The best and worst of Impact, all in one show.
1. Finding out Mickie Knuckles is named Moose prevented John Wiswell from hanging himself on Sunday. Who can tie a noose when they’re laughing that hard?
2. Samoa Joe vs. Kaz
Kaz has Joe well scouted so Joe has trouble with his signature offense. Being the champ, he won’t let that stop him and has counters for everything Kaz tries instead of initiating offense. That works for all but springboard moves, which Joe can’t seem to stop. Just as Kaz strings them together, Joe figures it out and stops him, right in position for the Muscle Buster, which finishes.
Joe defeats Kaz (Pin, Muscle Buster, ***)
Joe has developed great ring presence, making what he does seem so much more important. The winner was never in doubt, but he gave Kaz enough to tell a story and make him look good while still seeming a level above.
3. TNA has no tolerance for violence against women, except where Kaz hit Rhaka Khan at Slammiversary. Glad to see he lost his title shot for that. I know it’s a Spike policy because I read the net. This kind of thing needs to be clarified.
4. Kurt putting a hit out on Karen is awesome and sick. There’s no heel move nearly as cruel as putting a hit out on your estranged wife, though Karen’s so annoying and Kong’s so awesome, Kong’s picking up the bounty might have turned Kong face.
5. Damn racist ass wrestling. We know Daivari speaks English. Just let the man talk. Is it too much to ask for him to just be proud of his heritage? And Kozlov doing the bad Russian dance? Terrible.
6. A lumberjack match makes no context in relation to Angle vs. AJ. That’s usually used when the heels constantly jump the faces mid-match, which hasn’t happened, and there are plenty of faces with issues with these heels anyway. The heel isn’t running away or stalling either. What gives? Did they pick a stip at random?
The match was bad and too reliant on the lumberjacks, while AJ losing makes his huge win Sunday mean so much less. And these guys hate each other, why are they still doing a normal wrestling match? I know both of them can do hate-filled. What’s the problem?
7. Abyss is hugely fat now. Why is he saving AJ? They were always enemies.
8. Okay, I totally bought the false tag title switch with Roode and Storm winning the belts. It was a Dusty finish done to perfection. I was pissed and ranting about it when they returned to show the match restarted, I was actively relived. Then, LAX won what would have been a meaningless match and I popped; justice was served. The heel beatdown after was extra-dastardly because of the emotional rollercoaster and now I want to see LAX get revenge. Now that’s how you run an angle!
9. Yoshino and Doi of Speed Muscle vs. The Motor City Machine Guns of Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin was absolutely awesome. They wrestled at a nearly unprecedented speed and hit everything gorgeously. Was it a spotfest? Hell yes, but it was a high class spotfest. This got me hyped for the World X Cup. ****
10. Well, the first hour was absolutely amazing, while the second had nothing I enjoyed. I’m not quite sure how that happened, but at least it was a wrestling heavy show, which is a major improvement.
