WrestlingNerd Presents: TNA Impact Wrestling Review 7/5/12

What up wrestling fans, I'm the WrestlingNerd bringing you another written review. Today, we take a look at TNA Impact Wrestling 7/5/12. With Destination X set for this week……wait, it is? It doesn't seem like they are on the week of a PPV, but whatever. Let's see what intrigue they can add to the event and start the review. 

We open up the show with Bully Ray. His big announcement is that he's going on Twitter……watch out for this guy!!! Bully calls out Joseph Parks and accepts his match, which will happen next week. Bully adds a stipulation. Bully has filed a restraining order on Abyss. If Abyss shows up during the match, he will be thrown in jail. Bully ends the segment by punching Joseph in the back of his head. You know, for a lawyer character, he can be pretty stupid sometimes. Kinda want to see this Bully/Joseph rivalry end. It has run its course. Even though they "banned" Abyss, it will be interesting to see how they get him involved. Then again, maybe they will go a different route? 

Match #1: Devon vs Crimson; TV Championship

The match was basic. The finish comes when Devon hits the Spinebuster for the clean victory. I guess TNA wants to pretend the undefeated streak never happen. Then again, it probably shouldn't have happened to begin with. Hey, don't be shocked if he goes from the Undefeated Crimson to the Jobless Crimson. After the match, Madison Rayne arrives and makes out with referee, Earl Hebner. I CALLED IT!!! I F***ING CALLED IT!!! I've been saying for weeks that this whole thing would amount to Madison going after the referee because I knew they were gonna come up with something ridiculous. We got high-flyers impregnating addicts, and now we have old men rocking the cradle. Tune in for more TNA!!! Yeah, so I'm not really surprised they decided to go down this direction. Not sure how this will turn out, but I just want to see what stupid stuff they can add next. I love Earl's reaction to getting some action. I bet he looked down and said, "Well, that hasn't woken up in a while". 

Winner via pinfall and still TV Championship: Devon

Chris Sabin comes out and starts to question the idea of retirement after getting another ACL tear. I feel really bad for Sabin. I hope he can turn this around, but we shall see. Robert Roode interrupts and claims all these X Division guys are the same. X Division guys tend to do lots of flips and get very little reward for most of their careers. I know the IWC is going to throw a temper tantrum when I mention this (And I have in previous articles), but casual fans don't really care for cruiserweight/X Division wrestling, which is why it will always be subjected to lower class/filler entertainment. That's why there hasn't been much profit for guys who started off in the lightweight division. Some have definitely gone on to have successful careers (ie: Rey Mysterio), but it isn't a regular occurrence. I know the IWC loves those high-flyers/cruiserweights, but these guys don't often do it for me. Then again, it also doesn't help that cruiserweight wrestling has always been thrown under the bus by the major promotions. I think it can work and casual fans would learn to love it, but maybe the top dogs don't want that? It's really hard to throw that claim out there, but I wouldn't doubt it. Anyway, I kinda trailed off there for a moment. Again, I don't hate lightweights and I do like some of them (At least the ones with personality and are interesting, like Austin Aries), but I'm not one of these people who's gonna blow his load over the sight of high-flyers. Anyway, Bobby kicks Sabin's crutches since he wants to remind you that he's evil. I know he did it for heat, but what a dick. The guy is probably gonna be out for another year and you're just kicking him while he's down. No, he's literally kicking him. He's an asshole, but that was the idea. Aries finally runs out for the save. We would get one more interaction between Aries and Bobby before the night ends. Not only is Sabin on the shelf, but is an afterthought after this segment. Not a good night for Sabin fans. 

Match #2: Dakota Darsow vs Flip Cassanova; X Division Tournament 

So, we see two more guys that have probably been hovering around the indies for years and I show off my 'knowledge' of the business. Hey, at least I'm not afraid to take shots at myself. Like I said last week, I don't really care for what these guys did in the indies. This match was okay, but I couldn't fully get into this match. Dakota got busted open from his nose/lip during this match. The finish comes when Flip hits a top rope finisher for the victory. I don't have a whole lot to say about Flip. I thought out of all the winners for this tournament, he made the smallest impression. 

Winner via pinfall: Flip Cassanova

Match #3: Tessmacher and Tara vs Gail Kim and Madison Rayne

Because of some lawsuit or some bulls*** TNA made up, the KO Championship match will be set for next week. Tessmacher won this match by hitting a clothesline on Madison for the victory. I'm sorry, but I don't have a whole lot of interest in this division right now. It isn't terrible, but there isn't one lady popping out from the bunch. Then again, we all can't be like crrrrrrraaaazy AJ and run around like a crrrrrrraaazy person.  

Winner via pinfall: Tessmacher and Tara

AJ Styles is talking about Claire Lynch until Kaz and Christopher Daniels interrupt. Styles claims this has nothing to do with Dixie Carter and that horrible actress, as it has to do with AJ and Daniels since this storyline has come together after a whole year. I can't believe they have done the storyline for this long. Who would've thought a little fair competition would amount to a man getting a drug addict pregnant? Remarkable. Anyway, AJ and Daniels will be in a Last Man Standing match at Dest X, but AJ says Daniels is no man. Good comeback, AJ. Are you gonna steal his lunch money next? Oh, did I just spoil the next plot twist in this storyline? 

Hulk Hogan gets a mysterious letter that has two Aces and eights from a deck of cards. It read, "8 A A 8" and it said, "See you next week". Hogan is immediately on the prowl. Better get Hogan's wheelchair. WHEELCHAIR…..AWAY!!! If anything, I think this will connect with Sting's attackers, but who the hell knows at this point. Then again, it will probably be Hogan's bookie telling him to pay up and Brooke Hogan isn't gonna cover the cost Noticed that she wasn't there this week…..hmmmm? 

Match #4: Lars Only vs Kenny King; X Division Tournament 

So, we have a smaller version of Mike Tyson vs a drummer from a 80s rock band? I often wonder where they find these people. This match was alright, but something about it seemed off. I think there was a couple of botches during this match. Yeah, I was more impressed with the Tournament guys from last week. Then again, they could be nervous performing on a bigger stage……Yes, TNA is considered a bigger stage. The finish comes when Kenny hits an interesting finisher for the victory. After the match, Kenny did cut a pretty decent promo. Yeah, I would consider it a misstep if anyone besides Rashard Cameron or Sonjay Dutt don't win the match this Sunday. Then again, we will wait and see. 

Winner via pinfall: Kenny King

Match #5: James Storm vs Jeff Hardy; BFG Series match

Now, this was a pretty good match. I really enjoyed watching this match. In fact, this was probably the highlight of the night. I really advise checking out this match. It was a lot of fun. After a ton of counters and near falls, the finish comes when Hardy hits the Twist of Fate for the victory. I know people are going to complain about Storm losing this match, but I thought this was a better move. You can't have Storm win EVERY match and it adds more value to the BFG Series. If Storm would've won, it really would've made too obvious that Storm was gonna run away with this. Don't you think it would be more interesting if the scoreboard wasn't such a landslide? Plus, I think with Storm losing, that it adds a different psyche to his character. He wants to become world champion and defeat Bobby, but before he can do that, he needs to have no doubts in his routine and has to defeat everyone to assure victory. A loss here tells him that he's getting close, but he still needs to fix up some things to get it right. Once he gets it right, he can become champion again…..

Winner via pinfall: Jeff Hardy

After we find out that Bound for Glory will be held at Phoenix, Arizona, Hogan comes out to take the X Title off of Aries. I wonder why Hogan is sporting the traditional yellow and red tonight? Was his IW gear in the laundry? Anyway, Roode interrupts and claims that Option C will only give false hope to X Division talent and weaken them. Aries arrives and wants to fight right now. Roode is about to chicken out like last week, but goes for a cheap-shot on Aries. Austin ducks and ends up using the X Title on Roode's head. The show ends with Aries hoisting up the World Title as he handed Hogan the X Championship. I like this segment. Even though it seems more likely for Bobby to be the champion after the PPV, they have set up the match to seem like Aries might overcome the odds and actually defeat Bobby at the PPV. I like it because it adds more value to the match. I think it should be an interesting match. 

Overall Impression:

Outside of the Aries/Bobby buildup and the Hardy/Storm match, the rest of tonight's show just seemed average/below average. I wasn't really interesting in anything else that happened tonight. I think going into Dest X, they didn't do the best job in hyping up the PPV. They did stress the world title match, but everything else only got a touchup. Styles and Daniels is a match that could be fun, but the storyline can really make you not care what happens. At this point, I want to see what kind of stilly stuff they can add to it. It's already silly, so why not add to the insanity? The X Division Tournament has some insight, but I didn't like the people they brought fourth tonight. They didn't make a bigger impression than Rashard and Sonjay last week, so that doesn't help the buildup. Yeah, so I have some mixed feelings going into this PPV. Then again, Slammiversary didn't have that great of a card going into it and that was awesome. Can Dest X be the same? Well, it's certainly possible. I would mostly consider this an average episode for TNA. It wasn't great, but it wasn't terrible either. At the same time, it didn't leave the best impression (Outside of the Aries/Roode and Storm/Hardy). Well, I guess we will wait and see how things turn out at the PPV, which is this weekend in case you forgot. 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.