Friday, June 17, 2011

WrestlingNerd Presents: TNA Impact Wrestling Review 6/16/11

What is up wrestling fans, I am the WrestlingNerd bringing you another written review. Today, we take a look at TNA Impact Wrestling on 6/16/11. I know TNA's track record dictates this to be a terrible evening since this is the first show after a PPV, but Slam wasn't too bad so it can't be that bad, right? Well, let's get this over with and find out.

We open up the show with some quick reactions by Bully Ray and Jeff Jarrett after the Slam PPV. Bully says he has grown to respect AJ Styles to taking him to the limit, while Jarrett is claiming this isn't over until he says it is over. The second I heard this come out of Jarrett's mouth made me cringe. Damn, they ought to change the name of the show to the Kurt Angle and Jeff Jarrett Show if they still want to keep rolling with this. After that, Mr. Anderson is in the ring to celebrate becoming the world champion. He has a pinball table, various food, a stripper pole (I would assume this would be for Tessmacher), and a keg. He says he invited everyone from the back, but no one showed up because he claims he doesn't need the fans or friends. Gunner comes out to interrupt (Yeah, I know it makes no sense. Just roll with it) and says he wants a reward for helping out Anderson last week. Gunner wants a world title shot, which makes Anderson say he is not ready for a world title. Anderson proceeds to drink a beer and then splash it in the face of Gunner. This makes Gunner attack Anderson and the segment ends with Gunner hitting a move on Anderson through a table. Ok, so a lot to discuss right off the bat. Why in the world is Gunner of all people confronting Anderson? I will admit Gunner makes a point in helping him out last week, but who is the audience supposed to cheer for? Last I checked, both Gunner and Anderson are heels. Does that mean Gunner is making a face turn? This seriously blows my mind on so many levels. It's basic wrestling where you have good guys fight the bad guys, not have the bad guys fight other bad guys. I would address this a little more, but there is a lot more here that would happen later in the show, so I will save that for later.

Match #1: Hernandez vs Devon
Seconds into the match, Mexican American cause a distraction, which allows Hernandez to take control. I know it is common for heel stables to cheat or get involved, but you can at least wait until the very end of the match, or else it just makes it pointless. At some point, the Pope shows up and is talking with Devon's family, whom are sitting in the audience. The match was boring and nothing special. The finish comes when Mex American interfere for the 200th time in this match and the ref calls for the bell. After the match, Mex Am continue the attack on Devon, but Pope comes in for the save. Ok, I guess I should explain what the storyline is here since TNA only told the TNA marks since they are the ones who watch Xplosion. The deal here is Devon's kids and wife seem to like the Pope, while Devon doesn't really like Pope because of his background and doesn't trust him. The Pope in the meantime is trying to get on the good side of Devon, but with little to no progress. This is another strange storyline in the works. So, are we to assume Pope made a face turn? There is something wrong here since TNA has heels fighting other heels and now faces fighting other faces and no explanation anywhere to be seen. Why.....why can't this company explain their storylines? In fact, I don't even think TNA knows what they are doing anymore. I want this company to succeed, but it isn't going to work when casual audiences are confused as to what is going on.

Winner via DQ: Devon

Backstage with Eric Bischoff and Anderson. Anderson demands for Bischoff to call off Gunner. Bischoff says it will be Anderson vs Gunner tonight. I like to thank Bischoff and Anderson for NOT telling the audience if this was a non-title or title match. This creative staff has the brain power of Bebop and Rocksteady from Ninja Turtles. No, in fact I would bet that Bebop and Rocksteady can make a better wrestling show than Russo.

We are back in the ring with Angle. He talks about "ending" things with Jarrett (I REALLY want you to pay close attention to that word) and trying to qualify for the 2012 Olympics. Seconds later, Jarrett comes out and says he wants to end this with a parking lot brawl later tonight and demands for Angle to give him another chance. Angle starts talking about honoring the wrestling business and how Jarrett isn't because he won't let these issues go (Based on that statement by Angle, wouldn't that mean Russo is pissing all over the wrestling business since he probably wrote this into the show?). Jarrett then adds a stipluation in saying if he loses, he will move his entire family to Mexico if he loses....


Anyway, Angle says if actual lawyers can create this contract and include the Mexico stipulation, he will agree to the match. Excuse me for one moment...


I can't believe they are doing this again. TNA literally wants this feud to go into the year 3000. Why did I have this strange feeling they weren't going to hold true to their words of the Slam match being the "final battle"? There is no way to suger coat it so I will be straight forwards, TNA basically just lied to your face. Plain and simple. Ok, TNA announced what they are calling the Bound for Glory Series. The deal here is 12 guys are going to be competing in a series of matches for the next 3-4 months until BFG (which is in October). Based on how they perform in these matches, points will be given. Basically, whoever has the most amount of points will become the winner and will be the #1 Contender for the world title at BFG. The point system works like this...

Win via submission- 10 points
win via pinfall- 7points
win via countout- 5 points
win via DQ- 3 points
Draw- 2 points
lose via DQ- minus 10 points

I will say that this is a definite improvement over that stupid Top Ten deal TNA did last year, which was a complete epic fail. Even though this is something different, I kinda like the idea of having a number of guys competing for a title equally and the best overall performer gets the title shot, and they would actually have to earn it via the point system. For the most part, I don't seem to have an issue with this and I am curious to see how this plays out. I just hope TNA doesn't make this too stupid like the Top Ten deal. The 12 guys competing for this are RVD, Samoa Joe, Styles, Matt Morgan, Crimson, Scott Steiner, Bully, Pope, Gunner, Devon, Robert Roode, and James Storm. I think 12 guys is a little much for this kind of concept since you probably could have done well with just 8 guys and some of these guys clearly don't have a shot or are not ready. One of the flaws for this concept is it seems to be overtaking the next 3-4 months, which is a rather long time. I know WWE starts their WM hype at around the RR so I guess it is no different since BFG is TNA's WM. Can TNA keep the interest of this concept decent up until the PPV? Well, I guess we will wait and see. Oh, and a backstage scene where Eric Young is again forcing comedy on the audience and wants to defend the title against Morgan because he is a "tv star". Morgan tells him no, but pitches to him another guy who works within the company that Young should challenge. These Young scenes are getting difficult to watch these days because all he is doing is talking as if he were a madman who just snorted a pile of crack.

Match #2: Kid Kash vs Jimmy Rave vs Austin Aries X Division Tournament Match
What was odd is TNA explained how the BFG tourny worked, but barely explained the X Divison tournament. Damn, are the KOs going to be having a tournament as well? Anyway, the concept here is TNA is bringing back 12 former X Division stars and they will be competing in a match. If they win that match, they will move on to the best of four at Destination X. The winner of that PPV match will get a contract with Impact Wrestling. TNA claims that Destination X will be an all X Division PPV, and I am not sure if they will hold true to that concept and how it will end up turning out. Ok, time to get into the actual match. It is amazing how Kash looks the same no matter how old he gets. Rave was still sporting that stupid Guitar Hero guitar controller. This was a pretty good match, but Aries was the main attraction. He was pretty damn good out there and I was impressed. I almost wonder if he took a bunch of caffine before the match, because he was bouncing off the walls like a pinball machine. The finish comes when Aries hits the Brainbuster on Rave and pins him. I think we can assume Aries is the early favorite for this tournament.

Winner via pinfall: Austin Aries

Match #3: Sarita and Rosita vs Velvet Sky and Miss Tessmacher for the KO Tag Titles
This match seemed to go on for an eternity. It was long, drawn out, and boring. The finish comes when Sky gets distracted by seeing OBD in the audience and she completey abandons her partner. The Latina Connection double team on Stripperella and they retain the titles. Ladies and Gentelmen, your fan service match of the evening....how do you feel now?

Winner via pinfall and still KO tag champs: Sarita and Rosita

After the match, ODB attacks and then Jacqueline shows up and joins up with ODB to attack Sky. Once again TNA shows off the worst secuirty staff ever when 4-5 security guys show up only for ODB and Jacki to take them all out. Seriously, how can these security guys still have jobs when they can't even handle pissed off women? Yep, more wrestling logic. Eventually, the security finds a way to separete the ladies and there you go. I would give my thoughts about this, but this would be addressed later in the show so I will wait until then. Backstage scene with Hulk Hogan and Jarrett. Hogan says "The Network" loves the idea of the Mexico stipulation and are green lighting the match (Wow, "The Network" gets impressed pretty easily). Once Jarrett leaves, Sting shows up. Hogan tells Sting he will get his rematch for the world title down the road (I think Hogan said a date, but I didn't quite hear it so I missed it. Sorry). Sting starts to think Hogan is changing his ways, but Hogan tells him he is only doing it so "The Network" will get off his back. Sting and Hogan start to argue about the old days and such. This scene took a dark turn when Sting snapped, started screaming his head off and proceeded to push Hogan into a corner and use the red face paint on the Hulkster. Umm.....did we just jump into a Wes Craven movie here? Seriously, this was......very different. Sting is almost overloaded on the psycho pills with how he has been going about lately. I felt disturbed while watching this scene. I guess we will wait and see what happens afterwords, but with how Sting is acting, I almost expect him to start running around with a chainsaw any second now. Fear for your life TNA employees.

Backstage with ODB and Jacki who are talking about getting rid of the eye candy until Sky attacks them from behind. It didn't go anywhere because OBD and Jacki took her out once again. This scene was pointless if you think about it since they already had the two take out Sky, so why did we need to see it again? I guess this means the rivalry will continue....yeah? Honestly, do you even care about this storyline? Another backstage interview with Aries. He starts to talk about the concept of Wrestling Matters when Young shows up and challenges the interview guy to a match. The guy, who they are calling Wayne, has no idea what Young is talking about. Young then proceeds to attack him and pin him and claims he has successfully defended his title, but this isn't over and walks away. I like how we are going to talk to Aries about how wrestling matters when comic relief shows up and has this pointless "match" that serves no purpose on the show. The only way we can take TNA even less serious is having another one of their workers talk about how wrestling matters, but then show somebody riding around on a unicycle and juggeling at the same time. I know I keep poking fun of TNA's slogan, but when you put your company out and have various talent cut youtube videos in how wrestling matters and then you have concussion guys who don't know what they are talking about and keeping trying for Dane Cook comedy, your kinda putting yourself out there in the line of fire. In other words, expect to be made fun of it you cannot hold true to your own words.

Match #4: RVD vs Samoa Joe BFG Series Match
First matchup for the BFG tournament. Overall, this was a pretty decent match and worth checking out. The finish came when RVD hit the Five Star Frogsplash for the clean win, meaning he has won 7 points and currently leads the standings. Oh, and why is Devon is this tournament? Seriously, he does not belong in the mix.

Winner via pinfall: RVD

Match #5: Gunner vs Mr. Anderson in a non-title match
It sure would have been nice for SOMEONE to say if this was for the title or not. I guessed that portion got lost in the script? Anderson was pretty much schooling Gunner during the match. Anderson decides to gloat by having the mic drop come down during the match. He talks about how he is the champion and such. Gunner gets back up to hit his Flapjack/F5 like finisher for the clean win. So, Gunner can beat Sting and Anderson, but was never able to figure out Young? Just checking. Anyway, the interesting thing here was the audience was accepting Gunner as a face. Still, it is kinda hard to accept him as a good guy when Bischoff runs out there seconds later and they both celebrate together. It isn't really clear what they are doing here. It could be TNA starting the push of Gunner, but I don't think that is a good idea. Don't get me wrong, the guy has skill and a good look...for the midcard division. He is not ready for the main event. He went out there in the beginning of the show and cut his first promo. Needless to say, it was very shaky and was pretty bland with his words. It is amazing he has been in TNA for around a year and this was his FIRST promo with the company. I just feel they are pushing Gunner too fast, and that can lead to some disastrous results (Jack Swagger ring any bells?). I would hope they would take this slow for the sakes of Gunner's career. Plus, I still can't get passed the part where it seems Anderson, the heel, is having issues with other heels and is now having to deal with them. Face vs heel, that has been the common formula for pro wrestling since God knows when. I thought that was ok, but here is TNA just trying to confuse the hell out of you when face and heel turns come out of the blue and they have heel vs heel matches. It's enough to make your head spin.

Winner via pinfall: Gunner

Backstage interview with Scott Steiner who makes fun of Bully for being overweight. In a separate interview, Bully is saying Steiner should chose his words more carefully because Bully almost took out Steiner for good a few years ago. The reason for these interviews is because it is Bully vs Steiner in the BFG tourny next week. What? Another heel vs heel match? Come on, the casual fans have to cheer for somebody and not the asshole.....unless it's Randy Orton since they eat up everything he has to say these days.

Angle and Jarrett are out in the parking lot and start having a brawl. Various talent are watching this fight. I also want to thank Bischoff for lying to me since he said the Anderson/Gunner match would be the main event and here we are seeing Angle and Jarrett close out the show. This brawl was so stupid and pointless. The whole thing ends when Angle forces Jarrett to say "adios", to which Jarrett says so. Angle walks away and the show ends with Jarrett down on the ground. So, I would hope now this is the legit FINAL encounter. I guess this was done to write Jarrett off of tv for a while. I am not exactly clear as to why he is being written off the show, but I have heard TNA is trying to get some of their talent to appear in Mexico with the wrestling organization known as AAA. They have done work with them in the past. In fact, that is where Hernandez was performing all of those times TNA sent him to Mexico. The only reason I would think that is because of how they mentioned Mexico. It could all be a coinsidence or a series of bs and Jarrett appears on tv next week, but who really knows? Really, they could have written him off of tv at the PPV, but I guess there is nothing wrong with waiting until the following tv taping to do so.

Overall Impression:
If you ignore all of the plotholes or things that didn't add or up or made any sense, this was a pretty decent edition of Impact. There was some decent in ring action for this week and they even showed more wrestling than Raw for this week, and more quality for that matter. Then again, if you take into play all of the stuff that is making no sense, it does hurt the show if you have been watching a while. Still, even with all of that stuff going around, I found this to be a tolerable Impact and they might have done better than Raw for this week. The promos on this week's episode are a bit on the weak side, but having Anderson around does keep things a float. The whole deal with the KOs and the Angle match were things that did drag the show, but at least there was some good parts in between the bad. Sometimes, one of TNA's biggest flaws is going from a bad segment to an even worse segment, but this week it was more cleaned up. See, if TNA can consistently put on shows like this, the company has a bright future and it will bring in more casual fans, because casual fans is where the money is at. The IWC has to face the facts, your the minority and wrestling companies have to appeal to the casual fans because they are the ones who drive up the ratings and bring in all the money. Some IWC folk have grown to accept this, but some can be a little nieve about all of this. Yeah, so am I recommending an episode of Impact? Yeah....I guess I am to a degree. There are some flaws, but some decent entertainment around to keep me interested in what was going around and I like some of these tournament ideas.....at least for now. Well, that is going to do it for the review and I hope you enjoyed it. I am going to try my hardest to get a SD review for this week since a CP Rundown isn't too likely. Remember, you can also find me on Blogspot/Blogger. I will see you guys and girls on the next WrestlingNerd show, see you next time.

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