Bryan Staebell
Impact Recap for 9/5
The Bound For Glory series final 4 have been decided and for all the pitfalls they ran themselves into…I think they ended up with the best possible 4.
AJ Styles won a gauntlet worth 20 points to knock Jeff Hardy out of the top 4 and claim the top spot in the tournament. Match was largely forgettable. They did do a good job having it come down to Styles and Daniels. Daniels is the man who started the “AJ’s life goes to complete shit” storyline so getting into the final 4 at his expense was a nice touch.
Sting made Bully Ray submit in a no DQ non-title match when Mr. Anderson refused to help Bully. It was a Sting/Bully Ray match. Crowd loves Sting and Bully is the best at getting crowd heat so it always has that. Post match Mr. Anderson announced he was taking the title match that Hogan offered to any Aces and 8’s member at next week’s No Surrender show. Crowd really liked Anderson at the end here. We got the return of his “Misterrrrrr Anderson, Anderson” gimmick to great affect actually. The problem, obviously, is that Anderson just finished NINTH in a 3 month tournament where guys were trying to earn the chance to get to the final 4…where they will then have to win 2 matches in one night to get a title shot. Anderson now just gets one next week. Also why doesn’t Chris Sabin get his champion’s rematch?
Speaking of Chris Sabin…he returned to Impact for the first time since losing the TNA title to Bully Ray. Here he lost to Knux by DQ when he hit him with a hammer. Post match his girlfriend (in real life…and now on the show too) Velvet Sky tried to calm him down but Sabin lost his shit over Aces and 8’s cheating ways. He’s totally turning heel. He was whining about how unfair what he doesn’t get away with is when they win every match the same way. He’s not wrong. He said he should still be the champion and everyone’s hero. I’m intrigued by a Sabin heel turn. Not because he’ll be able to carry the promo part (although he’s been a million times better since they started pushing him) but because the character change will come from something that has happened to him…and not just because “it’s time to turn this guy so we can do X”. If you look at his character like this was real…the guy overcame 2 serious knee injuries to come back and quickly enjoy far more success than he has ever come close too…and then just as quickly it was over. That’ll mess with you.
Wes Brisco and Garrett Bischoff beat James Storm and Gunner in a non-title match. Nothing much to it. The champs are kind of interesting in that Gunner goes out and busts his ass to try and reach a level of legitimacy with the crowd…and James Storm is just going through the motions.
The main thing of note on this show was Styles picking his opponent for the BFG series semi-finals. He picked Austin Aries saying that he was the one guy he didn’t want to lose to (when Aries beat him earlier in the series). That leaves Bobby Roode facing Magnus in the other semi. Magnus cut a real good promo about going on to win the TNA title…but the crowd wasn’t buying it.
If you can excuse the logic flaw of Anderson getting a title shot while the BFG series is still ongoing…this was pretty good TV.
One Night Only: Knockouts Knockdown Recap
Another month…another hastily booked show that doesn’t count towards actual company continuity. This month is the all Knockout PPV. A bunch of women they tried to bring in for this told them to go fuck themselves and many of them have since been fired.
Speaking of fired…the show opens with Brooke Hogan addressing all of the women booked on the show. Brooke lays out the plan for the show (a bunch of matches with the winners advancing to a gauntlet) and we go to a video of Gail Kim winning the first Knockouts title at Bound For Glory 2007. I’m watching the show in HD…which TNA didn’t have in 2007 so instead of respecting the original aspect ratio they instead stretch it out so it looks awful. Always respect the original aspect ratio. They choose to only show the final fall of the Knockouts gauntlet (Gail pins Roxxi) so anyone who is watching this (note: no one is watching this) and hasn’t seen BFG 2007 must think they crowned their first champion in a meaningless 2 minute match.
So Cal Val (fired) interviews Gail Kim and Madison Rayne (pregnant here…and also fired) comes in to wish her luck. Gail is facing Alissa Flash (Cheerleader Melissa) in what is easily the best match on paper on this show. Gail won with her finisher after a good match. I’ll never understand why they didn’t do more with Melissa when she was in the company. Though, to be fair, on the list of questions I have about TNA, I suppose this one doesn’t rank all that high.
Next up they recycle the video packages from the controversial Lei’D Tapa vs. Ivelisse Velez Gut Check (Gut Check…also fired) as we head to a rematch between the two. Since Velez has appeared on exactly the same number of Impacts as Tapa has…something tells me she is no longer that upset over losing. The story of this match was supposed to be Tapa getting her win back from Velez. I say “supposed to” because the actual story of the match was Velez being awesome and getting the crowd solidly behind her. Unfortunately for Ivelisse, much like the Gut Check decision, ability + popularity = loss. Match was pretty good. Not as good as their Gut Check match.
Next up is Tara (fired) vs. Mia Yim. Tara won. Yim does some interesting things…not all of them well.
Miss Tessmacher beat Santana (never heard of her). Nothing match.
To fill time before the next match they show the wedding of ODB and Eric Young. What a bonus. Afterwards ODB beat TNA original Trinity to advance. Unmemorable in every way. I think that’s the first time we’ve seen Trinity in TNA since 2005.
Next up we had Taryn Terrell vs. Jackie Moore. They had Jackie win since this was taped right when Taryn stopped being a ref and they didn’t know she was a Goddamned superstar yet.
Taelor Hendrix (fired) vs. Sojo Bolt (fired…but like…years ago) vs. Hannah Blossom is next. Hannah is one of the Blossom twins…the other of which must have been injured around this show because this was clearly meant to be a tag match. Blossom won a basic match. The crowd had actually been trying during this show…but they’re pretty much done at this point.
Next we had Velvet Sky beating Jillian Hall. It was exactly as bad as you think it was.
In the final gauntlet qualifier Mickie James beat Serena Deeb. This was Serena’s first match in 18 months after a concussion. She looked good. They were clearly having fun out there so the match was better than everything else on this show.
The gauntlet came down to Gail Kim and Mickie James. Gail feigned an injury to steal the pin on Mickie. Madison came out to celebrate with her BFF and present her with a tiara for becoming “Queen of the knockouts”. Gail then makes her leave the ring so she can celebrate alone. Gail is great.
You have no reason to ever watch or think of this show again.
No Surrender Preview
It’s all about Bound For Glory.
AJ Styles vs. Austin Aries in a BFG series semi-final match
Bobby Roode vs. Magnus in a BFG series semi-final match
The winners face off in the finals of the BFG series
Bully Ray vs. Ken Anderson for the TNA title
I can’t see Anderson having any chance of winning the title. This looks more like the end of the road for the Aces and 8’s and possibly Anderson (whose contract is coming up) altogether.
As for the BFG series…you really couldn’t have a better final 4 IMO. All 4 guys are “TNA guys”. What’s interesting is the different spots all of them are in. Styles is going through a very public contract issue (his contract runs out at the end of the year). Aries seems to be situated as the heir apparent to Styles’ full time top spot if the latter leaves. Bobby Roode is the #2 heel in the company (after Bully Ray). Magnus is their top young guy poised to break through to the TNA title sooner than later. My only hope for how they book this is that Magnus goes over Roode in the semi’s. Bobby Roode is the only one of the 4 that I don’t believe can win the finals (Roode vs. Bully?). The other 3 I can all see legit walking away with the whole thing so there wouldn’t be any drama if Roode is in the finals.
With that being said…I expect them to put Roode in the finals. The purpose of Roode’s new faction becomes really unclear going forward…so them getting a program going with the Main Event Mafia seems like a logical route. A Roode/Daniels/Kaz vs. Joe/Magnus/Angle or Sting match at BFG would be pretty great and having them eliminate Magnus would be a first step. Hopefully, if that is the direction, they figure out how to do it while still having Magnus win the semis.
As for the other match…well it’s going to be great. Despite his contract status I would expect to see Styles avenge his loss to Aries here. Aries can win if they’re planning on making a storyline out of Styles inability to beat him. Something like…Magnus beats Roode, Aries beats Styles, Magnus wins the finals…then they could do a Styles/Aries blowoff at BFG. They could even have some fun and have Styles, who everyone knows may leave, put his career on the line. Or they could do none of that. I really don’t know who’s going to win the series.
I’d put money on Styles just because that was probably the original plan and people will probably assume they won’t do it now that his future is in doubt.
For what it’s worth…Styles/Bully Ray is the best match of the 4 possibilities. They’ve only had one match (right at the start of the Bully Ray character) and they tore the house down.
Random Points of Interest
Kurt Angle is out of rehab.
The wrestling observer reported that the contract that TNA has been working on with AJ Styles doesn’t have him taking a pay cut after all. They’re trying to lock him in to his current salary (whereas he had been getting raises every year over the 5 year deal). That’s not nearly as bad as the original reports. I understand both sides since TNA is actually not really insulting AJ with their offer (especially with how many people they’ve shit canned) and AJ is in a position to request a steadily increasing income (though when the company is hurting it’s easy to see why they’d not give him one). The extension he signed takes him through the end of 2013. By that time TNA could, if they choose, be without the contracts of Anderson, Sting and even Hogan. Styles was wise to sign the extension and revisit it when the company will either have more money off the books…or he’ll be able to say “you keep paying these guys…you can pay me”.
The list of upcoming TV/PPV tapings is as follows:
9/12 – St. Louis, MO (the live No Surrender show and the taped 9/19 show)
9/26 – Little Rock, AR (the live 9/26 show and the taped 10/3 show)
10/10 – Tulsa, OK (the live 10/10 show and the taped 10/17 show. Go home shows for BFG)
10/20- San Diego, CA – Bound For Glory
11/21- Baltimore, MD (the live 11/21 show and the taped 11/28 show)
12/27 – Philadelphia, PA (taped for 1/2 and 1/9 I guess. No idea why. December 27 is more in the holidays than January 2…)
