TNA Impact Wrestling Coverage: Aries Gets the Dead Man’s Hand

The Aces and Eight’s apparently have 20 or so members, but the five or six that matter gave TNA World Heavyweight Champion Austin Aries a beating he won’t soon forget this week on Impact.

Although it was a bit over the top, it was an episode of Impact that kept you on the edge of your seat.

Our apologies for the cliché, bit this is professional wrestling, a world that lately thrives on it. This is especially the case with TNA, a company that has decided to jump on the Sons of Anarchy bandwagon and use it in as the inspiration behind their new stable.

Before that all went down, Impact had a different feel. 9:00pm Impact time was like an episode of the Maury Povich show. First, Jeremy Borash called out AJ Styles to find out if he indeed was the father of Claire Lynch’s unborn child. After about ten minutes of terrible promo from Christopher Daniels and Frank Kazarian and an appearance from Lynch’s lawyer, we found out that Styles was indeed not the father.

It was all a ploy by Daniels and Kazarian.

Like we didn’t see this coming weeks ago? Now that this disaster of an angle is over, perhaps Styles can get back in World Title picture and Daniels and Kazarian can build up an up and coming tag team.

Regardless of this mess, the show was entertaining. It was easily one of the most emotional starts to an Impact show, ever. It was a thing of beauty when Sting noticed two Aces & Eights’ “members” and invited them into the ring. The stiff beating that took place after and the realization that they weren’t members of the gang yet- the ass whooping they received got them their “patch,” was also well-done.

At the same time, the build up of this Sons of Anarchy clone needs a big pay off. The gang warfare ending to the show should be a small sample of what these guys can do. With all the attention they’ve been given and the damage they’ve caused thus far, this angle will be a huge failure unless they take over TNA completely at some point.

Hulk Hogan’s return sets up another confrontation between the gang and TNA. If the Aces and Eights’ can take him out again, this time, in an even bigger way, then they may just cement their role in the company for the short-term.

Matches:

Knockouts Champion Brooke Tessmacher vs. Tara: It’s obvious Tara is the better performer. She pulled more than her weight during this match. Tessmacher was slow and far from smooth. Tara won with a float-over superplex.

Bound for Glory Series: Triple Threat: Robbie E. vs. Rob Van Dam vs. AJ Styles: Robbie E. caught a beating in this match. Early on, every time he got in the ring, he was victim of a move, before getting thrown out of the ring. Later on, he seemingly had the upper-hand against Styles, but that lasted only a minute or so. However, ever the opportunist, E. ended up covering RVD after he delivered the Five-Star Frog Splash on Styles.

Rob Terry vs. Jeff Hardy: Terry put up a fight, but delivered almost no offense. Hardy won with the Twist of Fate/Swanton Bomb combo.

Gut Check: Kris Lewie vs. Gunner: This guy was terrible. Every move was bad. Gunner won with a Wasteland-type maneuver.

Bound for Glory: Mr. Anderson vs. Bully Ray: Both of these guys needed a win to get into the top four in the BFG series. Bunch of near-falls and a ton of punches throughout. This was definitely an old-school WWF Superstars main event type of match. Ray caught Anderson with the Bully Bomb, but Anderson kicked out. Even though Ray kicked out of a Swanton from Anderson, the Mic-Check was too much for the hardcore icon.

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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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