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theone86
joined wrestlingmarks.com on 11/9/07
Impact Review-4/24/08
by theone86 on 4/29/08 2:53 PM
Yeah, I know, it's WAY late, but for once it's not Live's fault. I've been feeling pretty shitty the past few days, and have fallen WAY behind in my blogs. I hate to post late reviews and bombard you with a cluster of blogs, but I want to get these out, so deal with it.
I'm a little worried and a little excited about Matt Morgan. On one hand, he's showing a lot of promise, good mic skills, and good ring work. One the other hand, I'm hoping they don't stick him in a classic Russo stinker and completely cripple his TNA career. *please don't drop the ball, please don't drop the ball.*
TNA announced on Impact that they have a new Tag Tournament concept for this mont's PPV, Sacrifice. From what I gather, 8 teams will have qualifying matches on Impact, 8 teams will be chosen at random the day of, those 16 teams will have singles matches at Sacrifice, and the remaining 8 will have another series of matches, and then something happens...I dunno, all I heard was J.C. spewing a bunch of gibberish and Don West repeating that each team will have to win three matches the day of Sacrifice. I think the two's logic sorta conflicts, but I can't figure either one out anyways. People are gonna have matches, and someone's going to win the Tag Titles, all we need to know.
I know TNA has won big on strange ideas before, but they've also had some that rival the Dog Pound match or whatever it was. I like the idea of random teams a little, but the actual mechanics of the tournament are ridiculous. Just make it a three or four round single elimination and be done with it.
AJ Styles did a segment with Karen Angle in which he was playing it completely straight. It's good to see him acting like someone with a head on his shoulders again, let's hope this trend continues.
Rellik and Reign had a good match against Team 3D. It had a good work, some Dusty finishes (naturally), and a clean finish. As much as I dislike Rellik's gimmick, he can work a good match. As far as Team 3D's split, I really hope they drop this angle, it's just stupid to break them up now that they're riding their biggest popularity and success ever.
We're seeing a lot of face against face and heel against heel action this week. I don't mind it, as I've always hated it when the locker room lines get clearly drawn down the face/heel line. Still, it usually means less interesting finishes in matches, and it could get excessive if it becomes a habit.
Detractors, be struck with fear, SUPER ERIC is here! Yeah, yeah, you say it's goofy, it's really not if you look at it. I just think everyone besides EY is doing a bad job playing it up. It's probably one of the most insightful, intelligent gimmicks anyone has ever run, I think it's getting undue heat.
The Guns put on a hell of a match against Christian and Rhino, one that also had a lot of Dusty finishes. In fact, it almost had too many. I do think it brought down the work of the match, but they put on enough of a show to bring it back up. I don't like seeing the Guns on a losing streak, but I think TNA is trying to work it's main event talent back into individual storylines. I'd bet money that the Guns are in line for a push once the new champs are crowned.
I'm getting kind of sick of Jim Cornette. At least now they're starting to turn him heel, but all his chauvanist ranting is starting to get to me, heel or no.
The Knockout Battle Royal sounds like a unique concept. I really like it, all except for the loser gets shaved part. It's just an angle that never goes anywhere and always seems to kill the shavee's momentum, I find it kind of pointless. *please be Christy Hemme, please be Christy Hemme.*
So where is Peyton Banks anyways? It's almost like she got herself in hot water or something.
Sting and Booker had a good match against Roode and Storm. People keep saying Booker's going heel, but he's really just donning more of a hard-nosed, needs no assistance from anyone face. It's more of what his gimmikc was back in his heyday in WCW, I like it.
Don West is living in his own world. Earlier in the night Kevin Nash said in an interview that Joe's easy part is done, and now the hard part starts because everyone's gunning for him. D.W. not only took that completely out of context, he inserted his own words and flipped the meaning. It's got to be frustrating as a wrestler when you want to play something up a certain way and a guy who used to sell jewlery on the HSN Channel turns what you said COMPLETELY around.
The real highlight of the night was the main event for the TNA World Heavyweight Title. Joe and Angle put on a PPV quality match. Lots of back and forth action, lots of great chain wrestling, a good work, and a believable finish with the Genetic Freak hitting Angle with a lead pipe. I don't mind the Triple Threat stipulation that much, either. WWE has really beat triple threats and fatal four ways to death in my mind, but it's something that's relatively fresh in TNA, as they use them more sparingly.
Overall, it was a pretty average episode. All the matches were solid, and the segments were done fairly well. The main event, however, brings this Impact above average. It was main event quality for a PPV, and it's good to see these types of matches make a return to TV.
Comments
(11 total)
From jeff on 4/29/08 3:34 PM
I have to disagree with you on the main event for TNA. That match was a huge disappointment. I saw two out of their six matches and that was the worst. It just wasn't exciting and Scott Steiner interfering didn't help either. Why did Steiner have to interfere he already had a title shot? Anyways I was very disappointed. But making the match a triple threat is better I just can't see Scott Steiner and Joe having a good match.
To me the match of the night was Rhino & Christian Cage vs. The Motor City Machine Guns. Great action all around. When I heard that The Motor City Machine Guns were in the tournament I thought that this was a good chance for them to get good momentum. But when I heard they were facing Christian Cage and Rhino I knew they were losing. Don't get me wrong Christian Cage and Rhino desevere to be in the tournament but the Motor City Machine Guns deseveres a push for the tag titles. How long will the Motor City Machine Guns be in the dog house? Not even the WWE is this cruel.
As for the rest of the show it was average.
From willierko on 4/29/08 7:06 PM
I have to agree with jeff, I have seen all 6 of the Joe-Angle matches and un other than their Hard Justice match their match on iMPact WAS THE WORST
From theone86 on 4/29/08 10:50 PM
"How long will the Motor City Machine Guns be in the dog house? Not even the WWE is this cruel."
Ummm...do you WANT me to go and find out how many months London and Kendrick have been in the doghouse? At least the Guns are participating each week. If you look at the ratio of talent TNA is using compared to the ratio WWE is using, it's WAY more understandable for the Guns to be cooling off. They had a run with the Titles, they dropped them to make way for the main event talent that TNA wanted to utilize. London and Kendrick weren't even getting TV appearances for months, and who was wrestling in their place? Holly and Rhodes? Jesse and Festus? WWE has PLENTY of less experienced and less over they could've bumped for them easily, TNA is at least trying to maximize exposure.
I think you guys are crazy about the match, though. It went for a half hour, had a good work, went back and forth, had good chain wrestling, and had some good spots. You might have a good argument if it was a PPV match, but for a TV match it was spectacular.
From jeff on 4/29/08 11:28 PM
You can argue that London & Kendrick haven't been seen on TV for months, but the difference between London & Kendrick and The Motor City Machine Guns is that at least London & Kendrick win most of their matches when they are on heat or on TV. Motor City Machine Guns haven't won a match since Against All Odds. Now sure they won a tag match with LAX, but who got the pin Hernandez. So even though London & Kendrick may not be seen as much on TV they at least win most of their matches. The Guns haven't won a tag or singles (except their match with LAX as their partners) match after Against All Odds. If TNA wants to depush the Guns then at least have them win matches from time to time.
As for the Angle/Joe match it wasn't even close to spectacular. It was average at best. Now the CM Punk vs. Edge match Smackdown had last week was close to spectacular and so was the Batista vs. the Undertaker match.
From willierko on 4/30/08 6:28 AM
Again I agree with jeff, just because the gunz are over does not mean shit, they are making the gunz look like a weak tag team at this point
From theone86 on 4/30/08 6:29 PM
Comparing Heat wins is like comparing house show wins. The Guns win plenty at house shows. Plus, London and Kendrick haven't started winning until recently, like two weeks ago recently. Before that they were jobbing to the rest of the Raw tag division every time they showed up.
I'm not saying they're making the Guns look great, but this is typical TNA booking. NOT Russo booking, TNA booking. They have a lot of talent that can't possibly get the same amount of exposure each week. Go down the list of TNA Tag Champions and almost every one of them holds the Titles for a few weeks before dropping them and sliding down the card for a while. Besides, I like where they're going with teams like Christian and Rhino and Booker and Sting. They're getting MAIN EVENT talent good exposure. It's not like the Guns are jobbing to Rellik and Reign or the Rock 'n Rave Infection, they're jobbing to main eventers AND putting on great matches. It's not going to take much to repush them, maybe a solid interview or two. They're already feigning the AJ/Angle fued again, eliminating AJ and Tomko from the picture, there's almost definitely going to be a storyline between Christian and Tomko somewhere down the line. I don't mind it that much because it looks like the Tag frenzy is going to cool off sooner or later, and the Guns aren't getting buried. They're doing some jobs, but they always come out with a good amount of momentum, something which WWE just can't seem to get right.
I've made my arguments for Angle vs. Joe. It went for 30 minutes, had a good work, good selling by Joe, good back and forth action, good spots, and good chain wrestling. I really don't care about the finish when it comes to rating the match, as I don't think it affected it that much either way. If you want to argue any of those, fine, but just realize that just coming out and saying that you're right and I'm wrong isn't a good way of argumentation. I could just come out and call the Punk/Edge match average and walk away like I won the argument just as easily.
From JamesP on 4/30/08 6:45 PM
I actually like the Deuces Wild concept. Not only can they possibly form new teams, but it will be interesting seeing whether or not certain pairs can put their differences aside and coexsist or a potential tag title win. It's unique.
From JamesP on 4/30/08 6:48 PM
And who knows, maybe they're trying to lure in Paul Heyman in by doing his favorite booking cliche: Tag Team Partners Who Used to Hate Each Other.
From jeff on 4/30/08 10:48 PM
Actually you're wrong the Guns lost to Rellik and Black Reign clean once. Anyways I see that we have different opinions on the subjet so I'm just going to drop it. I can't wait for the Styles/Angle feud. I just hope TNA doesn't mess this up.
Sacrifice right now sounds bad. These stipulation matches are too much and their's another one that's going to be announced this week. I'm still confused on this deuces wild tornament. Unfortunely LAX won't be in the tournament either because I found out that they are facing Kaz and Eric Young. Too bad another great team in being depushed. I might be wrong though this might be a good pay-per-view.
From theone86 on 5/1/08 1:05 AM
Well, opinion aside, how much are you going to make of depushing? I could say I'm not going to watch Smackdown because Rey Mysterio isn't wrestling, or that I'm done with ECW until they re-sign RVD. I mean, if we went down the list of people who were being jobbed out in WWE and not on a weekly basis, not in high profile matches, and not in a way that lets them retain momentum, it would be probably as big as TNA's total roster. I don't think we have that different of opinions on this subject, it's just that I don't think it's really that bad of a thing. I mean, it just seems that you're disappointed that your favorite team isn't getting a huge push, which is understandable, but it's not like they're pushing them at the expense of someone new and inexperienced. They're still putting great matches in that slot, and they're still giving the Guns good momentum. I like the Guns too, I would love to see them holding the Tag Titles, but I also like seeing the matches TNA is putting on for this tournament, and I'm interested in seeing where the Rhino/Christian thing goes.
I am also very confused by the concept. I like the idea of having some random tag teams put together, but I have no idea what they're doing with the format. No one has explained it in a manner that makes sense so far. It looks, from the Wikipedia entry for Sacrifice, like there will be a total of nine teams left at Sacrifice, and there will be, from what Don West said, three matches that must be won to become Tag Team Champions. So...yeah. Like I said, I just think they should do the Deuces Wild concept with a normal tag tournament bracket.
The Knockout match isn't that bad. It's an over-the-top battle royal until the final two competitors and then a ladder match. Winner gets a shot at Kong, loser gets her head shaved. TNA has done the match conept without the stipulations before, and it's actually a pretty good match.
I'm excited about the Triple Threat. I've been waiting a while to see Steiner back in action.
I think three matches is just not enough to damn or praise a card. The tournament sounds iffy with all the weird stipulations, but it has a good premise with mix and match partners. The Knockout match sounds cool and it's good to see the division continue to expand. I can't think of the last time I saw a Diva ladder match or a Diva battle royal that DIDN'T include some kind of lingere or pillow fight stipulation. I'm really geared up for the main event. I think it has a lot to live up to after Lockdown, but I think it's doing a decent job so far. There's some iffy stuff, but it's still like three weeks away.
From jeff on 5/1/08 12:43 PM
The thing is I don't mind if the Guns aren't being pushed for the tag titles it's just that I hate to see them with a long losing streak. I really got angry when they lost to Black Reign and Rellik clean. The Guns don't have to be pushed for the tag titles I would just like them to win matches from time to time. I don't mind that Christian and Rhino won, but I just don't like the Guns losing so much.
LAX i'm not so much mad about because they're a great tag team and eventually they will regain the tag titles. They have been winning matches. It would have been nice if they were in the tournament though. I don't like the idea of a women getting her hair cut off. The same thing happened to Molly Holly and after that every thing went downhill for her.
I don't mind the triple threat match because I think that match will be better than a Joe/Steiner match. Steiner can wrestle, but their Styles are different and it wouldn't make a good match to me.