With Lockdown in our rearview mirror, a new direction was dawning for TNA...........errr Impact Wrestling. Well, at least that's what Mick Foley said.
Objectively, it doesn't seemed like too much has changed.....yet. Yes, there have been some debuts and returns in the past few weeks, but that is status quo for the way TNA does business. What Mick Foley is talking about is an entire rebranding of the product. Now renamed Impact Wrestling, changes should be afoot, but this Pay Per View comes just days after the announcement. Thus, we're still talking about a Pay Per View in the "old" mold.
Still, most of the main storylines that should have ended at Lockdown were still going into this show. Did this show end those stories? Well, not really. Let's see what exactly this show accomplished:
Mexican America vs. Ink Inc. - I'm not sure what the point of this was. The mohawked punks got to look like American heroes for about a week, only to fall at the hands of the walking stereotypes. I get that this is a group TNA wants to push, but to halt a heel turn on Shannon Moore's part only to job out makes no sense at all. If anything, Jesse Neal could have challenged them alone given his military background, and he could have found someone else to team with him that wouldn't have essentially thrown out a month's worth of backstory. The other problem here is that Mexican America really doesn't have a purpose. Are they going to try and obtain gold? rule TNA? what are they going to do? I suggest giving them direction soon, because they are already starting to get pointless.
Brian Kendrick vs. Robbie E. - No, I'm not going to criticize this for being thrown on the card last minute. Actually, I find it better than the previous match and serving more purpose. There will be some sort of X-Division story moving forward and while I don't know which direction the company will go with it yet, Kendrick's promo indicates that he will be a major part of it. Thus, him getting the win makes sense and I hope it leads to bigger things for him. Of all the X-Division guys, he's most certainly the one that's underutilized as he's proven the ability to get over while in WWE. Given the same opportunity, I think he can do it in TNA.
Knockouts Championship: Mickie James(c) vs. Madison Rayne - I hated this. There could not have been a more obvious ending from the get-go on this one, yet TNA still tried to convince us that there was a swerve. Really? Tara has hated Madison for months but was working for her. This was her out and you knew she'd take it. To be honest, I hated that it was part of the stipulation because Mickie beat Madison on her own just fine last month and didn't need Tara's help to do it again. It made the result incredibly obvious despite Tara teasing hitting Mickie instead of Madison. Honestly, would anyone have bought it if she did that? Just stupid all around, and they wonder why the knockouts division, despite having some talent, is incredibly pathetic at this point.
X-Division Championship: Kazarian(c) vs. Max Buck - There wasn't much build to this one, so it made sense for Kazarian to keep the belt here. Buck is part of the X-Division protesters so he might have something bigger on his plate moving forward, but at this point, there wasn't much put into this match. It was just kind of there, so I have to question the booking going in. I'll certainly rescind that if Max Buck's role grows and this match somehow plays into the bigger plan, but I somehow doubt it. I'm still intrigued by this X-Division story, but I'm cautiously pessimistic on its execution. That's the problem with TNA Pay Per Views though. Often times, half the matches on the card really don't have much of a purpose.
Abyss vs. Crimson - While I hate the idea of marketing an "undefeated streak" when the guy has had under a handful of matches, at least do it right! This guy is their Goldberg, or so they want him to be, so at least make him look that way. Goldberg won most of his early matches in utter squashes and when he finally started getting competition, he continued to look incredibly dominant. Now, this match made sense as Crimson put Janice in Abyss' back, but Abyss needed to do a better job of putting Crimson over. Since TNA lets competitors kick out of finishers on most Impacts (a fact that I hate), why not have Crimson kick out of the Black Hole Slam? It's either that or have him take even less offense from Abyss. It's a minor complaint, but I think it's valid. Other than that, I was much happier with Crimson here as I've been down on him lately in a major way. This guy needs to show me more moving forward and this is a good start at least.
Tag Team Championship: Beer Money(c) vs. Matt Hardy & Chris Harris - I am withholding my judgment on this one. If it goes to plan and Chris Harris eventually teams with James Storm while Bobby Roode moves to singles competition, all will be well. That is the payoff I'm looking for with Chris Harris returning to TNA. If that doesn't happen, I see no reason for bringing him back. He's not any better than anyone else as a singles competitor, he doesn't need to team randomly with Matt Hardy all the time, and he's out of shape and looks terrible to begin with. Teaming with Storm is where he belongs and I hope that's the direction this goes. As for this match, I thought that team might start here but they held off. I'm ok with that for now, but not for too much longer.
Tommy Dreamer vs. AJ Styles - Take a wild guess as to how I'm going to feel about this one. Seriously, go ahead! Yep, I hated it. Why Tommy Dreamer has two pinfalls over AJ Styles in the past calendar year, I'll never know. Maybe Eric Bischoff sees Styles as a less charismatic Chris Jericho and since he never saw anything in that guy, he figures Styles can't sell tickets either. I really don't get it. Now, I do get that this should add heat to the Styles/Bully Ray feud, but by putting this match on, interest in that feud has actually gone down. You needed the payoff for that here, not some bullcrap with Tommy Dreamer. Bully Ray is the Bossman of Immortal. Thus, he's there to act tough and job to the stars. Yes, AJ Styles is a star and he should have gone over Bully Ray here. Either that or you do the Dreamer turn HERE. Then, you push that story for the next month while Styles figures out how to counter it so he can beat Ray at the next show. No one wants to see Dreamer vs. Styles and more importantly, no one wants to see Dreamer BEAT Styles. This wasn't good and I will never understand the logic behind doing it.
Jeff Jarrett and Karen Jarrett vs. Kurt Angle and Chyne - This worked just fine for me. It's still part of the feud that never ends, but at least they booked it properly. This was exactly what needed to happen and hopefully Angle and Jarrett can have their blowoff next month without the women so we can move on with our lives. Karen was the thorn, Chyna took care of the thorn, end of story. I'm satisfied. NOW DO SOMETHING ELSE!
TNA Championship: Sting(c) vs. Rob Van Dam - So here is where I feel the main problem with this company lies. Your champion cannot go more than 7 minutes in the ring. Why is that problematic? Main events are why people buy shows. That's your headline and the reason people should throw down money. Why do you think we made such a huge stink over Jeff Hardy's stupidity a couple of months ago? If he did that in the opening contest, it wouldn't have been as big a deal, trust me. The point is that your main event needs to be and feel important. Any match with Sting doesn't because he simply can't go that long anymore. I like Sting, but he needs to be in matches a few down the card while guys who can back up solid feuds work at the top of the card. It's a tough reality, much like the one athletes face when they simply can't do it anymore, but this is Sting's fate. His best days are behind him and unless he finds the fountain of youth, I think his main event days are behind him. It's a little embarassing and not a way to close the show. Unfortunately, his next challenger is Mr. Anderson so I'm not sure that I want him to lose to that idiot, but it has to happen sooner rather than later.
While this show didn't do anything special, it wasn't awful either. There were a few questionable booking calls, but nothing that should linger moving forward. I'm intrigued by the X-Division story and I'm excited to see the Angle/Jarrett feud finally end, I hope. It's also good to see Mr. Anderson getting his one on one title shot because it might lead to him whining a lot less. That would make me very happy. Overall, this was a filler show and felt like one. I'm hoping this "wrestling matters" direction they are going in means better Pay Per Views moving forward. Only time will tell.
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