LOOKING AT A 'GREAT SIX MAN MAIN' EDITION OF TNA IMPACT WRESTLING
By
Mike Johnson on 2012-03-02 12:06:46
If I had to use one word to describe last night's episode of TNA Impact
Wrestling, it would be "rebuilding."
It's been a few weeks since
Vince Russo departed the company and since then, the shows have slowed down
even more, the women have stopped calling each other skanks and there's been
some time given to the actual wrestling quotient of the show (as opposed to
going to commercial the second the bell rang), especially with a really
entertaining six man main event.
But, Rome wasn't built in a day and
TNA won't be perfect in three weeks. But, you can see flashes of
improvement, unlike in the past, where it felt like they were running in
haphazard circles, but some of the finishes did have me scratching my head.
But, again, it won't be built in a day.
All that said, This was a
solid show building to Victory Road - not an awesome two hours, but a show
where you could see they had their storylines in mind and were shaping
things towards the PPV. There was a really good main
event, an entertaining but short X-Division bout and a feeling that they
weren't just building stories for this episode but for the short and long
term future. You could also see things in hour one flowing into hour
two, which is how it should be.
Onto my thoughts:
Bobby
Roode, Austin Aries and Bully Ray came out and blamed all their problems on
Sting. It was his fault Bobby Jacobs got involved with Bully Ray, that
he booked himself against Roode and that Sting isn't stepping aside.
Basically, all three had a sit-in and declared they were done with the
company unless Sting was out. The lights went out and Sting was
waiting for them in the ring. Sting told them that they could all be done,
but they'd lose their pay and their titles. He asked if they were sure
and of course, none of them would agree to that. Big shock there!
So, he set up a six man tag. Thus, Aries gets into the main event he
was complaining about not having last week. To me, that's the proper
way to use Twitter - use it as something that fans who care about it can
follow for additional background but not make it the focal point of the
show.
They aired another well done video on Jesse
Sorensen with Sorensen recounting what it was like telling his mother he was
paralyzed. Honest, gut-wrenching stuff here. They are building
Sorensen to be the ultimate comeback kid if and when he returns.
They followed that up with Zema Ion cutting a promo about being Aries'
top contender and saying he didn't care about breaking Sorensen's neck.
As a character, he shouldn't, since the end game here is to one day have
Sorensen return and get revenge. I can understand the readers who
wrote me last night upset about the promo but in wrestling, sometimes you
have to take a negative and make it work for you and that's been done since
the dawn of time. We can talk class all you want but this is a
business based around wanting to see people beat each other up to settle
issues. They are setting up the issue, even if it doesn't pay off for
months. I have no issue with that at all and anyone who does, doesn't
see the big picture. Ion promo was good.
Ion then defeated
Shannon Moore in a match that was short but was good from bell to bell.
Moore is a hell of a worker. Ion looked good and shows some real
personality.
The Knockouts tag match was OK but nothing
noteworthy. In an effort to make the show feel more timely, they had
Mike Tenay mentioning some of the news stories of the week, like Madonna and
Joe Francis going back and forth. I am guessing this is an effort to
present the show as more "live", which I am fine with. The match was
OK and I am really happy to see Sarita being used as a wrestler again as
opposed to a Spanish caricature.
We FINALLY get some follow up on the
missing Abyss as his family has claimed they haven't seen him in months.
Have they checked the Colors Network in India? Heh. We saw a flashback
to his last appearance against Bully Ray at Genesis. So, the mystery
of Abyss begins. I'd love to see it end with Jim Mitchell returning
with him, but I'm not holding my breath, sadly. But, as the start of a
new story, this was fine. I really enjoy the Abyss character but he's
always had a hot/cold run. I hope the new regime can finally get him
running and keep him there.
The six man tag main event was really
good. Joe and Magnus are apparently babyfaces. Who knew?
Works for me though! The Joe vs. Ray sequence was just great.
Everyone was really on their game here and this was easily the best thing on
the show, which it should be after they spent all night building to it.
Aries, in his first ever TNA main event, was on fire, really delivering and
trying to show he belongs in that position. By doing so, he helped
elevate the X-Division belt a little as well and that's certainly a
positive. I know a few readers asked about Storm pinning Roode in the
end, but to me, that's OK as you have well over a month before their
showdown at Lockdown and you want the fans to think Storm has the champ's
number so they believe they can see a title change. That's old school
mentality there.
The show closing scene with Bully Ray laying
waste to everyone with a chair and then warning Storm he wasn't going to
make it was strong. Ray is far and away the best heel in that company
right now and the best talker, which is a hell of a compliment as Roode,
Storm, Sting, Styles and Joe are all great promos.
Overall, a solid show.
Mike Johnson can be reached at
Mike@PWInsider.com
and followed via Twitter at
www.Twitter.com/MikePWInsider. He
suggests the documentary "Being Elmo", now on Netflix, for your viewing pleasure.
If you enjoy PWInsider.com you can check out the AD-FREE PWInsider Elite section,
which features exclusive audio updates, news, our critically acclaimed podcasts,
interviews and more by clicking here!