If you didn't catch the TNA Global Impact special last night, I suggest you track down and watch the replay when it airs tomorrow. Kurt Angle vs. Yuji Nagata was easily Angle's best match in a long time. Beyond that, the documentary style look and feel of the special treated the TNA performers like legitimate athletes and real people who fought for a living, as opposed to sports-entertainment caricatures. It was a tremendous breath of fresh air after the previous two hours of Impact and was far more entertaining than what came before it. I would love to see what could happen if TNA ever decided to take their in-ring product (which is littered with great performers up and down the card) and changed their current direction towards a more serious, character driven presentation. Would it work? I don't know, but I felt like I knew more about Tomko, Team 3D and Kurt Angle in the first seven minutes of Global Impact than I had in months and by the time they had pushed the Angle-Nagata issue, I was far more interested in seeing the match than any recent TNA bout. Imagine if they had built Joe vs. Angle or Sting vs. Angle in that manner last year? Global Impact felt like like it was produced by a completely different wrestling company and is well worth going out of your way to check out.
The entire Global Impact special, plus all of the TNA-related matches from the 1/4 Tokyo Dome show, will be released on DVD.
Tickets for the 2/21 Webster Hall New York City event are now on sale at www.websterhall.com.
Tiger Mask and Shinsuke Nakamura are working next week's TNA tapings in Orlando.
Senshi/Low Ki will be debuting for New Japan Pro Wrestling soon.
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