Reviewing the 3/24/11 episode of TNA…
1. The opening musical remix of the Mr. Anderson rematch story brought back shades of the Antoine Dobson “rapin’ everybody” overnight news phenomenon that became a remixed song over the internet.
2. Some great video packages involving Sting’s return and the Kurt Angle’s challenge to Jeff Jarrett which led to their match for Lockdown. Kurt was great in his frank comments about getting Jeff alone for the first time in the cage with no Karen and proclaiming the end of the feud will come at Lockdown because Jeff will never want to step in the ring with him again. Intense and believable.
3. It’s funny how during their feud it seemed like Mickie had to pull out all the stops to finally get that win over Tara hitting her with the Thesz press off the top of the cage to finally finish her off and here while the match was very solid, Mickie convincingly, almost handily beat her. Of course it’s to further her chase towards Madison’s title at Lockdown, but it definitely seemed much easier for her to finish off her TNA arch rival now. Perhaps the announcers could have played up Tara being injured more in a serious way instead of comedic as Taz did with her protective armor. Before the match, Madison barked orders to Tara to destroy Mickie before the match to the point where it teased dissension by Tara’s reaction. All three women were looking mighty fine this evening. It’ll be interesting to see if Tara and Madison end up feuding after the Lockdown match. They’ll certainly have some built in heat with one another dating back to Tara having to lay down for Madison as a receipt for Madison letting her back in TNA.
4. Abyss’s return spelled doom for Fortune this week as a challenge was laid out by Bully Ray, Cold Blood Matt Hardy, Ric Flair and what ended up as Abyss to meet the remaining 3 members of Fortune with AJ Styles out at Lockdown. This sets up a dramatic return by AJ at Lockdown to help even the odds. As far as making Immortal stronger, having Abyss back is huge as well as the addition of the veteran and fresh Bully Ray to the mix. It sure beats the roster Immortal was sporting a few weeks back as they stood behind Bischoff in the ring following Fortune’s defection. Abyss had comments in the back which could be considered face-like when they returned from commercial. While Fortune could have orchestrated the new “They” storyline which laid out Abyss, Crimson was responsible. One would expect Abyss, if truly out for revenge, he would go after Crimson.
5. Speaking of Crimson, he finally resurfaced this week. TNA stumbled upon a raw talent in Crimson as he looked pretty good tag teaming with Scott Steiner. Crimson picked up the win with the Red Alert. After the match Shannon Moore continued his heel turn wiping his ass and throwing the head dress of Scott Steiner at him from behind. Jesse Neal also continued to .to p lay the face trying to play peacemaker between the two sides. While TNA could split the tag team of Ink, Inc. up, it’s also possible and this is where I believe it’s leading, that Jesse gets influenced by the heel Moore and eventually the team turns full fledged heel. TNA has to pick the right moment to do this.
6. Hernandez cut what I thought was his best promo in his TNA career. He established himself as the spokesman and leader of Mexican America.His delivery was strong to go with his heel presence improving each week. While often times used as a plot element in feuds, this does have the potential to ruffle the feathers of United States residents tired of having to press #1 for English. The promo led to a match with Matt Morgan who enlisted the help of Brother Devon who evidently has moved on from his feud with Bully Ray and into teaming with Morgan.
7. Velvet Sky came out to help counteract the interference of the Muy Caliente duo, but was quickly overwhelmed. In a very strange twist Angelina Love walked like a zombie down the ramp to seemingly help Velvet Sky, but was called back by the banshee Winter who supposedly now has the object of her affection hypnotized and under her control. Yes, folks, this is an actual story. I am not making this up. At least Taz’s reaction to this bizarre storyline was really funny. I think TNA probably could have found a little more realistic way to cause friction with the Beautiful People and engage the feud with Winter and Velvet Sky over who will team with Angelina.
8. Lines of the Night:
a. In reference to Tara
Taz-“She has all these different huge apparatuses. Knee braces. Helmets. Elbow. What’s going on with that Tara? She likes all the big stuff, huh?”
b. In reference to the tag team Knockout Champions
Taz-“A couple of hot tamales in Sarita and Rosita.
c. To Sarita after her promo in Spanish
Taz-“I don’t know what she said, but it sounded hot.”
9. Match of the Night:
#1 Contenders Match for the TNA World Heavyweight Title
RVD vs. Mr. Anderson
This match had stiff competition from the Mickie James vs. Tara match, but the Knockouts contest probably came in a tad too short for my liking. There were some good counters in the contest and RVD and Anderson are starting to get much better chemistry in the ring. Also some very solid spots and new moves busted out specifically by Anderson. Anderson “Mic Checked” RVD into the ring post and wanted Sting to count out Rob. Sting argued with Anderson as he would not get back/out of the way so Sting could eventually count, but Sting looked reluctant to anyways. Eventually Sting and Anderson began fighting which led to an apparent DQ finish as they exchanged fisticuffs. The finish looks to have established Anderson as being disqualified, but not by Sting who claims he did not ring the bell to officially end the match, although he had good reason to. It looks like Anderson’s new complaint will be “Who rung the bell?”—>Hogan orders from the back? instead of “Where’s my rematch?”
10. Final Show Thoughts:
Rob Van Dam selling a possible concussion or confusion after the mic check into the post I thought was a nice touch. If they overplay it, it could be bad news as they could get it confused with him being “stoned” every week. The Mr. Anderson tweener role seems clearly established now which adds some new elements to his character which can always be explained by him quite frankly being an asshole. They can get away with it with Anderson at this point. Immortal assembled about as strong a team as they’ll have to oppose Fortune at Lockdown. Of course AJ has to return or it’ll be a bit of a letdown. There is still time for that to happen on TV or at the PPV itself. Mickie vs. Madison looks to be coming to a final match as does Kurt Angle vs. Jeff Jarrett which is good news for fans wanting a resolution to both those feuds. Madison looks like she can move right into a feud with Tara while Mickie will have plenty of fresh match ups if/when she wins the title. Kurt? Well, the machine can have an awesome match with a broomstick if he had to. I’d love to see a heel Jay Lethal go up against Kurt Angle. That is if TNA can steer Jay back to TV. Speaking of away from TV, has TNA explained exactly just where the Motor City Machine Guns are? After being the focal point of their entire tag team division in the past year, they might as well be AWOL now. I thought I heard one of them was hurt, but I don’t remember this being explained on TNA TV.
Show MVP:
Mr. Anderson
That is all.
M.C. Brown
You can find me on Twitter as
ShocXwavE
