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Impact Wrestling - April 17, 2015

Impact Wrestling
Date: April 17, 2015
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Commentator: Josh Matthews

Reviewed by Tommy Hall

Tonight is a one idea show as there will be a full Tag Team Title tournament with four first round matches and the winners advancing to an Ultimate X match for the championships. There may also be some more about Kurt Angle's World Title, with Eric Young as the next potential challenger due to Angle not pinning him last week. Let's get to it.


We open with a preview of the tournament.

Here are the first round matches:

James Storm/Khoya
Hardys

Low Ki/Kenny King
Mr. Anderson/Rockstar Spud

Ethan Carter III/Bram
Tigre Uno/Jay Rios

BroMans
Austin Aries/Bobby Roode

Tag Team Title Tournament First Round: Khoya/James Storm vs. Hardys

The Hardys attack at the bell and it's a brawl to start. The Revolution gets the better of it with Khoya throwing Jeff around to take over and the fans cheering for Matt. James and Khoya take turns beating on Matt until Storm puts on a chinlock. Khoya gets two off a clothesline but Matt sweeps Storm's leg and makes the tag off to Jeff. Things speed way up with the legdrop between the legs and basement dropkick to Storm's face but Jeff has to deal with an interfering Khoya. That goes badly for the Revolution as Storm Last Calls Khoya by mistake, setting up the Swanton for the pin at 5:40.

Rating: C-. This was fine but I'm not wild on either team. The Revolution stopped being interesting months ago and the fact that the Tag Team Titles is the best they can do at this point tells you everything you need to do know about them. They just don't have anything to do and they haven't since day one. With no direction, there's no point to the team being around.

Storm beats up Khoya, hopefully signaling the ending of the group.

The Hardys say it's time to fulfill their destiny. To be associated with better teams and be considered great by proxy instead of doing anything by yourselves?

Eric Young says he should be #1 contender. We get a CRAZY closeup of his CRAZY face to make sure that his CRAZY voice is clearly heard. He's CRAZY you see.

Here's Eric Young in a Kurt Angle shirt. He's not happy because Angle is ducking him for a World Title shot. Young doesn't care how many people he has to hurt because he wants his shot as #1 contender. This brings out Kurt, who says if Young wants to say something to him, say it to his face.

Young sees him as someone that can be hurt because the title belongs to him. Kurt says the title match is next week but he wants to know why Eric is doing all these things. Young talks about a hole in his spirit after he lost the title. That's fine with Angle, but he wants the old Eric Young next week. Kurt turns his back and dares Eric to hit him, but Young says he'll see him next week. This has been another chapter in “Eric Young sucks and has no business in this spot” theater.

The BDC threatens Spud in the back but Anderson comes in for the save.

Tag Team Title Tournament First Round: Rockstar Spud/Mr. Anderson vs. Kenny King/Low Ki

Spud charges in a bit too fast and gets double teamed to start with Low Ki chopping him down. After both BDC members get in some right hands, King stomps Spud in the back to keep him from lunging for a tag. King ducks an enziguri and kicks Spud in the ribs to keep him in trouble but the fans are entirely behind Spud. Ki puts on an abdominal stretch to stay on the bad ribs for some psychology.

The BDC breaks up another hot tag attempt so Anderson comes in with a double clothesline and drags Spud to the corner before getting back on the apron. That makes the hot tag a lot easier and Anderson comes in to clean house. Anderson throws Spud into a hurricanrana to send Ki to the floor and the Underdog plants King, only to have Ki come off the top with the Warrior's Way to Spud, giving King the pin at 6:50.

Rating: C. Standard tag match here which means it was fine for the most part. They even threw in some basic psychology with the rib work, which is more than you get most of the time. The BDC going in makes more sense as they have the experience together, which is more than enough to take down a makeshift team comprised of an overrated guy in Anderson and a plucky underdog.

Carter says he and Bram will win the titles tonight as a preview for his World Title run. Bram: “I'm going to rip Tigre Uno's mask off and shove it down his throat!” Carter: “Good! Just make sure we win first.”

MVP and Homicide congratulate Ki and King on the win. Homicide is given the special assignment (RUN! That's what they told Taz!) of beating up Kurt Angle.

Tag Team Title Tournament First Round: Jay Rios/Tigre Uno vs. Bram/Ethan Carter III

Rios is a masked man who appeared as a jobber in TNA back in the Jeff Jarrett MMA days. He's certainly no Essa. Carter and Rios trade wristlocks to start before Tigre comes in for a double dropkick. Carter bails to the floor and Tigre makes the mistake of diving at Tyrus like a schmuck, earning him a World's Strongest Slam on the floor.

Bram gets in some stomps before Carter throws on a chinlock. A leg dive keeps Tigre from making the hot tag but Bram misses an elbow, allowing for the lukewarm tag to Rios. Jay flips out of a backdrop and hits a springboard into a cutter but Carter uses the arm brace to knock Rios silly, setting up the Brighter Side of Suffering, but Carter tags himself in for the pin at 3:50.

Rating: D. I'm really not a fan of matches like these as they make the show feel even longer than it already does. It helps that they kept it so short but this show really hasn't done much to make me care about the main event so far. The fact that Bram and Carter are already having issues doesn't help either.

Kurt Angle says Young has gone from genius to crazy but he wants the old Young back. As for Homicide, he better have good insurance.

Christy Hemme brings out the Knockouts (or at least five of them) to announcer that next week is a night of all Knockouts. Love thinks the night should be all about her because she has the most Knockout Titles of all time. The fans chant for Brooke as Gail goes on her usual rant about how awesome the Knockouts are. Madison cuts her off before the entire building falls asleep and says none of them are the Queen Bee.

Christy tries to calm them down with the offer of a fourway between Brooke, Gail, Madison and Angelina for the #1 contendership. Brooke is WAY too excited about this announcement. There will also be new Knockouts and Taryn defending against Kong. Taryn talks about her passion and how she'll prove herself next week. Kong comes out and cleans house but Taryn dives onto everyone.

The BroMans seem to have issues with each other but Aries and Roode come in to say they'll focus on Robbie, who is clearly the better BroMan. Methinks shenanigans are afoot. Robbie leaves and Roode thinks he bought it. Bobby Roode and Austin Aries had to cause friction to beat the BroMans? Really?

Tag Team Title Tournament First Round: BroMans vs. Austin Aries/Bobby Roode

For the fourth match of the night, the good guys attack to start with Robbie getting beaten down by both former World Champions early on. Aries sidesteps an invading Jesse to send him into his partner, setting up the Hennig neck snap for two on Robbie. The BroMans finally get in some offense but get in an argument over who gets to work on Roode. Robbie hooks a chinlock before a clothesline gets two.

Jesse demands a tag and Robbie isn't too keen on doing as he asks. Roode comes back with a neckbreaker to drop both guys and the hot tag brings in Austin. He's quickly stopped by Godderz, but Jesse gets a bit too bossy, allowing Roode to break up the BroDown. Aries knocks Jesse outside for a suicide dive, setting up the spinebuster into the 450 from Aries for the pin on Jesse at 5:20.

Rating: C. This was fine for the most part as Roode and Aries work really well together, but again, they needed to put a wedge between the BroMans? Aries continues to be the most polished guy in the company and pretty easily the best guy around, which hopefully leads him back to the World Title scene soon.

The BroMans fight post match with DJZ coming out to try and break it up.

Homicide is beating up Angle in the back. The fight heads into the arena after a break with Angle getting back into it but eating a cutter in the ring. Angle ducks a boot shot and grabs the ankle lock, drawing in the BDC for the group attack. They bring in a chair but the Rising comes out to get rid of everyone but MVP. Eric Young comes out to stop MVP from bashing Angle with the chair but picks it up himself, only to drop it and leave (in a CRAAAAZY manner of course. Because he's crazy you see).

Video on Ultimate X.

Dollhouse is coming.

Preview for next week's Knockouts show.

Tag Team Titles: Hardys vs. Kenny King/Low Ki vs. Ethan Carter III/Bram vs. Austin Aries/Bobby Roode

Ultimate X. Huge brawl to start with the Hardys and Roode/Aries throwing the other four outside. Roode and Aries start taking over with Matthews continuing to call them by their old name of the Dirty Heels. The Hardys are tossed outside as well and we take a break. Back with the BDC and Bram/Carter clearing the ring for a change with Bram and Carter throwing the BDC to the floor. They decide to bring in a ladder but that's the Hardys game, allowing them to come back in and take over.

The BDC and the Hardys go for the ropes but Tyrus shakes the structure to break it up. Tyrus puts Carter on his shoulders but Aries dropkicks them down before Roode hits the Blockbuster on Bram. Roode gets on Aries' shoulders but Homicide comes in for the save. Now it's King and Matt on the ladder and Hardy hooking a Twist of Fate to put everyone down. Matt climbs up again but Ki springboards onto the ladder for the save. As they fight, Jeff climbs up above the X, kicks Ki away and pulls down the belts, while standing on a ladder of course, to win at 12:06.

Rating: B-. So we sat through an hour and a half of qualifying matches to see eight and a half minutes of a ladder match that TNA calls Ultimate X? Eh at least it's not more Eric Young so I can live with it. This was good enough but the Hardys winning doesn't do much for me. I know it's setting up a big match with the Wolves when they get back but this doesn't do much to change the opinion that the Hardys don't do much outside of gimmick matches.

Overall Rating: C. This felt like an Impact sized version of One Night Only and if you've ever seen one of those, you know how bad that is. The problem here is the title match wasn't good enough to validate the not very good buildup. Other than that we had Eric Young and the BDC tormenting Angle all night, which is about as dull of a one two punch as I've seen in years. It doesn't help that this show felt like it hit the brakes at 9:45 and crawled all the way to the ending, making this far more dull than bad.  One final note: Matthews was actually really good on commentary in a nice surprise.

Results
Hardys b. James Storm/Khoya – Swanton Bomb to Khoya
Kenny King/Low Ki b. Mr. Anderson/Rockstar Spud – King pinned Spud after a Warrior's Way from Ki
Ethan Carter III/Bram b. Tigre Uno/Jay Rios – Brighter Side of Suffering to Rios
Austin Aries/Bobby Roode b. BroMans – 450 to Godderz
Hardys b. Austin Aries/Bobby Roode, Low Ki/Kenny King and Bram/Ethan Carter III – Hardys pulled down the belts

Remember to check out my website at kbwrestlingreviews.com and head over to my Amazon author page with wrestling books for under $4 at:


Comments

  1. "Yep Mode" Abeyance Brown ©April 17, 2015 at 9:17 PM

    I'm legit curious as to where this hate for Eric Young came from?

    ReplyDelete
  2. kbwrestlingreviewsApril 17, 2015 at 9:26 PM

    It comes from the days where he was the insane good guy, doing the EXACT same schtick for weeks on end. Locking up with the referee, stripping etc. I can't stand the same comedy acts over and over again, at least without something to back them up in the ring. It's the same reason why I was never a fan of people like Santino, but at least Santino was never pushed as the World Champion. Young is the epitome of a guy who is where he is because he just stayed. It's similar to Tommy Dreamer in ECW, who I never liked either. Now he's in the main event scene because he was given the title to copy Daniel Bryan last year. That was fine, but since then he hasn't shown me a single reason why he should still be in the spot. Look at last week with Lashley and Angle wrestling circles around him. Young had no business being in that match and is just there because he's been in TNA for years.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I watched TNA for about two straight years, even sitting through the entire Aces and Eights bore fest.

    I haven't watched a minute of TNA since I watched Eric Young win the title in the exact same way that Daniel Bryan did.

    ReplyDelete
  4. because hes a good wrestler and an interesting twist in his character

    ReplyDelete
  5. you've missed a lot of good stuff

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  6. I'm gonna take a wild stab in the dark and guess that your surname is Young.

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  7. Twist? No, no it isn't.

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  8. I actually didn't mind that. He had some decent matches with Magnus, but once he dropped the belt to Lashley, he should have been back to the midcard for life.

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  9. I think it just showed how tone deaf TNA really was. It's like Dixie saw WM30 and thought to herself "the only reason he's over is because of that beard" and didn't realize that he was over because he was extremely talented and a real life underdog.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Based on his previous comments on my Impact reviews, I'm leaning more towards Carter.

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  11. And the whole seven month story thing.

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  12. Wouldn't wanna associate with either one, really.

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  13. Dixie seems to be a very sweet woman. A buddy of mine met her at the TV tapings in New York and said she couldn't have been nicer and that the camera really doesn't do her looks justice. I just don't want her running any sort of wrestling company.

    ReplyDelete
  14. This. I mean people give WWE shit for making Bob Holly a contender for Lesnar, but at least they had a logical story (Brock broke Bob Holly's arm by accident, when Holly came back he wanted revenge.) They just suddenly had Young as a contender for reasons. Stuff. Thangs.

    If Young had spent a year as a serious wrestler, taking the champ to the limit in tag matches etc, then beat him... that could've worked.

    ReplyDelete
  15. He's been in the company for a decade now and his character seems to do a 180 every 6-12 months, going from a idiotic acting comedy character to a serious badass and back again.

    Then he's just pretty much average at everything he does in the ring and on the mic and it all just makes him terribly stale for anyone who's been a constant follower of TNA.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Broke his neck, not his arm.

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  17. Aye, went down last week but I only found about it last night. Cumia did two hours on his show about Opie, Opie did 90 minutes back on O&J the next day, including Opie breaking down in tears. Crazy, sad, stuff!

    ReplyDelete
  18. Best WWE PPVs of 2008 and 2009?

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  19. And this is a perfect example of when people say TNA rush shit too quickly and don't give things time to build. This could have been built up for an entire month by having a match a week and then spending the week hyping up the big ladder match final, but they blow their load in 30 seconds and do it all in 1 show.

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  20. I actually preferred the one night treatment.

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  21. He used to twist to pull his pants down.

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  22. Gaburick is mostly in charge of talent relations and booking.

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  23. Worst super hero movie I ever watched.

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  24. So you'd say you were...LUKEWARM...towards the whole thing? :)

    ReplyDelete
  25. He's like Justin Credible in ECW - hyped beyond his abilities and given a prominent spot because they KNOW he's not going anywhere.

    ReplyDelete
  26. I finally watched about a minute of it. I thought I was watching a Mexican soap opera. Turned the channel before I saw any wrestling.

    ReplyDelete
  27. and blew off sick kids, which makes naming an award after him to give to sick kids who died, pretty fucking awful. Multiple people have corroborated the Bret Hart story about Warrior blowing off a sick kid (and doing it multiples times in general, this was just one specific example). The guy was a horrible human being and I continue to be ashamed the WWE associated with him before and after his death in the last two years.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Roppongi....Roppongi....Roppongi Vice.

    ReplyDelete
  29. ROCK-em SOCK-em Robot!!!!April 18, 2015 at 9:06 AM

    No Mercy and Summerslam 08.

    All of 08 was great.

    ReplyDelete
  30. The match they had against the young bucks was so good.

    ReplyDelete
  31. The Bucks are so awesome. They were doing some great, old school heel stuff that I didn't expect. The bit where they rolled out for the count out, suckered RV into superkicks then raced back in was an awesome new rendition of an old song.

    Also, Rocky throwing Trent into the ring to beat the count was a nice added wrinkle.

    ReplyDelete
  32. Once you get to Tuco, it gets great from there.

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  33. I was okay with it until Ellectro started singing his emotions in dubstep.

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  34. I liked that count out spot also. I never got to see much of Trent before but he did a great job during that match. Do you know what their team name means?

    ReplyDelete
  35. You know the place all the hate for Roman Reigns came from? There.

    And consider that for as much work as his promos need and how much room for improvement there may be with his ringwork, at least there's no denying Reigns LOOKS like a main eventer.

    ReplyDelete
  36. What Rock said plus 24 and Unforgiven 08. Can't go wrong with 2008 for the most part

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  37. Roppongi is a late night party area of Japan, and it's a play on Miami Vice. That's all I've found.

    ReplyDelete
  38. "Yep Mode" Abeyance Brown ©April 18, 2015 at 11:20 AM

    Very understandable reason.

    ReplyDelete
  39. Ahhh, that clears things up. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  40. I see that point. Split the difference, though, and give it some sort of build by giving it at least two weeks?



    No need, to decide the titles in one go. By all means decide the participants.

    ReplyDelete
  41. Exactly. Like with Angle, how long did it take them to do the rematch with Lashley? Two weeks? That could've been a month-long build, at least.

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  42. James Storm seems to be having the same problem Bray Wyatt is having in WWE. They've built him as this evil character but they can only go so far with having him do things that are actually evil because they have TV sponsors and kids to think about.

    ReplyDelete
  43. His biggest run, for mine, was at the redneck rebel. But I need to see that again like a hole in the head.

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  44. Yes, kb, but it's getting boring.

    Your hate for EY is understood by anyone who bothers to read or reply to this thread. Your reasons are also understood and agreed with by many.

    Repeating them and, indeed, finding new poetic ways to express them, isn't adding anything.

    ReplyDelete
  45. You say that like it's been going on for years. It's been three weeks.

    ReplyDelete
  46. Regardless of how they are booked or not, Beat Down Clan have some of my favorite guys in a decade all in one group. Can't argue with that.

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  47. TNA are being harshly treated right now. As far as I can tell, the right guys are on top, the heel faction is kept to the midcard, the 'other' divisions (tag, divas) are being given huge amounts of limelight. They've even found a way to make Anderson interesting again in a comedy tag spot. And in Josh Mathews, they've found a decent voice.

    For all its sins - which are almost infinite - Impact is worth watching right now.

    ReplyDelete
  48. That may be the case. I honestly thought I sounded frustrated.

    ReplyDelete
  49. kbwrestlingreviewsApril 20, 2015 at 2:00 PM

    I'll try to tone it down a bit.

    ReplyDelete

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