WrestlingNerd Presents: TNA Impact Wrestling Review 4/19/12

What up wrestling fans, I'm the WrestlingNerd bringing you another written review. Today, we take a look at TNA Impact Wrestling 4/19/12. After the events of Lockdown, what shenanigans are brewing in TNA land? Let's find out and start the review. 

We open up the show with Robert Roode. He starts to talk about……wait, something's different. Well, it turns out Bobby got a haircut. Nooo!!! Not the trademark long hair? How are we gonna finish the rest of this show without the same hair? Well, what's done is done, I suppose. Still, I think we need a moment of silence for the one…..the only……Bobby Roode's hair. 

He talks about his victory over James Storm and claims that he has defeated every single one of the top challengers in TNA. Mr. Anderson comes out….for some reason. He said, "Top contenders", not washed-out contenders. Yeah, I expect to get a lot of flag for that one. I love Bobby's reaction for when Anderson says he wants a title match. 

Robert Roode: hahahahaha………….*dead silence*. 

Seemed more like a realistic response. Anyway, Jeff Hardy decides to join the parade. This starts an argument between Anderson and Hardy. Hulk Hogan jumps on the titantron. He's invading the titantron now? Jesus Christ, it never ends. Hogan says it will be Hardy vs Anderson in a #1 Contender match. The winner will face Bobby at Sacrifice, which is the next TNA PPV. I bet some of you are wondering where's James Storm in all of this? Well, we would get an explanation later in the show. Hey, I'm just impressed that they are at least explaining things. 

Match #1: Crimson and Bully Ray vs Matt Morgan and Austin Aries

There isn't a whole lot special about this match, but it wasn't bad for what it was worth. The finish comes when Crimson accidentally spears Bully. Once Morgan and A Double send Crimson to the outside, it's down to Bully and Aries because Morgan forgot about trying to win the match. Austin is setting up for the Brainbuster, but Bully is able to counter into a rollup. He grabs a handful of tights for the……two count victory? Yeah, I thought I missed it the first time, but I watched it again. The referee is all, "One…….two……uhhhhhhhhhh, ring the bell". What the hell? Did he forget how to count? Did he have a stroke in the middle of the match? Did he get distracted by Austin's bare ass? Somebody needs to bring in the Count to do his job. Regardless of the very noticeable botch, Bully cheats his way to a victory. I'm still intrigued with the Bully/A Double rivalry. It could be fun…..if done right. 

Winner via two-count rule: Bully Ray and Crimson

Anybody saw the Charlie Sheen commercial? Well, I guess I'm winning. Let's see how TNA can follow it………oh, it's a Hardy promo. Well, we went from winning to losing in two seconds. A NEW RECORD!!!

Garett Bisch*** is now in the ring. He talks about his father, Eric Bis***** and how B******* was a menace to TNA. Wait, why are they bleeping out Bisch***? Is that a new swear word? Instead of f*** you, it's now Bisch*** you. There's so much Bisch*** going on here that this might be the most swearing that as occurred in my articles. So, Garett is talking to his teammates at Lockdown, minus A Double. I guess Austin is embarrassed about the mooning he gave the audience earlier tonight. Garett talks about how great his team did, but not before stumbling through his lines. Hey Garett. There's this thing called "rehearsal". Give it a try one of these days. Ric Flair interrupts and mentions how Garett can't cut a simple promo. He also says that he wants B******* back on this show and how they all should be grateful for B******* since he brought so much to the wrestling business. Flair says he will throw B******* an appreciation party, and they are NOT invited. Oh no!!! What will I do next week if Team Garett can't attend the party? MY LIFE IS OVER!!! Yeah, I'm sure they will find a way to cope with this horrific lose. By the way, I know they are bleeping out Bisch*** because that's not his name on the show anymore. If I didn't say that, I'm sure I would've gotten a lot of negative comments from someone who can't take a joke. 

Christopher Daniels and Kaz are in the back. They finally say that there's a reason Kaz sided with Daniels, and it has to do with a skeleton in AJ Styles' closet. Wait, so they are NOW trying to explain this storyline? That would've been a good thing to do…..About two months ago. Well, better late than never. 

Match #2: Kurt Angle vs AJ Styles

We see part of the match and…..it cuts away instantly? I guess TNA's budget already ran out for the month of April. In fact, I watched a replay and you can still see the "Spike TV" logo at the corner. If anything, it was most likely a broadcasting mistake. Either that or Spike TV finally gave up on TNA. I guess Dixie Carter did some stiff negotiations to put the show back on the air since TNA is back in a matter of minutes. Because of the cut-off, I can't really say anything positive on this match since the majority of the match is now lost in the production room. I guess for the moments that the match was on, it was decent. Daniels and Kaz are at ringside for this match. The finish comes when Daniels hands AJ an envelope. AJ gets distracted by a piece of paper, which allows for Kurt to get a rollup victory on Styles. After the match, AJ seems very concerned about this envelope. So, TNA is finally starting to explain this storyline, but its just as vague now as it was back then. Here's my theory. TNA STILL hasn't thought of an explanation for this storyline, so Styles is going to be talking about these papers as if someone ate his dog. At this point, I'll be surprised if they actually come up with a reason for this storyline. I bet they will use cliche stuff like, "How can you expose this?" or "You're crazy" when explaining things, but not giving you actual details. Well, let's give it another chance and see if they can make this work. 

Winner via blackout: Kurt Angle

Joseph Parks continues to search for his brother, Abyss. He runs into Gunner and starts to get physical with him. Gunner tells him to go talk to Bully, since Abyss' last match was against Bully. Joseph seems so excited to get some type of progress in his missing brother's case. So excited that he'll wait another week to talk to Bully. Yeah, you can tell he's in a hurry to find his brother. Watch out for this guy!!!

Hogan has called all the TNA champions to the ring. For some reason, ODB and Eric Younger aren't involved with this scene. I guess TNA doesn't want to acknowledge the KO tag titles. Yes, I know it's because of the honeymoon deal. Before Hogan gets to the ring, he runs into RVD backstage. He decides to put him in the #1 Contender match. So, it now becomes a triple threat match. I gotta admit. I was laughing with Hogan did the RVD/thumb pointing thing. He seemed a little too excited for this part…

Hogan: R……V……..DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD……

Hogan is now in the ring to make a couple more announcements. The first being a new concept for TNA. It's being called Open Fight Night. Once a month, TNA will bring in somebody who doesn't work for TNA to compete in a match. If three judges (with Hogan being one of the judges) liked what they saw, they might offer the person a contract. It's like American Idol, except it might not be as painful. It sounds great on paper and I think it can work pretty well. However, TNA has a pretty bad track-record when it comes to bringing in new ideas. Sometimes, they aren't planned very well and they fall pretty flat. Take the BFG Series for example. It's a great idea, but it wasn't executed very well in the first year. There was a lot of plotholes and things that made no sense with the concept. Personally, I hope they bring back the BFG concept and polish up on the mistakes. If they do that, I think the BFG series can be awesome. As for Open Fight Night, we will have to wait and see how it turns out. It could be one of those concepts that really works, but it can also blow up in their faces. I do admit that there's a ton of potential with the idea of showcasing their OVW talents (Ohio Valley Wrestling) or random Indy wrestlers. Hogan also says there will be other things occurring on Open Fight Night. He claims that any of the TNA employees can come to the ring and challenge any of the champions to a championship match. So, it's like an open challenge, but the championships will be up for grabs. Some of the champions don't like this idea while the others were indifferent to the idea. Devon says he likes this concept because he's a fighting champion. How is Devon a fighting champion? He won the title two PPVs ago and has only defended it once. Plus, those are some big words for someone who hasn't made an appearance on TNA television in two months. Yes, I'm having fun with the wrestling logic…..DON'T JUDGE ME!!! Anyway, Hogan says the TV Title will be defended every week on TNA programming. Well, it's about freakin' time they did something with that stupid championship. I think the Open Fight Night sounds like an interesting idea, but hopefully they did their homework with this one. Still don't know why people are sh****** on this concept when you haven't seen it yet. I always say watch it BEFORE criticizing it. I think the main reason I'm liking the idea is the surprise element. I love surprises, so I hope they can come up with some good ones.

Match #3: Gail Kim, Madison Rayne, Sarita, and Rosita vs Velvet Sky, Mickie James, Tara, and Miss Tessmacher

There was a lot of ass shots in this match. If this isn't fan service, I don't know what is. The finish comes when Gail and Tessmacher are in the ring. Gail is grabbing the ropes on a rollup attempt, but Velvet breaks it up. While Gail and Velvet are arguing, Tessmacher gets a rollup on Gail for the victory. What's with all the rollup victories tonight? So far, all the matches have ended in a rollup. That's a bit lazy. Regardless, it seems things will continue between Velvet and Gail. It really doesn't come as a surprise. 

Winner via pinfall: Velvet Sky, Mickie James, Tara, and Miss Tessmacher

Eric Young and ODB honeymoon. You know what? I just don't give a s*** anymore. I know I say give it a chance, but I've tried and it just isn't working for me. If you like it, more power to you. 

Match #4: Devon vs Gunner; TV Championship

Why does the Impact Zone love Devon so much? I don't get it. Then again, there's a lot of things I don't understand about the Impact Zone. It's just another mystery of life. This was a short match, but I'm grateful for that since it means less screen time for Gunner. The finish comes when Devon hits the Spinebuster on Mr. Garbage Man. I know people would want me to bring up the point that Gunner shouldn't be looking this weak, but I think its appropriate for Gunner to lose in a short amount of time. He just doesn't click as a wrestler. He might have the skill and look, but he isn't doing anything to make himself seem interesting. He's about as intense as a sack of potatoes. 

Winner via pinfall and still TV Champ: Devon

James Storm finally arrives and he has something to say. Storm was all over the place with this promo. At first, he's sadden that he didn't win and apologizes for letting people down. He also talks about how he loves being a pro wrestler and how his family is proud of him, but then goes back down the emo route and talks about how he defeated himself at Lockdown. He reflects on Bobby's words on Storm running out of luck. He gets choked up and leaves the ring. I understand what they're trying to do here, but it can be a little puzzling since Storm showed a couple cases of bipolar in this promo. Regardless of how it came off, I thought it was executed pretty well. Storm tells a good story. He seems to have lost confidence in himself, which can lead to a re-birth of Storm's character and come back better than ever. With the way things are looking at the moment, my best guess is for Storm to get another shot against Bobby at Bound for Glory. Slammiversay is also an option, but BFG might be a better spot. I think Storm's character will be taking some time off. If they take their time with this storyline, it can work very well. One of the things that needs to stop happening in pro wrestling is rushed storylines. If the storyline tells a good story, I have no problems with longer storylines, but I hate it when good storytelling is rushed. 

Match #5: RVD vs Mr. Anderson vs Jeff Hardy; #1 Contender match for World Title

The match was fair, but nothing stands out. The action wasn't the best part of Impact tonight, but some of the segments were the saving grace. That's pretty interesting since it's normally the other way around. The finish comes when RVD hits the Frog Splash on Anderson. Hardy tries to hit Twist of Fate on RVD, but RVD counters into a backslide pinfall attempt. RVD kinda snuck one out on Hardy there. So, I guess RVD is the new #1 Contender to the world title. With Storm's character taking some time, that means Roode is going to have to go up against somebody else in the meantime. RVD isn't a bad choice since the guy can still put on a good match. He's not a long-term challenger for the world title, but I'm fine taking the spot once in a while. I like of RVD's position in TNA similar to that of Rey Mysterio in WWE. He can be a good last-minutes substitute and give you a solid feud, but he isn't someone to be in the championship picture for long. What I find interesting is RVD getting in the main event at Sacrifice. That's three years in a row where RVD was in the main event at this PPV. It shouldn't even be called Sacrifice. It should be called RVD's Main Event Challenge. 

Winner via pinfall and NEW #1 Contender to World Title: RVDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

Overall Impression:

For some strange reason, I enjoyed parts of this show. I liked the announcement of Open Fight Night and I felt Storm delivered a great promo. It will be interesting to see what type of change his character goes under for the next few weeks/months. At the same time, I admit that this show isn't for everyone. The action portion of the show was lacking, while certain segments can be looked at as boring. It's pretty common to get a lot of talking after a PPV since we have to set up new or build-up current storylines. I knew that going into tonight, which is why I wasn't surprised that the action was just so-so. I would mostly call this an average episode of TNA. It was decent for what it was worth, but I can see how people didn't enjoy it. Then again, my strange sense of humor probably has something to do with this show being decent. Most of the time, I was laughing at a lot of the dumb moments of this show. It will be interesting to see how the first showing of Open Fight Night turns out. There's a lot of potential with this idea, so I really hope they don't drop the ball…..again. That's gonna do it for the review and I hope you enjoyed it. As always, tell me what you thought of my review or tonight's show. I will see you guys and girls on the next WrestlingNerd show. See you next time.