TNA Impact Wrestling Coverage: Near Sleep-Inducing

TNA continues to make zero sense, both in and out of the ring. Things are so bad that even their commercials and marketing possess zero logic [A Terry Taylor action figure? Really? Who cares]. Aside from a good Alex Shelley/Zema Ion encounter and the continued enjoyable antics of ODB and Eric Young, there wasn’t anything overtly enthralling this week on Impact.

At this point, Young and ODB are the only consistently entertaining performers in the company.

Not a joke.

This show has more problems than a sex addict locked in a brothel.

Basically all the angles are a mess. Gunner was absent from the show after it appeared apparent he was getting a real push. X-Division champion Austin Aries was absent as well. The tag team division is a bore, despite a damn good contending team in Samoa Joe and Magnus. If that wasn’t enough nonsense, the angle between Kazarian, Christopher Daniels and AJ Styles, three of the most talented guys in the company, is an annoying waste of time.

It gets worse.

The tease of who Garrett Bischoff’s trainer is continues to be dragged out. Unless it’s someone huge who can make an impact [no pun intended], it’s just setting up fans for another letdown.

Odds are it’s Hulk Hogan, which would set up a tag match between Hogan and Garrett vs. Bischoff and another green kid. Like their Direct Auto Insurance commercials, that would make little to know sense.

That’s exactly why it may happen.

Right now, TNA is like a child with ADHD on Ritalin. There’s just so much potential with this roster, so much energy, but time and time again, the creative team stifles their athletes both creatively and in the ring.

This product used to be exciting to watch, even when the storylines were a joke.

That isn’t even the case anymore.

Matches:

Knockouts #1 Contenders Match: Velvet Sky vs. Tara vs. Mickie James: A routine match with an interesting finish as Tara hit her spinning sideslam on Sky, while James was underneath, for the win. Tara now gets a title shot at Against All Odds.

Zema Ion vs. Alex Shelley: Ion is like this generation’s Rick “The Model” Martel with the hairspray and overt cockiness and flamboyance. Like Martel, he’s got talent too. But Shelley is in another league. While Ion hit a few flashy moves, Shelley is such a good combination of flash, ring smarts and technical ability. The match had a nice pace and after Ion missed his 450 finisher, Shelley hit the Sliced Bread neckbreaker for the win. With the victory, Shelley gets an X-Division title shot at Against All Odds.

Eric Young and ODB vs. Winter and Angelina Love: A weak match [ODB botched a Bronco Buster] but an entertaining one. At this point, TNA could get a higher rating if Young “Locked-Up” with the crowd for 120 minutes than any of the tripe storylines TNA is currently pushing. After she got get fix from her flash, ODB rebounded with some shoulder blocks and her Fallaway Slam. A double airplane spin from the tandem was cute and a Samoan Drop from ODB to finish it off just worked. These two are great together.

Samoa Joe w/ Magnus vs. Matt Morgan w/ Crimson: Both Morgan and Joe are being wasted in tag team roles, but their sacrifice is an admirable one. There’s no one ekse. They are at their best in singles action and they were solid. Both went through their routine offense and didn’t embarrass themselves or the company. However, the win, which came from a Discus Lariat from Morgan, was a terrible finish. Joe is a former World Champion. He’s got to be beat with something better than that.

Bully Ray and TNA World Champion Robert Roode vs. Jeff Hardy and James Storm in a Tables Match: Announcer Mike Tenay said the match was out of control, but for a tables match, it was pretty tame. And it dragged. With a ton of punches and kicks, it was an old-school slugfest with little personality. Storm hit an elbow drop on Roode, who was being held on a table by Hardy to get the win. After the match, Ray went to work and beat up on both the faces, powerbombing Hardy through another table.

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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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