Wrestling Beginning to Matter? Not Yet

On the surface, you’d think that this week’s episode of Impact Wrestling was solid, with six matches on the card.

Would have been nice if that was indeed the case.

Aside from the Kurt Angle/Rob Van Dam main event [which, still was roughly a seven-minute match], this week’s Impact was still more about pushing weak programs and less about high quality in-ring action.

At this point, TNA can change their slogan all they want and say that they’re all about wrestling, but they haven’t proven anything yet.

In the end, the show was watchable, but it’s not the dynamic experience that’s been promised.

Some of the yammering was actually enjoyable however. The scorpion sit-down segment, with Ken Anderson dressed up as ‘80s Sting was actually a mild success. With Disco Inferno as his first guest, Anderson and Inferno had a nice little exchange, which eventually led to the former WCW television champion getting his forehead split open with Anderson’s microphone.

Quite a different type of mic-check.

Soon after, the real Sting made his way to the ring and Anderson ran through the crowd. While this little skirmish was entertaining, does it really build animosity for their angle?

One angle that is building hatred is the one between ODB and Velvet Sky. After Sky came out and asked ODB to come to the ring to get the bottom of their situation, ODB essentially beat the crap out of the knockout. When Sky asked her what her problem was afterward, ODB replied, “Whores like you.” ODB is not a bad in-ring competitor, but it remains to be seen if these two can have a decent match together.

Another new feud that is a head scratcher is the one between The Pope and Devon. It’s like the creative team threw two guys together that had nothing else going on, in hopes of catching some fire.

Guess what?

The Pope isn’t over and Devon isn’t over. What will the end result of this be? A boring mid-card encounter. Devon and The Pope are both talented workers, but this does nothing for either of them.

The same thing goes for the consistent burying of the X-Division. Like Ring of Honor and Dragon Gate USA, guys like Amazing Red and Brian Kendrick don’t need angles. If TNA were smart, they’d let them go out at the start of the show and just wrestle.

Instead, they’d rather just talk about doing it.

If wrestling really mattered in TNA, there would be actual wrestling and much less talking.

Matches:

Streetfight: AJ Styles and Christopher Daniels vs. Bully Ray and Tommy Dreamer: A hardcore street fight that was illogical and phony. Early on, Styles hit Dreamer with a splash from the audience about 15 feet down. However, within a minute or so, he was back in the match. Soon after, Styles, who was wearing a neck brace, was the victim of three spinning neckbreakers from Ray and Dreamer. Ironically, that put Styles out for about 20 seconds until he got a second wind. Once he was back in the fold, Daniels and Styles used a spike piledriver double-team finish to earn the win.

Matt Morgan vs. Jeff Jarrett w/ Karen Jarrett:
A decent back and forth encounter with a nice amount of drama [interference from Karen Jarrett] and offense. Nice touch to have Morgan kick out of Jarrett’s finish too. It was all for naught however once Scott Steiner hit the ring and took Morgan out with his version of the complete shot, which enabled Jarrett to get the win. In the end, it’s sad how Morgan can’t find a way into a championship program. The current feud between him and Steiner is just another roadblock.

Mickie James vs. Winter w/ Angelina Love for the TNA Knockouts Title: A quick match where Winter showed she’s not as green as she was a few months ago. However, James ended up the winner after delivering her spike DDT finisher. After the match, Love took out James outside the ring.

Brian Kendrick vs. Abyss for the TNA X-Division Title:
While Kendrick got in some offense, Abyss, who was attacked by Kazarian before the match, still took care of him handedly with the Black Hole Slam. This is not the way to get the smaller X-Division stars over.

Eric Young vs. Gunner for the TNA Television Title:
An attempt by Young to recreate the infamous “finger” match between Hulk Hogan and Kevin Nash, Young put his own spin on the situation, rolling up Gunner to win the TV Title. Hilarious, but at the same time, these two might be able to have a great match together and behind Young’s silliness, an angle between the two of them might hold some water. At the same time, this little stunt robs the TV title of the small amount of legitimacy it had.

Kurt Angle vs. Rob Van Dam: These guys pushed a brisk pace. Both delivered a nice amount of their offense until Angle hit the Olympic Slam for the win. Overall, it was a solid match that showed TNA still has great in-ring talent and that these guys are still excellent competitors. However, with Jarrett providing color commentary throughout and the camera going to a picture-in-picture for long periods of the match, the focus of this contest wasn’t where it should have been.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14230 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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