Impact Wrestling Discussion **UK SPOILERS**

[IANdrewDiceClay]

What the fuck happened to Sting this week? He was on fire! There was a lot to like about this weeks how. We got to see Jason Hervy as well, which is always good. Gunnar looks like a player as well. Or maybe I'm on my own with that one. Steiners promo was great and next week should be terrific.

[Cobra1000]

Add me to the list of people who thought this show was class! I'm also glad that they brought up the low blow infront of the ref from Anderson at Slammiversary!

 

Great show and good to see Aries back! I'm undecided about Gunner, he looks like a lunatic you'd find in an American bar itching for a fight, which makes him cool, oh and I like his Malenko-esque tights, but maybe too much too soon in the main event? But he certainly slots in nicely.

[Vito]

SOmeone needs to get the TV Title off of Eric Young and make it mean something again. I know the belt hasn't been taken seriously in a little while but Matt Morgan laughing and declining to fight Eric Young for the strap irritated me. The TV title should exist to test out up and coming talent to see if they can carry a title responsibly, if it wasn't for the BFG League I'd suggest putting it on Bully Ray or Kurt Angle to raise its profile again.

[Green]

Fantastic Impact. I finally got to see the finish to the AJ/Ray last man standing match and I thought it was a good twist on the norm. Definitely don't understand the outcry about it. The only thing that looked a bit crap was the way the wood broke on that thing AJ went through. Apart from that it was really cool.

 

Anyway, with the show there was pretty much nothing bad about it. Even ODB, who I was this very week criticizing, was on rare form which has made me a hundred times more interested in her storyline with Velvet. Great to see Austin Aries. He's one of the few RoH-type guys I really like and hope he sticks around. He's pretty charismatic too so hopefully he'll get given a bit more character than just "wow, did you see that Taz!?" I'll be sure to tune in next week, where no doubt Abyss will show up and ruin everything.

[Vito]

I don't think I'm alone in this but Abyss is so irrelevant that I don't even notice his absence when he's not on the show.

[The Total Package]

That last part was like watching a movie lol.

 

TNA may have just hit some kind of form, I enjoyed Slammiversary so gave this show a watch, and it was indeed good, the BFG series is a great idea, along with what they are doing with the X-division.

 

Sting was great, "I'm the STINGER!!" Ha loved it.

 

I dunno about this Gunnar either but atleast TNA are trying to push a few new guys and some that should have been pushed ages ago, what I liked about this show is that it seemed like every part mattered not just the main event, thus I enjoyed the show from start to finish.

 

It's been a long time since I've been able to say that about mainstream wrestling, I hope TNA can keep it up.

[Mafiaduck]

Fantastic Impact. by far the most enjoyable one I've seen for a long time. The X-Division is back, the Knockouts were involved with trying to get rid of the 'look at our bums and boobs' aspect of it, and there was very little Hogan and Bischoff nonsense. All the backstage stuff was short and to the point, and the in ring action was all really enjoyable.

 

Excellent TV this week.

[Cobra1000]

I don't think I'm alone in this but Abyss is so irrelevant that I don't even notice his absence when he's not on the show.

 

Heh yeah, it didn't have Mickie James either, bonus...and no Winter/Angelina guff!

[ajmcstyles]

Only seen the highlights from the website and TNA were on fire, shame they cant do the same with there PPV's

[Green]

That last part was like watching a movie lol.

 

"Adios, Bubba...adios."

 

Jarrett is awesome. I'll miss him.

 

Oh and Abyss is so shit that there's constantly the worry that he's going to show up and ruin my enjoyment of anything. Whenever I'm at the cinema I've constantly got my eye on the entrance, just in case he makes a surprise appearance to grunt over the film and Black Hole Slam the usher.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

Abyss is sickening isnt he? A few of us were in the UKFF chat and all we could talk about was how he would smell, the lack of teeth he has and his shit hair. And that he took it up the biffer from Bob Ryder. He's the worst. He has no redeeming qualities.

[air_raid]

I would hate him if there was nothing else to hate, purely on the strength/shiteness of the Abyss/Hogan ring-giving extravaganza.

[pgi86]

 

The Ultra Male is now the Mega Champion!

[Cobra1000]

Wow this weeks Impact is equally immense! Sting in full on Joker mode, going nuts on Bischoff was fantastic!

[Green]

This week's Impact, while not as good as last week, was another really great showing by TNA. Hopefully they'll keep this form up. More detailed response in spoilers just in case anyone hasn't had the chance to watch it yet.

 

<-- click on 'spoiler' to show/hide the spoiler

I love the whole Jarrett trying to takeover Mexico plot. Gives him a reason to be off TV for the time being and makes both TNA and AAA (I believe? Not up on my Mexican wrestling I'm afraid) look strong. Or at the very least interesting.

 

Speaking of interesting, for the first time since his bleach blonde days, I'm actually interested in what Sting is doing. This new character is pretty cool and he plays it really well. Far better than brooding moody Crow Sting, a gimmick I was never a fan of and that has become beyond stale. Bischoff was good here too but then he always is. I hope he and Hulk renew their contracts for occasional show appearances as they're both so valuable on the mic.

 

This Bound For Glory series is just a fantastic idea. It's really getting me invested in matches I wouldn't normally care about and I imagine it's pretty exhilarating for those at house shows to know that who wins and loses DOES actually matter.

 

Ray vs Steiner was, as predicted, good fun. I liked that Tenay actually pointed out the fact that Bully used the chain on Steiner's throat. It was a nice little touch and a rare piece of continuity from years back. I'm a huge fan of Bully's character at the moment. I hope they keep this feud going, even though it's been hinted that Steiner might turn. Maybe he'll get Bully disqualified next week or something, to cost him 10 points in the BFG series.

 

Bischoff demanding aspirin for his back while calling Anderson "arrogant" was hysterical. Still not that into Anderson though, he seems like quite a weak champion but I understand why they don't want Sting to keep hold of the belt for too long a period.

 

I thought the X-Division triple threat hype was pretty well executed and you got some sense of each guy's different styles, although none of them came across as very charismatic. I'm just glad they got Austin Aries in on the match. If they're going to bring in any other RoH favorites then please let it be Roderick Strong. His gutbuster is such an awesome looking move.

 

The Velvet promo was a bit crap but Tessmacher's arse made up for it. As it does pretty much anything. I've done a complete U-turn on ODB in the past two weeks also. It might just be because I find the feud with Velvet so entertaining but she seems far less obnoxious this time around. Looks much better as a brunette too. And I've always kinda liked Jackie. Laughed at ODB telling Tessmacher "ugh...you suck". It's true, she does.

 

Tara and Madison is a bit meh. I actually like them both but I don't really care about either at the moment. Up until recently I hadn't watched much TNA this year however and the feud does seem like it'd benefit from knowing what went on and how it went down and such.

 

I know it's been said to death but the guerrilla style of some of the backstage stuff is fantastic. It works on so many levels. It gives the show a unique look and, when done well, explains the logic of how the camera man manages to catch some of the more "private" scenes. When done bad, it's still fun and goofy, like Mr. Exposition Robert Roode showed here. They've switched to calling him Bobby always now then?

 

I was quite gutted about the lack of a sustained TV push of Gunner this week. He seemed to be shining and standing out last week and here he was just cowering from Steiner. Admittedly any sane man would but still, he could have just squashed Amazing Red or something.

 

Matt Morgan/Crimson vs. Beer Money was shockingly good. I know Beer Money are a brilliant tag team but I was shocked how they managed to work against these two. I'm not normally a Morgan fan, aside from his "we" tag champion phase, but wow did he work like a proper big man here. He should do that more often as it makes him look much stronger. He's also a clear heel if I've ever seen one so they need to turn him again soon. I don't mind Crimson, in fact I love his knees to neckbreaker move, but he needs to dye his hair. The ginger just doesn't work. Bleached blonde would be cool but if they want to keep up it red because of his name then at least make it darker or something. Something not ginger. Still, he was protected well here even though from what I remember he's still pretty green.

 

Eric Young is wonderful. Push him to the moon.

 

This is where the show stumbled a bit. I like AJ and I don't mind Joe, although he needs to drop some weight to have any hope of being taken seriously again, but fucking Christopher Daniels. He's awful on the mic and has a terrible look. This bit also made Joe look like even more of a goof. I do hope they don't lump him with king mediocre Kazarian and go through with the triple threat rematch. At least that will probably be an entertaining match-up and distract me from my hatred of Daniels a bit.

 

The triple threat X-Division match wasn't too great either. Seemed to have a lot of botches going on. I was sure Darsow would win but I'm glad that Zema got the victory instead. That move where he backdrops his opponent into his outstretched knee is genius. I liked his bizarre tassel attire too.

 

Mickie vs Winter was executed really well. Coming back from the break to the match "in progress" was a great touch and stuff like this really adds to the feeling of "anything can happen" that wrestling has been missing for a while now. I enjoyed this mainly because I would do horrid things to Winter if given the chance. I thought she was gorgeous as Katie-Lea in WWE and I'm glad TNA have actually given her somewhat of a push so she gets to grace my screen more often. Her music is awesome too. I hope they put the belt on her...oh yeah Mickie was alright.

 

As much as I can't stand him, I like the fact they're portraying Abyss as more a goofy, impressionable idiot. It's a role that suits him well. I thought the art of war prop would have worked much better if the strategy basically involved him whacking Sting with it and getting the win, ala York Foundation. Missed opportunity there.

 

Sting vs Abyss wasn't too great as it's Abyss and he sucks the life out of everything he's involved in. It's not even fun to watch him get beat up anymore as in every other match he's being made to look the fool. Awful big man wrestler. It does further Sting's character a bit though and I laughed at him constantly nailing Abyss while staring down Anderson. I hope Kurt takes the belt off Anderson fairly soon or something. Ol' Ken just seems awfully weak with the strap.

 

[close spoiler]

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