TNA opened with its normal "You are watching TNA!" package. Now, I like that they have one, but it's kind of stupid to say that. What do they expect? People to go "Crap, anything but TNA" and turn away from them? Just kind of dumb to me, though I do like the package. They then showed a recap of Jeff Jarrett's storyline of being fired and attacking Raven with Rhino from No Surrender and then we see the actual Impact! Promo package. Also good for TNA. TNA doesn't really have good production values in terms of entrances, but their packages are always pretty good just like WWE.
David Young Vs. Lance Hoyt
Simon Diamond's diamond in the rough is kind of ridiculous to me, but I will give him a few more weeks before I rule him out. Lance Hoyt comes out and is ridiculously over. The two oddball stories of this year would have to be him and Heidenreich getting over as faces. No one saw it coming and it's just kind of odd seeing it happen. The match starts with Young going on the offensive and taking Hoyt on the outside which was kind of nice to see. You don't see many green heels doing that so it was a good change of pace. Hoyt started his offense with generic big man takedowns (i.e. clotheslines) followed up with a flapjack onto the ring. Hoyt may be over, but I still don't buy him as a big guy, especially when TNA has so many better big guys in the form of Abyss. Hoyt then plays to the crowd, which is even odder. Sorry, this guy just screams heel to me. It's unbelievable. Suddenly, Abyss pops out and takes out Hoyt and Young.
Winner: No Contest
Star Wrestler: Umm...Yeah...
James Mitchell shows up and he gets on the mike and says that this is a foreshadowing of things to come. He calls Abyss a weapon of mass destruction and says he has a detonator. Now, as cheesy as it is, I really enjoyed that. I'm a huge fan of Abyss and anything to get him over is greatly appreciated by me. I just love James Mitchell as Abyss' manager. Pyscho nut job manager for a psycho nut job wrestler.
TNA then shows a recap of No Surrender. Now I have just a minor observation. Why is it that WWE is criticized for being sports entertainment and even advertising in their name that it is just entertainment, when on the other side, TNA doesn't even advertise wrestling in its name and even calls themselves athletic entertainment in press releases. Just another insanely hypocritical move I guess. I'm not going to sit here and say WWE is right and TNA is wrong, or vice versa, because quite frankly, neither is, but it's just pure hypocrisy.
The Super X Cup Tournament card is then shown. Hopefully it will be as good as last year.
Super X Cup Tournament - First Round Match
Samoa Joe Vs. Sonjay Dutt
Chris Daniels is on the commentary and proves why he is a great heel. He gives Samoa Joe his due for his past couple of weeks but challenges to see if he can do the same that Daniels himself has done. He basically just put himself and Joe over in a few words. That is how heels should be. The heel's job is to get people over, mostly babyfaces, but still, Daniels does it excellent. Samoa Joe is pretty good in TNA, but still. Samoa Joe in the X Division? I don't buy it. Every time someone like AJ Styles made the transition from one division to another, they made a huge deal about it. However, when people like Joe and Ron Killings make the switch, no one cares because TNA won't make a big deal about it. Even more, I understand that the X Division is supposed to be no limits so anyone is welcome, but come on. You obviously don't want to see grounded brawling in an X Division match. Otherwise, you could just watch any heavyweight division in the world. You watch the X Division for its TNA; it's actual total non-stop action. Someone like Joe is not going to give you that. It doesn't mean he is bad or the X Division is, it's just proving a point.
Wow. The beginning was really good. Here you have a fast paced wrestler against a slow paced one, so obviously, Dutt starts to fire at Joe and bounces around him using his speed and size to his advantage. Joe leans back a few times and tries to use his power, but fails because of his speed and size. It's a kind of obvious "duh!" to do in this type of match, but in the past, Sonjay Dutt doesn't really follow the obvious things to do. Dutt then starts to work the legs of Joe which is pretty good considering Joe is a big guy and he can't even stand without both, as a smaller wrestler could make due with only one (i.e. Zach Gowen could never pull it off in the ring if he was Samoa Joe's size).
What the hell? TNA then switches to a commercial for Raven's best of DVD. This is complete and utter insanity. The best thing about a web cast is that you don't HAVE to interrupt matches. That is perhaps the biggest mistake TNA has made in recent memory. The biggest criticism for TV is that they always interrupt matches when people want to see them in its entirety. Well, TNA isn't on TV and they are still doing it. Either they don't have faith in Dutt-Joe or they are just idiots. They then show a package for Sacrifice. Both of these commercials could have easily come after the match, but no. TNA has to go the hard way.
We come back to the match and Samoa Joe hits a suicide dive to Dutt on the outside. Jesus Christ, that's good. That is the ingenuity of Joe right there. He can't do all the things X Division wrestlers can, but he does and tries to do what he can. Joe takes control with repeated knees to the head of Dutt. The commentators bring up the point that Joe has been here a month and they haven't heard from him. Good, I say. By TNA standards (and even indy standards), Joe isn't the best on the mike and they are playing to his strength and adding some mystique to his character. However, I wish they would bring up his ROH Title run when talking about his career. They seem fit to mention WWE every five seconds, so why not ROH? Plus, it would get him over with the fans who have never seen ROH as they would think "Wow, he held a title that long?" Oh well.
Samoa Joe keeps his control in the match with an abdominal stretch. Dutt powers out, but Joe then fires back and keeps his control. Joe then hits a nice delayed vertical suplex. You don't see much of that in TNA or WWE nowadays so a nice change of pace there. Meanwhile, Tenay proves his idiocy on the mike as he can't remember that Daniels has had 5 opponents in his run and then goes "Oh yea, you were in a triple threat." No shit, Mike. What are you a professor of again? Joe then chops Dutt in the corner and Daniels owns both Tenay and West on the commentary shtick by getting over the psychology of the match via fast versus slow pace. Joe's dominance continues with more high powered moves and kicks. Finally, Dutt mounts his offense, which took too long for him to do. Naturally, he uses his speed to his advantage and it works again just like in the beginning. He hits two good springboard moves in the form of a dropkick and hurricarana followed by a baseball slide and a plancha to the outside. Ok, the plancha was a little much. He could have just done the dropkick and then the baseball slide, but no, he wants to get over with his flips so he does more. People need to realize that less is, in fact, more.
Dutt then hits a crossbody (nice plain move for him) and gets a two count. Dutt tries to whip Joe but can't due to no power and then he walks right into a powerslam which I thought was going to be it, but to my surprise, Dutt kicked out. He then goes for the cross arm breaker and Dutt gets t the ropes. As much as I like Joe, it was kind of dumb to go after the arm after working the head the whole match. Joe puts Dutt on the top of the turnbuckle, but Dutt counters out via biting. He then flips over to try and get a head scissors, but Joe catches him and powerbombs him which should have been it. Now here is what I don't get. I can't tell if Dutt kicked out and then Joe went straight for the STF or if Joe just went straight for the STF. It was really hard to tell, but I would like to go with the latter. Dutt kicking out of the powerbomb would have completely killed all of the power psychology in the whole match. Dutt eventually taps out and Joe has another choke out win.
Winner: Samoa Joe
Star Wrestler: Samoa Joe
Hell yes, Samoa Joe. Did you expect me to give it someone who got to do his flips every chance given? No. I do tip my hat to Dutt for selling the speed in the beginning and middle and definitely putting over Joe's strength, but without Joe's mind in the ring, this match would have failed. Get a lesser big man and they wouldn't have employed half the power moves, in the right way no less, that Joe did.
Afterwards, Shane Douglas tries to interview Samoa Joe, but Joe shuns him and walks right out. Damn, that was tight. He just made himself look even more powerful and mysterious in one little motion. This is why he was the star wrestler.
We then see Sean Waltman and Jerry Lynn arguing in the back with Waltman telling Lynn to stay out of his business. Lynn tells him that Waltman owes it all to him. They play it off to me as a cocky rookie vs. cool headed veteran, but Waltman isn't a rookie. Nonetheless, I still enjoyed it and it set up the match at the PPV well.
They then show another Sacrifice commercial. Why did they have to interrupt a match to show one before? Jeez. They then show an America's Most Wanted DVD.
Kip James & Monty Brown Vs. Sonny Siaki & Apolo
I'll say it. I hate the name Kip James. It sounds like a gay cowboy to me. I really enjoyed the Outlaw name more because it alluded to his past with WWE. I always criticize TNA's overusage of WWE to get over, but in stars like Gunn, I think it's needed. Anyway, this should be a fun match, oh wait, all the wrestlers in it suck. No, it's going to suck. Brown and Siaki start it off and they just exchange blows. See-saw action continues and we see that BG James is watching on. This could be the development of a nice storyline here. I don't like the name Kip James, but if it helps TNA have a decent storyline, I'll put my feelings aside. Siaki hits a flying heel kick, and James bounces into the ring. Siaki starts to take it to him. James eventually gets a nice stiff shot to Siaki and takes control. James and Brown start to take it to the ref. Monty Brown then hits the pounce on Siaki who bumps into the ref. A new ref comes out and counts three for them.
Winner: Kip James & Monty Brown
Star Wrestler: Apolo
This was a cop out match just trying to get over James and Brown versus Three Live Kru, but that doesn't mean it had to be a bad match. Unfortunately, it was. Apolo was the only one not in the ring in this match, so therefore, for not wrestling horribly like the three others, he gets star wrestler.
Ron Killings and Konnan come out and start to attack Brown and James and BG James doesn't help either side. They brawl deep into the arena as the camera fades away. We then see Simon Diamond bitching out David Young for his performance and Shane Douglas comes out and interrupts them and tells them to get to the point. Young asks him what he has to do. Diamond says he has the skill, but needs the guidance from Diamond himself. They then shake their hands and we see another package about No Surrender. Okay, sum this up for me. We just hit the 29 minute mark of a 51 minute show. So far, we have seen the same No Surrender package twice as well as two different Sacrifice packages. Why? Couldn't get over with the first one of each? Man, I love TNA logic.
TNA then shows a highlight of the Kip James & Monty Brown versus Konnan & Ron Killings match. They then show the refs backstage complaining to Larry Zybsko and they say they won't ref that match because of all the violence towards the refs. Gee, I wonder who is going to be the guest ref?
Ok, this is pathetic. Mike Tenay says the internet reviews were unanimous. First off, there is playing to the IWC and then there is working for them. Don't do the latter. Even more, the internet reviews are not unanimous. Just the ones TNA chooses to read. See, this is why I hate TNA. They pull this propaganda bullshit. In WWE, they don't say "the reviews were good." They have the commentators say they think it was. In TNA, they say the reviews were good because they are trying to pass it off as fact. I'm sure the reviews were unanimous on TNA message boards, but on mixed boards? Hell freakin' no.
Raven then comes out with his title in hand. He plops down and grabs a mike. He talks about how he took more abuse than Abyss and outlasted him to beat him. Raven's a freakin' genius on the mike. He talks about how he had to make sure Abyss fell into the tacks, so he used himself to do it. He then talks about Jarrett and his games with Rhyno and talks about the feud they have. He says, in old western style, that TNA is not big enough for the both of them so one is going to have to go. The crowd is so hot for Raven. He then says he has come to the conclusion that they have to settle it in the ring. Raven says he is an infection, but Raven is a human cancer. Wow, sweet promo, but damn it, Jarrett comes out and interrupts. Jarrett says all Raven is doing is moaning, no wonder he doesn't have friends. He says that he should be at the top of the firing list, not Jarrett. I thought Raven was a whiner? Oh, well. He says when Jarrett gets mad, he gets the job done, and that's the difference. Raven then interrupts and challenges him and lays down his belt. Rhino then comes from behind and Jarrett says he is giving him advice, and then he gives him the same advice that he did at No Surrender: turn around. Raven caught on this time and ducked out of the Gore and took out Rhino. Jarrett busted into the ring and Raven took him out but then walked right into the Gore. Jarrett and Rhino then both stomp on him and Jarrett then locks in the Figure Four Leglock as Rhino beats his head down. The refs them come out and try to break it out as we fade to black. Decent segment. Like I said, Raven rules on the mike and Jarrett mucked it up a little, but still made it a decent segment.
For the love of god! TNA then shows the America's Most Wanted package for the second time and the Sacrifice package for the third (yes, third!) time! Jesus Christ. They then show an image promoting their Bound For Glory PPV, which I've heard is supposed to be their Wrestlemania type show. If it is, cool name. Most of the TNA names fit the main storylines (against all odds, no surrender), but they don't have any standing in the years to come. Meaning, Invasion was a one-time PPV. You can tell by its name. But something like Bound For Glory? That sounds like it will be there to stay.
We come back to the "Impact Zone," which is the gayest name ever, and we gear up for our main event.
Super X Cup Tournament - First Round Match
AJ Styles Vs. Matt Bentley
I feel really bad for Bentley. He built up a great following as Michael Shane and now he has to switch. That really blows and you think Shawn Michaels would have fought for his student and relative in this battle. The real Mr. TNA then comes out to the biggest reaction of the night. Love or hate AJ Styles, without him, TNA can't survive. AJ Styles IS TNA and for good reason. I doubt TNA would ever do as well as they have done (most notably, staying in business) without the phenomenal one. The crowd starts to chant AJ, and Bentley gets pissed off. AJ and Bentley start to feel each other out, but Bentley has enough and ducks out. AJ didn't do anything yet though, so why duck out? Bentley pops back in and starts to pound on AJ. Bentley really needs to start focusing more on his brawling, and less on his flips. AJ then hits his beautiful dropkick, which may be out of place at times but is beautifully executed, and we interrupt another match, the main event no less, for a freaking commercial break. This is ridiculous. WWE takes commercial breaks because they have their advertisers over. TNA does so they can get themselves over. It's pathetic. JESUS CHRIST! For the fourth time of the freaking night, we see the No Surrender highlight footage. I have it memorized by this point. God, could they at least get some original commercials?
Thank god they only show that one. Bentley is getting in the ring as we come back and they try and lock up, but Bentley and Styles start to exchange blows. AJ Styles then does a hip toss into a back breaker. Now, that was nice. Kudos, phenomenal one. He then hits an arm drag and goes for an arm bar submission to slow the pace down. It took him a couple of years, but AJ has somewhat learned that less is more. Now teach it to Sonjay Dutt, Matt Bentley, Shocker, Elix Skipper, Shark Boy, and every other X Division wrestler. AJ Styles then goes for a suplex followed by a two count. He then hits another back breaker on Bentley. At this point, I wonder why AJ is not isolating it more. Traci interferes and AJ pulls her up. Bentley flies at AJ, but he ducks and they bounce into each other. AJ then flies at Bentley and Bentley lifts him up over to the apron and then brings AJ's arm crashing into the rope. Good for you, Bentley. Find your opening to weaken a body part and go for it. Bentley starts to work the arm with some thrusts to the shoulder, but AJ reverses and tries to charge at Bentley into the corner. Bentley moves and AJ goes into the post shoulder first. Nice arm work so far. Actually, for TNA, very nice arm work so far. Of course, Bentley mucks it up by going for a dropkick instead of an arm drag. The arm drag would have worked so much better and would have transitioned well into the comeback that AJ is doing. But no, they have to look "cool" in TNA and an arm drag is not "cool." Would it kill the wrestlers to go back to the basics? Headlocks, arm drags, hip tosses. These are all rarities in TNA's X Division as opposed to dropkicks, flipping counters, and springboards. It's sickening. They are called the basics for a reason.
Bentley continues to work the arm and then argues with the ref as Traci ties up the arm too. Eventually, Bentley locks in some kind of key lock variation on AJ's arm using his leg. Very good work by Bentley. TNA definitely needs to show some shots of AJ's face selling this pain. AJ counters out into a roll through, but Bentley kicks out and then hits a stunner variation using the arm. That was kind of cool actually. That's the difference. A triple flip is cool, but unless you're using it for reason, it's not. Bentley used a nice variation of a move and did it to further the work on the arm and that's what makes it good. Someone working the arm and then hitting a triple flip is not. It makes zero sense.
AJ starts to slug it out and then AJ ducks and hits the backwards dropkick or the Pele, which mostly made sense. It was a move that wouldn't exert energy from AJ's arm and would take Bentley down, giving AJ time to recover. AJ then fires back with clothesline offense using his healthy arm. They go at it in the motions and then AJ bounces off and hits Bentley with a springboard forearm. Now this next part was kind of dumb. AJ flips off the turnbuckle, but Bentley ducks out of the way. Then AJ uses his hurt arm to clothesline Bentley and then locks his arms (when you lock, you extend). So what, the pain is gone in mere seconds? They should have played off the fact that AJ can't lock his arms cause his other one is in so much pain. AJ then goes for the Styles Clash, but Bentley counters out into an arm bar takedown. Eventually, AJ goes for the dropkick, but Bentley catches him with a powerbomb. That was pretty cool, I thought. Nice change of pace from, what, the fourth dropkick in the match? Traci then comes in and starts to argue with ref as Bentley picks up something, but AMW pops in and lays out Bentley. Styles covers Bentley and picks up the win.
Winner: AJ Styles
Star Wrestler: Matt Bentley
I'm not the biggest Matt Bentley fan for his spot monkey tendencies, but he surprised me in this match. He focused on the arm and didn't give up except for one minor hiccup with the dropkick. It was very well done on his part and made the match pretty good. The only that soured me on the match was probably Styles no selling the injury in his final comeback. It was just kind of dumb. Everything else was pretty cool in this match and they even made Bentley look like a star by jobbing.
Afterwards, AJ Styles does his signature pose but then holds his shoulder in pain. Now see, if he can't do his freaking pose, how can he lock the leg with his arm? It doesn't add up people! Surprisingly, no more commercial breaks and TNA Impact! goes off the air.
It was an ok show. The big problem with Impact though is not their matches or the show, but how they use their time. 45 minutes is how long a show should be if it's an hour long on regular TV. Because it gives 15 minute for commercial breaks. So whenever Impact was on FSN, it got around 15 minutes of commercial breaks. Now, TNA has those 15 minutes back. Instead of using them for, oh, I don't know, another match, they use 6 minutes of it to commercialize their own product and they do so using the same freaking ones over and over again. Jesus Christ. They even feel the need to interrupt matches when they are getting good which means one of two things: either the match started to suck (which is another stake in TNA's coffin) or they are just so full of themselves they have to fit in the commercials every five minutes. Overall, the show is not that bad, it's just all on how they use their time. They have one hour exactly and they can do so much more than two actual matches, two squashes, one actual segment, and two semi-segments. Add on another match or two. Add on a backstage brawl. Do something other than show the god damn No Surrender package four times in forty minutes. Well, that's it from this review. Until the next time you hear my moaning about TNA, this is "Squared Circle Reviews" signing off and hoping you enjoy what you watch.
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