Reviewing the 5/19/11 episode of IMPACT Wrestling…
1. Kudos to TNA for the new look to IMPACT WRESTLING complete with a very cool new intro. If you want to make a splash and try to get a different feel to the show, then this is a good start. Also loved the Live Event Ticket graphics they used for the upcoming live TNA house shows. Great move there. The blue flames are cool, although somewhat distracting when adding split windows.
2. I will never tire of seeing Ms. Tessmacher’s entrance, her attire or her ASSets. Her segment with Eric Young later in the show was comical as well. I don’t mind her plastered all over the program at all.
3. For some reason while Anarquia was talking on commentary I kept thinking of Chavo Guerrero. It also seems like Taz was extra contradictory towards Mike Tenay this week. More than likely a conscious effort to get more tension in the broadcast booth. Although it looks like it’ll be at the expense of Taz’s comedic one-liners.
4. I’ve never heard or read a proper explanation, but I believe there has to be a copyright or trademark conflict as a reason for Abyss to always be billed as “The Monster” Abyss. He does look more like a monster with the missing bottom front teeth, which could then be considered an improvement in the look of Abyss. Or excuse me “The Monster” Abyss or Monsterbyss as it sometimes seems like the announcers call him. Of course my theory is thrown right out the window as soon as Abyss wins the X-Division title Christy Hemme announces him as just Abyss. Or was that a mistake?
5. Samoa Joe beat down Amazing Red in a squash match and after the bell continued to do so in order to raise the ire of Crimson who came down as a barrel of intensity for the save. Joe looks so much better in this role as his body language showed afterwards. Seeing Joe play the part of the heel in his feud with Crimson just goes to show that TNA screwed up in the Joe vs. Pope feud as far as who should have been the heel and who should have been the face. Instead you have Joe playing the tweener possibly teetering towards a permanent heel and Pope’s TNA career in shambles in the lower card. Way to go, TNA.
6. Just when you start to grin and be happy Karen Jarrett will not be on the program, the beast rears her head again. At least this time Velvet Sky cut her off before she could finish and wheeled her down the ramp in her wheel chair. Although she did return to grate us with her presence in a backstage segment later. Kurt Angle vs. Jeff Jarrett is on one last time at Slammiversary for the #1 Contendership. Kurt’s gold medal will also be on the line. However, this has to be the one time Kurt does not lose it in a pro wrestling match. This feud has gone on long enough. It’s time to end and let Kurt wrestle again for the World Title.
7. Weird that TNA can bleep the term midget(vanilla midget as Bischoff called X-Division wrestlers and GEN ME), but WWE, a PG-TV show, can allow Michael Cole to go off on obese members of the audience left and right. Who is the more sensitive TV show?
8. Line of the Night:
a. On Karen Angle’s demise at the hands of Chyna
Kurt Angle-“Ding-Dong the bitch is dead.”
9. Match of the Night:
Eric Bischoff & Matt Hardy vs. Generation Me
This was one of the handful of matches that Eric Bischoff made involving X-Division wrestlers at the start of the show when they interrupted Immortal. Mick Foley and Hulk Hogan were not on this show, so it was explained Bischoff and Ric Flair were in charge. It was a unique match that had Gen Me facing off against one of their idols, one half of the Hardy Boys in Matt and that Jackson James refereed a match featuring his Father Eric Bischoff. I can’t remember a son refereeing a Father’s match, but I’m sure it’s been done. Perhaps not done on this level. The match was quick and exciting as all Gen Me matches usually are. I give TNA credit for at least explaining why Gen Me were tag teaming again after their recent fall out and airing it before the match with a segment between Max and Jeremy instead of having the announcers explain it away. That type of logic is needed on the show and they need to take the time to film it as they did here. Although for the life of me I could have counted to ten while Jackson allowed no count for Bischoff and Hardy to be in the ring for the finishing sequence. While Earl is counting to four at every chance I seen him in the following handicap Knockout match, James could learn a lesson or two from watching Earl. At least count, even if it’s super slow, Jackson and try to get one guy out of there. The Knockout matches were okay and Kazarian vs. Abyss could have taken this spot, but I give the nod to this tag team match.
10. Final Show Thoughts:
Ken Anderson dressed up as old school WCW Sting to attack the real Stinger to end the show. He looked pretty convincing, too. They collide at Slammiversary for the WORLD TITLE. ODB(One Dirty Bitch) in all her raunchy glory returned to IMPACT WRESTLING attacking Velvet Sky after her big win over Winter and her hypnotized slave Angelina Love. I thought for sure Angelina might snap out of her trance with a turn tonight, but I guess that will have to wait for another day. Winter brushed lips with Love before the match in a creepy pre-match promo talking about other lives where I thought perhaps Winter would have admitted to being a man in her previous life with Angelina. Eric Young while showing Ms. Tessmacher some photo shoot tips was beaten down by Gunner who looks like he stole EY’s now defunct World title belt while EY still has Gunner’s TV Title. TNA did their best to explain away a lot of Fortune by their injuries but it would have been better to show a promo as well as live on the big screen to show Bobby Roode going to the hospital with James Storm and Kazarian to explain why they were not out during Dreamer & Bully Ray’s beat down of AJ and then Daniels. Then it would have been appropriate to show that same ambulance back for AJ & Daniels and have Flair call out Roode then. Instead of Roode riding with the rest of Fortune this time it would have been the perfect set up for Flair and Immortal to get a hold of Roode there and not have the fans in the IMPACT Zone as well as the fans at home think that Roode had any back up. Again, they explained this on TV with Storm’s “Concussion” and saying both he and Kazarian were hurt after the brawl and matches, but it would have played out so much better as well as not cost or invested much more to add a couple segments explain away the rest of Fortune to set that segment up even more. The live crowd would have been in the dark without showing some footage of Storm and Kazarian being carted off even if they assumed AJ and Daniels were out of commission after their beat-down.
IMPACT PLAYERS of the WEEK:
Velvet Sky and Abyss
Velvet shut Karen up earlier in the show and picked up a big win in a odds stacked against her handicap match. Abyss also captured the X-Division title and was involved in the early show brawl and crippling of Roode near the end. Both raised their stock.
That is all.
M.C. Brown
You can find me on Twitter as
ShocXwavE
