Last night at TNA Hardcore Justice (Sunday 8/12/12), the right thing happened at the end of the night. The results are in, and Austin Aries defeated Bobby Roode to retain the TNA World Heavyweight Championship.
That’s right, Austin Aries proved to Bobby Roode what the rest of the wrestling world already knew, that Double A is no fluke, and he is here to stay at the top of the Impact Wrestling card. Could TNA really be headed in a new, logical direction as a result? I sure hope so.
To be honest, I was surprised at this outcome because I really thought that Bobby Roode vs. James Storm was inevitable at Bound for Glory, and who knows, maybe it still will be, and maybe it will still be for the title. After all, there’s plenty of time for Roode to get back the World title, and even though the stipulation put in place at Hardcore Justice was no more rematches, they certainly left the door wide open with the way things went down at the end of the match.
Instead, however, I hope that this really does present a real shift at the top of the card for TNA. Storm and Roode can still clash over personal issues, and Aries can move onwards and upwards to new challengers. Personally, I would love to see Aries vs. Bully Ray, since Ray is the best heel going in TNA right now, so maybe that will come to fruition.
Either way, at Hardcore Justice, Austin Aries has now removed the word fluke from everyone else’s vocabulary when they talk about him, and that’s good enough for me to cap off what has been a pretty solid summer for Impact Wrestling.
That’s all from me — CB.
