TNA iMPACT Review - Thursday 31st July 2008

After an above average iMPACT last week with some great storylines and PPV style matches I was very much looking forward to seeing this weeks offering.

Good Points

Use of the Sting storyline

The creative team are doing a great job with the Sting storyline. They are building the suspense for Sting’s in ring return and putting up more questions than answers which always keeps a wrestling fan hooked. The other thing they are doing well is branching storylines off the whole thing of the lights going off as now off the back of it we have the Samoa Joe feud with Sting and more heat to the AJ / Kurt Angle feud.

Matt Morgan has a feud

Matt Morgan has been given a great feud to prove himself with as he has been put in a programme with Tomko. Many people had Tomko down to be a breakout star this year so will be interesting to see how this one goes. I have at terrible feeling that a PPV match between the two would suck though as their styles are too similar.

Kaz leaves TNA is it a work or a shoot

If you have been reading the internet as of late you would have heard that Kaz is done with TNA so it was no shock when he announced it on iMPACT. Not many wrestlers get to announce they are leaving on their own show so this has many people wondering if this is just a storyline or not. Was an interesting way how they did it how Kaz announced it on Karen’ Angle in a pre-record segment as if this is a shoot they have more control doing it that way than letting him go in the ring.

Bad Points

Booker T pushed to the side

The only problem with the Sting storyline developments is that Booker T has been pushed to the side. After an excellent storyline build in the iMPACT after Victory Road since then Booker has been marginalised. Booker needs to do something big on the iMPACT before Hard Justice to really make this a math people want to see.

Prince Justice Brotherhood

The segments wear very comical on iMPACT but if they use too many of them in a show the comic effect will wear off very quickly. Sharkboy is the only really funny one out of the three as he carries the other two in the promo stakes but Sharkboy needs people to work off with his humour so needs them there.

Beautiful People never get a win

TNA give them a lot of TV time which they deserve as they are great on the mic and with their gimmick but it seems like every week they come out they lose. It’s alright giving them TV time but you have to let them win a bit to really establish themselves instead of giving the wins to Gail Kim and ODB who have gone a bit stale as of late.

Overall

More positives than negatives. If they can just focus in on the big feuds next week I’m sure they will get the fans buzzing for Hard Justice.

TNA iMPACT Review - Thursday 22nd May 2008

After missing Sacrifice and two week’s worth of iMPACT I was looking forward to see where TNA’s product was at and what had happened since I last tuned in.

Good Points

Faction Wars

It’s great to see some factions start to develop in TNA. We had Booker T’s continuing decent in to the heel world as he struck a partnership with team 3-D to look out for each other. Then we had the show ending with Booker T, Team 3-D, Tomko and Kurt Angle laying the beat on AJ Styles.

The Kurt and Karen storyline

TNA have played out this storyline brilliantly over the last few months and it finally came to head on iMPACT as Karen asked Kurt for a divorce and left Kurt pleading to save his marriage. Then at the end of iMPACT when Karen came in to save AJ Kurt hit the ring and when you thought he was going to help protect Karen and AJ he then levelled AJ with a chair leaving AJ and Karen in the ring. One of the best endings to iMPACT ever.

Branding

Was great to see more video promo’s throughout the show. Loved the TNA Knockouts video package. TNA are also branding their Cross the Line idea brilliantly and really getting it across to the fans.

Bad Points

Silly out of ring segments

After weeks of watching Jay Lethal and Val going on dates this week we were treated to Eric Young in Nashville trying to find Elvis. I think if you are going to try and push emotional storylines and heated angles and then run segments like this as it takes away from the rest of the show.

Awesome Kong open challenge

It was like going back to the old carnival, fairground style of wrestling where wrestlers use to offer out fans for wrestling matches as Awesome Kong offered money to the fans in the iMPACT Zone to take her on the ring.

Overall

A great show and am glad to be back watching TNA. I just hope this isn’t a one off and that thy continue in this way as if they do their fanbase is just going to grow and grow.

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 3rd April 2008

After WWE’s recent Wrestlemania extravaganza TNA needed to start pushing this week to get hold of those viewers who are excited for wrestling again and get some attention to their upcoming PPV Lockdown. So as always here are my good and bad points of this week’s show.

Good Points

Formula

Every week the formula of TNA shows gets better and better. This week the show started with a video recap of all the recent incidents in TNA. I believe that every weekly show should start with a video recap as weekly shows are about getting new viewers to your show so that they will buy the PPV so they need to know what is going on and your existing fan base needs to be reminded of recent events just in case they have forgotten something that happened or missed a recent episode.

Good booking of Lethal Lockdown feud

After my plea last week TNA have improved their booking of Lethal Lockdown and as per my suggestion they broke the feuds down in to singles and tag matches with AJ Styles & Tomko going up against Rhino & Cage whilst Sting headlined against James Storm. It was good to see James Storm getting a big push but they have to be careful not to do it at the expense of Tomko and Cage.

Use of Matt Morgan

This show was about pushing Matt Morgan which they did by featuring him in many segments throughout the show. All episode they had been building the fact that he was on Team Tomko’s side by letting them add Storm to their team for him to then turn on Storm in the main event as in his capacity as referee assisted Sting to the win and to rip off his Ref’s shirt to unveil his Team Cage T-Shirt. The storyline was telegraphed and you could see it happening a mile off but it was still good TV.

Bad Points

Superhero or Superidiot Eric Young

This is cringeworthy TV at best with the Eric Young segments. Now it’s bad enough that it takes up TV time but when they have him interrupting other people like Kurt Angle and ruining their segments. Now Eric is doing his best with this storyline but TNA need to find him something new and fast.

Lighting and Camera angle of backstage segments

This is something TNA need to improve on. Their backstage segments went from being overly bright to overly dark and back again throughout the show. The camera angles are also very interesting as throughout backstage segments the cameramen seem to want to be consistently changing angles with no direction or purpose. Changing the lighting or a camera angle for a reason is good production but this currently seems to be inconsistent at best.

Overall

A great show more of the same please TNA creative team just remember to work on production and try and keep us guessing.

TNA Impact Review - Thursday 13th March 2008

After a disappointing Destination X TNA had their first iMPACT since the PPV and the first on the road to Lockdown on April 13th. I was interested to see if TNA would get my enthusiasm back for the product and get me excited about Lockdown.

Good Points

Solid Opening

Now as most you know only a fraction of the viewers who watch a weekly wrestling TV show will stump up the money to buy a PPV. Now because of this a lot of fans who tuned in to your product the week before the PPV may not know what happened so to make sense for your TV viewers you have to use your first show back to really convey to the fans what happened and how these happenings have affected the storylines and feuds. So TNA were sensible to use Jim Cornette in the ring to let the fans know what was happening. This lead to him announcing a Lethal Lockdown match for the next PPV and that Christian Cage and Tomko would be captains. This is one heck of a push for Tomko which I did expect but makes the booking team stupid for having him lose the six man match for his team at Destination X.

Karen Angle back

Was great to see Karen Angle back and prove why she is such an important part of the entertainment side of TNA shows. Again she had the most entertaining segment when she confronted Kurt in the ring. She is really helping not only build herself but Kurt’s character to.

Team 3D win promo of the night

Like I said wrestling fans have short memories when it comes to bad matches and Team 3D gave a hilarious backstage segment which seems to have washed away that terrible match at Destination X. Hopefully they can push on from here and leave that disaster behind them.

Bad Points

TNA Knockouts turning in to WWE Divas

Just when the Knockouts division is starting to get some credibility they ruin it by having a stupid segment with Roxy getting a makeover. After one of the worst Knockouts matches since the division started at Destination X followed by this stupid segment TNA really need to be careful no to lose its credibility and its uniqueness.

LAX first they push them now they don’t

After a great PPV win LAX were booked to lose against up and coming tag team the Rock and Rave Infection. TNA had been sensible with LAX with giving them some time away from the main tag team feuds after being pushed hard for some time and now just when you think they have got it right they go and do this.

Where are Booker T, Robert Roode and Sharmell?

After being the semi main event at Destination X and with the return of Sharmell whipping everyone why aren’t they on TV the next week. You had a made storyline there as we wait to see if TNA will take any action over Sharmell’s whipping spree but no they are nowhere to be seen.

Pushing Lethal Lockdown over Angle vs. Samoa Joe

At a PPV your main event should be the heavyweight world title match. There are a few exceptions to this rule like Wrestlemania 18 when Rock vs. Hogan should have been the last match. The main event should be pushed ahead of everything else but this week it was segments to do with the Lethal Lockdown match which kicked off the show and ended the show.

Worst mess of an ending to a TV show.

This one are where TNA need to improve on big time. This week you had a clear ending which should have been 3D interfering to beat on Cage and Nash in their match against Tomko and AJ Styles. This would let us know that 3D were to be Tomko and AJ Styles partners for Lethal Lockdown and that should have been the end shot. Instead we went off air with 3D beating on a reality TV star who was in the audience. The only way this would make one scrap of sense is if this reality TV star is going to be Cage and Nash’s side which I can only hope isn’t the case.

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 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.