Since it’s move to Destination American, I’ve been trying to give TNA Impact Wrestling another chance. Here are my thoughts on this weeks episode of Impact Wrestling.
If you are looking for a hold by hold re-cap, this isn’t it. Here’s how it works, I watch wrestling and record my thoughts, good or bad. I might not even get to who won the match or how.
Apparently the show is live tonight!
They open the show with Eric Young. EY is somebody who has been with TNA for as long as I can remember and I’ve always thought of him as a capable hand, although not a Main Event player. EY is out in the ring and demanding to know who the guest referee for his match with Kurt Angle will be.
It’s Bully Ray! Bully Ray reinvented himself in his most recent run in TNA and it’s good to see him back. He gets a “Welcome Back” chant. Bully Ray says he’s the guest referee.
Falls Count Anywhere: Ethan Carter III w/Tyrus vs Mr Anderson
Next up is EC3! Ethan Carter III is one of the highlights of the current TNA product for me. Mr Anderson got hot in WWE while I wasn’t watching and I’ve never really seen what the deal is with him. He’s good on the mic but overall he is a below average worker.
Carter does a great job playing the chicken shit heel early and eating Anderson’s offense. Since it’s No-DQ, Tyrus gets involved and his offense looks good against Mr Anderson. Tyrus basically annihilates Mr Anderson which allows EC3 to get the pinfall.
MVP vs Drew Galloway
MVP gets on the mic and talks about Homicide not being here tonight because he was taken out and had to have shoulder surgery. That’s disappointing, I was hoping he would be in this match instead of MVP. Like Mr Anderson, MVP is a solid mic worker but at this point he’s not much in the ring. He’s a good figure head for this group but he shouldn’t be their ace.
I was hoping this would be a six-man but instead it’s a singles match with MVP. They started out with The Rising clearing the ring before the match officially started. Galloway won the match with a clean one-two-three in the middle of the ring with the Future Shock.
Right after the win, Eric Young (dressed like Robert DeNiro in Taxi Driver) hit the ring with a steel chair and laid out the Rising before saying something to MVP.
James Storm is in the house and he has a huge gift under his arm and he’s bringing it down to the ring. Storm calls Mickie James down to the ring. The Storyline here is that Storm has talked Mickie into wrestling one more match and is borderline stalking her. The gift is a guitar. Hmmm, why do I think Magnus is going to be wearing that later in the show? And yep, here comes Magnus. Magnus and Mickie are walking away and Storm says he has another gift and it’s for their son. Magnus comes back to the ring and delivers a guitar shot to Storm and leaves him laying in the ring.
Next they show a clip from Robert Irvine live in Nashville (he’s the guy from Restaurant Impossible and he’s Gail Kim’s husband) where Gail Kim and Taryn Terrell got feisty.
The Dollhouse vs Gail Kim and Awesome Kong
The TNA “Knockouts” have some decent women wrestlers, just for some reason I generally find their stuff very ho-hum. The two members of the Dollhouse (not Terrell) are really green. The match wasn’t great but told a good story despite some spotty work from the Dollhouse and Terrell stole a pinfall on Kim in the match.
They announced that Jeff Hardy suffered an injury and showed the dirt bike incident where it happened. Back stage they show Matt Hardy with both of the TNA tag-team titles. Personally, I think they should just have him team up with Davey Richards until Jeff and Eddie Edwards come back and then they can break off and feud but we will see where they go with this.
Matt says that he and Jeff have been forced to vacate the TNA tag-team titles and it’s time to go home and figure out what’s next for him. As Hardy is leaving out comes Austin Aries and Bobby Roode. Aries tells EY to watch his back. Aries says the TNA tag-team titles are cursed but he and Bobby Roode see this as an opportunity. Roode says the title deserves to be defended each and every week and they deserve to be around the waste of the best tag-team in the world….cue Davey Richards music.
Richards says he and Eddie Edwards have re-defined tag-team wrestling over the last two years and the Wolves are the best tag-team in the world. Aries wonders where Richards tag-team partner is. Davey Richards says Wolves hunt in packs and he welcomes Eddie Edwards back. Wow, that was a quick recovery for Edwards. Edwards says that as of noon today, he has been cleared to wrestle. Edwards challenges Austin/Roode to a tag-team best of five series for the belts. Sounds good to me.
Angelina Love is in the ring and is there to cut a promo about “me”. Velvet Sky, who is supposed to be “fired”, comes out of the crowd and into the ring. She has a new look and doesn’t say anything. She just lets Love talk and then spears her and chokes her with her own hair until she’s pulled off.
TNA World Title Match: Kurt Angle (c) vs Eric Young with Bully Ray as Special Referee
Eric Young is wearing hot pink tights which really don’t go with his gimmick. It’s tough watching Angle work at this point in his career. He just looks so stiff like he’s in physical pain out there. The Beat Down Clan came down and distracted Bully Ray and then EY kicked him in the nuts. The Rising came down and brawled with the BDC. EY went to give Bully Ray the Pile Driver but Bully Ray gave EY the backdrop then Angle hit the angle slam for a two count. EY then slipped out of a second angle slam and hit a Pile Driver but Angle kicked out. EY went to the top for a flying cross body block but Angle rolled through and grabbed an ankle lock and EY submitted.
Overall, this was a decent show. I thought the Main Event was anti-climatic but that’s mainly because in my opinion Kurt Angle shouldn’t be their top guy as he’s just not able to go at the speed that he used to be able to go.
Josh Matthews did a fantastic job as the solo commentator on this show. Thank you for not bringing back Al Snow from last week! Matthews does a good job of calling the action in the ring as well as letting the action breathe when necessary. I thought he and Tazz normally did a good job but if Matthews is the solo guy for a while, I have no problem with that.
