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: Hardcore Justice Part Two Review

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

Ten Man Tag Team Loser Leaves TNA Match: 

Main Event Mafia & ??? 

vs. 

Aces and Eights 

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

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

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

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

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

World Heavyweight Champion Bully Ray's 

Championship Celebration

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

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

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

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

Best of the Rest (In The World)

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

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

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

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

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

Finally...

What did I learn from Impact Wrestling this week?

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

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

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

TNA Impact Wrestling: Hardcore Justice Part One Review

So TNA continues to present it's pay-per-view themed editions of Impact Wrestling with this month's Hardcore Justice. Whilst, personally I would have prefered to see TNA stick to their original idea of using having only four pay-per-views a year to build stronger storylines heading into the pay-per-view, rather than hot shot these shows every four weeks, the proof, of course, will be in the ratings.

World Heavyweight Championship Steel Cage Match:

 Chris Sabin © 

vs.

 Bully Ray

Now, I've said it more than once over the last few weeks, but I have hated Chris Sabin's World Heavyweight Championship reign, and it has very little to do with Chris Sabin himself, who for the most part has been excellent. It all comes down to how he has been booked. The hammer shot to win the title? The bout with Manik, that was great but did nothing for him? Having him overshadowed by the Main Event Mafia? All did nothing to help me feel like TNA were fully behind Sabin as World Heavyweight Champion, and I went into this one expecting to see Sabin drop the title back to Aces and Eight's President Bully Ray.

The match was built up during the show, with a handful of backstage segments. Firsty, Sabin was asked by TNA's mysterious backstage reporter (Jason Hervey) for his thought on the main event. The promo took a while to get going, when you could tell that what Sabin was saying about remembering Team 3D putting someone through a flaming table, resulting the his trademark “alright?”, which usually happens when he doesn't know what to say. Fortunately, when Sabin began talking about the match, he did a sound job, sounded convincing and confident which actually help to build to the match well. We later saw Bully Ray on the phone, talking to someone called “Brooke” about what they would reveal to world next week. Whilst I'm not a fan of the Bully/Brooke storyline, this segment was done very well, with the timing of the reveal of “Brooke” being spot on. Bully Ray also got in a verbal confrontation with Aces and Eights Vice President Mr. Anderson, with Bully not seeming to believe he had the full backing of his second in command. Again this was a good segment, that began to plant the seeds of dissention with Aces and Eights well.

The main content of the Steel Cage was actually pretty strong, taking on a regular big man vs. small man dynamic. With Bully doing a good job beating down Sabin, who did have a few slight spells in charge of the match, Bully is very good in this role, as we've seen opposite Jeff Hardy and Sting over the last year or so, and Sabin worked well enough in this match to make it enjoyable. Whilst, there wasn't a great amount of use of the steel cage in the bout, when it did come into play it was creative, such as Sabin's springboard crossbody. The only real drawback on the main body of the match, was an awkward looking hurracanrana out of the corner from Sabin, which just looked bizarre and took me right out of the match.

Now, for everything that the main body of the bout had done well, the finish was about to throw out of the window. For some reason they did a ref bump angle, with Bully accidentally splashing Brian Hebner against the side of the cage. With Sabin getting the upperhand and attempting to escape the cage through the door, Mr. Anderson made the save for Bully sending the door into Sabin, and keeping him from escaping. Main Event Mafia's Rampage Jackson and newest member Tito Ortiz (more on that later) came down to ringside, with Rampage sending Anderson crashing off the entrance ramp. However, with Rampage celebrating, Ortiz pulled out Aces and Eights signature hammer and brought it crashing down on Rampage. This caused a distraction for Sabin, who ended up taking a vicious Release Powerbomb from Bully, to allow Bully to pick up the pinfall victory and regain the World Heavyweight Championship. There was so much wrong with this ending it was ridiculous. Firstly, why do you need a ref bump in a Steel Cage Match? Mike Tenay even made it clear the bout was no disqualification earlier in the proceedings. Secondly, the focus was firmly on Tito Ortiz, as TNA attempt to use a wrestling angle to build for an MMA bout on someone elses pay-per-view. There's a lot more that I could say, but I would like to end by mourning the end of the worst World Title reign since Jack Swagger's in 2010 run.

Main Event Mafia Search for a New Member

The other major storyline running throughout the show was the Main Event Mafia's search for a replacement for Kurt Angle. For those who have been hiding under a rock, Kurt Angle has entered a rehab facility, after being arrested for another DUI. I'd like to take this moment to wish Mr. Angle all the best, and hope that he is fit and well to return to television soon. Dixie Carter appeared in the ring with the remaining member of the Main Event Mafia to announce what had happened and that Kurt would not be taking part in the Five on Five match between Main Event Mafia and Aces and Eight's next week. I thought it was a classy move by TNA, who could have easily just written Kurt off in angle, as long as they don't turn it into a storyline, like they did with Jeff Hardy's drug addiction then I'll be happy. Aces and Eight's members Devon, Knux, Wes Brisco and Garrett Bischoff, lead by Vice President Mr. Anderson came out, and took advantage of the numbers advantage in a scuffle with the Main Event Mafia. This was a good segment that set up the idea of Aces and Eight's having the number advantage well, giving the Mafia even more reason to find a replacement.

The hunt for the replacement began in a number of backstage segments. Firstly, Sting suggested to the group that they go for Austin Aries. After some disagreement, Sting said he would go and speak to Aries. I thought Aries was a good choice for the Mafia, he brings something that the group doesn't really have in terms of in ring style, whilst his attitude clash with the group would make for some entertaining television. With Aries playing hard ball with Sting, the Icon returned to his group to tell them that Aries was a no go. This whole section for me was entirely pointless, if Aries wasn't going to join the group, then why show all this anyway. It didn't add anything to the show and the time could have been given to another match.

Then my worst fears were confirmed when Rampage Jackson stood up and said he had an idea and it was clear from this point on who would be the new fifth member. So with Jackson accompanied by Samoa Joe to the ring, he called out Tito Ortiz, asking him to be Kurt's replacement. I've made my feelings made before about Tito and TNA continues to make it worse, with his promo accepting the place being absolutely awful. To be fair to Rampage Jackson, he actually did a pretty good job with his, if he can translate that to the ring I have no problem with him being in TNA. Luckily, Bully Ray headed out to save the segment once again, ripping into Jackson and Ortiz in superb fashion.

Now, with the hindsight of what happened later in the night, the stuff with Tito was almost as pointless as the stuff with Austin Aries. I have to be fair to TNA though and say that this obviously wasn't part of the original plan and we most probably would have got a different story if Kurt Angle was healthy. It probably still would have involved Tito Ortiz, but would have had a little more time to breath and the heel turn from Ortiz would have felt more impactful. Hopefully, Angle's absence doesn't effect TNA for too long and they manage to adjust their plans accordingly.

Best of the Rest (In The World)

It was another big night in the Bound For Glory Series with two lots of twenty points on the line. Firstly, to open the show there was a Four Way Ladder Match, with Jeff Hardy, AJ Styles, Austin Aries and Kazarian all battling it out for the twenty points. Now, I have to say going into this match my expectations were pretty high. Four of the best high-flying talents of the last five years battling it out in a Ladder match? Sounds like my cup of tea. Therefore this match really had to deliver for me, in a number of different ways, especially after seeing a number of top notch ladder matches recently at WWE's Money in the Bank, as well as Taryn Terrel vs. Gail Kim on Impact Wrestling.

Luckily, this one did manage to deliver, with a number of entertaining and creative spots. A backstage segment at the start of the show, reignited the rivalry between Hardy and Aries and this was capitalised upon, with the two going after each other in the match. The action was fast and exciting throughout, with not really time to catch your breath as once one wrestler seemed to be gaining an upper hand another would come into challenge them. The highlight of the match for me, saw AJ Styles about to the Styles Clash on Aries, only for Kazarian to plant Styles' face into the mat. The culmination of the bout, saw Kazarian stable mates Christopher Daniels and Bobby Roode come down to ringside, with Roode holding Hardy off the ladder for long enough to allow Daniels to pass Kaz his trademark Appletini, which subsequently ended up in Jeff Hardy's face allowing Kaz to pick up the twenty points. It was a decent finish to the bout, that set up the new faction well, I'm interested to see how they work together and how they will effect the Bound For Glory Series and interact with TNA's other stables.

Bobby Roode was involved in a Bound For Glory Series match of his own, taking on Main Event Mafia's Samoa Joe and Magnus, as well as Aces and Eight's Vice President Mr. Anderson. The tables match didn't really use it's gimmick, at least not as well as the Ladder Match did, with the tables often seemingly getting in the way of what the guys actually wanted to do! With Joe and Magnus working as a tag team during the bout, the dynamic was an interesting one, with Roode and Anderson going it alone. Samoa Joe was the star of the bout for me, with some good work with both Anderson and Roode. They basically used the same spot as the ending of the Ladder Match, with Daniels & Roode interfering and Daniels throwing the Appletini into the eyes of Magnus, allowing Roode to powerbomb him through a table to pick up the victory and twenty points in the Bound For Glory Series. Whilst I understand the idea behind having identical finishes, to set up the new stable, we haven't seen a clean finish in a Bound For Glory Series match in the last two weeks and it's becoming a bit silly, no one would have been hurt in the match if Roode had won clean.

There was also women's action on the show, with Knockout's Champion Mickie James taking on ODB and Gail Kim in a Hardcore Triple Threat bout. It was an enjoyable bout, with the triple threat concept being used well, with a nice dynamic between Mickie James and Gail Kim as they reluctantly worked together, until Mickie went for a school girl roll up for a two count. With ODB eventually making her comeback using a singapore cane and her bra, yeah ODB used her bra as a weapon, Kim and James had to reunite as a duo, with a great spot involving Kim's signature figure four leg lock around the ringpost and James pulling at ODB's arms. The ending of the bout saw ODB hit BAM! On Gail Kim onto a steel chair to pick up the victory, with James just unable to break up the three count. A strong outing for the Knockout's with ODB showing that TNA's move to bring her back into active competition was a wise decision.

Finally...

What did I learn from Impact Wrestling: Hardcore Justice? 

1. TNA hasn't got a World Heavyweight Championship match right in a long time.

2. The Main Event Mafia aren't that great at choosing new members.

3. I think I actually like Taz on commentary.

Bound For Glory Series Standings

1. Magnus - 39 Points (Non-Mover)

2. Bobby Roode - 27 Points (Up Six)

3. Samoa Joe - 26 Points (Down One) 

4. Jeff Hardy - 24 Points (Down One)

4. Mr. Anderson - 24 Points (Down One) 

6. Christopher Daniels - 23 Points (Down One)

7. AJ Styles - 22 Points (Down One)

7. Kazarian - 22 Points (Up Three)

9. Austin Aries - 21 Points (Down Two)

10. Hernandez - 7 Points (Down Two)

11. Jay Bradley - 0 Points (Non-Mover)

12. Joseph Park - -3 Points (Non-Mover)

TNA Impact Wrestling 8th August 2013 Review

This week’s Impact Wrestling was the go-home show for next week’s special edition of Impact Wrestling, Hardcore Justice. I have to say this wasn’t a particularly strong episode of Impact Wrestling, as whilst some of my issues with the programme were put aside this week with Chris Sabin getting a bit more focus as World Heavyweight Champion, some new issues seemed to crop up, with an over reliance on recaps (I think we saw Tito Ortiz’s return about three or four times) and the number of dusty or screwjob finishes getting a bit silly by the end of the show. I understand that this is TV and that not all finishes will be clean, but when all three Bound For Glory Series matches finish with either inference, disqualification or countout it does get a little tiresome.

Tag Team Match: 

World Heavyweight Champion 

Chris Sabin & Kurt Angle 

with Hall of Famer Sting 

vs. 

Aces and Eights

 (Team 3D)

We started the show this week with Aces and Eight’s President Bully Ray in the ring, discussing his tag team match in the main event of show, where he would team with Devon to take on World Heavyweight Champion Chris Sabin and a member of Aces and Eights, before calling out Chris Sabin for their contract signing for next week’s Steel Cage title match. Whilst Bully Ray continues to stay strong with his promos, the same could not be said for Chris Sabin. After the fantastic promo he pulled out the bag before Destination X, I had hope that Sabin could be a strong World Heavyweight Champion, however his work this week was just not believable. His attempts at John Cena type potty humour just didn’t sit right and I don’t even think he is sure about his character, which was made clearer by Bully who has his character spot on. Vice President of the Knockout’s Brooke Hogan then came out to open the Contract signing, and remove the spotlight from the World Heavyweight Champion once more. It was revealed that due to some contract loophole, if Bully Ray didn’t win the Steel Cage match at Hardcore Justice, he wouldn’t receive another shot at the title whilst Sabin was still Champion, sort of making it obvious that Bully would be winning back the title, if it wasn’t already clear from the half-hearted run TNA have given Sabin. Hopefully this is the last time Bully and Brooke are in the same ring, but I think that is wishful thinking.

The tag team main event was built up throughout the show, with a number of backstage segments. Firstly, Chris Sabin met with Main Event Mafia’s Hall of Famer Sting and Kurt Angle. With Sabin saying he had a plan for the match, if the Main Event Mafia trusted him. It was nice to see Sabin at least on the same level as Angle and Sting, who are marketed as two of TNA’s biggest stars and was probably the best big of work TNA has done with Sabin since he won the title, four weeks ago. Elsewhere Aces and Eight’s Team 3D prepared for their match, by rubbishing Sabin’s credentials and arguing about the amount of times they’d won various tag team championships, whilst the segment was humorous, it undid all the good work of the previous segment.

With the match about to start it was revealed that Sabin’s partner would be Sting, however with the Hall of Famer making his way to the ring, Kurt Angle blindsided Team 3D and it was revealed that he was in fact Sabin’s partner. It was an intriguing start to the match, but it clearly deflated the crowd who seemed excited to see a rare Impact Wrestling match for Sting. Once the match settled down, we saw some nice team work from Angle and Sabin, before Team 3D took control of the match keeping Sabin in their corner and working quick tags. For me, this was backwards to how the match should have been, as I would have had Angle being the one worked over by Team 3D, building to a hot tag to the World Heavyweight Champion, which would have done Sabin the world of good. After the hot tag, Angle took down both Bully and Devon, truly looking like the star of his team with a near fall on Bully after an Angle Slam.

After Sabin had blind tagged himself into the match, we got the most exciting part of the match, seeing Angle take a 3D from Bully and Devon, before Devon went to get Team 3D’s signature weapon, a table. After Bully had managed to put himself through the table, Sabin took out Devon, before hitting a diving crossbody to get the pinfall victory for his team. Whilst the crossbody was a bit of a weak finish, the moments leading up to it worked well, and Sabin getting the pinfall was the best decision TNA could have made, as it at least gave him a shred of credibility heading into his title defence next week. Whilst the bout was decent, when taken out of context, I only served as a reminder that I’ve got numerous Team 3D vs. Motor City Machine Guns matches on DVD that I could be watching instead.

Bound For Glory Series Match: 

Christopher Daniels 

vs. 

Kazarian

The biggest Bound For Glory Series match of the evening saw Bad Influence face off against each other. The whole story going into this one and coming out of it was fantastic, and really showed that TNA are capable getting a story spot on. With Christopher Daniels and Kazarian both cutting strong backstage promos, throwing out the reasons as to why they would fight each other tonight, it seemed extremely plausible that the match would actually go ahead, building my anticipation for a fantastic battle between the two partners. Daniels and Kazarian have consistently been the most entertaining thing about Impact Wrestling most weeks and deserved the spotlight that this match afforded them.

We started the match, and Daniels and Kazarian did indeed begin to wrestle each other, with some strong chain wrestling that looked to be building to classic TNA contest. With no man, getting the upperhand for very long, the idea that these two are well matched was coming over nice and strong. However, the match was over quicker than expected, after some pushing and shoving from both men, they looked each other for a moment, before simultaneously exiting the ring and allowing themselves to be counted out, picking up two points each in the Bound For Glory Series in the process. Whilst it was a little annoying to see the match end in such a fashion, what was to come made sense of it all.

With Bad Influence congratulating each other on the entrance ramp, Bobby Roode turned up with a steel chair (We’d already seen Roode once in the night, more on that later). Just when it looked like Roode was about to take out Bad Influence, he dropped the chair and headed to the ring. Roode went on to cut a superb promo, about how he and Bad Influence had been forgotten about by everyone, because of stuff like Aces and Eights and the Main Event Mafia. It worked so well because everything Roode was saying was completely correct, TNA should be focusing on guys like Roode, Daniels and Kaz, instead of the likes of Rampage Jackson and Tito Ortiz. They claimed they now have the numbers advantage in the Bound For Glory Series, bringing something extra to the Series that had begun to look pretty predictable.

With Roode and Bad Influence reunited after their time in Fortune together, I’m interested to see what effect they have on the Bound For Glory Series. Personally, I still don’t feel like any of these guys is going to make it into the final four, but they will certainly all be close. We’ve seen Bad Influence try to mix things up with the Main Event Mafia and Aces & Eight’s before, in trying to recruit AJ Styles, so with Bobby Roode now part of the group, TNA will need to book them strongly to start with, to allow them to look like a threat to the two larger groups, before eventually have them crumble under the weight of their own egos, with each man going into business for himself. I wouldn’t be surprised if at Bound For Glory these three are involved in a three way contest, before Daniels and Kaz go into a highly anticipated angle heading into the winter.

Best of the Rest (In The World) 

Elsewhere, in another Bound For Glory Series match, Aces and Eight’s Vice President Mr. Anderson faced off against Main Event Mafia’s Magnus. The match was decent enough, if not a little basic. As it followed the typical dominant heel, face comeback structure, with Anderson dominating, until Magnus built to a Hulk Hogan style comeback, complete with Hulking up gestures. It match struggled to keep my attention, as nothing really of note happened until the ending, there was some nice work on the outside, but apart from that the two went through the motions as they waited for Bobby Roode to make his appearance in the match.

Yes, Bobby Roode turned up in the match, and before he went on to join with Bad Influence, Roode was set to make another Impact on the Bound For Glory Series. Roode came out with a steel chair, and teased that he would be hitting Magnus, only to turn round and hit Anderson in the stomach and the back with the weapon, giving Anderson the Disqualification victory for three points and causing Magnus to be deducted ten. It’s an ending we’ve seen numerous times in wrestling over the years, but with the points on the line, it gave the attack an extra meaning. It also allows Magnus’ previous gaping lead at the head of the Series to be cut considerably making the contest look more competitive once again.

In the other Bound For Glory Series match of the night, Jeff Hardy faced off against Main Event Mafia’s Samoa Joe. Now, this should be a main event match for Impact, and given enough time has the potential to be a good contest. Similar to Anderson vs. Magnus, the match was distinctly average as Hardy and Joe phoned in the majority of the contest as they waited for interference. The highlights of the match for me came from Joe, with a solid dive to the outside through the middle ropes and some good submission transitions thrown in as well. The ending saw Mr. Anderson who was on commentary cause a distraction at ringside, allowing Hardy to break out of the Rear Near Choke and stack Joe up for seven points in the Series. Personally, I think the show would have benefited from having Hardy go over clean here, I know the internet would have a fit about Hardy beating Joe clean, but it would have allowed the dusty finishes later in the show to stand out further, and a loss to Hardy is hardly going to cause him any damage, whilst also allowing someone else to look like a contender in the BFG Series.

Also this week, the World Tag Team Champions James Storm and Gunner returned to Impact Wrestling, in their first appearance since 4th July, to team with ODB to take on The Bro-Mans and Knockout’s Champion Mickie James, in six person mixed tag action. The match was short and fun, with Robbie E and Jessie Godderz working over James Storm until the hot tag to Gunner was made. I was particularly impressed with Jessie during this bout, as he looked fairly good whilst in control of Storm, and although his selling is a little goofy it fits the teams gimmick well, he’s definitely improved since we last saw him. The ending saw The Bro-Mans look to be hitting Gunner with some sort of tag team finisher, only for Robbie E to receive a Last Call Superkick from Storm, and Jessie to jump into the waiting arms of Gunner as Storm & Gunner hit their tag team finisher for the victory for them and ODB. With Gail Kim coming out to attack ODB from behind, having to be removed by the referee, only for Mickie to do the same to ODB, it looks like we have the makings of a classic women’s three way bout on our hands.

Tito Ortiz also made another appearance this week, many people would probably put this higher in the review, but in all honesty, I just couldn’t care about Ortiz. With Ortiz coming to explain why he turned up in TNA, he was interrupt by Kurt Angle, in a deja vew moment from Rampage Jackson’s debut a few months ago, as Angle went over the whole respect verbiage again. With Bully Ray coming out to rescue the segment telling Angle and Ortiz he didn’t respect either of them to close the segment. I have no idea what the point of this was, or how Ortiz being in TNA will benefit the organisation in the slightest.

We also saw the return of Taz to commentary desk this week, as at the top of the show, he, Mr. Anderson and Bully Ray kicked Mike Tenay out of the building. Taz joined Jeremy Borash, and for half of the show Mr. Anderson on commentary. It was a bizarre commentary duo that really gel and felt awkward for most of the broadcast. Why TNA decided to re-sign Taz, and not just let Borash step up to position of commentator alongside Tenay I have no idea. His contract could easily have allowed them to keep a few of the wrestlers they released or even bring in a few more from outside the company.

Finally....

What did I learn from Impact Wrestling this week?

1. For every step forward TNA have taken for Chris Sabin as World Heavyweight Champion, they've  taken at least two more in the opposite direction.

2. Making it even more frustrating when they pull off a great one episode story with Bad Influence and Bobby Roode, that showed forward planning and booking intelligence.

3. Hulk Hogan hasn't appeared on TNA television for two weeks, and I'm not missing him at all.

Bound For Glory Series Standings

1. Magnus - 39 Points (Non-Mover)

2. Samoa Joe - 26 Points (Non-Mover)

3. Mr. Anderson - 24 Points (Up One)

3. Jeff Hardy - 24 Points (Up Four) 

5. Christopher Daniels - 23 Points (Down One)

6. AJ Styles - 22 Points (Down Three)

7. Austin Aries - 21 Points (Down Three)

8. Bobby Roode - 7 Points (Non-Mover)

8. Hernandez - 7 Points (Non-Mover)

10. Kazarian - 2 Points (Non-Mover)

11. Jay Bradley - 0 Points (Down One)

12. Joseph Park - -3 Points (Non-Mover)

TNA Impact Wrestling 1st August 2013 Review

This week’s Impact Wrestling encapsulated my feelings for the current direction of the promotion in two hours. There is so much potential in the lockeroom and most of the time the build up for rivalries and matches is great, but the payoff is almost always disappointing. Whilst there was plenty to enjoy on Impact Wrestling this week, the decision made by the company and some less than well thought through booking, made the overall feeling for me coming out of the show as one of frustration.

What will the Offer Be?/August1Warning Reveal

I had been very impressed with TNA’s attempt at the viral video, with their August1Warning videos running between last week’s show and this one. They certainly helped to create a buzz amongst wrestling fans with a lot of discussion regarding who the mystery man might be. The speculation included names like Batista, Goldberg, Low-Ki, Adam Pearce, Hardcore Holly, Gutcheck Winner Bad Bones and even Nick Hogan. With such a good build up, I was expecting big things from TNA here with an important and popular wrestling name being brought in. However, with UFC Hall of Famer Tito Ortiz being announced to fight Main Event Mafia member Rampage Jackson for Bellator the day before, my excitement was quashed pretty early on.

The build up for the reveal began from the beginning of the show with Bad Influence discussing the videos, along with Jeremy Borash and Mike Tenay mentioning the reveal every five minutes, strange for a guy who apparently doesn’t work for the company! Taz was also work into the story with him not being allowed into the building for some reason, that wasn’t really explained. After a white Hummer limo was seen driving around the backstage area, Taz reappeared to open the door of the limo to reveal that only a laptop playing the warning was inside. Even if we look past the logistics of the laptop and the hummer, the big point for me here is that TNA recently signed Taz to a contract, which we can expect is fairly lucrative, and is not really using him. Yes, the commentary has been better the last two weeks between Tenay and Borash, so what was the point of resigning Taz in the first place.

Another story that was weaved into the August1Warning build up, was the Main Event Mafia’s offer to the Aces and Eights, with the Mafia seen a number of times in their “office” discussing the offer they were going to make to their rival faction, with Kurt Angle and Sting doing most of the talking. I’m confused to what Rampage Jackson brings to TNA that validates him getting payed as much as he does. All we’ve really seen from him in the Mafia, is some nodding and the occasional “Yup”, whist during these segment Joe and Magnus come over as lackeys to the more experienced Angle and Sting rather than as equals.

The final segment of the show saw Kurt Angle call out Aces and Eights, who came out lead by Vice President Mr. Anderson. Anderson actually did a fairly good job of his promo and I’m enjoying his new more important role in Aces and Eights. With Angle announcing that at the Hardcore Justice special edition of Impact Wrestling, the Main Event Mafia challenge Aces and Eights to a five on five match, with the loser being removed from the TNA roster, a brawl ensued with Main Event Mafia coming out on top, before Anderson accepted on behalf of his team. The five on five match concept has potential, but why Main Event Mafia didn’t just say that the loser must disband didn’t make a lot of sense. It was then that the August1Warning was announced, with Tito Ortiz making his way to the entrance ramp to stare down with Rampage Jackson. It wasn’t the moment it needed to be for me, as a wrestling fan Tito Ortiz means very little to me. Whilst admittedly there is some cross-over between wrestling and MMA fans, I’d think that those fans watch each product for different reasons. I can’t imagine Aces and Eights turning up on a Bellator show either.

Bound For Glory Series Match: 

Austin Aries 

vs. 

AJ Styles

The show had kicked off earlier in the night, with Austin Aries coming to the ring. Aries spoke about how he would go on to win the Bound For Glory as well as his Bound For Glory Series match with AJ Styles later in the night. Aries did a great job building up the match later on, putting over Styles and himself, bringing an extra sense anticipation to the bout. However, it did get me thinking that this match really should have been on PPV and not free television. It doesn’t even need much of a build up, just the fact that this match had never happened before, would surely bring in a decent buy rate for a TNA PPV. AJ Styles also got a chance to talk just before the match, as in a backstage promo, Styles rubbished “Dream Matches” and revealed he’d win the Bound For Glory Series for the money. It was another strong attempt from Styles, who is really growing into his new character. Some might not like, but I certainly do.

The match for the most part didn’t disappoint, whilst it took a while to get going, and there was awkward superplex/neckbreaker section that didn’t quite work, once the match found it’s feet it really did become a pleasure to watch. With a number of exciting high spots, such as Styles front suplexing Aries onto the entrance way before ending up taking a back body drop off of it, alongside some nice actual wrestling, it built up nicely and was well put together. Aries, in the same way as Jeff Hardy two weeks ago, managed to bring out some of the old AJ Styles, with springboard moves and other highflying action coming back into Styles’ repertoire. The change in Styles in ring style, for me, has been a positive one, as it has meant that when Styles does go for the more exciting moves, they actually mean something, rather than being just another move.

The only thing that really fell flat to me was the ending of the contest. With Styles and Aries going back and forth with some hard punches and chops, Aries seemed to take control with a hard back suplex and discus clothesline and everything seemed to be going well. That was until Styles hit a Pele Kick out of nowhere and both men ended up with an arm across the other. With the referee counting both pinfalls, until Aries managed to get his shoulder up to pick up the pinfall victory and seven points in the Series. Now, there was two reasons I didn’t like the ending , firstly, after such a strong match, it was frustrating to have no clear winner, yes, Aries won but it wasn’t particularly decisive, now this would have been fine, if this wasn’t the Bound For Glory Series, as the two could have had a rematch with a good story to build upon, but it will be forgotten on next week’s Impact Wrestling. Secondly, the Pele Kick? How often has AJ Styles finished someone off with a Pele Kick? And now he finishes himself off with it? It was just bizarre.

This brings me to another flaw in the Bound For Glory Series. There are a number of top stars involved in the Series, and a lot names that TNA want to keep looking strong for the time being, so whilst Jay Bradley and Joseph Park will lose the majority of their matches cleanly, some of the top names will end up finishing in this kind of manner. Now, when the fans cotton on to this, the big name collisions will become less alluring, as we know we’ll get dodgy ending like this one, which won’t result in a rematch, because the Series has to roll on til October. Once again, on paper the Bound For Glory Series looks like a great idea and for the majority of the time makes for good television, but in a lot of the execution and major details it simply hasn’t worked as well as it should.

Best of the Rest (In the World) 

The other big match on the show, saw World Heavyweight Champion Chris Sabin face off against X Division Champion Manik. Now, a Champion vs. Champion match should be the first thing I’m talking about in this review, but TNA didn’t feel that way with this match basically being an after though, summing up Chris Sabin’s reign as World Heavyweight Champion so far. In build up to the match, Sabin and Manik were seen talking backstage, for some reason Manik had his mask off but his back to camera, I honestly don’t know why they kept the gimmick. It wasn’t a particularly great segment and Sabin was really shown up here, as he simply wasn’t believable in what he was saying and seemed to just be remembering words in the correct order.

The match on the other hand, was another solid display with some nice quick highflying action, that showcased what both men could do well, in what was essentially an X Division contest. This is where the main problem of the match lay, it was an X Division contest. Chris Sabin is yet to get a clean win over a heavyweight, after basically cheating to win the title from Bully Ray. A win over a bigger heavier man clean here, would have made him look at least close to a credible World Heavyweight Champion. Sabin did win the match, after a good closing section, finishing Manik off with Hail Sabin. Manik also got very little out of the match, as he lost to the person who had previously given up the X Division Championship, making his title reign get off to almost as poor a start as Sabin’s.

In the opening match of the evening, Bobby Roode took on Hernandez in a Bound For Glory Series Match. With Roode interrupting Austin Aries’ earlier segment, to announce he’d be getting points on the board tonight, by returning to his old motto “It pays to be Roode” in a solid promo, the match had an extra sense of intrigue than it would have otherwise. Roode and Hernandez put on decent television contest, with Roode’s ring savvy helping him get the upperhand for most of the match. It was when Hernandez’ power came into play, that we saw what Roode was talking about, with Roode throwing a number of chairs into the ring, distracting the referee, allowing Roode to hit Hernandez with a conveniently placed beer bottle to pick up the pinfall victory. Now, apart from the referee deciding to ignore the load of broken glass in the ring, this was a good way to re-introduce Roode’s character and have him add points to the board.

In the women’s match of the evening Gail Kim took on ODB, in ODB’s first televised match since November 2012. It was a welcome return for one of TNA’s most talented females, as ODB and Kim put on a strong contest, with the fast paced, hard hitting action that has become the calling card for TNA’s women’s division over the last few months, thanks to the likes of Kim, Taryn Terrell and Mickie James. After ODB sent Kim into the ring post, the match broke down somewhat, with ODB and Kim brawling on the outside before Kim sent ODB into the steel steps, leading to a double countout and a draw, as the two continued to fight. The match built the rivalry well, and unlike the Styles/Aries match later in the evening will surely get a rematch later down the line. ODB could make a great opponent for Mickie James as well, if the company went down a different route to Taryn Terrell.

In the other Bound For Glory Series match of the evening, Joseph Park took on Jay Bradley. With Eric Young accompanying Park, bringing his scientists knowledge by giving Park headgear to stop him bleeding, you had the making of a hilarious comedy duo. The match itself was poor, with Bradley and Park really not connecting well in the ring, with most of what was presented looking clunky and awkward. After Bradley had removed the head gear, it still wasn’t enough for him to pick up the victory, as Park got the pinfall after a Samoan Drop. Jay Bradley is certainly proving to be the whipping boy of the Series, playing the same role that Robbie E played last year.

Elsewhere, Bad Influence’s Christopher Daniels and Kazarian talked about their match in the Bound For Glory Series next week, with the tension between the two being played up. If done correctly, this match has the potential to be the match of the Series so far, if given four minutes or gone to another Dusty finish, it could be a big disappointment, which would be a crying shame after Kaz and Daniels have been consistently the best thing about TNA over the last year or so. 

Finally...

What did I learn from this week's Impact Wrestling?

1. August1Warning was a disappointment.

2. I actually like the new AJ Styles.

3. Even the absense of Hulk Hogan doesn't help the focus of TNA.

Bound For Glory Series Standings

1. Magnus - 49 Points (Non-Mover)

2. Samoa Joe - 26 Points (Non-Mover)

3. AJ Styles - 22 Points (Non-Mover)

4. Austin Aries - 21 Points (Up Two)

4. Christopher Daniels - 21 Points (Non-Mover) 

4. Mr. Anderson - 21 Points (Up Two)

7. Jeff Hardy - 17 Points (Down Two)

8. Bobby Roode - 7 Points (Up One)

8. Hernandez -7 Points (Non-Mover)

10. Jay Bradley - 0 Points (Down One)

10. Kazarian - 0 Points (Down One)

12. Joseph Park - -3 Points (Non-Mover)

TNA Impact Wrestling 25th July 2013 Review

Impact Wrestling this week was actually a fairly enjoyable watch, with a solid overarching storyline tying the show together in an attempt to keep the viewer watching for as long as possible, with some good wrestling action thrown in for good measure, with two championship matches and three Bound For Glory Series matches, there was certainly a lot to keep me entertained for the two hour duration.

TNA World Title Decision

This was the story than ran throughout the show, from opening segment to closing segment and did a fairly good job of keeping my interest throughout. Firstly, we start off with The Main Event Mafia in the ring, with Kurt Angle talking about the end to last week’s show, which saw a new World Heavyweight Champion crowned in the shape of Chris Sabin. Angle called out Sabin to talk about his victory, and whilst everything Angle said was true and he delivered his promo well, it just didn’t quite feel right to me. Once again, the spotlight wasn’t truly on Chris Sabin, it was on Kurt Angle and the Main Event Mafia, and really wasn’t helping Chris Sabin seem like the star that he should have been in this segment. Instead of the Mafia putting over Sabin, we had Sabin putting over the Mafia and it just didn’t feel right at all. Bully Ray then came out accompanied by lawyer, and demanded that if Sabin didn’t hand back the title, he would sue TNA. I actually quite liked this development, even if it was making the best of a bad situation after having Sabin use a hammer to win the belt, and was surprised that I hadn’t seen this used before, as it’s such a perfect heel tactic and worked well with Bully Ray here.

So throughout the night, we caught up with both General Manager Hulk Hogan  and President Dixie Carter as they flapped around backstage trying to come up with a solution to the problem. They way they built up was actually quite nice, as we got glimpses of Hogan and Carter backstage separately which set the tone for a meeting between the two later in the night. The content of the meeting between the two was strong, with it being made to look like Hogan and Carter had no choice but to strip Sabin of his championship, even if Carter’s emotional connection with her staff seemed a little contrived after the release of Jesse Sorensen recently. The only part that bugged me was that it was shot from outside of the office through blinds, I felt a little bit like my intelligence was being insulted, like I was meant to believe Hogan and Carter weren’t aware they were being filmed when it’s their television show! I do actually quite like the backstage stuff that TNA is doing at the moment, with the quick interviews from Jason Hervey bringing a nice feel to the show.

The final segment of the show, saw Bully Ray come out to demand his World Heavyweight Championship be giving back. I can’t praise Bully’s promo ability enough, his work over the last two years has been superb and even when he’s working with horrible storylines, like the one he had with Brooke Hogan, he’s hit the ball out of the park. Sabin obviously refused to give the title to Bully, so the decision was left up to Hogan, once again taking the spotlight from the companies new World Heavyweight Champion. Hogan came out and it was made to look like he’d be switching the title back, but he obviously didn’t, ripping up Bully’s legal paper work and booking a match for three weeks’ time, at a Hardcore Justice themed Impact Wrestling, inside a Steel Cage. Hogan’s promo was pretty weak, as he repeated a lot of the same points, and said the word Justice so many times I expected The Shield to jump him on the entrance ramp. He’s getting worse with his promos which is to be expected with his age, we’ve seen it happen to a number of older wrestlers, but are no longer holding major roles on television.

Overall, this story was a pretty enjoyable one episode thing, even if it had a few plotholes, such as why Bully Ray didn’t just sue anyway, was he scared by how Hogan tore up the legal documents? The idea of the special editions of Impact Wrestling seems to be sticking, after a successful Destination X, the week previously. It’s a good idea to help bring in good ratings,  if they can consistently deliver matches and stories that people will tune into see, and the more the special editions deliver in quality, then you’d think that the ratings would continue to go up steadily, which can only be good for wrestling as a whole.  

Bound For Glory Series Match: 

Jeff Hardy 

vs. 

AJ Styles

The main event of the evening was a big Bound For Glory Series match, between Jeff Hardy and AJ Styles. Now, whilst it’s clear to anyone that Hardy and Styles are two of the biggest stars in the company, I find it frustrating that TNA attempted to market this one as a dream match, again! Yes, this probably was a dream match back in 2004, the first time it happened, but 2013 we’ve seen this match before and whilst it usually delivers, to call it a dream match just makes TNA look a little bit silly. Whilst Styles has been a focal point of Impact Wrestling recently with his transformation into the Lone Wolf being a big storyline for the company, Jeff Hardy has kind of taken a backseat after the culmination of his rivalry with Bully Ray in the Full Metal Mayhem match, a few month ago.

The match was a good television main event, with a lot of action in a short timespan. It was nice to see Hardy bring out some of the old AJ Styles, as Styles brought back some of his more fast paced action that we saw before the Lone Wolf development, it was great to see moves like the Pele kick thrown in amongst AJ Styles current moveset. It’s matches like this one where the Bound For Glory Series really works, where the match is given enough time to tell the story and when it looks like both competitors are giving their all in an attempt to get the points, as was helped here by the selling of both Hardy and Styles, as well as the intensity with which the moves were delivered.

If Jeff Hardy had brought us glimpses of an old AJ Styles, it was the new AJ Styles that helped secure the victory, as he rolled with ease into a Calf Killer submission hold, and after sometime Hardy submitted, giving Styles ten points in the Bound For Glory Series. It was a nice ending to the match, with Styles looking strong in picking up a major victory over on of TNA’s biggest names. It made sense to have Styles win here, as the company clearly has an idea where they are heading with Styles, whilst Jeff Hardy currently seems in a state of limbo.

As the Bound For Glory Series develops it’s becoming pretty obvious, to me anyway, who we will see in the Top Four come the end of the series and I’d be extremely surprised if anyone else takes one of these spots. The four for me, have to be Magnus, Samoa Joe, Mr. Anderson and AJ Styles, as they are the four guys with the strongest direction in the Series and it would also lead to an interesting dynamic with two Main Event Mafia guys, one from Aces and Eights and then the Lone Wolf in AJ Styles, but out of those four I can’t currently pick an overall winner, although I’m edging closer to either AJ Styles or Mr. Anderson. Jeff Hardy on the other hand, looks to be heading for a mid-table finish, and the company doesn’t seem to have any clear plans at the moment for Hardy heading into Bound For Glory, which is strange considering he is one of the companies biggest draws. I’m beginning to wonder if Hardy will be around TNA for that much longer.

Best of the Rest (In The World)

The opening match of the show, was the Ultimate X match featuring Greg Marascuilo, Manik and Sonjay Dutt attempting to capture the vacant championship. For me, this is one of the strongest Ultimate X matches they’ve done in a while, because it used the three way concept and the Ultimate X match to it’s advantage, unlike the Ultimate X match at Slammiversary were it felt like both things were getting in the way. Marascuilo, Manik and Dutt all brought something to the match, with some nice spots throughout the match and unlike the majority of Ultimate X matches actually managed to tell a good story throughout.

The ending of the match also managed to feel climactic and purposeful, which really does make a change to other matches of this type. With Manik took out by Marascuilo on the ramp, with a sick Crade Belly to Back Piledriver on the hard Impact Wrestling ramp. With Manik out, this allowed Marascuilo and Sonjay Dutt to put together a fantastic section that had me on the edge of my seat. With both men climbing the outer steel support, they ended up on top of the structure trading blows, in what felt incredibly dangerous, helped by the rocking of the structure. With Marascuilo falling through the structure landing on the ropes, Dutt kept him in place, stopping him getting at the title, whilst Manik recovered and eventually managed to detach the new X Division title belt. Whilst it’s great to see TJ Perkins pick up the X Division belt, I still struggle to see why he’s been kept under the Manik costume, especially after cutting a promo without the mask earlier in the show!

Elsewhere, Kurt Angle and Sting were included in a backstage segment, as they talked about the Main Event Mafia ongoing feud with Aces and Eights. Sting and Angle spoke about still having one major goal to complete in finally destroying Aces and Eights. It wasn’t anything we’d hadn’t heard before, but was a good way to keep the fire burning for the feud whilst not actually developing it. It was nice to not have too much Aces and Eights involvement this week, as it has been a little heavy handed at times and gave the story time and space to breath, which it will need if it’s going to last until October.

The Knockout’s Championship was also up for grabs this week, as Mickie James defended her strap against Gail Kim. Velvet Sky cut a promo before the match, which seemed out of place, I’m pretty sure her story with Mickie James was finished about a month ago, and I’m hoping TNA don’t choose to resurrect it, over a fresh feud between Mickie James and Taryn Terrell. I was actually really disappointed with this match, as it should have been a solid matches between two of the best females in the business, instead it was pretty sloppy and didn’t feel like a title match. The most awkward section seeing a strange exchange of holds in the corner of the ring that looked like neither woman knew what they were doing. After Gail Kim slapped referee ODB, Mickie James managed to pick up the victory with a roll up. Brooke Hogan then made an appearance to admonish Gail, reminding her ODB was still an active competitor. It’s great to see ODB finally out of the referee role and if this poor match achieved one thing it’s that we will get to see ODB back in the ring again.

After a pep talk from Bully Ray about the new importance of the Bound for Glory Series, Aces and Eight’s Vice President Mr. Anderson was in action against Hernandez. It was a decent, yet forgettable contest, with the some strong ideas, like Anderson teased attempting a run up on Hernandez only to hit him in the face, but the majority being a pretty basic television contest. After Anderson had dominated most of the bout, Hernandez had a comeback which lead to the ending, after SuperMex missed his Air Mexico run, allowing Anderson to hit the Mic Check and pick up the seven points in the BFG Series. I liked the ending as it suited Anderson’s character as a sneaky and clever heel, and felt like it had been thought through well. The match was around the right length, as any longer than this and it might have become a little repetitive and boring.

The other Bound For Glory Series match, is one that TNA should be marketing as a main event contest. That being Samoa Joe against Christopher Daniels. This match has the potential to be an absolute classic, and we’ve seen classic matches from these two in both TNA and ROH before. So it confuses me a little why TNA would choose to throw this match away with little promotion and little time here on Impact this week. It was a decent match, and did the best it could with the time it was given, before Mr. Anderson came back out to distract Joe and allow Daniels to pick up the victory after two Best Moonsaults Ever. Like a lot of the TNA product recently, the idea seems to be in place, but the focus is slightly to the left of where it should be.

We also got a glimpse of the light at the end of the tunnel in the Joseph Park and Abyss storyline, as in a backstage segment, Eric Young showed Park footage of his match against Jeff Hardy, where Park attacked the referee. With Park having no recollection of events, Young said he’d get to the bottom of things. I don’t care how it happens, Eric Young can use his newly found magical powers for all I care, as long as TNA replaces Joseph Park with Abyss, and brings back The Monster, sooner rather than later.

Finally...

What did I learn from this week's Impact Wrestling?

1. The right ideas are in place, but the focus is wrong, for the majority of Impact Wrestling.

2. I'd be very surpirsed if the final four for the Bound For Glory Series aren't Magnus, Samoa Joe, Mr. Anderson and AJ Styles.

3. I am not missing Taz on commentary one bit. Jeremy Borash and Mike Tenay are doing a fine job in his absence. 

Bound For Glory Series Standings

1. Magnus - 49 Points (Non-Mover)

2. Samoa Joe - 26 Points (Non-Mover) 

3. AJ Styles - 22 Points (Up Three) 

4. Christopher Daniels - 21 Points (Non-Mover)

5. Jeff Hardy - 17 Points (Down Two)

6. Austin Aries - 14 Points (Down Two) 

- Mr. Anderson - 14 Points (Up One)

8. Hernandez - 7 Points (Down One) 

9. Bobby Roode - 0 Points (Non-Mover)

- Jay Bradley - 0 Points (Non-Mover)

- Kazarian - 0 Points (Non-Mover)

12. Joseph Parks - -10 Points (Non-Mover)