The Final Impact
November 15, 2013
By: Josh Boutwell of Wrestleview.com
TNA didn’t throw things at us at break neck speed tonight but this time there just seemed to be a lot of filler. I have to start by talking about the Main Event. This is the first time I can remember Angle and Aries facing each other one-on-one and it’s a dream match, but man did that finish really kill that match? I know they wanted to keep the Roode-Angle feud going but Aries had been selling his ankle for a good 10 minutes and they really did some great spots on that but then he taps to a Crossface?! Man, that was awful. I’m fine with Angle doing the Crossface to send a message to Roode but not at that point. The Ankle Lock was set up perfect and they told a great story with Aries going after Angle’s neck and knee the whole match and Aries’ ankle just to ruin it with such a horrid decision. Whoever thought that was a good idea needs to be slapped in the face. It was still a fantastic match but the finish just hurts it so badly to me.
The opening segment with A&8 was pretty boring (other than Brooke’s twerking) though it did set up the stipulation for the match next week with Ray and Anderson. I think we’re all expecting Anderson to win and finally end A&8 so they can move on. Here’s to hoping TNA doesn’t try to swerve us simply for the sake of doing a swerve.
Anderson/Knux, Park/Daniels, the Handicap Match, and Hannah/Gail were all very average and just filler, like I said before. None of it was bad but none of it was very appealing either. I like Gail’s Open Challenge but Hannah Blossom is just so young and unknown that nobody really cared. It will be interesting if they use this to bring in some really good young knockouts or even some veterans that haven’t been around in awhile. It’s time for EC3 to do something else, it’s just getting ridiculous with these jobbers.
Dixie’s promo was HORRID! That is the only way I can say it, man that was bad. Her exaggerated accent is intentional, I understand that, but it’s just annoying and comes off forced. Samao Joe was the only that shined the most in that segment to me especially since he was the first person to actually acknowledge that AJ will have never lost the belt and saying that he will defend it if he wins it against AJ regardless anywhere.
The Joseph Park/Abyss thing was actually pretty entertaining and it’s going to be interesting to see what they do here. I think it’s about time to see this whole storyline come to a conclusion here and so it will be interesting to see how it goes. Anderson takes Bischoff out so that will likely keep him away from interfering next week and I would assume something will be done with Knux as well.
The Main Event was fantastic, despite the finish, but everything else was just kind of there. Hopefully next week will be a standout episode.
– Promo/Segment of the Night: Samoa Joe
– Match of the Night: Angle vs. Aries (****)
– Overall Grade: C+
Until next week… PEACE!
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