Impact
Wrestling
Date: May 1, 2015
Location: Impact Zone,
Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Josh
Matthews, Al Snow
Reviewed by Tommy Hall
This is another special
episode with Hardcore Justice, which was a One Night Only special in
early April. Hopefully this is a bit of a better card as that show
was just a step above a nightmare. Kurt Angle is scheduled to defend
the World Title against Eric Young, but that was the case last week
as well. Let's get to it.
The opening video talks
about making things hardcore tonight.
Davey
Richards/Hardys vs. Revolution
Street fight with
Khoya/Manik/Abyss here and the fight starts in the aisle before we
have time for entrances. Davey hits a nice delayed vertical suplex
on Manik but Khoya is laying waste to Jeff on the floor with a
trashcan lid. Poetry in Motion hits Manik and Abyss takes one as
well but with a chair as a bonus. A Twist of Fate looks to set up
the Swanton on Abyss but Manik makes a save. Khoya muscles Jeff off
the top for a slam and pounds away as this is still all over the
place. Matt cleans house with a chair and some trashcan shots until
Manik takes him down with another trashcan.
Back in and a big Tower
of Doom leaves only Abyss standing but Davey flips out of a chokeslam
attempt and nails Creeping Death to send Abyss outside. Khoya joins
his partner and gets taken down by Davey's suicide dive. Jeff dives
as well, leaving Matt to hit the Side Effect on Manik. Davey hits a
top rope double stomp for two but Abyss makes the save with a
chokeslam. We get Abyss' old crotching himself on a chair spot,
setting up the Twist and Swanton for the pin for Jeff at 9:43.
Rating:
C+. Well that was fun. There's
no sarcasm there as these guys kept it moving for nearly ten minutes
and just beat each other up. The built in story of the Revolution
destroying Eddie Edwards and Jeff gave the match a purpose and the
brawling held up. Good opener here.
James
Storm comes out and tells Abyss that he's failed once too often.
Mr.
Anderson liked interrupting EC3 last week and has a campaign sign of
his own for tonight.
Package
on Billy Corgan coming to TNA. This could be good, but it could also
be a disaster.
Here's Mr. Anderson
wearing a tie and behind a podium. He doesn't care about campaign
promises, but he does want to see Ethan Carter III getting a
whipping. This brings out Carter with Tyrus holding a campaign sign.
Fans: “YOU CAN'T WRESTLE!” Anderson: “They think you can't
wrestle.”
Anderson says that if
Carter wants the title, then he needs to come take it. Carter
mentions being undefeated and that gets Anderson to his point. He
unveils his own sign, which says Mr. Anderson to beat the streak.
That sounds like a step beneath conquering but close enough.
Anderson wants a match on the live show May 8 (first mention of the
match being live) but thinks we should let the fans vote. The match
is on without any voting but Carter warns Anderson to tread lightly.
This election gimmick is money.
X-Division
Title: Kenny King vs. Mandrews vs. Tigre Uno vs. Rockstar Spud
Spud, who has injured
ribs coming in, is defending in this ladder match. Everyone busts
out the dives to start with Mandrews topping them all with a huge
shooting star press to take out King and Uno. King makes a quick
save as Spud is still down on the floor. Tigre catapults the ladder
into Mandrews and King, only to have Spud shove the ladder over for
the save. King nails Spud in the bad ribs but walks into a tornado
DDT off the ladder. Tigre plants Mandrews with a kind of reverse
Samoan drop, only to have Spud shoves him off the top.
King goes back to the
bad ribs with a hard ladder shot to the bandages until Mandrews
knocks Kenny to the floor. It's Uno with the save this time as he
takes Mandrews down with a C4 off the ladder. Spud wins a slugout
with King but Kenny kicks him in the bad ribs. Tigre springs onto
the ladder but get slammed down. The distraction lets Spud get back
up, remove the bowtie, and bite King's face. A big right hand knocks
King down but Homicide breaks it up, sending the bad ribs down onto
another ladder. King gets up and wins the title at 7:54.
Rating:
C. What happened to this
division? It used to be one of the highlights of the company but I
can't remember the last time there was a story that didn't involve
Option C and Destination X. It's a title match, a few random
matches, then a big multi-man mess with four to seven guys fighting
for the belt and maybe one personality between them. Yeah the spots
are cool, but I'd love to see someone actually make the division mean
something again, even for a little bit.
Quick
recap of Angle vs. Young.
We
get to the voting for Carter vs. Anderson
next week: you can vote for arm wrestling or a falls count anywhere
match. The voting idea is cool, but does TNA have an app? You're
not a real wrestling company if you don't have an app. And if TNA
does have one, HOW MANY TIMES HAS IT BEEN DOWNLOADED??? THIS IS
VITAL INFORMATION TO MY ABILITY TO BE A WRESTLING FAN!
Here's Eric Young with
a stretcher. Angle has wanted to see the real Eric Young, but the
real version of him has been the one that has put everyone on a
stretcher just like this. Tonight he has Kurt Angle in a non-title
match, but that's what Young wants. That means he can hurt Angle all
he wants and put him out forever. See, Young is crazy because he has
big eyes. You know who else has big eyes and is basically the exact
same character as Young, but with a lot more energy and presence.
The Beat Down Clan is
ready to take Drew Galloway down in the pipe on a pole match.
Rockstar Spud feels
like he's been robbed because his name was on a list with Jerry Lynn
and AJ Styles. He'll get his title back. Spud showed good emotion
here and he's growing on me more every time I see him.
Dollhouse promo with
Taryn acting all psycho. She's not worried about Brooke because it's
playtime. This is their house. The Dollhouse.
Knockouts
Title: Brooke vs. Taryn Terrell
Taryn is defending but
Brooke knocks her into the corner and out to the floor to start.
Back in and some neckbreakers get two for Brooke but Jade trips her
up, allowing Taryn to take over. She rubs Brooke's face into the
mat, starting a discussion of what the mat feels like. It's not
really funny, but at least it's not Tazz and Tenay chattering.
A standing Curb Stomp
looks to set up a high cross body from the champ but Brooke half
dodges half falls out of the way. She nails a middle rope X-Factor
but the Dollhouse pulls Taryn outside. That's fine with Brooke who
dives on all of them with a nice plancha. Back in and Marti offers a
distraction, allowing Jade to shove Brooke off the top. Taryn's
cutter retains the title at 7:18.
Rating:
C. Not bad here but there was
no doubt about who was going to win here. They're setting up a cool
idea here with the Dollhouse being unbeatable and saying no one can
beat her. That sounds like the calling card for one more match from
Mickie James, who might just win the title and have one more run to
further the wedge between her and Magnus?
The
Dollhouse celebrates but Gail Kim comes out. Taryn points out that
it's three on one but Kong comes out to help even things up. The
Dollhouse isn't so sure now.
Slammiversary
will be on pay per view on June 28.
Video
on the Rising.
Low
Ki vs. Drew Galloway
Pipe
on a pole match, the second one I've seen Drew in in three days.
Galloway has bad ribs coming
in. They quickly head
outside with the fans holding Low Ki for chops from Drew. Chair
shots are exchanged with
Drew getting the better of it but not being able to get the pipe.
Drew can't hit a powerbomb onto the chair so
Ki fires off kicks to the ribs. It's not enough to get the pipe
down, but Ki kicks Drew onto
the chair and hits a Warrior's Way to drive the ribs into the steel.
That's
only good for two of course, but suddenly Ki remembers the pipe.
Drew pops up to his feet and
slugs it out on the top with
the pipe falling to the floor. Ki knocks him into the Tree of Woe
but misses another Warrior's Way, allowing Drew to get the pipe. A
shot to the ribs gets two on Galloway but he hits a quick Future
Shock onto the chair (which doesn't hurt his ribs whatsoever) for the
pin at 7:25.
Rating:
D+. Other than the story, there
was zero need for this to be a pipe match and the pipe didn't even
play into the finish. It's basically the same problem that killed
the other pipe on a pole match, but at least they used the pipe here.
I'm still not seeing the point of this feud, but this match didn't
help things.
The BDC and the Rising
come out for a big brawl.
We recap Storm talking
Mickie James out of her retirement last week.
Mickie James was filmed
earlier today when James Storm came up to her at the market.
Thankfully they were both mic'd up when Storm asked to hold Mickie
and Magnus' son.
Magnus is in the ring
but Storm cuts him off before he can say anything. Storm says he
wasn't the one that said Mickie should have one more match but Magnus
is getting annoyed. Mickie isn't one of the Revolution lost souls
and Storm can't manipulate her. Storm smiles and says it was Magnus
who hired a camera crew. He implies that he and Mickie used to be a
thing and wonders why Mickie didn't tell him about running into Storm
in the parking lot. Good night how much better is Storm as the
devil's advocate instead of leading the horrible Revolution?
Angle says tonight is
about violence and Young is leaving on a stretcher.
Eric
Young vs. Kurt Angle
Non-title stretcher
match but you win by strapping your opponent to a stretcher, meaning
no line to cross. Angle has a bruised knee and chest coming in.
They trade stomps to start with Young throwing Kurt to the floor.
Both guys are rammed into the steps with Angle getting the better of
it, only to get sent hard into the post as we take a break. Back
with Angle reversing a whip but getting punched in the jaw. A
release belly to belly puts Young down but Eric sends him outside.
Young stomps him onto the steps to put Angle down, allowing him to
finally get the stretcher.
Angle can't hit the
German off the apron but he can roll the Germans back inside. The
third one causes a turnbuckle pad to be ripped off but they fall to
the floor with Kurt still holding the grip. A low blow with Young's
shin guard slows Kurt down but the piledriver is countered into a
catapult into the post. Angle hits the Slam on the floor but can't
strap Young onto the stretcher. The piledriver is countered into the
ankle lock but Eric rolls him into the buckle. Now a pair of
piledrivers connect and Young straps him to the stretcher for the win
at 15:21.
Rating:
C. And my eyes roll again.
There's no crazy, there's no reason to believe Young is winning the
title in the likely title match next week, there's no reason for
Young to have this spot over his English counterpart and there's no
reason to believe we're not getting Carter vs. Angle in the actually
interesting feud. I can't
stand this story as it's just killing time until we get to the feud
people actually want to see. Again, if Young actually acted crazy, I
might care a little bit, but his matches are just standard heel
matches with a piledriver as a finisher. It
gets old hearing HE'S CRAZY when there's no actual evidence of him
being crazy.
Overall
Rating: C-. This didn't do it
for me as the hardcore stuff didn't change much. I like a lot of the
places they're going and next week has potential to be interesting,
but they MUST get past this Young main event run as he's just not in
Angle's league. Storm vs.
Magnus, Gail/Kong vs. the Dollhouse and Galloway vs. the BDC are all
good though and I could go for Spud fighting to get his title back as
well. It's a passable show, but the hardcore stuff didn't add much.
Results
Hardys/Davey Richards
b. Revolution – Swanton Bomb to Abyss
Kenny King b. Rockstar
Spud, Tigre Uno and Mandrews – King pulled down the title
Taryn Terrell b. Brooke
– Cutter
Drew Galloway b. Low Ki
– Future Shock on a chair
Eric Young b. Kurt
Angle – Young strapped Angle to a chair
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Thanks for the review, and thanks for preventing me wasting 2 hours of my life.
ReplyDeleteTNA still sounds shit. (And I was a supporter from 2008 to about 2013)
It's actually quite entertaining at the moment. The main event scene is dull but Angle vs. Carter should be good stuff.
ReplyDeleteEric Young as a main eventer (especially a scary psycho... I mean, really) and this Revolution nonsense is a turn off.
ReplyDeleteNot to mention the Beat Down Clan. Seriously?! Who the fuck come up with that name? I could genuinely do better, and that's when I turn off.
Is Impact on Hulu?
ReplyDeleteI think it's an in joke between them.
ReplyDeleteI have thought Carter was money from the time he came in this promotion. I absolutely love this guy.
ReplyDeleteHe came off as SUUUUUUUUUCH a geek in WWE. I'm astounded at how he did a complete 180 in TNA.
ReplyDeleteRequired question, since this show featured a "___ on a pole" match:
ReplyDeleteAre we ABSOLUTELY SURE Vince Russo isn't secretly working for TNA again?
EC3 and Spud are too good for TNA.
ReplyDeleteHoping that Angle beats EY next week and they are done feuding. Angle vs. EC3 is going to be a great feud as they feuded briefly last year before Angle's injury and it was getting really fun. EY needs to stay in the midcard or tags. Ratings have been stagnant with him in the main event scene and even dropped a ton when he was World champion last year.
ReplyDeleteNah, they are perfect for then. Reminder that in WWE or NXT, they would have been repackaged and all their personality sucked out of them.
ReplyDeleteSounds like you don't want to watch it, no matter how good it is. Have you not been reading the reviews that tommys giving?
ReplyDeleteSince about a year, they've had one of the best runs of their history. Shame that you stopped watching.
Hell, EC3 WAS in the WWE. And we all know how well that worked out.
ReplyDeleteBoth of them seem like the type who'd fight to get any gimmick over. Spud was in some of the worst Impact segments, but the dude refuses to give up. He fights to make what he's in work. He's like Daniel Bryan, there's no quit or 'eh, I'll slum it' in him.
ReplyDelete