Moving in the Wrong Direction

TNA has a pay per view on Sunday, but you wouldn’t know it by watching this week’s episode of Impact. While there was plenty of matches, many of them were over before they even started. The same thing goes for the sloppy promos, which did nothing to set up the matches for Victory Road.

With the WWE picking up serious steam over the past few weeks, TNA is in desperate need of a game changer. So far, it appears Sting is not the answer.

The same thing goes for the shoddy match ups they have for this card.

As a result, it’s obvious that TNA needs help.

A lot of it.

Matches:

Samoa Joe w/ Okato vs. The Pope: A decent match that had a solid pace but was ruined by a bad finish. The fact that Pope used the same chain to take out Okato to start the match only proves TNA needs to get a bit more creative in the ring. At the same time, while Joe looked good and got a decent response from the crowd, it’s more obvious than ever that The Pope needs to spice up his moveset. Aside from a clothesline, but other moves did he use in that match? Cowardly heel or not, this guy isn’t in the same league as Joe. The fans know it too, which makes this angle even bigger a stinker than it already is.

Madison Rayne w/ Tara vs. Roxxi: After facing off against ODB two weeks ago, Roxxi made her return to TNA after an extended absence. However, Rayne made quick work of the hardcore knockout with a modified version of Zak Ryder’s finisher, the inverted overdrive/knee neckbreaker. Micki James hit the ring afterward, which probably means these two will duke it out at the Pay Per View on Sunday.

Devon vs. Bully Ray, Backstage Brawl:
Why are these guys still feuding? Why is Tommy Dreamer involved? For some reason TNA thinks they have a lot of old ECW fans looking to get their fix. They don’t. Something else needs to be done with these wrestlers or nothing at all. This stuff is totally stale.

Cookie, Sarita and Angelina vs. Angelina Love, Velvet Skye and Winter: A terrible match that ended with the referee barely in the ring to count. If you were convinced Angelina from “The Jersey Shore” was talentless before, this match was pure conformation. There were simply too many people in the ring at once for anything to get done. Sloppy interference from Robbie E didn’t help either. The highlight of the match was Skye’s ability to let the pigeons fly afterward.

Matt Hardy w/Ric Flair vs. A.J. Styles, Street Fight: After Hardy cut a confusing promo that could only be described as Sid Vicious-like [What the hell was he talking about the system?], Styles took it to both the Nature Boy and Hardy. In much better shape than when he joined the company, Hardy and Styles are capable of having a good match together. On this night though, it was all hardcore, highlighted by Flair wearing a crimson mask.

Generation Me vs. Ink Inc:
The best match of the night, full of high impact moves and a nice clean finish, but one that proves that no tag team in TNA is capable of sharing the ring with Beer Money.

Sting and Rob Van Dam vs. Jeff Hardy and Ken Anderson:
Four guys that don’t want to team up? How could thing turn into a decent tag match? It didn’t. Sting was in the ring for a matter of 30 seconds. After he delivered the scorpion death drop to Anderson, setting up RVD for a five-star frog splash to end the match. If this is how TNA sets the scene for a pay per view, they’ve got some serious problems.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13861 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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