Hello! It's another Impact Review- I'm running out of witty comments to do in these Intro Paragraphs! Anyway, we were coming off the back of Destination X with the main goal now being to sell Slammiversary and the Title Match between Angle and EC3- Wait, The Hyped Title Match isn't at the PPV? GODAMMIT, WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS COMPANY?! I was actually reasonably excited for Slammiversary in the last few weeks- now as far as I can tell the Title isn't even going to be defended at the PPV I'm not even sure if I'm going to watch it- Oh Wait, there's a King of the Mountain Match, one of the most overbooked messes of a match there's possible to be so all is forgiven.
I saw a lot of people say the reason for them doing the Title match (and hopefully Title Switch) on TV is so more people see it because TNA PPVs never really do good business. Which is stupid because a Hyped Title Match for a PPV will in turn lead to buys- and more money than they would get for airing it for free to more viewers. It reminds me somewhat of the WCW Clashes- and they rightly phased them out because even if less people watched the PPVs they'd make more money from them.
Anyway, that's my piece said on it all- so let's move on to Last Night as opposed to talking about WCW's Clash of the Champions.
EC3 & Angle Contract Signing
This was pretty good in a "Let's Hype the Match" kind of way and it did a good job of setting the whole story up in a "If you haven't watched us before you're up to date" way. It didn't do much else for me though- but the sort of "Pick your Poison" angle they went down for this week and next is interesting, I haven't read the Spoilers but I'd assume it'll be Tyrus v Angle next week and EC3 v Lashley was a guaranteed quality match.
Eddie Edwards v Bobby Roode
Firstly, I know Roode & Aries are Dirty Heels- but did anyone for a second believe the whole "Aries isn't there thing" I just thought they were setting it up for Roode to win so when the Dirty Heels get the win next week it was on their own terms and doesn't make The Wolves look stupid to an extent. The actual match itself was alright- if not anything special, there's still some work to be done for the Wolves to be seen as individual wrestlers as opposed to a Tag Team and Eddie & Davey to become individual draws. It also annoys me to an extent that they picked Full Metal Mayhem- I mean don't get me wrong it'll be a quality match; but they were wrestling for a huge advantage and then they picked a match that doesn't really favour them, I know they're babyfaces but pick a stipulation that means Roode is Blindfolded or something, because that's sure as hell what the Dirty Heels would have done. Maybe I'm thinking too much.
Bram v Joseph Park
I think they took the attitude of "Well it happened over a year ago, there's no way they'll remember that" when it comes to the whole Joseph Park is Abyss angle they did with EY- even if it's just a one off appearance they didn't give any logical explanation as to why he was suddenly Joseph Park again and that annoyed me, he just showed up in the Backstage Promo with JB looking like Penn Jillette.
I am still interested to see where this whole Bram calling out old TNA "favourites" goes- but I'd like to see more logical and/or surprising returns. If they do Abyss next week on the other hand I may need to extend my Clap Therapy to Wednesday Nights. That said the actual match was pretty good and suitably violent given the lack of build and time constraints. I was saying before my Impact Reviews broke off when they moved to Fridays that Bram is one of the guys TNA can move forward long-term with, and while that Long-Term future is in doubt if there is one Bram, EC3 and Magnus will be the 3 Guys.
Taryn Terrell Backstage Promo
I'm blowing hot and cold with Taryn as a Heel- and this week it was sort of in the middle, I don't think she's fully worked out what she wants her character to be yet and that translates across.
Brooke & Kong v The Dollhouse
I said this last night and someone responded that she can actually wrestle- but I've been really underwhelmed by Mia Yim or Jade in her TNA run, the whole Dollhouse thing started off being quite creepy with their vignettes now it just feels quite stupid. I missed the first minute or so of this match because the guy who was hosting the Stream dubbed Taryn's old "Hot Mess" theme over Doll Parts which had me in hysterics. I said it last night as well, to me the whole Doll Parts thing is just Corgan giving one of his friends a Royalty Cheque because it doesn't even fit with the vibe the Dollhouse give off. Anyway, the match was pretty underwhelming as a whole which I think pretty much sums up the Knockouts division as a whole at the minute.
Eric Young and Chris Melendez Promos
I really liked the EY Promo from last night, and I mean really liked it. It had just enough truth in the Promo to the point where you believed and bought into what he saying- but also played up his Heel role and bad intentions perfectly. I'm interested to see the sort of match EY can get out of Melendez because I said right when Melendez debuted I don't really care that he's a Soldier and a War Hero if he can't really wrestle and I've yet to be convinced by Melendez from an In-Ring standpoint yet but if anyone can get a good match out of him it is EY and hopefully the way they've build this feud will mean the onus won't be on Melendez to "wrestle" as opposed to brawl which I think will work in his favour.
Jessie Godderz v DJ Z
I know we're still in the relative infancy of this feud, but what reason do we have to cheer Robbie E? He's been an annoying heel for pretty much the entirety of his TNA run- then he gets turned on by Jessie and then he shows up one week gets his revenge and suddenly he's a Babyface? I'm not sure if they're angling for a Triple Threat or a Handicap Match or just a Jessie v Robbie Match but there's still a bit of a way to go before I get on board with it.
Magnus & James Storm
Fair Play to these guys for trying to make this angle work- but in the words someone who I equally despise as much as this angle- I wish this Angle had Died in the Womb. The actual segment in and of itself was pretty good, they told a good story and played up the motivations of each character well0 but in the back of your head you just had that image of Mickie being pushed onto the Train Track and that instantly took the segment down about a 100 Notches. But hey bringing the Baby into it let me make a Snitsky joke so all is forgiven.
EC3 v Lashley
I sort of found this match unintentionally hilarious because of the Tyrus shenanigans. Just the way the 2nd and especially 3rd Refs looked so surprised when Tyrus went after them. The actual match itself was pretty good- but surely they could have thought of a better way to protect Lashley and still have EC3 go over than overbooking the whole thing to the extent they did. But as I say the actual match once you strip back all the shenanigans was pretty good for what is was and role on next week with Angle.
I'm sort of on the fence about this Impact, it had as many positives as it did negatives- so I'm just going to get Splinters and sit on the fence. But hey, EC3 tweeted me last night- he is after all very good.
Thanks for reading as always, as I said I'm not even sure if I can be bothered to watch Slammiversary now- so if you just come here for the TNA posts you may be disappointed, but I'm sure by June 28th I'll have come around to the idea- especially with it being on TV in the UK for once. Anyway, thanks again for reading- I'm half hoping/half aiming to get a booking post out tomorrow but there's a lot of weird stuff going on at the minute so I may have to put that on the Back-Burner for this week. Anyway, at the latest I'll be back with a RAW Review, so stay tuned for that at the least and thanks again for reading.
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