Reviewing the 1/20/11 episode of TNA.
10 Thoughts on TNA Impact
1. I liked the nice touch of showing Kurt Angle arrive backstage and go right to production to play his music as he stormed to the ring. Kurt who got emotional during his interview talking about his marriage and family. Kurt is probably one of the few if not the only true bad ass in wrestling that can get away with crying in the ring and still not hurt his mystique one bit.
Line(s) of the Night LON:Â Taz to Mike Tenay wondering why Madison Rayne is wearing or being allowed to wear the big leather MMA like glove.
Taz-“Maybe she has man hands.”
2. Star studded 4-way knockouts non-title match between Sarita vs. Mickie James vs. Velvet Sky vs. Champion Madison Rayne. It was a busy match in some areas and a little sloppy at the end, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a 4-way match look that fine. There was nice action in there too. Mickie gets the win even with Tara’s interference almost costing her the match. Most likely to make up for her pinfall loss at the PPV.
LON: On James Storm doing beer bottle curls
Robert Roode-“Hey. What the hell are you doing?”
James Storm-“8 ounce curls, man.”
3. Matt Morgan pinned Rob Terry immediately with the Carbon Footprint. If anybody is a green print, it’s Rob and they acknowledge it here. They have stacked the deck against Matt in his feud with Flair and Immortal. Abyss and Rob Terry are now teaming up and ganging up on the Blueprint leaving him laying after a double chokeslam this week.
LON:Â James Storm in Tokyo, Japan singing the virtues of saki.
James Storm- “Anybody got a sucki?”
4. TNA continues the overseas videos with their superstars on tour in Tokyo, Japan. Another well produced video. Not as long as I’d like, but entertaining and very helpful in selling TNA as a global force in wrestling.
5. Karen Jarrett is great as a heel. Her swagger, grating voice and mannerisms are perfect for her new role in the company especially proclaiming herself part owner. The “sloppy seconds” chant from the crowd also provided great heat during the Jarretts/Angle segment. TNA did their job in wanting you to see Kurt get his hands on Jeff Jarrett and beat his ass. Unfortunately, the garbage can gets the beating of it’s life again this week as Kurt takes his frustrations out on the can backstage after failing in his bid to clean Jeff’s clock.
6. Kudos to TNA on their Eliminate the Hate promo. The superstars stand united on this front and it’s as important as any video promo package they can produce for their audience.
7. Do Eric Bischoff and Ric Flair even watch their own show? Sooner or later if they just rewatch the footage of Crimson choking their fellow Immortal members, they’ll see they were seriously attacked and where the “They” business has resurfaced. At least they couldn’t ignore it at the end of the show.
8. Just when you think that maybe Samoa Joe might be up to something showing he has a cameraman, revealed to be Okada(for followers of New Japan and TNA XPlosion) and it wasn’t him actually doing the filming, The Pope goes ahead and steals a TNA production member’s computer to prove he is still the heel here. Of course because heels steal. I’m not one hundred percent buying The Pope as a heel. I think TNA dropped the ball on The Pope as a face. He was getting great crowd reactions, too. What a shame.
9. The announcers have been selling almost overselling the rookie status of referee Jackson James and his “mistakes” especially in Immortal matches this week. I wonder if where this will lead will be TNA finally revealing he is Eric Bischoff’s son and that he has been helping Immortal all along. It would be an effective way to change his name from James to Bischoff as well.
10. Although hectic, I did enjoy the final minutes of Impact. It was comical in some areas with Abyss coming out with Janice in his back and falling on his face, but I enjoyed the final interaction with Kurt Angle stomping and trying to get an ankle lock on Flair. The segment was needed for two reasons. First and foremost to segue into the next phase of the “They” coming part II and second, to protect Kurt Angle’s character and further show how off the deep end he has become in his obsession with getting his hands on Jeff Jarrett. Threatening Flair and forcing him into delivering a confrontation with Jarrett at the end was good stuff. Flair, who obviously should have taken his own advice and had gotten out, showed his cowardly ways coming out with the pack of jackals that are Immortal to save Jarrett. Perhaps he felt guilty. It’s still funny how Kurt went after him at the end. Kurt’s choke out of Jarrett and Karen’s screams for help were well played, too. Hopefully the payoff to this is good. Angle needs to get Jarrett in a steel cage.
Match of the Night:
X-Division Title Match(Rematch #2 from Genesis)
Kazarian (c ) vs. Jay Lethal
Great match. Some high octane back and forth action between the two. Jay and Kazarian have great in-ring chemistry. Kazarian gets the win via the ropes, but that’s just how Fortune gets it done. Coming in second is the tag team main event of Anderson and RVD vs. Beer Money. It was littered with interference from the Hardys for the finish and Beer Money win. I do find it baffling that neither RVD or Anderson would try to chase off Immortal at the end, but I guess the Abyss carcass with Janice in his back courtesy of Crimson must have scared them, too. Morgan no-showing was understandable if you are to believe he was being tended to after his beat down earlier in the show. However with Kurt about to get help in this feud, it might make more sense for it to come from his former stablemates to justify them returning when no one else would help Kurt. It’s just hard to ignore the other people feuding with Immortal. You would definitely think a lot of these guys would be banding together with these huge beat downs becoming the norm.
That is all.
M.C. Brown
You can find me on Twitter as
ShocXwavE
