10 Thoughts on TNA IMPACT WRESTLING 02.23.12 – Brandon Jacobs, Sting, Gail Kim, Zema Ion

Reviews, Shows, Top Story, TV Shows

Reviewing the 2/23/12 episode of IMPACT WRESTLING…

1. Sting was a little too over the top as he sometimes will get. Not sure how excited I’ll be to see him face Bobby Roode at Victory Road. Just a shame we never got the Undertaker vs. Sting Wrestlemania match up.

2. I will give credit to NY Giants Running Back/Super Bowl Champion and this week’s guest star, Brandon Jacobs for looking better this week both in presence and on the mic. The Sportscenter rub can only help TNA as well. Maybe wrestling might be in his future after all.

3. As sad as it is to see Jesse Sorensen fighting through his injury, it’s so good to hear of his recovery thus far and his story will be inspirational, especially if he can ever make a return to the squared circle. Just glad his outlook for maintaining the same quality of life is good first.

4. I still see no redeeming qualities in Madison Rayne to cheer her over Gail Kim. Gail fought the distraction and still beat ODB while looking good in doing so. That makes her the face in their feud in my book.

5. On a similar note with more heel vs. heel feuds, we have Austin Aries hilariously eating popcorn and drinking “Merlay?!?” according to Taz or rather his correction of himself of “Merlot” while his heel #1 contender takes on and cheats to defeat perennial fan favorite Alex Shelley. That now will make Austin Aries a face in my book. Whether Gail and Austin both turn is still up in the air, but I think with Austin’s polling of the fans “You want to see it? You want to see it?” in reference to his pendulum elbow while in London, maybe it was a test of potential babyface mannerisms.

6. Move of the Night:

Brandon Jacob’schokeslam on Bully Ray.

Sportscenter moment and the guy showed good intensity without fumbling, no pun intended, over his words this week.

Close second would be a move involved with Thought #7…

7. Lines of the Night:

a. During the Knockouts match when ODB was driving Gail’s head into her crotch area on the top turnbuckle

Taz – “Well, that’s a submission hold…kind of.”

Mike Tenay – “I don’t see Gail tapping, but…”

Taz – “I’m tapping.”

8. Match of the Night

Alex Shelley vs. Zema Ion

Very good match. The knockouts match was good and the tag main was entertaining as well, but overall I don’t think one match really stood out, but I would give this the nod because of Aries watching on as well as the tag match didn’t seem as fluid as I’d like as well.

9.  Final Show Thoughts:

Still no official Crimson heel turn after he was blaming Matt Morgan for their tag title loss at the PPV before they decided to put the past behind them and try to win back their titles. He definitely has the motive to turn with Morgan blemishing his record not once but twice now. After Samoa Joe and Magnus defeated them yet again thanks to Crimson “accidentally” hitting Morgan, Crimson just stared at Morgan as he laid in the middle of the ring as they cut away rather abruptly almost glossing over a tease. Kurt Angle also failed to explain why he attacked Jeff Hardy, but faced him in tag action teaming with Bully Ray against James Storm and Jeff Hardy with Brandon Jacobs in their corner in the No DQ Main Event. AJ Styles contested for the TV Title this week where it would have been nice to see him defeat the meaningless Robbie E., but they only used it as a backdrop to continue AJ’s feud with Kazarian/Christopher Daniels, the latter who looked a bit surprised at how willingly Kaz interfered this week. Perhaps more to come on this feud when they truly figure out where it’s going. Sting’s supposed “I’m Done” retirement tease was very predictable, but set up the reason why he made James Storm vs. Bobby Roode for Lockdown, which is not the next PPV. It would makes sense now since he can get his revenge on Roode at Victory Road, which is the next one. Only problem is that he made the Storm/Roode match before Roode had supposedly pushed him over that final edge. Of course Sting could have already had the match in mind potentially, but unless it’s explained on air, that point might be lost for those of us trying to make a little more sense of things. Unfortunately for TNA as I write my thoughts of their show, I can not get around trying to make sense of things. That’s my job.

10. IMPACT PLAYERs of the WEEK: 

Brandon Jacobs, Sting, Gail Kim, Zema Ion

Nice effort from Jacobs with the decisive move that got Storm and Hardy the win, Sting returns with his proclamation at the end, Gail with a big win over ODB and Zema Ion with the crafty one over Alex Shelley.

That is all.

M.C. Brown

You can find me on Twitter as

ShocXwavE