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Archive for the ‘TNA Impact’ Category

TNA could really use some momentum going into their Monday, March 8 live show, and before last night, I thought they had it. But Thursday’s TNA Impact show was kind of disappointing to me. I’m not one to complain about too much talk on a wrestling show if it’s done well and with purpose, but it was overdone last night, especially with backstage segments, and it kind of made the show drag on and hurt the crowd’s enthusiasm in the process.

I thought the opening and closing segments were both decent, with the furthering of the Hogan/Abyss vs. Flair/Styles feud, and I like the promotion of that match and the March 8 show in general, but there were several things in between that really weren’t all that hot. And if you even wanted to pick apart the opening segment a little more, Flair wasn’t really on his usual game with his promo, and Styles is average at best on the mic.

The Nasty Boys vs. Team 3D match was a debacle, as both teams looked fat, out of shape and slow. The ending with the 3D on Saggs through the table was cool, but that’s about it.

I feel the same way about TNA’s women’s division, or “Knockouts” as they like to be called, as I do about the WWE’s. Just scrap it altogether. Most fans, including myself, use these matches as a bathroom break or a reason to change the channel temporarily. You could still have women involved as managers and in other miscellaneous roles, but having them wrestle is largely a waste of time.

Eric Bischoff is great as an on air talent, and last night was no exception, but I feel like his angles with Jeff Jarrett and Mick Foley really need to get to the point in the next few weeks, because as of right now, they both seem kind of awkward and lacking in direction. I think they have big things planned for both of these guys eventually, but right now they are both being made to look like fools, even if it is only in the storyline.

The X Division match could have gotten more time, but Kazarian looked good and it would be a great idea to put the X Division championship on him when he gets his shot at the title on April 18 at Lockdown.

I did like the Mr. Anderson/Angle segment, and this feud has really been built well so far. I would have liked to see Anderson take the Global championship off of Rob Terry, but having Angle attack Anderson to further the feud and hand him over for Terry to finish him off with the powerslam and pin was more important on this night. This is going to be a great payoff match, or series of payoff matches, in a feud that could last a few months and put the winner back in the TNA title hunt.

The Kevin Nash and Eric Young vs. Scott Hall and Syxx Pac brawl was anti-climatic, although I will say that it’s probably a good thing that they made it short and had Hall and Waltman come out on top. This will extend this feud into the March 8 show at least, and although last night’s encounter was a minor disappointment, I think many fans will be interested to see how this feud ends up.

Abyss vs. Desmond Wolfe was another very short match on a night with very little actual wrestling. Wolfe has a bright future and I think Hogan and Bischoff have big things in store for him down the line, but he lost to Abyss in a match that could almost be considered a squash.

Being a huge fan of Hogan and Flair, I liked the announcement of the March 8 tag team match at the end of the show, and the overall segment after the Wolfe vs. Abyss match ended came off rather well. Nice blade job by Hogan to sell this feud even more, and Styles and Abyss should both come out looking like much bigger stars after March 8.

This edition of Impact was more of a transitional show to promote March 8 and the next two pay per views. It set some things into motion and furthered some feuds, but unfortunately the wrestling was severely lacking and the show wasn’t very entertaining overall. Still, they have one more Thursday night show next week to set up the Monday, March 8 live show and get back on track with a quality program. They also need to hype up the Destination X PPV more in the next few weeks. But I have faith in this regime and I believe Lockdown will be a huge success, and I think by the summer Impact on Monday nights is going to be a bigger ratings draw than most people in the industry are anticipating right now.

This was an entertaining show that had a little bit of everything and once again left me wanting to see what happens in several storylines next week. My feeling on TNA the past month and a half since Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff took over is that just about every show has been a nice mix of legends, name guys, guys in their prime and younger guys and the writing has been generally entertaining. I know the IWC wants to see a show with only young athletic TNA original wrestlers, but at this point, that would be just as dangerous of an extreme as would a show with only older big name guys that are way past their prime. You do need a mix of both, and I think they’re doing a nice job of achieving that balance, while getting some casual viewers interested in the future stars of the company, such as the Pope D’Angelo Dinero.

The only minor issue I had with this edition of Impact was the placement of the Kevin Nash/Eric Young/Scott Hall/Syxx Pac/Hogan segment. I think it’s a good angle and they have a good idea how they’re going to wrap it up, but it probably shouldn’t have been the last segment of the show. Nevertheless, I am anxious to see where it goes from here and what Hogan in particular is going to do regarding all of these guys.

The opening segment was also very good and unlike the last segment of the show, this one was placed perfectly. The Pope is really over with the TNA crowd and by the time Lockdown rolls around, he might be ready to take the belt off AJ Styles for a major face run with the TNA championship. Styles didn’t say much but he was effective in what he did say, and Flair was awesome as usual. The beat down and the chair spot on Pope’s leg were very good first steps to building towards the main event title match between Styles and Pope at Lockdown, which is exactly two months away. I wish the WWE would take notes from this.

I know people are going to overreact and say that Samoa Joe is about to get buried based on the events from last night, but I would disagree with that notion. It looks like he will be taken away from the world title picture for an extended amount of time, but he should be in some type of high profile feud for the foreseeable future.

The eight man tag match was an awesome display of athleticism that could have stood to last a little longer, but for TV match, it was great. And by the way, what’s with some Internet fans calling Amazing Red the “Unamazing” Red? I admit I haven’t watched much TNA until the big January 4 show, and I haven’t seen this guy wrestle more than two or three times, but he looked pretty amazing to me in this match. He was the star of the match, and the other seven guys were all very impressive as well, so that’s saying something.

My favorite part of last night’s show was the Bischoff/Jarrett/Abyss/Hogan angle. The match between Jarrett and Abyss was nothing special, but it set up what was one of the best promos I’ve seen in years and one of Hulk Hogan’s best promos in years, as he lit a fire under Abyss, gave him his Hall of Fame ring and seemingly turned him back into the Monster he once was. I guess this is the setup to Abyss’s big push that we have been hearing about from Hogan and Bischoff in radio and online interviews recently, and it couldn’t have been set up any better by the best of all time.

Kurt Angle had a great promo tonight too and Mr. Anderson played the obnoxious heel to perfection. I like where this feud is headed as well. TNA really has a lot of good things going on right now.

This was an above average show that did a nice job of promoting the March 8 debut of TNA Impact on Monday nights and the next two pay per views, while getting some good wrestling action in there as well. I honestly don’t know what all the complaining is about, but I guess that’s the elitist IWC for you. That’s what they’re best at. From what I see though, TNA looks like it has real momentum right now heading into their Monday night debut on March 8, the Destination X PPV and Lockdown in April. I’m excited to watch this company continue to grow and begin to give the WWE some much needed competition.

Well it’s been exactly one month since Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff took over TNA, and while the initial excitement may be wearing off a bit, the strong shows and intriguing storylines continue to play out as we head towards the next pay per view, Against All Odds.

Last night’s TNA Impact wasn’t the best one of the past month, but we got some decent wrestling, good promos and a finish that may have been a little anti-climatic, but also left major questions heading into next week’s go-home show before the PPV. This has been a trend with every Impact since Hogan and Bischoff took over. The show goes off the air and the viewer is left wanting more, and wanting questions to be answered. That’s a good way to maintain your audience and hook some new fans as well.

I thought Mr. Anderson was great again last night, with a short but solid match and yet another display of his excellent mic work. He will probably advance far in the 8 card stud tournament and may even win it.

I loved the Mick Foley/Bischoff exchange. Foley in particular was outstanding, with a shoot-like promo that was really effective in establishing just how much hatred he has for Bischoff. This kind of work is par for the course for Foley. But his main event match with Kevin Nash was not. This was a below average match, especially for the last match on the show, and it had an awkward, anti-climatic ending.

In my opinion, they need to wrap up this Hall/Waltman storyline by Against All Odds, or at least this portion of it, because while fans might be still somewhat intrigued as to where this is going, it could start to get old and turn off viewers real quick. And in the long-term, Waltman appears like he could still wrestle well if he can stay out of trouble and get some more ring work under his belt, but it looks like there is no hope for Hall.

Speaking of old guys from the NWO days, I just read a rumor that Scott Steiner may be officially done with the company, as his profile was taken off the TNA website and he has not been seen this year yet. I guess it is about time for him to call it quits, but the mark in me was holding out hope for one last run. But it looks like that isn’t going to happen. Hopefully we’ll find out more about this situation in the next week or so.

The rest of the show was good, and nothing was terrible or out of place, unless you count the Nasty Boys every time they show up on TV. Hernandez and Matt Morgan retained their tag team titles against Team 3D after the Nasty Boys interfered. Samoa Joe pretty much squashed Jesse Neal and Kurt Angle made Tomko tap out to advance into the 8 card stud tournament.

But the match of the night was definitely A.J. Styles vs. The Pope, D’Angelo Dinero, in a non-title match. The Pope won in a shocker, but it was Ric Flair and Samoa Joe’s post match bantering that made this segment great and set up a world title match between Styles and Joe at Against All Odds. And the Pope came out of it looking a lot stronger and like more of a future main event player as well.

Overall, it was a good but not great show with a letdown of a main event and a bad ending. But the matches, while short, were all decent and the storylines and feuds are progressing nicely and leaving the viewer looking forward to what will happen next. Personally, I am more excited to watch the next episode of Impact than I am for Raw. But that doesn’t mean TNA still doesn’t have to pick it up a notch or two by the time they go head to head with Raw on March 1 if they don’t want to get beaten badly in the ratings.

TNA is continuing to build momentum from their January 4th show with entertaining promos and solid matches, and things just feel a lot more exciting watching Impact with Hogan and Bischoff in charge. I’m still waiting to see more of Sting and I’d like to see Steiner have one more run before he hangs it up for good, but other than that I’ve been pretty happy with every episode of Impact in January.

Last night’s show was once again a little heavy on the talk and light on the wrestling, but I’m not really complaining because the promos were mostly well done, with the exception of the Nasty Boys saying the word “nasty” about 300 times in five minutes. Hogan and Bischoff in particular are doing an excellent job in their roles, and guys like Foley, Angle, Jarrett, Flair, Styles and Mr. Anderson all did some good mic work on the show.

As far as the actual wrestling is concerned, the six man tag match with Brian Kendrick and the Motor City Machine Guns vs. Amazing Red and Generation Me was an excellent, fast paced, athletic show case that could have gone a little longer, but was great for what it was. Right after this match was over, Doug Williams came out with the British Invasion and defeated Red for his X Division title. I like this move and the way in which they went about it, but Williams might not be a good long-term champion.

The women’s tag match was pretty bad in spots but ended up being passable for a TV match.

I don’t know where they’re going with this Hall and Waltman stuff with “the band” but hopefully it materializes into something soon. It’s sad to see Hall in the shape he’s in right now. Hopefully he can trim down and get into decent shape if he plans to wrestle in the next couple months.

Being a somewhat new viewer to TNA, I was pretty impressed with Hernandez in his victory over Daniels. I thought the guy would be a stiff just by looking at him, and I hadn’t paid much attention to his tag team matches with Matt Morgan in the past few weeks, but the guy really is agile for how big he is and seems like a pretty good in ring talent.

The Desmond Wolfe vs. Sean Morley match is a perfect example of how the IWC (Internet Wrestling Community) needs to just settle down and give Hogan and Bischoff some time before assuming that they are going to put all the old guys over all the younger talent for the next year. I think as time goes on, they will prove that these veteran name guys were brought in to grab the casual fans’ attention, and rightfully so, and then to put over the younger guys and guys in their prime. It’s just going to be done in a gradual manner, as it should be. Wolfe seems like a future main event guy in TNA, or at least a key upper mid carder for the foreseeable future.

The main event between Anderson and Jarrett was a solid match, especially for Jarrett being off for so long and Anderson supposedly being not that good of a worker. I thought they had a pretty good TV match that accomplished what TNA wanted to get done story-line wise.

And I feel that way about the entire show. It wasn’t great by any means, but another step in the right direction and another entertaining show that should have fans curious to see how all of these angles are going to play out. And things are going to get much more interesting in TNA as February wears on, with other guys possibly being brought in, such as Rob Van Dam, the possible return of guys like Sting and Steiner, and the Monday, March 1 live show that will kick off Impact going live on Monday nights every other week.

What did you think of this week’s episode of Impact? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.