Impact
Wrestling
Date: August 20, 2014
Location: Manhattan
Center, New York City, New York
Commentators: Mike
Tenay, Taz
Reviewed by Tommy Hall
It's the debut on
Wednesday and we're getting closer and closer to Bound For Glory.
Not that you would know that after watching Impact this year as
nothing has been mentioned about it, but to be fair there are still
several weeks to go. This is also the Hardcore Justice special,
meaning expect a lot of weapons matches tonight. This is different
from the previous New York show because....uh....oh because this one
has a name. Let's get to it.
Abyss
vs. Bram
Stairway to Janice
match, which means Janice is hanging above the ring but you win by
pin. It's a brawl to start and Bram is quickly suplexes onto a
ladder in the corner. They head outside with Bram getting punched in
the face a few times but he comes back with some trashcan shots to
take over. Abyss posts him and pulls out a few barbed wire boards
for some fun in the ring. Bram is already busted open.
The greedy fans want
fire but get Abyss trying a chokeslam onto the wire board. Bram
elbows out of it and nails Abyss in the head with a trashcan lid.
Abyss stops an attempt at Janice with a chokeslam and it's time for
the tacks. Bram fights back again but misses a charge and goes
flying through one of the wire boards in the corner.
The masked man goes up
but Bram shoves the ladder over, sending Abyss through the other
board. Janice is pulled down but Bram clears out some of the weapons
before going after Abyss. Another chokeslam is countered but Abyss
nails the Black Hole Slam to put him into the tacks. Bram somehow
pops up and hits Abyss in the ribs with Janice for the pin at 8:28.
Rating:
C+. It's a good, violent brawl
but I've seen these brawls multiple times in the last few weeks,
which makes it kind of hard to care again. I like that they're
pushing Bram this hard as he's got a future to him, but his time with
Magnus needs to end soon. They're holding each others' singles
pushes back as neither guy is able to rise up with the other there.
Bram has a ton of potential though.
Ethan
Carter III didn't like being in jail and says those responsible will
pay.
Magnus and Bram meet in
the back and Magnus says he's going to outshine Bram tonight.
Here are Ethan, Spud
and Rhino with something to say. Ethan rants about Dixie being put
through the table before moving to last week. Angle had the three of
them arrested but Ethan says thank you for that. The night made him
realize that justice against Bully Ray must be swift and severe, but
that's not the end of his problems. Ethan hired someone from the
streets and paid him handsomely, but that mercenary failed him.
Rhino looks around with
a goofy blank look on his face. Ethan yells at him but Rhino shouts
him down and says he'd rather be poor than listen to Etha.n's
nonsense. Carter doesn't like being spoken to like that and slaps
Rhino in the face. The beatdown is on and it's actually Ethan
getting the better of it. Ethan even shoves Spud down and glares
Rhino down.
Joe says he and Low Ki
have a legacy written in blood and they'll go at it again next.
The Hardys are back
together to prove that they're still the best team in the world
today.
Video on Joe and Low
Ki's history.
X-Division
Title: Low Ki vs. Samoa Joe
Joe is defending and
the fans are split over who to cheer for. The champion takes him
into the corner but gets caught in a cross armbreaker over the ropes
to slow him down. They chop it out until Joe runs him over with an
elbow to the jaw. Joe chops him down for two but Low Ki comes back
with kicks of his own. They don't do much other than sound good
though as Joe kicks him in the face and gets two off the backsplash.
Joe tries to load up
the MuscleBuster but gets kicked in the face and nailed with a top
rope double stomp to the back. Low Ki scores with a running dropkick
in the corner for two and the fans think this is awesome. We get
Joe's transitioning submission sequence but Low Ki makes the ropes to
break the STF. Joe blasts Low Ki with a clothesline and fires off
some knees to the chest. Ko comes back with an enziguri out of the
corner for two of his own. Joe blocks the Ki Crusher and plants him
with the MuscleBuster for the pin to retain at 8:00.
Rating:
B-. I really don't get what the
fans saw as awesome in this one. It was a good, hard hitting brawl
but it's nothing that hasn't been done before. Both guys are New
York favorites though so the crowd got a bit carried away with the
match. There's nothing wrong with that and the match was indeed good
stuff.
The
Hardys go to see Team 3D.
Samuel
Shaw and Mr. Anderson brawl in the back before their I Quit match
begins.
Mr.
Anderson vs. Samuel Shaw
This is an I Quit match
for no apparent reason and they start at the entrance with Shawn
choking with a cord. Anderson slams him into the ramp to escape but
Gunner comes out to stare him down. Shaw sends Anderson into the
steps and grabs the mic from the referee. Shaw: “SAY YOU QUIT!”
Anderson: “YOU QUIT!” They head inside with Anderson scoring
with a clothesline but Shaw stays on him. Off to a camel clutch on
Mr. but he fights up and sends Shaw shoulder first into the post. An
armbar makes Shaw quit at 5:42.
Rating:
D. Another gimmick match for
the sake of having a gimmick match. The ending may be simple but at
least it's something that makes sense. I'm not sure where this
Gunner vs. Shaw vs. Anderson feud is going and I'm not sure what I
think of it. It's nice to see something happening at least.
Team
3D says the Hardys have an idea and need to see if the third piece is
in.
Gail Kim was rambling
about defending against any number of Knockouts when Angelina Love
attacked her.
Angle makes Kim vs.
Angelina in a last Knockout standing match.
Roode is standing
outside a cage and talks about being stuck out of the title hunt for
six weeks. Tonight he'll win the cage match and become #1 contender.
Here are the Hardys to
talk about wanting to become the top team in tag team wrestling
again. They're back because the fans want them to be, but they need
Team 3D out here right now. Bully asks if the Hardys know who they
are and the fans want to see them fight one more time. Ray knows
both teams want to be Tag Team Champions, meaning they need the
Wolves out here right now. Cue the Wolves for the required “we
respect you” speech. They're willing to put up the titles anytime
and anywhere.
Mike Tenay is at Dixie
Carter's house. Dixie says she has a broken back and rib from going
through the table. She says she lost the war to Ray and says she's
going to focus her efforts on business outside the ring. We haven't
seen the last of the Carters and they never forget.
We look back at James
Storm training Sanada into his new protege. The Great Sanada will be
revealed next week.
Knockouts
Title: Angelina Love vs. Gail Kim
Last Knockout standing
and Gail is defending. Gail chases her around to start and lays her
out with a clothesline on the floor. They head inside where a
clothesline in the corner rocks Angelina, only to have her come back
with a Downward Spiral. Gail is right back up as Velvet hands
Angelina something made of metal.
A dropkick knocks
Angelina to the floor before she can nail Kim, but Sky gets in a shot
to the champ's back to put her down. Gail ducks a charge to send
Love into the apron but both are up at six. Sky interferes again to
break up a DDT on the steps, sending Gail face first into them
instead. Back in and Gail blocks a suplex and puts on a Hartbreaker
on the post.
Velvet interferes AGAIN
and Hebner has no issue with any of this. Gail whips Angelina into
the barricade but falls down herself. She picks up a chair but goes
after Velvet, allowing Angelina to hit the Botox Injection to drive
the chair into Kim's face. Back inside and Velvet tries to interfere
again, only to get sent to the floor. They head to the ropes and
Gail hits a super Samoan drop onto the chair to retain at 8:15.
Rating:
C. I liked it when Velvet would
stay out of it, but unfortunately that was very rarely the case.
Gail really needs some fresh competition in the division as we've
seen these matches so many times that just adding a gimmick to it
doesn't really make things better. The match was fun but it's so
overdone at this point that it doesn't work for me.
Angle makes a Tag Team
Title series between Team 3D, the Wolves and the Hardys. The first
team to gain two wins is the Tag Team Champions and whoever wins the
match gets to pick the next stipulation. It starts next week.
MVP talks about Lashley
replacing him at Slammiversary. Lashley has run through a bunch of
challengers already, so whoever wins this #1 contenders match doesn't
really matter.
Bobby
Roode vs. Eric Young vs. Gunner vs. James Storm vs. Austin Aries vs.
Magnus
No pins, submissions or
elimination and it's the first man out wins. It's a brawl to start
and the fans are almost entirely behind Aries. People try to escape
and are pulled down and there isn't much to talk about before we go
to a break. Back with Magnus pulling Storm back in and getting
caught in Roode's Crossface. Aries puts Gunner in the Last Chancery
and Young puts Magnus in a Sharpshooter.
Eventually people let
go and try to climb but it's Storm hitting a Last Call on Roode and
Gunner hitting a spinebuster to put James down. Gunner goes for a
climb but Aries makes the save. Now it's Aries going up but Magnus
knocks him off the ropes. This is all over the place and kind of
hard to call. We get double Towers of Doom out of opposite corners
with Gunner and Aries taking the worst of them. Roode and Young
climb out at the same time and there's a split decision at 11:55.
Rating:
D+. Like I said, this match was
so insane and all over the place that it was hard to get into
anything. The problem is it kept the match with no story and
everything all over the place. The controversial ending is fine but
at the end of the day, Roode needs to get the shot, preferably at
Bound For Glory. At this point there is no top face in TNA and it's
becoming an issue.
The
wrestlers and referees argue to end the show.
Overall
Rating: C. This show wasn't bad
but it was hitting its head on a thick ceiling. I'm really not a fan
of having gimmicks for the sake of having gimmicks and that's what a
lot of this show felt like. There's enough good wrestling and action
on it to carry things through, but the stories aren't very
interesting.
We've
seen the Beautiful People vs. whoever is champion many times before
and Gunner vs. Shaw vs. Anderson is starting to go in circles. Throw
in Abyss having a hardcore war and this feels like Impact's Most
Mediocre Hits. The tag series should be awesome, but I have a
feeling it's going to overstay its welcome by the end. Good show,
but as usual it was trying too hard.
Results
Bram b. Abyss –
Janice to the ribs
Samoa Joe b. Low Ki –
MuscleBuster
Mr. Anderson b. Samuel
Shaw – Armbar
Gail Kim b. Angelina
Love – Middle rope Samoan drop onto a chair
Bobby Roode and Eric
Young b. Gunner, James Storm, Magnus and Austin Aries – Roode and
Young escaped the cage at the same time
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
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