TNA Impact: Final Thoughts
October 28, 2014
By: Josh Boutwell of Wrestleview.com
There were no previously broadcasted matches or Jeff Jarrett’s DVD clips this week so I must say that is a definite win no matter what else happened! All kidding aside this week we had a pretty good week of in-ring action and I much preferred them airing a slew of different groups this week rather than the two or three groups being focused each week. We got a good mesh of different styles with comedy, brawling, women, X-Division and even some technical wrestling.
The opener between Robbie and Matt was a pretty solid match with both guys going back and forth. I like that they are finally letting Robbie show more of a serious side. He can still be the goofy Robbie E that everyone knows but also show that he is a pretty competent worker.
Galloway and Grado was fine for a short TV match with the story being that Grado respected Galloway so much that he wanted to use this match as a chance to prove that he is more than a goofy sideshow. They could have better illustrated this before the match too though. Grado just doesn’t do it for me with the comedy gimmick and when he gets down to trying to be a serious wrestler it also doesn’t work for me, I know a lot of people like but I just can’t get into it. Drew looked great though.
Crazzy Steve’s string of terrible matches continued this week but at least this time around it wasn’t quite as bad as his match with Shera. Aiden is nothing more than strikes and a few power moves and a stupid gimmick. I will never understand a gimmick like this which is focused around him doing closed fist punches which is illegal in wrestling. It’s as dumb as Big Show’s finish being a closed fist punch, it just doesn’t make logical sense. And you can’t really have a good match, no matter who it is, when one guy only wants to throw punches 90% of the match.
Storm and Abyss had another solid match between the two but I hate anytime Janice gets involved. Every single time you know exactly what is going to happen. Abyss is going to swing it, he will miss, Janice will get stuck on the turnbuckle, the referee will now turn his back to the action, and Abyss will get the shit knocked out of him. It’s time for him to move onto another spot for his matches but at least that wasn’t the finish this time. Instead they went for Storm’s tired go to heel finish but I would be fine with that any day of the week compared to Janice getting involved.
Tigre and Zema had a nice, fast paced match and they really worked well together considering they probably have faced each other dozens of times in Mexico and America combined. They really didn’t get enough time to make everything more fleshed out during the match so instead they had to string a bunch of spots together resulting in a spotfest. It was still entertaining and we got another upset in the tournament. I really wish they would give Zema something more to do and hopefully after the tournament, if TNA still has TV, they can do more with him and maybe even move him into a feud with Tigre.
I loved that the Knockouts got the spotlight in the Main Event and I hope that one of the X-Division matches gets that spotlight at some point in this tournament as well, and maybe even Davey-Edddie will get it next week. That is one thing I thought they had a chance to do with this tournament, give different people a chance to be in the spotlight rather than the same few every week. They had a good match as they always seem to, but it didn’t touch their best matches with each other. Kong looks like she is a bit stiff in the ring right now, I don’t know if she is struggling with a back injury maybe or something else but there are times when she is visibly in pain and it isn’t just her selling. Hopefully that isn’t something that is serious and with the time off she is getting between October and the India tour in December she can heal up whatever is ailing her. Gail was awesome in the match as usual, she is seriously one of the 5 best female wrestlers ever in my opinion.
– Promo/Segment of the Night: The Kong-Gail history vignettes
– Match of the Night: Gail vs. Kong (***)
– Overall Grade: C+