I’ve been out of town for a while among other pressing concerns such as tending to a car without AC in 115 degree temperatures, my apologies, so without further ado, here is a double sized column reviewing the last two episodes of Impact Wrestling…
Reviewing the 6/23/11 & 6/30/11 episodes of IMPACT WRESTLING…
1. Lines of the Night 6/23/11:
a. ODB in her entrance to Velvet Sky saying she is going to whip her ass
ODB-“Have you seen my fat ass, you can’t whip it.”
b. Taz on ODB’s underwear being exposed during the brawl
Taz-“The orange bloomers were hanging out there for a minute.”
2. Laughables of the Night:
a. Abyss calling Eric Bischoff a warrior
b. The Six-Sided Ring being referred to as Old School by Mike Tenay. Okay, that might be overusing the word, even though we know what he means. A few years ago should not be Old School.
3. It’s hard to not mark out for the possibility of RVD vs. Jerry Lynn one more time.
4. Nice swerve with Zema Ion coming out on top in the X-Division Newcomers match when it seemed like the push might have been reserved for Barry Darsow’s son, Dakota. Shame they didn’t mention his Dad’s other gimmicks like the Black Top Bully, Repo Man, Krusher Kruschev and of course who could forget Mr. Hole in One Barry Darsow? Ion is a bit goofy looking with his attire and facial expressions, but he pulled out some big moves to secure the win. Federico Palacios was the third competitor.
5. I loved the way the AJ Styles/Samoa Joe/Daniels segment played out. Just when you think they could have taken the sure fire Daniels/Joe/Styles rematch to another level, they sowed a nice seed with Daniels choosing to face just Styles which nicely led to a follow up segment with Joe and Kazarian which would set up two very cool marquee match ups in Styles/Daniels and Joe/Kazarian at Destination X. I’ve been waiting for Daniels to turn on AJ ever since his return since once AJ returned to Fortune he stood out as the sore thumb, the fifth wheel, the chaperone, party crasher or whatever you want to call him. Good move by TNA.
6. Winter makes whipping so vicious and sexy at the same time. Some very brutal looking shots with that belt on Mickie James.
7. Notable Matches from 6/23/11:
a. Street Fight Winter vs. Mickie James short, but very nice in terms of good shots and setting up a bigger feud
b. Beer Money vs. Crimson/Matt Morgan High octane and Beer Money’s return provided nice intensity and told a story with Roode’s arm. Possible dissension teased by Taz with the finish that could be touched upon later as Storm had Roode catapult/back drop him onto Crimson outside which injured Roode enough to get pinned by Morgan after the Carbon Footprint.
Honorable mention goes to the X-newcomers 3-way, while a spot-fest introduced three up and comers/rookies to Impact Wrestling.
8. TNA seems to be doing a great job thus far pushing the Bound For Glory series where wins mean something and making the House Show results matter showing Gunner’s upset win over AJ Styles. Very smart as the fans could expect to possibly see a Series match up live and feel like what they are seeing matters in the wrestling standings. However, as noted in the final thoughts, some upsets should not be happening in televised matches just yet, or ever.
9. Sting’s turn of a character into a nut job just strikes me as extremely awkward. Perhaps that’s what is meant to be coming across as, but until everything is fleshed out perhaps Sting will find his groove with the new twist to his character. Right now it’s hard for me to buy into it at this juncture. Right now he is coming across as a poor man’s Joker.
10. Wow. No turn for Angelina, but the zombie relationship did end this week on Impact and maybe even last week as Angelina was sneaky in her attack of Mickie behind the ref’s back and in a backstage segment this week pretty much brushed off the storyline saying Winter appreciated her. We’ll see if Angelina and Velvet cross paths again with the new revelation and accusations.
11. Move of the Night:
Miss Tessmacher’s Ass-Tastic
Can only be described as a Brooke Adams rump shaker to the chin of her opponent, in this case, Winter.
12. Very enjoyable segment with the AJ Styles/Christopher Daniels contract signing. I half expected Daniels to cold cock AJ as he signed, but the intrigue is there, which is nice. Having Jerry Lynn & RVD show up was like icing on the cake. The only thing that would be better at Destination X would be for the winner of each match to come back at the end and face each other. That would be asking a lot since I fully expect all four of these competitors to lay it on the line at the PPV. Maybe the winners can face each other at the next PPV.
13. TNA missed a good opportunity for Velvet Sky during her sit down promo to at least address the Angelina Love situation even with a “Whatever” to provide closure on the Beautiful People even though she is feuding with the Bully Knockouts currently.
14. So the British Invasion are faces now? Why? Because they look like legal immigrants and we U.S. people hate Illegal looking immigrants more? Is Rob Terry the valet to combat Sarita/Rosita? Sorry, TNA. I’d rather have Desmond Wolfe & Chelsea managing BI or London Brawling which is a better name. By the way, for anyone who has watched a wrestling show in Phoenix Arizona, Anarquia looks like a fan who stepped out of the crowd and into the ring. That is not a good thing. Mexican America definitely makes me long for the Konnan led LAX days. Just add a dancing Shelly Martinez in their corner or at least trim the arm candy down to one mamacita. Sarita is being wasted in this role. Consistently she had great singles matches, no offense to Rosita, who can be valuable, too, but I’d love to see a Sarita vs. Mickie James feud.
15. Notable Matches of the Night:
Low Ki vs. Matt Bentley vs. Jimmy Yang
Exciting match up featuring the Bentley Bounce(Matt Bentley), man you can see Shawn Michaels definitely in his cousin’s face, Jimmy Yang, who looks absolutely ridiculous in that elvis outfit(Next thing you know they’ll dress him up in a cowboy hat and chaps…oops) and the World Warrior. Low Ki came out on top to make it Austin Aries vs. Zema Ion vs Low Ki vs. ??? at the Destination X 4-way for a contract match.
6 Knockout Elimination Match
Mickie James(Champion) & Miss Tessmacher & Tara vs. Winter & Angelina Love & Madison Rayne
Actually both matches featuring Mickie and Winter from last week and this week had me intrigued. This week’s interaction with all of the Knockouts had a little bit of everything in there from Miss Tessmacher’s Ass-Tastic, Rayne/Tara feud heating up & the Winter/Angelina/Mickie bit all added to this Knockouts Division match. The elimination stipulation was a nice change of pace.
16. Final Show(s) Thoughts:
Destination X stacks up to have a really strong card from AJ vs. Daniels to RVD vs. Jerry Lynn(ECW dream match) & Joe vs. Kazarian. Not to mention the 4-way match looks like it will be very good. Kendrick also has to beat Abyss to free the title which should happen there. Only thing missing would be a Kurt Angle vs. Amazing Red type of match that would get Kurt involved in the PPV. Speaking of which Kurt returned this week to get involved in Immortal business saving Jok..er…Sting from an Immortal/Hogan beatdown. Nice to see Kurt back in the main event players mix. Speaking of main event, hard to digest AJ Styles losing in the Bound For Glory Series match this close to Destination X. If they wanted Gunner to win, there are plenty of others for him to go over such as using him in place of Devon in the upset over Joe/losing streak department. As far as I can see, tho, the loser of the RVD vs. Jerry Lynn PPV singles match will win next week’s 4-way, AJ will beat Daniels & Daniels will do the turn to garner heat. Using AJ to put Gunner over at this point was unnecessary. Just showing him getting an upset victory at a House Show was a good move, but AJ should have got the nod here. TNA has to be careful they don’t get “Too much too soon” Syndrome with a lot of their favorite rookies. It can easily backfire. It’s also good to know you can kick parts of the ring into someone’s groin and not get disqualified. Especially right in front of the ref’s face. I suppose it’s no different than Goldust’s Shattered Dreams. Hopefully next week Kendrick, Angle & Generation Me will all get some ring time as they either were not featured or had cameos in the last two weeks of programming. Not good, TNA.
17. IMPACT PLAYERS of the WEEK:
Mickie James/Winter/Low Ki/AJ Styles/Daniels/Samoa Joe/Kazarian/RVD/Jerry Lynn
All stood out to me as major contributors and were high points of the last two weeks. Take note, TNA.
That is all.
M.C. Brown
You can find me on Twitter as
ShocXwavE
