Impact
Wrestling
Date:
June 12, 2014
Location:
Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Commentators:
Mike Tenay, Tazz
Reviewed by Tommy Hall
It's
the go home show for Slammiversary and the big story is of course a
war between Dixie Carter and MVP because where would we be without
the focus being on Dixie? The problem with Impact's taping schedule
rears its head again tonight and this weekend though as MVP is
injured and may not be able to go on Sunday, so everything tonight
may mean nothing at all. Let's get to it.
We
open with a video narrated by MVP, talking about how he's risen to
power.
Here's
Eric Young in gear to open the show. Young says this Sunday is the
biggest match of his career but he wants to say something to the trio
in person. MVP comes out and explains that he and Dixie don't see
things the same so Eric has MVP's undivided attention. Eric is ready
for Sunday but MVP says he's still half man and half amazing, so
after he takes the title on Sunday, Eric can go back to fishing.
After
the plug for Young's fishing show, Eric asks that Sunday be a fair
fight. MVP likes the idea but he can't guarantee that Lashley and
King can control themselves. Young says he has no problem with
losing a fair fight, but getting beaten down three on one isn't
wrestling. He's willing to do anything to make sure it's even on
Sunday and MVP likes the sound of that.
Young
can pick the stipulation on Sunday, if Eric can beat all three of
them in one night. King says Eric couldn't beat two of them but Eric
is ready to try. MVP is willing to give Eric a break and says Eric
can pick the stipulations if he wins 2/3. The deal is made and it's
Lashley up first.
Eric
Young vs. Bobby Lashley
Eric
hammers away to start but gets drilled with forearms in the corner.
A backdrop puts Bobby down but Eric comes back with a running forearm
that appeared to mostly miss. Young avoids a charge in the corner
but does a Flair Flip into the sliding sunset flip. Lashley will
have none of that though and launches Eric to the floor.
Eric
is sent into the steps and comes up holding his back. Lashley is no
idiot and puts on a torture rack followed by an over the shoulder
backbreaker. Young punches his way out and nails a nice dropkick
before stopping a charging Bobby with two boots in the corner. He
jumps off the corner into the Dominator powerslam though and Lashley
gets the pin at 5:11.
Rating:
D+. Basic match here and I
already don't like the booking here. Young went from fresh to pinned
clean in less than six minutes three days before a PPV title defense.
You have Young beat King before this match and then have him lose to
Lashley to protect him and get the same result. Why is that so hard?
Lashley
goes after Young again but Samoa Joe makes the save.
Willow
says he's bruised but not broken. He'll turn the tide tonight
because patience is on vacation.
Eric
Young can't stand up but says he has to go back out there.
Samoa
Joe says this is the latest sign of a problem with MVP.
Here
are Bram and Magnus in street clothes with something to say. Bram
talks about how Magnus was treated so badly and turned into someone
Bram didn't know. Magnus says he and Bram are unstoppable and
they've made Jeff Hardy so scared that he's gotten a new identity.
Willow comes out and says he's from Jeff Hardy's Imagin-I-Nation and
says he goes where Jeff can't.
Willow
vs. Magnus is set for Sunday and Willow says they'll (as in himself
and someone else) will celebrate. Bram: “You and Jeff Hardy?
YOU'RE THE SAME BLOODY PERSON!” Willow admits that he's Hardy and
says someone will be in his corner on Sunday. Bram asks who and it's
Abyss, who comes out to clean house.
Ethan
Carter III says his aunt isn't here tonight but he'll take care of
the family business. They're the Carters after all.
Robbie
E. vs. Knux
The
comedy story continues as Robbie is terrified of clowns, including
Crazy Steve at ringside. Robbie hits on Rebel but The Freak easily
chases him off. Robbie's right hands are stopped by a Steve
distraction, allowing Knux to hit a nice running cross body. E.
comes back with a nice middle rope clothesline but DJZ and Steve get
in a horn off. Knux splashes Robbie in the corner as the Freak takes
care of the other Bro Mans. Back in and a nice Sky High pins Robbie
at 3:09.
Rating:
D+. Not much to see here but
that Sky High was really nice, as was Rebel. At the end of the day,
the division needs challengers for the Wolves but one of the few
teams is being wasted in this comedy feud. To be fair though, the
Bro Mans are comedy characters so what else do you expect?
Post
match Steve attaches balloons to Robbie's back to freak him out.
EC3
and Spud are talking in the back when Brooke returns. She doesn't
say anything but she returns.
Ethan
and Spud are in the ring with three chairs set up. Ethan brings out
Brooke as he plans on exposing the past sins of Bully Ray. He asks
Brooke if she was in a relationship with Ray and asks why it's over.
Carter accuses Ray of being an alcoholic and trying to put Brooke
through a table but Brooke denies it. Spud says he can't deal with
this anymore because he has the results. Apparently Ray IS the
father, even though Brooke hasn't had a baby. Spud produces pictures
of Ray next to an angry looking kid but Ethan is annoyed. He
threatens Brooke until Ray comes out and runs them off.
Before
he deals with Carter and Spud, Ray wants to apologize to Brooke. He
treated her horribly despite her being an amazing girlfriend. Now
Ray is in a better place in his life and wants to wish Brooke the
best. They hug and Ethan sounds like he's gagging. Ethan and Ray
argue for a bit until Ethan challenges Ray to a tables match on
Sunday, because Ray is putting Dixie through a table over Ethan's
dead body. Ray loves the idea of a dead body and starts a chant
about it, but he'll decline the tables match. Instead, since we'll
be in Carter Country in Dallas, let's make it a Texas death match.
Ethan says it's on.
MVP
tells Kenny King to keep focused out there tonight.
Kenny
King vs. Eric Young
Second
match in Young's 2/3 challenge tonight. Young gets armdragged down
to start and his back is already bothering him. They head to the
floor with the champion in even more trouble. Back in and Young
shoves him off the top, only to get slammed down for his troubles.
Young avoids a springboard Swanton Bomb and nails the piledriver out
of nowhere for the pin at 5:12.
Rating:
D+. This didn't have time to go
anywhere and the outcome was already completely clear. I still don't
get why this wasn't in another order, but it's TNA so this isn't the
biggest problem that they have to deal with. It also doesn't help
that the fans are already sick of seeing the same people over and
over again and now they get to see the same guy three times in one
night.
Eric
says he'll keep fighting.
Brittany
vs. Madison Rayne vs. Gail Kim
Winner
gets Angelina on Sunday. Brittany and Madison double team Gail to
start but Madison won't high five her. Gail dropkicks both of them
to the floor and does it again through the ropes. Cue the Beautiful
People as we take a break. Back with the Beautiful People on
commentary and Madison hitting a headsicssors on Gail, followed by a
slow motion victory roll for two. Gail puts a leg choke on Brittany
but gets caught in a cross armbreaker by Madison.
That
makes Gail let go of her hold but she rolls Madison up for two. Kim
goes up top but gets caught in a double superplex (with her
thankfully kicking off the post to make it easier for them) to put
all three down. Madison nails Brittany but gets sent to the floor as
a result. Gail puts Brittany in the figure four around the post as
the Beautiful People come out to ringside. Kim runs Brittany over as
Angelina distracts the referee. Velvet sprays Brittany in the eyes
by mistake, allowing Gail to hit Eat Defeat for the pin at 10:09.
Rating:
D+. This gives us I believe the
284th
title match between Angelina and Gail. That's the problem with the
entire Knockouts division as a whole: it's the same core group of
about five girls having the same feuds and the same matches over and
over and over with only occasionally someone jumping into the
division, getting a title run, then leaving it back to the core
group. Just please find a new direction for the next 8 years so I
don't have to watch the Beautiful People vs. Gail/Madison again.
MVP
is talking to Brian Hebner and says it's going to be a fair main
event.
We
run down the PPV card. The only added match is King vs. Aries.
MVP
vs. Eric Young
If
Young wins he gets to pick the stipulation. Lashley and King jump
Young in the aisle before the bell and we take a break about five
seconds after the match starts. Back with MVP staying on Young'
sback and putting him in a camel clutch before just letting it go so
he can get two off an uppercut. A wicked powerbomb gets two and a
buckle bomb sets up the running boot to the face in the corner for a
close two on the champion. MVP grabs a chair to sit in and talk some
trash but Young is starting to get up. Instead MVP picks up the
chair to blast Eric in the back for the DQ at 10:14.
Rating:
C. The match made sense and at
least they didn't give it a clean finish. MVP being the cocky heel
makes sense and going after the back as much as he did makes even
more sense, but I've over this feud already. MVP almost has to win
the title on Sunday, if nothing else to end this over done Eric Young
title reign.
MVP
says pick whatever stipulation you want and poses with the belt. The
trio leaves and Young makes it a cage match to end the show.
Overall
Rating: C-. This was
significantly better than most of their previous shows but it still
had its issues. First and foremost, WAY too much Eric Young, which
is another incarnation of the same issue they've been having time
after time now: too much of the same idea, meaning that if you don't
like that one idea, there's no need for you to watch the show. The
stuff they had wasn't terible and it set up the payoff at the end
well enough, but I don't really want to see Young for a fourth time
in three days.
Other
than that, the show wasn't that bad and they did a good job of
setting up the show on Sunday. That's TNA in a nutshell: the payoff
is usually decent, but man alive is it hard to get through the
buildup. The wrestling was pretty standard tonight, but a lot of
angles were advanced and you can see the logical matches coming on
Sunday.
However,
a five match card with a comedy match, a Knockouts three way and then
three Eric Young matches (including the World Title match three days
before the pay per view) doesn't do it for me, especially when there
were so many people (Aries, Anderson and Storm to be exact) that
didn't get any time tonight. Also the X-Division is having a multi
man ladder match on Sunday and wasn't mentioned at all here. That's
TNA for you: they do some ok stuff, but it's at a bad expense of
other stuff.
Results
Bobby
Lashley b. Eric Young – Dominator
Knux
b. Robbie E. – Sky High
Eric
Young b. Kenny King – Piledriver
Gail
Kim b. Brittany and Madison Rayne – Eat Defeat to Brittany
Eric
Young b. MVP via DQ when MVP used a chair
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
Why does anyone still watch this show?
ReplyDeleteIsn't there a better use of two hours that you could come up with?
We at least got the PPV main event for next week free so no need to order the show now. TNA is considerate to us financially challenged fans.
ReplyDeleteWell tomorrow I get to watch a 1999 Thunder. That's got to be.....got to be.....
ReplyDeleteI can't finish that sentence.
99 Thunder > 14 Impact
ReplyDeleteImpact has even finished Alvarez off. Clock's now ticking how long it'll take before you crack now.
great if you are a fan of "Lightning Foot" Jerry Flynn?
ReplyDeleteI sat through NXT: Redemption and every single episode of Thunder ever. When I have free time I watch Herb Abrams' UWF. I can handle Impact.
ReplyDeleteInstead of reviewing shows maybe you can write an article on time management because I think it's freaky how you watch all these shows and give a timely and detailed report on everything that went down.
ReplyDeleteWell for one thing this is my full time job. I don't do anything else other than live off e-book sales and ad revenue from my website. It's either do all these at once or don't eat.
ReplyDeleteI support ya. :)
ReplyDeleteI'd sure like to earn money sitting on my ass at home, watching wrestling.
ReplyDeleteMuch appreciated.
ReplyDeleteIt's a little more complicated than that. Sometimes I lay on my back too.
ReplyDeleteWait...the main event of the go home show for the ppv is the actual main event of the fucking ppv???
ReplyDeleteI'm still trying to get over that one.
ReplyDeleteNot to mention it's a legit 10 minute match with the heel beating up the champ at will.
ReplyDeleteWill MVP even be able to work on sunday? What a mess.
I can live with the beating as it was Eric's third match of the night. At least it wasn't a clean pin.
ReplyDeleteWhy do you want to do any of that to yourself?
ReplyDeleteI'd rather watch wrestling than do just about anything else. Even the worst is more entertaining than almost any other form of entertainment.
ReplyDeleteIf you're a WWE wrestler, you could spend that 2 hours working on your resume!
ReplyDeleteHigh-5! Anyone? Anyone?