The Official TNA / Impact / GFW Discussion Thread

[Rickymex]

They were also pretty hot for the tag team match which had quite a bit of action. Sadly I wasn't able to see the X-Division match.

 

What is you guys opinion over it?

[bigtplaystew]

Everyone saw it coming. What was with the trash throwing nonsense? Excuse me for being the typical IWC cynic, but I call "plant!"

[The Final Countdown]

Also in the match why did Bully go after Bischoff & Brisco? I get it was the swerve but still.

Perhaps they could play that as the two of them knowingly making a sacrifice in order to lure Jeff into a false sense of security?

 

As was said, Bully Ray turning was predictable, but it was also the right move.

[Teh_Showtime]

was a decent but unspectactular PPV the main matches didn't deliver IMO aside from Bully's turn and the wicked super powerbomb the action was lacking as was the Lethal Lockdown and Angle/Briscoe (on top of the worst finish of the night).

 

Tag match was good and Roode still has his World Champion "Luck" with the creative finishes. The rest was pretty decent

 

Overall show gets a C+ from me. It was pretty uneventful and saved by a great Bully Ray turn and promo. Though there are a LOT of plot holes they need to close such as why is his best friend for life NOT the VP of Aces and Eights and D'Lo is? Overall the turn should have happened a long time ago and should have been used to get Bully to win the BFG series when they were going that way until Hardy survived multiple finishers after a A&8 beatdown. I would have liked that much better than them looking like chumps for a good part of the time since then.

[JackKnifed72]

Everyone saw it coming. What was with the trash throwing nonsense? Excuse me for being the typical IWC cynic, but I call "plant!"

 

From the Lords of pain website...

 

- TNA had a few fans planted in the crowd at last night's Lockdown pay-per-view to begin throwing trash at Aces & 8s after the Bully Ray heel turn. The feeling was once their plants started throwing trash, the rest of the crowd would follow and they did.

[Derek B]

Woohoo! I'm gonna love Bully Ray as World Champion, though I'd managed to overthink my way into thinking he wasn't the leader. Had hoped someone on Team TNA would be, but once they won the match I was fairly sure it was going to end up being Bully. Hadn't expected to see that paid off tonight though, but still glad it was.

 

There aren't really too many plotholes in the storyline that can't be attributed to "Bully taking one for the team". Everyone thought he was the leader at the start, he took some lumps and worked hard with Sting and TNA to get them on board. He almost won the Bound For Glory series after the group attacked Jeff Hardy during the show, but Jeff was superhuman and won anyways. Bully then was part of the match that saw the group get access to TNA forever. He's since manipulated his way up the rankings to get a title shot, letting other contenders get beaten up a lot by the group as he puts the moves on Hogan's daughter and wins favour with management to get him the shot he wants. After manipulating Hulk, he gets the shot despite an injury, using the group to attack Hulk before making the save.

 

Sure, Bully has taken a few lumps on the way but nothing particularly devastating. I don't think D-Von was in the group from the start, he was recruited when his contract "expired" and that brought in Bischoff (who D-von was teamed with) and probably Brisco too. Most of the rest have been guns for hire. D-Lo has been around since the start, I'm looking forward to seeing the reveal of how he and Bully put things together because I get the feeling it's mostly going to be "we hate Hulk and everything he's done to the company", which I don't have a problem with.

 

Looking forward to Thursday night, I think there's going to be some awesoe TV now that the initial stage of the group has been done. It's been a well bulit angle, it's been planned out for ages and they're building up some new talent in with the experienced guys. Bischoff took some nasty bumps last night... some kudos to him for that, though he's never likely to get cheers for anything he does given his name.

 

A fun show. Not the best show they've done, but the reveal of Bully as the leader and new World Champion really brings it up as TNA has something awesome to build off now.

[Blackman]

From the Lords of pain website...

 

- TNA had a few fans planted in the crowd at last night's Lockdown pay-per-view to begin throwing trash at Aces & 8s after the Bully Ray heel turn. The feeling was once their plants started throwing trash, the rest of the crowd would follow and they did.

 

There's nothing wrong with that. People in the crowd would probably 'get it' as well. Problem is that, as a spectator, it's hard to be the first one pulling off 'stunts' like that. You might get removed from the venue for that, or banned. The times of ECW, that featured crowd semi-participation, are over unfortunately. They were ahead of their time.

[JackKnifed72]

There's nothing wrong with that. People in the crowd would probably 'get it' as well. Problem is that, as a spectator, it's hard to be the first one pulling off 'stunts' like that. You might get removed from the venue for that, or banned. The times of ECW, that featured crowd semi-participation, are over unfortunately. They were ahead of their time.

 

Oh not saying it was a bad thing...wrestling promotions have done forever...just someone said "I call plant!" and then I see a news story saying there were indeed plants...

 

As far as audience participation goes your right...even WWE crowds seem dead, atleast on TV, compared to what you saw in the past. Promotions like CZW and the like still run "Fans bring the weapons" matches though.

[bigtplaystew]

Yea I mean it's a dumb wrestling show. Who cares if they have plants? It is part of the show and no big deal in the end. It's kind of a corny and cheap way to fake crowd heat. Like pumping in crowd noise almost just the opposite effect. Not outraged by it or anything.

[The Stallion]

Impact was pretty damn good last night. Finally Aces & Eights seemed like a strong entity, all throughout the show. The ending especially made them seem like a very strong group. The Sting / Aries match was HOT with the crowd and the way it ended was perfect to keep both guys looking strong while advancing the Aces & Eights story line. TNA has pulled the hole "ref gets pushed too far and then becomes a wrestler" before with Shane Swell (I think that was his name), but I'm interested to see if Taryen can wrestle. She seemed like a ball of fire when she attacked Gail and I would like to see if that translates to her wrestling ability. It's not always about skill, sometimes its about heart. The only thing I did not like was the fact that Matt Morgan has been pushed BACK down to the midcard after a few very strong months after coming back. What happened to him an Joey Ryan? What happened to the fact that he attacked Jeff Hardy the week before Lockdown? There wasn't even mention of it at Lockdown or on this weeks Impact. It feels like he was told to attack Hardy just so people remember that he is part of Impact. Now this week he starts a program with Joseph Parks? WTF?!?! Sigh, such a waste of his talent. I saw the AJ turn coming, but I like the fact that he attacked Kazarian first. It feels like they are gonna push him as a loner type persona now which is a great thing for AJ. He needs a fresh character. Speaking of Daniels and Kazarian, how good are these guys? I love it when they come out, they always entertain. IMHO, Daniels is the most talented guy never to hold the World Championship. Overall a strong B+ to a soft A- on this weeks Impact. The arena looked great and pretty packed, the crowd was hot and they looked Big League which is important for them going forward.

[The Stallion]

If you have not seen it yet, check out the TNA website <a href="http://www.impactwrestling.com/" rel="external nofollow">http://www.impactwrestling.com/</a> , good stuff!

[Teh_Showtime]

I wish they had better screen time management. 90% of team TNA from Lockdwon didnt get to be on the show aside from a 5 minute extended cameo in the brawl at the end. I find that to be criminal while Robbie E and Robbie T had another useless match that could have been used to get someone like Eric Young over, who got the pinfall on Aces and Eights at the PPV.

[Derek B]

That was a great episode if Impact, a hot crowd always makes a show seem even better. The two Robbies segment was a little bit of a waste (though the TV audience is bigger than PPV, so understandable) but otherwise the rest of the show just seemed to keep pushing the right buttons for me.

 

Aces looked great tonight, a result of them having their leader on screen and him being an actual top guy. I like that they've taken over the TNA website too, that's a nice little touch.

 

The women's match was pretty good, that made me quite happy though I'm still not a fan of the Taaryn situation. She's not looked bad so far, but as has been mentioned, it's not been long since they pulled pretty mcuh the exact same angle so it's not as interesting for me as it could be.

 

Sting/Aries was a great match, best I've seen Sting looking in a loooooooong time and the credit to that has to go to Aries too. Roode/Aries are great together too, which is awesome.

 

Bad Influence continue to rock, had some fun with Storm then AJ laid people out. I've been enjoying all things AJ for a while now, even the Claire Lynch stuff (though I may have been the only one ) as it's giving him more personality. Should be fun to see where it goes in future, a rivalry with Storm could be fun based off it being Storm that put AJ out of the title picture at the end of last year.

 

All in all, that was a great crowd and it made a good show look great. And the great news is.... double shot TV taping, so we'll get more of them next week. Hooray!

[smurphy1014]

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="The Stallion" data-cite="The Stallion" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="25170" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>If you have not seen it yet, check out the TNA website <a href="http://www.impactwrestling.com/" rel="external nofollow">http://www.impactwrestling.com/</a> , good stuff!</div></blockquote><p> </p><p> Awesome! <img alt=":D" data-src="//content.invisioncic.com/g322608/emoticons/biggrin.png.929299b4c121f473b0026f3d6e74d189.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p>

[Blackman]

That was a great episode if Impact, a hot crowd always makes a show seem even better.

 

It does, but was it a REAL hot crowd? 'cause that turned me off from TNA months ago. Faking crowd reactions (and it WAS kinda obvious back then) is just downright laughable.

[Derek B]

It certainly looked like a hot crowd. I know there have been times where both the WWE and TNA have been guilty of faking the crowd noise, but I tend to look in the background any time I hear a good crowd noise and the crowd seem to be genuinely making the noises I'm hearing.

[cappyboy]

Half (at least) silly question for everybody.

 

Does a certain Guru with TNA ties now have an identity problem?

 

http://news.yahoo.com/india-court-upholds-actor-sanjay-dutts-conviction-095320616.html

[alphadraighon]

Half (at least) silly question for everybody.

 

Does a certain Guru with TNA ties now have an identity problem?

 

http://news.yahoo.com/india-court-upholds-actor-sanjay-dutts-conviction-095320616.html

 

I was given to understanding that he'd chosen his name as a tribute to that actor, though there is the difference in spelling: Sonjay for the wrestler and Sanjay for the actor. Wonder if he'll change it now.

 

On a further note:

What are people's opinions on the new rules for the X-Divion.

 

-X-Division wrestlers now must be under 230lbs (so much for the "no-limits" aspect of the division)

-All X-Division matches are now three-man matches.

 

The first one sorta makes sense, but like I said takes away the whole no-limits concept that has been in play since the inception. Also, Samoa Joe is billed at 280lbs, and is considered to have been one of the Division's top stars and best champions. Current champion Kenny King is billed at 230lbs, so will they change his billed weight or will they go the route that Matt Hardy did with the WWE Cruiserweight title when he had to weigh himself before every match? It's also good because it'll (hopefully) keep the Division focused on the younger wrestlers that are typically of a smaller size (and hopefully keep people like Kurt Angle and Abyss as far away from the title as possible.)

 

Second rule...don't know about that. It will give them the opportunity to display more talent at once (in theory, unless they just use the same six guys in various combinations.) It should also give them an opportunity for bigger/more spots, so long as they give them the time to work. I'd hate to see a three-way match that only runs ten minutes, because it feels rushed and doesn't really give everyone a chance to show their work.

 

The other issue with the three-man matches I have is this: is it going to be at least three men at all times, on always exactly three men. Because if this rule precludes four or six man matches in the division, it really is a hindrance in my opinion. I recall some pretty good matches between six workers, especially in years gone by before the Division was downgraded to second-tier.

[Rickymex]

The triple threat rule will cause a lot of problems in my opinion.

 

1. 2 of the same guys will be in all the rematches.

 

2. Single rivalries will be really hard to carry since they will always need a third opponent.

 

3. Triple threats are probably the matches that are the hardest to book since you either go with 2 guys fight and 1 is knocked outside or the two heels beat the face until he defeats both of them.

[Jaysin]

They've had a weight limit since August 2011. It was originally 225 lbs though.

 

I like the new rules though. Sounds intriguing. I hope they don't drop it right away like they usually do with new things.

[alphadraighon]

They've had a weight limit since August 2011. It was originally 225 lbs though..

 

I had assumed that was phased out, since van Dam and Kenny King are both over 225lbs.

[Jaysin]

I had assumed that was phased out, since van Dam and Kenny King are both over 225lbs.

 

Eh, King was only five over and RVD was 10 over. I think they just assumed no one would ask questions.

[TakerNGN74]

I watched the show tonight and liked what I saw for the most part however I am not keen on all of the X division matches being triple threat matches.

 

TNA since their inception has really been very good at ruining specific match types (The cage match to be exact with an all cage match pay per view even though they don't do it anymore.)

 

But having all of the X title matches be in a triple threat match will really come to bite them in the ass in the long run IMO

 

Lets say they decide to do a triple threat match for the World Title down the line, it will end up not meaning as much as it normally would because all X title matches are contested in a triple threat format.

[Derek B]

Not a fan of the X-division changes. For a short term idea, it could be fun to see how it goes as it will give a good chance to showcase more talent and they can do some interesting things. But the triple threat idea is something with a limited shelflife... as a gimmick that last until possibly Slammiversary, it could work. But if it goes longer than that I'm really going to hate it.

 

Otherwise, Impact was a fun show this week. I loved the videos explaining the Aces and Eights, they did a great job at putting all of the pieces together and showing that the storyline was worked out all along. I even actually cared about Bischoff and Brisco as a result of it, it actually put over their stories quite well and helped to establish why they did what they did so much better than their promos did a while back. Very nicely done.

 

Enjoyed the AJ stuff again, interested to see where they go with this. I like that TNA has spent so much time trying to make TNA a deeper character rather than focusing on how awesome he is in the ring. I've never hated AJ's accent, but I'm sure lots of other people are loving that he isn't talking just now for that reason.

 

Taryn Terrell... a secondary women's feud is nice, but she had better be worth investing this time into. She's not looked bad so far, but time will tell.

 

Tag match was fun, always love Aries/Roode stuff and Bad Influence can do no wrong. Should be fun to see where the tag division goes with this in future.

 

Matt Morgan should really start killing people properly. I know TNA are invested into the Joseph Park character, but I feel he's getting too much time and offense in his matches. Morgan should be looking dominant and I want to see him kill people. How he isn't a major champion somewhere by now is beyond me, the guy is awesome.

 

I liked the finish to the main event though the match was a bit short for my tastes... still fun though, and it's good to see Magnus getting some time. Ever since getting past the terrible gladiator gimmick he was saddled with to start his TNA career, he's been a promising star. Maybe even a future world champion. He's not perfect but one day he could be a top guy.

 

Anywho, I enjoyed the show a lot again this week. Can't wait til next week to see where things are going next.

[TakerNGN74]

The Aces and 8's vignettes last night were golden. The one thing I really hated about the show now that Derek made me think of it was the match between Matt Morgan and Joeseph Park.

 

First of all Matt Morgan is way better than that and should be in the World Title picture by now hell he could have been a World Champion at least two times by now with how short TNA's title reigns are in general. The longest World Title reign has only been 8 monthes in almost eleven years are you kidding me?

 

Plus everyone knows that Joseph Park is Abyss and that he can actually wrestle and the fact that they are making the guy look like a complete moron is really starting to bother me. Everyone knows who he is and that he can wrestle so TNA isn't fooling anyone by doing this.

 

Anyways that is all I had to say I could go on and on about the Joseph Park crap but I wont because I don't have the time.