TNA Impact Wrestling Coverage: The Bully Ray Show

A year ago, it would have been hard to imagine Robert Roode as TNA World Heavyweight Champion. Not because he didn’t have the talent, but because of how successful he was with James Storm.

It would have been crazy to break up Beer Money, especially considering how weak TNA’s tag team division was.

Right?

Now, 52 weeks later, Roode is the longest running TNA World Champion- ever.

Boring.

TNA juggles in number one contenders to wrestle Roode, making it almost impossible for him to get over as a heel.

Even with Rob Van Dam in a feud with Roode, there’s little excitement. RVD has never been amazing on the mic and with Jeff Hardy and Mr. Anderson jockeying for their place in the heavyweight division, a RVD and Roode feud hasn’t developed creatively. Sure, their match at Sacrifice will be a good 20-minute encounter, but it won’t be “special.”

Welcome to TNA.

In a pure example of their wackiness, it appears AJ Styles has had a “relationship” with TNA President Dixie Carter. Leave it to TNA to let their best worker waste away for months in a stale angle and have him be involved with an owner that has been AWOL for months too.

Fantastic.

Wait, it gets worse. Penn Jillette, cough, Abyss, cough, his “brother,” finally got in the ring to cut a promo. Talk about a weird way to change a guy’s persona. What a waste. Just let the guy wrestle. The fact that Abyss came out and told his brother to “back off” reeks of typical horrific TNA writing. This show is just a debacle.

Most of this show felt like the “Bully Ray” show. The guy had a ton of time on the mic and was in the middle of three different angles. Looks like Ray may be the one takin’ pictures of Styles with Dixie. That’s the only way his uber-heavy participation in the program can be explained.

Matches:

Brooke Tessmacher vs. Velvet Sky: Two of the best-looking women in the business. Gotta love the tush shakes Tessmacher did during the match as well. The pace was solid, but both girls looked gassed after a few minutes. After she countered Sky’s finisher, Tessmacher hit her Belly to Back Facebuster for the win. After the bell, Gail Kim hit the ring and nailed her finisher on Tessmacher.

Matt Morgan vs. Crimson: A no-contest after Bully Ray hit Morgan with a chair before the match started. Nice way to get into Austin Aries’ head by taking out the biggest guy on Impact.

TNA X-Division Champion Austin Aries vs. Zema Ion: The challenger had a few tricks up his sleeves, but Aries battled back with a Roaring Elbow and a dive through the ring ropes to the outside. His booming Missile Drop was followed up by a drop kick I the corner and his signature Brainbuster for the win.

Robbie E. w/ Rob Terry vs. TNA TV Champion Devon: The Champ got the win fast, but Terry got the last laugh with a Powerslam after the bell.

Fatal Four Way: Rob Van Dam vs. Jeff Hardy vs. Mr. Anderson vs. TNA World Heavyweight Champion Robert Roode: A good fatal four-way due to the fast-pace and ton of near-falls. Felt like Roode was in the match the entire time. He basically was. After Roode caught a Twist of Fate and a Mic Check, Anderson ironically chose to take Hardy out of the match, than go for the cover. This allowed RVD to hit his Five-Star Frog Splash for the win.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14229 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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