10 Thoughts on TNA IMPACT WRESTLING 11.10.11 – Bobby Roode, AJ Styles, Gail Kim, Kid Kash

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Reviewing the 11/10/11 episode of IMPACT WRESTLING…

1.Bobby Roode was completely convincing and 100% entertaining to me in his role as World Champion heel. Just him as a selfish prick and I loved it. Great stuff and awesome opening in ring promo. Although the editing of the entire segment was a little too noticeable. TNA is notoriously bad with some of their cuts and it showed big time here. At the end? Except for the out of place ominous music to finish with Sting making AJ #1 contender at Turning Point to rush the segment home, the whole thing with James Storm injured(from backstage mysterious attack) and bleeding played out perfectly. Would have liked to see the doctor come out pleading with Storm at first, but I believe they wanted that dramatic effect of Storm coming away from a car crash to fight Roode with all his heart and determination preserving his built up never say die American Cowboy character. Roode was awesome as the opportunistic prick at the end, win at all costs. Makes for a nice evolution of his character and ascends him to top heel status. Just keep him the f’ away from Immortal.

2. The way you segue when you have a promotion called Total Non-Stop Wrestling and a show Impact Wrestling is to go from one match to another with a simple straightforward promo as they did with Gunner in between the Crimson vs. Pope match to the Gunner vs. Garrett Bischoff “match”. He cut a believable simple promo on Garrett Bischoff and nothing more needed to be said or embellished. They showed a few highlights from last week as Gunner was being introduced, but having the next match start so quickly keeps the show moving and feels like wrestling matters first, talking second.

3. It’s a shame that Gail Kim vs. Mickie James, which should be a dream match saved for when one is Champion and the other is challenger facing off at a major PPV is glossed over and used in a tag match as a backdrop for Turning Point’s Velvet Sky title defense against Gail Kim. To me, Gail vs. Mickie is a Knockouts Clash of the Titans and should be treated as such.

4. Robbie E. busted out his Zack Ryder tights this week in honor of the Broski from another company. Probably a bad idea unless they are trying to fool channel flippers into thinking Zack Ryder now wrestles for TNA. Speaking of channel flipping, can you imagine someone turning on TNA for the first time and seeing Ronnie from the Jersey Shore beating up on some wanna-be, a jacked up Rod Stewart(Taz’s haircut description of Rob Terry) and Eric Young in leopard underwear, handkerchief around his neck in full bearded village people rodeo clown(another Taz reference) glory? Circus anyone?

5. I’m so tired of the Mexican America vs. Ink, Inc. feud already that I’d be in favor of a Winner AND Loser leaves town match. Then maybe we can get the mamacitas back to wrestling in the Knockouts division. I miss seeing Sarita in singles action. Speaking of which, it was nice to see her sans mask for the first time in months. There will be a 6 Person tag match with the tag team titles on the line even if the ladies are involved in the pinfall at Turning Point.

6. Move of the Night:

Kid KashDouble Underhook piledriver on Jesse Sorensen after he signed the contract to face Kash and A-Double  Austin Aries at Turning Point.

Vicious and sick looking.

With all Kid Kash trash talking of the disrespectful “kid” Jesse Sorensen shouldn’t he change his name to Man Kash?

7. Line of the Night:

a. Bobby Roode in reference to his World Title win

Bobby Roode“This is a dog eat dog world and last week I ate James Storm for lunch.”

8. Match of the Night

AJ Styles vs. Christopher Daniels 

So let me get this right, you have two of the best wrestlers in your company squaring off and you decide to distract from the match by having the Bellator Fighting Founder talking about something else throughout the match? This is the ridiculousness that is TNA contradicting their own Wrestling Matters campaign. I was ready to insult Bjorn Rebney, but I give him credit for at least complimenting AJ Styles as an athlete and making a comparison about his product to TNA and both their up and comers as the match went on, but still, I question the match selection to bring this man in to talk about his product when other matches might have fit the bill to talk over. What makes TNA great is matches like this one and I don’t want to be distracted when enjoying two of TNA’s finest in action. Daniels went for numerous pinfalls which was great to see him trying to voraciously win the match and his mannerisms and taunting with “New face of TNA” was great stuff. Really enjoying his character and in ring persona change. Solid match with AJ decisively winning to set the stage for what is to come. Daniels can seamlessly move into his feud with Bob…er..Rob Van Dam as Rob stopped Daniels from using the screwdriver he brought in the match leading to the finish.

AJ has new entrance music some undecipherable variation of “Get ready to fly”. Not sure about some of these choices as while the other theme songs weren’t main stream, they were certainly noticeable theme songs that light the crowd up when they hear them. But I suppose we have to give it time to sink in. Storm’s and Roode’s are growing on me, although I can feel some similarity to Roode’s and Jeff Hardy’s.

9.  Final Show Thoughts:

Crimson’s streak is back to being pushed as a huge focal point which could make the man to defeat his streak get a huge boost if done properly. Will it or should it be Matt Morgan? The jury is out. Not sure what benefit it is of Morgan’s to have him beat Crimson, but he certainly is a bigger dog if you are going by lots of factors to try to justify Crimson losing to a bigger dog, but again, I always thought Samoa Joe was a good choice(to beat Crimson) to reignite a push for him or maybe a new signee to give them a boost. The announcers missed the boat on plugging their guys as having been a part of three of the greatest tag teams of all time that were represented in the 6 man tag team match: Scott Steiner(Brothers), Jeff Hardy(Brothers) and Bully Ray(Dudley Boys). It would have been a nice touch to mention that. Abyss joined forces to team with Hardy and Anderson to battle Immortal. He picked up the win black hole style on Steiner for his team. This was a solid show as the focus was where it needed to be(Roode) and Bischoffs were toned down. Eric’s goofy tantrum attempt was embarrassing at the end of Garrett’s DQ win over Gunner, however. Eric Young has a place on the show, but the TV Title thing shouldn’t be a recognized title if this two-belt quasi-celebrity thing is going to continue to be a joke segment week in and week out. Just let him have one pretend “TV Title” and retire the secondary belt if it’s going to not be used up to build up future contenders to the World title. I think this was a solid enough go-home show for the PPV with more than enough good segments to outweigh and drowned out the bad.

10. IMPACT PLAYERs of the WEEK: 

Bobby Roode, AJ Styles, Gail Kim, Kid Kash

Roode stole the show as the dick of the week and really solidified he will sink to whatever lows necessary to keep his title when he rolled up a groggy and blood soaked James Storm to secure his title win even when Storm was in no position to fight and had to be carted away. Good Stuff, no great stuff. AJ is a good choice as the first PPV title defense as he comes off a decisive win over rival Daniels, Gail solidifies herself as the top contender for Velvet’s belt and Kash continues to be very good in his role in the X-Division.

That is all.

M.C. Brown

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