Impact
Wrestling
Date: June
19, 2014
Location: Sands Bethlehem Events Center, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
Location: Sands Bethlehem Events Center, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
Commentators:
Mike Tenay, Tazz
Reviewed by Tommy Hall
We're out of
Slammiversary and Eric Young is still World Champion. However, there
is something new tonight to keep our minds off of him: TOMMY DREAMER!
Yes, the man who used to be in a big time indy promotion about
thirteen years ago and now runs another promotion which sounds like a
tribute to ECW (I know there's more to it than that) is back because
of some angle involving Bully Ray at a recent House of Hardcore show.
Apparently Dixie has invited Dreamer to the Impact Zone for a
confrontation, because Dixie being at war with two groups just isn't
enough Dixie. Let's get to it.
We open with
a package on Slammiversary, highlighting Young pinning Aries to
retain the title.
Here's the
Trio to open the show. MVP looks upset and says he'll get straight
to the point: no he can't wrestle and he's still disgusted by what
happened last Sunday. Dixie cried to the board of directors and
probably threw around some money, earning him an official reprimand.
He doesn't care to hear from some stuffed shirt in Dallas because
he's been making this company the best he can. The show is directed
by and starring MVP with his great supporting cast.
That brings
MVP to Eric Young, who MVP wants out here right now. Eric says
Slammiversary was great but he didn't get to punch MVP in the face.
MVP accuses Eric and Aries of collusion to keep the title, but Young
says the fans are in charge around here. He doesn't want to wait two
hours and wants to come beat up MVP right now. Kenny King grabs the
mic and wants a title shot right now, which Eric is totally cool
with.
TNA World
Title: Eric Young vs. Kenny King
Young hammers
away to start and nails a quick Thesz press, only to be sent out to
the floor in front of Lashley and MVP. This brings out the Wolves,
Joe and Aries with chairs to even the odds. King nails a dive onto
Young and puts on a chinlock back inside. Eric fights up and makes
his comeback but gets punched in the ribs coming off the top. The
Royal Flush is quickly countered into a small package though and Eric
keeps the title at 3:38.
Rating:
D+. Nothing to see here due to
a lack of time but the four guys coming to the ring was more
interesting. Someone is going to have to join MVP's team soon as
it's 5-2 at this point, but I'm not sure who it could actually be.
Joe and Aries are hot right now so they would be the most likely
candidates.
Back from a
break and the Trio are yelling at the bell ringer, claiming that
Kenny kicked out. Eric Young and his supporters come out to make the
save. MVP gets on the mic and yells about being God. He's making
another World Title match tonight with Lashley getting a title shot.
The Wolves are going to defend tonight against Aries/Joe and another
team that isn't announced. First though, Earl Hebner needs to get
out here FAST. MVP yells at him for counting slowly and fires Earl.
Brian Hebner comes out to plead for his dad's job but it doesn't
work. MVP was acting like he had lost his mind here.
The Carters
are here and pleased with what happened on Sunday. Dixie will
respond to a keyboard warrior tonight.
Eric promises
to defend the belt all night long. What happened with Earl isn't
cool though. He gets a phone call from someone and needs the guy
here tonight. Eric leaves his phone and the call was from Kurt
Angle.
Tag Team
Titles: Austin Aries/Samoa Joe vs. Wolves vs. Willow/Abyss
Aries and
Willow get things going and trade some headlocks. Austin takes him
down and brings in Joe for a running knee drop. Willow brings in
Abyss to splash Joe in the corner followed by Poetry in Motion for
good measure. Willow gets caught in the Clutch and Aries puts Abyss
in the Last Chancery but the Wolves make the double save. Joe and
Aries are sent to the floor but slide in to avoid dives and hit
suicide dives of their own. We see Tommy Dreamer arriving and we
take a break.
Back with
Abyss hammering away on Davey and glaring the referee down to the
floor. Eddie comes in and a double dropkick knocks Abyss into the
corner for a tag off to Aries. The Wolves quickly take Aries down
and Eddie drops a top rope knee drop for two. A loud chop has Aries
in more trouble and the champions double team him in the corner. In
a nice combo, Eddie German suplexes Aries and Davey rolls him up for
a close two. Aries dropkicks Davey down and hits a discus forearm to
send him into the corner, but right into Abyss.
Aries rolls
away and makes the tag off to Joe as things start to break down. The
backsplash and powerslam get two on Abyss followed by a middle rope
kick to the chest. Abyss gets over for a tag to Willow as everything
breaks down. Aries, Joe and the Wolves wind up on the floor so
Willow can hit a huge dive to take everyone down. Back in and Davey
blocks the Swanton with knees, setting up a powerbomb from Eddie into
the Backstabber from Davey to retain at 13:10.
Rating:
B-. Good match here and finall
something that got time to develop. That's one of Impact's biggest
issues anymore: there's no time for a match like this, meaning
nothing can really get going. The Wolves need competition and if
makeshift teams of former World Champions are how they get there then
so be it.
MVP
tells King and Lashley to take care of Angle if need be.
We get the
explanation for Tommy Dreamer being here tonight. He runs House of
Hardcore, an independent promotion, and received permission to use
TNA talent. Dixie intervened and pulled the talent at the last
minute and Dreamer is upset. He gets a live mic tonight.
Samoa Joe and
Austin Aries are escorted out of the building.
MVP makes the
Wolves defend the Titles again tonight against Bram/Magnus.
Here are
Dixie and Spud so she can brag about Slammiversary. She tells Bully
that she'll never go through a table and goes on a rant about
negative haters telling her how to run her company and hiding behind
a keyboard. This brings her to Tommy Dreamer, who gets to talk about
why he hates Dixie in person.
Dreamer comes
out and Dixie says she's starting to remember who he is. She rants
about him hiding behind 140 characters in his little hardcore
promotion and offers to let him talk. Dreamer thanks her for letting
him be here but has to stop for an ECW chant. Tommy talks about
social media and how they met on Twitter. They sat at her home and
watched a football game, then set up Hardcore Justice as a way to
give the ECW fans and wrestlers closure.
Now Dreamer
watches Impact and is disgusted by what he sees her doing. What
happened to the woman that sat in the crowd and then drank beers with
the ECW guys in the ring? Now it's the Dixie Carter Show out here
(Spud: “YES!”) and Dreamer can't handle it. If Dixie wants her
own reality show, go to Hollywood and get one. Dreamer does just run
a small company but he travels the world and talks to wrestling fans.
He talks to fans who are battling cancer and tells them to watch
wrestling.
Dreamer was
at Slammiversary and saw Dixie be a fan again, so please remember why
she fell in love with wrestling in the first place. Dixie nearly
breaks down and hugs Dreamer....and hits him low. Spud and Ethan run
in and beat Dreamer out to the floor. Not sure what the point of it
was but Dreamer's speech wasn't bad.
Angle arrives
and asks Lashley and King to get him MVP. They don't seem to
approve.
MVP comes up
to Angle to tell him that he doesn't have time to talk.
Tag Team
Titles: Wolves vs. Bram/Magnus
The Wolves
work over Magnus' arm to start but Eddie gets sent to the floor and
Bram whips him into the barricade. Back in and Eddie kicks Magnus in
the face before diving over to make the tag to Davey. Everything
breaks down and Magnus basically no sells a bunch of kicks in the
corner. Davey does the throw one man into the other and dropkick him
into a DDT spot (I can't stand that thing) but Bram pelts a chair at
Davey for the DQ at 4:30.
Rating:
D+. This didn't have time to go
anywhere, much like the entire show tonight. The Wolves need
challengers and Bram/Magnus fit the description, but in a show this
rushed due to a LONG Dreamer speech, there's no time to showcase the
match at all. Bram wanting to hurt people instead of win is
interesting though.
Abyss
and Willow save Davey from having his neck Pillmanized.
MVP
talks to a crying Brian Hebner and implies that he's fired if Brian
doesn't screw over Eric.
Magnus
and Bram reveal they were paid off to hurt the Wolves. Abyss and
Willow attack them.
Gail
Kim brings out the returning Terryn Terrell. We get the required “I
respect you” speech Terryn says she's back after having a baby girl
but remembers being tied 1-1 with Gail. Therefore, we need a rubber
match to determine the best Knockout. This brings out the Beautiful
People with Angelina saying Gail doesn't run this division. Gail and
Terryn get jumped but eventually Terrell cleans house and the
Beautiful People are sent running. Nothing special here but it was
ANYTHING other than MVP/Dixie so I'll take it.
Speaking
of MVP, he goes to see what Angle wants. Angle wants MVP to look
inside himself and see what he's really doing. This goes nowhere as
Angle is ejected from the building as well.
Gail
and Terryn are sent out for no apparent reason.
JB
says he's never seen anything like this because the backstage area
and productions staff is completely gone. MVP pops up because his
198 segments tonight haven't been enough. He ejects JB and the
cameraman for good measure.
TNA
World Title: Bobby Lashley vs. Eric Young
Young
is on his own while King and MVP are in Lashley's corner. A
clothesline puts Lashley to the floor and a big cross body off the
top puts Lashley down again. Back in and Eric's cross body is caught
in mid air but he rolls Lashley up for two. A HUGE backdrop puts the
champion down again and Eric is sent to the floor. Back
from a break with Eric in trouble and getting suplexed down with one
arm.
The
champion makes his comeback and gets two off his third cross body of
the match. Lashley stomps him in the corner but misses a charge,
only to come back with a kick to the ribs. Eric nails the piledriver
out of nowhere but King pulls the referee out at two. Lashley nails
Kenny by mistake and Eric hits a quick DDT. The
top rope elbow misses though and Lashley spears him down for the pin
and the title at 8:45.
Rating:
D+. This was just a step above
a squash for Lashley and WHY DID THIS NOT HAPPEN ON SUNDAY? I'm sure
there's some reason for it but given that it's TNA I doubt they can
explain it to you. Thankfully Young doesn't come off as a worthless
champion, but he's only a step above transitional.
A
lot of celebrating ensues and Eric gets the weakest Pillmanization of
his arm I've ever seen. Bobby Roode of all people comes in for the
save to end the show.
Overall
Rating: D. Just.....wow. Where
do I even start? We'll cover the few good things first. The triple
threat tag match was an actually good match with the teams looking
solid. Also, Lashley being World Champion is a smart move, albeit
WAY too late in his career. The fact that he's an MVP lackey doesn't
help either but it's a step in the right direction. That ends our
good things tonight, unless you could Terryn in her dress.
This show was
every problem the company has but on steroids: total reliance on one
story/set of characters, matches being booked on the fly (as in all
of them tonight) and angles being hotshotted on TV instead of PPV.
As mentioned, why in the world did you not have Lashley win the title
on Sunday and give people a reason to want to buy a pay per view in
the future? This shock TV with breakneck booking isn't going to work
long term, but when has that ever stopped TNA before?
On top of
that, WAY too much talking and MVP tonight. He literally had close
to a dozen different appearances and didn't really do anything
different most of the time. The Dreamer speech led nowhere, but I'm
assuming we'll get the 184th ECW team to take on Spud and
Ethan in the future. You know, because ECW still matters. Horrible
show and I'm exhausted after watching it.
Results
Eric Young b.
Kenny King – Small package
Wolves b.
Austin Aries/Samoa Joe and Willow/Abyss – Powerbomb/Backstabber
combo to Willow
Wolves b.
Bram/Magnus via DQ when Bram used a chair
Bobby Lashley
b. Eric Young – Spear
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
Didn't happen on Sunday because they'd rather 1+ million people see the title change on TV vs. 15,000 on PPV
ReplyDeleteI just realized that, 4 matches with 3 champs in 2 a piece. That's kind of sad.
ReplyDeleteI bet it will barely move a needle.
ReplyDeleteThey really need to get Matt Striker on commentary.
ReplyDelete"Call your friends! Let them know what's going on right now!"
Maybe if the title change happened on PPV instead of on TV with an hour of build, more people might pay to see it.
ReplyDeleteNext week on Impact: Braden Walker makes his triumphant return to wrestling as he defeats Lashley for the title.
ReplyDeleteTNA has no young stars to build around so they are stuck doing stuff like this. Roode, MVP, Joe, Aries, Lashley, it doesn't matter. All these guys are past their primes.
ReplyDeleteIf they whiff on Eddie Edwards, they are fucked.
TNA could give all of its fans a million dollars in cash, have Cena vs. Punk in a 90 minute iron man match, have all the Knockouts walk out naked and offer a cure for cancer to everyone that watches and it would draw a 1.2. Some things are never going to change.
ReplyDeleteBobby Lashley is a world champion in 2014. That's just...yikes.
ReplyDeleteLashley, Kennedy, and MVP--- TNA is basically booking the promotion around guys who peaked at Mania 23.
ReplyDeleteUmaga wins the belt next?
This is just getting sad.
ReplyDeleteThe only truly good commentary is on NXT. Not even ROH is good at it which is ridiculous for a "pure sport" fed.
ReplyDeleteWhy Nash of course.
ReplyDeleteHoly shit, one of the girls in that Nash clip looks so much like my best friend's wife that I'm still not convinced that it's not her.
ReplyDeleteInstead of letting the Vaudevillians bomb horribly in their Raw debut, they should work them in on Smackdown. It's a mistake to not use that show to acclimate audiences.
ReplyDeleteI believe they did that with Bo.
ReplyDeleteNew Jack at 1:01 in that trailer.
ReplyDeleteNew Jack wearing glasses behind a world map is hilarious.
ReplyDeleteKevin Nash: I guess a lot is use of the F-word and blaming Big Show for being too fat and blamed Show for ripping Nash's back out.
ReplyDeleteHonky Tonk Man: I guess he'll bad mouth everybody. Call people hypercritical and fake.
Iron Shiek: Either we get kind gentle shiek or ... Forget it // he'll go off on people and say inane stuff.
New Jack: Liked his Ecw days of wrestling with music.
I hated Nash when I was a young smark, but his shoot stuff is really entertaining. Iron Shiek is made for Twitter, anything more than that is kinda overkill. HTM is a salty old douchebag, and New Jack can go straight to hell.
ReplyDelete