Let me make one thing clear as I start this article. Even though I may mention some O's about "iMPACT!" and praise some of the things they do, TNA still sucks right now.The upshot of this, though, is that creative is somewhat handcuffed at Lockdown because all the matches already have a gimmick. There's not a whole lot more that they can do to the matches like they have over the past few months.
With that in mind, now it's time for this week's TNA "iMPACT!" O's and NO's.
Tha O's:
Xscape match preview: For those of you who don't know what the Xscape match is, here's how it works - the match starts off with a certain number of X-Division guys all inside Six Sides of Steel. One by one, they get eliminated by pinfall or submission until there are only two wrestlers remaining.
Then, as the name implies, the first person to escape the cage by climbing over the top wins the match. For an "iMPACT!" match, this was not too bad. Plus, we got to see the Canadian Destroyer for the first time in what seems like forever. Big O.
Cage NOT wrestling Angle in the main event: Most likely, since Angle is the captain, he's going to be the guy who gets the win, setting up a Cage/Angle rematch at the May PPV Sacrifice...which Angle will probably win, thus getting the title before dropping it at Slammiversary.
Okay, I'm getting a little ahead of myself there, but because Angle is the captain and not Samoa Joe, it probably means that this is to set up another Angle/Cage match. With that in mind, why give that match away for free on television? Have Angle wrestle one of the team members besides Cage so that you can keep the feud hot without giving anything away. For once, a smart move on TNA's part.Building up Jeff Jarrett's return: Yes, I know, far more people here would rather not see Jarrett involved in this match, or on screen period, but at least they're doing a good job of creating kayfabe hype for it. Even though the spoilers are out and most people already know that Double J is about to return, TNA is playing it off like no one knows that and is trying to create some suspense around it.
Saying that "Angle's team is in trouble" and "Angle has another member, but some things are better off left unsaid" helps to try and create drama, which in turn generates interest.
I'm going to go off on a tangent real quick. I big prop I have to give to TNA is that they are very good at swerving and keeping things quiet when they have to. Once they start doing live shows, and get the hang of how to produce them, they're gonna take off.
Tha NO's:
Tomko: Note to TNA - do not EVER let the focus of a show be around this monkey ever again! The stipulation of the main event was that the winner's team got to have Tomko on it. Who cares? He sucks! If I were Angle or Abyss, I'd have just lied down and let myself get pinned.
The scariest thing about this is that since leaving WWE and going to TNA, he attended a wrestling school. I suspect the school he went to will be out of business within a few years if all of their students come out with in-ring skills like his.
VKM: Again, note to TNA. McMahon pussed out. You won. Give them a better damn gimmick already! Or at least get Lance Hoyt something better to do. They don't even make Hoyt related to them in kayfabe. Which means he's not freaking kin!
Give Lance Hoyt something better to do than be VKM's bitch, or release him. And this storyline with Christy Hemme is awful. Kip James' big dramatic line to end his promo was "Just stop." That line should have been used quite some time ago. Let them wrestle for the tag titles, there's so few tag teams left in TNA that they need all the help they can get. Which is a direct segue into my next NO.
LAX/Team 3D's promo: I'm going to write this similar to a manner in which it was shown. The ongoing feud (legacy) between these two teams (legacy) has had to go through a bunch (legacy) of lame gimmick matches (legacy), and haas quickly become (legacy) the second most ricidulous storyline (legacy) behind Abyss and Sting.
Now they're going to (legacy) be in an electric cage match? What the (legacy) hell is the point of (legacy) that? Last time I checked, there (legacy) aren't any electric fences on (legacy) the US/Mexico border.
Hell, (legacy) there aren't any fences there! This (legacy) match is being promoted seemingly (legacy) as a match where LAX is finally (legacy) going to get hurt bad, but in reality,(legacy) it's just TNA making this feud even more (legacy) ludicrous then it already is (legacy).
WE GET IT, BUBBA, YOU'VE GOT A FUCKING LEGACY! NOW KINDLY SHUT THE HELL UP!
Robert Roode and Eric Young: So now we're finally getting a 'Team Canada explodes' feud. A year after they broke up, when it would have been a hot angle. When we say let something build up, this is not what we mean, TNA. God, you guys are pissing me off right now.Chris Harris and James Storm: See above.
Alex Shelley jobbing to Shark Boy: Now, I'm a Shark Boy mark. I loved back when he was teaming with D-Ray 3000. But he is best used on "Xplosion", not on "iMPACT!", and Shelley, who by all rights should be a big shot in the X-Division, should not be getting jobbed by him.
Christopher Daniels' new "gimmick": I don't know where to begin with this. First off, the mark next to his eye doesn't make him look satanic or badass. It makes him look like a circus clown.
Secondly, unless he's going to get into a main event feud with Sting, the bat is a useless focal point. And the whole pantomiming an actual performing of Last Rites just makes it even weirder. So the dude is acting like a priest, dressing like a clown, holding a baseball bat - is his new gimmick that he's a pedophile or something?
Sting/Mitchell: Wow, so who really cares that Abyss' mom shot Abyss' dad? More importantly, if it's a secret that Mitchell wants to hold over Abyss' head, why did he blurt it out in the middle of a public restaurant? Most important of all, isn't six straight months of this enough?
Seriously, this is the most pointless feud in the history of TNA. This is worse than the time Brian Urlacher heaved Johnny Fairplay out of the ring.
Way too many NO's for my liking, but the show wasn't a complete waste, I suppose. I said it before - TNA is screwed if Lockdown doesn't deliver. Fans will always go back to WWE even if the product's crap. Not so for TNA. TNA needs to go back to focusing on putting on better wrestling matches than WWE, not trying to out-garbage Vince McMahon.
4 comments: on ""iMPACT!" O's And NO's"
TNA overview. Given I do like TNA, I feel it is my obligation as a wrestling fan, but I love some of the atheletes, and some of the matches. Sabin, Shelly, Starr(Aries) Joe, Cage, Daniels, Styles, Rhyno, Hernandez. Anyway onto it.
TNA's O: Traci Brooks(or her tag team)
TNA's NO: Misuse of Robert Roode
Sad thing is, that those two are paired together and they still can't do shit with it.
Vince pussed out. Either way you look at it, he pussed out. He could have A "took the high road" as so many like to say, and do nothing. That's pussing out. B not step in the pile of crap. That's pussing out. Option C, addressed them online or on TV, and said screw you you're all pieces of trash, I wouldn't dirty my hands on a gimmick promotion(or something to that effect) and BG and Kip, you were only stars here because you were associated with the ones you're trying to bring down, and everyone in the world feels confident that they would tear you apart. That's not really pussing out. D, he could've went to their house and beat the piss out of em. That would have been the best thing. That wouldn't have boosted TNA's ratings for long, people would realize that they had nothing for the E, and stopped watching. He pussed out.
Right around the time that VKM started publicly calling out McMahon and D-X, McMahon gives in and does the exact things that TNA wanted him to. By Vince's standards, that's pussing out.
ding ding ding.
DX's entire gimmick changed. They went from suck it, and dropping poop, to being the snarling halftard fuckers that wanted to destroy team rated rko, but in the end only destroyed H's quad.
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