on commentary describe Steiner as "one of the most feared men in all of professional wrestling" was unnecessarily over-the-top. Mathews kept things interesting by skipping about the place in joy as Steiner chased JB through the crowd, swung at some obvious plants in the crowd and then locking Park in the Steiner Recliner. I would've liked to have seen Mathews heat used to help get a younger talent over and I'm not quite sure of the benefits of this programme for anyone going forward. 

• A natural promo from Impact  Grand Champion Moose, explaining why the divisions rules play to his advantage and his plans on holding the title going into Slammiversary. 

• After Eli Drake had goaded Moose into putting the Grand Championship on the line next week, Chris Adonis [Chris Masters] jumped Moose from behind, leading to a two on one beat down. 

Alisha & Edwards def. Richards & Love 

It looks like this feud is far from over as despite Alisha [Lexxus] getting a roll-up pinfall on Angelina Love, a theatrical post-match attack that saw Eddie Edwards hand-cuffed to the ropes by Davey Richards and Love powerbomb Alisha through a table added more fuel to the fire that has been burning since February. The interaction between Richards and Edwards was the good stuff in the match, as the two laid into each other with various strikes, before Richards took control focussing on Eddie's leg, including a lovely spot in the Figure Four Leg Lock with Love grabbing hold of Davey's hands for extra leverage. Beyond a nice diving crossbody to the outside from Alisha, the Women's portion was mostly cat-fighting, which I think we really should've moved on from in 2017. There are better and more interesting ways to sell the dislike between two women than having them grab at each others hair and roll around. The post-match angle was needed because Richards and Edwards really deserve to have a blow-off singles match, which has the opportunity to be something special, depending on what gimmick it's given. 

EC3 def. Magnus and Storm to become #1 Contender to the Impact World Heavyweight Championship 

This was a high-quality TV main event, with Ethan Carter III, Magnus and James Storm telling a classic triple threat story, with a strong babyface in the shape of Storm. We got to see The Cowboy lay some hard af chops into main rival EC3 early on, but after dishing out a double suplex onto the ramp, the heels controlled the bout, with Storm selling effectively and looking great when fighting from underneath. As someone who remembers Magnus' TNA World title a few years ago, I got a kick out of seeing Magnus and EC3 working together again! The build up towards the inevitable Storm comeback had the Impact Zone invested and was booked superbly as the heels took turns nailing him with a kendo stick. EC3 accidentally hit Magnus and profusely apologised by battering Storm with a couple of brutal shots to our hero, with the spot then being mirrored as Magnus hit EC3 with the stick, but the Brit didn't stop. Having the relationship between the villains break down, allowed for Storm to sell his beating and then come back on fire, hitting a DDT and Neckbreaker combo on the pair, before belting them with a steel chair. The first two thirds of the match managed to be a tonne of fun, but also tell an effective story that made everyone involved look good in their own way. 

The final third of the bout continued Storm's underdog story, but also picked up the pace and featured a number of decent near falls. Highlights including Storm hitting a brutal-looking hangman's DDT onto the apron to Ethan, Magnus' Kings Lynn Cloverleaf on Storm being broken with an EC3 chair shot to the back, a nice tree of woe tower of doom with Magnus German suplexing EC3, but the strongest sequence saw Storm push Carter into a steel chair wedged between the first and second rope, then hit a running neckbreaker, only for the fall to be broken by a Magnus diving elbow drop. The finish completed Storm's valiant fight and then ripped away as Magnus ate a Last Call Super kick, only for EC3 to push the Cowboy out of the ring and steal the pin. This was an astute piece of booking that added to Storm's story as he chases another World title run, showing he has the potential, whilst furthering his feud with Carter. With the commentary repeatedly referring to GFW Global Champion Alberto El Patron [Alberto Del Rio] don't be surprised if we see another twist in the tale between now and Slammiversary.

Finally... 

ATPW Scale Rating - 4.92/10

This show was all about it's main event with the three talent shining in a well-put together contest. However, elsewhere some of the booking and talent positioning still leaves a lot to be desired. There was no need to have Bruce Prichard opening the show, Scott Steiner's return was bizarre and the opener was as dull as dishwater's dishwater. There were flashes of greatness like Davey Richards and Eddie Edwards' portions of the mixed tag, Rosemary saving Allie, the development of the Veterans of War tag team and Josh Mathews joyful performance in his segment and the fact that he and Jeremy Borash never shared the commentary desk. The new regime currently feels like one step forward and then another back, producing as many positives change as there has been negative, hopefully once we get to Slammiversary at the start of July we'll have a product that has found it's feet and ironed out some of the creases.

TNA One Night Only: Joker's Wild DVD Review

TNA One Night Only: Joker's Wild is out now on DVD and available from www.clearvision.co.uk, priced at £10.99. This is the first of TNA's One Night Only shows that I've managed to catch, I decided to wait until the shows hit DVD, seeing as they don't follow any recent storylines, I haven't gone out of my way to check them out. This show, filmed at the Impact Zone in Orlando, Florida in the United States on 12th January 2013 and first broadcast on 3rd May 2013, is focused around the Joker's Wild theme with teams picked at random to face each other, with the winning pair heading into a Gauntlet (or Royal Rumble). The Twelve Man Gauntlet was the main event of the show, which also features Christopher Daniels teaming up with Samoa Joe to take on Chavo Guerrero, Jr. & Rob Van Dam, and the big man duo of Matt Morgan & Robbie T taking on rivals Al Snow & Joey Ryan.

Content Listing

Joker's Wild Qualifying Tag Team Match

James Storm & Christian York vs. Gunner & Crimson (9:07)

Joker's Wild Qualifying Tag Team Match

Jessie Godderz & Mr. Anderson vs. Doug Williams & Kid Kash (10:14)

Joker's Wild Qualifying Tag Team Match

Christopher Daniels & Rob Van Dam vs. Chavo Guerrero, Jr. & Rob Van Dam (14:50)

Joker's Wild Qualifying Tag Team Match

Robbie E & Zema Ion vs. Bobby Roode & Joseph Park (10:20)

Joker's Wild Qualifying Tag Team Match

Hernandez & Alex Silva vs. Aces & Eights (Devon & D.O.C.) (9:13)

Joker's Wild Qualifying Tag Team Match

Robbie T & Matt Morgan vs. Al Snow & Joey Ryan (12:26)

$100, 000 Dollar Joker's Wild Gauntlet Battle Royal 

Bobby Roode vs. James Storm vs. Devon vs. D.O.C. vs. Jessie Godderz vs. Christian York vs. Joseph Park vs. Mr. Anderson vs. Christopher Daniels vs. Samoa Joe vs. Robbie T vs. Matt Morgan (24:02)

Review

I'm going to come straight and say that didn't like this show, I'll get into why as I run down the individual matches. Starting at the ending, the main event featuring the winners of the randomly picked tag team matches earlier in the night, in a Gauntlet match (or Royal Rumble) which has it's moments but for the first fifteen minutes is incredibly hard to get into. Without any build up on television, these pay-per-views needed to have a hook that people would interested in seeing, a first time match, some returning names or a match which we've seen before but know will be awesome, so the hook for this one is the Gauntlet, but why am I supposed to care? I don't care if one of these guys "wins" $100,000, so there is no emotional investment, for what is a fairly lengthy main event contest. There's also a couple of disappointing early elimination for guys that could have made the bout interesting, which didn't help. There's a cliche interaction between Matt Morgan and Robbie T, that you will most likely have seen a version of before, but at least it throws and element of story into this mess. The finish between two long time TNA rivals is probably the strongest element of this bout for me.  

Going into the show, I marked Christopher Daniels & Samoa Joe taking on Chavo Guerrero, Jr. & Rob Van Dam, as a potential match of the night and it probably was, but it's nothing spectacular. It's good solid tag team action, with Samoa Joe and Christopher Daniels making a solid team, although that's what you'd expect with their past history. Guerrero works nicely with both men throughout, whilst Van Dam is in his typical TNA style of phoning in the bout, not really looking interested at any point. Christopher Daniels continues to be the highlight of TNA programming with his performance in this bout really raising the bar with his in ring antics. The finish well worked and built up to nicely, with all four men contributing well. Out of all the random bouts, this one felt that most thought through in who was paired together, it only get's weirder for this one. 

Robbie T & Matt Morgan vs. Al Snow & Joey Ryan is more entertaining than it deserved to be. There's a little build up to this one, with Morgan and Ryan (who were a brief team in TNA) convinced they are going to be picked together, it's obvious what's going to happen from the start, but the look on Joey Ryan's face when Al Snow walks down is great stuff. There's a fairly unique dynamic with neither Morgan or Ryan wanting to fight each other making for some funny moments, at times. The finish is also clever and will had me asking why I hadn't thought of it already. Overall, the story carries this bout, as there isn't a lot of wrestling to get into, but it's at least enjoyable throughout. 

Zema Ion & Robbie E vs. Joseph Park & Bobby Roode is well worked by four talented guys, but there isn't really anything that makes you take notice of what's happening, even if they try to integrate a story with Bobby Roode & Joseph Park, which doesn't quite pay off. Jessie Godderz & Mr. Anderson taking on Kid Kash & Doug Williams, could've been a good match, but devolves quickly into body slash from Kash and Williams as they work over Godderz, not at all entertaining. Aces & Eights manages to get Devon & D.O.C. randomly drawn together to take on Hernandez and Alex Silva in another match that I found it difficult to get into, it's just too clear who's picking up the W. The opening contest with James Storm teaming with Christian York to take on Gunner & Crimson has some nice teamwork but follow a very basic pattern that probably didn't need as much time to play out. 

There is some backstage footage included interviews building up the match, but the guys involved can't really say much other than "I'm going to win" as there isn't any story for them to work and the majority come off a little wooden. Christopher Daniels does a good job in his backstage segments, talking up his tag team with Samoa Joe is gold, Daniels really seems to enjoy being able to have a bit more free reign and it works wonders here. The commentary team of Mike Tenay and Taz couldn't care less throughout talking about anything and everything other than the matches, but at times Taz's random wit does save what is pretty tiresome viewing.

Overall, I'd say this event wasn't for me. There just wasn't enough to get my teeth into and the majority of the matches weren't strong enough to get me involved without some kind of storyline, and having guys that rarely appear on Impact Wrestling like Alex Silva and a large proportion of this shows roster having since been released it's hard to connect with the wrestlers in the ring. I think if this had been a regular tag team tournament, I'd have been a lot more interested in the concept, as I'd have wanted to see which random pair came out on top, however the Gauntlet ending feels rushed and the idea of money being used a prize in wrestling in 2013, is highly outdated. 

Top Three Matches on One Night Only: Joker's Wild

1. Christopher Daniels & Rob Van Dam vs. Chavo Guerrero, Jr. & Rob Van Dam 

2. Robbie T & Matt Morgan vs. Al Snow & Joey Ryan

3. Robbie E & Zema Ion vs. Bobby Roode & Joseph Park 

TNA Impact Wrestling 5th September 2013 Review

TNA Impact Wrestling focused largely on the Bound For Glory Series, with the first part of the tournament coming to close with a Twelve Man Gauntlet match (or Royal Rumble). Whilst TNA chose to have Sting and Bully Ray's No Disqualification bout go in the usual main event slot, to me the Bound For Glory Series, which will be the focus once again in the next two week's No Surrender themed special episodes, was where my interest lied, for almost all of the show.

Bound For Glory Series Twelve Man Gauntlet Match

To build up to this one, TNA started the show with a short vignette featuring clips of interviews with each of the twelve Bound For Glory Series competitors. In case you've missed TNA over the last couple of months, that's AJ Styles, Magnus, Mr. Anderson, Samoa Joe, Kazarian, Bobby Roode, Austin Aries, Jeff Hardy, Joseph Park, Christopher Daniels, Hernandez and Jay Bradley. I though this was a really good idea, with each man explaining their motives for winning the Gauntlet and why they will win, really setting up the importance of the Gauntlet match. Obviously, a lot of the participants wanted to win, so they could reach the final four and go onto No Surrender next week, but people like Jay Bradley and Hernandez who had no chance of winning at least mixed it up a bit. To continue on that theme, both Bradley and Hernandez were interviewed by Jeremy Borash, both actually gave decent interviews, but there was one problem here...I simply didn't care. Bradley spoke about how a certain organisation had possibly enlisted him to eliminate a certain individual and you could see it coming a mile off. It was clear who Bradley was talking about in both cases, and it was clear Bradley wouldn't be eliminating them, he's been booked as a loser throughout the whole Bound For Glory Series, why would things be changing now? 

The thing with Gauntlets/Royal Rumbles is they have to be full of spots and storyline to make them any good, you can't just sort of have twelve men come out and have them all swap between who is punching who in the corner of the ring, because it becomes pretty boring pretty quickly and this one bordered on the latter most of the time. There was the stuff with Jay Bradley, but it simply didn't work. It was revealed he was meant to be eliminating AJ Styles, but Styles had already been in the match for quite some time, and Bradley had a perfect opportunity when Styles entered the ring and clotheslined Joseph Park over the top rope, but it just wasn't picked upon. Despite earlier saying the order of entry was decided by who was higher up the standing, Mike Tenay and Taz still questioned who was in next which didn't help the proceedings. Bad Influence both did a good job in developing a story, helping keep each other in the match and work over other wrestlers, although a double hip toss wasn't exactly an exciting way to eliminate Hernandez. 

For me, the match really picked up with the entry of Austin Aries, charging down the ramp and hitting a leaping double clothesline on Bad Influence. This is where The Extraordinary Gentleman's Organisation remembered they were all a group and took the fight to Aries, finally a bit of storyline development. There was a nice series that saw Samoa Joe attempt to save Magnus from Bad Influence only to get eliminated himself, before Bobby Roode saved Kazarian by eliminating Jeff Hardy, as EGO's dominance continued it looked more likely they would produce the winner, with only Styles, Aries and Magnus opposing them. A nifty looking monkey flip from Styles would eliminate Kaz, although it was harmed by the jarring visual of seeing Kaz land on the elevated entrance ramp rather than the floor. Another nice piece of teamwork from EGO, saw Daniels save Roode from a bodyslam from Magnus and go on to eliminate the Brit, to bring the field down to four. Speedy eliminations of Aries and Roode by Styles, both of whom had already qualified for the final four, left Styles and Daniels to battle it out. Unfortunately, they didn't stick with tradition and then have a one on one match, like how they would usually do in TNA, with Styles eliminating Daniels following a Clothesline. I thought this was a real shame, as I quite excited to see the two go at it one more time, and thought the closing stages of the bout up were really good up until this point.

With the Final Four settled as AJ Styles, Magnus, Bobby Roode and Austin Aries (I got two out of four, by the way!), the only thing left to do was choose who would face who. So later in the AJ Styles came down to the ring and after some deliberation, picked Austin Aries as his opponent. Styles' reasoning was solid, with Aries having a victory over him in the Series and Styles wanting to prove himself once again, with Aries declaring that their would be a clear winner next week, I could help but be excited to see these two lock up for the second time on television. So that meant that the other semi final would see Bobby Roode vs. Magnus, with Magnus holding the victory over Roode in the Series proper already. With two decent promos from both guys outlining why they should win, it all set up very nicely for next week. It's obvious TNA had expected to have more time here, with a lot of the booking that seemed clear early on (Joseph Park being revealed as Abyss for a late push, Chavo Guerrero turning on Hernandez) having to be dropped, which is strange really because they should really know their own schedule, but they have actually done a pretty good job of coming up with a final four that I'm interested in. AJ Styles would be my pick to win, although you could make strong cases for both Austin Aries or Magnus to go head to head with Bully Ray at Bound For Glory as well. 

No Disqualification Match: 

Sting

 vs. 

World Heavyweight Champion 

Bully Ray 

with Aces & Eights 

(Anderson/Tessmacher)

There was no amount of build up TNA could do that would get me excited for this match. I saw it at Slammiversary and I'm pretty sure no one was crying out to see a Sting-Bully Ray II. Even with Bully Ray continuing his trend of top notch promos at the start of the show, addressing his Aces and Eights stablemates, Mr. Anderson, Tito Ortiz, Knux, Wes Brisco & Garrett Bischoff, with “main squeeze” Brooke Tessmacher by his side. Ray did a good job trying to keep his group in check, it's clear that Ray has relished his role here, it's a shame he hasn't really had a decent face to go opposite against. Ray also set up a number of matches for his group, including Knux taking on Chris Sabin and Brisco & Bischoff taking on World Tag Team Champions James Storm and Gunner. This is certainly the best use we've seen of the Aces & Eights group, with my previous main gripe with the group being that they were never in matches, however I think it might be too little too late. 

The build continued throughout the show, with both Aces & Eights and Main Event Mafia having backstage segments. Firstly, we saw Bully Ray's reaction to Mr. Anderson failing to win the Bound For Glory Series Gauntlet match earlier in the night. I thought this was  really well shot and performed little scene, with Bully Ray once again putting in a stellar performance. With Anderson showing a burst of aggression, before Bully Ray put him back in line, it looked like that would be the last we'd hear of Anderson's uprising, at least for now. For the Main Event Mafia, we saw Sting chatting with Rampage Jackson. Now I expected to hate this segment, but it was actually quite sweet. It came across to me as the veteran Sting departing some knowledge to the green Jackson, with Jackson happy to sit and listen whilst Sting cut a pretty decent promo, however I still wasn't anymore exciting to see the main event. 

Before the match, General Manager Hulk Hogan, banned Tito Ortiz from ringside and made the match No Disqualification. These two ideas seemed juxtaposed, what would happen if Ortiz interfered? Why were Mr. Anderson and Brooke Tessmacher allowed to stay at ringside? I've heard of WWE logic, but TNA logic is getting pretty ropey. The match was essentially a slim line version of the one they had at Slammiversary. Firsty, Sting took it to Ray with a steel chair, before Ray took the upperhand and they repeated the spot from Slammiversary where Ray removed the padding on the ring to expose the boards. I wasn't fan of it the first time and I don't like it anymore now. Sting reversed Ray's Piledriver and managed to lock in a Scorpion Death Lock, with Aces & Eight's Knux, Brisco & Bischoff making the save for their President. Main Event's Mafia Samoa Joe, Magnus & Rampage Jackson came down and fought Aces and Eights to the back. It was a nice twist on what we had seen at Slammiversary, showing that Sting now had some guys watching his back, so I can't really complain about that.


The finish saw Sting manage to lock Ray in the Scorpion Death Lock again, with Anderson on the outside wielding a hammer. With Anderson refusing to make the save for his President, Ray tapped out and Sting picked up the submission victory. In isolation, this was a pretty good finish and did set up nicely for next week's No Surrender, but TNA just had their World Heavyweight Champion lose clean to someone who can't even challenge for the title. I'd love to know the logic that we into that one. So Anderson got in the ring and said he'd be facing Bully Ray next week at No Surrender for the World Heavyweight Championship, and I have to say I quite liked the return of face Anderson, complete with announcing his own name. I thought it was a really strong end to Impact Wrestling, but they did about two-three months worth of build for this match, in about a two weeks. This moment could have felt even stronger, if they'd have just let it breath for a bit and really build to Anderson's turn. The other issue I had with this was that Anderson has just lost the Bound For Glory Series, and is getting a title shot next week...whilst the final four will battle it out to get a shot on the same show. It's the timing more than anything that annoyed me about this, if it was shuffled around and maybe two months down the line, this would have been a red hot ending to the show.

Best of the Rest (In The World)

Elsewhere on Impact Wrestling, we saw the return of former World Heavyweight Champion Chris Sabin, in his first television bout since losing the World Heavyweight title, taking on Aces & Eight's Knux. I was interested to see Knux back in the ring, because he's hardly been in the ring since turning up in TNA. He's been in a handful of multi man tag team bouts, but this was actually only his second singles match on television, and his last match was back in January! Knux has been handled pretty poorly since joining TNA, as have most of Aces and Eights as individuals, which has in turn harmed the Aces & Eights group in general. Get the guys in the ring, show us what they can do! I thought Knux had a lot more to give the company, after enjoying the majority of his run in WWE as Mike Knox.

The match was decent, it didn't exactly set the world a light, but it was okay. Sabin worked Knux's knee for some reason, during the opening of the match, I guess the logic was that Sabin was trying to get Knux on the ground, but it didn't quite work. Knux looked pretty good when he took control of Sabin, with power moves and nice diving leg drop, that I wasn't expecting from such a big man. The finish saw Bully Ray hand Knux a hammer, with Sabin hitting a basement dropkick to Knux's knee. With the hammer now loose, Sabin jumped on it and whacked Knux in the head, giving Knux a disqualification victory. I'm waiting to see where they go with Sabin before burying this finish, obviously they have something planned for him and it didn't exactly harm Knux either. After the match, we saw Sabin and real-life girlfriend Velvet Sky, with Sabin saying something has got to change, so it would seem they are working on something for Sabin and it has to be better than his World Heavyweight title reign! 

There was also tag team action with World Tag Team Champions James Storm & Gunner taking on Aces & Eight's Wes Brisco & Garrett Bischoff. The bout kicked off with the cliché spot of Brisco & Bischoff attacking Storm & Gunner on the entrance ramp, but Storm & Gunner quickly gained the upperhand before the match officially got going. I didn't want to say it, but I was actually quite impressed with Brisco and Bischoff who did a pretty good job of working over Storm, Brisco looked especially good. The bout built up well with a hot tag to Gunner, and number of nice near falls for both teams. The finish used another wrestling cliché with Brisco distracting the referee by bringing the tag belt into the ring, allowing Bischoff to hit Gunner with a chain to pick up the victory. You'd expect a rematch to happen further down the line, possibly with the belts on the line, but currently I'm positive about Brisco and Bischoff moving into the tag team division after this bout. 

Knockout's Champion Mickie James was also on the show, in a truly awful segment with ODB. Both women actually gave a good performance, but the material they were given was tripe. It focussed on Miley Cyrus and that whole twerking thing as an attempt to get heat on James. Eventually, James tried to hit ODB with the belt, only for ODB to fight back and then the two had a stare down. I have no idea why they didn't put on or the other on top during this segment, as it just didn't look right having James leap up. I'm actually quite excited to see the James vs. ODB match, but if segments like this continue then I might start losing interest. 

Finally...

My final thoughts on this week's Impact Wrestling.

1. TNA had to rush their plans for the Bound For Glory Series, but the final four actually looks pretty interesting.

2. Bully Ray vs. Anderson needed another two or three months worth of build and it could've been red hot.

3. This week's booking of Aces & Eights, showcasing the member of the group in actual matches, should have been happening about nine months ago.

TNA Impact Wrestling 6th June 2013 Review

With Slammiversary just a few days ago, Impact Wrestling rolled into Atlanta. It’s interesting now TNA doesn’t have another Pay-Per-View until October’s Bound For Glory to see how they book their weekly show over the next couple of months. They haven’t quite got it right yet, but hopefully they’ll settle into this new booking pattern which feels fresh compared to the bombardment of PPV’s we’re used to.

Ladder Match: World Heavyweight Champion Bully Ray vs. Jeff Hardy

 

The main event for the evening was booked by General Manager Hulk Hogan at the top of the show. With Bully Ray talking up how he vanquished Sting at Slammiversary and talking about how Sting would probably retire, Hogan interrupted Bully to announce this match. Hogan seemed to have calmed down from his crazy ramblings at Slammiversary and both men delivered interesting promos. I much prefer Hogan in this simple general manager role, instead of having to get involved in every feud on the card. Now that was until Hogan announced the concept for the main event. A ladder match, I thought fine, I mean we already saw these two in a fantastic Full Metal Mayhem contest about a month ago, but it’ll still be an entertaining contest. Then Hogan added that there would be not a Championship on the line, or possibly Hardy’s place in the Bound For Glory Series, but of course a hammer! I had to quickly check if Vince Russo hadn’t been re-signed by TNA.

In preparation for the contest, we got two backstage segments, the first with Bully Ray and Mr. Anderson. They discussed who would replace D’Lo Brown as the Vice President of Aces and Eights, with it being teased that Anderson would step into the role. Unfortunately, with Aces and Eights been made to look increasingly weak, the role really holds no real relevance, although hopefully it means TNA is starting to build up Anderson for bigger role on the show again, I’d expect him to enter the Bound For Glory Series and do well. We also saw Brooke Hogan talking to Taryn Terrell in which it was played up that Brooke still had feelings for Bully Ray. I’m not quite sure what Brooke adds to the product and how many viewers she’s bringing in, but I’m sure TNA could probably do without her probably expensive contract.

The match was a pretty decent bout, although it was severely hurt by the nonsensical concept. Bully Ray’s heel character is extremely strong and he makes it very easy to hate him as he slowed Hardy’s fast high flying offence down and kept him grounded, including a superb back body drop, as well as working up the crowd with his Hogan impression. Although not quite as spot laden as their Full Metal Mayhem contest, there was still some interesting moments, including Hardy driving the Ladder into Bully Ray’s groin with a baseball slide, as well as Hardy taking a gruesome looking bump when pushed straight off the ladder, landing hard. Hardy is one of the only wrestlers in the main stream that I’ve seen take these kinds of bumps of the top of the ladder and one has to worry for his wellbeing if he continues with this kind of thing. After the bump, Ray went for the hammer, taking his time, the logic here seemed flawed as Bully Ray had Hardy down more than long enough to make a cover and win the match and if he wanted to hit Hardy with a hammer surely he could have had Mr. Anderson bring one out for him!

Hardy quickly gained control of the weapon after a Twist of Fate and began swinging for Ray who managed to escape up the ring ramp. This was an unsatisfactory ending to the contest which really needed some definitive ending due to the concept and stipulation, this ending would have worked a lot better in simply a singles or maybe even a No Disqualification Match. However this wasn’t the end of Impact, as we saw Hulk Hogan creep up behind Bully with another hammer, only for Brooke Hogan to come to the Bully’s rescue. This was truly an awful end to Impact, as I question what Hogan was going to do with the hammer, was he planning to kill Bully Ray? Which is definitely not an avenue a wrestling show should be looking at in its storylines. It really is time to tie up the Brooke and Bully story as well, it’s been stale for a long time.

Quinton “Rampage” Jackson’s Impact Debut

Having been revealed earlier this week as Dixie Carter’s big free agent signing former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson made his debut for TNA, in a heavily built up in ring segment. Now, I can’t say I’m a massive follower of MMA so couldn’t really comment on how much of a draw Jackson will be for TNA and what he will bring to company. There is obviously a lot of cross over between wrestling and MMA and a lot of fans follow both sports, so hopefully Rampage could bring TNA to some MMA fans who might usually only watch Raw or Smackdown.

Rampage was seen prior to his entrance into the arena, backstage with new World Tag Team Champion James Storm and Gunner, which kind of depleted the impact of his entrance and made him feel a little less of a star. However, once he entered the ring and took the mic of Jeremy Borash, he sounded very comfortable with a microphone, although he was clearly still adjusting to his new surroundings.

It was as he talked up his desire to be the best that Kurt Angle headed down to the ring. Fresh off a victory over AJ Styles and being announced as TNA’s second Hall of Famer, Angle said if Rampage wanted to be the best he’d have to go through him at some point. There was a real intensity in the ring between these two, reminiscent of Angle’s TNA debut and face off with Samoa Joe. It would seem TNA will go for a slow build for a contest between these two at Bound For Glory.

It will be interesting see how much Jackson puts in to his TNA career, he clearly has some untapped potential, seeming charismatic and with his MMA background should be able to master the wrestling aspect well, but it really will depend on how much training he does and how willing he is to learn this new sport. Kurt Angle will be a great person to have his first match with as Angle is able to cover up most of his opponents weaknesses during a match and should be able to help Jackson with a number of elements of the industry. In the end though, Rampage Jackson will get as much out of wrestling as he puts in.

Best of the Rest

Elsewhere we got the continuation of the Devon and Abyss rivalry, featuring Joseph Parks. Firstly, Devon came to ring to call out Abyss, with a competent promo about wanting the Television Title back because the loss was in an unsanctioned match, it was like TNA was trying to cover up its mistakes with this! He was of course met by not Abyss, but his “brother” Joseph Park who took down Devon straight away, only for Devon to get the upper hand and send Park to the outside. With Devon looking to take out Park, Abyss’ music hit and his video played. It was clear Abyss wasn’t going to come out as the man who plays him was lying on the outside of the ring! Devon announced if Abyss wouldn’t come to him, he’d go to Abyss, before taking one last shot at Park. With Park beginning to bleed it was made painfully obvious where Abyss was.

There was then a handful of backstage segments, featuring Devon and fellow Aces and Eights member Know trying to hunt down Abyss backstage. Although Devon and Know were a little over the top at times, these segment weren’t too bad, but could have been cut down slightly, once the premise was opened it didn’t need repeating. With some nice camera Abyss appeared via shadow, to attack Knox, before going toe to toe with Devon and gaining the upper hand. He then said he was going to take the title “to the abyss”. I’m not sure what that was supposed to mean but it definitely didn’t come across as well as it did in whoever wrote it’s head. Hopefully, we see more of Abyss in the coming weeks and less of Joseph Park whose character has really run its course in TNA.

There was also the continuation of Mickie James’ heel turn, which is progressing nicely. With Mickie’s false apology to Velvet Sky for not helping her last week, as well as putting down Taryn Terrell for making the save before she could, Mickie is looking more and more comfortable with this new character she’s working with. If she continues to work on this character and flesh it out a little, we could have a very good feud between James and Taryn Terrell, once James is finished with Velvet.

Mickie was also in action against a returning Taeler Hendrix who hasn’t been seen since November. It really is one of the big problems with the Gutcheck challenge that the winners are left off TV way too long after their victories that it’s difficult to remember them or build any form of connection with their character and therefore future Gutchecks are diminished in importance as none of the other winners regularly appear on TV. The match told an interesting story with James attempting to run rings around Hendrix and patronise the newcomer at every turn, but with Hendrix more than holding her own. With Taeler looking to cause an upset by heading to the top rope, James feigned a knee injury by holding onto referee ODB, but once Taeler came to check on the injury, she got hit with an awkward looking Chick Kick for the victory. James really excelled in this role during this match and it’ll be nice to see where she takes it over the coming months, whilst Hendrix can more than hold her own in terms of in ring competition, hopefully she’ll be appearing more often on Impact in the near future.

The Bound For Glory Series kicked off with two qualifying matches taking place. Firstly, we saw Former Tag Team Champions Hernandez and Chavo Guerrero square off in a decent contest. With a number of quick reversals this match was wrestled at a fast pace, as Hernandez showed once again he possesses a lot more talent that just his power. With Super Mex getting his knees up to block the Frog Splash from Chavo, a series of quick roll up attempt followed with Hernandez eventually stacking up Chavo for the victory. Although I think Hernandez is a talented in ring competitor, I can’t see him finishing very high up in the Bound For Glory series simply because every singles push he gets from TNA always ends up with him returning back to a tag team.

The other Qualifying match pitched the underrated Robbie E against the beast that is Samoa Joe. With Robbie cutting an entertaining promo on his performance in last year’s Bound For Glory Series, however once Samoa Joe’s music hit there was only ever going to be one winner. Joe destroyed Robbie E, in little over a minute picking up the victory with a quick tap out to the Rear Naked Choke. I’d expect Joe to have another good showing in the BFG Series picking up wins over the guys lower down like Jay Bradley, and maybe some big victories, but slipping up in the bigger point matches. I’d love Joe to win it and get a major push, he truly deserves it after his work lower down the card over the last couple of years, and I just don’t see TNA giving him the chance in the Main Event scene anytime soon.

There was also a six man tag team match pitting new X Division Champion Chris Sabin and new Tag Team Champions James Storm and Gunner against Bobby Roode, Austin Aries and Kenny King. This was a quality tag team contest with X Division competitors Chris Sabin and Kenny King proving they can hang with some of TNA’s bigger names, Sabin having an impressive sequence with Bobby Roode and Kenny King working well with Roode and Aries with some nice heel team work keeping James Storm in their corner. The ending came after a classic break down section of the match, with numerous wrestlers hitting signature moves on after another, eventually leaving Kenny King and Chris Sabin in the ring. With King missing a jumping side kick, Sabin planted him with a beautiful springboard spike DDT and finished it up with his Hail Sabin finishing move. It was a good six man contest that was worked well by all six men, unfortunately there was little in terms of storyline development between anyone in the match and felt a little like TNA trying to stretch out their feuds for as long as they can.

Finally…

What have we learned from this week’s Impact Wrestling? 

1. TNA hasn't quite got it's new pacing sorted, with just four pay-per-views a year to build towards.

2. Hulk Hogan wants to murder Bully Ray!

3. TNA isn't going to miss Todd Kennely on commentary, I barely noticed he'd gone!

Announced for Next Thursday's Impact Wrestling.

Sting reveals his future. 

Bound For Glory Series Qualifying Match: AJ Styles vs. Kurt Angle 

Bound For Glory Series Qualifying Tag Team Match: Bad Influence vs. World Tag Team Champions James Storm & Gunner

TNA Slammiversary 2013 Predictions

Well, we're less than an hour away from TNA's Slammiversary, so I better get going with these predictions!

It's been a decent build up towards this one, with Sting being a logical person to go into battle for Hulk Hogan against the Immortal One's Son-in-Law. However, I don't hold out much hope for this as a physical contest, whilst Bully has been having some of the best singles matches of his career lately, Sting looked barely capable of a Tag Team contest on Impact recently, so this could be a slow short match up, not befitting the story line or a Pay-Per-View Main event. I'd expect run-ins from numerous Aces and Eight members, both Hulk and Brooke Hogan, and probably a number of TNA Roster members, possibly even the big name signing Dixie Carter has touted on Twitter recently.

Winner: Bully Ray

Now, we've seen this match a number of times throughout the years, in various different combination, but no point has it ever become a chore to watch Kurt Angle and AJ Styles create magic within the squared circle. Once again, I'd expect AJ and Kurt to pull out an absolute classic, with a brand new psychology to play with and AJ settling into a new edgier character, this will be a more than entertaining contest. Hopefully this match is given a good half an hour and there is no interference from Aces and Eights or anyone else involved in this story.

Winner: AJ Styles

Featuring seven proven talented in ring competitors and one fairly unknown entity, this should be an explosive contest. The psychology has been built well over the last few months of Impact with each team having a number of different ties to another, TNA has to make sure this psychology pays off in this contest to make it feel like a satisfying contest, a mere collection of moves will not be enough. There's a number of ways for TNA to head with this but with a number of these guys surely heading for the Bound For Glory Series after Slammiversary there seems only one logical choice.

Winners: Chavo Guerrero & Hernandez

It's been a long time since we've seen Devon defend the Television Championship, despite Hogan's decree less than a year ago that the TV title should be defended every week. So it won't feel like a massive moment if Park wins the title, which it might have if the title had been handled properly as of late. The Parks character has been handled well and is always entertaining, but it really is time for Abyss to return as it feels like the Joseph Park character can go no further in the world of wrestling. I'd expect an appearance from Abyss in this match, probably appearing from under the ring, after Parks has gone underneath.

Winner: Joseph Park

Although I believe a Kenny King vs. Chris Sabin singles contest would have been a more satisfying one in terms of storyline, this will no doubt be an entertaining spot laden match. Hopefully Sabin doesn't put himself in too much danger, as another injury would surely end his promising career. I'd prefer to see Kenny King's reign go a bit longer as he's an entertaining character and a long running rivalry with Sabin leading into Bound For Glory could light up Impact throughout the summer.

Winner: Kenny King

Would much rather have seen a rematch of Mickie James and Velvet Sky take this spot on the card, as Taryn Terrel has shown little to show she deserves tp have been promoted from Knockouts Referee, especially with ODB taking her place. It will be interesting to see how extreme this match goes, as I'm expecting little more than a cat fight. Although I'm not a huge fan of Terrel, I expect TNA to build her into a singles feud with the newly heel Mickie James in the near future.

Winner: Taryn Terrel

Wouldn't say I know too much about either of these guys, but that's mainly due to TNA not using them that much since their Gut Check challenges. Bradley would seem the more charismatic of the two, with Shaw being more of a body guy, but that's about all we know about these two rookies.

Winner: Sam Shaw

There's four extremely talent competitors in this match and then there's Wes Brisco and Garett Bischoff. Now I'm not completely down on these two Aces and Eights member, we just haven't seen enough of them in the ring to prove they have much talent. Yes, Brisco has had some decent matches with Kurt Angle, but Angle rarely has had bad match, no matter who he is facing! I was also pretty TNA announced this match to feature DOC instead of Anderson, obviously plans changed by the end of the show. With all three members of on team heading for the Bound For Glory Series, it seems their can be only one choice.

Winners: Magnus, Samoa Joe & Jeff Hardy

It's looks like it's going to be a mixed bag tonight for Slammiversary, some extremely entertaining contests on the line up, but some that might be difficult to stay awake through! Enjoy the show people!