Impact Report: It Makes Me Depressed a Little Bit

"More action and less talking!" said during yet another 20 minute promo segment Photo Credit: ImpactWrestling.com

This week’s episode of TNA Impact is the first coming from the vaunted recent NYC tapings, shows that TNA has sold to us as the best that they’ve done this year and are presented as a creative rebirth for the company. While I think they might have overhyped it a bit, this episode definitely had a lot to enjoy in it wrestling-wise, even if the actual storylines are still stuck in the same position. The episode was bolstered by some great matches that’ll hopefully lead to some interesting things in the future. But I mean, what would an entry in the Impact Report be with a little negativity for TNA??

The opening of this episode was dire, and touched on several of the hallmarks of TNA that I’ve discussed in recent weeks. Today we got not one, not two, but THREE talking segments led by guys who made their names outside of TNA discussing how TNA is the future of professional wrestling, unlike that "Northern Promotion." Emphasis on the wrestling, de-emphasis on the professional, I guess. They hit on how important wrestling is to TNA a lot in the 11-minute talking segment that started the wrestling show, until Tommy Dreamer hilariously spouted that he wishes that professional wrestling had less talking and more fighting before preceding to attack Ethan Carter III to start our opening match. While the opening segment certainly had merit, the clear shots at WWE seemed kind of silly in light of how often TNA runs to the “20 minute promo to open the show” well.

The rest of the show was rather good, especially compared to the past months worth of television. My frustrations with certain storylines definitely haven’t abated yet. I don’t understand why they had Austin Aries cut a promo saying how great the X Division could be while also putting over how he’s going to get rid of the X Division title as soon as he can, or what the purpose of this James Storm/Sanada angle, other than making Sanada look like a chump. It’ll be interesting to see what is going to happen with the X Division after Destination X, because it feels like the roster is at a really strong point right now. I’d like to see someone who legitimately wants the title have it around their waist.

The other title match on the card, Jeff Hardy vs Bobby Lashley, was just kind of there. It was an okay match with some decent spots but the real story for this was MVP vs Bobby Roode. Therefore, the actual match kind of fell flat.

Finally, we had a continuation of the war between Bully Ray and Dixie Carter where it’s heavily teased that Bully is going to put Carter through a table soon. She rightly pointed out that Bully is way too single-minded about fighting and hurting her considering she’s beaten him at his own game twice. I like when wrestling shows point out the flaws in their characters logic. More of that please, TNA, and less threatening women with violence.