The Final Impact
January 17, 2014
By: Josh Boutwell of Wrestleview.com
There really isn’t much better of a way to bore the hell out of an audience than opening up with a 30 minute segment that lasts over 3 commercial breaks. I 100% understand wanting to set the table for tonight and for what’s coming, I get it but that was entirely too long and just uncalled for.
With that said the 12-Person Tag was really fun even thought it was a bit of a spotfest that could have been a bit longer too. It was interesting to see Abyss attack the babyfaces too, THAT is how the monster is supposed to act.
Bully/Anderson was by far the best match of the night and was really fun from start to finish. They beat the hell out of each other and told a good story to boot with Ray getting so far in Anderson’s head that it cost him the match. I love this new Bully character.
What the hell was the deal with Sam Shaw? Good lord that was weird but I guess effective.
I was pretty disappointed that our first glimpse of The American Wolves was in a short backstage vignette, but at the same time it seemingly is setting up a bigger storyline with the new “investor.” They are definitely playing into all of the rumors that started up last year with sites claiming that investors were trying to either buy TNA outright or buy a share. Could this be a way for Jeff Jarrett to come back in and the whole thing with him was a work? I doubt it but that would be interesting.
I’m not a massive American Wolves fan but I have enjoyed all the matches I’ve seen of them together. As singles wrestlers they impress me a lot less, but they can definitely bring something positive to the tag team division. Hopefully we get a Bad Influence vs. Wolves feud sooner rather than later. Kazarian and Daniels could help them out in the promo department as well and maybe help bring some character out.
Madison and Gail was mediocre at best, they’ve both done far better and it was just too short for them to get anything to go anyway. Good to see Madison with the belt again though.
I hated Aries’ promo with Sabin, this version of Austin Aries is not appealing. We want the cocky heel that couldn’t care less about the way Velvet is being treated by Sabin, not “Captain Save-A-Broad.”
EC3 is never going to be able to show us if he can do anything if every time he’s in the ring with an actual wrestler and not some jobber they just do interferences and stupid gimmicks. Would you please let the guy show if he can do ANYTHING?
It sounds like that either Sting has a) officially decided not to re-sign with TNA, b) TNA has decided not to extend Sting’s contract, or c) they just want to play on the reports that came out this week that Sting hadn’t resigned with TNA yet. The fact that this thing was thrown out there so quick leads me to believe it’s either a) or c).
– Segment/Promo of the Night: American Wolves debut
– Match of the Night: Bully vs. Anderson (***1/2)
– Overall Grade: B-
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