TNA Impact Coverage: Starting on the Right Foot

January 4, 2013 Patrick Hickey Jr. Professional Wrestling, TV 0

Between Sting’s return, Mike Knox’s “arrival” in the Aces and Eights and the X-Division title tournament, Impact Wrestling’s 2013 program started with a bang.

The matches were solid and Hulk Hogan’s angle with Bully Ray is at least intriguing. As of right now, the company has found a way to weed out the mundane and keep the show moving at a brisk pace. The flow between in-ring performing and storyline is a nice one right now. Even the Knockouts matches and mini-angles don’t feel forced.

All in all, this was a more than respectable opening to 2013 for Impact wrestling.

Matches:

James Storm vs. Frank Kazarian w/ Christopher Daniels: Storm was on the offensive early on in a routine, but fun encounter. Kazarian and Daniels worked the referee over several times, using distractions to get the upper-hand on Storm. But even after a TKO and some other high-powered offense from Kazarian, Storm proved to be resilient. A Last Call Super Kick later and Storm got the win.

X-Division Title Tournament: Kid Kash vs. Christian York: A decent X-Division match filled with counters, near-falls and aerial maneuvers. York was in control for most of the match, but Kash was always a counter away. York got the win though after a counter of his own, reversing the backslide into his Mood Swing Neckbreaker for the win.

TNA Tag Team Champion Hernandez w/Chavo Guerrero vs. Joey Ryan w/Matt Morgan: Hernandez was all over Ryan after Morgan said he was “injured” and couldn’t compete. Soon enough, Morgan was in the match and it was thrown out.

Brooke Tessmacher and Mickie James vs. Gail Kim and Tara w/ Jessie Godderz: Typical face vs. heel tag match but an entertaining one, thanks to the antics of Godderz and good ring work. Kim and Tara used heel tactics to distract the referee and keep the pressure on Tessmacher, who did the majority of the selling. Once James got the hot tag, she earned the hard-fought win with her Spike DDT.

Steel Cage: Kurt Angle and Samoa Joe vs. Devon and Masked Aces and Eights Member: Before the match started, Doc made sure Kurt Angle was locked out, leaving Joe with the masked man and Devon. Joe was resilient though and held on through the early going. Once Angle was able to get in the ring, the match changed dramatically. Angle quickly hit a slew of moves, but Doc was able to again take Angle out of the equation. With all four men out of energy and Angle bleeding from his forehead, Angle found some extra gas and nailed Devon and the Masked Aces and Eights member with German Suplexes. Soon enough, the masked man was hit with some kicks from Joe and an Olympic Slam from Angle for the win.

After the bell, the entire gang hit the ring and Joe and Angle were utterly destroyed. The fans screamed for Sting and they soon got their wish. Bat in hand, Sting began to clean house and another member of the gang’s mask was soon removed. It was former WWE star Mike Knox.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13857 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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