TNA… Cross the Line again

[Fatty Facesitter]

18/5

Overall - Great show! The wrestling itself had a consistently good quality from the first match to the last, we had an excellent showcase for Trinity and Under Siege is really taking shape as a very tidy looking card indeed. Very impressed with this week’s show and only a couple of minor blemishes to crow about, but a really strong show on the whole. 

👍 Trinity vs KiLynn King - Excellent in-ring debut and showcase for the former. Her entire aesthetic in terms of entrance and offence really stand out in this company in a way that perhaps it couldn’t in WWE. 10 minutes may not seem like a long duration in the grand scheme of things, but I can’t remember the last time she had this much TV time in a singles match to really showcase her attributes, and she certainly looked the part. Really good contest here with King playing her part as well. Fun post-match interaction between Trinity and Jai Vidal afterwards too. Excellent. 

👍 Edwards/Moose/Kazarian vs Gresham/Shelley/Uemura - They got 20 minutes to strut their stuff in a solid TV main event and didn’t disappoint. Everyone looked the part and this should be an interesting 6-way at Under Siege. Fun show closer. 

👍 Dango turns on Hendry 🥲 - A shocking reveal as it turns out Dango was the culprit who took out Santino! I haven’t been so devastated by a heel turn since Austin shook hands with Vince at Wrestlemania X7. Shame, bloody loved Dango and Hendry as an odd couple partnership. Well executed although I’m absolutely gutted the investigation is over! 

👍 Trey Miguel/Laredo Kid - A fine start to the show and exactly the kind of opening contest you want to get the juices flowing, also showcasing a division which still holds value on the Impact brand. Trey’s a proper shithouse and a good heel to effectively lead the division. Nice action from bell to bell and a good finish. 

👍 Following on from the above, Chris Sabin’s promo rattling off the X-Division title’s history and how Try has defaced the title was all good shit and that’s a match I’m now really looking forward to at Under Siege. His ‘nine-time’ schtick came off a bit ‘nine days’ if you catch my drift, but otherwise this was a great way to build to their encounter. 

👍 Ace Austin/Jason Hotch - Rock solid and a good way to continue from the action we saw in the opener - Impact has been really good recently at keeping the momentum going throughout its cards and this show was another good example of that.

👍 Jody Threat squash - I like this lass. They’ve done a nice job building her up so far and I don’t think it will be too long before she’s inserted into the Knockouts title picture. This was only a quick showcase, but she showed her usual high energy to keep it interesting. 

👎 Maclin attacks PCO - One of the very few items on the show that perhaps didn’t quite have the desired effect for me. The initial skirmish with the punches looked a bit weak, and then placing PCO on top of some conveniently placed cardboard seemed a bit naff. The easily broken concrete slabs also looked a bit tinpot. PCO sold that part convincingly, though in a way it probably unnecessarily dehumanised him. It worked as an idea in terms of further establishing Maclin as a despicable bastard, particularly following his actions on the previous show against Rhino, but the execution lacked polish in this instance. 

👎 Undead realm business - Bit too much silly bollocks going on here for me. But each to their own. 

[garynysmon]

This will probably be a bit marmite, but that’s an interesting character twist.

I did wonder where Dango was going (spoiler, nowhere) but interesting stuff.

 

[Fatty Facesitter]

25/5

Overall - Have to say that I’m really impressed with Impact at the moment. The matches are  usually a high standard, angles bubble along nicely from show to show and there’s very little negativity to really crow about. Some great build again this week for Under Siege. This show absolutely breezed by - time flies when you’re having fun!

👍 Sabin vs Speedball - An opener full of quality and with a good story too - Sabin, about to go into a title challenge against the dastardly Trey Miguel, knows he’s going to have to use all of his experience and even fight a bit dirty to stand a chance of beating him, and they used this as an opportunity to showcase that. Really good standard with some very close and tastefully executed near falls at the end to make you wonder if Speedball might get the W instead. Mad that Sabin is still performing at this level around 20 years on from the early days of TNA!

👍 King/Jean vs Decay - Decent tag affair. Again, geographical bias card applied by me, but I enjoyed Nick Aldis’ commentary contribution again. He’s going to be a great colour man when he hangs it up - he paints a great picture of a rivalry, motivations, ramifications, all that good stuff. Fun promo exchange post-match too. “How about I take my jacket off, slowly and dramatically, and why we don’t we have a two-for-one bitch slap special!” Then King looks like he’s about to fight King’s Lynn’s own, only to run away singing “Tomorrow! Tomorrow!” Top patter.

👍 Maclin/PCO business - More good build here and this could be a tidy brawl at Under Siege. The Maclin/D’amore tension is a good backdrop also. Champagne Singh is good craic.  They’ve done a great job building Maclin up as champion so far.

👍 Rich Swann vs Angels - Action was good, the effort was certainly there in spades and it picked up nicely as it progressed. It’s all against the backdrop of Sami Callihan vs The Design which is a bit of an uninspiring conflict - but again, can’t fault this match in isolation.

👍 Dango - I will miss fun-loving-daft Dango but I like this sarcastic, almost nonchalant version of Dango they debuted this week. Excited to see where it goes. Even if he broke my heart.

👍 Skyler vs Chris Bey - Again, solid contest.

👎 Taylor Wilde vs Jessika Havoc - Match was too short to be anything of note and this undead realm business is not my cup of tea. Return of the Courtney Rush character was at least an interesting surprise.

👎 Jordanne Grayce squash - Again, to short tone anything of note. Not a huge amount of unique material for the Knockouts to sink their teeth into this week, but they've been absolutely brilliant of late and Under Siege will be another great showcase for those involved. 

[uklaw]

Impact Wrestling just laid down the gauntlet for this weekend’s wrestling shows in terms of action, angles and drama. They are on a roll. And as I constantly say, if they upgraded their production and used bigger, better lit buildings, they could possibly compete.

Because action-wise and creatively, I think  they are more consistent and less scatty than AEW.

Night Of Champions might match it, maybe even beat it. 

I’ll be shocked if Double or Nothing and NXT equal it.

[RedRooster]

I thought that PPV was, on the whole, excellent, although the Maclin/PCO match was absolutely horrific, and I had to stop watching it. I don’t think I’ve ever had to do that with a wrestling match, but the gore in this actually made me feel ill. 

I’ve started watching Impact more consistently recently, and it’s a really good wrestling show. The best signing AEW could make at this time is Scott D’Amore, he’s producing a remarkably consistent show with a limited roster. It’s impressive.

[Bellenda Carlisle]

I love PCO, being an indestructible Frankenstein is a rough gimmick for a guy in his 50s but it works so well for him. I normally find the Impact men's title scene pretty boring so I really enjoyed PCO's borderline death match antics at Under Siege. Would love to see Joe Hendry and Mike Bailey in the title picture.

I mainly watch impact for Deonna and Jordynne so I've been enjoying their feud and was great seeing it main event the last big show. Gutted to see Jordynne doing another "I keep losing" angle now though, it just doesn't suit her at all, prefer to see her dominating and full of energy like ultimate warrior. 

[DavidB6937]

13 minutes ago, Bellenda Carlisle said:

I mainly watch impact for Deonna and Jordynne so I've been enjoying their feud and was great seeing it main event the last big show. Gutted to see Jordynne doing another "I keep losing" angle now though, it just doesn't suit her at all, prefer to see her dominating and full of energy like ultimate warrior. 

Sounds like Jordynne is done now:

 

Will be interesting to see where she ends up next. She'd be a very good addition to any company. They should all be fighting over her.

 

[westlondonmist]

18 minutes ago, DavidB6937 said:

Sounds like Jordynne is done now:

 

Will be interesting to see where she ends up next. She'd be a very good addition to any company. They should all be fighting over her.

 

She'd fail a drugs test in WWE instantly, I don't know if AEW does any testing but they have Billy Gunn so probably not. 

I thought she might just concentrate on bodybuilding, she won a competition recently. 

 

[garynysmon]

She’s taking time out of wrestling for a while apparently.

Will probably end up elsewhere eventually but she’s had a good run at Impact. Personally I’m not as high on her as others seem to be, but a solid hand who was reliable and clearly dedicated.

She’s young enough to have several options.

On Under Siege, I though it was a great show that again won’t get the notice it deserves due to the crowded landscape and there being way too much wrestling product in general.

Its also a lovely safe space from the never ending tedium of WWE/AEW fans’ toxic Twitter spats.

As others have mentioned, a bit too much gore in the Maclin v PCO match and isn’t really my thing, but can appreciate it for what it is.

Maclin will probably follow the Drew Galloway route of reinventing himself on Impact before heading back to the WWE. I think he’s great.

I find Trinity to be ok but seems to bring some more eyes to Impact and has her own fanbase, so fine by me.

Subculture though…. bias aside, sign them up! Their match against ABC was one of the best I’ve seen in a while and can’t wait to see them against the MCMGs on Impact over the coming weeks.

I’m really liking the roster atm. Its a nice size too. 

A solid two hour show every week and one PPV or special is more than enough to meet my needs. Please let them never go down the route of adding more and more shows to satisfy a phantom demand.

Edited May 30, 2023 by garynysmon

[Fatty Facesitter]

Finally caught Under Siege -

Overall - Some top content on this PPV. A slow start but with some excellent matches to chew on as things progressed.  Right Impact’s shows are some of my favourite each week. 

👍 Steve Maclin vs PCO - Not for the squeamish but what a mental brawl that was - a proper ugly, grizzly fight where they beat the souls out of one another. Some mad colour on Maclin, deary me, but what a visual! PCO continues to defy his years with another top performance. The post-match continued the violence and pairing Maclin with Bully Ray is one one hell of a call for the main event scene. Two proper irredeemably evil bastards together in unison is going to make for great tele. Superb conclusion to the show, if a tad gory!

👍 Deonna Purazzo vs Jordanne Grayce - Really good standard and further proof that the Knockouts have retaken their place at the top of the profession when it comes to women’s wrestling in North America. They continue to deliver on all fronts in terms of making a great match - physicality, psychology, technically, entertainment, etc etc. Really impressive.

👍 ABC vs Sub-Culture - Bloody hell, great match. Both teams seriously busted a gut and some of the action was incredible. If this had taken place in WWE or AEW it would have been getting rave reviews. Not that it won’t now, but I hope word spreads that this was a match outside of the ‘big two’ that’s well worth checking out. I normally hate the poison rana spot, but the rana administered on both Sub-culture lads at the same time looked mesmerising. 

👍 Trey Miguel vs Chris Sabin - Another good bout and another good showcase of the past and present of the X-Division. Only criticism would be the finish was far too easy to telegraph. 

👍 Six-man #1 contender match - Some good multi-man madness and a surprising result. 

👍 Decay vs Callihan/Swann/Chris - Good six-man that was far more energetic than I was I was perhaps expecting it to be. Went on second in the order, but retrospectively it would have been a more suitable opener. 

👍 Trinity vs Giselle Shaw - Solid. Trinity impresses again - think this will be an inspired move to the promotion for her in the long term. 

👎 Nick Aldis vs Kenny King - I always prefer openers to be full of energy as it really sets the tone for the evening and gets the crowds fired up for the rest of the proceedings. Whilst there was nothing horribly wrong here, it never felt like they got out of second gear and as a result it kind of stuttered along. 

👎 Immediately following on from that, we had a crap brawl between Killer Kelly and Marsha Slamovich. I know it’s a continuation of their TV brawl, but it was just an odd way to shorehorn it into this show and immediately following another match. This further contributed to a flat beginning to the PPV.

👎 Impact’s post-production crew put together some brilliant montages and hype packages, all to a really high visual standard. Their live production team had a rough night of it. Lots of key spots missed due to some errant camera cuts among other things. 

[Fatty Facesitter]

Overall - Not the best episode for Impact’s latest TV offering, but still some good angle advancement towards their next few shows. This remains a pretty enjoyable 90 minutes or so of wrestling.

👍 Nothing wrong with the opening promo business with Bully Ray, Maclin and the Motor City Machine Guns (with the Sub-Culture cameo). Funny moment as Shelley warns Bully Ray and Maclin he’s coming after them, then turns to Maclin and goes “Especially you, beautiful” which makes Maclin almost corpse, though he just about holds it together! 

👍 MCMG vs Sub-Culture - A ripper of a main event, and although at first it was hard to lose one’s self in the match with such an obvious result on paper, they did a great job of creating a real sense of jeopardy towards the conclusion. Great effort from all four. Top spot - With one of the Guns on the outside, Webster swings round the outside of the turnbuckle like he’s Tarzan and leaps into a hurricanrana onto the floor. Lovely stuff. 

👍 Women’s title business - Trinity’s match with Savannah Evans wasn’t squeaky clean and wasn’t her best showcase to date, but the post-match chaos were good plot developments. The match between Trinity and Purrazzo has lots of potential. Interesting to see Grayce appear - perhaps this was her last set of tapings, or she’s negotiated a new deal? Time will tell. Giselle Shaw is a good heel fodder for the babyfaces. 

👍 Jody Threat vs Dani Luna - Good back and forth action here. As is par for the course with Impact, their women’s division is working to a really good standard at the moment, and not just in the title picture. 

👎 Eddie Edwards vs Yuya Uemura - Impact normally put out extremely energetic opening contests, but this match the recent standard we’ve become accustomed to. 

👎 Design/Callihan business - I find Callihan’s whole act to be cringeworthy. All this Decay business is incredibly dull and there isn’t an original thought or idea in this entire set of proceedings. Dull. Tag match with Decay was too short to merit any good graces. 

[garynysmon]

I haven't watched the show properly yet, but I couldn't be happier for Alex Shelley.

Its almost certainly a short transitional run but fantastic stuff!

 

[Snitsky's back acne]

Not seen Impact in donkey years. Is Johnny Swinger still around? His gimmick was awesome, dizaddy. 

[Fatty Facesitter]

Double-bill review of the go-home TV show AND Against All Odds itself. Strap in - lots to love about both! 

Overall - Impact on a serious role at the moment in terms of the quality of their output. Banger after banger in terms of matches and some good long-term storytelling from a character perspective. The crowds continue to be hit and miss, but there can be no grumblings about what's being laid out in front of them. 

TV - 8/6/23 

Overall - To be honest, as positive as this show was, there wasn't anything on here that you absolutely needed to see before the PPV. 

👍 Moose/Rich Swann vs. Jonathan Gresham/Nick Aldis - Good main event to build towards the PPV 8-4-1 encounter, which in itself is an interesting concept. 

👍 Chris Bey/Jason Hotch - Good opener and made for more intrigue heading into the PPV clash for the tag straps. 

👍 Hendry/Dango business - Loving all of this. Dango's new persona is really interesting new direction, while Hendry continues to bring the fun factor. I'm still slightly gutted Dango turned heel as this was a really fun comedy double act, but it's still a good on-screen pairing for a feud. 

👍 Bhupinder Gujjar vs. Trey Miguel - Short but sweet and a good heater for Trey heading into the PPV. 

 👍 Swing Daddy - Top gimmick!

👎 Heath vs Sheldon Jean - Too short to be anything of note, as much as I love Heath. 

👎 Death Dollz vs The Coven - Still a straight 'no' for all of the undead realm business. Nothing spectacular in the match either. Not for me, Clive. 

 

Against All Odds 2023

Overall - Some top quality bouts once again. Even for the matches with a thumbs down, there was nothing so outrageously bad it would warrant a scolding. Some interesting results will make for some interesting TV to come. 

  👍 Steve Maclin vs Alex Shelley - Now then! I didn't see that result coming, and what a lovely surprise it was. They picked up the pace as things wore on, Shelley gave you just enough to keep believing and to keep invested in the match, it built to a great crescendo, and Maclin was ultimately the victim of his own downfall. A memorable moment for Shelley (and Sabin earlier in the night) and a really good conclusion to this PPV event. Lots of questions to ponder ahead of Slammiversary too. Top stuff. 

 👍 8-4-1 match - Lots to like about this one. The dynamic throughout of Bully Ray being essentially hated by everyone, tag partners being forced to get along but still putting on a ripper, then the four-way itself being great, all made for a fun showing. Two good matches for the price of one. The result now seems more surprising in the interim with Aldis getting the shot against who we assumed would be Steve Maclin, alas, nay! 

👍 Try Miguel vs Chris Sabin - Top stuff. Sabin busting out some finishes from X-Division legends of the past was a nice touch. When Miguel whipped out the spray paint, I thought for sure the end was nigh, but I was pleasantly surprised by the result. It's the end of an interesting reign for Miguel, but Sabin getting the strap again is fine and dandy with me (it also made sense within the context of Shelley's win and the two of them getting to share that moment together).  

👍 Joe Hendry vs Dirty Dango - As stated many times in these Impact reviews, absolutely love these two and this one didn't disappoint. Dango's 'Gratitude Era' tights look spiffy. Probably not the result I was expecting, but Dango's new gimmick is a strong one and I don't think this will key any momentum as they build that up. As. for Hendry, he continues to be one of the kings audience participation in the promotion and there's no reason whatsoever why he shouldn't be higher up the card. I usualy skip pr-eshow matches but I'm glad I didn't with this one. 

👍 Frankie Kazarian vs Eddie Edwards - Some really good technical exchanges here and it was quite pacy too. Far more enjoyable than I was initially expecting it to be. 

👍 ABC vs The Good Hands - An absolute ripper and there were plenty of moments where I bought the prospect of the title change. ABC continue to amaze with their athleticism - this is turning into quite the reign for them in terms of building up a strong catalogue of bangers. 

 👎 OVE vs The Design - Haven't been a fan of this since the beginning, still not a fan now. One or two interesting spots, otherwise I find the whole sage cringeworthy and not my cup of tea. 

 👎 Trinity/Purazzo vs Shaw/Evans - Made sense within a storyline context, but it didn't quite feel like a PPV quality affair. Would have been better served on the TV show, or perhaps being placed earlier on the card. 

👎 Killer Kelly/Mascha Slamovich - Felt like it dragged a little too long and although there was no shortage of effort, the stipulation served as more of a constraint rather than as a source of creativity. The show of respect was interesting afterwards - I don't think this feud has really worked as intended, but a partnership might actually work quite well for the Knockouts tag ranks. 

👎 KiLynn King vs Neveah - Pre-show Skip.

 

[Butch2000]

Is Maclin going then? As I’m shocked he’s dropped the title this quick after a fortnight ago with the angle with D’Amore having to wrap the belt around him.

 

Finally, finally, Alex Shelley gets what he deserves, but it was a bit out of nowhere, you know? I’m chuffed he’s the champ but I’ve have loved more than a two week build up. You always cum harder after a bit of foreplay.