While You Weren’t Watching for 7/27

Impact 7/25 recap

Amid more backstage drama than usual the Impact train kept rolling on Thursday night.

Manik won the X title in a very good Ultimate X match against Sonjay Dutt and Greg Marasciulo. Prior to the match they aired a TJ Perkins promo video showing him maskless and giving him some character development. Apparently his story is that he and his family were homeless while he tried to make it in pro wrestling. Seeing as he’s only made it so far as a masked wrestler holding the X division title on the worst day of the year to hold it (right after the cash in…furthest from getting that opportunity yourself)…I’m left to assume his new character is “the most selfish man in the world”. Everyone looked good in the match. Sonjay seems to never age…which is great because it means they can keep the “Sonjay never wins the X title” gag going for another decade. I don’t know if Marasciulo is getting a contract (or what a contract is worth at this point for that matter) but he certainly put in the performances the last two weeks that you’d assume would lead to one.

Mickie James retained her Knockout’s title over Gail Kim with a roll up. Gail was getting into it with ODB. Brooke Hogan came out and they did the exact same angle they had just done with Taryn Terrell as Knockout’s ref. Like…the exact same angle. Match was alright but was more storyline than match…which is a shame since Gail and Mickie are two of the best.

We had three Bound For Glory series matches this week.

Mr. Anderson pinned Hernandez for 7 points. Actually a decent match given who was involved. The finish saw Anderson dupe Hernandez into doing his big run down the ramp dive only to move out of the way and hit a Mic Check for the clean pin.

Daniels pinned Samoa Joe following Anderson interference and two BMEs for 7 points. The lesson here is that it’s silly to start a war when you’re trying to win the BFG series. Daniels quietly has won all 3 of his series singles matches.

AJ Styles made Jeff Hardy tap out clean to the Calf Killer for 10 points. Kind of shocking to see Hardy tapping out…but I suppose that’s the point. They are in full on “have AJ kill everyone until people start reacting” mode. If nothing else at least they’re going to get the finisher over. Good match. Styles is still a black hole of crowd confusion.

The show long storyline was Bully Ray threatening to sue everyone if Chris Sabin didn’t return the TNA title to him. Sabin, who before a couple weeks ago had never cut a promo worth anything, had another 2 good promos on the show. I guess we know what he spent his 2 years off working on. In the end Hulk Hogan announced a rematch for the TNA title at “Hardcore Justice” on August 15 from Norfolk, VA. The rematch will be in a steel cage to keep the Main Event Mafia and the Aces and 8’s from interfering. Apparently Hogan forgot how well that worked out at Lockdown. How this stops a lawsuit…I have no idea.

They didn’t know when they announced Hardcore Justice as another “special” Impact that the Destination X show had done so well in the ratings…so they appear to have just guessed correctly for once. If they can get another good rating out of the Sabin/Bully rematch…Sabin, who many question the idea of giving the TNA title to, will have proven more worthy than most of the “big name” guys they’ve spent money on over the years.

For all the problems the company is having financially and with their public image…Impact has been a really good show for a while now.

Bound For Glory Series Leaderboard

1. Magnus – 49 points (4 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)

Won the Joker’s Wild tournament for 25 points (7/11 Impact)

2. Samoa Joe – 26 points (6 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)

Pinned Kaz for 7 points (6/28, St. Joseph MO)

Pinned Jay Bradley for 7 points (6/19, Danville, IL)

3. AJ Styles – 22 points (4 matches)

Qualified by beating Kurt Angle (6/13 Impact)

Went to a Draw with Samoa Joe for 2 points (6/20 Impact)

Made Kaz submit for 10 points (7/4 Impact)

Made Jeff Hardy submit for 10 points (7/25 Impact)

4. Christopher Daniels – 14 points (4 matches)

Qualified by winning a tag match against James Storm and Gunner (6/13 Impact)

Pinned Hernandez for 7 points (6/20 Impact)

Pinned Joseph Park for 7 points (7/6. White Plains NY)

Pinned Samoa Joe for 7 points (7/25 Impact)

5. Jeff Hardy – 17 points (5 matches)

Qualified by winning the 2012 BFG series

Pinned Bobby Roode for 7 points (6/20 Impact)

Won via DQ vs. Joseph Park for 3 points (7/4 Impact)

Pinned Austin Aries for 7 points (7/5, Brooklyn NY)

6. Austin Aries – 14 points (4 matches)

Qualified by beating Eric Young (6/13 Impact)

Pinned Jay Bradley for 7 points (6/20 Impact)

Pinned Bobby Roode for 7 points (7/18 Destination X)

7. Mr. Anderson – 14 points (4 matches)

Qualified by winning a battle royal (6/13 Impact)

Pinned Joseph Park for 7 points (6/20 Impact)

Pinned Hernandez for 7 points (7/25 Impact)

8. Hernandez – 7 points (5 matches)

Qualified by beating Chavo Guerrero (6/6 Impact)

Pinned Jay Bradley for 7 points (7/4 Impact)

9. Jay Bradley – 0 points (4 matches)

Qualified by winning Gut Check tournament (6/2 Slammiversary)

10. Bobby Roode – 0 points (4 matches)

Qualified by winning 2011 BFG series

11. Kazarian – 0 points (4 matches)

Qualified by winning a tag match against James Storm and Gunner (6/13 Impact)

12. Joseph Park – -10 points (4 matches)

Qualified by defeating Crimson (6/13 Impact)

Was Disqualified vs. Jeff Hardy for -10 points (7/4 Impact)

Impact Preview for 8/1

They have a pretty interesting show booked for this Thursday in Wichita Falls, TX.

The main event will be Champion vs. Champion as Chris Sabin takes on Manik. Sabin requested the match because he wants to be a fighting champion. Of course the title isn’t on the line so that doesn’t make a ton of sense. My guess is they just want to give Sabin a match before his Bully Ray title rematch…since he has a strong chance of losing that. I’d also expect to see Bully Ray come out and try to destroy them both since they’re really building to Bully/Sabin 2. Before all of that though…there’s no reason this won’t be really good.

They’re doing a fan vote for what set of BFG series matches they’ll be doing in Wichita Falls (both for the live 8/1 show and the next week’s taped 8/8 show). Fans can vote for one of three match listings, and then the matches will be booked for these Impacts.

1. Jeff Hardy vs. Mr. Anderson
Magnus vs. Samoa Joe
AJ Styles vs. Bobby Roode
Joseph Park vs. Hernandez
Austin Aries vs. Christopher Daniels
Frankie Kazarian vs. Jay Bradley

2. Austin Aries vs. AJ Styles
Mr. Anderson vs. Magnus
Christopher Daniels vs. Frankie Kazarian
Bobby Roode vs. Hernandez
Joseph Park vs. Jay Bradley
Samoa Joe vs. Jeff Hardy

3. Samoa Joe vs. Austin Aries
Jeff Hardy vs. Hernandez
Jay Bradley vs. Bobby Roode
Magnus vs. Frankie Kazarian
Mr. Anderson vs. Joseph Park
AJ Styles vs. Christopher Daniels

Each of them has some quality matches (Magnus/Joe, Aries/Daniels, Styles/Roode in slot 1, Joe/Aries, Styles/Daniels in slot 3) but let’s be honest here…it’s all about option 2. AJ Styles vs. Austin Aries is better than all the other matches combined. Mostly because TNA has never run it before. Joe vs. Hardy and Kaz vs. Daniels are nice too. Everyone had better have been voting for block 2.

The TNA website also put up this weird video:

So…someone is apparently debuting/returning on the show.

There will also be the usual Mafia/Aces and 8’s nonsense.

Random plots

The hits kept coming this week for TNA.

First they ran a house show in Cape Girardeau, MO that didn’t go according to plan. 6 of the booked wrestlers (including new TNA Champion Chris Sabin) weren’t licensed to wrestle in the state. They offered refunds to the already sparse crowd and then ran a 5 match, 90 minutes show (with some including the injured James Storm working twice) and had an extended meet and greet with the roster. The blame for the licenses apparently goes to recently departed Bruce Prichard. I believe that because he proved to be mighty incompetent…but his time being the scapegoat has just about run its course.

This wasn’t the worst press they’d get this week.

In the ongoing effort to get their finances in order, TNA released Jesse Sorenson. Yes…that Jesse Sorenson. Janice Carter, who is in charge of all things financial, put Sorenson’s miraculously still attached head on the chopping block for good this week. Her daughter Dixie than got to take the brunt of the hatred from fans on twitter. Regardless of how the call was made…it shouldn’t have been. Sorenson broke his neck for you…he’s the absolute last guy who ever should get a pink slip. They had him working behind the scenes since his recovery and when Janice went over the books and saw that he was way overpaid for the position…that was that. It seems like a left hand not knowing (or maybe at this point just not caring) what the right hand is doing sort of thing. “This guy makes way too much”. “We pay him that because he broke his neck”. Both are technically correct…but only one holds up if you have…you know…a soul.

New TNA Champion Chris Sabin said in an interview that he isn’t at all concerned about TNA’s future. Of course he’d say that…he’s been there for over a decade. The sky has been falling so many times in his world that I’d be surprised if he noticed people backstage running around on fire screaming for their lives.

Speaking of…Chris Sabin’s title win gave Impact its highest quarter hour rating in a long time. With only 6 TNA title changes (including Sabin’s) airing on Impact…there’s a decent chance that Sabin’s win was the most seen TNA title change in their history. The only one that may have been higher was the James Storm over Kurt Angle October 2011 change. I recall that show doing a strong (by TNA standards) rating. When you consider that ratings have been in the dump before this switch though…it’s pretty impressive. Now that I think about it Bobby Roode’s win over Storm in November 2011 is probably up there too. If only there was some message there about the 3 most watched title wins being TNA originals winning their first belt that could reach them in time for Magnus to take home the strap in England in early 2014…

The next One Night Only PPV airs on Friday August 2. This is the 10th year nostalgia show airing in their 12th year of existence. Past One Night Only shows have taught me not to get my hopes up.

The list of upcoming TV/PPV tapings is as follows:8/1- Wichita Falls, TX (the live 8/1 show and the taped 8/8 show)

8/15- Norfolk, VA (the live 8/15 Hardcore Justice show and the taped 8/22 show)

8/29- Cleveland, OH (the live 8/29 show and the taped 9/5 show)

9/12 – St. Louis, MO (the live 9/12 show and the taped 9/19 show) (Will they get licenses for their talent???? INTRIGUE!)

10/20- San Diego, CA – Bound For Glory