The Final Impact
August 2, 2013
By: Josh Boutwell of Wrestleview.com
It’s truly sad that after Austin Aries & AJ Styles tore the house all the way to the ground and Manik & Sabin gave me a Luchagasm that I really can’t even start off without talking about what everyone seems to be crying about…Tito Ortiz.
It’s the end of TNA! Oh my god, this is horrible! There is no coming back from this! To hell with all the roster releases and possible money issues, the fact that Tito Ortiz has come to TNA to do some type of inter promotional storyline is going to be the death of TNA! There, I just did the IWC’s rant for everyone.
Am I thrilled about Tito Ortiz, does it excite me? No but again it doesn’t make me want to kick an infant either. It’s an obvious, not subtle at all, attempt by SpikeTV to get some buzz and hype going for Ortiz/Rampage in Bellator for later this year. For TNA it’s an attempt to get some buzz going OUTSIDE the wrestling world to draw some eyes that otherwise wouldn’t be seeing it. Will that accomplish much for them? I don’t know but I don’t mind the attempt either.
I’m not going to disrespect what AJ/Aries did last night anymore by talking about something else any further either. AJ and Austin Aries put on an absolute classic, in my mind, last night. An awesome match from start to finish. They killed each other with stiff shots, they mat wrestled, they flew, they traded submissions. It was just flat out fantastic. Yes, a more decisive finish would have made it that much more sweet but it just makes me want that rematch in the Finals that much more. To hell with any other matchup, that’s the one I want. With all the marbles on the line, winner goes to BFG, AJ Styles vs. Austin Aries for 30 minutes with no obligation other than to turn it up!
Sabin and Manik had an awesome match as well. The chain wrestling sequence was just off the charts and the Lucha influence obviously made me love it that much more. Manik is so smooth with all of his spots and he is incredibly fast. The odd thing is they didn’t fly a whole lot which was a bit different for an X-Division match but doesn’t take away from how good it was. Hebner had a couple of flubs in that match which made things look odd some too.
ODB/Gail was solid knockouts action and Roode/Hernandez was pretty good too. Roode told a great story literally pulling out all the tricks to get the job done and now it will be interesting to see his rise after getting his mojo back.
The opening promo from Aries was excellent as was Roode with his win putting the exclamation point on his promo. AJ was very effective as well.
The ending angle was okay for what it was I guess. A 10-Man Tag is going to be a cluster but hopefully we get a fun garbage style match there. Tito’s entrance was something I had been expecting since all the rumors started to spring up and again it doesn’t do much for me but I’m not going to throw myself into traffic just yet either.
– Promo/Segment of the Night: Aries/Roode
– Match of the Night: AJ/Aries (****1/2) – give me a decisive finish and it’d be perfect
– Overall Grade: A
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