Bryan Staebell
Impact Recap for 10/31
Dixie Carter officially stripped AJ Styles of the TNA title in one of the company’s “Where action never ends” video updates. On Impact she announced a tournament to crown the new Champion. Former TNA Champions Austin Aries, Chris Sabin, Jeff Hardy, Kurt Angle, Bobby Roode, James Storm and Samoa Joe were given automatic entry into the tournament. Bully Ray wasn’t put in because Dixie blamed him for losing to Styles…twice. Ken Anderson’s story is that he, in storyline, isn’t even in the company (but has theme music!) so he didn’t get in either. Abyss was passed over because he’s basically been around 4 days in over a year.
The 8th spot was determined in a gauntlet match, won by Magnus. Sting was allowed to compete despite the stipulation that he can never challenge for the title again. Dixie made him enter first…Magnus eliminated him last. It seems that the way they may be going here is to have Magnus win the title. He’s the best fit to play the anger and jealousy of people believing that Styles is the true champion. The fact is the story works a lot better when the guy holding the belt hasn’t been champion before. It adds a layer that seeing someone who has already broken through wouldn’t. There’s also the Dixie factor. In a promo on the show she specifically talked about wanting a “good looking” champion…and then Magnus was amazingly the last entrant in the gauntlet. They didn’t push it on commentary but it seems to play into everything. Magnus works best as “Dixie’s Champion” because he is the one who is the least established as a top character. He’s also in the midst of a slow turn that can be completed at the end of the tournament…not to mention he’s the youngest guy at a time when they’re trying to push and establish younger guys. The set up also would give him the bragging rights of winning a tournament featuring SEVEN former champions. The timing seems right in many ways.
In an excellent Main Event on the show, Bobby Roode once again defeated Kurt Angle after Angle knocked himself out doing a top rope move. This time they went with the “Angle couldn’t answer the count” after Bobby Roode got to his feet. The finish came off better here than it did at Bound For Glory (where the ref stopped the count and Roode covered him for the pin). Awesome match. Bobby Roode is flat out great. The Angle storyline is different at least. I wonder if the give his character a reason to change up his wrestling style and limit all the big bumps he takes. The story works mostly because you really don’t have to stretch to believe that Angle is killing himself wrestling…because…well…
Gail Kim retained her Knockout’s title against ODB in a good match. Lei’D Tapa distracted the ref to allow Gail to get the pin. Gail Kim is still super good.
Bro Mans retained the tag titles against James Storm and Gunner. Match was alright. They did the Warrior/Roode WrestleMania 5 finish. James Storm took the fall immediately after being announced for the TNA title tournament. Because that made the least amount of sense.
Ethan Carter defeated Norv Fernum again. Same deal. Still entertaining. I’d almost like to see them keep doing the squashes…but start positioning them all as the main event on the shows. It would be hilarious and I’ve never seen it done. I’ve never seen it done because it’s probably a bad idea…but at this point…who really cares?
Elsewhere on the show Bully Ray and Ken Anderson kept fighting with Bully taking out the handcuffed Anderson in the back. Abyss returned, again, doing the same exact thing he did at BFG…taking out Bad Influence. Bad Influence was entertaining throughout the night…but the Abyss return segment fell flat.
Impact Preview for 11/7
The TNA title tournament begins next Thursday from Cincinnati, OH. The announced brackets are:
Chris Sabin vs. Jeff Hardy
Bobby Roode vs. James Storm
Austin Aries vs. Kurt Angle
Samoa Joe vs. Magnus
All of the matches will be gimmicks of some kind as decided by a “spin the wheel” set up. The only match announced to take place is Sabin vs. Hardy in Full Metal Mayhem. I figure they’re going the stipulation route so when you get to the end you will look back and realize Dixie was purposely protecting the winner (coughMagnuscough). There’s practically no way that this tournament isn’t filled with good matches. It’s the main focus of TV so they’ll all get time, and they’ll all be given that “this is important” push and feel.
Also on Impact we will learn the condition of Kurt Angle and see more of Ken Anderson and Abyss and wherever they’re heading.
Impact 365
Here are the the top 5 video’s from TNA’s “Where action never ends” initiative this week.
5. Dewey Barnes reacts to loss
4. Chris Sabin and Velvet Sky after BFG
3. New Mega Powers
2. No explanation required
1. A Very Daniels Halloween
Random Fixings
The new “One Night Only” PPV has begun airing. This one is a TNA champion tournament. It’s not at all confusing that they’re running a former TNA Champions tournament on PPV at the same time they’re starting a tournament to crown a new TNA Champion on TV. I’ll recap the show in next week’s article.
Many reports that negotiations are ongoing for the Carter’s to sell TNA. Janice Carter sent an email to talent saying that it wasn’t true. People that would know say that it is true. A lot is going on that we don’t know about…but we are sure to find out sooner than later.
The fruitless partnership with OVW has come to an end. TNA will be doing their own developmental when they get settled into their new home in Orlando. For the sake of their future I genuinely hope they take that seriously and actually try to develop new talent.
Eric Bischoff, whose contract is up in February, is done with the company. Not a surprise when Hogan wasn’t retained. It will be interesting to see what happens to Garrett, who did appear on TV this week. This will mark the first time anything interesting related to Garrett has happened.
The UK tour will feature 2 Impact tapings (4 episodes) and 2 tapings of the One Night Only PPVs. One PPV will be Joker’s Wild 2 (Battlebowl theme) and the other will be…wait for it…another tournament. The twist this time is that a British wrestler will get one of the slots to compete against 7 established TNA talents. Jeff Hardy isn’t allowed to work any of these shows since he can’t leave the country…so don’t expect to see a lot of him come February.
And finally…AJ Styles will be defending his version of the TNA title this Sunday in AAA against Judas Mesias…and again on November 16 in Japan for Great Muta’s Wrestle-1 promotion. He’ll be defending against Seiya Sanada on that show. This is one aspect of the CM Punk storyline that they are definitely doing better (Punk came back after 8 days) than WWE did. Provided they show footage of these at some point.
