Bryan Staebell
Impact Recap for 1/9
The AJ Styles era in TNA ended in comically horrific fashion on Thursday night. In a show taped long enough ago for Styles to have already begun the next phase of his career on the indy scene, Magnus defeated AJ to gain sole claim to the TNA Title. This was one of those “on paper” shows. They had some ideas here that probably looked pretty good…”on paper”. Even if you buy into the farce that was this execution of an angle…it becomes undeniably preposterous when you consider that Styles isn’t walking back through the door anytime soon.
The entire show was built around eliminating any chance for Styles to win his unification match with Magnus. All of his “friends” were taken out throughout the show. Samoa Joe was injured by EC3. Kurt Angle was escorted from the arena under the guise of an emergency he needed to attend to. ODB was attacked by Gail Kim and Lei’D Tapa leading to Eric Young having to take her for medical attention. The attempt to injure Sting didn’t take and he was the only one left to try and help AJ get a fair shot at winning. With the babyfaces decimated…the main event was less of a wrestling match and more of a mugging. EC3, Rockstar Spud, Robbie E, Jesse Godderz, Zema Ion, Christopher Daniels, Kazarian and Bobby Roode all constantly interfered as Styles just tried to survive.
Now…this wasn’t a PPV…it was a TV show, so all of this could have been forgivable or borderline fun if, after 2 hours of Dixie’s troops running wild and winning every encounter, Styles had won. But he didn’t.
It could have even passed as a questionable but decent angle if it led to Styles returning to the company full time to seek revenge on Dixie, Magnus and the EIGHT people who interfered. But he isn’t.
What we ended up with was a ridiculous over the top joke of a show that hurt nearly everyone involved. Except, hilariously, AJ Styles.
The entire thing was a rip off of the evil McMahon character with Dixie in the Vince role. The story they want you to take away from the show is that you don’t cross Dixie or you will be taken out like AJ and friends were. The irony is that Dixie finally found her voice in the opening segment. It’s easily the best she’s ever performed…enough of a step forward where you have to wonder if she really does harbor a lot of ill will towards Styles because of the failed negotiations. You could feel her hatred for Styles, it was painted all over her face and in every crack of her voice, and quite frankly she’s simply not that good of an actress. Whatever the case…they immediately threw away any of the kudos Dixie gained here by plastering her ALL OVER THE SHOW. Seriously, she was in every segment.
Under Dixie’s command almost the entire show (they made some time to advance a couple of other stories) was Dixie’s hit squad eliminating “friends of AJ Styles”. She booked EC3 to face Samoa Joe…which ended when Carter hit Joe in the knee with a wrench (and then quipped “I guess I threw a wrench in your plans”. This man is impossible to hate). They announced the finish as a no contest to protect EC3’s undefeated streak…despite interference from Spud and EC3 using the illegal foreign object. Why they couldn’t have just done a double count out before the attack is beyond me.
Sting was put into a cage match with Bobby Roode (the cage was up because Kurt Angle had an open challenge to prepare for his Bobby Roode cage match next week). They actually had a pretty good match (because, again, Bobby Roode is fantastic). Roode won after hitting Sting with a baton in the gut and escaping the cage. He didn’t get the job done though as Sting was able to make his way to help AJ in the main event.
The main event, as mentioned, was everyone in the world running in as Styles and Sting tried to fight them off. The crowd was going ape shit for Styles’ comebacks. At one point he hit the best sequence ever on Bad Influence (Kaz monkeyflipped him out of the corner, he landed on his feet and clotheslined a posing Daniels, ducked Kaz and hit the pele) and the crowd lost their minds. Earl Hebner became so fed up with the interference (the match was no DQ…so technically he had nothing to complain about) that he walked out and refused to count AJ down. Brian Hebner was sent down and after AJ kicked out they knocked him out. A third ref eventually made his way down to count the pin after Bobby Roode hit AJ over and over with his “Payoff” finisher over and over. Anytime it looked like AJ was going to overcome everything the crowd forgave the ridiculous spectacle of it. When Magnus won they just DIED. You can’t blame them. The way they booked this match, and the whole show, of course AJ was winning. But he didn’t. The crowd wasn’t even mad. They were just silent. They had the mood of a crowd who just watched 2 hours of bullshit but didn’t realize it was bullshit until the last second.
Where they go from here is anyone’s guess. They clearly, and foolishly, booked this believing that Styles would be back immediately. He, and to a lesser extent Sting (though he just vanished in the mass of heels in the end), is the only one who came out of this whole mess with any momentum. And he doesn’t work there. Bobby Roode was protected from the mess by being the last one out, destroying Styles leading to his loss, and never having to be involved in the “Sting and AJ are winning this 2 on 8 battle” disaster.
Other stuff on the show:
Kurt Angle beat Bad Influence in a cage match. Good match obviously. They should treat Bad Influence better than losing handicap matches…but man Angle suplexing the shit out of them for stretches of this match was really awesome. I guess there is the one highlight of this show. Kurt Angle and Bobby Roode both came out of the show looking strong and they are in the featured match next week.
Bro Mans beat Eric Young and Joseph Park. This was where the ODB attack went down and Eric Young abandoned Park to attend to her. Park eventually lost.
Gunner and James Storm had a segment to set up their match for the TNA title shot briefcase next week. This segment was equal part worthless and done exactly right. They aired their grievances, shook hands, and decided to settle it like men. Bot no one cared.
Finally we had Mr. Anderson and Bully Ray do a segment back in the funeral home where they had that great comedy segment a few weeks ago. Cheesy music, Bully Ray magically disappearing into thin air…this segment had it all. Bully cut a good promo at least. The gist was that Anderson took everything from him when he put his Aces and 8’s vest in the coffin…so he told Anderson to look in the coffin now. Bully had put twin baby items in there to tell Anderson what he was willing to take from him (Anderson’s wife is expecting twins).
This show had the most viewers Impact has had since Destination X last July. Something tells me next week won’t be so kind.
Genesis Preview
Finally a show that isn’t already taped! Genesis will be presented as a two week event with the first, live, part airing this Thursday and the second half airing, taped, next Thursday. They will be in Huntsville Alabama in the same building where they ran their first ever show. Sad to think of that in relation to the Styles situation and Jeff Jarrett recently resigning. But hey, James Storm can have a big night.
They haven’t been specific about which matches will take place on which broadcast…but Genesis is built around 5 matches that they’ve been building towards on TV for some time:
Kurt Angle vs. Bobby Roode in a cage
Sting vs. EC3
Bully Ray vs. Mr. Anderson
James Storm vs. Gunner for the TNA title shot
Gail Kim vs. Madison Rayne for the Knockout title
In addition, Dixie tweeted that the influx of new talent should begin at Genesis. This is an important thing for them. They need to make a clean break from that awful Impact ending and start fresh in a lot of ways. If Styles is gone then let that show serve as the true end of an era and start giving us something new. They’d been making strides in that direction before the Styles contract ending forced a detour. I don’t know who they’ve been looking at or talking to. PWInsider wrote that they’ve been looking at people who have been/are in RoH and people from the indys. Basically anyone who hasn’t been in WWE or TNA before.
Random Odyssey
There’s a lot of chatter that Jeff Jarrett will be starting a new promotion with Toby Keith as the backer (they were rumored to be the front runners to buy TNA at one point).
AJ Styles has bookings during the TNA UK trip…so any hope that this might still be a work is pretty much gone at this point. Not that he couldn’t still re-sign at some point. After the way they booked Impact this week Dixie should have given him whatever he wanted.
Lockdown will be the first proper TNA PPV since Bound for Glory, taking place on March 9. No word on where it will take place yet.
The next One Night Only show is the “Old School” which was taped recently in Poughkeepsie, NY. It will begin airing on February 7. The card had Bully Ray vs. Tommy Dreamer, Magnus vs. Samoa Joe, James Storm vs. Bobby Roode, Kurt Angle vs. Ken Anderson and Abyss vs. Jeff Hardy (why would they choose to air the show with Hardy on it during the months his storyline is that he quit? This company…).
The Tag Team tournament One Night Only is on demand now. I couldn’t bring myself to watch it after watching Impact. Maybe next week.
