TNA Impact: Final Thoughts
November 4, 2014
By: Josh Boutwell of Wrestleview.com
The World Title Series continues on Impact this week and once again we get a wrestling heavy episode which I definitely prefer, but this week they did a bit more to add some other aspects to the show. First, EY played mind games with Roode all night leading up to their match and they played on the past between the two which was nice. They also played up the interview with Hardy all night though the interview itself was really a bunch of nothing other than an excuse to put Jeff on the show.
I love the structure of the show that they have moved to with a bunch of different groups being featured every week rather than 3 particular groups each week like they started out doing. It gives a bunch of different styles and matchups a chance. This week’s matches weren’t quite as good as last week but it was still a really solid night of action.
The opening match between Brooke and Madison was just kind of flat and didn’t do much for me. I can actually say the same for Davey-Eddie shockingly. I was really looking forward to that match but it just felt flat to me. Part of it had to do with the fact that they are both babyfaces and the fans couldn’t really get behind one or the other, but part of it was that they really never went into third gear in the match. We’ve seen Eddie and Davey go all out in the past, in ROH, and have some hellacious matches. This one was solid and they really played up the “friends knowing each other” gag that promotions always do when tag team partners face each other, but they did a nice twist on it with some of the spots they used. It was still a solid match and both guys worked hard but it just fell short of my expectations for the match.
Though Davey-Eddie fell short of my expectations Manik-Mandrews and Shera-King exceeded my expectations. Manik went all out with the lucha style submissions and Mandrews, for his part, also brought out some nice mat wrestling there too. I think when you see those two guys in a match you expect a ton of flying but it was a more mat based match while Mandrews attempted to take it to the air, and the story of the match was Manik’s work on Mandrews’ arm and Mandrews making mistakes playing to the crowd when he should have been going for the pin. The submissions and holds Manik broke out were just great.
Shera-King was one of the better singles matches Shera has had since coming to TNA and a lot of that had to do with King. The finish was really great, that spot was nice as hell, and the rest of the match was decent as well. They tried to add some storyline to it with King’s promo before the match but no one gives a damn.
Do I need to bitch about them airing the Jeff Jarrett DVD clips again? You know how I feel, it’s just stupid.
Bram-Spud was okay with them playing up the small guy going fast to try and surprise the bigger guy but they just didn’t have enough time to really do anything with that type of a story.
Roode-EY was okay but we have seen those two damn near kill each other in matches so there really wasn’t much they were going to do there that we haven’t seen, especially considering it was a sub-10 minute match. Still it was good while it lasted.
-Promo/Segment of the Night: EY mind games on Roode
-Match of the Night: Davey vs. Eddie (***)
-Overall Grade: C-