Impact
Wrestling
Date: April 10, 2015
Location: Impact Zone,
Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Taz, Josh
Matthews
Reviewed by Tommy Hall
This is an interesting
time for TNA as they have a bunch of potential challengers for Kurt
Angle's World Title but it seems that Lashley has the most valid
claim to a shot. Last week Angle pinned Lashley but the replay
showed that Lashley's shoulder was up. Other than that we have Drew
Galloway's Rising ready to deal with MVP's Beat Down Clan. Let's get
to it.
We open with a recap of
Galloway debuting a few weeks back to try and take back wrestling
from the Beat Down Clan. He now has his friends in the Rising to
help in his battle.
Tonight, fan Tweets
will be airing on screen. This is apparently interesting for reasons
that I don't really understand but WWE does it so it's a good idea
right?
Here's Kurt Angle to
address the end of last week's show. There's been a lot of buzz over
the match with Lashley so he'd like Lashley out here right now. We
look at the tape of Lashley's shoulder being up and the fans want a
rematch. Angle says he won't back down from a title defense because
he knows he can beat Lashley again. They're ready to fight tonight
but Eric Young comes out to crank up the suck.
Eric says he's #1
contender and the rankings say so. He's a main event champion and
Angle is holding his belt. The fans don't seem to agree but Young
grabs Lashley's face. Angle goes for Young but Lashley spears the
champ down by mistake. Oh the drama. Maybe we can see Eric Young
get in a match way over his head again but get to see him survive
because he's Eric Young and has been around forever and for some
reason that makes him interesting. I mean, he's not tall like Big
Show but he has been around a long time.
Post break, Angle is
still in the ring and says he'll fight Lashley and Young tonight at
the same time.
Video on the history of
Awesome Kong vs. Gail Kim.
Gail
Kim vs. Awesome Kong
#1 contenders match.
They go nose to nose until Gail gets launched across the ring by the
hair. Back up and Kin gets in a few unsold shots before being tossed
right back down. As the match goes on, I get THRILLING Tweets of
fans saying they like the match and that they're watching the show.
You can't buy journalism like this people. Gail fights up from a
camel clutch but runs into a hard clothesline. King rips the
turnbuckle pad off and sends Gail outside, only to get dropkicked
into the barricade.
Back in and Gail fires
off forearms to the chest before getting two off a spinning cross
body. Kong misses a charge into the exposed buckle to give Gail two
as we get a Tweet from Jim Ross about how good Gail is. See, that's
the kind of thing we need live commentary to point out. Eat Defeat
gets another near fall but Kong just grabs her by the throat and sets
Kim on the top rope. Gail dives again and goes right into the
Awesome Bomb for the pin at 7:18.
Rating:
C. This is one of those old,
storied feuds in TNA that was indeed cool ten years ago or however
long it was, but now it's more like “hey, I remember when they had
matches back then.” Thankfully they didn't play that up too strong
here and it was really just a step above a Kong squash. Taryn vs.
Kong could be good if they book it right.
We
immediately cut to James Storm and Mickie James. Mickie thanks him
for the save last week but that's just how southerners are raised.
This is more like the old Storm. She goes to leave but he asks for a
hug. Manik comes up and asks what was up with that but Storm goes
back into Revolution mode and tells Manik to never question his
motives. He orders Manik to round up the team for a fight. That
transition from Kong to Storm was way too fast and something TNA
needs to work on. It's ok to stay on the winner more than two
seconds before you get to your next thing.
Back
from a break with the Revolution in the ring and Storm sitting in a
chair. He's brought them out here to make things very clear: this is
about a revolution, not for him to take care of them. Each and every
one of the men in this ring failed him, which is why Sanada is gone.
Storm yells at Khoya, saying
he brought him out of that horrible country but now Khoya has failed
him.
There's
always room for one more, but now there can always be room for one
less. He's going to win this Tag Team Title tournament and one of
them is going to be his partner. The fans chant for Manik, but Storm
makes a three way to determine who gets the spot. A referee comes
out and Storm insists that there must be a winner.
Abyss
vs. Khoya vs. Manik
Abyss
cleans house but Manik hits him with a chair, which seems to be
legal. Khoya picks up a
stick that Storm left in the ring but Abyss knocks him into the
corner. Apparently the
title match is next week in Ultimate X. That's rather sudden but
that's life in TNA. Manik counters a chokeslam into a standing cross
armbreaker (Six Second Magic for you No Mercy fans out there) but
Khoya comes in for the save. A Sky High to Manik is enough to get
Khoya the spot in the tournament at 2:50.
We
go back to James Storm's barn with the ghost hunters from last week.
The results are
inconclusive.
Here's the Rising for a
chat. Drew really does fit in this role. He's so awesome that he
can cut a promo and have his LIVE Tweet show up on screen at the same
time. Drew says he'd give us the shirt off his back and that's
exactly what he does. He started the Stand Up campaign to bring
wrestling back where it belongs and the fans are part of the Rising
with them. Drew hands the microphone off for the official
introductions.
First up we have Micah,
formerly known as Camacho. The BDC is a bunch of bullies and it's
time to punch them right in the mouth. The other member is Eli Drake
(you might know him as Shaun Ricker) and he talks about how they're
definitely not Superstars, but professional wrestlers. Drew throws
down the gauntlet and here's the BDC to answer. King thinks they're
rising like a yeast infection and MVP accepts the challenge. Drew
counts down from three to one and the brawl is on in the aisle as we
go to a break. Drake and Micah are just warm bodies but they were
fine here.
Rising
vs. Beat Down Clan
This would be the
second match made by the wrestlers in the first hour. King grabs a
headlock on Drake to start but gets caught in a powerslam. It's
quickly off to Micah vs. MVP with the BDC taking over and stomping
away in the corner. MVP comes back in and puts on a chinlock before
kicking Micah in the face for two. Micah scores with a Samoan drop
and Drew gets the hot tag to clean house. Everything breaks down
with the Rising clearing the ring, leaving Micah to dive onto all
three of them. Drew and Drake pose but a masked man in BDC gear
sneaks in with what looked like a pipe for the DQ at 6:52.
Rating:
D+.
This match was watchable but I'm
really not seeing why I should care. Rising is a bunch of newcomers
and Drew stands out, but I'm not really sure why these teams need to
fight. The BDC hasn't actually won anything other than the X Title
once or twice. Do we really need a stable to fight against them?
The
masked man is Homicide. Oh.....great.
Angle
says he's ready to prove himself again when Eric Young jumps him.
After a break, Angle insists
he's fighting tonight.
DJZ
vs. Davey Richards
Feeling
out process to start with both guys flying around a bit until Davey
dropkicks him out to the floor. Davey kicks him in the face from the
apron but DJZ comes back with some shots of his own back inside.
That's fine with Davey as he wins a slugout and sends DJZ to the
floor for a suicide dive. Back
in again and a running kick gets two for Davey but he misses the top
rope stomp. Instead he
throws DJZ up in the air for the kick to the chest, setting up a
spinning kick to the head (Creeping Death) for the pin at 5:32.
Rating:
C. Well that happened. I guess
they're setting up the tag tournament next week but it was announced
as the X-Division match of the night. The match was entertaining
enough but having matches for the sake of having a match isn't the
best way to get my interest up. Still though, watchable.
Homicide
says the BDC is familia. MVP
says they're the Beat Down Clan and they do what they do because they
can. I've heard worse catchphrases.
We see some girls
playing with dolls. The Dollhouse is coming soon. The girls
appeared to be Marti Belle and Mia Yim.
Here are the Hardys to
celebrate beating James Storm last week. Next on their list is
winning the Tag Team Champions for the first time in TNA. This
brings out Ethan Carter III and Tyrus to remind us that Ethan is
undefeated for nineteen months, but somehow he hasn't gotten his
title shot. He's entering the tournament to get a Tag Team Title,
but he needs a partner. He wants someone who can hurt people and
that man is.....Bram. Now that's interesting. Bram comes out and
says he hates everyone, but he'll team up with Carter because he
hates him the least.
This brings out
Anderson, who asks if Carter just said he and Bram are the odds on
favorites. Carter: “Yup.” Anderson: “Huh?” “Yeah.”
“Huh?” “I do.” “Huh?” “Indeed.” This goes on for
about ten more seconds because Carter is rather entertaining on the
mic. Anderson's partner is Spud and they have a quick argument over
Spud grabbing Anderson's microphone. The two of them head to the
ring but Austin Aries comes out, talks about loving gold, and
announces Roode as his partner.
A preview for next week
shows that we have four qualifying matches and the winners going to
an Ultimate X match for the Tag Team Titles. It also shows the four
teams in the Ultimate X match because these previews aren't thought
out in advance.
TNA
World Title: Kurt Angle vs. Eric Young vs. Lashley
Angle is defending and
this is one fall to a finish. Young hides on the floor to start and
lets the suplex machines fight, but they quickly get together and
beat Young back and forth. Lashley plays Bret on a Hart Attack and
Young gets beaten up on the floor as we take a break. Back with
Angle busting out the suplexes on both guys and clotheslining Lashley
to the floor. Kurt ducks his head and eats a piledriver but Lashley
makes the save and throws Eric outside.
The running powerslam
gets two on the champ and a big spear gets the same with Young making
the save. Lashley tweaks his ankle on a leapfrog but is still able
to low bridge Eric to the floor due to Eric sucking so much. Both
challengers get rolling Germans but Young breaks up the ankle lock
(it lasts about 20 seconds, which Josh timed as three minutes) and
puts Lashley in the Figure Four. Lashley makes the rope so Eric
wedges a chair in the corner, only to get caught in the delayed
vertical. The spear hits the chair though and Angle Slams both guys,
setting up the moonsault onto Lashley's bad leg for the pin at 13:43.
Rating:
B-. So now we get Angle vs.
Young because Young will be CRAZY while saying he never got beat
right? You know, because we
absolutely, totally and completely need Eric Young in our lives and
main events. He's been around for years you know. The match was
decent enough, as long as Young was kept reined in.
Post
match Angle leaves so Young goes after Bobby's leg with the chair and
puts on another figure four.
Overall
Rating: C+. Decent enough show
that set up the tournament next week, but the wrestling outside of
the main event was only so good. The stories don't have the same
heat they did a few weeks back, but at least we've still got enough
good stuff to keep things going. I
would however appreciate a top heel instead of a bunch of mid level
ones running around. Angle
seems to be a transitional champion and that's the right kind of
reign for him at the moment, hopefully with Carter rising up to the
top spot soon enough.
Results
Awesome Kong b. Gail
Kim – Awesome Bomb
Khoya b. Abyss and
Manik – Sky High to Manik
Rising b. Beat Down
Clan via DQ when Homicide interfered
Davey Richards b. DJZ –
Creeping Death
Kurt Angle b. Lashley
and Eric Young – Moonsault to Lashley
Remember to check out my website at kbwrestlingreviews.com and head over to my Amazon author page with wrestling books for under $4 at:
http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6
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