The Final Impact
July 19, 2013
By: Josh Boutwell of Wrestleview.com
Before I talk about Destination X I’m going to address all the rumors and releases TNA have down over the past week (and this will likely be the only time I do so). It obviously looks like TNA is financially going through very rough times and people have been fired and likely more to come. It has led some sites to suggest that this could be the end for TNA soon. Now TNA has had financial problems in the past but certain bloated contracts (Hulk Hogan) and the added cost of going on the road for Impact has obviously taken its toll on TNA. It’s no secret I’m a TNA fan, if I wasn’t it would be very hard for me to do this every week. I approached Adam Martin in 2008 about trying out for the Impact recap because Wrestleview didn’t have one at the point. I was thinking about going back to school and writing was something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. So I have obvious reasons for hoping that all of this doesn’t end up being the death of TNA, but honestly it actually pisses me off to hear and see some of the things that people have been saying (Twitter, Facebook, etc.). How you can HATE a wrestling company to the point that you wish for its downfall and even gloat about it possibly going out of business is beyond me. Does that make these people feel better to wish 100s of people out of a job? I don’t normally go out of my way to trash people but stuff like this just kills me. You hate something, no one forces you to talk about or even watch it. Okay, I’m done ranting.
Destination X was a fun show almost the whole way through minus a few hiccups here and there, but every bit of the action was good. 5 really fun, good matches. TNA is 3 weeks in a row with just flat out fun TV.
The opening segment with Ray was good until the Hogan’s were brought into the deal. There was no need for that on Destination X, that could have been done next week or never.
Roode/Aries was excellent, not quite as good as their DX match, but it was really, really good. I’m not sure where they’re going with Roode and his meltdown ringside (kind of reminded me of Chris Jericho’s freakouts back in WCW).
All 3 X-Division 3-Ways were really fun and they weren’t carbon copies of each other. It was great to see Homicide again and it just makes me miss L.A.X. that much more. Sonjay’s finish is still plain old nasty. Manik/King/Chavo was the Manik show with him hitting all kinds of crazy spots, but the really crazy thing is we still haven’t even really scratched the surface on what TJ Perkins can do. Greg/Rubix/Spud was good but I obviously, as a Lucha mark, wanted Rubix to win. I’m very ignorant to Greg aka Trent Barreta as I don’t recall ever even seeing him once when he was in WWE, but he really surprised me. The guy is athletic as hell and really entertaining. He also has a different look but damn that name is just horrible. I’m not making fun of his given name but I have to type that out every week! Can’t we just call the guy Barreta?
MEM chasing A&8 into that room was pretty dumb but kind of expected. Angle being kidnapped and then coming back was weird as they really didn’t explain how Angle got back other than implying he beat up his captor and stole the truck.
Gail & Mickie’s promo was pretty good and it looks like they’re keeping Gail heel which could make that match difficult next week.
Aries coming up to Sabin and talking him up was a really nice touch and I dug that.
The Main Event was really, really good. They told the obvious story of the evil heel going after the previously injured babyfaces leg with the babyface refusing to give up. They obviously could have done a lot more had they went with a straight up match but the targeting of the knee played into both Ray’s character and storytelling of the match. I’ve seen people complain that Sabin looks weak having “cheating” to win but you can’t forget that it looked like Sabin had the match won with the Missile Dropkick before the ref got knocked down. Regardless the finish was truly surprising and I don’t think anyone saw it coming. The fans seemed to not even buy until the referee’s hand came down for three. That was a really cool moment for Sabin, to go from 2 years away because of knee surgeries to winning a belt literally no one thought you would ever get is pretty awesome. Also with all the negativity that surrounded TNA this week that was a really cool moment for that reason as well.
Now onto the title change itself. I can’t complain too much because it gives Option C even more relevance for next year (hopefully) but at the same time I think continuing to build this Bully title run could have led to a REALLY hot Main Event at BFG between he and whoever the winner is (how about the anti-hero AJ becoming the hero again?) of the BFG Series. Either way it was a great night and Hail Sabin!
– Promo/Segment of the Night: Mickie/Gail
– Match of the Night: TIE – Ray/Sabin and Roode/Aries (****)
– Overall Grade: A
Until next week… PEACE!
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