It's a big night for Impact tonight, as Mr. Anderson defends the TNA World Championship against Jeff Hardy. But before we get to that, it's over to WGN America for WWE Superstars. My thoughts on the Thursday shows after the break!
Nice start to the show with the re-tooled Ryder and Primo. Ryder gets to go back to the work he started near the end of ECW as a serious, focused heel, and Primo gets a much-needed step up in the personality department. Them stating their purpose of trying to get to WrestleMania is good. It puts over how important that event is to EVERYONE on the roster (and even people who aren't on the roster who come in for the shot, like Diesel and Booker T.).
So much for the undefeated streak... a heck of a match nonetheless. WWE has a solid undercard. I didn't really expect Ryder and Primo to get shots at the tag team titles any time soon, but I thought they'd stay undefeated a few more weeks at least.
I half-expected/hoped to hear Triple H say "I am the chaperone, and I am THAT. DAMN. GOOD." But no dice. I don't think he's dropped that line in quite some time. I wonder if he lost weight specifically for that part or what, but he looked noticeably trimmer than in WWE. Some of that could stem from him being injured just prior to shooting that (and thus not being able to work out). Not that he needs to be insanely buff to be a good wrestler or anything. In fact, sometimes the opposite is true.
I liked heel Melina better when she didn't talk/scream as much. Just her stares and smirks were enough to be sinister. Maybe she could drop the paparazzi for now to be more stark of a contrast as a heel. (Yes, I'm aware she's been heel and kept the paparazzi in the past, but she should be more cold and evil than vain this time). Not a bad match with Tamina, who we don't often see in the ring.
I wouldn't have pictured Curt Hawkins being this impressive from his time in the Major Brothers or La Familia. The same could be said for his old partner Zack Ryder. Fine match to end the show.
I liked the the opening video package for Impact. TNA used their production techniques to do something good and unique this time.
I think I might have liked Bischoff's promo better if he didn't name-drop 3 wrestlers who aren't going to be in the They angle, and 2 of which could end up doing business with WWE. He could have just said that no one's coming to help him because Steiner didn't have any friends.
Mike Tenay sounded like an idiot repeating what Kurt Angle JUST said.
I thought tonight we were going to get the decision in the Hogan/Carter case? I wonder if that got rewritten like the They angle presumably did this week?
The Jarrett and Karen part was alright. Jeff made a good "jerk" move by making Angle's kids call him "Daddy Jeff".
I didn't really like the "Eric Young thinking they were off air" skit.
The Mr. Anderson/cameraman part wasn't bad, but felt rushed. It felt like the show was live and they only had one take or were short on time.
Bully Ray picking Pope as his new partner was kind of cool, but seemed a little random. Wait, did Ray choose him or did the match just get booked or something? Was it even scheduled to be a match in kayfabe? This part of the show came off like they suddenly realized that they needed to put some matches on the PPV and decided to rush 2 on there. Usually in a feud someone asks for a match or it's announced as booked after a confrontation. Here it was like we were already supposed to know that those matches were on the card then, despite it not being mentioned before now.
Way to randomly and suddenly involve Devon's sons. Again, normally in an angle when a family member is going to be part of angle, they're introduced beforehand. Like John Cena having his dad at ringside, then Orton singling him out. This was more like Ray said "Hey, Devon's kids happen to be in the audience tonight. How convenient!" and then spitting on them. Obviously one of my pet peeves is when characters or circumstances suddenly show up and are supposed to be important. I honestly never knew that Devon had kids before tonight.
They're already teasing a break-up with Generation Me? They've been here a year! Whichever one was on commentary cut an NXT-level promo. It's kind of hard to take that team seriously as heels with those pants and the high-flying, crowd pleasing moves.
I guess Anderson was forgiven by Angle for cutting him open with a soldier's medal less than a year ago. Anderson could have at least said that they didn't see eye to eye on much, but did want to keep the main event interference-free.
Not really a good promo with Anderson and Hardy. Anderson rambled as usual (and did his announcer gimmick on the name Green Bay twice) and Hardy sounded out of it as always. Hardy might be about the only wrestler whose Reaction promos I miss.
In some segments with cameras in the locker room, the wrestler address the camera, and other times they act like they don't know it's there or are talking off-screen. Kind of confusing. Not to mention unnecessary.
A taped fist match is ridiculously outdated, unless they say it's some special kind of tape or something. C.M. Punk tapes his fists for every match and the announcers never say that he has an unfair advantage, so why should we believe that taped fists are dangerous in TNA?
A Last Knockout Standing match is a cool concept. I'm pretty sure I've never seen one of those with two female wrestlers. Then again, I could say the same about a taped fist match. Then again, this is only the second taped fist match I can remember.
I'm almost guessing we're in for some kind of swerve for Sarita's cousin being of a different race or being huge or something. I haven't seen the indy wrestler in question though.
That was a disappointing match, mainly due to the gimmick.
And now there's dissension between Hardy and Bischoff. It's a running theme in TNA for stablemates or spouses to not get along.
I almost forgot that Jarrett and Karen were married off-screen. I guess the marriage will continue the feud with Kurt. Weddings have drawn ratings in the past, hence why we've seen so many over the years in wrestling.
SWERVE TIME! I kind of expected the Hardys to turn on the rest of Immortal for a second there, given the earlier tension between Hardy and Bischoff. This isn't really how I expected (or wanted) the They reveal to be. Wait, Crimson choked AJ out a few weeks ago, didn't he? And some of those guys fought Angle and Crimson last week didn't they? And how weird is it that Angle,Steiner, and Anderson are teamed with the people talking about building TNA and it being taken over by other wrestlers? Anderson specifically was hired in the Hogan-Bischoff regime. You can tell this was something that was re-booked because the original plan fell through.
That being said, I think they can make this work on some level. At the beginning of the Immortal angle, people wanted Fortune to face off with them in kind of a "young vs. old" feud and were let down when the two sides joined forces.
The "end game" for this storyline should still be that the less expensive, more talented wrestlers with longer shelf lives get over, since the veterans aren't going to be there as long (theoretically) unless there's a lot of money forked over.
TNA can go one of two ways with Against All Odds: throw some stuff together at the last minute that doesn't have much bearing on storylines so they can build better to the next PPV or March 3rd, or kickstart the angle with the first Fortune vs. Immortal matches. Arguments could be made for either side. Depending on court dates, I think (since there's not much time to build to a new angle 3 days before the PPV) they should just headline the event with Hardy vs, Anderson again in some sort of match that neither side can interfere in (not a cage, because Lockdown's in April and that's the big cage PPV). Or maybe make it a lumberjack match to keep check on the sides or something. I don't know... they've really booked themselves in a corner there with a big new angle and only a week to build to some matches on PPV. (They'll probably treat it somewhat like an Impact and have March 3rd be the big event).
In the end, I'm waiting to see where they go with this angle before outright condemning it as 100% dumb and unworkable. They'll presumably ignore the objections I made earlier or say that it was all a ruse on Fortune's part. We'll see where it leads in the weeks and months to come.
In the meantime, that's all for tonight's thoughts. Tomorrow will feature thoughts on Smackdown. Edge teams with Kelly Kelly to defend the World Heavyweight Championship in a Mixed Handicap match against Dolph Ziggler and Laycool.
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