10 Thoughts on TNA IMPACT WRESTLING 03.15.12 – Gail Kim, Mickie James, Austin Aries

Reviews, Shows, Top Story, TV Shows

Reviewing the 3/15/12 episode of IMPACT WRESTLING…

1. Correct me if I am wrong, a tag team loss is still a loss. Now, it’s great if a heel Crimson still sells himself as undefeated in singles competition or sells it as never having been officially pinned or made to submit, but the announcers endorsing him as undefeated when he lost the tag team titles including at least two televised matches to Samoa Joe and Magnus is just plain silly. The strange thing, though, is while Crimson and Matt Morgan still debated apples and oranges in the back before their match on their way towards competing for the Tag Team Championship on tonight’s PPV, Morgan looked very heel-ish in his interference helping Crimson defeat Joe. Of course, that could be part of the story, too as Morgan might have to admit compromising his integrity to help his partner retain his streak. I expect a full fledged Crimson heel turn this Sunday irregardless.

2. This week’s backstage sit-down with Kurt Angle has to be the worst I’ve ever seen from Kurt. Even when he was playing goofy in WWE, he wasn’t this goofy and cheesy sounding. Kurt’s facials, delivery and content were just plain awful. Someone should have told Kurt he’s much better than this and redo that.

3. To me, it doesn’t get any better than seeing a wrestler, in this case, Daniels, get busted open hardway on his face and see the utter look in disgust on the ringside fans’ faces. Specifically the blonde girl in the flashy red dress in the first row with her other female companions. Funny stuff.

4. Speaking of Daniels, he took one of the better Mic Checks I’ve ever seen from Mr. Anderson this week. Kazarian tried to interfere but was stopped by AJ Styles. The story now is that Kazarian is completely on board with Daniels in their hatred of AJ. Kaz and Daniels had a nice exchange with Mr. Anderson before the match in the backstage area. Good stuff there. Anderson and AJ do seem like an odd pairing, but having him turn on AJ as well would be a mistake. Perhaps they should have teased that more, but if TNA actually has that planned, it could be why they didn’t. That would not be good.

5. While Kurt Angle’s backstage promo was terrible he did look very believable in his beat down of Garett Bischoff. Bischoff looked like he took some tough shots from Kurt and that sold the story well. It was a nice way for Kurt to redeem himself for his off night on the show as a talker. Kurt rarely disappoints in the ring, if ever.

6. Move of the Night:

Gail Kim’s Top rope knee breaker on Mickie James.

Very vicious looking.

7. Lines of the Night:

a. Calling the Velvet Sky attack on Madison Rayne

Taz – “…Full mount on top of Madison pounding her.”

ha ha ha.

b. To Zema Ion when he interrupted his toast to himself and his longest ever X-Division title reign

Austin Aries – “Oh. Oh. Oh-hah-Oh. Somebody put out their big boy drawers, huh?. Now,  I do appreciate your bravado. I appreciate you coming out here and talking like you actually got some hair on your nuts. But you don’t beat me at my own game.”

8. Match of the Night

Non-Title Match

Knockout Champion Gail Kim vs. Mickie James 

Still the dream match every time I see these two square off. This one was no different. Gail worked over Mickie’s knee which she injured with a sick looking move early in the match. Very nice psychology and some crisp wrestling action between two professionals at the top of their game. The match was a little short and it ended with a ref-distracted weapon shot, but it was good while it lasted.

9.  Final Show Thoughts:

I’ll be honest. This was a tough show to get through and review this week. Not a whole lot of spectacular things going on and it seemed like TNA probably had to stretch out some things one more week which felt like the show received a flat tire on their road to Victory Road. While Bobby Roode’s promo on Sting was solid, I’m well past ready for the Sting vs. Bobby Roode feud to be over.  Robbie E. truly needs to drop the title to someone, anyone at the PPV. John Morrison or some surprise would be nice. Jesse Sorensen was only briefly mentioned in passing this week by Zema Ion and there was only one segment with Joseph Park questioning Gunner. Park is being billed as an attorney from Chicago. Madison Rayne defeated Velvet Sky with a handful of panties. ODB and Eric Young mutually agreed to get married in the ring at a date to be announced. . Kurt Angle vs. Jeff Hardy and Austin Aries vs. Zema Ion are my two picks to steal the show at the PPV. Speaking of Victory Road, the TNA Roundtable column is up now here at Inside Pulse hosted by Kelly Floyd featuring predictions from myself, CB, Kyle Fitta and Steven Gepp:

http://wrestling.insidepulse.com/2012/03/17/rasslin-roundtable-tna-victory-road-2012-ppv-sting-jeff-hardy-bobby-roode/

10. IMPACT PLAYERs of the WEEK: 

Gail Kim, Mickie James, Austin Aries

Great Knockout action and Aries was on his game as always celebrating his longest X-Division title reign in company history.

That is all.

M.C. Brown

You can find me on Twitter as

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