Re-Making an iMPACT - #7 - Kazarian & Shane v AMW

TNA Xplosion #86 Results (10th July 2004) - Total Non-Stop Action #106 Results (14th July 2004)

A little worryingly iMPACT seems to be shifting to feature more enhancement contest and less to clashes between regular roster members. This started on the previous week's episode and continues on the 16th July 2004 episode that we look at today. After just seven weeks on the air, the show is already beginning to feel less important. Would there be any diamonds in the rough, though? Let's have a look. 

This week's main event featured America's Most Wanted (Chris Harris & James Storm) going over Kazarian and Michael Shane after Dusty Rhodes named them the winners following a ten minute time-limit draw. I have to say that I came away being a little disappointed with the match that four-some put on, as all four have shown potential on previous episodes, but this match never didn't show much of that potential. Everyone seemed to be going through the motions with both their wrestling and character work with no one seemingly wanting to make the most of their main event slot. The action was okay, with James Storm's hot tag sequence probably being the brightest of the bout, but these men can definitely do better than they show here. A personal highlight of the match was when Chris Harris hit a Catatonic (Swinging Side Slam) so strong that it resulted in Kazarian landing on Harris' back! The Naturals and Triple X would get involved after the decision was made with the show ending in an eight team brawl. 

Another disappointing tag match would open the show as Triple X (Christopher Daniels & Primetime) would best Team Japan (Miyamoto & NOSAWA) [Powerplex] in a clunky collision. It felt like Miyamoto & NOSAWA were a step slower than they needed to be at any given moment and this in turn would harm Christopher Daniels' hot tag attempt, removing any real excitement that could have been had. Neither Team Japan member has impressed me so far with what they have to offer, with fairly sloppy offence, whilst struggling to keep up with the pace of their American colleagues. It's a shame the pair were chosen to represent Japan when competitors like Katsuhiko Nakajima, Kaz Hayashi & TAKA Michonoku were all on the AJPW at the time. 

The best match on the show came in the form of "The Baby Bear" Alex Shelley's victory over Roderick Strong [It Came From Japan II]. Both men are still pretty green at this point, with just over two years experience each and their best work still a head of them, but put together a short, technically sound encounter, that was more balanced than I was expecting to be. Both men hit tasty back breakers, with the match having an "Anything you can do, I can do better" type of vibe and Strong even manages a decent near fall after hitting his Death by Roderick double knee gutbuster. I'm not a massive fan of Shelley being partnered with Goldylocks and Abyss, the Baby Bear gimmick is very cringey, but Shelley himself has been impressive in what he's shown, despite clearly not being comfortable in the heel role. 

There's another two matches on the show, which feature Sabu squashing Alistair Ralphs (A1) and "The Alpha Male" Monty Brown making short work of Lex Lovett, before demanding a future NWA World Heavyweight Championship match.

Results

Tag Team Match: Triple X - "The Fallen Angel" Christopher Daniels & Primetime def. Team Japan - Miyamoto & NOSAWA

Singles Match: Sabu def. Alistair Ralphs

Singles Match: "The Baby Bear" Alex Shelley (with "The Monster" Abyss & Goldylocks) def. Roderick Strong

Singles Match: "The Alpha Male" Monty Brown def. Lex Lovett

Tag Team Match: America's Most Wanted - "Wildcat" Chris Harris & "Cowboy" James Storm def. Kazarian & Michael Shane via Judge's Decision

Finally...

ATPW Scale Rating - 3.25/10 

If two week's ago was the worst iMPACT to date, then we have a new contender to the crown. Three matches of any substance and I enjoyed one of them. Shelley v Strong was the best match on the show without the pair coming close to what they could do at the time, let alone what they'd be able to produce in the coming years. Two tag team matches that failed to deliver, as well as two enhancement bouts, there wasn't much else to say about this as iMPACT edges ever closer to a "Very Poor" rating. 

Content by James Marston. Additional content by David Marston.

Re-Making an iMPACT - #5 - Team Canada v 3LK (James & David Marston)

TNA Xplosion #84 Results (26th June 2004) - NWA Total Nonstop Action #104 Results (30th June 2004)

iMPACT was now into it's second month, we'd seen the show start off warm with a promising first episode, before struggling to find the right formula to improve over the following three weeks. There was plenty of talent on the diverse roster like America's Most Wanted in the tag division, Chris Sabin and Frankie Kazarian in the X Division and a brief glimpse of Sabu. The undoubted star of the piece however had been AJ Styles, who had competed on each show pulling out a series of strong matches. Would the fact that Styles wasn't present on the show we look at today mean the show struggled? Or would someone else step up the plate? 

2nd July 2004's main event was a grim six man tag that Bobby Roode, Eric Young & Petey Williams of Team Canada would win over 3 Live Kru's BJ James, Konnan & Ron "The Truth" Killings, after NWA World Heavyweight Champion Jeff Jarrett had nailed Killings with a guitar. The bout was pretty much all 3LK, as they dominated from dull face shine to a horribly awkward section of brawling that would lead to Jarrett's inference. Outside of the match there was so much going, like Dennis Rodman being at ringside for 3LK and doing fuck all and Director of Authority Vince Russo telling a returning Ken Shamrock to jump Jarrett if he left his desk at the commentary table. Great job there Shamrock, great job. The former NWA World Heavyweight Champion did eventually come out, leading to a stare down with Shamrock and 3LK on one side and Jarrett and Elite Guard members Collyer, Hernandez and Onyx. The eight men were scheduled to take part in a Gauntlet for the Gold match for Jarrett's title on five days later. 

The episode would feature more six man tag action earlier in the hour as America's Most Wanted teamed with D'Lo Brown to defeat Team Japan members, NOSAWA, Miyamoto and a debuting masked bloke called Makeinu (who according to cagematch.net was MAZADA of AJPW fame), who ended up taking the fall to James Storm after taking a Superkick and AMW's Death Sentence tag finish. Considering the match was only ever going to go one way, we thought this ended up coming out as a solid bout. AMW and Brown seemed to gel as a trio, pulling out a triple team neckbreaker whatsit, whilst Team Japan made the most of their limited offence, highlight by Makeinu's overhead belly to belly suplex on Chris Harris. The closing stages picked things up very nicely indeed as Brown excelled with the hot tag, nailing a double jump mid-rope moonsault for a near fall, before flying through the ropes with his massive suicide dive. After an initial reluctance to Brown's appearance on these shows, the former WWF Intercontinental Champion has begun to impress us with his performances. 

Michael Shane and Kazarian were on the winning end of a tag bout with Chris Sabin and The Amazing Red, in a match that didn't quite manage to live up to expectations. The contest managed to finish strong, following a superb hot tag sequence from Sabin, who looked the capable of the four competitors at this time, despite only three years of experience. The finish was also well done as Kazarian blocked Sabin from hitting a Cradle Shock on Shane with a bicycle kick, before Shane sealed the deal with a superkick. The problem this match had though was a lack of drive at the start. The bout plodded along, waiting for a face shine from Sabin & Red that took ages to arrive, before FSN went to a break and on the other side Shane and Kazarian had taken control. The production of this was, of course, part of the problem, but for an X Division match I was expecting all four competitors to kick things off in style. 

The opening match was also from the X Division as Primetime overcame a debuting Alex Shelley (most regularly seen in IWA Mid-South before this), with a Play of the Day (Overdrive). Knowing of what both men were capable of at different points in their career, it's perhaps a little underwhelming. In a short clash, both men do get a chance to show something of what they can do, with a lovely high-angle moonsault from Primetime and straight-jacket lung blower from Shelley, particularly standing out. The Impact Zone continue to go absolutely nuts for Primetime's tightrope rana as well. The match isn't always as smooth as it could have, which is a shame considering the pair only had four minutes, but the finish is done well, giving Shelley a quality false finish as he turned Primetime's Play of the Day finish into a pinning situation.   

In other action, "The Alpha Male" Monty Brown would squash Abismo Negro in under three minutes. 

Results 

1. Singles Match: Primetime defeated Alex Shelley in 4 minutes, 32 seconds

2. Six Man Tag Team Match: America's Most Wanted - Chris Harris & James Storm & D'Lo Brown defeated Team Japan - Makeinu, Miyamoto & NOSAWA in 6 minutes, 20 seconds 

3. Singles Match: Monty Brown defeated Abismo Negro in 2 minutes, 55 seconds 

4. Tag Team Match: Kazarian & Michael Shane (with Traci) defeated Chris Sabin & The Amazing Red in 7 minutes, 20 seconds

5: Team Canada - Bobby Roode, Eric Young & Petey Williams defeated 3 Live Kru - BJ James, Konnan & Ron Killings in 4 minutes, 5 seconds 

Finally...

ATPW Scale Rating - 3.56/10

Despite being just two days before Independence Day, this show didn't illuminate the wrestling world like a firework, which is ironic considering all of the random pyro on the show. The main event was a complete shambles and I've still to find anything to like about the 3 Live Kru, whilst the rest of the action may have been mostly solid it wasn't much to excited about either. When looking at the card heading into the show, it's difficult not to disappointed heading out America's Most Wanted and D'Lo Brown provided the best action of the evening with their six man against Team Japan, which would have been improved had Makeinu, Miyamoto and NOSAWA not felt so faceless. 

Without beating around the bush, this was the worst episode of iMPACT so far. 

TNA Fan Interaction 2014 Report from Glasgow, Scotland - Craig Hermit

Craig Hermit sent in this report of TNA's Fan Interaction in Glasgow, Scotland from January 30th, if you attend a live event, wherever that may be, we'd love to hear from you also! Let us know what you think, we've seen quite a few articles from Craig recently, should he join the team?

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For the TNA critics out there who have been commenting on TNA's lack of fan support recently, they might have had a point within the USA, but the news of lack of interest never reached Glasgow.

Last night, I attended the TNA Fan Interaction session, which was completely sold. There was certainly enough passionate fans there and made there opinions as vocal and as loud for all to hear.

The set up for the Fan Interaction could have been organised a lot better with queuing outside the building and the layout of the interaction could have been better also. But I wouldn't blame TNA for this, probably the Glasgow Hydro organiser's themselves. Clearly unaware of the sheer volume of fans ready to meet the wrestlers, next time they should be more prepared when WWE arrives later this year.

The stars who attended the fan interaction session were Bad Influence (Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian), Velvet Sky, James Storm, Gunner, TNA Knockout's Champion Madison Rayne, Mr Anderson and Chris Sabin.

The highlights for this writer were Bad Influence, the duo were fantastic, they brought their own brand of brilliance and humour to every fan. Madison Rayne was thanking the fans for coming along,  Velvet Sky and Gunner separately were brilliant and accommodating too, James Storm wanted beer and Mr Anderson, Mr Anderson was brilliant, all the fans that spoke to him left with either a smile or were buckled in laughter, this writer included. Only Chris Sabin didn't seem to be as enthusiastic as the others, and other fans mentioned this too.

Then onwards to the merchandise, every item of clothing was there from TNAStore and an exclusive range of Knockout pictures as well. If you were after TNA merchandise you would'nt have been disappointed. Even Jeff Hardy t-shirts and Sting masks were for sale as well.

However for TNA, that would be my only criticism, as Hardy nor Sting was on the tour and the latter no longer with the company, this didn't quite seem right to me.

But this was minor and everyone I spoke to during the fan access and after it were in high spirits. They did say it was worth the money.

The only main disappointment were the absences of  Kurt Angle, Magnus, Bully Ray, Austin Aries, Samoa Joe and Bobby Roode,  except it looked like there were reasons for this as many if the stars mentioned missing preformed twice in the night, and if they preformed once in the event were leaving to be in the news TNA Fan Session the next day. Perhaps TNA should think of that for next year as it comes back to Glasgow as we will want more.

Overall, the stars who attended were fantastic, gave the fans what they wanted and were entertaining. It was a great start to a fantastic event.

TNA Impact Wrestling's Christopher Daniels Interview

On 23rd January 2014, I had the opportunity to speak to TNA Impact Wrestler, Christopher Daniels, about the Upcoming TNA UK Tour, as well as the recent departures and arrivals in TNA, among things. What follows bellow is about half of that interview in written form, unfortunately my recording equipment broke about twenty minutes into the interview, for which I can only apology to both you, the reader, as well as Christopher Daniels himself.

So grab an appletini and settle down for a chat with one of the most entertaining wrestler on our TV Screen today! 

Across The Pond: Hi, I'm James Marston. How're you?

Christopher Daniels: Hi, I'm Christopher Daniels, I fall down for a living. I'm good, how're you?

ATP: Good, yeah I'm good. Now, our first question, which we ask to every single person that we interview is....How did you get into professional wrestling and what was it that drew you to the sport?

CD: Well, I grew up in North Carolina, where the Mid-Atlantic terrotories were big and I watched guys like Ric Flair, Dusty Rhodes and Magnum T.A and the Road Warriors and I just got into it as a kid and I feel like the guys that...the wrestlers that love wrestling like I do are usually guys that get attached as kids. It's very rare that you grow into pro wrestling, get introduced to it as an adult and have the same feelings, the same love for it, like I did. You know, I grew up watching it, I really enjoyed it and once I graduated college and I was out in the real world, trying to get a job in the acting capacity...there was a period of time when my career wasn't going so well and my wife found a school, so I told her if this acting thing doesn't work out, I could be a pro wrestler HA HA HA! She found a school, she made an appointment for me, I went in and spoke to the gentlemen that owned it, it was Windy City Pro Wrestling, the guys name was Sam Decero, who wrestle as one of the Maxx Brothers in the AWA and I decided to give it a shot. Just to say that I did it, I figured if I failed, if I washed out of the school, I could at least tell my kids one day, hey man, your Dad tried to be a professional wrestler. But I think because I grew up watching it that the physical aspects of wrestling came really easy to me, I went through my training in three months. I started wrestling three months after I started and that's where I started to learn everything, was on the road, that's where you learn about professional wrestling, was wrestling in front of a crowd and you know, against different wrestlers. 

ATP: Now, the big TNA UK tour is coming up, next week, I believe it's Wednesday in Dublin?

CD: Yeah, it's the 29th, I think that's a Wednesday, yeah.

ATP: Then it's onto Glasgow (30th), Manchester (31st), London (1st Feb) and Birmingham (2nd). Is that something that you look forward to? 

CD: Absolutely, we all look forward to it. It's usually some of the best crowds that we wrestle in front of, you know because we only do it once a year. It's become sort of a tradition, and something to look forward to, not just for the UK fans, but the guys. You know, we've had very succesful tours in the past, specifically last year, we had a great experience taping television over there. I think we've increased the amount of television, we're going to be taping over there, also one of the shows is going to be a pay-per-view taping, a One Night Only taping. The first time that we're ever taping television in the Hydro building in Glasgow, Scotland. There's a tonne of stuff happening on this tour, that it's gonna be a great tour for all. 

ATP: I have to say I'm very impressed that you've pronounce Glasgow correctly, we've seen plenty of TNA's roster misprounce that one, it's became a bit of running joke amongst the fans over here.

CD: You know, the Christopher Daniels museum is actually in Glasgow, Scotland, so I have a special affinity to GlasGOW. 

ATP: Would that be your favourite city over here to perform in? Do you have a favourite city?

CD: I really don't. I don't have a special favourite. I mean, last year, we had a great outing in Dublin. I feel like London's always a big deal, especially when we go to the O2. I know Manchester's going to be great this year. I really don't have a specific favourite. I had the oppurtunity not to just wrestle for TNA over there, but for a lot of the independents over there. One of my favourite matches that I ever had was in the Coventry Skydome against AJ Styles (Editors note: International Showdown on 19th March 2005) just after I won my first X-Division title. I've had a very good experience every time I've gone over to the UK and Great Britain specifically.

ATP: I have to say, with some bias, that crowds over here are some of the best in the word. Especially, with you guys only being over here once a year, the crowd seems receptive to what you've got to show, which you don't see all the time over in the US, because they seem to get....I don't want to say lethargic with the product but...

CD: Well, just comfortable with the product. There's a lot more access to the product over here, obviously, so lethargic isn't the right word.....I guess content would be a better word. They're content with it. Th ey're not really hungry for more product. They've got all the product they can handle. I know the UK wrestling scene, back in the day, they had their own product, with World of Sport, things like that and there's not really, apart from independents...I hope I'm not speaking out of turn, apart from independents they don't really have their own national scene anymore. So they've take to WWE and TNA, as their form of wrestling entertainment, that most of the country sees. Especially TNA with their ratings as good as they are, I feel like they've taken to our product rather well and this is our opportunity to get over their an take advantage of their appreciation of our product.

ATP: Certainly, and speaking of the UK Independent scene, former TNA employee AJ Styles is over here on February 28th and March 1st, wrestling for PCW – Preston City Wrestling, so I'd like to talk about the recent departures from TNA. We've seen Hulk Hogan moved on, apparently so, AJ's moved on, it's a possibililty that Sting could be moving on. I was just wondering what you're opinions were on those people moving on, potentially, elsewhere, and whether you could see them back in TNA at some point?

CD: Well, of all those people that you mentioned, I don't think anyone left on terms where they wouldn't come back. It would just depend on whether that's for him and whether that's for the company. I was really surprised that AJ Styles left, but at the same time, I feel like AJ came to a point in his career where he wanted to branch out and see how he could do in his own. So I feel like the next couple of months are going to be very important in his career and I wish him good luck. Whether or not Sting stays with the company depends a lot on what happens tonight on Impact against Magnus. We'll see how that goes, so stay tuned. I don't know when it comes on over there so I can't give you a good advertisement for Impact over there.

ATP: It'll be on Sunday night on Challenge TV.

CD: There you go. It'll be on Challenge, Sunday Night at whatever time, folks. I feel like wrestling as a business, it's sort of fluid, people come and go from companies. I, myself was fired a couple of years ago from TNA, I was re-hired. The company is always trying to take, the best talent that they can and make a cohesive lockeroom out of it. If AJ leaving, if Sting leaving, if Jeff Hardy or Hulk Hogan leaving, if those guys leaving gives opportunities to other people, then so be it. If they get a chance to comeback that's also great, I mean it's just a matter of timing and circumstances in a lot of those instances.



ATP: Of course, I ask our Twitter followers and those on Facebook, and I'm not sure if this is 100% true, but a lot of people have being saying to me, that you're contract is up in April...now you don't have to answer this, but is that true? Will you be re-signing? What's the deal there? 

CD: All I can tell you at this point is that my contract does end in April. Whether or not I resign depends a lot on the company, I have no plans on seeking employment elsewhere. So we'll just have to see when that date comes around, man. A lot could happen between now and then, but at this moment I'm very happy with what I'm doing in TNA. I'm very happy wrestling with Frankie Kazarian as my tag team partner, I feel like we've barely even scraped the surface as far as the potential for Bad Influence as a tag team. I don't have plan to break away or cut this out.

ATP: Personally, I'd hope that you'll be sticking around with TNA. For me, you're one of the most entertaining aspects of the product, you and Frankie as Bad Influence, with blowing smoke up your...whatever.

CD: No, blow smoke, go ahead.

ATP: For me, you take what's given to you and make it entertaining, whether it was originally entertaining or not. Especially, on the One Night Only PPV's, where without naming names, some of the guys seem to phone some of the stuff in, you bring something extra to those shows. As well as the Impact 365 stuff. Do you see all this as an opportunity to build your character? 

CD: In terms of the Impact 365, we just wanted to do stuff that would be entertaining. It would have been very easy for us to take photos, or videos, of us just working out, walking down the street or walking our dogs. I only wanted to post on the 365 site, if I was inspired to do something that was clever, something that was entertaining, something that was going to catch the fans eyes, something that was going to make a fan sit up and take notice. That's how I feel about all social media, Twitter, Facebook. I don't want to just say “Had a hamburger!” That's random, that's mundane nonsense. I want to entertain my fans, the people that follow me, that fans that have supported me and I want to make them happy about the fact that their paying attention to what I'm doing. So, when it comes to the Impact 365, we haven't been posting videos each and every day, but I feel like the videos that we have posted have been quality, they've been the things that a lot of fans have talked about, that a lot of fans have voiced their approval for. That's how we're going to continue to do it. As far as the One Night Only's we looked at those, we look at every opportunity we get on the television, to have people talking about Bad Influence at the end of the night. We understand that Impact is a two hour show every week, these One Night Only are three hour PPV's and in that opportunity you get to see a lot of the roster, we want to make sure that Bad Influence stands head and shoulders above anyone else. At the end of the day, you're talking about what Bad Influence did, whether it's our matches, our promos, 365 videos, whatever, we want people talking about us. We want people checking the channels and making sure that they see us each and every week.

ATP: The American Wolves have recently turned up in TNA. What's your opinion on that signing? Will we be seeing the American Wolves against Bad Influence? And is there any other independent talents you'd like to see turn up in TNA?

CD:  Well, I think it's inevitable that the Wolves and Bad Influence are going to tangle. You've basically described 2/3 of the entire tag team division in TNA, when you say that. I have nothing but respect for Davey Richards, for Eddie Edwards. The year that I spent in Ring of Honor in 2010/11, some of my best matches were with those guys. I look forward to wrestling them in a TNA wrestling ring, I know Frankie feels the same way. Truth be told, and I've said this on Twitter and I'll say this until someone sets me on fire and shuts my mouth, whether or not we have the World titles around our waste, Bad Influence is the best tag team, not only in TNA, but in the wrestling business right now. We want to go out there and prove that to the world, and we'll wrestle Davey and Eddie. I'd extend that invitiation to other tag teams, Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows, the IWGP Tag Team Champions, The Youngbucks, IWGP Junior Tag Team Champions, Bobby Fish & Kyle O'Reilly, the Ring of Honor Tag Team Champions and show the world that we are the best in the world. Davey and Eddie have come to TNA, you're going to see that match sooner rather than later I'm sure. Also, Robbie and Jessie, the current TNA Tag Team Champions, we haven't actually had an opportunity to challenge for those titles since they got the belts. At some point or another, that matters going to be addressed, maybe on the UK tour, who knows?

ATP: Now, you have a theatre degree (ATP's followers may or may not know that I myself am studying for a similar degree!), I was wondering how the time spent on the degree helped you in the wrestling ring?

CD: Well, it definitely made me comfortable to be in front of people, acting on a stage or wrestling in a wrestling ring, you're still basically playing to a crowd. So being a theatre person, being someone who has trod the boards so to speak, it made me very aware of playing to the back row and that's something that I learned wrestling in a wrestling ring, is that you're presenting a story to a large amount of people. Very simply, wrestling is basically theatre in the round. So you have to be aware of everybody, not just people in the back row, people in the back row. So it made me very aware to be big in my presentation, to try and engage the entire audience. Sometime wrestlers pretend that there's four walls around the wrestling ring and concentrate just on the match itself, rather than broadcasting that match to the fans that have come to pay tickets to see these matches! So, sometimes they're concentrating only their moves, I'm more aware of trying to tell my story and have that story understood by the greatest amount of people. Sometimes, whether you're doing live events where there are no cameras, so you're basically playing to those people. Or when you are doing television, the television represents the largest audience, so you play to the camera, I understood that from my theatre background.

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Annnnnnnnd, that's where my audio cuts out. I can assure you and I think Mr. Daniels would back me up on this that the rest of our chat was incredibly entertaining, so I can only apologise once again that the equipment failed on me. If you would like a copy of the audio from this interview either e-mail me at acrossthepondwrestling@hotmail.com or get in touch via Twitter @ATPWrestling and I'll send you the file! 

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 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.