Reviewing the 1/5/12 episode of IMPACT WRESTLING…
1. Perhaps Cowboy James Storm can change one of the chorus lines to his song to “Huge Psychotic Monsters are My Friends”. That’s all I could think of when Storm made his entrance in the opening segment that had Storm come down with Abyss to Storm’s theme song to rebuke Bobby Roode, Kurt Angle and Bully Ray’s interruption of Sting and Jeff Hardy. This set up the 6-man tag main event.
2. With the successful Knockouts Tag Title defense by Gail Kim and Madison Rayne and with Eric Young entering their dressing room looking for ODB, who he later ended up sharing a lip lock with, for some strange reason I can see the tag team of ODB and EY challenging Gail and Madison for those titles and strangely enough working.
3. I’ve been hoping Kazarian would turn heel for a while now. The pairing with Christopher Daniels who looks guilty of poisoning his mind against AJ Styles putting Kaz in conflict with his own feelings about his friend looks to be a great way to further the descent of any remnant of Fortune. This should also set up some stellar matches between Kazarian and Styles as well.
4. Tag Champions Crimson and Matt Morgan look to be so dominating, both by stats and by their borderline cocky comments that even when Samoa Joe and Magnus come in overcelebrating their Wild Card Finals victory, it still hard to not be rooting for Magnus and Joe as underdogs. That Crimson streak has to go, too. It has gone beyond annoying now because it basically makes every match predictable until they do a properly hyped send off. Makes me wonder if Morgan will end his streak while they are both tag champions somewhere down the line if they decide to do an in-fighting angle, just so they can have a tag loss not “taint” his undefeated streak they already have massively pushed. Or rather have Morgan take the fall for the team and a heel Crimson continue to boast about an undefeated singles streak, especially if he himself causes the team of himself and Morgan to lose. I don’t think that will be happening this Sunday, however.
5. The show ending with the heels with the finishers on the babyfaces and Bully Ray chain choking Abyss was exactly how you want to end the show when wanting fans to buy the PPV to see Hardy, Storm and Abyss get revenge. It did look like a little crazy over the top and dramatic to end the show, but it made business sense and as a fan you have to remember it’s edited to perfectly to persuade you to buy. Still have to be thankful the ominous ending music was dropped as I just know that would have made things really cheesy.
6. Move of the Night:
Zema Ion’s– 1st rope entering swinging DDT on Austin Aries
That was pretty unique and cool looking
7. Lines of the Night:
a. Taz and Mike Tenay on Madison Rayne recovering from Mickie’s forced wishbone split on Madison Rayne which was also a pretty cool spot in and of itself
Tenay – “How do you recover from that so quickly?”
Taz– “I don’t know I’m not built like Madison. I don’t have the same equipment, but I hear you.”
8. Match of the Night
Zema Ion and Jesse Sorenson vs. X-Division Champion A-Double Austin Aries and Kid Kash
Hard hitting chops, flashy moves and some dissension told between the cocky Ion and the young upstart Sorenson. This should also spill over well into the PPV. Kash and Aries worked well as a team so it doesn’t look like there was any lingering bad feelings since their last match. Entertaining match and whets the appetite for more at Genesis.
9. Final Show Thoughts:
Some lack of build, noticeably for the Devon vs. Pope match, but the other matches were built well enough. Although one on one Gail vs. Mickie seems to be lacking the bad blood to drive their intensity over the top. Sting did well in his role setting up the jealous heels to come down after he endorses Jeff Hardy and banning Ric Flair from ringside for Gunner’s match. Flair was great in his small segment with Gunner and Sting earlier. That’s exactly how you can utilize the star power and mic skills of the Nature Boy. The show was very tag team friendly, but on a go-home show towards the PPV, it helps to use more talents like this in order to give everyone TV time to hype their match. It’s just a shame if you are Pope and Devon since you guys are the odd men out. They should have at least got promo time in the form of a brief backstage comment or something. The show continues it’s streak of solid, maybe not spectacular, but consistently sound shows that does it’s job week in and week out showcasing the strengths of the product. For this, I do have to give TNA a tremendous amount of credit for upping their game and righting the ship. Sooner or later, people will take notice and start paying more attention.
10. IMPACT PLAYERs of the WEEK:
Sting, Gail Kim, Samoa Joe, Madison Rayne, Zema Ion, Jesse Sorensen, Magnus
Sting shines, Kim and Rayne with a great pool bullying segment that had a chance to be ridiculous–> btw both were looking great there and also in the ring with their victory, Ion and Sorensen also looked good in their win as did Magnus and Joe in this tag team heavy edition of Impact.
That is all.
M.C. Brown
You can find me on Twitter as
ShocXwavE
