TNA iMPACT Review - Thursday 28th August 2008

After a good iMPACT last week and the promise of Sting appearing on this episode people were interested to see how TNA was going to handle the storyline and so was I.

Good Points

Abyss on Karen’s Angle

Abyss delivered a great promo and finally got chance to verbalise about his return and his action as of late, it also explained what was going on during his absence. It was a master class of character work in wrestling. Abyss should be given more time on the mic to voice his character as I fell it would get the fans back in to him again.

Knockouts Division

The Knockouts division really held this show together with Awesome Kong kicking the show off with a win against an unknown which forced ODB in to make a save which she backed up with an awesome promo later. We then had another excellent Beautiful People promo and finally a win for the pairing over Roxi and Taylor Wilde. If this wasn’t enough we learnt that Traci Brooks has been assigned by Cornette to run the division which should make things interesting as they get their very own GM style character.

Tying up loose ends

I always like it when promotions remember about loose ends and go back to them which is what TNA did here with Nash cashing in his favour for helping our Cornette many, many iMPACT’s ago and getting himself a shot at Angle. This shows great writing and gives people a reason to watch every week as they get a better understanding of why things are happening.

Bad Points

Sting's lack of impact

After watching Undertaker’s promo on Smackdown Sting’s big promo at the end of iMPACT wasn’t even close. Sting started spouting his message of how the new guys need to respect the old guys which we expected he would but it is a tired storyline idea and a flawed one at that. Sting claimed that AJ needed to pay his dues to the legends that paved the way where in fact he has been with TNA since the start and when comparing him with Angle as he has only been in the business just over 10 years I am sure AJ was getting in to wrestling before Angle came on the scene.

SoCal story line

This is ridiculous soap opera writing at the moment with the latest idea being that Jay Lethal and Sonjay Dutt as going to wrestle for a ring and whoever gets it will marry So Cal. It’s storylines like this which get wrestling a bad rep.

Team 3D

This week their role was reduced just to comedy heels and as a side part of a Booker T promo. Normally they at least get a match or a chance to do something which backstage makes them seem like heel team and not just goofballs.

Overall

After all the build up not enough substance. It’s not going to happen but they need to push Abyss back to main event. Instead we are going to see a new school, old school feud over the next months with I’m sure some surprising heel or face turns.