Paid Members Fatty Facesitter Posted January 8, 2022 Paid Members Share Posted January 8, 2022 Think the Mickie announcement is being somewhat overstated. Good for Impact and yes, it's interesting to see WWE mention them openly, but to say it's the most interesting thing WWE has done in a while or to try and paint it as this seismic moment and the forbidden door being kicked down is a bit daft. Not a slight on Mickie, but I think Pat McAfee's commentary openly mentioning what a big deal it is to have the Impact champ on the PPV is probably as good as it's going to get in terms of the crossover element. Maybe she'll bring the belt with her for her entrance at a push. But it won't amount to anything more than that. It could be a bigger deal if WWE actively put creative effort and foresight into it (or anything they do, come to think of it) - there's actually a lot of potential with it. But she'll get ten minutes, probably get thrown out off-camera and it won't amount to anything more.  Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members garynysmon Posted January 8, 2022 Paid Members Share Posted January 8, 2022 40 minutes ago, Callum1993 said: Just seen announced on Twitter former WWE announcer Tom Phillips is joining Impact from tonight as their new Play by Play guy. Always enjoyed his work in WWE and definitely an improvement on Striker and Matthews. I was going to ask if he was any good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidB6937 Posted January 8, 2022 Share Posted January 8, 2022 38 minutes ago, Fatty Facesitter said: Think the Mickie announcement is being somewhat overstated. Good for Impact and yes, it's interesting to see WWE mention them openly, but to say it's the most interesting thing WWE has done in a while or to try and paint it as this seismic moment and the forbidden door being kicked down is a bit daft. Is it daft? Or simply a reflection of most stuff WWE doing lately being totally predictable and mundane so something out of the ordinary like this is actually very intriguing even if it goes nowhere. A genuine surprise in an era where everything feels so robotic and scripted that you can miss weeks of shows and still guess what happened. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Jazzy G Posted January 8, 2022 Author Paid Members Share Posted January 8, 2022 55 minutes ago, Callum1993 said: Just seen announced on Twitter former WWE announcer Tom Phillips is joining Impact from tonight as their new Play by Play guy. Always enjoyed his work in WWE and definitely an improvement on Striker and Matthews. It's the return of Wilson Phillips! He's a decent commentator. Be interesting to see how he does alongside D'Lo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
69MeDon Posted January 8, 2022 Share Posted January 8, 2022 (edited) 50 minutes ago, Fatty Facesitter said: Think the Mickie announcement is being somewhat overstated. Good for Impact and yes, it's interesting to see WWE mention them openly, but to say it's the most interesting thing WWE has done in a while or to try and paint it as this seismic moment and the forbidden door being kicked down is a bit daft. Not a slight on Mickie, but I think Pat McAfee's commentary openly mentioning what a big deal it is to have the Impact champ on the PPV is probably as good as it's going to get in terms of the crossover element. Maybe she'll bring the belt with her for her entrance at a push. But it won't amount to anything more than that. It could be a bigger deal if WWE actively put creative effort and foresight into it (or anything they do, come to think of it) - there's actually a lot of potential with it. But she'll get ten minutes, probably get thrown out off-camera and it won't amount to anything more.  It's like people don't remember the super successful NWA North American and NWA Tag Team titles run on WWF TV. How much do you want to bet Cole or someone makes a Piggy James reference on commentary? Vince doesn't reference other promotions unless it's an opportunity to undercut them and demonstrate just how much better WWE is, so I really don't see this ending all that well. But we shall see. Edited January 8, 2022 by 69MeDon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cannibal Man Posted January 8, 2022 Share Posted January 8, 2022 (edited) Seismic to see the return of a talent they treated like a spare tit & got all their shit sent back in a bin bag when they were fired what feels like a few hours ago. Edited January 8, 2022 by Cannibal Man Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Fatty Facesitter Posted January 8, 2022 Paid Members Share Posted January 8, 2022 10 minutes ago, DavidB6937 said: Is it daft? Or simply a reflection of most stuff WWE doing lately being totally predictable and mundane so something out of the ordinary like this is actually very intriguing even if it goes nowhere. A genuine surprise in an era where everything feels so robotic and scripted that you can miss weeks of shows and still guess what happened. The news of her appearance isn't even the most interesting news item about the match she's even been booked in. Not trying to do her a disservice, but the additions of Charlotte, Lita and the Bella Twins will be what piques the wider public's interest. From an industry perspective, the story is that WWE clearly doesn't have a deep enough talent pool to fill the spots and have had to book performers from further afield. That's a bigger story in itself than Mickie's specific inclusion, which is what I'm getting at. You won't get any argument from me about much of WWE feeling mundane and yes, it's vaguely interesting. But to say it's the most interesting thing that's happened in WWE, good or bad, in a while is far-reaching. If you're purely talking from a creative aspect, the Roman/Heyman/Brock storyline is the best thing they have going for them at the moment and has been for the last few months. RKBro and the AJ/Omos storylines on Raw have been interesting. We've not long since had Crown Jewell, Survivor Series with Becky and Charlotte beating the shit out of each other, and Day One. NXT's reshuffle, despite being contentious because of the dismantling of Hunter's previous empire, has still been interesting to watch with the new faces arriving, WarGames in December, etc. That's a generic overview and again, there's a lot of mundane drivel you have to get through to get to the good parts, but the announcement of an Impact champion taking part on a WWE PPV where she'll be a bit-part player just doesn't make a seismic dent.   Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Statto Posted January 8, 2022 Paid Members Share Posted January 8, 2022 1 hour ago, garynysmon said: I was going to ask if he was any good. Was the best commentator in WWE by a mile when he got fired, IMO. Not that that's too much of a recommendation... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merzbow Posted January 8, 2022 Share Posted January 8, 2022 I remember him being a solid but very no nonsense commentator, so no coming out with weird shite to get himself over like Striker. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Jazzy G Posted January 9, 2022 Author Paid Members Share Posted January 9, 2022 (edited) 15 hours ago, Statto said: Was the best commentator in WWE by a mile when he got fired, IMO. Not that that's too much of a recommendation... Talk about damning with faint praise. He's very much about putting over what's going on in the ring, be it the match or the wrestlers. He might be allowed to use his real name (Tom Hannifan) but he'll always be Wilson Philips to me. Some nice matches on the pre-show. Jake Something & Mad Man Fulton had a decent little hoss match. The video package for the world title match was decent. Mike Bailey looks like he'll be a great addition to the X-Division. Knockouts Ultimate X was a good match. Everybody put in a shift. Was Alisha added in to replace Rachael Ellering? X Division match had some stiff exchanges. That meteora to the floor where Maclin's head hit the railing looked nasty. Good of them to get Riccaboni and Cruise in for the ROH title match. That was an amazing match as well. Josh Vs Jonah almost felt like they watched the ROH title match and then said "we have to follow that." and then did. Those production issues were annoying. Two great matches back to back. Cageless Wargames was an interesting concept. How many people thought "having to team with Gallows" when D'Lo asked what Karl Anderson's handicap was? It descended into some walk & brawl, but was a break from the two matches that came before. That little invasion after the match sets up for some interesting stuff going forward and keeps ROH on screens until their planned relaunch. I wonder whether they'll do an Impact Vs ROH specialvon Impact Plus. That world title match was wild. Cardona didn't feel out of place, which is surely a testament to how far he's come since he arrived a year ago. It almost felt like a show of two halves with the high spot work rate stuff for the first 90 minutes and then the plunder and brawling for the second.    Edited January 9, 2022 by jazzygeofferz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members garynysmon Posted January 9, 2022 Paid Members Share Posted January 9, 2022 (edited) I thought it was an excellent show and the best under the Anthem banner (possibly the best TNA/Impact PPV even). Fair play, Tom Phillips/Hannifan was excellent on commentary and seemed to bring out the best out of D'lo Brown and I'm pretty excited about that partnership in future. You can't overstate the importance of a good announce team in making the shows watchable. There wasn't a bad match on the whole card and while I don't really know any of the ROH guys as I never watched the promotion (Quebecer Pierre excluded), that storyline should provide a few interesting months of storyline leading up to Rebellion in April. With Rok-C taking on Deonna Purazzo during today's tapings I assume that Ian Riccaboni will be hanging around for one more gig at least. I'm not hot on three man booths but it worked very well for Sabin v Gresham (what a match that was). There were a few dodgy looking spots in the women's X-Division match that could have proved dangerous though. Edited January 9, 2022 by garynysmon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Jazzy G Posted January 9, 2022 Author Paid Members Share Posted January 9, 2022 It was a heck of a start of the year. RoH can do worse than Impact letting them pop a few matches on to showcase their talent and keep the brand in people's heads until they do relaunch. Rebellion could be a good place to do Impact Vs RoH ahead of it as well, heck do an RoH special on Impact plus in between. It's certainly set some things into motion going forward. Gresham/Sabin and Josh/Jonah were my favourite matches of the night. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members garynysmon Posted January 9, 2022 Paid Members Share Posted January 9, 2022 The event was also timed perfectly imo, the match placement was impeccable. The current roster is easily the best Impact/TNA has had since 2013. I was thinking to myself last night that while it was a shame that Rohit Raju was released recently, you can't say that the recent acquisitions haven't been a huge upgrade over 41 year old Raju and the likes of Hernandez, Acey Romero etc. It feels that Impact has managed to seperate itself from the pack when not too long ago it was swimming in the same pool as MLW, NWA etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Jazzy G Posted January 9, 2022 Author Paid Members Share Posted January 9, 2022 (edited) I'm almost glad the Iiconics got bumped from the show because I honestly couldn't see where it would gave fit in that card. Maybe a piss break between the world title match and the main event? Or a pallet cleanser between the ROH title match and the Josh/Jonah matches would have been my guess. It also would have meant the other matches would have gotten less time as well, and they might not have had chance to tell the same story they managed to with that extra time. Never thought I'd hear Wilson Phillips talking about the Royal Rumble at the end of an Impact show, though. It felt so weird. Edited January 9, 2022 by jazzygeofferz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidB6937 Posted January 9, 2022 Share Posted January 9, 2022 Really really great show. I know that they've had a solid roster for quite some time and they've definitely been putting on some good shows but this one really felt like everything came together. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.