The Final Impact
July 4, 2014
By: Josh Boutwell of Wrestleview.com
Thursday night wasn’t as entertaining as the last few weeks have been and what was likely an exhausted crowd by this point in those tapings seems to be showing. I really find it stupid and sad when you don’t give a World Title match more than 10 minutes. Lashley and EY had a good thing going there and were telling a simple but effective story with EY trying to hit and run the bigger and stronger Lashley before his leg injury. Lashley didn’t even get a chance to work on the leg enough because they were trying to cram everything into a less than 10 minute match which does no one any favors. Nonetheless Lashley still looks dominant as ever and gets his clean win over EY as EY still has an out saying that his injury hampered him.
I thought the beginning of the Angle regime went well as he came out looking like the fair, unbiased authority figure that wrestling fans are desperate for right now.
The return of Rhino was a nice surprise and I don’t know if he is here to stay or if TNA just brought him in for this Bully Ray angle, but nonetheless it was good to see him again and his history with Bully should make for an interesting dynamic to this feud. EC3 once again pulls out a victory, by hook or by crook still a victory.
The Tag Title match was solid and face paced and it is definitely time for them to start positioning some new teams to vie for that belt. With some returning stars there could be some fresh teams that could come into play as well as I think what could be a fun dynamic with Tigre Uno and Manik as a team in the future.
The Knockouts had a very solid effort and it was good to see a clean finish there for a change. Not sure where things are going to go but I would assume Terrell will get involved along with BP as well. Madison and Brittany have a good thing going and Brittany comes off sort of like the female Sam Shaw, to a less degree.
Speaking of Shaw, this could actually be interesting if it ends up that he just conned everyone to get out of the nut house and turns out even more psycho in the future. We will just have to see.
Really most of the promos tonight were very solid especially from Roode, Angle, MVP, and Bully Ray on Thursday. Roode has been on his A-game. The brawl with King was entertaining and gets Roode a solid win on his return.
The negatives for Thursday were really just that the wrestling, as solid as it was, was just too short. With more time every single match could have been so much more. That is what TNA has always seemed to struggle with and in the past it didn’t hurt as much because they had 3-hour PPVs every month that had plenty of in-ring action. Now there is only four PPVs every year and they struggle to have more than one match that is longer than ten minutes. They really have to get better at balancing the promos out with also giving us quality, lengthy matches.
– Segment/Promo of the Night: Madison/Brittany and the return of Rhino
– Match of the Night: EY vs. Lashley (**1/2)
– Overall Grade: C+
I hope everyone has a terrific fourth of July and as always Roll Tide!
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