Impact Wrestling
Date: July 4, 2013
Location: Orleans Arena, Las Vegas, Nevada
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Taz

We’re in Sin City tonight for a taped Independence Day show. The main story is Austin Aries stole the X Division Title last week and as of this moment gets to challenge Bully Ray two weeks from tonight at Destination X. Other than that we’ll have a lot more buildup towards Bound For Glory in the BFG Series as points continue to be accumulated. Let’s get to it.

We open with the usual recap of last week’s show.

Here’s Austin Aries to open things up. A lot of people like him, a lot of people boo him, but now everyone has to respect him. He’s the man who initiated Option C last year and this year he’s the man who is going to cash in the X Title for another shot at the world title. Aries demands Hogan get out here right now to make the cash in official.

Cue Hogan who says that Aries is the man who initiated Option C and then won the world title (where have I heard this before?). He brought the division to new highs but last week he brought it to new lows. Aries committed the greatest sin of all: gimmick infringement. Therefore, tonight Austin has to defend the title against Chris Sabin and TJ Perkins, now known as Manic. Manic is in the same attire as Suicide, but without the word Suicide on his chest.

Kazarian says he’ll beat either version of AJ Styles he faces tonight.

Bound For Glory Series: Kazarian vs. AJ Styles

Kaz and Daniels come out dressed as Sigfried and Roy, with Kaz promising to make the world title appear around his waist in October. Styles knocks Kaz to the floor at the bell and hits a baseball slide to take him down again. Back in and AJ misses a forearm in the corner so Kaz can pound away on the mat. AJ comes back with a hard clothesline as Daniels is holding a stuffed tiger and wearing a blonde wig while playing cheerleader. The springboard forearm gets two on Kaz but Kaz dropkicks AJ down to get himself a breather. Not that it matters though as the Calf Killer makes Kaz tap to give AJ ten points at 4:02.

Rating: C. This was a nice little match as AJ continues to hone in his new character. The Calf Killer looked great and AJ can still fly as well as anyone else in the company. This is a pairing that has worked for years but I’m not exactly looking forward to Daniels vs. Styles #845 when they’re paired together in the Series.

Chavo gives Hernandez another pep talk.

Mickie James is in the ring with a ladder. She talks about having to climb the ladder to success and brags about being a country singer and being pursued for commercials. So Taryn and Gail can go out and break a leg and everything else, because they’ll never be as great as she is. Mickie is going to be Knockouts Champion of the century and will destroy whomever she faces for the title.

The Gut Check judges debate Ryan Howe vs. Big O. Howe gets to face the judgment.

The Main Event Mafia says the fourth member is revealed tonight.

Bound For Glory Series: Jay Bradley vs. Hernandez

Bradley takes over with a headlock and sends Hernandez to the ramp. SuperMex shoulders him in the ribs and hits the big dive over the top to take over. The over the top backbreaker gets two but Bradley comes back with a backbreaker of his own. Chavo tries to get in and the distraction lets Hernandez hit the big shoulder for the pin at 3:13.

Rating: D. This was barely anything at all with Bradley just being a warm body out there. I don’t know why TNA thinks fans care about Hernandez and Chavo as the fans go nearly silent during their interactions. They’re not interesting and the eventual match between the two isn’t going to draw any interest. Not much to see here.

Aces and 8’s talk about the X Title match tonight and Ray suggests no one should win it.

Bro Mans vs. Gunner/James Storm

Non-title here. Robbie and Jesse jump Gunner to start and take over for a bit, only to have Gunner clothesline Robbie down. Hot tag brings in Storm to clean house and backdrop Jesse onto Robbie’s crotch. Gunner tries a sunset flip attempt on Jesse but Robbie breaks it up, only to eat the Last Call. A Rock Bottom backbreaker (Irish Curse) puts Jesse down again but it’s a powerslam/neckbreaker combo from the champs to get the pin for Storm at 2:59. Basically just a squash but it was something of a mess.

Jeff Hardy is ready for Joseph Park tonight and hopes he doesn’t have too much Abyss in him.

Here’s the Main Event Mafia with something to say. They’re here to destroy aces and 8’s and to ensure that Bully Ray loses the World Title. Sting brings out Samoa Joe to be the force of change in the new Mafia. Joe says that with Angle and Sting at his back, he’s going to run through the BFG Series and earn his shot at Bully Ray for the world title. Angle says he put Joe in the Mafia because of the grueling matches they’ve had over the years. As for the fourth member, he’s another man who is rising up the charts in TNA: Magnus.

Magnus, also rocking a suit, comes out to a solid reaction. He praises the other Mafia members and Joe in particular for putting him on the map last year. It’s not just about the Mafia, but about the Mafia’s mission: putting an end to Aces and 8’s. Sting challenges Aces and 8’s to a fight at Destination X and guarantees a winner in the X Title match tonight.

Bound For Glory Series: Jeff Hardy vs. Joseph Park

Jeff grabs a headlock to start but bounces off Park in a shoulder block attempt. A dropkick works a bit better and Hardy takes Park down with a headscissors out of the corner. The Twisting Stunner looks to set up the Swanton but Park rolls away at the last second. Park isn’t sure what to do so he slowly whips Jeff from corner to corner and crushes him with a splash.

Off to a chinlock for a few moments until Jeff fights up and hits his usual stuff. A low dropkick gets two but the Twist of Fate is countered into a Samoan drop. The middle rope splash connects for two but Jeff comes back with the Twist of Fate to put both guys down. Hardy’s leg hitting Park’s face busted his lip open though, meaning it’s a Black Hole Slam for the referee, earning a DQ at 8:07.

Rating: C. This was better than I was expecting but the Park character has pretty much hit its limit. It’s been the same idea for months now and there aren’t many other places you can go with it without incorporating more Abyss into it. Thankfully they’re not treating him as anything special in the Series.

It’s time for Gut Check with Ryan Howe. Al Snow says no so Howe gets to Kick Out in thirty seconds, but the fans won’t stop booing him. Danny Davis says the booing has changed his mind because Howe didn’t stop what he was saying, so it’s a yes. Bruce Pritchard says Howe got a reaction from the audience, but it’s a no.

Doc and Anderson argue over who is the next VP of the club. The vote is next week but Ray yells at them for wasting time.

Video on Gail Kim vs. Taryn Terrell in a ladder match next week.

Next week there will be three Joker’s Wild tag team matches in the BFG Series.

X-Division Title: Austin Aries vs. Chris Sabin vs. Manik

Aces and 8’s are watching in the crowd. Aries is put in the Tree of Woe to start and Sabin nails a delayed dropkick to his face. A sunset flip gets two on Manik but Aries is back on his feet, only to be thrown out to the floor. Manik hooks an Octopus Hold on Sabin but Aries comes back in for the save. The masked man hangs onto the ropes and avoids a charging Sabin to send Chris out to the floor. Aries sends Manik to the floor as well and gets two off a middle rope dropkick to Sabin’s back.

A forearm to the back of Sabin’s neck puts him down on the ramp but Sabin blocks the brainbuster into a front suplex. Aces and 8’s come to ringside and try to pull Manik to the floor. The masked man dives on Doc and gets powerbombed down onto the floor for his efforts. Cue the Mafia to get rid of the bikers as we take a break.

Back with Manik being taken out on a stretcher as Aries hits a belly to back suplex on Sabin on the apron. Aries rolls Sabin up three or four times in a row for two each but Sabin comes back with rapid fire chops to the chest and a choke in the corner. A running boot to the chest gets two for Sabin but Aries drives him back into the corner. The running dropkick is countered by a boot to the chest, but Sabin misses another kick in the corner, banging up his knee in the process.

Aries goes after the knee and hits the running dropkick in the corner, but the brainbuster is countered into a small package for two. The brainbuster is only good for two so Aries hooks the Last Chancery, but Sabin grabs the rope to escape again. Aries can’t hit the 450 so Sabin connects with Hail Sabin but THAT just gets two. Another Hail Sabin is countered into a victory roll for two but Sabin pops back up with a discus forearm to put both guys down. Aries sends him into the corner for another running dropkick, but Sabin catches him going up and hits Hail Sabin from the middle rope for the pin and the title at 16:11.

Rating: B+. The stuff with Manik was just kind of there but things got WAY better after it got down to a one on one match. Imagine that: a showdown between two guys is better than a spot fest between three guys. Who would have guessed that? Anyway, this was a tremendous match and that finish looked excellent.

Sabin says he’s the next world champion to end the show.

Overall Rating: B-. The main event was awesome but it was the only thing on this show that was above average. Everything else on the show just wasn’t all that good, as it was a bunch of filler stuff before we can get to Louisville for Destination X. That being said, the main event was one of the best matches we’ve seen in a LONG time int his company, which makes the rest of the show worth it.

Results

AJ Styles b. Kazarian – Calf Killer

Hernandez b. Jay Bradley – Shoulder Block

Gunner/James Storm b. Bro Mans – Powerslam/neckbreaker combo to Godderz

Jeff Hardy b. Joseph Park via DQ when Park gave the referee a Black Hole Slam

Chris Sabin b. Austin Aries and Manik – Hail Sabin from the middle rope to Aries

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my book on the History of Starrcade from Amazon for just $4 at:

Impact
Date: July 1, 2010
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Tazz
Episode Title: The Voices in My Head

We get a recap of Hogan vs. Abyss which is mainly about THEY are coming.

We open in the arena with Abyss going crazy and throwing chairs into the ring. Hogan comes out and we’re told he needs back surgery. Bicshoff comes out before anything happens and Hogan tells him to step aside. TWO security guards come in to stop things. BISCHOFF SLAPS ABYSS.

Hogan pops him with a chair which does nothing and Hardy comes out for the save. A Twist of Fate puts Abyss down but a Hogan chair shot doesn’t? He adds a Swanton for the heck of it.

AJ vs. Joe later. That should work. Abyss comes up to the announce table and points at Taz, doing the YOU thing. It’s really going to be the ECW thing isn’t it?

Abyss vs. Hardy tonight.

InkIncvs. MotorCityMachineGuns

First match for the #1 contenders in….4 weeks? Shelley and Shannon to start which makes me think this is a Divas match for a second. This is a decently fast paced match which tells me we’re going to be done with Ink Inc soon. D-Von comes down to keep an eye on this and does commentary, saying he’s making sure Bubba doesn’t screw this up.

Neal hits Shelley with a spear for two and here’s Bubba just like the obvious would suggest. Neal gets distracted, setting up a SWEET double team move as Shelley hits Sliced Bread #2 while Sabin hits a sitout powerbomb on Neal for the pin.

Rating: C-. This was decent enough and the ending was AWESOME but seriously, the Neal/Bubba thing needs to die. It just does. No one is interested in either Dudley as a singles guy so don’t try to make them interesting. Just do Ink Inc vs. 3D like you should. We’ve tried the Dudleys as singles guys twice and it’s bombed both times. Don’t waste time on it a third time.

Pope is back tonight.

Bischoff makes Abyss vs. Hardy for the main event.

Dixie is just getting here. WHY IS IT SO HARD TO GET TO A TV SHOW ON TIME?

AJStylesvs. SamoaJoe

Ok, these two are usually AWESOME. Let’s see if they can manage to mess this up. Flair and Kaz come out behind AJ. That chant Joe gets every time has to be intimidating. Joe allegedly has the home field advantage….in the house that AJ built. Got it. AJ slams Joe and looks for approval from Flair. Eh that’s fine I guess. There is no one in Fourtune yet.

This is a decent back and forth match but I wish they could have it be more like their old ones without AJ constantly looking for approval. AJ goes for the figure four and gets caught in the clutch for the tap out. Post match AJ gets yelled at AGAIN by Flair. Kaz gets all smirky and I wonder what the point in making AJ into this is. AJ gets a mic and calls out Kaz for a match next week and it’s on.

Rating: B-. For only six minutes, this was solid. It’s obviously light years away from their epic wars, but this was far from bad. The post match thing showed promise for AJ which is a huge thing. Joe still looks completely directionless which is normal for him anymore but this was fine for what it was.

Dixie is with Hogan and Bischoff and in one of the funniest segments ever, Hogan calls Sting cancer, says Sting can’t handle success and says that Sting wants to destroy everything that’s successful and always has. I almost had to pause the show to clear the tears from my eyes from laughing so hard. Oh and Nash had a cameo.

BrianKendrickvs. DesmondWolfe

This is a submission match and Williams is on commentary. Wolfe dominates early so you know that Wolfe is jobbing here again. Williams vs. Jeremy Buck next week in a ladder match. Uh….WHY? He’s having an Ultimate X match at the PPV so shouldn’t he be doing that instead? Chelsea walks off and Kendrick gets the cobra clutch on Wolfe for the eventual tap. Yep that was predictable and pay no attention to the hold looking HORRIBLE.

Rating: N/A. This was maybe two minutes long and therefore the shortest submission match I can ever think of other than against a jobber. Ah never mind as this would fall into such a category. Again, is there a point to having Wolfe job so much? I’m certainly not seeing it.

Tommy Dreamer won’t comment on attending Impact.

Pope gets a video package.

And here he is. The fans chant hallelujah. He starts crying and says he’s glad to be back and thanks everyone. He says he wants Anderson and he’ll get back to him later. He wants the title back and talks for awhile. And cue Angle. He gets far more cheers and takes the entire segment which is expected I guess. Pope is the future of TNA apparently. The match is made for Victory Road, which makes me wonder who isn’t allowed to make matches.

We recap Flair vs. Lethal and continue to see how irritating Flair is now.

JayLethalvs. MattMorgan

Lethal calls out Flair and AJ but gets his opponent instead. Morgan has been asked to join Fourtune apparently. Morgan jumps him and goes for the elbows in the corner, most of which miss but whatever. After Morgan kind of dominates, Hernandez comes out and causes the distraction so that a missile dropkick can end Morgan.

Rating: C-. This was too short to mean anything but it was just about setting up the angle at the end with Hernandez. It’s kind of a head scratcher but for a few minutes long, this was fine for what it did. Lethal got to yell at Flair and Hernandez cost Morgan a match so that all adds up.

Abyss makes a 2×4 with nails in it.

MadisonRaynevs. TaylorWilde

WOW the champions is actually wrestling! I don’t believe it. This is of course not very good. It’s nice to see some fresh blood in there though so I’ll give them that. We lay around a lot as the ECW guys, this time plus Rhyno, show up to completely take away the spotlight from the match at hand as everyone cheers for ECW.

In a funny line Taz points out that none of these guys liked him in ECW anyway. Rayne hits that knee to the back of the head on Wilde to win it. Love comes out and beats her up with a chair.

Rating: N/A. This was bad but what do you expect really? The crowd only cared about the ECW guys and the match was awful. Love more or less has to win at the PPV but where does the division go from there? I have no clue at all but I doubt they do either.

Sarita beats the crap out of Wilde for no apparent reason other than a heel turn. She looks good in black too.

We run down the Victory Road card to waste some time.

Dixie finds Sting and he asks if she gets it now. She blames Sting for everything and she suspends him for 30 days without pay. Sting says she’s been conned but won’t explain. Dixie isn’t listening apparently. He’s about to explain and here’s Bischoff with security to get rid of Sting. He says let’s just make it indefinite instead of 30 days.

Abyssvs. JeffHardy

Van Dam is referee here. We get rid of the 2×4 board almost immediately. The ECW guys are gone too. Abyss takes over and that lasts only a bit as Abyss loses focus. This is fairly back and forth and is getting some time. Jeff “hits” a “Twist of Fate” but doesn’t get the Swanton.

And then the Swanton does hit and gets the completely clean pin. Oh sure…why not. Anderson comes in for the save with a chair but accidentally hits Hardy and takes Shock Treatment to end the show with Abyss standing tall.

Rating: C-. Eh nothing great here but nothing horrible either. The booking makes next to no sense here but it’s TNA so what do you expect? Abyss standing tall to end the show would be a lot better if he hadn’t gotten pinned in about seven minutes more or less clean but whatever. This did its job….I think.

Overall Rating: C. This was a different kind of show but it had one thing going very well for it: there was a point to just about everything here. The angles were almost all advanced or at least addressed which is good. The wrestling mostly sucked, but the main thing here was that they had a coherent story.

There was some unintentional comedy which you have to expect here, mainly in the form of the Hogan/Bischoff/Dixie segment which was just great. The rest of the show was solid and Sting STILL not explaining is like a running joke now. This was a good show I guess, but they really need to upgrade the wrestling.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @Kbreviews and pick up my book on the History of Starrcade from Amazon for just $4 at:

Impact Wrestling
Date: June 27, 2013
Location: Peoria Civic Center, Peoria, Illinois
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Tazz

We’re still in Illinois here with a show that TNA spoiled on their website already. The main story here is we’re three weeks away from Destination X and the chance at a world title shot against Bully Ray. Other than that we have more from Sting’s Main Event Mafia which right now is just him and Kurt Angle plus more in the BFG Series. Let’s get to it.

After the usual voiceover gets things going, here’s Sting to open the show. He says that after Slammiversary he needed to go back to the roots of the Main Event Mafia so he picked Kurt Angle. Angle says that he and Sting are Mafia Originals from about four years ago. The concept of the Mafia was that everyone had to be a former world champion and they did anything they wanted.

Now, the only people who could stop them are Aces and 8’s. They’ve kept Sting from ever challenging for the world title again and kept Kurt out of the BFG Series. Angle says he and Sting are the new Main Event Mafia and are both Hall of Famers, but that means nothing until Aces and 8’s are destroyed and Bully loses the world title. Kurt says tonight there’s going to be a third member of the Family to go to war against the bikers.

Video on Sabin winning the X Title at Slammiversary.

Aces and 8’s jump Sabin in the back but don’t beat him down. Anderson and Doc hold him so Ray can lecture Chris about not overstepping his bounds and coming into the big boys’ league.

We meet the first Gut Check contestant: the Big O from Z: True Long Island Story.

X-Division Title: Chris Sabin vs. Kenny King vs. Suicide

King dives into a double dropkick to start so it’s Sabin vs. Suicide early on. King comes back with a running dropkick of his own to take both guys down. Suicide is knocked to the floor as Sabin is slammed down, only to have the masked guy come in with a missile dropkick to put King down. Everyone heads to the floor with Sabin diving onto both guys as we take a break.

Back with Sabin putting King on the top rope with his back to the ring, only to have Suicide miss a charge and get caught sitting in the corner. Sabin dropkicks King’s body into Suicide for two and your new three way spot of the match. Suicide hits a kind of Diamond Cutter into the middle buckle for two on Chris but King crotches him as the masked dude goes up.

We get the Tower of Doom with Sabin getting the worst of it, allowing King to get some near falls. Sabin comes back with a baseball slide to send Suicide to the floor and the Hail Sabin for two on King. Suicide sends the champ to the floor and gets two off a rollup on King. The Royal Flush is countered into a rollup by Suicide (with a grab of the rope) for the pin at 10:12.

Rating: C-. I’m over the three way rule and have been for months now. Having literally the same gimmick every single time makes the title nothing more than a worthless gimmick. Suicide winning is something interesting as Sabin wasn’t going to be bought as a threat to the world title no matter what.

Post match Hogan comes out with a limping guy named TJ Perkins. Hogan says this is the real Suicide and the guy in the ring jumped him and stole the suit. Suicide leaves through the crowd with the title.

Hogan says that Suicide has until the end of the show to unmask.

Ryan Howe is the other Gut Check guy. You might remember him from the last season of Tough Enough. His gimmick here seems to be a musician.

Gut Check: Ryan Howe vs. Adam O’Reiner

O’Reiner gets two off a powerslam to start before pounding Howe on the mat. Adam misses a charge in the corner and Howe puts him down with a jumping back elbow. Howe pounds away but charges into a powerslam for the pin at 2:50. This was junk.

Ray comes in to see TJ Perkins. He’s a fan of TJ’s work but wants to know if Angle and Sting put TJ up to this tonight. Perkins says no so Ray gets in his face and asks again. TJ says tonight was the opportunity of a lifetime and it was taken away from him but he doesn’t know who did it.

We recap Velvet’s knee injury and Mickie attacking her to delay the rematch over and over.

Knockouts Title: Velvet Sky vs. Mickie James

Mickie says Velvet is above this despite being a three dollar w****. Sky spears her down to start and fires off shoulders in the corner to take over. A slam to the mat gets two and Mickie heads to the outside for a breather. Mickie takes over back inside and takes it to the mat before firing off shoulders of her own in the corner. She goes after the bad knee but Velvet comes back with a bulldog for two and the champion heads outside again.

Velvet hooks a headscissors to put Mickie down before pounding away at Mickie’s face. Back in and Mickie kicks the bad knee before getting two off a bad DDT. Velvet comes back again but gets hit in the knee one more time, allowing Mickie to hook a freaky deathlock for the tap out at 6:37.

Rating: D+. The story was fine but the execution didn’t work at all. Velvet just isn’t that good in the ring but to be fair she’s there because of how she looked in her little outfits. Mickie is playing the heel very well and the idea of just going after an injury is a fine way to get heel heat.

Velvet cries about losing.

We recap the events of the night so far.

Bobby Roode walks past Sting and Angle in the back. The Mafia smiles.

Hogan asks a referee who he thinks Suicide is but can’t get any information. The referee is told to tell Suicide either unmask or get fired.

Bound For Glory Series: Magnus vs. Bobby Roode

They fight for arm control to start with neither guy being able to gain the advantage. Magnus gets two off a jumping knee to the face and Roode bails to the outside. Back in and Roode goes after the neck by sending Magnus throat first into the middle rope. A neckbreaker gets two and it’s off to a chinlock. Magnus comes back with a backdrop and a clothesline followed by a release suplex. A top rope elbow gets two on Roode but he catches Magnus in the spinebuster. The fisherman’s suplex is countered into a falcon’s arrow for the pin on Roode at 6:42.

Rating: C+. This started slow but got a lot better by the end. Magnus has so much potential it’s unreal, but it’s taken way too long to actually push the guy. That was the biggest singles win of his career and Roode isn’t going to lose anything as a result. This is called a rub, and surprisingly enough this works better than Hogan calling Magnus his main man one time backstage.

Aces and 8’s go into a locker room and ask if anyone is Suicide or if they’ve spoken to the Mafia. They all deny it but Ray threatens them anyway. Oh and Godderz should lay off the carbs.

Here are James Storm and Gunner with something to say. Storm says tag team wrestling is a science and while they may not be scientists, he’s been known as a chemist with his alcohol. You may not get along with your partner, but if you win in the ring you’re good to go. That’s why he picked Gunner and it’s why they’re champions.

This brings out Robbie E and Jesse Godderz to say they’re the future of tag team wrestling and called the team the Bromance. James: “So are you guys like a thing now?” Robbie: “I DIDN’T SAY THAT!” The name is Bro Mans apparently and Jesse says he has a hot girlfriend so they’re clearly into chicks. James calls Tara a butterface so Gunner knocks a charging Jesse out.

Sting and Angle want to go find Suicide.

Bound For Glory Series: Mr. Anderson vs. Samoa Joe

Anderson takes him into the corner but Joe pounds him down with strikes. A running big boot in the corner gets two for Joe as Tenay and Taz bicker again. We head to the floor with Anderson ramming him back first into the apron for two back inside. Anderson gets two off a swinging neckbreaker but Joe fights back into the corner again. Here are Doc and Knux for a distraction, allowing Anderson to get two off a DDT. Joe comes back with a powerslam as the Mafia hits the ring to take out the bikers. Back in the ring Joe blocks the Mic Check and gets caught in the Koquina for the tap out at 5:28.

Rating: C-. The match was a backdrop for the angle going on but it wasn’t bad. Joe could be a factor in the BFG Series as you could have him get a bunch of submissions to run up his score. He’s eternally over in TNA so the crowd will buy into him no matter what he’s doing at the moment. Also Anderson is so much better in this role than as a top guy.

Joe is the third member of the Mafia.

Here’s Hogan to demand who Suicide is tonight. Suicide gets a mic but Hogan has to list off his accomplishments first. Cue Bully Ray who says that he wants to find out who is under the mask as well. Ray claims that Suicide won the title because Sabin had the fear of Bully Ray in him. Bully is a bad person who does bad things so Suicide doesn’t want a piece of him. Hogan says take the mask off right now but Suicide says he felt the pain and we share the torment. Suicide says the question is do you know who he is…..and it’s Austin Aries, who is going to cash in again this year to win the title. Ray is shocked to end the show.

Overall Rating: D+. This was a hit and miss night for TNA. The good news is that they have some interesting stuff going on in the forms of Magnus and the Mafia, but stuff like Gut Check and the Suicide angle being rushed through in one night bring the show right back down. Also it gets annoying seeing Ray and Hogan trying to find out who Suicide is and wasting time on those segments when the reveal is later in the night. The show wasn’t bad but it felt bogged down which made it feel long.

Results

Suicide b. Chris Sabin and Kenny King – Rollup to King

Adam O’Reiner b. Ryan Howe – Powerslam

Mickie James b. Velvet Sky – Deathlock

Magnus b. Bobby Roode – Falcon’s Arrow

Samoa Joe b. Mr. Anderson – Koquina Clutch

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book on the History of Starrcade from Amazon for just $4 at:

Impact Wrestling
Date: June 21, 2012
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Tazz

It’s Open Fight Night 3 and the BFG Series gets going tonight as well. The two main focuses of the show though are going to be Aries decision about forfeiting the X Title in exchange for a world title match and Dixie revealing what is going on with her and AJ. TNA is on a total roll at this point so hopefully they can keep things going. Oh and we might be able to find out who attacked Sting. Let’s get to it.

Here’s Hogan to open things up. He isn’t going to give the masked men any more publicity but things will be made right for Sting. That’s enough about that though so let’s talk about Austin’s choice. Here’s Aries to answer Hogan’s ultimatum. He talks about being given two options, either to drop the title for a shot or keep this title. Aries says he has Option C: he’ll hand over the title for his title shot, but every year the X Champion gets the same option at Destination X. Hogan says ok, and here’s Roode.

Bobby freaks out and asks if Hogan and Aries are kidding him. He told Hogan to stay in the office a long time ago. Roode wants to know what Aries thinks he’s doing because the X Title means nothing to Roode. He talks about how he won’t be a footnote and says he’ll keep his title at Destination X. Aries says this is Open Fight Night so let’s do it right now. They brawl in the aisle until the agents break it up. Once they’re split up, here’s Anderson, who says he’ll win the BFG Series and face the winner.

Bound For Glory Series: Mr. Anderson vs. Christopher Daniels

They’re going to have everyone face everyone in this which is a BIG improvement over last year where they seemingly had people fighting at random. Also every match has a ten minute time limit. Daniels works on the arm of Anderson which may have been injured by Roode last week. An elbow to the face puts Daniels down but the Mic Check is countered into a Blue Thudner Bomb. Anderson pops back up again and hits his spinning neckbreaker into the Mic Check for the pin at 3:04, giving Anderson 7 points.

Rating: C-. This was barely long enough to rate which makes it hard to talk about. This is the first part of a LONG series so it’s hard to say where things are going from here. Anderson seems to be getting a push in this as he’s coming in after being the #1 contender. I’m not wild on either of these guys but how much can you complain about in three minutes?

AJ thinks there’s another way to do this. Dixie isn’t sure.

Brooke is in the back with the Knockouts who might be getting the title match tonight. The girls have to tell her why they want the title. ODB says she’s different than everyone else. Madison says she’s held the title forever and Brooke tells her to drop the crush. Mickie says she’s the best female wrestler in the world and Madison says she’s the second longest reigning champion ever. Madison gets thrown out. Velvet didn’t say anything.

Robbie challenges anyone in the BFG Series to a match.

Bound For Glory Series: Robbie E. vs. Kurt Angle

Suplex, Angle Slam, ankle lock, ten points for Angle in 31 seconds.

Video on Taeler Hendrix who is the Gut Check girl tonight.

Here’s Magnus who says he’s going to pick his opponent for a BFG Series match here. Women around the world want a shot at him so he knows what it’s like to have women trouble. He doesn’t go after other men’s wives though, so AJ, get out here.

Bound For Glory Series: AJ Styles vs. Magnus

AJ charges into the ring and starts fast. A backbreaker puts Magnus down but AJ changes his mind before going up. Magnus pops up and catches AJ’s cross body into a suplex. Cool counter. AJ snaps off his dropkick but the Pele misses. Off to a chinlock which AJ breaks before Daniels and Kaz come out with more papers. The distraction allows Magnus to hit a Juvy Driver for the pin at 2:31 for seven points.

Taeler Hendrix vs. Tara

Gut Check time. Tara suplexes her down but gets caught in a quick sunset flip for two. Tara chokes her in the corner for awhile before getting caught in a Stratusphere. Joseph Park is being taken out for some reason. Hendrix comes back with some clotheslines but a spin kick misses. Widow’s Peak and it’s over at 2:36.

Back from a break and Park wants to know why he’s being taken to the back. It turns out to be a trap set by Ray, who yells at Park. Park talks about Ray beating him up last week and gets shoved for it. If Ray ever sees either of them again, it’ll be the last time they’re ever seen.

Bound For Glory Series: Samoa Joe vs. James Storm

Joe pounds him down into the corner and hits his kick to take Storm down. The armbar is countered as Storm makes the rope so Joe slaps on a nerve hold. Storm fights out of it but walks into a snap powerslam for two, followed by an armbar. They trade forearms but Joe goes back to the arm to slow Storm down. There’s a crossface chickenwing but Storm breaks that quickly as well. The Cowboy goes up top but gets kicked in the head. No MuscleBuster but Joe hooks the Clutch. That gets broken up and the Last Call ends this at 3:56.

Rating: C. This wasn’t bad but Joe seemed to be outmatches by Storm at almost every turn. I like Joe being all fired up again and he looks like he’s lost some weight on top of that. Storm is pretty clearly the favorite to win the whole series which is probably the right move, but again I don’t know if they need to spend three months building that up when he has a built in story already.

We recap the AJ/Dixie stuff which has been going on for awhile now.

Back to the Knockouts Reality Show with Velvet saying she never got a rematch. ODB gets thrown out because of Eric Young. Next.

Bound For Glory Series: D’Angelo Dinero vs. Bully Ray

This is another call out, this time by Bully. Ray jumps Pope to start and gets some quick two counts. A boot to the face puts Dinero down but a splash misses for Ray. Dinero comes back with some elbows but Ray hits a corner splash. As he pounds away in the corner, here’s Abyss in the crowd. He tells Ray to bring it and the DDE sends Ray to the floor. Abyss comes over the rail and goes after Ray, who gets back in the ring but walks into an STO for the pin at 3:45.

Rating: C-. Not much here as these short matches are getting a little annoying. Abyss vs. Ray is still probably the most interesting story on the show right now which is covering a lot of territory. Pope was pretty much there to fill in a spot and there’s nothing wrong with that, but I’m not sure if he’s going to be able to do that forever.

Hogan makes Hardy vs. RVD as the main event because they’re the only two BFG people that haven’t fought tonight.

Here’s the Montgomery Gentry video with Velvet in it.

Knockouts Title: Miss Tessmacher vs. Mickie James

Ok then. Feeling out process to start with Mickie taking her down to the mat pretty quickly. She hooks a chinlock with a bridge and even adds in a cheap shot. Mickie hasn’t ever been heel in TNA that I remember so that could be something interesting to see. Brooke gets in a few shots including a facejam out of the corner but Mickie takes her down with that spin kick of hers for two. Tessmacher hooks a sunset flip out of nowhere for the pin at 5:20.

Rating: D+. The match was nothing of note but it was fuel for Mickie’s apparent heel turn. See, this is a big difference in what you get in today’s TNA than what you would likely get under Russo’s TNA. Here, Mickie has had little things like the music video going to Velvet to start her down this path before she just does it. With the old system of stuff, it would happen all of a sudden and you would have to fill in the gaps yourself. Here, it’s slowly built up and we get the payoff for the build. That’s called good storytelling.

Bound For Glory Series: Rob Van Dam vs. Jeff Hardy

Van Dam takes him down with a leg scissors but Jeff speeds things up, hitting a legdrop to the back of Van Dam’s head and a pair of dropkicks for two. Hardy sends him to the floor but van Dam comes off the top with the jumping kick. Rolling Thunder gets two as does the split legged moonsault. Hardy comes back with a bulldog but the Swanton misses. Van Dam goes up and tries a 450 of all things, but Hardy moves. DDT gets two and the Twist gets the pin at 3:48.

Rating: C+. This was pretty good but again the shortness of it isn’t helping anything. The 450 was a nice surprise and it’s good to see someone getting a clean pin in the main event here. Granted that’s what’s been happening lately though so I can’t complain much in that regard either. Good stuff here, but way too short.

Here are AJ and Dixie for the big reveal. The fans still cheer for Styles because he’s their hero. Dixie has trouble talking and AJ says we don’t have to do this. Some woman comes out and says she wants to do this. Both of them seem to know who she is and she seems to be pregnant. She says she’s known both of them forever and says they’ve both helped her a lot. She’s going to tell us the truth: they’re not having an affair.

This chick says she’s an addict and she’s stolen money to pay for it. She’s woken up with a stranger more than once and had to go to AJ and Dixie for help. AJ took her to rehab and the video/photos were about her. Daniels is freaking out in the back and here he comes. AJ runs him over as the girls get out. Here’s Kaz as well and AJ beats him up too. AJ kills Kaz with a powerbomb and Peles Daniels. He pounds away on him as the show ends.

Overall Rating: B-. I was happy with the amount of wrestling we got, although the longest match being less than six minutes if I remember right didn’t help much. I like the way this show is going lately though as Hogan has been kept to a MUCH more reasonable amount and the angles have been given time to grow and develop, which was probably th ebiggest issue with Russo’s booking. Another solid episode here.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book on the History of Starrcade from Amazon for just $4 at:

Impact Wrestling
Date: June 20, 2013
Location: Peoria Civic Center, Peoria, Illinois
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Taz

Tonight is the start of the BFG Series which will run for the next three months heading into the biggest show of the year in October. Perhaps more interesting though is Sting reforming the Main Event Mafia tonight to aid him in his war against Aces and 8’s. It’s also the return of Open Fight Night as the summer begins for TNA. Let’s get to it.

Sting arrives to open the show, dressed to the nines in a suit and sunglasses sans paint.

We open in the arena with every BFG Series member other than Hardy and Roode. Hogan comes out to hype up Open Fight Night before calling out the two missing competitors. Everyone in the Series will get to have a match tonight and it’s Hardy who gets the first pick due to winning a fan vote. Before he can make his pick though, Austin Aries cuts him off.

Austin says he’d love to be the man that gets to face Hardy first but Jeff is too scared to do that. Christopher Daniels warns Hardy not to pick either he or Kazarian unless Jeffery wants to suffer the most demoralizing defeat of his career to start the Series. Hardy finally gets to talk and picks Bobby Roode in a not very surprising announcement. Jeff tells the Creatures to mount up and everyone brawls as we go to a break.

For clarity’s sake, every match in the Series tonight comes with a callout beforehand. I won’t bother recapping them as it’s just guys saying who they want to fight. The person listed first is the person who got to call the second person out.

Here’s how the scoring works for the Series:

10 – Submission
7 – Pinfall
5 – Countout
2 – DQ Victory
2 – Draw
-10 – DQ Loss

Also each match has a 15 minute time limit.

Bound For Glory Series: Mr. Anderson vs. Joseph Park

Anderson takes him to the mat with a headlock to start before slapping Park in the back of the head. He lets Park grab his own headlock, only to counter just as easily. A legsweep takes Park down and Anderson is making this look easy. Park grabs his own headlock out of nowhere and wrestles Anderson down before slapping him in the back of the head in a cute bit. Anderson is ticked off and kicks Park’s knee out before pounding him down in the corner. Park avoids a splash in the corner and gets two off a quick rollup as things pick up a bit.

A neckbreaker puts Park down and we hit the chinlock for a bit. Park’s comeback is cut short by a pull of the hair but Anderson misses a Swanton. Joseph makes a quick comeback but misses a splash in the corner, allowing Anderson to hit the rolling fireman’s carry slam. Park pulls Anderson’s legs out for a Boston crab but here’s Doc for a distraction to break it up. Park slams Anderson down but Doc shoves him off the middle rope while Anderson has the referee, allowing Anderson to hit the Mic Check for the pin and seven points at 5:06.

Rating: C-. This was fine and Park being the fall guy at first isn’t a bad idea. You can push him as getting more experience as the competition goes on and making a hard charge at the end, perhaps with some assistance from his brother. The match wasn’t anything great but Anderson winning could make for some interesting situations down the line.

Post break Anderson and Doc argue over who is going to be the next VP of the club. Ray says we’ll put it to a vote because tonight he has to deal with his wife Brooke.

Bound For Glory Series: Jay Bradley vs. Austin Aries

Aries takes it to the floor almost immediately and hits a big plancha off the top rope. Back in and Aries hits the slingshot elbow drop but can’t hook the Last Chancery. Austin goes up again and gets kicked down to the floor before a knee drop to the chest gets a near fall for Bradley. Some fast elbow drops get two for Jay but he misses a running boot into the corner, getting himself caught on the top rope.

Aries fires off kicks to the leg and gets two off a missile dropkick. Bradley kicks Aries out of the air as he tries the corner dropkick but Austin blocks the Boomstick with a discus forearm. Another Boomstick is ducked and Aries grabs a quick powerbomb followed by the corner dropkick. The brainbuster to Bradley is good for the pin and seven points at 3:39.

Rating: C. The more I see of Bradley the more I like him. He has a ring presence to him which is something you can’t teach anyone to have. He’s here to be the fall guy in the Series but I see some decent potential in him in years to come. Decent little match here with the exactly right result.

We look at Sting announcing the Main Event Mafia’s reformation last week.

Sting says the Mafia grows tonight.

Post break Sting asks someone if they’re in the Mafia. The unseen guy shakes his hand and apparently Sting has a deal.

Chavo gives Hernandez a pep talk for his match.

Bound For Glory Series: Hernandez vs. Christopher Daniels

Daniels goes right at him to start but gets caught in the overhead belly to belly from Hernandez. Chris takes the eyes to take over but Hernandez powers out and slugs Daniels down. The running dive from the apron takes Daniels down as Hernandez is bleeding from the mouth. Daniels dives into what appeared to be an Alpha Bomb (slam into a powerbomb) but slips away and hits a low blow to put SuperMex down. The BME pins Hernandez at 2:19 to give Daniels seven points.

Bound For Glory Series: Kazarian vs. Magnus

Magnus knocks him to the floor to start but Kaz comes back in with a forearm to the face and a cravate. Kaz’s spinning crossbody is countered into a very modified powerslam/suplex for two as the crowd is into Magnus. The Brit no sells a missile dropkick (Kaz was supposed to miss but connected anyway), allowing Magnus to hook a Texas Cloverleaf for the submission at 2:54 for ten points. That’s a good move that someone needs to bring back.

Hulk is on the phone and saying things feel perfect when Bully Ray comes up to him holding a hammer. Hogan grabs him by the throat and wants to fight right now. Hulk says Ray and Brooke are done tonight but Ray asks him why Brooke stopped the shot to the head with the hammer a few weeks back.

Here’s Brooke Hogan for the state of the Knockouts division address. Eric Young and ODB have the KO Tag Title belts again. Dang it all. Mickie gets her own special entrance and thinks she’s the one giving the speech tonight. She brags about being so awesome and says it’s easier for her to carry the title on her shoulder than it is on Velvet’s bad knee.

Brooke cuts her off and wants to start with Eric Young. She reminds him of a chat they had a year and a half ago and Eric says that technically he isn’t a woman. He hands Brooke the KO tag belts and says that it’s National Kissing Day. Eric kisses ODB and they run off to the back. As for Velvet, she gets her rematch next week because her knee is fine. Gail Kim wants her own rematch which she’ll get in Las Vegas….against Taryn, in a ladder match.

After a quick talk from the announcers, Hulk sends Brooke home for the night due to fear of Ray.

Bound For Glory Series: AJ Styles vs. Samoa Joe

No callout here as these are the last two guys left (Tenay: “You can tell by process of elimination.” Or the graphic we saw before the break) but AJ has something to say. With all the lights dark, AJ says that this isn’t about Aces and 8’s, TNA, the fame, the glory or the money. It’s about not needing a hero because he’s tired of doing things for everyone else. Joe pounds him into the corner to start but AJ grabs a headlock to slow him down.

After a good while in the hold, Joe fights up but misses a running boot into the ropes. AJ pounds away in the corner and drops Joe with a clothesline. Joe misses a charge in the corner but catches AJ with the enziguri to put him on the floor. The Samoan tries a charge but has to land on his feet as AJ slides back in. AJ’s dive lands on the apron but Joe kicks his leg out to ram AJ face first into the apron as we take a break.

Back with Joe elbowing AJ in the face and pounding in some headbutts. AJ hits a quick dropkick to send Joe to the floor where a baseball slide puts Joe into the announce table. We’re told there are five minutes left which tells me TNA has a fast clock. Back in and AJ hits the springboard forearm but can’t suplex the plump Samoan. Instead AJ charges into a snap powerslam but he rolls out of a cross armbreaker attempt.

Joe looks for a superplex but AJ falls on top of him in a kind of crossbody for no cover instead. Back up and AJ pounds away but Joe punches him into the corner and fires off knee lifts. AJ rolls him into the Calf Killer but Joe sits up into the Koquina Clutch. AJ rolls out of that into a cradle for two as we have a minute left. They slug it out with thirty seconds left and head to the mat but the clock runs out at 13:40 for a time limit draw, good for two points each.

Rating: C+. These two are always worth seeing and this was no exception. You can’t have AJ tap out here as it would make him look pretty lame, but you also don’t want to have Joe lose this early in the Series. This was a solid TV match but as soon as you hear the time limit being announced you could smell the draw.

Ray is on the phone with Brooke and talks her into coming back tonight. He sends D-Von, Doc and Knux out to get her here safely.

Hulk talks to Sabin, Suicide and Kenny King about their match next week and how the winner can trade in the title for a shot at Ray in July.

Bound For Glory Series: Jeff Hardy vs. Bobby Roode

The brawl starts on the ramp with Hardy taking over as they get to the ring. Roode takes him straight down into the Crossface but Jeff makes a rope before too much damage is done. Bobby catapults him throat first into the bottom rope before stomping away on the downed enigma. A vertical suplex sets up a knee drop for two and Roode keeps pounding on Jeff.

Hardy gets up a boot in the corner and hits a middle rope splash for two as momentum swings. An atomic drop sets up the low dropkick for two on Bobby but he grabs a quick spinebuster for two of his own. Jeff counters the fisherman’s suplex into the Twisting Stunner, but Roode rolls away from the Swanton. Bobby throws the Crossface back on but Hardy rolls through into a cradle for two. Another Twist hits for the pin on Roode and seven points at 6:15.

Rating: C+. This was the short version of the good match these two are capable of. You know Hardy is going to make a deep run in the Series so seeing him win early on isn’t a big surprise. Roode will do fine in this as well as you need a strong heel later on in the competition. Good start here for both guys.

Sting says we have some Family business to tend to tonight.

Here’s Ray to close the show. He talks to the three X Division guys who think they’re going to take the title from him in July. He’ll do whatever it takes to keep the title, but he has more important things to talk about tonight. Ray calls out Brooke but gets Sting with the Main Event Mafia music instead. Sting says he went back to his family because he can’t wrestle for the title again. That doesn’t mean he can’t get retribution on Ray tonight though.

Sting takes off his jacket and gets ready to fight before taking off his shirt. Ray calls out for the bikers but we see all of them down in the back. Sting goes after Ray and chases him up the ramp, only to have Kurt Angle, rocking a suit, take Ray down and put him in the ankle lock as the show ends.

Overall Rating: C+. The matches weren’t great tonight, but there was a clear direction here that we haven’t seen since Lockdown. The entire spring was spent building up to a filler show at Slammiversary, so having something to build up to with BFG is a very nice breath of fresh air. Sting and Angle as the Main Event Mafia is interesting but it’s something we’ve seen before: TNA’s old guys against the Aces and 8’s. It still should be entertaining though. Good show tonight.

Results

Mr. Anderson b. Joseph Park – Mic Check

Austin Aries b. Jay Bradley – Brainbuster

Christopher Daniels b. Hernandez – BME

Magnus b. Kazarian – Texas Cloverleaf

AJ Styles vs. Samoa Joe went to a time limit draw

Jeff Hardy b. Bobby Roode – Twist of Fate

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book on the History of Starrcade from Amazon for just $4 at:

Impact Wrestling
Date: June 13, 2013
Location: Gwinett Center, Duluth, Georgia
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Tazz

We’re still in Atlanta and tonight we get to find out who will be the twelve men in the BFG Series. We’ve already found out three of them but tonight the field will be completely revealed. Other than that we’re likely to hear more about Brooke Hogan not letting her dad hit Bully with a hammer last week. Let’s get to it.

After a recap of the events of last week, here’s Hulk to open the show. He talks about how awesome it is to be in Atlanta before talking about nearly murdering Bully Ray last week. It was such a horrible moment last week that only an act of God kept him from doing something very bad. He’s even asked Brooke Hogan to stay home tonight because of how intense things have been.

As for tonight, it’s the BFG Series Selection Show. Three people (Joe, Jay Bradley and Hernandez) are already in and we’ll add the previous two winners (Hardy and Roode) to the field as well. Hogan brings out Jeff Hardy who says he’s so tired of hammers that he’s going to win the BFG Series and then beat Ray for the world title in San Diego.

This brings out Bobby Roode to talk about being the longest reigning champion in Impact Wrestling history and how he’s going to win his second BFG Series to win the world title back. Hogan says that next week is Open Fight Night and the fans get to vote for which of these two get to pick which of these two get to make the first call out. Roode says he’s going to call out Hardy next week but Hardy wants to go right now.

Instead here are Aces and 8’s with something to say. Ray wants to know why any of this matters, because no matter who goes on to Bound For Glory because they get to lose to him. Hogan wants to know why the bikers aren’t in the Series and Ray says that’s just fine. Ray sends in Bischoff and Brisco to fight Hardy and Roode which goes about as well as you would expect. Roode jumps Hardy from behind and bails before he catches a beating.

Bad Influence is ready for the tag team qualifying match tonight and make fun of Storm for having yet another partner. Daniels plays the piano and that’s about it.

Bound For Glory Series Qualifying Match: Gunner/James Storm vs. Bad Influence

Both members of the winning team qualify. Storm suplexes Daniels down to start and drops a knee for two. Off to Gunner vs. Kaz with the tattooed man throwing Kaz around with ease. Daniels finally starts cheating to take Gunner down, allowing Kaz to hit a springboard legdrop to the back of the head for two. Bad Influence hits a few kicks to the chest but Gunner runs them both over with a double clothesline.

Back to Storm who gets two on Kaz off an Alabama Slam as everything breaks down. Gunner is sent to the floor but Storm hits a Backstabber on Daniels and Closing Time on Kaz. With everything going nuts, Kaz distracts the referee so Daniels can blast Storm in the head with a title belt, giving Kazarian the pin at 4:26.

Rating: C-. This didn’t have time to go anywhere but it’s clear that the tag titles are going nowhere again. At least the tag team champions didn’t lose clean in under five minutes. The Series needs heels though so what better way to have these two get into the Series? Well they could have had them beat ANY other two faces but that wouldn’t be impressive I guess.

Crimson is back with a modified look. He won’t say what he’s doing here for the first time in 12 months.

Velvet has a present for Mickie James inside an envelope.

Here’s Crimson to talk about being undefeated for 470 days and then being gone for 12 months. Tonight he can get into the BFG Series and all he has to do is beat Joseph Park.

Bound For Glory Series Qualifying Match: Joseph Park vs. Crimson

Crimson runs Park over with some clotheslines for two before we hit the cravate. Some knees to Park’s face set up a neckbreaker for no cover as Crimson is bragging a bit too much. Park is sent into the corner but Crimson misses a charge, allowing Park to roll him up for the pin at 2:40.

Mickie is ready for Velvet.

Here’s velvet to clear the air with Mickie. She calls out the champion and hands her the contents of the envelope: medical clearance for the rematch. Mickie says that the release is dated yesterday but Velvet’s knee is hurt today, so Mickie attacks the knee and puts it in a leg lock until referees make the save.

Matt Morgan says he’ll win his match because Sting couldn’t beat him.

Bound For Glory Series Qualifying Match: Kenny King vs. Matt Morgan vs. Rob Terry vs. Magnus

One fall to a finish. Morgan and King start but King immediately tags out to Terry. King distracts Terry so Morgan can take over with the Nash choke in the corner. A big boot to the head puts Terry down but King tags himself in. King hits a springboard ax handle to Terry’s back but the big man launches King into the air and down to the mat. Off to Magnus who takes down the two big guys and drops King with a brainbuster. The top rope elbow gets two on King as Morgan makes the save and everything breaks down. Morgan kicks Terry in the face but Magnus hits a Michinoku Driver on King for the pin at 4:50.

Rating: C-. Magnus is a good choice to go into the Series as he is constantly pushed as the next big thing in TNA. The problem is Morgan has been in that role for years as well and never gets to go anywhere as a result. The winner was surprising though so at least it wasn’t a waste of time.

Eric Young is going to sneak into the BFG Series by beating Aries. His first step: using the rest room.

Video on Jackson’s arrival getting media coverage.

Here’s Sting for the first time since Slammiversary. He talks about the great deception by Bully Ray setting up Sting’s one title shot at Slammiversary. Sting failed there because he couldn’t survive the waves of Aces and 8’s that Ray threw at him. While Sting was fighting them off, no one came out to help him but that’s ok. Sting says Aces and 8’s are just like family. He repeats the word family and says that he has to go to a place that he never thought he’d have to go again. Sting has to create a family that he can trust: the new Main Event Mafia.

Video on Eric Young’s fishing show and a brief reunion with ODB.

Bound For Glory Series Qualifying Match: Austin Aries vs. Eric Young

Aries immediately takes Eric to the mat and rides him around before heading to the corner for some bragging. ODB comes in and is ridden to the mat by Eric before we get back to some actual wrestling. Aries rakes the eyes to take over and chokes on the ropes before hooking a quick chinlock.

They trade loud chops and Young pounds away before being sent to the apron for a Flair strut. Young slides back in and sends Aries to the apron as well, but Austin’s Flair strut is broken up by a forearm. A big dive to the floor takes Aries down but kissing ODB takes too long and Aries dropkicks Young in the corner. The brainbuster finishes Young at 6:15.

Rating: C-. There were some nice spots in this but I don’t think I could care less about Young if I tried. He’s done the same “goofy” schtick for so long that I never need to see it again at all. Aries winning is fine as he belongs in the Series but the match wasn’t entertaining due to Young.

Aces and 8’s tell Doc to chill about not getting the BFG Series spot.

Bound For Glory Series Qualifying Match: Battle Royal

It’s every member of Aces and 8’s but it’s a Fingerpoke of Doom match. Anderson “shoot” Brisco out, Hogan points Bischoff out, tricks Knux into looking away and actually fingerpokes him out, and tells D-Von to get the tables from the floor. Doc is the only one left but he will have none of the stepping aside. He goes after Anderson but eventually gets tossed out anyway at 4:00 so Anderson can win. No rating but it was storyline development instead of a match.

Rampage Jackson comes up to Angle in the back to ask what he meant last week. Angle said he just meant that Rampage can’t jump to the top overnight and everything seems cool.

Doc is yelled at in the back by the rest of the team until Ray yells at Anderson and Doc for screwing up the plan. Doc says he was just stepping up which Ray respects, but Doc broke the plan. Everything seems to be cool but Doc wants to make sure AJ Styles doesn’t make it into the BFG Series. Ray says get the job done.

Bound For Glory Series Qualifying Match: AJ Styles vs. Kurt Angle

Angle takes it to the corner to start but AJ pops him in the jaw with a dropkick. A backbreaker and suplex put Angle down as we take a break. Back with AJ knocking Angle to the floor and hitting a baseball slide to send him into the announce table. AJ misses a big dive and gets caught in a sweet overhead belly to belly suplex to put him down on the floor. Back inside and AJ clotheslines him down but gets caught in a release German suplex. Angle can’t follow up and gets caught by a springboard forearm for two. Kurt comes right back with Rolling Germans, only to have AJ counter the Angle Slam into a DDT for two.

AJ misses a splash in the corner and gets caught in the Angle Slam for two. The ankle lock is countered into the Calf Killer which is countered into the ankle lock which is rolled through by AJ. Styles goes up for a moonsault but Angle runs the ropes for a belly to back superplex. AJ lands on his feet and hits a DDT into the corner to knock Angle silly. Cue Doc and Knux to go after AJ but it’s Angle who takes the shot. That and an Anderson distraction allows AJ to roll up Kurt for the pin at 15:37.

Rating: B. Did you expect anything else from Angle vs. Styles? The counters in there were getting more and more awesome every time with both guys finding a way to top themselves every time. The ending was fine even though they told us it was coming earlier in the night. Very solid main event here as you would have expected.

Aces and 8’s beat Angle down post match until Rampage Jackson makes the save to end the show.

Overall Rating: C. This was a few steps below last week’s show but it was still entertaining for the most part. The wrestling wasn’t all that great but tonight’s episode was about setting up future matches instead of giving us entertaining stuff tonight. Angle vs. Styles was good like you would expect it to have been and some of the other matches weren’t bad either. Also the drama was kept to a minimum tonight which makes for a much easier show to sit through. It wasn’t bad but it was behind last week’s show.

Results

Bad Influence b. James Storm/Gunner – Kazarian pinned Storm after a belt shot to the head

Joseph Park b. Crimson – Rollup

Magnus b. Kenny King, Rob Terry and Matt Morgan – Michinoku Driver to King

Austin Aries b. Eric Young – Brainbuster

Mr. Anderson won a battle royal last eliminating Doc

AJ Styles b. Kurt Angle – Rollup

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book on the History of Starrcade from Amazon for just $4 at:

Impact Wrestling
Date: June 9, 2011
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Tazz

It’s the go home show for Slammiversary and we have most of the card set up already. With Foley now fired and apparently legit gone from the company, it appears that Immortal is back in control again. Also we’re likely to get the final push to Sting vs. Anderson which will see Sting/Young vs. Anderson/Gunner. Anyway, let’s get to it.

We open with a recap of last week of Foley being fired and Immortal having full power again. Hogan is looking extra orange here.

Hogan and Bischoff open the show. Hulk says that the Network finally woke up and got rid of the selfish Foley. Eric says that Foley did have a few good ideas such as the name of the show and that wrestling matters. Eric assures us that the X Division is going to be presented in a fair and balanced manner. First up though he wants the contenders in the world title match to come down here right now.

Here are Anderson and Sting. Hogan talks about how awesome this company is now. They’re not going to go through this with the Network again. Hogan gave his word apparently and he meant it. At Slammiversary there will be a winner and a loser with no gimmicks or agendas. Also there will be no run-ins. If either guy has a problem with that speak now.

Anderson raises his hand and says that he’s been making fun of Sting for weeks because everything Sting stands for is a joke. Anderson is in this for Anderson and on Sunday, he’s getting the title back. Sting says he’s got a lot he’s going to do about that. There are a lot of things he wants to do around here and he’s going to do them because he’s champion. One of two things has to happen: Hogan and Bischoff have to leave or the real Hogan has to come back. He gets in Eric’s face and calls him an infection, blaming him for Hogan being the way he is. Hogan needs to cut away the cancer, and he’s certainly capable of it.

Knockouts are up next.

Mickie James/Tara vs. Winter/Angelina Love

Can we just get to the lesbian stuff already? Tara has the motorcycle back. Tara and Winter start us off. Angelina doesn’t seem interested in tagging in so Mickie and Tara work on the arm. I guess Mickie is all cool about the whole Tara running her over a few months back thing. Off to Angelina who wants Mickie. Tara instead hits a spinning side slam and it’s off to Mickie. They hit a wheelbarrow splash for one as Angelina does her zombie thing again.

With Tara accidentally distracting the referee, Winter is able to get a powerbomb in the corner on Mickie for two. The zombie chicks take over on Mickie now as she plays Ricky Morton for a bit. Mickie hammers back and that gets her nowhere. Blind tag brings in Angelina but Mickie hits a dropkick to take her down. Everything breaks down and Madison comes down to distract Tara, allowing Angelina to hit her backbreaker on Mickie for the pin at 4:45.

Rating: C. Not bad here but really just a standard tag match. It sets up the Mickie vs. Angelina match on Sunday which is fine. Nothing too bad but Madison might have been a bit too much out there. Angelina’s chest looked great though so that balances out the questionable ending.

Beer Money and Shelley are ready for their match tonight and on Sunday.

Mexican America says they’re tired of getting less every time.

We get a video of Samoa Joe and Crimson fighting in a bar which is filmed via phone apparently. Joe beats the tar out of him.

Jeff Jarrett gets here and doesn’t want to talk about Karen so he walks off.

The Brits are on commentary here. Well at least Magnus is as Williams stands behind the desk.

Mexican America vs. Alex Shelley/James Storm

Anarquia and Shelley start us off. The champions I guess do some of the Guns’ offense which Storm modifies for his own style. I like that as it plays up the best of both world dynamics. Shelley gets caught coming off the top and Hernandez hits his slingshot shoulder to take Shelley down. We keep cutting to Magnus talking so it’s hard to see everything that’s going on.

Shelley tries to fight back but gets caught by the power of Hernandez. Slam sets up a missed splash off the top by Supermex and there’s the tag to Storm and one to Anarquia also. Everything breaks down and Hernandez is knocked to the floor. Storm has Anarquia covered but the girls distract the referee. Sarita gets beer to the face and Shelley kicks Storm in the face, allowing Anarquia to get the pin on Storm at 4:30.

Rating: C. Pretty decent tag match here as we can see the problems that the guys unfamiliar with being partners. I liked how Shelley and Storm worked together out there but I’m not sure I get the point in having them lose. Have miscommunication and let them win still to make it look like they’re having issues but can still win on Sunday. Either way not bad here.

Gunner comes in to see Anderson and Anderson asks for help against Sting, implying he’ll repay the favor later. They’re cool apparently.

Mexican America comes in to see Hogan and wants a title shot. Hogan gets all ticked off and says quit telling me what to do or he’ll turn into the Terminator and play a game of Hulkster Says with the ladies. Mexican America is going to do something when Hogan least expects it. Ok then.

Preview of Angle/Jarrett with the main focus being on Angle. He says he’s not worried about this Sunday and says that he can beat Jarrett this time because there will be no Karen to distract him.

We open the second hour with more talking of course, this time in the form of Jarrett and Angle. Jeff says Kurt is going to listen tonight rather than it being them going back and forth. Karen is gone apparently and won’t be at the PPV. Jeff has had to think about that for seven days now and the first thing he did was panic. He panicked over what Kurt will do to him when it’s one on one. Jeff reminds everyone that he brought Kurt in and Kurt is the best in history.

However, Kurt never thanked Jeff for bringing him in. Kurt wasn’t happy about being the best in the company and the real star. It was always about making people forget about Jeff. Then Jarrett wanted to take everything dear to Kurt, so he took his wife and kids. Now he wants to take away Kurt’s place on top and he won’t sleep until he owns it.

Kurt finally gets to talk and thanks Jeff for taking Karen out of his life for good. All he’s ever wanted was Jeff one on one but Jeff had to keep bringing Karen into it. Kurt isn’t wasting any more words on him because on Sunday, his wrestling will do the talking. Then Jeff will see how real this really is.

ODB doesn’t like how Velvet presents herself and ODB will how Velvet what wrestling is tonight.

Kaz and Kendrick have Janice and are looking for Abyss. Kendrick says Abyss is his type of guy. They say they’re going to go find him.

Bully Ray is here for an open challenge. On Sunday he’ll be the last man standing because he’s a man. I wonder if he’s 40. The challenge is for everyone other than D-Von. Here’s a surprising person to take it.

Rob Van Dam vs. Bully Ray

RVD does his poses and gets powerbombed out of the corner for two. All Ray so far as he uses his basic brawling stuff. RVD finally gets in a kick to send Ray into the corner. Monkey flip doesn’t work and Ray hammers away again. AJ is chilling in the stands watching this. Ray hasn’t seen him yet but he does now. The distraction lets RVD recover long enough to counter the Piledriver. Springboard kick sets up the Five Star and we’re done at 3:30.

Rating: C. This is barely gradeable as the majority was Ray hammering on RVD and then the AJ distraction. RVD had a total of about four moves in this. Remember a few weeks ago when he and Angle had one of the “biggest matches in Impact history”? And now he has a three and a half minute match with Bully Ray that he needs AJ to help him get through. Things change so fast in wrestling it’s unreal.

We get a clip from English TV of Angle trying to get back on the Olympic team.

Kendrick and Kaz are still looking for Abyss and they actually find him reading The Art of War again. Abyss talks about how he doesn’t need Janice anymore and calls the X Title the Extreme Title. There can be a three way at the PPV. Kendrick gets into a big philosophical rant and Kaz just leaves.

We run down the card for Slammiversary.

ODB vs. Velvet Sky

ODB isn’t under contract apparently so she comes out next to the broadcast table. Sky jumps her before the bell and the brawl begins. Velvet is sent into the steps and hurts her knee as we finally head into the ring and start the actual match. ODB covers immediately but only gets two. This is a sloppy brawl and barely even a match at all.

Velvet can’t get going due to the knee injury but has a chance to breathe due to ODB yelling at the referee. She argues even more and Velvet can’t do anything. The announcers make stupid jokes and we get more arguing with the referee. Velvet finally wakes up and stomps away in the corner. Out to the floor again and Velvet gets her back rammed into the post. Fall away slam sets up more yelling and Velvet grabs a DDT for the surprise pin at 5:12.

Rating: D. Didn’t like this at all as it was about five minutes of stomping, choking and yelling. I guess that’s the end of this feud and if so that’s not saying very much. Pretty weak match here and the only real perk was Velvet looking good. Any match where I have to watch ODB slap her vagina is a bad one.

Eric Young is all stupid again and talks about unifying the titles and Who’s The Boss before Sting yells at him again. He wants him to drop the comedy for one night and let the competitor come out.

We get a clip from Xplosion where D-Von and Pope have been having issues. Pope came out to save D-Von from Mexican America. D-Von doesn’t like Pope being around his kids and wife.

And now let’s have our main event.

Gunner/Mr. Anderson vs. Sting/Eric Young

Big match intros kill some time. The slow bell for this makes me chuckle for some reason. Sting vs. Anderson to start but we get the traditional fast tag from Anderson to bring in Gunner. Sting gets the splash in the corner very quickly and adds a second one, both of them to the back. Apparently the second was because a spot was messed up as after the first Sting intentionally turned his back to Anderson. He did it again the second time in the same spot and Anderson drilled him.

Anderson works over Sting in the corner now and it’s off to Gunner again. He works on the ribs with an abdominal stretch and here’s Anderson again. Sting gets a clothesline and it’s off to Eric who cleans a few rooms, adding a big top rope elbow to Gunner. He fakes blowing mist at Anderson but celebrates too much and is rammed into Sting. That counts as a tag somehow and Gunner hits the F5 on Sting for the pin at 6:00. Oh and Young celebrates on the floor.

Rating: D+. What in the world was that? Who in the world thought it was a good idea for Gunner of all people to get a pin on Sting to end the show? I don’t get this at all and the main event is the longest match of the show at 6:00. Not a fan of that at all and I don’t get what they’re going for here in the slightest.

Back and Young doesn’t get that they lost. Sting is mad.

AJ says the plan is coming together. Ray pops up and says he didn’t back away. Agents break it up.

Sting gets something out of his bag and Anderson talks about how he didn’t break a sweat. Sting comes up and Anderson runs. They go into a trailer and Sting beats him down then puts paint all over Anderson’s face. This is Sting snapping I guess. He chokes Anderson out to end the show.

Overall Rating: C-. Not a bad show tonight but it was rather paint by numbers. Nothing really happened here but it was a go home show for the PPV and they covered the big matches for it pretty well. That being said it was another match where everything kind of dragged which is never a good thing. Definitely not a bad show but really just kind of there at the end of the day. That main event brought it down though.

Results

Angelina Love/Winter b. Mickie James/Tara – Backbreaker to James

Mexican America b. Alex Shelley/James Storm – Anarquia pinned Storm after a superkick from Shelley

Rob Van Dam b. Bully Ray – Five Star Frog Splash

Velvet Sky b. ODB – DDT

Gunner/Mr. Anderson b. Sting/Eric Young – F5 to Sting

Here’s Slammiversary if you’re interested:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2011/06/12/slammiversary-2011-some-very-questionable-stuff-but-tnas-best-ppv-of-the-year/

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book on the History of Starrcade from Amazon for just $4 at:

Impact Wrestling
Date: June 6, 2013
Location: Gwinett Arena, Duluth, Georgia
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Tazz

We’re past Slammiversary now which means we have four and a half months before we get to Bound For Glory. The main story from Slammiversary is Ray retained the title with help from Aces and 8’s while Sting received no help at all. Tonight we’re likely to kick off the Bound for Glory Series which is a four month long competition to determine the #1 contender for the world title at the biggest show of the year. Let’s get to it.

We open with a recap of the end of Slammiversary’s main event with Ray hitting Sting in the head with a hammer to retain.

Here’s the world champion to open things up. Ray gets in Tenay’s face to talk trash about Sting with Tenay whining back at him about all the cheating. Ray talks about the fans being happy to see him because he’s from New York City and he’s the guy who beat Sting at Slammiversary. Sting hasn’t had good luck at Slammiversary as he was jumped last year at the show after the PPV. Then on Sunday, Ray beat Sting single handedly, which means Sting might retire.

Ray talks about beating all of TNA’s heroes and leaving no one left standing, meaning he should be in the Hall of Fame. Instead of getting Dixie like he wanted, Ray gets Hogan instead. Hulk talks about Ray beating Sting with the help of the Aces, but now he heard Ray say there’s no competition left. Hogan thinks there’s competition left and we’ll find out who that might be next week on the BFG Series Selection Show.

After a cheap pop (Hogan’s words) for mentioning Atlanta, Hogan announces Ray vs. Jeff Hardy for later tonight. Ray protests so Hogan makes it a ladder match for good measure. There’s going to be a hammer hanging above the ring as well and whoever gets to it first can use it. I guess that means you win by pin?

Video on the BFG Series.

Chavo and Hernandez say they’re friends but it’s every man for himself in the BFG Series.

Bound for Glory Series Qualifying Match: Chavo Guerrero vs. Hernandez

Hernandez runs him over to start so Chavo tries to go after the arm. Chavo dropkicks him down for two and stays on the arm, only to be slammed down with ease. Hernandez misses a splash so Chavo hooks another armbar, only to have Hernandez easily lift him up. SuperMex throws Chavo down with a suplex followed by the over the shoulder backbreaker to put the smaller guy in trouble. A corner splash misses and Chavo hits a pair of suplexes, only to have the frog splash hit knees. The Border Toss is countered into a sunset flip but Hernandez counters into a rollup for the pin at 4:56.

Rating: C-. The match wasn’t bad but it showed us one thing: absolutely no one cares about Chavo Guerrero. Whoever is about to say “I care”, sit down and shut up because you’re a very confused person. Hernandez is nothing great, but the fans actually respond to him a bit. Chavo is a living human and that’s about it as far as the fans are concerned.

Rampage is here.

Here’s D-Von with something to say. He wants Abyss to come out here and give him back the stolen TV Title. Instead D-Von gets Joseph Park who claims that D-Von robbed him on Sunday. Park says he’s going to do what he should have done on Sunday and takes D-Von down to pound away. D-Von comes back with right hands and sends Park into the post. He loads up a chair shot but gets cut off by Abyss’ music. There’s no Abyss so D-Von says he’s coming to find him. Park gets up and sees blood coming from his mouth. Joseph goes into Abyss mode and breathes a lot as we go to a break.

Here’s Robbie E claiming to be the MVP of the last two BFG Series. Last year he beat Jeff Hardy and got five points bro. Robbie doesn’t care who his opponent will be for the qualifying match tonight.

Bound for Glory Series Qualifying Match: Samoa Joe vs. Robbie E

Joe runs him over to start and pounds Robbie down like he’s not even there. Robbie gets in a single shot but misses a cross body, setting up the Muscle Buster and the Koquina Clutch for the tap out at 1:40.

Mickie James comes up to Velvet in the back to schill the new Impact Wrestling scratch off lottery ticket. Mickie makes excuses for why she can’t defend the title against Velvet tonight, claiming she has to defend the title against someone Velvet overlooked as champion.

We get the Kurt Angle HOF video.

Here’s Rampage Jackson in the arena for his big debut. Jackson talks about being a wrestling fan growing up and saying he needs to beat the best in order to be the best. This brings out Kurt Angle to say that if Rampage wants to be the best, he’ll have to go through Angle. Short and sweet.

Ray and Anderson are in the back and wondering where D’Lo has been. Anderson mentions that the VP spot is now opens but Ray wants to talk about the ladder match tonight. He doesn’t know why he has to climb a ladder to blast Jeff Hardy in the head with a hammer again. Anderson thinks Hogan doesn’t like Jeff but Ray wants to know why the Aces aren’t in the BFG Series. Anderson asks if Ray wants help in the ladder match tonight. Ray says a good VP would know what call to make.

Austin Aries/Bobby Roode/Kenny King vs. Chris Sabin/Gunner/James Storm

Sabin starts with an armdrag to take King down before sending him into the champions’ corner. Everything breaks down in a hurry with Roode and company bailing to the floor. Sabin dives on all three of them at once to fire up the crowd. Back in and Roode suplexes Sabin down before getting two off a knee drop. Off to Storm for a Beer Money reunion with James cleaning house until Roode clotheslines him down to take over. Aries comes in with a slingshot splash for two.

King hits a slingshot legdrop for two of his own before it’s back to Roode for some double teaming. Storm sends Aries into Roode to get himself a breather and the hot tag off to the hometown boy Gunner. Everything breaks down and Roode hits the spinebuster on Gunner to take him down. Aries loads up the suicide dive but gets kicked in the head by Sabin. All Hail Sabin (the name for that piledriver kind of move Sabin has been using) pins King at 6:39.

Rating: C. This was your usual formula tag match but without enough time to really get anything going. Having all three new champions against their challengers is fine as you can combine both stories into a single match. This worked fine for what it was but hopefully they can do something new with the divisions instead of just doing the same stuff over and over again.

D-Von and Knux jump someone in the back, presumably Joseph Park.

Brooke Hogan congratulates Taryn on her win Sunday but won’t talk about her feelings for Bully.

Mickie James vs. Taeler Hendrix

Taeler takes her down with a wristdrag to start but Mickie seems amused. She even applauds Taeler before running her over. Taeler Matrixes away and dropkicks Mickie down for two. Hendrix kicks Mickie in the knee, sending Mickie begging to ODB for mercy. Of course she’s playing possum and kicks Taeler’s head off for the pin at 3:45.

Rating: D. This wasn’t much but Taeler didn’t look bad in more ways than one. The fans reacted to her which is the best thing that could happen to her at the moment so it was a good night for her. Mickie has slid right back into the heel role and is playing it perfectly which is nice to see for a change.

Someone attacks Knux in the back. It’s Abyss of course and D-Von is attacked as well.

We look at the card for next week and Angle vs. Jackson from earlier.

Bully Ray vs. Jeff Hardy

Non-title hammer above the ring ladder match here. Jeff dives on Ray during the champ’s entrance before taking him inside for some right hands in the corner. Back to the floor with Hardy diving off the apron to take the champ out before bringing out the ladder. We come back from a break with Ray splashing Jeff in the corner and posing a bit. Ray drops the ladder on Hardy before dropping an elbow for good measure.

A big boot stops a Hardy comeback attempt and the champ mocks Hogan. Jeff blocks the Bully Bomb and DDTs Ray down but can’t follow up. Back up and they slug it out with Jeff taking over. An atomic drop sets up the legdrop between the legs and the seated dropkick for good measure. Jeff goes up but jumps down before Ray can shove him off. Ray is sent into the corner where Jeff dropkicks the ladder into the champ’s crotch. Fans: “NO MORE BABIES!”

Jeff goes up but gets shoved into the top rope by the champ. Ray: “TAZ! MY BALLS!” Hardy comes back with a clothesline but gets shoved into the corner after he tries to climb again. The Whisper in the Wind puts Ray down but he gets up in time to pull the ladder out again, sending Hardy crashing to the mat.

Ray goes up and retrieves the ladder despite still feeling the effects of the low blow earlier. Jeff avoids the hammer shot and hits a Twisting Stunner to get the hammer for himself. Hardy misses a few swings of his own and Ray runs off to end the show. Jeff falls down on the ramp and is holding his hip or back. The match just ends at around 16:00.

Rating: B. No contest (and possible legit injury to Jeff aside) this was a pretty solid main event. Can you really ask for more than a Dudley against a Hardy in a ladder match on free TV? The crash landings here were scary stuff as Jeff’s bones are going to be like soup by the time he’s fifty. Good match though.

Hardy is helped out by a referee and is holding his hip.

Ray wants his belt in the back but Hulk is sneaking up on him with a hammer. Brooke shouts at him to stop and Ray escapes to end the show.

Overall Rating: C+. This wasn’t too bad coming off of Slammiversary although I wasn’t wild on throwing a ladder match with two top names out on free TV like this. Jackson vs. Angle should be AMAZING and will actually be a big time draw for TNA, unlike anything King Mo did (and by that I mean one thing). The BFG Series looks good so things are looking good for the future….in nearly five months.

Results

Hernandez b. Chavo Guerrero – Rollup

Samoa Joe b. Robbie E – Koquina Clutch

Chris Sabin/James Storm/Gunner b. Kenny King/Austin Aries/Bobby Roode – All Hail Sabin to King

Mickie James b. Taeler Hendrix – Spinning kick to the head

Bully Ray vs. Jeff Hardy went to a no contest

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book on the History of Starrcade from Amazon for just $4 at:

Impact Wrestling
Date: May 30, 2013
Location: USF SunDome, Tampa, Florida
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Tazz, Todd Keneley

We’re finally at the go home show for Slammiversary but there are actually a few things to get through tonight. We have a six man tag between Sting and Joseph Park partners vs. Aces and 8’s, as well as finding out which “big” free agent TNA has signed. The problem with that is Dixie Carter has called many people a big signing over the years so it’s hard to take her at her word anymore. Let’s get to it.

We open with a recap of last week’s show with Bully saying he still loves Brooke and Styles still being neutral.

Bully is with Aces and 8’s, saying tonight is about AJ Styles. Ray leaves and Anderson lays out D’Lo Brown for not being angry enough I guess.

Here are the former Dudley Boys to open things up. On Sunday it’s Sting vs. Ray and Joseph Park vs. D-Von for the respective titles. Sting wanted no holds barred and that’s exactly what he got. Ray talks about the legends that Sting has beaten, such as Flair, Hogan and Angle. Oh and Sting beat Jeff Hardy but Ray has too. The difference is Ray took Hardy out of action like he’ll do to Sting at Slammiversary. However, Ray wants the tag match NOW.

Bully Ray/D-Von vs. Joseph Park/Sting

It’s a big brawl to start with Sting ramming D-Von into whatever metal objects he can find. The brawling on the floor continues for about two minutes with nothing of note happening. Ray rams Joseph’s hand into the steps before climbing into the ring. Sting looks up at him and the in ring part of the match finally begins. They throw a few punches and it’s a double clothesline to put both guys down as we go to a break.

Back with D-Von working over Park until Joseph gets in a shot and goes up. Ray crotches him to stop any momentum before coming in and dropping an elbow for two. Off to D-Von for some Hogan posing as Park lays on the mat. Back to D-Von for a jumping back elbow before Ray comes in for a pretty awesome looking dropkick. Park finally gets over for a tag and Sting starts cleaning house.

Sting loads up the Scorpion on D-Von and Park tries one on Ray, only to be kicked into Sting to break the hold. Sting takes both guys down clotheslines but misses a Stinger Splash in the corner. The reverse 3D takes Sting down and the bikers load up What’s Up, but Abyss’ music hits. The distraction lets Sting hit the Scorpion Death Drop on D-Von for the pin at 13:28.

Rating: D+. This didn’t do anything for me for the most part. I do like the idea of putting two feuds into one match though as it’s a great way to free up space for later in the night. However, the match didn’t work when neither feud is anything interesting at all, which is the case here. You can barely even say that Park and D-Von are feuding as they’ve only been interacting for a few weeks. Sting vs. Ray is the filler main event of the year, which is a bad idea when you only have four PPVs a year. Not terrible here but very pedestrian.

Kurt Angle will be watching AJ’s match very carefully.

Dixie Carter comes out to say that we’ll induct a new member into the Hall of Fame on Sunday. The fans will all be cheering for Sting in the title match….but here are Aces and 8’s to disagree. Garrett says that Sunday is going to be more like a funeral but here are Joe and Magnus for the save. Joe doesn’t know who gave Garrett a chance to speak, but instead of talking let’s fight right now.

Samoa Joe vs. Garrett Bischoff

Joe pounds away and hits the corner enziguri as we go to a break. Back with Joe being tripped up by Doc, drawing in Magnus for the save…..and the DQ when Garrett goes to the floor to beat him down. The bell rang at about 5:40 but about four minutes of that was in a commercial.

Post match Joe says that it’s a six man on Sunday with Jeff Hardy making his return.

Storm says he picked Gunner because he’s a beast who has killed people for our country.

Hulk yells at Brooke about being suckered in by what Bully said. Hulk: “When he looks at you like that, it’s permission to rape your life.” Apparently Hogan is betting everything he has on Sting on Sunday, pretty much guaranteeing Sting loses.

Austin Aries/Bobby Roode/Bad Influence vs. James Storm/Gunner/Chavo Guerrero/Hernandez

Gunner and Daniels start things off with Gunner running him over with a back elbow. A backdrop puts Daniels on the floor where Kaz has a quick consultation. Back in and it’s off to Aries who is rather tentative to face Gunner. He’s so worried about it that he tags in Bobby before making any contact. All of Roode’s partners are on the floor so he has to do this on his own, which include charging into a boot to the face before it’s off to Chavo.

Hernandez gets the tag maybe ten seconds later to hit a splash before bringing Chavo right back in. Chavo hits Three Amigos but is sent to the floor very quickly to give the heels their first control. Aries comes in with a slingshot splash to Chavo before it’s off to Kaz for a chinlock. Daniels misses a splash in the corner though, allowing for the hot tag to Hernandez.

All of the heel team tries their luck with SuperMex but he runs them all down, only to have Kaz break up the Border Toss. Aries hits a sweet running dropkick in the corner to slow Hernandez down but Austin is suplexed down to counter the brainbuster. Gunner tags himself in and no sells a discus lariat before putting Aries in the Torture Rack for the submission from Aries at 9:30.

Rating: C-. If they don’t change the titles on Sunday, just retire the things already. There’s nothing interesting about this never ending feud and it’s been boring for months. Adding Gunner and Storm to the thing just makes it more cluttered and keeps Storm from ascending up the ladder even longer. The match was ok but there’s nothing interesting here, which is the tagline for this whole feud.

AJ Styles arrives, causing Bully to go into a massive speech to the Aces. He has a job for Knux and declares war on Impact Wrestling. If there aren’t victims, any member of the team could end up like D’Lo.

Bound For Glory is in San Diego.

Here’s Mickie James to celebrate her title win. She brags about winning and thanks her fans for standing by her, but there are some people doubting the way she won the title. Mickie calls out Velvet to clear the air because they’re friends. Mickie talks about how tough Velvet is and how much she loves her for giving Mickie the shot when she wasn’t 100%. Velvet wants her rematch which Mickie is cool with, but Velvet wants the match at Slammiversary. Mickie says no because there’s already a Knockouts match at Slammiversary.

This brings out Gail to yell at Mickie, claiming that Mickie wouldn’t have won the title without Gail hurting Velvet’s knee weeks ago. Gail has been hurting anyone in her path lately because of how frustrated she’s been. She says she gets the first shot but Velvet gets in her face and says no. Gail goes after the bad leg but Taryn makes the save as Mickie stands around.

Kenny King/Gail Kim vs. Taryn Terrell/Chris Sabin

Taryn goes nuts on Gail to start and hits a quick neckbreaker to take her down. A high cross body takes Gail down for two before it’s off to the guys. Sabin takes King down and cranks on the arm, only to be clotheslined in the back of the head to give the X Champion (King) control. King misses a slingshot legdrop and gets caught in a spinning DDT for two but everything breaks down. Taryn spears Gail down and Sabin hits whatever his driver is called for the pin on King at 5:00.

Post match Sabin says he’ll win on Sunday but King lays him out. Suicide comes in to clear out both guys and hold up the belt.

Sting talks about all of his title wins over the years.

We run down the Slammiversary card.

Mr. Anderson vs. AJ Styles

Anderson jumps AJ as he comes into the ring but AJ fires off some right hands to come back. Mr. runs him over but gets tripped down and hit with a quick suplex for one. AJ snaps Anderson’s neck on the top rope but keeps looking around for the bikers to run in. Anderson is sent to the floor for a baseball slide as we take a break. Back with AJ not being able to suplex Anderson back in so we head to the floor with AJ being sent into various objects.

Back in and Anderson takes it to the mat with a body scissors and arm lock. AJ fights up and takes Anderson down to shift momentum again. A knee drop gets two but Anderson comes back with the fireman’s carry roll for two. AJ loads up a superplex in the corner but here’s Kurt Angle for the DQ at 13:58.

Rating: C. This was fine but it was too late to save this show. I do like that AJ is wrestling while in this Sting from 1997 period as it keeps him fresh and crisp in the ring. The ending makes sense, but it doesn’t do much for the rest of the show. At the end of the day, it would be ok to have Anderson lose here. Not much of a match but not terrible.

Post match here are the bikers and all of their opponents on Sunday other than Jeff Hardy. Everyone but Sting and Ray clear out and the champ is put in the Scorpion, only to have D-Von make the save and hit 3D on Sting to end the show.

Overall Rating: D+. If you don’t like Aces and 8’s, do not watch this show. Literally over half of the TV time this week was dedicated to that single storyline, making for a very tiring episode. The ONLY other stories going on are the three other title matches and none of them have what I would call a strong buildup. This show has become so hard to sit through as the Aces and 8’s story continues to drag on and on. Slammiversary looks good on paper, but the main event feels like nothing but filler, which is very stupid with just four PPVs a year. This show built up the PPV well enough, but man alive stay clear if you don’t like Aces and 8’s.

Results

Sting/Joseph Park b. D-Von/Bully Ray – Scorpion Death Drop to D-Von

Samoa Joe vs. Garrett Bischoff went to a no contest

Chavo Guerrero/Hernandez/Gunner/James Storm b. Bad Influence/Bobby Roode/Austin Aries – Torture Rack to Aries

AJ Styles b. Mr. Anderson via DQ when Kurt Angle interfered

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book on the History of Starrcade for just $4 from Amazon at:

I saw someone mention this and it makes a lot of sense.It’s clear that TNA is doing the Sting from 1997 storyline with AJ.  That would be fine but the motivation doesn’t work.  Sting had been WCW’s flagship for years and then they decided they didn’t trust him when the NWO lied about him.  AJ is like this because he lost a match to Christopher Daniels.  Yeah there was all the stuff before that with Claire, but once AJ was exonerated of that he was fine.

In other words, AJ is just whining and we’re supposed to be all upset because he can’t get over a loss to a guy he’s fought (and lost to before) like a thousand times?  That’s kind of hard to buy into.