TNA… Cross the Line again

[uklaw]

2 hours ago, Uncle Zeb said:

Because we're dirty foreigners?

I guess so. I’m posting from Portugal, and was surprised to see the video. It’s Johnny Swinger’s theme and a (custom) video.

If you search for it in the U.K. you’ll never find his theme on YT.

[Infinity Land]

What are the odds of getting zombie Eric Young?

[garynysmon]

Thought this last week’e episode was great in terms of storyline and production, if anyone wants a starting point for Impact.

[Fatty Facesitter]

8 hours ago, garynysmon said:

Thought this last week’e episode was great in terms of storyline and production, if anyone wants a starting point for Impact.

Thanks, might give it a whirl today. Are they still in the same soundstage?

[garynysmon]

 

32 minutes ago, Fatty Facesitter said:

Thanks, might give it a whirl today. Are they still in the same soundstage?

No, they’ve been touring for a year now. The latest tapings were in Windsor, Ontario.

[Fatty Facesitter]

👍 Shit the bed, the Motor City Machine Guns are still going! Really fun, action-packed opener. Tag matches are brilliant openers for shows as they’re essentially a cheat code to whip the audience up into a sprightly mood for the night ahead. Lots of really nicely executed stuff in this one. Another little production tidbit I liked with this - they do a spot where Sabin does a tope dive through Shelley’s legs to the heels, but rather than the camera focussing on the waiting heels who are getting into position to take said dive, the camera stays on the babyfaces. It’s a small thing but WWE/AEW constantly fail to do this and it makes a massive difference in terms of keeping you invested in enjoying the action and not going “Bit contrived that, innit?”

👍 Gresham/Speedball - Some really nice technical sequences throughout this one. First time seeing Speedball - a questionable bonce that reminds me of 80’s Jimmy White and some interesting footwear (or lack thereof) but looked the part - would like to see more stuff from him like those quick kicks in succession to really live up to the Speedball moniker. Trey Miguel seems like a good shithouse and his commentary turn was a fun listen. 

👍 Jody Threat/Tara Rising. First of all, huge pop for the latter, what a name. Short but sweet in terms of a showcase for Jody.

👍 Santino/Dirty Dango - Just all of their backstage silly bollocks. Big fan of both of them. 

👍 Eddie Edwards/PCO - Big meaty men slapping meat is it? Cor, PCO isn’t it? Marvelous isn’t it. Jumpers for ringposts? Beans on toast? Marvelous. PCO is an absolute mentalist in the best possible way. I wince at every spot but he keeps getting up to administer more beatings. Not entirely sure where this is going next but another enjoyable bout. 

👍 Main event promo - Did its job - Alexander’s promo hit the mark in terms of covering off his reign and relinquishing the strap, then it transitioned to Maclin/Kushida have a mini-scrap to shift the focus onto them establishing clearly who was the goodie and who was the baddie as we head to Rebellion. Also, Josh Alexander’s young son grabbing the title before his dad was about to relinquish it 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺 

👍 Sidenote - The opening Josh Alexander feature and the one around halfway through the show were really nicely edited and I’m quite impressed with how they were cut together. If, like me, you’re not a die-hard fan of Impact and you’re tuning in for the first time in a while, you were left in no doubt about the impact (no pun intended, and I literally mean no pun intended as I couldn’t think of another word to replace impact with and now I just feel silly) of his title reign and what he means to the company. These were almost WWE-quality montages in terms of production, and if anything they had less of some of the overt bells and whistles like filters and effects WWE sometimes throw at theirs which I think helped them if anything. Noice.

👎 Bully/Dreamer Six Man - Didn’t enjoy this as much as other bouts from the show. Perhaps it’s because I’m not as invested in the Bully/Dreamer feud and don’t know much about the hockey chap that got the pin, but to me there wasn’t much that caught the eye compared to other matches and the difference in pace was almost too much of a change, rather than a gradual transition into a match that perhaps could have started slow and picked up down the stretch. My reaction to Dreamer still wrestling is the total opposite of seeing the MCMG still going. Bully’s a heat magnet but other than that, not many redeeming qualities about this one for me. 

👎 A few more production points if I may - love what they do for some of the entrances, with the videos taking up the whole screen and being really cool in terms of the editing before transitioning back into the main arena. The Purazzo studio-based segment and promo were nicely executed. The backstage interview with Gisele Shaw and Tasha Steelz had a great aesthetic as well with the lighting and the screens. The cutting backstage to an injured Santino reminded me of some of the hidden camera style of shooting of the Impact of old. On the downside, some of the locations and the execution of the other backstage segments were a bit naff, and I know we shouldn’t criticise acting in wrestling too much, but some of the promos and interactions really didn’t bang for me. This is where so think the old style of TNA/Impact shooting backstage segments would fill that gap and lift some of those segments massively. Perhaps they’ve made a conscious decision to move away from that, but it’s not something I see other companies doing so why not implement it here? They do so much of the other stuff really well and their production crew clearly know their stuff, so they could definitely execute it. Also, can we get a different position for the lads on commentary and a proper table for them - this looks like something I’d set up at a car boot sale. 

Overall - Thanks @garynysmon for the recommendation - a fun watch with loads of plus points. Rebellion is shaping up to be an interesting card too. 

[Fatty Facesitter]

👍 Santino whipping out his cobra again 🐍🐍🐍

👍 Dirty Dango and Joe Hendry have two of the best entrance themes ever created and nobody will convince me otherwise. Push them both to the moon and back at once. Two of the best bits of audience participation in the promotion and across the week in wrestling in general - would love to see more of this across the business and not just with the odd act in each promotion. 

👍 Mickie cut a great promo to close the show - natural, believable delivery throughout. It’s shame to see another Impact title holder have to relinquish with injury, but to their credit they executed both this and Josh Alexander segment the previous week in totally unique ways. 

👍 Maclin/Kushido brawl/vignettes - Smashing bit of business here. Maclin cutting off the Canadian anthem further establishes his cunt status to the locals before he and Kushida showed a real intensity in trying to beat the living daylights out of each other to sell the match. Then the vignettes were really nicely produced as well. They were put into a tough spot with Josh Alexander getting injured but I’m bang up for this to see how it plays out. But do give the strap to Kushida, please! 

👍 Gisela Shaw/Tasha Steelz - Really enjoyed this because both of their personalities really radiated through the screen - they’re top heels and babyfaces respectively. Match had good intensity, some excellent selling and I wasn’t even remotely tempted to skip. Dug it. 

👍 Black Taurus has a daft aesthetic but to be fair I had fun watching this hoss chucking people around in the X Division showcase. Some fun spots in this one. 

👎 King/Kazarian/Hardcore War shite - Match itself was perfectly acceptable without really tingling the testes, but the wider hardcore war business can get in the bin. I’ve no desire to see Ric Flair apologist Dreamer vs Bubba/Bully/Bellend in 2023, and the mass brawl between the two teams at the end lacked cohesion, excitement or intensity. Even with Myers wrapping a chain round Dreamer’s mug, this was still a less intense segment than the Kushida/Maclin brawl. I know you’ve got constraints on the tele, but when your ‘hardcore war’ isn’t even the most violent/intense item on the show, that’s not a good sign is it?

👎 Death Dollz segment/match - Acting in the pre-match segment was off, match was off, whole thing was off. Not for me, Clive. Also why would Taylor Wylde do a backstabber on a larger opponent when in reality she’d probably get squished? Nah, mate. 

Overall - Lots to like about Impact this week with plenty of good stuff going on and plenty of talking points. Nice go home show for Rebellion. They've been dealt a tough hand with their top two singles champions getting injured but they've actually handled it really well. Like Joe Hendry, I believe!

[garynysmon]

Due to various reasons out of their control (i.e injuries), in terms of star power Rebellion is probably the weakest card they've put on PPV for a while.

That said, they tend to deliver so I expect a good show tonight regardless.

Rebellion Main Card
* Impact World Championship Match: Steve Maclin vs. Kushida
* Knockouts World Championship Match: Jordynne Grace vs. Deonna Purrazzo
* Ultimate X Impact WOrld Tag Team Championship Match: Bullet Club vs. Motor City Machine Guns
* Impact X-Division Championship Match: Trey Miguel vs. Jonathan Gresham vs. Mike Bailey
* Hardcore War: Team Bully (Bully Ray, Moose, Brian Myers, Kenny King, Masha Slamovich) vs. Team Dreamer (Tommy Dreamer, Killer Kelly, Yuya Uemura, Frankie Kazarian, Bhupinder Gujjar)
* Last Rites Match: PCO vs. Eddie Edwards
* Santino Marella, Joe Hendry, Dirty Dango vs. The Design

Countdown to Rebellion
* Knockouts Tag Team Championship Match: The Hex vs. Death Dollz
* Heath & Rhino vs. Champagne Singh & Shera

 

Edited April 16, 2023 by garynysmon

[garynysmon]

Watched it all apart from the women’s match (that main evented).

But that Hardcore War was a million times better than it had any right to be, and Tommy Dreamer even made me root for him. The bastard.

Bloody gorgeous venue too. As always, never fail to deliver on PPV.

Edited April 17, 2023 by garynysmon

[Nick James]

Bully Ray is an anomaly, he looks fantastic for his age and how long he's been going. Doesn't seem to have aged in the last 10 years either. The ladder spot with the ref's was quite funny and a cheeky little jab. 

[Hannibal Scorch]

Wahooooooo Nick Aldis is back in Impact making it much easier to continue to avoid him.

[Fatty Facesitter]

👍 Ultimate X tag titles - Really fun opener that didn’t outstay its welcome. I’m a sucker for the Ultimate X concept and Impact should promote more of its unique intellectual property like this to further standout from the rest of the pack. I’m ambivalent in terms of the title change, both teams are fun to watch so there was no ‘wrong’ result here for me. 

👍 The Design vs Hendry/Dango/Marrella - A mixture of daft fun and some ‘t’riffic little moments of action chucked in. Joe Hendry has a fantastic aura about him - hopefully he can keep this momentum going because he’s got a bright future ahead all going well. Strong as an ox, technically sound and great on the mic. Santino looked great - busting out all the greatest hits and looked like he was having the time of his life. Callihan turning on the Design and probably entering into a programme with them is not something that particularly tickles my testes, but the audience enjoyed it at least. 

👍 PCO/Edwards - Thumbs up purely for PCO being a mad old bastard and putting his body through the ringer for my entertainment. Dislocating his shoulder mid-match was sickening - then using the ring post as a battering ram to knock it back into place? Jesus Christ. Fun! 

👍 X-Division title - First half of the match was perfectly solid without being spectacular, but I really enjoyed the second half between Speedball and Trey once Gresham got binned off. Some really nice creativity in the sequences and some gnarly spots to enjoy. There have been better X-Division title matches over the years but this helped to keep up the momentum of what had been an energetic card up to this point. 

👍 Men’s World title - Not spectacular, but it did have a good story and it had the air of a big fight feel with a good, slow build which increased in intensity towards the conclusion. I don’t think he’s everyone’s cup of tea, but I did enjoy Norfolk’s own Nick Aldis on comms for this one - some great contributions which added to the overall story. Gutted not to see Kushida get a crack at the strap, mind. I don’t mind Aldis personally, though I’ll admit there is a geographical bias attached with that! 

👍 Knockouts title - Absolutely great effort, this. I wasn’t sure it would work as the main event but they busted a gut and made the most of the opportunity they were given. Like the men's world title match, again this had a steady start which built to a great crescendo, and by the end I was even more hooked that I probably was for the previous match. Extremely physical and with great execution throughout and very difficult to call a winner as it progressed. 

👎 Hardcore War - Terrible. I love a good plunder brawl but this was far too contrived, devoid of heat and didn’t hit the desired effect in terms portraying something meant to be incredibly intense - it either looked terrible, clumsy or even hilarious at times, which either way is a bad combination. Bully, Dreamer, fuck off back to the wireless, please. 

👎 Crowd - I know the venue isn't massive but fucking hell, give it some wellie Toronto, would you? Usually you'd blame the product on the lack of an atmosphere, but there can be no complaints about that this evening - the performers were full of beans and bang up for putting on a show. I do think Impact misses having a particularly rabid audience. I’d actually advocate piping in more crowd noise - if these fuckers can't be bothered to crow about your product you might as well pretend other people do for the sake of the viewing public. The set looked great I thought - better to focus on that rather the 'ultras' in the audience.

Overall - If you're looking to get back into Impact, as I have via @garynysmon's recommendation a couple of weeks ago, this is as good a place as any to start. It's not like the TNA of old but in some ways I don't think that's a bad thing. There's a core group of strong talent here and despite the odd gaff, their production team pump out some really good vignettes to bring you up to speed on the wider goings on. If you've got a couple of spare hours there's a lot of good stuff on this show once you skip in-between the fat. I'm impressed and firmly back on board. 

 

[kidzero]

Rebellion was a good show highlights were the Edwards pco match and Macklin winning the big one and it's good to see aldis back hopefully he can add something to the main event scene I'm looking forward to Macklin Vs aldis matches that should happen this summer

[Butch2000]

8 hours ago, Hannibal Scorch said:

Wahooooooo Nick Aldis is back in Impact making it much easier to continue to avoid him.

And if he’s there as well you’ll avoid this thread. Everyone wins. Just a shame he doesn’t post here anymore, then we’d never have to read anything of yours.

Edited April 17, 2023 by Butch2000

[Hannibal Scorch]

1 hour ago, Butch2000 said:

And if he’s there as well you’ll avoid this thread. Everyone wins. Just a shame he doesn’t post here anymore, then we’d never have to read anything of yours.

I thought after you apologised to me we were cool. Sorry if you still have a problem. Maybe if you feel that way it’s better to just set me to ignore, happy to show you how if you want.

Garynsymons continued enthusiasm for Impact has made me check out bits. I think there’s some great in ring stuff. There are people at the top of the card I just can’t gel with (Sami Callahan being the worst. Just cannot stand the guy). I remember when I worked on the TNA Wembley tours what a smug rude arse AIdis was (unlike his wife), so I’ve since not liked him, and what I saw of his NWA run I wasn’t a fan of. I was worried he was WWE or AEW bound, especially as he had been dismissive of Impact, but here we are.