AJ Styles had something to get off his chest on Impact last night, and in doing so he cut a “worked shoot” promo on TNA management and TNA president Dixie Carter. Dixie then came out to the ring to confront Styles, turning heel in the process:
CB’s Slant: To me, this was OK, but not stellar. AJ was serviceable with his end of the bargain, and this was much better than his rambling, bumbling promo 3 weeks ago. However, Dixie Carter should never be an on-air character in this kind of heel role as she simply can’t act. The other thing that bothered me was the way Dixie had AJ’s mic cut off, as it just felt so contrived and copycat to what WWE did with CM Punk in 2011.
The other issue is going to be where they go from here. With Punk and Vince McMahon, you had intensity, believability and intrigue. You also had Punk vs. John Cena for the title in Punk’s hometown as a huge moneymaking follow-up match.
In this case, the last thing I want is for Dixie and AJ to talk for a month leading to Bound for Glory, and I guess what’s next is going to be some sort of alliance between Dixie and Bully Ray / Aces and Eights that just doesn’t thrill me.
I’ll reserve further judgment and see what happens from here, but there definitely is a lot of heavy lifting for TNA to do to really build this storyline up to an interesting, entertaining and logical conclusion.
