1/26 Impact: Feast or Fired

 

 

The last weeks Impact has featured at least one really great match on Impact but also has really ramped things up with great promos and storyline progression all across the show. We didn’t get anything that was “blow you away good” in the ring this week which was a disappointment but storylines are continuing to progress and some really interesting things are being set into motion. 

 

The first and most obvious thing to touch on is the drama between the Hardy Boyz. The Jeff Hardy injury angle is likely being done for two reasons. 1, because Jeff can’t go on the European tour so this is their annual injury angle to explain why Jeff isn’t in the UK and 2, so Jeff can have the knee surgery he needs. Jeff just re-signed with TNA so this isn’t the last we will see of him (his contract was set to expire in the coming months before he re-signed) and it is likely this beef with Matt and Jeff will be revisited down the line. Hopefully it is better than the brief feuds in the past have gone but I like the way they are going about it. Matt said that he was washing his hands of anything that happened to Jeff tonight and you can take Bram and EY’s attack on Jeff a couple of ways. EY blames Jeff for him being eliminated in the World Title Series and they are both nuts so that could be the reason or Matt possibly put them up to it. Or even possibly TNA is forming an alliance with Bram and EY joining up with Tyrus and Matt to form a new group. I’m sure we will know more in the coming weeks but that whole angle was done really well and the Piledriver off the apron was sick. 

 

I have never been a big fan of the Feast or Fired Match because it has all of the things about Battle Royals I hate so much (just a bunch of standing around and kicking and punching for long stretches) and the annoyance of “____ on a pole” matches. At least they didn’t string out the revealing of the contents in the briefcase and it happened pretty much the way you would expect. I fully expect Grado to appear in the UK, though, and they will likely be doing an angle for him to get his redemption there. Beer Money has their Tag Title shot and also Steve and Abyss attacked them during the show as well so there could be an upcoming 3-Way feud with The Decay, Beer Money, and The Wolves, but I hope The Wolves-Beer Money get a long stretch together. 

 

Speaking of “The Decay,” it seems that will be team name for Crazzy Steve and Abyss. I absolutely love this thing. Steve has been a comedy/joke character since coming to TNA and this maniacal psycho clown thing seems to fit him really well. Courtney Rush/Rosemary had an awesome look and I like “The Decay” name too, and finally Abyss might be used well for the first time in awhile. I can’t wait to see where they go from here and they need to give Bram and EY a team name as well if they are going to be together going forward. It is a pet peeve of mine for tag teams to not have team names, I don’t get why it seems so hard for WWE and TNA to come up with tag team names sometimes. 

 

The X-Division Match was fun and was nonstop action but not much of a story there. Still fun to watch and I loved Shane Helms’ promo after the match. I don’t know if Shane is preparing for a full time return to the ring but him in the X-Division will add something interesting to a growing roster. I am definitely looking forward to next week. 

 

Awesome Kong-Velvet Sky was fine for what it was, just a chance for Kong to beat the crap out of Velvet. Velvet has long passed her usefulness in the ring. She is beautiful as hell and very popular but if they are going to keep her around it needs to be as a valet/manger and nothing more. She just is not good in the ring. Don’t get me wrong, she never was but she has regressed considerably over the past few years. 

 

– Promo/Segment of the Night: EY/Bram attack on Jeff/Shane Helms promo 

– Match of the Night: X-Division 3-Way (**1/2)

– Overall Grade: C