When Austin Aries called out the leader of the Aces and Eights to start off this week’s Impact, you expected a drag-out no-nonsense show. But, of course, that didn’t exactly happen. That was essentially the theme of this week’s show- a lot of emotion, but a failed delivery overall.
While the show wasn’t terrible, it was more like all smoke and little sizzle. The matches were decent, but again, it’s more of a tease with the Aces and Eights than anything substantial. At this point, there needs to be more here than these continued beat downs.
Regardless, the build-up has been an effective one, but the delay in any type of real match with any member of the group may hurt the faction in the long run.
This was just an annoying part of the show; there were other issues as well. Kris Lewie’s Gut Check segment was a complete waste of time. Although he has an interesting backstory, the guy is plain terrible. The only thing that saved it was an appearance from Joey Ryan.
All in all, it’s easy to see how much the show has improved over the past two months, with better matched and more coherent storyline, but it’s not quite at the point where it can compete with RAW or Smackdown every week.
Matches:
Bound for Glory Series: Rob Van Dam vs. James Storm: Slow match until the end when Storm hit a nasty spike DDT. Storm hit The Eye of the Storm on RVD as well, as the former ECW TV champ looked legit frazzled. Although RVD battled back with his signature monkey flip, Storm won with his Last Call Super Kick.
Madison Rayne vs. ODB: Quick squash match that saw ODB get the win with the TKO. After the match, Eric Young made his Impact return and proceeded to strip off his clothes. It looks like TNA’s royal couple is back.
Bound for Glory Series: AJ Styles vs. Samoa Joe: Not the best match between these two, but definitely serviceable. Joe was consistently looking for the submission, while Styles was all about the pin and his trademark high-flying antics. It made for a nice balance. Then, surprisingly, Styles went for an Arm-Bar, but Joe countered with a few high impact maneuvers. When Styles went for the submission move again, Joe countered into a rollup for the win.
Bound for Glory Series: Kurt Angle vs. Jeff Hardy: These guys worked hard, but this was a pretty routine encounter. Angle delivered the Angle Slam, but Hardy kicked out. At this point, this was where the match picked up. A few near-falls later, Hardy hit the Swanton, but Angle kicked out. Angle couldn’t kick out of two though, as Hardy earned the much-needed win.
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