Bryan Staebell
Impact 6/27 Recap
Decent show this week that looked better on paper than in execution.
Magnus pinned Bobby Roode clean in the middle of the ring to earn 7 points in the BFG series. Crowds continue to buy into Magnus as a budding star. Having him soundly beat Roode is a great step for Magnus in the grander scheme. The announcers put it over as big as TNA can put something over before cutting to something else. Real good match. I’ve been an advocate of a Magnus push for some time and think he definitely needs to make the final four of this series. When you consider that nothing they do changes their ratings or buyrates anyway…maybe they should start thinking of just going all in on him.
Samoa Joe made Mr. Anderson submit for 10 points in the BFG series. Forgettable match. The only purpose here was to reveal Joe as the third member of the new Main Event Mafia.
Suicide won the X title in a 3 way over Chris Sabin and Kenny King. I covered this whole thing last week. Suicide turned out to be Austin Aries. He revealed himself to Bully Ray and said he’d be cashing in the X title at Destination X and winning the TNA title for the second year in a row. Pretty good match. Aries, who is excellent, made a pretty terrible Suicide.
Mickie James beat Velvet Sky to retain the Knockouts title. This was the best Mickie/Velvet match…and it was still bad. Mickie is great though…so use some deductive reasoning and figure out what the problem is.
Gut Check saw a terrible match with 2 guys who don’t belong on TV. The good news, if history is any indication, is that if one of them wins we won’t see them on TV anyway. One of them (Adam Ohriner) is pretty big so he’ll probably get a contract despite being awful. This is pro wrestling after all. The other one’s name was Ryan Howe. He was also terrible.
The show was built around two show long storylines, who is Suicide and who will be the new Main Event Mafia member. TJ Perkins was revealed as the man behind the Suicide gimmick, but he had been laid out and someone else won the X title. I assume this means that Perkins will get to be himself from now on. In a backstage segment Sting and Angle talked about the mysterious Suicide and teased going to talk to him, clearly teasing the possibility of Aries winning the TNA title and being revealed as a part of the new Main Event Mafia.
The show also had 2 segments of Bully Ray…well…bullying X division guys. First it was Chris Sabin who he warned not to cash in his X title for a shot at Bully. Then it was Perkins who he wanted information on the fake Suicide from. In both cases he joked about their size and buried the X division. Stuff like this is always stupid to do…but the show at least ended with one of those small guys (Aries) standing up to Bully with Bully looking worried. It might also be a tip off that Aries is going to be successful at Destination X since they’ve started their annual “X division guys are small and worthless” story that always ends with Destination X proving otherwise. Why they do that instead of building up the X division as special and good is beyond me.
Bound For Glory Series Leaderboard
1. Magnus – 24 points (3 matches)
Qualified by winning a 4 way over Kenny King, Matt Morgan and Rob Terry (6/13 Impact)
Made Kazarian submit for 10 points (6/20 Impact)
Pinned Bobby Roode for 7 points (6/27 Impact)
Pinned Hernandez for 7 points (6/27, Ottumwa, IA)
2. Samoa Joe – 12 points (2 matches)
Qualified by defeating Robbie E (6/6 Impact)
Went to a draw with AJ Styles for 2 points (6/20 Impact)
Made Mr. Anderson submit for 10 points (6/27 Impact)
3. Austin Aries – 7 points (1 match)
Qualified by beating Eric Young (6/13 Impact)
Pinned Jay Bradley for 7 points (6/20 Impact)
4. Christopher Daniels – 7 points (1 match)
Qualified by winning a tag match against James Storm and Gunner (6/13 Impact)
Pinned Hernandez for 7 points (6/20 Impact)
5. Jeff Hardy – 7 points (1 match)
Qualified by winning the 2012 BFG series
Pinned Bobby Roode for 7 points (6/20 Impact)
6. Mr. Anderson – 7 points (2 matches)
Qualified by winning a battle royal (6/13 Impact)
Pinned Joseph Park for 7 points (6/20 Impact)
7. AJ Styles – 2 points (1 match)
Qualified by beating Kurt Angle (6/13 Impact)
Went to a Draw with Samoa Joe for 2 points (6/20 Impact)
8. Jay Bradley – 0 points (1 match)
Qualified by winning Gut Check tournament (6/2 Slammiversary)
9. Joseph Park – 0 points (1 match)
Qualified by defeating Crimson (6/13 Impact)
10. Kazarian – 0 points (1 match)
Qualified by winning a tag match against James Storm and Gunner (6/13 Impact)
11. Bobby Roode – 0 points (2 matches)
Qualified by winning 2011 BFG series
12. Hernandez – 0 points (2 matches)
Qualified by beating Chavo Guerrero (6/6 Impact)
Impact 7/4 Preview
They are taping this show, and the 7/11 show, this Saturday in Las Vegas. They’re doing so to avoid running a show on the 4th of July.
The big (and I’m not using that word ironically) Gail Kim vs. Taryn Terrell rematch is set for the show. They’ll be doing a ladder match. If it were me…I would have carved 10 minutes out of last nights show and shown the Slammiversary match. No one watches the PPVs but over a million people watch Impact. They should want those people to see the Last Knockout Standing match…because it was special. They could have done a whole segment with comments from Gail and Taryn on the match and built up the rematch for next week. Unlike most things they do…I bet it would have actually had a positive influence on the rating, and airing on a holiday the show needs all the help it can get. Instead they did none of that.
Chris Sabin took to twitter to say Aries wasn’t supposed to be in the match and that this “isn’t over”…meaning we’ll get some follow up on Aries surprising X title win. So they’re teasing two different roads here. Either Aries is going to cash in, win and be in the Mafia…or Sabin is going to win the X title back in Las Vegas (and they already teased a Sabin/Bully showdown). They’ve got their bases covered whichever route they choose. Sabin points out that he wasn’t the one to get pinned in the match. If Sabin is going to regain the title…it’s important that they make that clear since having him lose this close to getting a TNA title shot would be silly…but they can paint it as him not taking the fall and then getting a big win back on his way to the TNA title match. I’m more intrigued by the Aries route.
I’m sure we’ll see more BFG series matches and more Main Event Mafia/Aces and 8’s.
Random Nation
The Hardcore Justice 2 One Night Only PPV is Friday July 5. I’ll review it in an upcoming column (probably the July 13 column)
There are scattered reports that Tazz’s contract is up very soon. Like…this Saturday’s Vegas taping being his last appearance soon. I don’t know who they’d have replace him since they seem hell bent on keeping Jeremy Borash (the best announcer they have) out of the booth. That being said, whether he stays or goes makes basically zero difference to anything.
The list of upcoming TV/PPV tapings is as follows:
6/29- Las Vegas, NV (taped to avoid July 4th, the 7/4 show and the 7/11 show)
7/18- Louisville, KY (the live 7/18 Destination X show and the taped 7/25 show)
8/1- Wichita Falls, TX (the live 8/1 show and the taped 8/8 show)
8/15- Norfolk, VA (the live 8/15 show and the taped 8/22 show)
8/29- Cleveland, OH (the live 8/29 show and the taped 9/5 show)
10/20- San Diego, CA – Bound For Glory
