Impact Wrestling
Date: September 5, 2013
Location: Wolstein
Center, Cleveland, Ohio
Commentators: Mike
Tenay, Tazz
Reviewed by Tommy Hall
Tonight is the second
end of the Bound For Glory Series as we're having a gauntlet match
for twenty points so we can have one more match to jump someone into
the final four. Also we have Bully Ray vs. Sting, which may or may
not be for the title depending on whether you listen to what Hogan
says or not. Let's get to it.
Some of the
participants in the BFG Series guarantee that they'll win the
gauntlet match tonight.
Here are the Aces and
8's to open things up. Ray insists that they're in total control and
that he's very pleased with his teammates. He hugs the members of
the team and stops to tell Tito that the people are all jealous of
him. Ray especially loves Anderson and gives him an awkward hug.
Tonight the Aces are going to dominate everything.
Knux vs. Chris Sabin
Ray is at ringside and
is already distracting Sabin. Sabin's headlock is easily countered
by the powerful Knux so Sabin wants a test of strength. Chris
suckers him in and wisely goes after the knee with some dropkicks
before wrapping it around the ropes for another dropkick to the knee.
Knux easily slams Sabin down and stops Sabin cold with a big boot.
Sabin is catapulted
throat first into the bottom rope for two and we hit the neck crank.
A belly to back suplex puts Sabin down again and a middle rope
legdrop gets two for Knux. Knux misses a running crotch attack into
the ropes and hurts his knee again. Sabin hits a missile dropkick so
Ray sends in the hammer to Knux, only to have Sabin intercept it and
knock Knux silly for the DQ at 6:00.
Rating: C-.
This was somewhat better than I was expecting but the ending better
be part of a bigger angle. Sabin was world champion about three
weeks ago and now he's losing to Knux? It was a decent big man vs.
little man match though this was a nice surprise given what I was
expecting.
Post break Velvet Sky
yells at Sabin for what he just did but Sabin shouts back at her that
it wasn't his idea. He calms down a bit and Velvet isn't sure what
to do.
Here's Mickie James
with something to say. She talks about being in Cleveland which is
home to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but she's brought her own
trophy instead. She should have been at the VMA Awards and defends
Miley Cyrus. ODB comes out to say this isn't country music land and
that she wants the Knockouts Title. Mickie says she's the star and
jumps ODB before talking a lot of trash. ODB fights back and rips
off Mickie's top in a nice visual.
Bound For Glory
Series: Gauntlet Match
This is for 20 points
and all twelve people in the Series are entered. Two people
(Hernandez and Jay Bradley) will start and every so often (likely a
minute or so) another person will come in. It's over the top
elimination until the final two have a regular match, winner gets
twenty points. Before the fighting starts, Bradley talks about
someone paying him to eliminate people and offers to split with
Hernandez. SuperMex pounds him down and here's Joseph Park at #3.
The intervals are 90 seconds.
Bradley pounds
Hernandez down and goes after ark, only to get caught by some
shoulder blocks to give Park some momentum. Park is knocked to the
apron but Bradley opts to go after SuperMex instead, earning the hard
shoulder block that takes him down. Anderson is #4 and now the
intervals are at two minutes. The entrances will be based on your
standings in the points coming into the match.
Back from a break with
AJ Styles and Samoa Joe now in as well but Park is gone. Kazarian
comes in at #6 to no reaction. The crowd has been dead all night so
far. Anderson goes up top and gets hit with an enziguri to the floor
by Joe for an elimination. Kaz suplexes AJ down but AJ pops right
back up and knocks Kaz down. Daniels is #8 and hopefully things pick
up a bit. Bad Influence goes after AJ before turning their attention
to Joe. A double clothesline misses the Samoan and he clotheslines
both of them down to take over. Neither guy is eliminated so they
put Hernandez out as Jeff Hardy is #9.
We come back from
another break with Roode coming in to complete EGO and stomp on
everyone in sight. Bradley tries to put AJ out but eliminates
himself by mistake. AJ and Kaz go at it but Styles takes his head
off with the dropkick. Aries is #11 and things pick up a little bit.
Not that anything else happens but at least nothing is happening
faster. Magnus is #12 to give us a final grouping of Magnus, Aries,
Joe, Daniels, Roode, Kazarian, Styles and Hardy.
Bad Influence teams up
to get rid of Joe and Roode dumps Hardy to get us down to six.
Magnus dumps Kaz but gets thrown out by Daniels, leaving us with
Roode, Daniels, AJ and Aries. Roode and Aries go at it, only to have
AJ forearm Aries out. Roode misses a charge and goes out, leaving us
with AJ vs. Daniels. AJ hits the flying forearm but can't hook the
Styles Clash. Instead it's the Pele and a clothesline to put Daniels
out, giving AJ the win, 20 points and a spot in the final four at
29:45.
Rating: C-.
This falls into the category of long rather than good. Until the
last few people in there was WAY too much standing around and it got
boring fast. The other problem here is this wasn't necessary at all
since the same result could have been achieved by having AJ win via
submission last week. It wasn't terrible but thirty minutes was WAY
too long for an obvious ending like AJ winning.
The final four are AJ,
Magnus, Aries and Roode. AJ gets to pick his opponent for the
semi-finals next week.
Bully goes off on
Anderson for disappointing him and threatens to break a beer bottle
over Anderson's head.
Sting and Rampage give
us some exposition to cover up Hogan botching the announcement of
Sting vs. Ray tonight.
Gunner/James Storm
vs. Garrett Bischoff/Wes Brisco
Non-title. The Aces
and 8's jump the champions on the ramp but Storm throws Garrett into
the ring to start. Scratch that as they head back to the floor
immediately and the brawling continues with the champions taking
over. We finally get going with Gunner and Storm running over
Garrett and Storm getting two off a bulldog. A knee drop gets the
same but some cheating by Brisco puts Storm in trouble for the first
time.
Storm comes right back
with a Backstabber to Wes and kicks him away for the tag to Gunner.
The Irish Curse gets two on Bischoff as everything breaks down.
Gunner catapults Garrett into a DDT from Storm for two but Brisco
takes James to the floor and sends him into the post. Brisco brings
in a title belt but is instantly caught, allowing Bischoff to pull
out a chain to knock Gunner out for the pin at 6:00.
Rating: D.
The match was dull but I don't have much of a problem with the
ending. It's not like there are a ton of teams challenging Gunner
and Storm so why not these two lunkheads? I had forgotten who the
tag champions were so any feud is better than nothing for them. The
match was dull stuff though, much like the rest of the show so far.
AJ picks Austin Aries
because Aries was the one guy he didn't want to lose to. Aries
doesn't make predictions but says he'll be in the title match at BFG.
That leaves Roode vs. Magnus so Roode talks about how EGO's plan is
coming together. Magnus says he's gotten here on his own with no one
throwing appletinis in people's faces. He has a family though and
will go through anyone he has to in order to get to the world title.
Good stuff from everyone here.
Bully Ray vs. Sting
Non-title, since Hulk
Hogan can't be trusted on a live mic after 30 years of talking. Ray
reminds Sting that this is non-title because of Slammiversary which
brings out Hulk himself. Ortiz is banned from ringside and this
match is now No DQ. Sting hits a quick Stinger Splash before the
bell and throws the champion to the floor as we take our last break.
Back with Sting working
over Ray on the floor in the exact same positions as when we left.
Sting hits him in the back with a chair before we head inside where
Ray gets in chair shots of his own. Ray heads back outside where Taz
hands him a box cutter to cut up the mat like he did at
Slammiversary. Another chair shot keeps Sting down so Ray can rip up
the padding to expose the wood under the mat.
Ray takes too long
though and gets caught in a quick Deathlock, drawing out the Aces and
the Mafia for the required brawl. They fight to the back as Ray
tries the piledriver on the wood. Sting backdrops his way out but
Ray blocks the Death Drop, sending Sting to the at. Ray misses a big
boot and gets caught in the Scorpion. Anderson is still at ringside
and pulls out the hammer but he won't hand it to Ray, forcing Ray to
tap out at 9:48.
Rating: C.
This was your standard Sting brawl with a screwy ending. It wasn't
bad but we've seen the Mafia vs. the bikers so many times now that
it's almost impossible to get fired up for it anymore. Anderson
screwing over Ray furthers the split which is long past due at this
point.
Post match Anderson
confirms what everyone already knew: he's got the title shot against
Ray next week.
Overall Rating: D+.
The show wasn't bad but it felt entirely unnecessary. Next week is
the No Surrender special which doesn't feel like it needs to exist
either. The focus was firmly on the BFG Series and Aces and 8's, but
both of those stories have dragged on for so long that it's hard to
get interested in them anymore. This wasn't a bad show but it went
on forever and got boring quick.
Remember to check out my website at kbwrestlingreviews.com and head over to my Amazon author page with wrestling books for just $4 at:
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2 questions :What's A.J.'s symbol on his hands and gloves supposed to mean? I assume it's supposed to say "A.J." but it doesn't look like it does.
ReplyDeleteIf you're in a fight with no rules, and someone hands you a knife, why would you just modify the scenery then hand the knife back?
Not seen Impact this week, but generally the symbols on AJ's gloves when he puts his hands together says P1... Phenomenal One.
ReplyDeleteI'm guessing they'd hand the knife back because they don't want to murder someone on national television.
ReplyDeleteGood show! Enjoyed the Aces tension (It's not a face turn for Anderson, he's just gonna be the same character).
ReplyDeleteHope AJ goes all the way and faces Bully and gets his raise and all that.
nobody is clamoring for a face anderson
ReplyDeletetna is lucky we're tolerating a heel one
I can't be the only one smelling fingerpoke of doom next week.
ReplyDeleteI said it in the live thread... three (or more) months ago, it's a TREMENDOUS idea.
ReplyDeleteNow... as much as Anderson is despised, he's done enough to deserve this one shot. Not win, but at least try.
Terry Funk tried to smother Ric Flair with a plastic bag on national TV, and Jerry Lawler was hit with a car. It would not surprise me if someone got shanked on TV.
ReplyDeleteI just realized why the Aces wouldn't work in WWE:
ReplyDelete1: Aces Hammer comes out, HHH comes out, pulls sledgehammer from under ring, quips to the unlucky Ace "That's not a hammer... THIS IS A HAMMER!" Sledgie to head follows.
2: Bully tries to sleep with the "VIP" daughter to get ahead... Either way he gets an appointment with HHH and Sledgie. One daughter gets him a couple head shots. The other gets his skull caved in, and loses WWE its PG rating. Permanently. I'll let you decide which is which.
3: As bad as WWE's tag division might be at times... Garrett and Wes couldn't win those belts if they were the ONLY team in the division. Hell, they couldn't win the NXT Tag Titles under those circumstances either.
4: Anderson/Kennedy would be shot by "someone" before he ever entered the locker room.
5: It's not a Vince creation. (This is the only serious one).
Is a swerve still a swerve if everyone sees it coming?
ReplyDeleteAgain, not a horrible show. But there is the same air as 2000 WCW where "The company is dying so none of this matters."
ReplyDelete"This wasn't a bad show but it went on forever and got boring quick."
ReplyDeleteHaha, that sounds pretty awful.
Yet another reason AJ sucks.
ReplyDeleteGetting dqed for hitting your opponent in the head with a hammer is not exactly the same as a 'loss'. When you're concious at the end of the match and your opponent isn't, its hardly the same as getting pinned.
ReplyDelete...tank abbot pulled a knife on nitro and threatened to kill someone...
ReplyDeletewhen put together at the right time of day they tell you in which mesa the ark is buried
ReplyDeleteHe might have gotten the title if he did it too.
ReplyDeleteThat is the dumbest thing I have ever heard. To clarify, I'm not saying your ANSWER is dumb, it's probably true. But P1? Not only is it a dumb attempt at seeming clever, but Undertaker is already the phenom, and Undertaker is maybe the slightest bit more well known than some dude in bike shorts that looks like a teenage dad.
ReplyDeleteAJ is an example of someone who needs a manager
ReplyDeleteCommodore Vince to Sting(after grabbing the gun)-And THAT, as they say, IS THAT! (click click) very funny, BISCHOFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteIf it wasn't for those meddling smarks!
ReplyDelete