TNA Impact Review - Thursday 14th February 2008

In all the hoopla surrounding No Way Out I forgot to give you my opinion on last week’s Impact. The weekly wrestling shows which are just before or just after a PPV are usually the best and this episode didn’t fail to disappoint.

The one thing that TNA did well through the two hour show was to give the show an unpredictability factor. The WWE recently asked fans attending live shows to fill out some surveys and the thing that fans mentioned the most was how they liked it when things happen which were unpredictable and that seemed spontaneous.

Throughout the show we had moments of craziness backstage with Kurt trying to sort out his ceremony to renew his wedding vows, Booker T waiting for Bobby Roode to turn up so he could continue their feud and Christian Cage getting knocked out backstage. This was matched by some great in ring segments including Samoa Joe’s contract signing and Kurt Angle’s interference to help his Angle Alliance. Nothing however could top the last segment of the show with Kurt and Karen’s ceremony to renew their wedding vows.

Now wrestling fans across the globe usually hate segments like these that turn wrestling more in to a soap opera and don’t concentrate on the wrestling side of things but I think segments like these are great and really help get the casual TV viewer interested. Yes it may have been cringe worthy, yes the priest must have been the worst actor in the world and yes the storyline is not in the slightest bit believable but it creates a spectacle. If they did things like this every week on the TV shows then they would be highly frustrating but when used correctly they can help make a show entertaining and create some memorable moments. Like in the WWE many of the memorable Raw moments don’t involve any wrestling like Steve Austin and the Beer Truck which everyone remembers.

The thing TNA needs to work on is how to keep the storyline ideas going whilst incorporating matches which fit with the non wrestling segments and to not have too many storylines in one show as I felt the Eric Young segments were unneeded and just took away from everything else which was going on. The one other thing I hate is when promotions put on the same matches that were on their PPV the week after on TV. Yes you need to continue storylines but to put them in another match straight away I feel takes away from their PPV match as they are normally not up to the same standard.

So overall the positives out way the negatives and I thought it was a great show to transition us from Against All odds and get us on the road to Destination X.