21/03/2013 TNA Impact Wrestling Review – Bully Ray Tells The Tale Of Aces And Eights

 

Hey there, TNA fans. I’m Tom Robinson. And it’s time to talk… TNA.

On Thursday, a taping of Impact Wrestling was aired. And to be honest, I’m not that much of a fan of tapings. But, this one was a very unique show, with about a 1/4 of it or so given to Bully Ray to give us a story about his plan to become the TNA World Champion with Aces And Eights. Bully Ray is a very good story-teller, and TNA did a really good job tying up some loose ends, like how Aces And Eights D’Lo Brown stepped into the voting of Gut-Check to vote in fellow Aces And Eights member, Wes Brisco. Also, the way Bully Ray justified getting his ass kicked by fellow members of Aces And Eights by simply stating, “He was taking one for the team” was really well done. it makes it clear that this group does not run as dictatorship, like the Nexus did. Also, this story made it clear that TNA actually had a long-term plan for this storyline which is always good to see. Unlike WWE, which hardly ever has long-term plans nowadays, TNA sat down and said, “Right this is what’s going to happen in the next year with this story”, and they did it without worrying about whether online fans worked out what was going to happen. It was really well done. It makes the stable unique. Although it was a shame the group were not actually part of the taping itself (other than Bully Ray confronting his wife Brooke), they are still probably the best thing going in wrestling right now. With a live Open Fight Night next week, the next developments in the storyline should be interesting.

On the show, AJ Styles was set to be interviewed by Mike Tenay, who wanted to know why AJ attacked James Storm last week. But, as Mike was asking a question, Tazz interrupted and offered a spot in Aces And Eights for AJ (which was a really ballsy move from Tazz, who dissed AJ’s motorbike and told him he had to work his way up). I thought the interruption was kinda funny. Then James Storm confronted AJ and wanted to know why. However, AJ was still speechless and left the ring. I really do like this new attitude AJ’s got about him, and his storyline will no doubt be a phenomenal one… hehehe.

Also, Taryn Terrell was added to the Knockouts Division. Bobby Roode and Austin Aires retained the tag team titles in a fair match against Chavo and Hernandez but were beaten down by Daniels and Kazarian. Kenny King defeated Sonjay Dutt and Zema Ion in a triple threat to retain the X-Division Championship in a short match, which wasn’t really helped by Sonjay’s botches. But it’s always nice to see the X-Division in action. Matt Morgan defeated Joseph Park. And Hulk Hogan and Sting had another heated argument. Hogan told Sting to “hang out in the rafters and go disappear for a couple of years” which I thought was kind of funny.

Also, Jeff Hardy became the number one contender for the TNA World Champion, by defeating Samoa Joe, Magnus and Kurt Angle in a fatal four way. This match was made at the start of the show by Hulk Hogan in order to thank the leaders of the fight against Aces And Eights. But if Hulk Hogan wanted to win the war against Aces And Eights so badly, why put the 4 leaders of TNA against each other? Why have them beat the hell out of each other so Aces And Eights can pick up the scraps? Doesn’t really make sense in my eyes. But anyway, the match was not bad actually. Especially at the beginning of the match. It was really fast-paced, really entertaining and a really good display of talent by the 4 individuals. However, there were some sloppy parts of the match, especially the ending. It just looked really rushed, and the match ended so abruptly. Jeff hit the Swanton Bomb on Samoa Joe after knocking Magnus into Kurt Angle. He went for the cover on Joe, and got the win – EVEN THOUGH Angle broke it up before the ref made the 3 count. What the hell? It just looked so sloppy. At least, Bully Ray will defeat Jeff to retain the title, and Jeff can hopefully got RIGHT down the card.

To be honest, it wasn’t that great of a show in my opinion. I really enjoyed Bully Ray’s story of how he rose to the top of TNA. I loved his story-telling. But other than that, this episode was kind of a disappointment. BUT, we’ve got open fight night next week, which should be very a good show!

TNA Genesis 2013 Review – Super Hardy Wins Again! Christopher Daniels Becomes The Number One Contender!

BULLY RAY: A little strange that the man on the poster for Genesis doesn’t even have a match on the card. Did show up for 2 segments though.

 

“Greetings and salutations, all you ham sandwiches!” Christopher Daniels

Hehehehe

TNA Genesis review for you guys!

SUPER HARDY! SUPER HARDY!

Yes, TNA have their very own John Cena, in the Charismatic Enigma Jeff Hardy, who successfully retained the TNA World Heavyweight Championship in a triple threat elimination match against Bobby Roode and Austin Aries at Genesis. I think it was a decent triple threat match and they were some brilliant spots in the match which included the traditional Doomsday Device modified with Jeff Hardy hitting the Whisper In The Wind. However, I’ve got 3 problems with the match:

1. 75% of the match was effectively a handicap match. OK, I get that that Bobby Roode and Austin Aires gonna team up up to take out Jeff Hardy, but considering the egos these guy supposedly had, surely they had to turn on each other sooner than later. The whole point of a triple threat is that all 3 guys fight one another. Roode and Aries fought each other for about 1 minute. Roode or Austin should’ve turned on the other a lot sooner.

2. The eliminations were way too close to each other in time. After Bobby Roode got eliminated, Aries didn’t last before being eliminated himself. I really wanted to see him and Hardy scrap for a little bit longer.

3. Why do TNA feel the need to make Jeff Hardy out to be their very own John Cena. Overcoming the odds of the greatest heels in TNA like Cena would? Really? Jeff Hardy gets his ass-kicked for about 90% of the match and at the end of the match somehow defeats them both? BULLSHIT.

I’m not surprised that Hardy won the fight, but this was totally the wrong way to end the match. Decent match, but seemed like a glorified handicap match than a triple threat.

Christopher Daniels Becomes The Number One Contender For The TNA World Heavyweight Championship

Yes! I am so happy with this result! Daniels defeat James Storm, and became the number one contender for the World title. Get In! Daniels is no doubt worthy of being the world champion, and I’m surprised he hasn’t been up until this point. Daniels defeated James Storm in a solid match between the two after a distraction from Kazarian, and he gets a TNA World Title shot on the 24th of January Episode of Impact, and I REALLY do hope that he wins the gold. YES! Happy with the match and happy with the result.

Sting Gets Revenge

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

In what was a pretty boring match, Sting defeated DOC and got revenge for the hammer attack a couple of a months ago. Seriously, the had Sting win with such ease, it made DOC look SO goddamn bad. Aces And Eights tried to jump Sting afterwards, but Bully Ray made the save. DOC seriously should have won here. And the match absolutely sucked.

 

Rob Van Dam Retains The X-Division Title

Kenny King and Christian York faced off in what I thought was a pretty decent match. Kenny King showed off some amazing abilities and York did pretty well and there were a couple of spots in that match that were pulled off really well. I thought the finish was good to with the cradle pin being reversed into another pin by York to get the win. Kenny King then laid out York with a beast finisher, which I don’t know the name of. And York was out… which wasn’t a good thing considering he had his title match with RVD next, which RVD easily won. I’m not surprised by the results of both matches, but all I want to say is… Kenny King needs the X-Division Title. Come on, TNA. Put the belt on him already.

 

DO NOT BOOK SAMOA JOE VS MR ANDERSON AGAIN TNA

These guys do not click AT ALL. This match was beyond boring. It started of pretty feisty and aggressive by Samoa Joe, but then the match just slowed right down. It was slowly becoming boring as hell. That’s not to take anything anything away from Mr Anderson or Samoa Joe. I think they are both capable wrestlers. But its hard to get interested in a match with wrestlers these sizes, and it limits the work these two can do together. Samoa Joe is athletic and can move, but is still very big and Mr Anderson isn’t as quick with his game as Joe. So I wasn’t expecting much from this match, and I didn’t get much. TNA, Anderson and Joe just don’t seem to click. By the way, Mike Knox distracted Joe, allowing Anderson to get the win.

 

GAIL KIM DOMINATES THE KNOCKOUTS GAUNTLET, BUT GETS SCREWED

Gail Kim basically dominated this gauntlet, eliminating Miss Tessmacher, ODB and Mickie James in quick succession, not allowing any of the pairings to put together a good showing. I get they were trying to keep energy up through-out the match, but these matches should have been at least a little bit longer. It was then down to Gail Kim and Velvet Sky, and Sky won despite Kim’s foot being on the rope. Now it seems that the knockouts referee Taryn Terrell is about to start a feud with Gail Kim, considering they were arguing through-out the gauntlet, and Kim got screwed at the end. And if this feud results in a match between the two, I do hope Taryn’s training in OVW will help perform in the ring. I don’t know how well this girl works in the ring, but hopefully she and Gail can put together a good match. I’m not surprised that Velvet Sky won. You could tell she was gonna win, because she just returned and now she is gonna feud with Tara over the Knockouts title. Hopefully this is a good feud for the gold.

 

Send Joey Ryan To OVW

Chavo Guerrero and Hernandez defeated Matt Morgan and Joey Ryan to retain the tag team titles. Worst Tag Team Match I’ve seen in a while. This match was just a total mess, and it’s bad enough they put together two big guys in a tag match… but Joey Ryan needs to stay the hell away from the ring. Seriously, he f**ked up a lot of moves in that match, and nearly broke his own neck taking a powerbomb from Hernandez. Ryan has a great gimmick, no doubt. But his ring-work is absolutely terrible. He’s sloppy and was all over the place in that match, and what’s worse is that he was tagged in a lot in that match, so TNA showcased his shitness a lot, and his front-facelock on Hernandez looked plain ridiculous. And he’s just bringing down Matt Morgan, who came back to TNA, big-booting everyone and looking like this total bad-ass, and he’s stuck with this tool, acting like his trainer. Matt Morgan looked like he was about to snap Ryan in half after the match, and I do hope he turns on Ryan starts going into singles competition.

 

Devon Defeats Joseph Park

The fans were into this one a lot. The fans were split, with “Let’s go Devon” and Let’s go Joseph” chants colliding. They started off the match with Devon toying with Joseph and out-wrestling him and slapping him in the hand, being the traditional heel giant Goliath facing David. Park would then assemble a comeback, demonstrating actual wrestling from his “OVW training” which got the fans popping, and got Devon really peeved. This match was similar to the DOC one, except Park actually showed some wrestling in this one, and the match actually wasn’t that bad. As you’d expect, Park was busted open, saw blood, morphed into Abyss, kicked the crap out of Devon, and delivered a Black-Hole Slam. I’m actually suprised Devon kicked out. It made him look good when he did it. Park was about to chokeslam Devon, but then he got stunned, and like his match with DOC, he got beat. Very similar to his match with DOC, but it was actually made a lot better with Park showing wrestling abilities and the crowd were really into it, making me really into it. And the crowd does make the match sometimes. Pretty good.

 

Overall, I think Genesis was a good PPV, but I think it was just predictable as hell. All my predictions were right (expect with the Daniels vs Storm match. I thought Storm would win to be honest) and I just feel that they should have had some moments that none of those would suspect would happen. The show should be flat out unpredictable, but it wasn’t, and it made the show seem flat.