Impact
Wrestling
Date:
October 17, 2013
Location:
Cox Business Arena, Tulsa, Oklahoma
Commentators:
Mike Tenay, Taz
It's
the go home show for Bound for Glory and the card is almost entirely
set. The focus of the show will likely be just polishing everything
up and giving us the hard push to Sunday. Odds are we'll also get
some development on the Dixie Is Evil story which seems to be where
we're headed after the big show. Let's get to it.
We
open with a recap of last week's events with Angle returning and
Sting angering Magnus by getting the pin in their tag match.
Here's
Dixie to open the show, flanked by two goons with one carrying a
briefcase. She talks about being an artist like Michelangelo but she
has to deal with a redneck like AJ Styles slinging paint everywhere.
This coming Sunday is going to be her masterpiece but she what if AJ
doesn't make it there? The fans chant WE WANT HOGAN as Dixie offers
a $50,000 bounty to anyone that can keep AJ out of the main event of
Bound For Glory.
This
brings out Bully and Brooke with Bully saying that he took out AJ
last week so he'd be glad to do it again for the $50,000 (clearly
fake money in the briefcase). Cue Magnus to say that 12 men over 3
months fought for a chance to be the #1 contender, but now the title
shot might go to whomever takes out AJ Styles tonight.
Magnus
starts a Dixie Sucks chant and says that $50,000 is a lot of money to
him, but he'll fight Bully Ray right here tonight for free. Ray
praises Magnus and says that Sting believes in him, but Magnus hasn't
proven himself yet. He's a disappointment, just like everyone else
in Oklahoma. Magnus drops him with one punch and Ray bails to the
floor. The match is on for later tonight.
Ray
gives Bischoff and Knux a pep talk. Things seem to be ok and if Knux
needs Ray's help in his match with Gunner tonight, just throw up the
signal.
Christopher
Daniels vs. Robbie E. vs. Hernandez vs. Eric Young
The
winner of this gets the final spot for his team in the gauntlet match
on the preshow with the winning team getting a title shot at the PPV.
Robbie and Young get us going but Young tags in Hernandez for the
slingshot shoulder to E. Robbie brings in Daniels who has to escape
the over the shoulder backbreaker but gets caught in the choke suplex
for two. A cheap shot from Robbie takes Hernandez to the floor
before he comes in legally and gets two off a middle rope elbow.
SuperMex
comes back with a double clothesline to take down Daniels and Robbie,
allowing for the tag off to Eric. Daniels and Robbie get in an
argument (despite not being a team), allowing Hernandez to do the
running clothesline from the ramp. Hernandez misses a splash in the
corner and falls out to the floor before Eric suplexes Daniels down.
Robbie makes a blind tag in and pins Daniels off the top rope elbow
from Young at 5:18.
Rating:
D+. This might as well have
been a tag match until the ending which is about all you can expect
out of something like this. Odds are we're getting Chavo and
Hernandez vs. Gunner/Storm because that's the least interesting match
out of the options available. Nothing match but it wasn't too bad.
AJ
fights off Jesse Godderz.
Here's
AJ to the ring with something to say. He talks about Dixie being
desperate by sending everyone after him because she knows he's
winning at Bound For Glory. She'll pay after the PPV but tonight, he
isn't running and hiding so come get paid. This brings out Knux and
Bischoff but AJ jumps them as they come in. This brings out James
Storm and Gunner to clear the ring with Storm staring AJ down but
letting him go.
Gunner
vs. Knux
Bischoff
immediately grabs Gunner's leg to give Knux the early advantage.
Gunner comes back with a hard clothesline and pounds away, only to be
sent into the middle buckle to stop him cold. Another clothesline
puts Gunner down before Knux drives him into the corner. Gunner
finally slams him into the corner before a double clothesline puts
both guys down. Storm spits beer in Bischoff's face as Gunner makes
his comeback and hits a decent fallaway slam on the big Knux. He
can't hook the Gun Rack so Knux gets two off a cross body of all
things. Knux calls for Bully, allowing Gunner to spear him down for
the pin at 5:03.
Rating:
C-. Knux looked decent here,
but why aren't Knux and Bischoff at least in the gauntlet match on
Sunday? It would at least give them something to do and add to the
match a bit. A four team gauntlet isn't much to see but it could be
worse I guess. As long as Gunner doesn't become the 194th
wrestler to use the spear I'll be ok with him.
Chris
Sabin is going for the bounty.
Knux
and Bischoff want to know where Bully was. It's going to be
interesting the next time he wants their help.
We
recap Lei'D Tapa's attacks on the Knockouts.
Gail
Kim suggests an alliance with Brooke to take care of Tapa but she's
not interested.
Video
on the Ultimate X match.
Sabin
asks a security guard if he's seen the not-so-Phenomenal AJ Styles
but finds Joe instead. Joe threatens him with violence both tonight
and Sunday so Sabin backs away.
Chris
Sabin vs. Samoa Joe
Joe
takes him into the corner to start but gets poked in the eye to slow
him down. A flurry of punches take Sabin down in turn and there's a
running elbow into the standing enziguri. Sabin bails to the floor
to avoid the running boot in the corner before firing off chops and
punches with Joe selling nothing at all.
Sabin
tries to bail but Joe grabs him on the ramp, only to have Chris slam
him onto the steel. Joe dives back in to beat the count at nine and
catches a charging Sabin in a release Rock Bottom out of the corner.
A boot to the chest and the backsplash gets two for Joe but Sabin
comes back with a springboard tornado DDT for two. Not that it
matters as Joe grabs a quick Koquina Clutch for the win at 5:17.
Rating:
C. Nice match here to preview
the big title match on Sunday but a bit more high flying would have
helped. Granted these aren't the best choices for flying given that
Sabin is a heel and that Joe is fat, but it wasn't a bad match at
all. Sabin is rocking the heel character so at least his world title
reign was only mostly worthless.
Post
match Aries, Hardy and Manik come in for a big brawl. Hardy pulls in
a ladder, allowing Manik to dive onto Aries and Sabin.
Bad
Influence goes after AJ but he holds them off with a fire
extinguisher.
Ethan
Carter III debuts at Bound For Glory.
Bully
Ray vs. Magnus
Non-title
of course. Feeling out process to start with Magnus grabbing a
headlock for early control. Ray shoves him away but gets
clotheslined, allowing Magnus to go up top and get crotched as we
take a break. Back with Ray throwing Magnus down and posing a lot
before missing a big elbow drop. They're going very lightly here so
far.
Magnus
wins a quick slugout and clotheslines Bully down to speed things up a
bit. A big boot puts Ray down and the top rope elbow gets two.
Magnus charges into the referee by mistake so Ray gets the chain,
drawing out Sting for the save. The referee throws Sting out,
allowing Ray to low blow Magnus for the pin at 10:42.
Rating:
D. This was really boring stuff
and the ending was never in doubt. Obviously you can't put anyone
over the world champion three days before the biggest show of the
year but it did advance the Sting vs. Magnus story a bit more. I'm
guessing they were going slowly to avoid any injuries for Sunday,
which is a constant problem with go home shows.
Magnus
isn't pleased with Sting but they don't come to blows.
Post
break Magnus yells at Sting for getting in his business. Sting says
he'll be alone on Sunday.
We
run down the BFG card.
Here's
Angle with his first comments since being back. Kurt says it's good
to be home before talking about Bobby Roode being great. He even
reminds Angle of himself about five years ago. However, Roode is
just one of the great ones at the moment rather than being one of the
best of all time. When Roode starts messing with Angle's legacy,
that makes it personal. This brings out Roode to says he's ok with
not being Kurt Angle. Roode says he wanted to be Kurt Angle years
ago but now, Angle hasn't done anything at all.
The
only thing Roode remembers Angle doing recently was beating Roode two
years ago at Bound For Glory. That was Roode's wakeup call and the
reason he won the world title which he held longer than anyone,
including Angle. Roode says he'll win on Sunday but Angle says he'll
make Roode tap. Roode sucker punches Kurt and here's the rest of EGO
to send Angle shoulder first into the post. Angle gets put in the
Crossface to damage his shoulder even worse.
Here
are Dixie, AJ and Ray for the contract signing. Ray signs and says
he'll keep it simple: AJ can't beat him no matter what he does on
Sunday. He talks about Flair vs. Rhodes from 1985 and the Hard Times
that Dusty talked about Flair putting wrestling through. Ray has put
wrestling through hard times over the last year by getting rid of
Sting, Sabin and Hogan. Ray is going to put AJ on hard times and
send him back to the trailer park in Georgia, where AJ's family
probably won't be waiting. He's the Darth Vader of professional
wrestling and AJ isn't Luke Skywalker.
AJ
says he appreciates Ray's story but he's no Ric Flair and AJ is no
Dusty Rhodes. This is the future instead of the past and Ray doesn't
deserve to compare himself to Bully Ray. AJ has to win on Sunday
because he has nothing to lose. He has to win to make Dixie beg and
take everything away from Bully Ray. AJ signs but Ray says he takes
it back. He's not putting the title on the line but he will take the
$50,000 right now. Ray swings the chain but gets hit with the
briefcase. AJ throws the money at Dixie and her security so a
staredown can end the show.
Overall
Rating: C. The show did a good
job of selling what Bound For Glory has to offer, but the show really
doesn't have a flare to it. This Sunday's show feels like any other
show but it happens to be the biggest show of the year. Nothing on
it feels really special and the big moment is going to be what?
Hogan returning? After nearly four years of sitting through him, two
weeks of no Hogan doesn't make a return mean anything. Decent show
tonight but it doesn't change how I feel about Sunday at all.
Results
Robbie
E. b. Eric Young, Hernandez and Christopher Daniels – Robbie pinned
Daniels after a top rope elbow from Young
Gunner
b. Knux – Spear
Samoa
Joe b. Chris Sabin – Koquina Clutch
Bully
Ray b. Magnus – Low blow
Remember to check out my website at kbwrestlingreviews.com and head over to my Amazon author page with wrestling books for just $4 each at:
http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6
"They will fuck it up by October"
ReplyDeleteFuj... in April
Must pro wrestling be run by morons? Sports entertainment gets to exist, but not wrestling. Hint for future marks: trying to do sports entertainment will fail. Do wrestling.
ReplyDeleteTo be fair, guessing TNA will fuck up their year by October is as easy as guessing that the sun will rise in the morning.
ReplyDeleteif bully is the darth vader of wrestling, he needs to go "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!" when he loses
ReplyDeleteIm gonna play devil's advocate for a second. Normally, I'm with you. Logical wrestling works. It might be dull but it works. NJPW is proof but then again its Japan and the culture of wrestling is different.
ReplyDeleteAnyways,
Look at ROH, I think its safe to say they book wrestling too seriously. They are having troubles as of late.
On the flipside, look at CHIKARA, they book wrestling the exact opposite and they are having troubles as well.
I think with the growth of a promotion, you need to have subtle changes until you are in the green enough to sustain yourself. CHIKARA could have started out with joke wrestlers and parodies of wrestling, but eventually it would get old.
Same as ROH starting out as serious as it was, it got old.
My pipe dream would have been for any indy promtion to have 3 bookers, booking different spots of the car for 6 months, then rotating.
Example.
You got Gabe, Cornette and Delerious in ROH at the same time. Gabe books the top, Corny books the tag, Delirious books the middle/openers.
At the 4 month mark, everybody starts to wrap up their 6 month plan in their respective spot, then the new guy comes in to either continue the previous story of start fresh.
You could not have told this blog 6 months ago. I was re-reading the Impacts then and the subsequent comments.
ReplyDeleteIt was delusion.
I am honest when I say that wrestling fans have ADHD or no long term memory these days.
Are we still talking about TNA like it means something?
ReplyDeleteA.J. vs Bully main event? I ain't buying
ReplyDeleteNot delusion as much as hope. Hope that there would be a viable, watchable #2 for the first time since the Fingerpoke of Doom. (It's honestly not fun to watch WCW go down the shitter, yes, my opinion.)
ReplyDeleteThat TNA managed to fuck it up so unspectacularly isn't a major surprise, just a major disappointment.
Trying to do WWE "style" will fail. Leave that to the "experts", and focus on what you can do best.
ReplyDeleteSix months ago I found TNA legitimately fun to watch. Then the Bad People took over again. I don't have super high expectations, just wanting a wrestling show that makes sense and had characters that are interesting. They fucked that up nicely.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny that there isn't a traditional pro wrestling promotion out there, the kind that offered a little of everything. ROH is boring and CHIKARA is stupid, but combining the two with the rasslin' TNA was offering for a second would make a pretty fun show. I'd totally watch a TNA/CHIKARA/ROH joint show.
ReplyDeleteYou're correct. I was pretty positive that TNA was getting a WCW 97 feel to it and you commented TNA would fuck it up
ReplyDeleteWhat an awful way to head into your biggest PPV. No buy from me.
ReplyDeleteI would like TNA to have a booking committee do that.
ReplyDeleteThe bad part about it is that the match will probably be great, technically. Bully usually has been working to the level of his opponent and above all else AJ Styles is still AJ Styles in the ring.
ReplyDeleteits just the match is devoid of heat, drama and filled with apathy at this point.
It should have been Bully just beating down and berating TNA for months on end, dominating guys left and right and AJ out of the dust and smoke stepping up to defend TNAs honor.
What we have is Dixie, as an on-air talent, heeling terribly on your #1 face, while Bully is the heel champion, heeling on the #1 face.
The only way this angle could be any worse is if Bully walks out the champion.
At this point, I would not be shocked.
HOT TAKE
ReplyDeleteI can see Bully retaining and then the show ends ala WM9 with Hogan coming out. Brooke issues a challenge to Hulk, Hulk comes in and Bully misses with chain. Hulk hits the Axe Bomber and covers for the win and the title! I'm sure someone is not going to like Brooke playing the Fuji role, but it fits.
ReplyDeleteThey fucked it up by July so they sped up the decline by three months just to try to prove you wrong.
ReplyDeleteThe Gov't shutdown took away his EBT card money.
ReplyDeleteHe had 100K
50K in money
50K in food stamps.