The Final Impact
January 23, 2015
By: Josh Boutwell of Wrestleview.com
At times in TNA’s history they have had weeks of Impact where so much stuff was thrown at the viewer so quickly it was impossible to truly digest it and let it sink in. Recently, especially since probably last May or so TNA has gotten so much better at it, but tonight they reverted back to their old ways. If you look at the matches without watching the show you would think there must have been a ton of in-ring action since there were eight matches. You would be extremely wrong. I would say that there MAY have been 30 minutes of total in-ring action (and I am being extremely generous) out of eight matches which is just maddening to me. It is one of the things I hate most about TV wrestling. Not to mention we also got one match with a non-wrestler, a Feast or Fired stupid gimmick match, two no contests, and two DQs. I had Vince Russo flashbacks. Add that with all the non wrestling stuff on the show, it was just too much and honestly just not very good.
TNA went right to the ring, which I do like and it’s nice to see TNA do it, but unfortunately it is one of my least favorite TNA gimmick matches: the Feast or Fired. For a company that is talking about change and all of this to go right back to one of your stupid gimmick matches that most people hated on the FISRT set of TV tapings for the new TV network that sucks pretty hard. It was probably the shortest Feast or Fired Match ever and minus the sequence with The Wolves nothing of note happened. Aries gets the World Title shot, Magnus the Tag Title shot, and Spud the X-Division Title shot while Velvet Sky was fired since she pulled the briefcase down for Robbie. The briefcase reveals were lame like they always are but it was pretty hilarious how Robbie managed to weasel out of getting fired and his reaction was priceless.
King and Lashley went for about 3 minutes so nothing could really happen. King was solid on the mic beforehand and Lashley literally said like 5 words. He needs a mouthpiece to be effective.
Gail and Havok had a pretty solid match while it lasted but was pretty much there to show how dominant and violent Havok can be as they build towards the showdown between she and Kong.
The treatment of Tigre Uno is probably the most frustrating thing in TNA right now and yes I know everyone is going to say it is just because I am a lucha mark. That is partly true but it makes no sense. You hear all the time about how TNA wants to appeal to Hispanic fans and how they want to sign Rey Misterio Jr. or Alberto del Rio or Mistico, but they have an awesome high flying luchador on their roster right now but absolutely refuse to do ANYTHING with him. The guy hasn’t had a feud since the feud with Sanada last year and has become a jobber to new guys. They sent him out to get destroyed by Bram when he first got signed and now the same has happened with Koya. Koya has some potential so I have nothing against him but why does Tigre Uno have to be the sacrificial lamb? Why not some no name jobber from the NYC area? Why are you paying a guy from Mexico, that you have to fly from Mexico and pay for his Visa and all of this other stuff to do nothing with him? When his contract is over I would highly doubt he even considers re-signing and honestly why would TNA WANT to re-sign him. If they haven’t done a single thing with him the year he has been here it is highly doubtful they ever will. Instead of putting on great matches with guys like Low-Ki or Aries or Manik, Tigre Uno is stuck being a jobber and doing nothing. Pointless.
The tag match with EY/Ki and Angle/Roode was okay but again you have four awesome workers but what the hell can they do with like 4 minutes of wrestling? It was really cool to see Ki and Angle in the ring and I would love to see what they could do if they were actually given time.
Storm and Hardy have a fun match, probably the best of the night, and if it was given 10 minutes or so could have been awesome. Matt Hardy really has resurrected his career and I’m happy for him. The match between the Hardyz and Revolution should be fun.
I liked the concept of actually having a street fight ON the street which seems to never happen anymore but just like everything else on the show it didn’t get enough time to really go anywhere before the BDC jumped Lashley. Speaking of the BDC I love the group but I am definitely not thrilled with the name, there wasn’t ANYTHING better they could come up with?
EC3 is a dick and he just continues to act more and more dickish each week which I love. It looks like he still is not fully healed from that arm injury which is why I think he hasn’t truly done anything in the ring yet. I was shocked at Mark Andrews though, that Shooting Star was a thing of beauty! Him and Spud may actually make a good tag team.
I know I sound really negative right now but I am looking forward to Lockdown in a couple of weeks but I just get so frustrated with TV matches that never get time to do anything. I know the storylines are big and need their time but if you can give a promo or a segment 10 minutes of TV time why can’t a match? And I mean more than just one match. I truly wish TNA could get two or three shows every year on Destination America on Sunday’s, Clash of the Champions style, with limited commercial interruption. Pretty much a legit free PPV event, that would be so much better than the Impact specials where they do Lockdown or No Surrender or whatever. Yes, those are fun but they can’t really do more than four matches with decent time.
– Segment/Promo of the Night: Mark Andrews debut/and MVP-Lashley street fight
– Match of the Night: Storm vs. Hardy (**)
– Overall Grade: D
Until next week… PEACE!
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