The Official TNA / Impact / GFW Discussion Thread

[bigtplaystew]

A year with the X Title (and never losing it in the ring) plus a 3 month run with the World Title is certainly nothing to sneeze at. Aries right now is in the top eschalon of people in TNA right now with Roode, Storm, Hardy, Bully, and Anderson.

 

I felt his build with Jeff was magnificent. Jeff Hardy is a former WWE champ, folks. Aries not only showed that he can hang with the best of 'em, but belongs in the same discussion as the best of 'em. I think he's got nothing but pride behind him and he's young enough that a hell of a future is in his destiny IMO.

[infinitywpi]

Aries right now is in the top eschalon of people in TNA right now with Roode, Storm, Hardy, Bully, and Anderson.

 

One of those names is not like the others.

 

What's Anderson done in the last year or so?

[Rone Rivendale]

Just going from the PWI 500 for 2012 (which ends around July of this year:

 

*Was the only TNA wrestler in the top 10 of the PWI 500 for 2011.

*Held the TNA World Title in late 2011

*Had more than one Title shot in September of 2011

*Beat Bully Ray at Bound for Glory 2011

*Beat Jeff Hardy at Sacrifice 2012

*Won a 3 way match involving RVD and Jeff Hardy to earn a Title match against then TNA World Champion Bobby Roode.

 

So that's some of what he has done in the last couple years. You can add to that the fact that every time he comes out, the crowd loves him. He has always been a hugely charismatic wrestler with decent in ring skills. Was a couple injuries away from Superstardom in WWE. Has held the TNA World Title. Is always in the TNA World Title hunt.

 

So yes, he belongs.

 

For those wondering where he placed in the PWI 500 this year. He was 27th. 1 place higher than A.J. Styles. 3 places higher than Bully Ray. 8 places higher than Sting. 10 places higher than RVD.

 

I rest my case.

[Teh_Showtime]

Anderson is literally a jobber to the stars

 

He might have lost more matches than RVD this year

 

who has lost to everyone that is even close to the main event

[MrSelfDestruct]

going to the event November 8th! WOOOOT

[The Stallion]

Anderson is literally a jobber to the stars

 

He might have lost more matches than RVD this year

 

who has lost to everyone that is even close to the main event

 

However just like RVD its a testement to his star power because nocmatter how many times Anderson and RVD lose, they still get huge reactions whenever they come out.

[D-Lyrium]

I just finished watching BFG (here in the UK it's broadcast on Wednesday (Impact is Tuesdays) so I recorded it and I couldn't watch it yesterday). Just a few thoughts:

 

Poor Zima. He spends ages dominating his division, then a former World Title contender decides he wants a match, gets it for no better reason than he, literally, "had nothing better to do", and wins? **** that. Decent match, though.

 

Joe vs. Magnus for the TVPPV title was ok. Nothing more to really say about that, is there?

 

I love Joey Ryan, glad to see he's still allowed to be Joey Ryan. Props to TNA for that. Matt Morgan was a bit random, but that's probably because I don't know what's going on there. I like Morgan, anyway.

 

Roode and Storm was, I thought, a great match. Shame it was buried in the middle of the card and the much-hyped Special Enforcer basically did nothing. Special Guest Hand-Raiser was probably more apt. Enjoyed the match though.

 

The tag title match... now that's more like it. At first I was skeptical because of the dodgy rules (it's a triple threat match but only two guys are in the ring? So basically... just don't tag in the champions and they can do bugger all about it? Seems legit), but once the referee decided that rules don't matter anyway, it turned into a great match. As for the result... I guess if we had to have new champions, the right team won. I'd still have preferred Kazarian and Daniels though. Much like Aries, their gimmick doesn't really work if they're not champions.

 

Tara vs Tessmacher... decent I suppose. Miss Tessmacher still annoys me though, and to put a 'shallow dick' (or, WWE Divas agent) hat on for a moment, her face is way ugly. ¬_¬ I mean srsly, Tara is about 15 years older than her, and I'd much rather... I mean, yeah, ok match. No idea who the hell her 'Hollywood boyfriend' is, but he looks the part.

 

Main event... BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

I think I cursed Aries. ¬_¬ And what was all the booing of Hardy about? Fans are dicks. Still, in this cutthroat world of the entertainment business creating role models for kids and everyone being up in arms over the smallest little thing that celebrities do in their spare time, it's genuinely good to see someone getting a second chance.

 

And a third chance.

 

And a fourth chance.

 

And a fifth chance.

 

And a sixth chance.

 

And then a few more chances.

 

And then a world title.

 

Bleh. To be fair, Hardy's been ok. I think I'm just bitter because I'm a massive Aries mark.

[BHK1978]

Why did they have JB and the other dude (I did not catch his name.) doing commentary during the first hour?

 

I really liked the Bully Ray/Aces and Eights segments.

 

Where has Kenny King been? I do not even remember the last time he was on television.

[haloed]

Just got done watching Impact. Must say I'm excited that Christian York is getting a shot in Gut Check. Always thought York and Joey Matthews were going to be tag team stars at some point. Looking forward to seeing him on Impact next week.

 

Otherwise thought Impact was solid. Nothing overly special but not bad either.

 

And to BHK, not sure why they had those to during the first hour, but it was a nice change of pace imo. Always a bonus when JB is on commentary I think.

[Rone Rivendale]

I'm also a fan of Borash. I like how they have Hemme for the eye candy aspect on most matches, but when it comes time for the main event, they always bring out the big gun (Borash) to deliver a proper intro. Makes the main event of each iMPACT seem grander.

[cappyboy]

And from what I've seen of Hemme as ring announcer, it's not like she does a bad job. She's been a real Jill of all trades for them and I can't think a single moment when I would have faulted her effort at anything they asked of her. Her talent or her suitability at times maybe but never her effort.

[BHK1978]

I'm also a fan of Borash. I like how they have Hemme for the eye candy aspect on most matches, but when it comes time for the main event, they always bring out the big gun (Borash) to deliver a proper intro. Makes the main event of each iMPACT seem grander.

 

They have seemed to have gotten away from that as Hemme seems to be announing for the main event on a more regular basis.

 

I don't know I am not a fan of Borash or the other guy. They are just too bland for me, which is sort of how I feel when I listen to Josh Matthews and Matt Striker call a match, they put me to sleep.

 

Also, what is up with those annoying Jeff Hardy segments where he does a voice-over narration of what he is thinking. I thought this was TNA not the Wonder Years or Scrubs.

[D-Lyrium]

(As always, I'm a week behind, so these are my thoughts on LAST week's Impact, with Hardy/Angle. Also, it may not entirely be in order).

 

These 'Hogan Deliberation' segments really, really, really suck and are an absolutely terrible way to set up any title match, IMO, let alone a world title match. And why was Anderson - who got a TV Title shot last time and lost - even in contention? And why did he basically say "I can't be arsed with this crap" and get himself kicked out first? It's like... even Anderson's character doesn't want Anderson to be pushed.

 

Not sure where I stand on the Hardy segment. It was *kinda* cool, but on the other hand it's presumably supposed to be live action, so having Hardy's inner monologue was kinda weird. If the first segment was presented as an "Earlier Today" type deal and the following Hardy segment was more of a produced video than a live scene, it could've been pretty cool.

 

That reminds me; one of my favourite things about Impact is how the backstage segments are... not 'candid' exactly (although they did a 'candid' segment a few weeks ago with Aries, Bully Ray and Hardy which I thought was great), but they feel more natural and less "Hey, wrestler x, stand in front of this wall full of logos and answer my questions". It feels a lot more like a camera crew are roaming backstage looking for incidents to film, rather than being set up waiting for scripted stuff to happen. I like it a lot.

 

Poor Zema. Still, RVD vs Joey Ryan could be cool.

 

Don't really understand why Morgan hates Hogan so much. And if he does, why doesn't he join Aces and Eights? It's weird to have two completely separate factions going against Hogan.

 

Robbie T and Robbie E annoy me tremendously, and it's so obvious they're complete jobbers I don't even know why they bother. Which is another thing... how do THEY get title shots on consecutive Impacts? I did quite enjoy the match though, it's not often Joe has to fight someone bigger than him.

 

Tessmacher is still really, REALLY ugly. But to give them credit where it's due. Boo/Jessie/John Cena and Tara are really entertaining, actually. ODB vs. Jessie may not actually be a train wreck. Wouldn't it be fun if Jessie ended up being a better worker than Cena? ¬_¬

 

I love A-Double. If this was TEW. he'd be single-handedly saving TNA from "your angles suck" penalties...

 

...With a bit of help from the Dudley Boyz. Wow. That was a GREAT promo. Did Bubba just explain why he turned heel two years ago, in order to explain why he was turning back again now? Props. Most characters can't even remember what they did two years ago. Does he only have one shirt, though? I've never seen him wear anything but that Hardcore wifebeater.

 

That finish to the Anderson/Aries match was my favourite in forever. Very clever, without being overly confusing. Well executed. I love Austin Aries.

 

Tenay and Tazz coming back to commentary only served to point out how much better at it Borash and New Guy are. I never watched much WCW, so I can't comment on how good (or otherwise) he used to be, but Tenay annoys the piss out of me. Every other sentence is hyping something I'm already sick to death of hearing about, or happened such a short time ago a goldfish with Alzheimer's could remember it like it was yesterday. Tazz just has issues with basic English all too often. Borash and that Todd guy were MUCH better, IMO. And hyperbole is one thing, but blatantly lying to the audience is another; this is NOT Jeff Hardy's "first ever title defence", he's been champion before. You might've gotten away with it if you didn't keep putting the emphasis on the "first ever" and mention it 8 times a segment.

 

More Tessmacher. And since when was Tara pronounced with an e? If she wanted to be called Tera, she'd spell it like that. Oh, there's Brooke Hogan. She's less annoying than Stephanie McMahon. But also less hot, let's face it.

 

Ugh, main event time. That was my initial reaction. Then it turned into some kind of awesome. I'm still not sure how. I'm finding Jeff Hardy entertaining, which worries me. Then ARIES~! This makes me happy. Especially as he remembered there was a PPV next month. It's kinda strange when it's being hyped by the big screen in the arena, but no commentators or wrestlers have mentioned it until almost the end of the second show of the month (considering how often Tenay mentions things that are happening later that night, or happened two minutes ago).

 

I am slightly concerned that Hogan has "something even bigger planned" for James Storm, though. "Something huge, brother!". Bigger than a world title match? Should that be a thing?

 

Also, while I'm on a rant, why can't we have a regular Impact? Today was a 'Championship Thursday' edition - isn't that what Pay Per Views are for? We only had one two weeks ago. Next week is "Open Fight Night", which I gather is a semi-regular thing. The premise is pretty cool, it just feels like all these 'special edition' Impacts are taking some of the - well, impact - away from pay per views.

 

Overall though, a very solid show. I can honestly say that the only segments in the whole show that didn't hold my interest was the Hogan Deliberation bollocks. Also, this Joseph Parks guy, is that actual Abyss? Has he put on weight? I don't remember Abyss being that... massive.

[Derek B]

***THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS OF IMPACT 1st November***

 

I really enjoyed this week's Impact, lots of nice bits to watch, some decent action and generally a fun show. I really like the announce team of Borash and the new guy (Keneley? Something like that ), they bring something fresh and as D-Koiso mentioned, kinda highlight the weaknesses of Tenay/Tazz. But then, I generally like Borash in whatever he does, he's got a great voice for announcing and he knows his stuff, so he's good to have. New guy seems to know what he's doing too, so I'm hoping they stick to this format of half and half with the announcers... though no Taz tonight as he was dealing with weather based troubles.

 

Jesse Godderz actually impressed me... he's clearly no Shawn Michaels but for a rookie he actually looked pretty good against ODB, which is a weird sentence to write.

 

The Jeff Hardy inner monologue confused me again... I thin TNA are trying to tell us all we're crazy because we can hear his thoughts during what is supposed (I think) to be a live segment, which makes no sense. But if we can hear them, and no-one else can, it reminds me of when Ultimate Warrior appeared in Hogan's mirror, which we could all see and Bischoff couldn't... I mean really, Bischoff looked like the crazy one there, and the Hardy monologues make me think that we're all the crazy ones.

 

Another member of the Aces & 8's revealed at the end of the show, with a nice little story arc contained within the show for that. I really liked the way that played out and I actually got a tingle of excitement for Bully bringing out the table... guy has been on fire for a long time now and while it's still a little strange seeing him as a babyface now, I'm not hating it. Weirdly... I'm starting to think there's a World title in his future, which I never would've thought a couple of years ago. But yeah... Joseph Park (Abyss' brother, but played by the same person) getting the finish with Luke Gallows... that pleased me.

 

Lots of champions involved on Open Fight Night too, which is good as I like the focus on the belts, that's what people are supposed to aspire to afterall. Some solid matches there and I enjoyed it a lot.

 

Also enjoyed Christian York's Gut Check, though I had kinda expected him to beat whoever he was against given his status as a veteran, which would've given him a good launchpad into the depleted X division. But not this time. He made some mistakes, he wasn't perfect, but I'm hoping he gets signed up cos he's got a good look, some good skills and could do good things.

 

I love Matt Morgan, that dude rocked that cape and I've been a big fan of his for years. I can't wait to see him kill more people, he'd be perfect for taking the TV title and running wild with it just as Joe has done. I'm looking forward to that potential match up.

 

Big dramatic Hogan announcement for the 3 way match with AJ/Roode/Storm... I have to admit, I was like "DAYUM!" at that one, that's some real consequences there and over the last few months with the changes in writing staff, I think they'll handle it well. I sorta expect AJ to lose the fall but I'm not sure who to... which would leave AJ to head to the X division (YAY!), give one of Beer Money a World title shot (YAY!) and probably deliver an amazing 3 way match (YAY!).

 

So yeah... good show all round. I'm sure there were some more negatives but I watched it a few hours ago and nothing more stands out. I've been really impressed with TNA over the last 6 months and I'm increasingly starting to give up on the WWE because they simply aren't putting out a product that I enjoy as much as TNA. I hope TNA keep up the good work, there's some big things in their future.

[D-Lyrium]

So hey, it turns out that the Tuesday broadcast of Impact over here is a repeat, it originally airs on Sundays. Cool.

 

-I felt JB/Kenelley weren't as impressive as last week, but they were nowhere near 'bad'.

 

- I still love the way backstage vignettes and angles are handled in TNA. It's refreshing to have some guy off-camera asking questions in a more informal/journalistic style rather than everything being a pre-arranged interview segment on a set with a backstage interviewer.

 

- Why does Magnus go to such lengths to conceal the wrench (including having the referee go to the outside to argue with Joe, which *never* happens) if he's just going to nail Joe in the face with it right in front of the referee and get DQd? Odd finish.

 

- Does Joe have any saliva left after that promo? Eww.

 

- The segment with Hogan and Angle was... awkward. It basically went:

Angle: I wanna fight anyone from Aces and Eights tonight! I have these two rookies who have the surnames of famous wrestling personalities as backup!

Hogan: Chill, brother. Devon's busy tonight, and for the purposes of this segment is the only member of A+8s. You can wrestle him at Turning Point though.

Angle: Damn. Ok, that's fine. I'll go and beat up the rest of A+8s outside the ring instead then. Come on Sting and random protegés who won't be seen for the rest of the show (except Garrett briefly in one segment), even in the big brawl at the end. Let's go and kick some ass!

 

... See, when TNA do traditional backstage angles like "annoyed worker storms into manager's office", they suck. ¬_¬

 

- These inner monologues with Jeff Hardy suck.

 

- Holy crap, does Hector look like Eddie or what? The scene at the end with Hector being cradled in Chavo's arms was freaky as all hell.

 

- Woo, Christian York! And Zema Ion. Yeah, I still love that guy. York seemed a little... I dunno... rusty? It was like watching RVD these days, some of his moves seemed to be in slow motion. Good match though. I wish they'd stop bringing up the number of people Zema has injured, though. His character and wrestling style doesn't really work with the 'Crippler' gimmick, and it kinda makes him sound like Heidenreich. If they have to bring up the injuries every match, at least put over the fact that he has no remorse about injuring people because he only cares about himself, rather than making him seem like he did it on purpose because he's ruthless (he's clearly not, his hair would suffer too much) or did it legit accidentally because he's a shoddy worker. Maybe it's just me.

York will probably get the nod in the Gut Check though. For one, it's kinda insulting to York for him to be deemed unworthy of a place on the TNA roster while Garrett Bischoff is there. Not sure a guy like him would've agreed to the angle if he wasn't going to get a contract. And secondly, as Borash keeps reminding everyone, Zema has injured most of the X-Division, so they could do with a few more guys.

 

- Still loving Tara and Jesse as a pairing. Jesse in the ring was... functional. He certainly didn't embarrass himself, I can think of several workers who did a lot worse in their first ever televised match. I also like how they got around the 'issue' of not having a woman get beaten up by a guy on network TV too much (most of Jesse's 'offence' was executed by the ring, when dodging ODB's attacks).

 

- Aries is still one of the best things about TNA. Convincing Robbie E to challenge Jeff Hardy so that nobody else could was smooth. Also "... the ladder was only a metaphor, damnit!" comes an - admittedly, distant - second for 'line of the night'.

 

- I actually retract what I said about Morgan/Hogan in my last post. Put it down to not knowing the history. This storyline is actually pretty interesting, although as much as I love both of them, Morgan and Ryan is an odd couple that will take some getting used to. I'm sure it'll grow on me though. Ryan collapsing into Morgan's arms after his match with RVD, only for Morgan to shove him off with a "WTF?" look on his face was enough to tell me that this has potential. I kinda like the idea of Joey just kinda hanging around him like a bad smell, whether Morgan wants him there or not. I'd love a segment where Morgan turns to Joey and is just "Sorry, but who *are* you?"

 

- Which brings me to 'line of the night': "Usually I pride myself on avoiding VD's, but tonight I'm callin' one out!" Ah, Joey.

 

- It seems nobody told Roode that you're not allowed to refuse a challenge on Open Fight Night (the AJ Lee angle reference would've been #3 on my list for 'line of the night').

 

- It's not very often that a general manager promises a huge announcement, and genuinely delivers. I still don't see how this is better for Storm than a title match, but whatever. The "no more title shots for a year" stip is a good way of getting one of TNA's many main-event-level workers out of the world title picture for a while (almost certainly AJ, but I'd love it to be Roode). That match is going to be awesome.

 

- Tenay endlessly repeating the 'fact' that Bully Ray vs. Devon is a match everyone has been waiting to see assured me that we weren't going to see it (well, that and the fact that there were only ten minutes of the show left), but what we did see was well executed IMO (although if Joseph Park can unmask a guy just like that, without otherwise laying a finger on him, why can't Sting et al do it to everyone else?).

 

- Have to admit, not knowing who Luke Gallows was, I thought it was CW Anderson. Especially as Tenay referred to him as 'an enforcer'. I guess CW is considerably smaller, to be fair, but as I said... never seen Gallows before. Also explains why nobody mentioned him by name after the reveal (TNA must realise that Luke Gallows is a shit name, even if it's not copyrighted, and Tenay would have no reason to know him by any other, except Festus).

 

- Is it just me, or do wrestler entrance themes kinda suck in TNA? For one thing, the music is way too quiet, and is often drowned out by not only the crowd (who are pretty quiet themselves, given how many there are) but also the announcers. So it's often hard to hear. And when you do hear it, it's all fairly generic. Most of it also lacks a certain 'gravitas', too. Aces and Eights in particular have a terrible theme, IMO. There's no 'oomph' to it at all. I know I'm a 'new' fan, so I don't know everyone's theme yet, but I generally have no idea at all who's coming out when their theme hits (except Joey Ryan, because of the 70s porno thing he's got going on).

 

- The crowd are terrible at times. It's so awkward when you've got fairly significant action going on in the ring, and the crowd are dead. Also, props to the one woman in the front row during the main event segment caught on camera chanting "Devon Sucks! Let's Go Devon! Devon Sucks!". Pfft. Dueling chants is one thing, chanting both of them yourself makes you an idiot. And since when did Devon 'sell out'? Surely the one thing he didn't do is 'sell out'. Idiot fans.

 

Still, a thoroughly enjoyable show from top to bottom I thought. I'm liking this whole 'wrestling fan renaissance' I'm going through right now.

[Jaysin]

Luke Gallows is an awesome name and he wrestled with that name in WWE for the last year of his time there. He was a member of the Straight Edge Society with Sereena, CM Punk and Joseph Mercury.

 

Though, I really hope they use his Ring Ka King name, Isaiah Cash. It just sounds so bad ass.

[Derek B]

I never liked Luke Gallows as a name, but he's a pretty good talent and I'm looking forward to seeing what happens with him. I'm pretty sure he was the member of Aces and Eights referred to as "The Armbreaker" so I'm really hoping for some continuity on that, building something on top of that. I'm also hoping that more of the Aces and Eights get nicknames like that before they are unmasked because it's good to get a sense of them being people, even if we don't know who they actually are. Give them names, then even if they get unmasked as people we don't care about much they've still got names going on and it doesn't feel like they're being revealed and then built up.

 

And the possibility of AJ back in the X division could be awesome... though I do wonder if the Austin Aries deal from this year would be repeated at Destination X again, would AJ be able to cash that in if he were barred from the World title til Bound For Glory, assuming he was X division champion at the time? I guess we'll have to wait and see, but could be interesting to see what happens there.

[Arrows]

And the possibility of AJ back in the X division could be awesome... though I do wonder if the Austin Aries deal from this year would be repeated at Destination X again, would AJ be able to cash that in if he were barred from the World title til Bound For Glory, assuming he was X division champion at the time? I guess we'll have to wait and see, but could be interesting to see what happens there.

 

One of the stipulations of Aries' cash in, was that any X-Division champion could do so if they held the belt heading into Destination X.

[sebsplex]

Luke Gallows is an awesome name and he wrestled with that name in WWE for the last year of his time there. He was a member of the Straight Edge Society with Sereena, CM Punk and Joseph Mercury.

 

I thought the WWE had copyrighted the name and he was working as 'Big LG' or something after his release. *shrugs*

 

Regardless, he's not enough of a 'name' to announce on TV. I imagine TNA will rename him... unless they're going to sell him as "the guy who used to be Festus".

[cappyboy]

I thought the WWE had copyrighted the name and he was working as 'Big LG' or something after his release. *shrugs*

 

Regardless, he's not enough of a 'name' to announce on TV. I imagine TNA will rename him... unless they're going to sell him as "the guy who used to be Festus".

 

They'd need to do something with him name wise. Correct me if I'm wrong. My head's a mess due to massive congestion at the moment. But isn't his real name kinda nerdy sounding?

[Jaysin]

Drew Hankinson is his real name.

[cappyboy]

Drew Hankinson is his real name.

 

I'll take that as a yes then. I certainly can't imagine being afraid of a monstrous powerhouse by that name.

[Jaysin]

Gallows's TNA name is D.o.C, which stands for Director of Chaos

[haloed]

Good to see Christian York get the nod for a contract. Besides Joey Ryan, finally someone who can actually step right onto Impact and nod need additional training to do so.

[JackKnifed72]

Good to see Christian York get the nod for a contract. Besides Joey Ryan, finally someone who can actually step right onto Impact and nod need additional training to do so.

 

Saw York several times at a local indy a couple of years ago (ironically Shiima Xion aka Zema Ion also wrestled there regularly) did a good cowardly heel gimmick...congrats to him....oh, and don't call him Barbie....he hates that

 

Edit - seems he ditched the long blond hair for dreads...guess the Barbie chants would seem out of place...anyway good wrestler glad he's getting a shot in TNA