Reviewing the 11/17/11 episode of IMPACT WRESTLING…
1.There were Knockouts galore and they were looking stunning tonight. Christy Hemme was dressed very elegant in her dress, Mickie was looking mighty fine as usual with the country dress attire, but Sarita impressed me the most, muy caliente! Not only was she looking smokin’ during the Mexican America tag match, but she looked good in her brief time in the ring with Mickie during the Gauntlet match.
2. Speaking of the Gauntlet match, I know there was a mild controversy with Jaqueline wondering why she wasn’t included, but they could have made an easy fix to have included her if they wanted to. They could have had eliminated Jaqueline somewhere in the middle, still kept ODB and her post elimination attack as #10, but then have Karen Jarrett come out and add Madison Rayne as the 11th participant in the Gauntlet Match, then they could have played out the finish the same way while creating perhaps more doubt with the old “heel added at the last minute” trick, but have the face pick up the surprise win where it would look like she was certainly screwed. Mickie was very impressive with her multiple pinfalls leading to the victory and now Final Resolution dream match with Gail Kim at the PPV. Too bad about Velvet Sky, however. Besides getting no immediate rematch she was added as participant #2 in the Gauntlet match. Whilke she eliminated Rosita and Brooke Tessmacher, she was disposed of by her former partner Angelina Love and probably out of contention for a while. While I thought it was maybe too soon for her to gain, then lose the title, it’s kind of hard to argue with Kim vs. James since I’ve been craving this title match between the two since Gail returned. They’ll get no argument from me here especially since I mentioned it last week and now it’s a reality.
3. Hopefully with (Crimson)Red and Blue(Print Matt Morgan) capturing the tag team championships, that spells the end for Mexican America. If Anarquia is going to stay employed, he needs to go to Louisville and be repackaged. Even Rosita got pissed at him, possibly for just how ridiculous his character is to begin with. Hernandez probably needs to be traded for John Morrison. Only problem is with Morrison comes Melina and Melina, if the reports are true is a locker room cancer. Could TNA contain those egos? Hernandez, if his full potential can be tapped, could be deadly as the fourth Wife Beater with Primo and crew and future breakout star for The E. Vince does love the big ones.
4. TNA played the mystery assailant card perfectly on this edition of Impact Wrestling. Storm went after the obvious choice, doubts were planted, suspects were questioned and the big reveal was not a let down. After Storm mistakenly questioned AJ Styles, Kazarian came out to take AJ out of there, Kurt Angle came out from under the ring to reveal himself attacking Storm on the ramp and into the ring for the show ending beatdown. The interactions with Storm and Samoa Joe, Anderson and Bully Ray(who continues to be one of the most believable characters on Impact Wrestling) were all very well done. I like how Ray asked Storm to join Immortal at the end of their segment, too. Good stuff in all of the segments.
5. Sting was a busy man on this show. They utilized him multiple times and Sting delivered the goods in every segment. This is in contrast to the rushed segments/decisions they utilized him with before that made Sting look like he was phoning it in. There was no question who was in charge of the show and Sting’s presence was clearly known. Great job there.
6. Move of the Night:
Bobby Roode– Cheap shot on AJ Styles while he was holding Dixie Carter knocking them both down, then stepping on Dixie’s hair as he continued to pound away on AJ.
A deplorable act by the despicable heel that followed up nicely with a Sting/Roode segment where Roode threatened to sue him if he ever touched him again. Nice.
7. Lines of the Night:
a. Austin Aries after hard tagging Kid Kash back into the ring and walking out on his partner
A-Double– “You wanna be a dick? Go be a dick in there. I ain’t no punk kid.”
b. Rosita during the Mexican America promo
Rosita– “Nada es imposible para Mexican America. And if you want to test that theory, I’ll get my friend out of my pocket and have you sipping food from a tube for the rest of your life. Come at us. Test us.”
I was surprised by Rosita’s necktie reference. They really are going to let wrestlers keep talking about cutting each other? What’s next…”I’m going to go get my pistol”?
8. Match of the Night
X-Division Champion A-Double Austin Aries and Kid Kash vs. Jesse Sorensen and Brian KendrickÂ
The Knockouts match was entertaining, but a little too rapid fire for me. This match had the backdrop of the dissension between Aries and Kash and was the best of the bunch. Hopefully will set up a nice hard hitting exciting match between Kash and Aries at Final Resolution. This was a solid tag team match.
9. Final Show Thoughts:
New Tag Champions were crowned, TV Title is now featuring legit defenses as Devon lost to Robbie E. and in the process they furthered the angle with his sons and The Pope. As Devon post match tried to scold his kids for distracting him attending to the Pope who was hit from behind by Rob T. they seemed to rebel on their father. During Bully Ray’s sales pitch to James Storm to join Immortal, he didn’t mention Kurt Angle. Hopefully that means Kurt is back to being on his own. Speaking of Kurt, he did not disappoint in his beat down on James Storm to the end the show. He certainly had the What’s with that goofy climatic music to end the show, tho? C’mon, TNA. If Spike is doing it, then they need to tell them to stop. This show has to be one of the best TNA has delivered in a long, long time. From top to bottom, it was very entertaining except for maybe a couple segments. The Karen Jarrett and Jeff Hardy segment was very awkward including the brawl between Double J and Hardy afterward. I also think the Garrett Bischoff victory over Gunner may be a little bit of a stretch without playing up some card that Bischoff was trained by someone really good to pick up a win over someone who was built up as a credible contender. Otherwise you just chopped one of your trees you’ve been cultivating this past year, TNA. Other than that, the show had a nice pace, less bad cuts, believable interactions, reestablishing of some titles and some strong storylines moving forward following unfortunately a poorly booked PPV. Nice rebound, TNA. But if you are going to charge money for the PPV’s and then come back with a TV show that’s a thousand times better, something is wrong. All that was missing was perhaps two money matches and this show could have been a better PPV than most of what TNA has produced all year. That should be alarming if you are a producer of this show. Hopefully they can use this show as a springboard, but TNA has to learn to be consistent. With more shows like these, it’d be very hard for fans not to be talking about this product in a good way, week in and week out.
10. IMPACT PLAYERs of the WEEK:Â
Bobby Roode, James Storm, Kurt Angle, Mickie James, Crimson, Matt Morgan
Roode continued to shine as top heel, Storm proved in his promos and interactions with TNA superstars he definitely is top star material as well, Angle got his revenge for Storm’s victory over him, Mickie picked up a huge victory to become Knockout #1 contender and Red & Blue capture tag team gold.
That is all.
M.C. Brown
You can find me on Twitter as
ShocXwavE
