Bryan Staebell
Impact Recap for 11/14
With some new people in charge of creative there has been a heavy emphasis on pushing characters the last few weeks. Part of this is inspired by the “Impact 365” social media initiative while part of it comes from the slowed down measured booking of the new team. People who seem to be benefiting from this, as of now, appear to be Gail Kim, Ethan Carter III, Bobby Roode, Kurt Angle, Ken Anderson and, I suspect soon, Magnus. Guys like Austin Aries, Jeff Hardy and Samoa Joe have been left to work with what they’re already established as for the time being.
Gail Kim is being established as a dominant knockouts champion with a vicious streak, Lei’D Tapa serving as her menacing second being the catalyst for her higher level of confidence. EC3 is the entitled blue chipper still destroying hand picked jobbers. Kurt Angle has been given a renewed focus with the caveat of years of high impact bouts having taken their toll on his body. Bobby Roode is largely continuing the character he played as TNA Champion…only now they’re actually booking him strong to go along with it, adding a legitimacy and edge to the character. They’ve brought Anderson back as a brash, fearless babyface less concerned with what he can lose than he is what he can take from Bully Ray. Magnus, having already completed the transformation from prospect to talent, is now in the process of turning into a star. There is a lot to be done to complete his journey…I suspect that the “Dixie’s Champion” slot will be his next stop.
Under those Bad Influence continues to be the entertaining duo that isn’t pushed nearly as hard as they deserve. James Storm saw the first fire arise in his character this week in a long time. Bully Ray is still Bully Ray…and that’s a great thing. Chris Sabin’s new character suits him better, but needs more of an emphasis on his obsession with keeping hold of the X title (which can guarantee him a TNA title shot again in the future). There was even a somewhat interesting development in the Joseph Park character for the first time in over a year.
As for the show itself…well this new “strengthening of character” initiative takes time. It wasn’t a bad show at all…and in many ways it was a necessary one. If nothing else the booking committee understands that you have to “show” not just “tell”. Too many times in the past TNA would fall into the trap of rushing everything. in 2006 Bobby Roode became the wealthy Robert Roode. Why? How? They never got around to any of that…they just told you he was rich so you should boo him. They’ve taken a much smarter approach to a similar character in EC3. He’s Dixie’s entitled nephew. And they hammer that home week after week as he squashes nobodies, interacts with her backstage and acts like an entitled ass. There’s a big difference.
The TNA title tournament continued with Kurt Angle defeating Austin Aries in a submission match. They had a good match but not one at the level you would hope for getting 20 minutes. The finish saw Angle make Aries tap out with Roode’s crossface finsher. Roode was sitting on the stage watching which is why they did this…but it ended up being a missed opportunity. Aries either injured himself doing a 450 and trying to land on his feet…or he at least sold it like he did…either way he’s selling his angle and his opponents famous finish in an anklelock. It looked like they had walked right into a great finish and then the storyline dictated they go another way. They continue to push Angle and Roode as a big time feud…but they can’t meet in this tournament unless it’s in the finals. My guess is they won’t be making it to the finals and will have their blowoff match outside of the tournament.
Gail Kim destroyed one of the Blossom twins in an open challenge. Gail gave her some offense…but this was largely a showcase of how Gail Kim murders people now. For what it was intended to be (like many things lately a set up for the future) it was great.
EC3 defeated both Norv Fernum and Dewey Barnes this week. This was also quite good for what it was meant to be. Fernum and Barnes are starting to get over as a result of getting killed…which is pretty funny. They’ve handled the debut of Carter very well (and his in character twitter is hilarious if you’re interested) but the time has come for the next phase. If that means a program with Sting…Carter has to win or what is the point? They pushed he’s now 8-0…with all the wins coming against these 2 scrubs.
Mr. Anderson defeated Knux after a Mic Check. This was weird. Knux got way more offense in than he should have against a guy who is in a featured program right now. It’s like they never committed to a story in this match. They weren’t really telling a “Knux has softened up Anderson going into the Bully Ray match” story and they weren’t really telling an “Anderson is struggling and his next match is for his career” story either. It just came off as Anderson was dominated and then hit a Mic Check out of nowhere to win. Anderson would get more momentum from the end of the show where he hit a piledriver on Garrett Bischoff on the stage, just as Bully had done to him. They stretchered Garrett out. With his father gone…who knows if we’ll ever see him again.
Christopher Daniels beat Joseph Park after using a low blow. They pushed the “Impact 365” videos hard here. Instead of doing backstage interviews to build up the match they used the videos both had made throughout the week challenging and accepting the contest. Daniels shouldn’t have to cheat to beat Joseph Park. After the match Park grabbed a mic and said that everyone keeps telling him he’ll never be as good as his brother Abyss…but he wanted to prove himself so he challenged Abyss to a match the next week. There are so many ways they can go with this one that it’s hard to speculate.
There was another commercial paid for by “friends of AJ”. This one gave a longer focus on his title defense in AAA last week. Dixie was fuming after it aired. This led to a segment where she brought out the other 4 men who still have first round tournament matches (Storm, Roode, Joe and Magnus) and revealing what type of matches they’ll be having. Roode vs. Storm will be a bullrope match. Storm cut a promo with some good energy. Magnus vs. Joe will be Falls Count Anywhere. Samoa Joe vowed that when he wins the title the first person he would defend against would be AJ Styles, even if he had to go somewhere else in the world to do it. So basically he dug his own grave for Dixie to bury him in. Magnus was more democratic and said that beating Joe would be difficult…but that he would do it. He’s totally winning this tournament.
My opinion on this show is that the things they are pushing are starting to get over. On that scale it was a success. It did come across like a by the numbers show though. Three months from now if they have more over talent as a result…it’s a win. If not…well…
Turning Point preview
They’ll return to Orlando for this, and the next several, Impacts.
The TNA title tournament first round will be completed as Bobby Roode faces James Storm in a bullrope match and Magnus faces Samoa Joe in a Falls Count Anywhere match. Anything can happen in a tournament…but I’d put the smart money on Magnus and Roode winning. They have infinitely more momentum than their opponents. Storm and Roode always have good matches and Magnus and Joe should be good as well.
Ken Anderson will face Bully Ray in a match with some big stipulations. If Anderson loses he leaves TNA forever. If Bully Ray loses the Aces and 8’s must disband. I’d bet on the latter. These two had a really fun match before Anderson left.
Joseph Park challenged his brother Abyss. Either they’re just going to do the “Abyss didn’t show” angle or someone (Bad Influence…or Eric Young) is going to come out and have figured out that Park IS Abyss. I don’t see them putting another guy in the Abyss mask and pretending. This will be all storyline advancement.
There will also be another Gail Kim open challenge.
Impact 365
A much much better week with the videos this week. We can do a top 5 again! Even if almost all of it is predictably Bad Influence and Bully Ray…
5. Bro Mans help out
4. Bad Influence introduces themselves to Canton, OH
3. Bully Ray invades the House of Hardcore
2. Bully Ray hates everyone…with fire!
1. The video that no one will probably ever top
Random Excitement
As seen in the video above, Bully Ray invaded Tommy Dreamer’s House of Hardcore show and challenged him to a Falls Count Anywhere Street Fight on December 30th in the same building in Poughkeepsie NY. This will be a part of a One Night Only PPV taping, this one called Old School. TNA has also announced James Storm vs. Bobby Roode in a Last Man Standing match on the show.
TNA will be taping another One Night Only show the night before (12/29) in Lowell, MA. This one will be Hardcore Justice. They’ve announced Samoa Joe vs. Chris Sabin vs. Austin Aries in a cage match and Bad Influence vs. Eric Young and Abyss in Full Metal Mayhem.
They had previously announced that they would be taping 2 while on their UK tour. As someone who has sat through the awful first year of these shows…I am beyond thrilled that they will be doing these shows in front of real crowds.
Unfortunately the same won’t be true for Impact. Impact returns to Orlando this week (for Turning Point) and every Impact from now until the UK tour will be done in Orlando…sometimes taped several weeks in advance. Then we’ll get 4 taped in England.
AJ Styles is in Japan right now to defend his TNA title against Seiya Sanada for Muta’s Wrestle-1 promotion. We’ll obviously be seeing footage of that on future Impacts.
