TNA iMPACT Review - Thursday 3rd July 2008

After an average iMPACT last week and with WWE starting to pick up TNA need to start working hard again. With Victory Road getting closer some more matches need to be made for it and soon to give them enough time to build them correctly.

Good Points

Finally Samoa Joe has match on iMPACT as he partnered with Kevin Nash against Robert Roode and James Storm in the main event. It was also good to see Roode and Storm in a main event and was one of the best main event matches for a little while on iMPACT.

Great match made for Victory Road

With Angle injured the TNA are doing well to keep him around this time putting him in to a six man tag match at Victory Road as he partners with Team 3D to take on Rhino, Christian Cage and AJ Styles. This has the potential to be match of the night although it will be AJ’s team who will have to do most of the work.

Bad Points

Angle loses intensity and credibility

After being involved in some tense stuff with AJ Kurt has now been withdrawn in to a comedy role. The show had many segments with Angle from during the week where he had been set up on dates by Team 3D. This made all the previous weeks of building his intensity worthless.

Booker T

For someone who is suppose to be in a PPV main event to only have one backstage interview during the show with less than two weeks to go before the PPV is crazy. This makes even less sense than not having Samoa Joe wrestle on a regular basis.

No build for Two PPV matches

Tonight there was no build for Jay Lethal vs. Sonjay Dutt after TNA finally gave Sonjay Dutt some good TV time last week. We also saw no build for LAX vs. Roode and Storm except for a backstage LAX promo.

Overall

A terrible mess I don’t know who wrote this nightmare of a show. Probably the same person who was directing as some of the camera angles were shocking.

TNA iMPACT Review - Thursday 12th June 2008

After a mediocre at best Slammiversary it was time to see if TNA could deliver with a strong iMPACT.

Good Points

Great build for tag team feud

TNA did a great job of building a feud between the team or Roode & Storm and LAX. First Storm and Roode cheated to get the win and the belts then the ref reversed the decision and started the match over. Then LAX picked up the win but it was after that when Roode and Storm got LAX handcuffed to the ring posts and started strapping them mercilessly which has put the real fuel on this fire.

Good develop of the Karen / Kurt storyline

Karen was confirmed as a signed talent to TNA meaning Kurt Angle could no longer hit her. This meant that Kurt was going to get a female wrestler to do his dirty work for him. It wasn’t until the end of the show that with surprise Awesome Kong cam down to knock Karen out. Wonder what’s going to happen next?

Abyss is back on iMPACT

Great to see Abyss back on iMPACT and after beating on Scott Steiner at the PPV I assumed he would stuck in a feud with Scott but Abyss made his presence felt on the main event scene as he cleared house after the AJ vs Angle main event.

Bad Points

Build up for World Cup

There was a big too much time given to the upcoming X-Division tournament with many wrestlers featuring in preview matches for the tournament that the crowd had never seen. This as a viewer took you out of the action for lengthy spots during the two hour show. I know they have to build it but should build more steadily over a longer period.

Dropping the ball with Kaz

After having Kazz win in the best match on iMPACT last week to secure a shot at the champion on iMPACT this week I was disappointed to se this match out first. They should have main evented this match an made it something special so they could push Kaz. With so much going on in TNA right now I think Kaz just got lost in the shuffle.

Overall

A superb show. I love the pace of TNA shows they always have me feverishly scribbling notes in order to keep up. They’ve got some good feuds already set for the next PPV so am looking forward to see how they develop.

TNA Lockdown Review

Sunday night was a night for TNA to make history after one of the biggest builds to a match in TNA history it was time for Samoa Joe to put his career on the line against Kurt Angle for the chance to become TNA Heavyweight champion. The card also featured a stack Lethal Lockdown match and an array of other matches in the only PPV of the year promoted by any wrestling company where all matches take place inside the six sides of steel.

Good Points

Push for Johnny Devine

After months of being Team 3D’s sidekick finally Johnny Devine was given a push on his own after a strong showing in the Xscape match. Although Lethal won I thought they built Johnny well as a new opponent for him and Consequences Creed didn’t have a bad outing either so wll done to TNA for freshening up the X-Division.

Knockouts back on track

After being bored in recent months by the Knockouts division they did good at Lockdown. First we had a big win for Roxxi Laveaux in the Queen of the Cage match which establishes her as a worthy contender for the Women’s title. Then we had Awesome Kong in a match that she didn’t win as Gail Kim and ODB got the win over Kong and Saeed. They used Saeed well in this match to keep Kong strong even though she lost. To cap it all off Peyton Banks and Sharmell were used brilliantly to add to the match between Booker T and Robert Roode.

A good Lethal Lockdown match

After no build throughout the event and a stacked card for this one I thought TNA did a poor job of selling it but the guys in the cage forgot about all that and put on a great match ending with a big push for Rhino as he secured the victory for Team Cage.

The Reign of Joe

After months of Angle on top Lockdown marked the beginning of the era of Samoa Joe as he won the TNA Heavyweight title. TNA have done this brilliantly as if you are going to give someone the belt for it to mean something you have to build it well and get people interested an watching. Thanks to TNA booking Samoa Joe has been given an excellent platform to start his reign. The match in itself was very unique with it looking more like a UFC fight that a wrestling match. I’m not too sure how I feel about this as if I want to watch some MMA I will watch UFC I watch TNA to watch wrestling but it was good to see something so different and TNA trying something new to cash in on the popularity of MMA.

Bad Points

BG James vs. Kip James

After all the build TNA gave to this one and what this match could have been I was left feeling very disappointed by this one. Again it turned in to a Booker T / Robert Roode situation where the storyline is full of intensity but when they actually get in the ring the match is as intense as an old age pensioner’s will to win at bingo.

No Standouts

Yes there were some nice matches at Lockdown but it seemed like they were only interested in making the main event a standout which is a shame. Yes the main event should be the best match on the card but in a three hour show you need a couple more stand out matches to keep your energy and excitement up until the main event starts.

Again problems with production

After finally starting to get to grips with how to produce a good opening video it was back to square one at Lockdown. Tonight we were greeted by an over the top voice over and a selection of clips which were useless as it was hard to keep a track of who was who. This wasn’t the only downside to the production as after the opening video we had a return to early 90s WWF style of wrestling coverage with the commentators going in to the crowd to get their thoughts on the Samoa Joe / Angle match. Worse than all this though was again camera shot selections. To help the camera men out there were bi holes cut in to the six side of steel but the art of good production is doing this without the audience at home knowing you have done it. They kept picking shots which had cameramen zooming in and out of these gaping holes which were clear for everyone to see but if they had only picked shots when the cameramen had shots which didn’t show the hole and picked a new shot before they had zoomed out.

Overall

This won’t get down as the best wrestling pay per view ever as it wasn’t but it may go down as one of the most historical of all time.

TNA iMPACT Review - Thursday 27th March 2008

In all the hullabuloo of Wrestlemania week TNA were this week trying to make an impact of their own with a live show instead of a pre-record and the much hyped return of Sting.

Good Points

Go live every week

A live iMPACT had a much better feel to it than their pre-record broadcasts they usually put out every week. I know it’s more risky and more costly to go live but for the viewer it adds an edge to a show. There were a few mistakes with bad camera shots and so forth but the positives far outweighed the negatives.

Unpredictability

The show kicked off with a shot of Booker T and Robert Roode fighting through the crowd. Its an unusual move to a start show mid action but I thought it was different and added an edge to the show. The viewers who were tuning in to the show for the first time may not have been able to follow what was happening to begin with but as it was exciting it will have encouraged them to get in to the show and as it happens the situation was explained straight after through Jim Cornette.

Highlighting a WWE contracted wrestler in the crowd

This was a great move by the TNA to do a shot with a strap over the bottom of one half of the WWE Highlanders tag team who was in the crowd. Although he didn’t wrestle it gave the feel of the Monday Night Wars again when wrestlers showed up on other promotions shows after making the switch.

Great use of Sting

Was a great comeback by Sting strong on the mic and strong in the main event. Was a nice twist to see his return overshadowed by James Storm who interfered after the 8 man Lethal Lockdown warm up match for Team Tomko to lay the beat on Team Cage.

Bad Points

Terrible acting by Karen Angle

I never thought I would have a bad word to say about Karen but this week she got exposed. In a one on one backstage interview with Mike Tenay she put over the fact that her marriage had fallen apart. Getting a storyline like this right is very hard and unfortunately Karen fell in to the over acting category. Karen needs other characters to work off and constructed situations not backstage one on one interviews.

Giving away PPV matches for free

It’s the old WCW trap of giving away PPV matches for free which TNA fell in to this week. They had the Lethal Lockdown match just minus the six sides of steel as the main event. In my opinion once you have a match in place for a PPV you shouldn’t give away that match for free on TV. You should build the feud by getting the competitors to compete against each other but in different ways like they could have broken down the eight man tag in to two tag team matches, that’s what I have would have done.

Booker T – Hot and Cold

The first five minutes of iMPACT was intense with Booker T and Robert Roode fighting through the crowd. Jim Cornette announced a match to take place later on in the evening between the two which turned out to be a first blood match. Before the match Roode cut a promo on how he enjoyed beating on Booker’s wife but instead of adding intensity Booker T then after winning the math proceeded to hit Roode a few more times before the ref dragged him off. If someone had said that about your wife you would normally need security to pull you off. It is hard to maintain intensity for a long period of weeks but they need to wok hard to be consistent.

Knockouts Division getting stale

It’s just seems to be Awesome Kong, O.D.B and Gail Kim just revolving around the same match and the same storyline every week. They need a more entertaining storyline than just a simple we want your title storyline and they need time given to other girls in the division.

Who can understand what TNA are doing with LAX

After one member of LAX losing to Sonjay Dutt last week it was LAX’s turn to beat Steiner, Petey Williams and Raka Khan in a six person tag. So Lax lose to someone who is just there for comedy value but this week beat a team who are on a push and have storyline time it makes no sense.

Overall

Although there were a lot of bad points going live made this an entertaining show and without it would have just been remembered as a booking mess. A combination of going live every week and good booking will get this promotion to where it needs to go.

TNA Destination X Review

Last Sunday saw TNA putting on their monthly offering but this time not from the Impact zone but from the Scope in Norfolk Virginia. I can’t wait until all TNA PPV’s are done from arenas which aren’t the Impact zone as I think it makes the PPV’s that much more special. Having a PPV from the same venue as your produce TV just gives the show a TV feel and not something special or worth paying money for.

Now going in to this I didn’t think much of the card but it is normally the events where I don’t expect much of the card that I go home enjoying the most so I went in with some hope. So with some hope inside of me this is what I thought of how it all went down.

Opening Video

I thought this was a lot better than TNA’s previous efforts with a simple but effective video. With some of the crazy videos they have put together with random footage and even more random ideas this video looked brilliant. Speaking of videos though they need to improve their videos that they put together to promo individual matches. On these videos they need to cut back on the amount of voiceovers they use and let the footage and the audio from commentators to tell the stories.

Highspots

Highspots have a place on a pay per view card and I think a match with some nice highspots is a good way to kick off a card and TNA did this with the three way tag match. The match was well executed and it was good to see LAX getting the win to re-establish themselves in the tag team scene. However with highspot matches you have to be careful not to over do them and put them back to back which is what we had with Destination X as the three way tag team match followed by the X-Division title match. The matches were that similar that they both featured a release powerbomb which isn’t the most commonly used move.

SoCal Val

The match between Jay Lethal and Petey Williams was instantly forgettable but the match did great things to develop SoCal Val’s character as Jay Lethal’s girlfriend. Being a face character and the partner of a face character she is expected to behave and act in a certain way. What they did at Destination X was interesting though as when Jay Lethal was pushed off the top rope by Scott Steiner and was about to be pinned Val took it upon herself to pull the referee to stop him from making the count. I know good guy wrestlers have done acts like this before but I thought it was interesting for a face female valet to do this.

Eric Young the Superhero

As expected Eric Young made his metamorphosis in to a superhero during his bout tagging with Kaz against Rellik and Black Reign. Now it is good in wrestling for the fans to be able to predict some of the things that are going to happen as people will tune in to see if they were right but I think Eric Young has been poorly handled in this one. Eric Young has been on a huge push over the last year in TNA I thought it would have made more sense in the long run to use this match for Eric young to finally show some courage and stand up against the monsters not to be put in a stupid costume and to then hit the ring with limited or little effect. Now if he turned in to a super hero with a good costume and hit the ring and made a huge impact then it would have at least given him something big to build on.

Fish Market Madness

Ok I like a bit of comedy in a wrestling show but you have to be careful that comedy doesn’t turn to look stupid and cringe worthy which is what happened in this match. I don’t think Team 3D, Curry Man or Fish Boy came out of the match with any credibility left. The great thing with wrestling is that moments like these are soon forgotten in the minds of wrestling fans so this match won’t have any long lasting affects on the combatants.

Knockouts not a knockout this month

Now you know I usually rave about the women’s division but I didn’t think it was up to it’s usual high standard at Destination X. It may just be that my expectations have got too high now with the Knockouts division but I hope they continue to try and raise the bar and not have too many outings like this one.

Robert Roode / Booker T

For a match with so much build and storyline for it only to go ten minutes and for those to be the least intense ten minutes of a strap match I have ever seen is very poor. It wasn’t until after the match that the intensity happened and that was thanks to Traci Brooks selling the lashes she received and then by Sharmell making her comeback b strapping everyone insight from security to James Cornette. Roode and Booker need to take a leaf out of the books of these two women when it comes to intensity.

Rhino vs Cowboy James Storm – Who came up with the idea for Elevation X?

I was not looking forward to this match on the card and it lived up to my low expectations. Normally the thing you can look forward to in these type of matches his a big bump at the end and after some time spent balancing above the ring James Storm finally climbed down as low as he could before he was finally pushed off by Rhino for an unexciting bump.

Does a six man work as a main event?

I for one am not a fan of having tag matches or six ways which aren’t for titles as main events. These type of matches have been used as main events for many TNA events and I don’t think many of them have worked. To get people to buy a PPV you need a strong main event which has a clear storyline and one person people want to see win and one they want to see lose. Now you knew Samoa Joe was going to get the win as they needed to push him for his title shot but to give him a great push they needed to have him pin Kurt Angle to put the thought in the fans mind that he can beat Angle. It made no sense for him to beat Tomko especially with what they could be planning to do with Tomko as this ending just made him look like the weakest link and not a possible future headline star.

Overall

There were no standout moments or standout matches that will live long in the memory. The show was well produced from a TV point of view but now they have that looking good they need to work on the content.

TNA Impact Review - Thursday 6th March 2008

I was expecting big things this week from Impact as it was there last TV show before Destination X. However as usual what I watched was a bit of a mixed bag with some good and bad points.

Tomko

The show opened strong with a good Angle Alliance promo which continued to paint Tomko as an outsider with in the Alliance and getting ready to leave Angle’s group. Then later in the show they built him with a victory over Samoa Joe which is no small thing. Tomko is getting pushed to the moon at the moment, it will be interesting to see what he does when he is given more higher profile single matches.

Robert Roode

Robert is doing a great job getting heat from the fans as he got one of the loudest reactions of the night when the fans booed him out of the building. The only problem then came when he had a pull apart with Booker T as for two people that supposedly hate each other it was one of the least intense pull aparts I have seen in some time.

Too many parodies and mimics

Now I find Jay Lethal’s mimicking of Randy Savage funny and entertaining but the reason it works is that it is different to what everyone else is doing. Now Sharkboy is doing a parody of the Stone Cold character I find myself getting annoyed by both of them. On a weekly TV show you are trying to attract casual non wrestling fans to tune in to your show so you want to give them an entertaining yet easy to understand programme. Even some of mimics may be lost of wrestling fans who have only just got in to wrestling so I think TNA needs to start being a bit more creative.

Production

Again I’m still seeing shots with other cameras in shot. Worse than this I am seeing some of the most non fluid camera movements. First off the vision mixer shouldn’t pick a shot until its ready and then when the cameraman is live they need to learn not to panic and jerk the shot all over the place.

Are we excited or ready for the PPV?

I didn’t think Impact did enough to get us excited about Destination X. The unclear ending the Angle vs. Cage match and the fact the show went off air during mid action I don’t think gave us a clear stand out memory to get us pumped for the weekend. There was too much focus on matches which shouldn’t have been the top highlighted matches. More time should have been given to develop the X-Division title match, Rhino vs. James Storm and Booker T vs. Roode instead of focusing on the women’s title match, the Fish Street Market fight and the monsters tag match.

TNA Impact Review - Thursday 28th February 2008

The show got off to a great start with a backstage segment featuring the continuing breakdown of Karen and Kurt Angle’s marriage. Kurt is really doing well at trying to make himself the top heel in the promotion which is hard for him considering how many fans he has. The first in ring segment was the right storyline to push next which was the Booker T / Robert Roode feud. Unfortunately though after Booker T called Robert out it was Payton banks that made her way down to ringside to slap Booker with Traci Brooks making the save. It was a good idea to build the Booker T can’t hit a woman like Robert Roode side of the storyline but it was poorly executed with the segment leaving the focus on the girls and no Booker & Roode.

I’m loving the 3D weight loss storyline at the moment. At first I was annoyed with their invasion in to the X-Division but now that they are away from the title and playing comedy heels instead of angry heels it works a lot better. Their out of ring segments which follow them trying to lose weight backstage and during the week are hilarious.

The two storylines which I’m not in to at the moment are the Eric Young monsters angle and the James Storm / Rhino feud. I think the Eric young being scared of Rellik and Black Reign storyline could get interesting if he decides to take on a superhero alter-ego but if not done right could look very bad. With the James Storm / Rhino storyline I am not buying James Storm’s work. What should be an intense feud has got too much comedy in it with Storm’s fear of heights and his drinking championship matches whereas Rhino is playing this feud with the intensity its back story deserves.

After the poor start to the continuation to the Booker T / Robert Roode feud it ended well on the night with Robert Roode finally making getting inside the venue. At first this didn’t make any sense as he had been running from Booker T for the last couple of weeks as a villain should so to actually come to the venue made no sense for me. The ending was superb though with Robert Roode handcuffing Booker T and laying a beat down in the ring on him until security broke it up. The only problem with this intense finish is that thy need to continue at this same level of intensity up until their PPV match or this night will be lost.

The main event wasn’t much to write home about. What Nash is doing in a main event I will never know but at least it was a non title bout with Kurt. So overall a solid outing with nothing spectacular for TNA this week.

TNA Impact Review - Thursday 21st February 2008

TNA proved to this week on Impact that consistency is not their strong point when it comes to booking and creative direction of their shows.

Last week I praised TNA for the unpredictable nature of their show but this week unpredictability proved to be their downfall. Unpredictability only works when it makes sense in the storyline and for the individual characters. When we have swerves and character turns they only work and make sense if there is some build up to it. 

This week Impact kicked off with Kip James turning on BJ James and Bob Armstrong and costing them their chance of winning the tag titles from Styles and Tomko. There was no build up to this and no back story to it, the only thing TNA could do to make sense of it was to give Kip James promo time after the match but this incoherent ramble of a promo did nothing to build this storyline or to explain his actions to the fans.

This aside TNA are starting to push the right talent and about time to. AJ Styles has got a good storyline which may eventually lead to an AJ / Angle feud which would be awesome and would free up Tomko to work with Christian. Booker T was booked in the main event against Angle which may have made no sense but it is good to see Booker being booked in the main event even if it is only on Impact and they used it well to build up his PPV match with Robert Roode. Then finally we had the continuing push of Black Machismo Jay Lethal who again got a good amount of TV time for an in ring segment developing his relationship with Val and building up his character.

It was good to see that the Dudley Boys have moved on to other feuds away from the X-Division championship as I for one can’t wait to see the return of the high flying X-Division style of matches we have come accustom to.

TNA  are trying to make their shows feel different to WWE shows with the handycam style footage of happenings that go on outside the venue like this week it was Karen Angle and AJ Styles on their supposed honeymoon. I’m not too sure if I like this as I am so use to the WWE style of filming outside happenings but I do like to see companies trying to be different and original.

All in all a good show and we now have some more confirmed matches for Destination X with Petey Williams winning a shot at the X-Division title and the Booker T vs. Robert Roode match. This is one area that TNA has to improve on as it needs to get it’s PPV matches and feuds announced and set in stone as early as possible to build a great PPV that people are interested in.