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| WRESTLING! YAY! Photo Credit: ImpactWrestling.com |
With that being said, there was one thing that I thought Impact did really well tonight: THEY WRESTLED. Sure, there were a few backstage segments, but they were used simply as hype material for the matches that followed the break. Even the asinine Rampage/Angle segment that killed all the heat they built last week was a hype segment. Unfortunately, they did kill the action with an in-ring segment between Velvet Sky and Mickie James, who are terrible on the microphone, but I’m not going to dump on that either.
What we saw tonight was a night full of actual rasslin', and even though the majority of them ended with flash pins or confusing over the top eliminations, it was so very refreshing to see a night totally devoted to the art that these men were trained to perform.
Quite honestly, I can’t even argue with how the matches were booked either. In almost every case, the correct man won, and thusly, cemented themselves into the BFG series. In mentioning the booking, I guess the proper segway would be to break down where the majority of the booking will be in TNA for the next several months.
I did forget about the opening segment with Hogan. And the one with Sting as well. Maybe it’s me not caring about either character or maybe it’s how much action I got to see tonight. Either way, I enjoyed myself as well as the fact that Jeff Hardy and Bobby Roode will be in the BFG Series. Jeff Hardy is arguably the most over wrestler in the company and needs to defend his crown. Bobby Roode is quite possibly my favorite character on the roster. Quite honestly, my three favorite workers on the roster made it into the series tonight, and I can’t be happier about them finally getting out of this God-awful tag team division that TNA has going on right now.
The first match of the night saw another of my favorites get into the Series. There are certain arts in wrestling that have been so overused in time that they are lost. Christopher Daniels nailing James Storm with the ringbell brought me back to when I first fell in love with wrestling. I’m not sure exactly what it was, but I loved it. Kazarian then got flash pin number one on the night, which was also exciting because maybe they can get out of the tag division now. This one was kind of obvious to keep the tag champs out of the series, which is exciting because James Storm can’t destroy everyone, but unfortunately, I know Daniels won’t win to take on Bully Ray.
Next, Crimson gave me a quick nap on the mic before Joseph Park pulled off flash pin number two on the night. I’d rather not have either of these guys in the series, but Park makes sense. I just hope he actually starts working soon.
The four way had good work for having three big guys in there, but again, the ending made perfect sense. I was afraid that Morgan would pull this one out, but Magnus really needs to continue to receive the push. Side note: I always thought of Magnus as a pretty big guy, but how freakin’ small did he look in the same match with Matt Morgan and Rob Terry?
Another match I was afraid of was Austin Aries and Eric Young. He’s also seemed to not give a crap about getting the crowd behind him at all, but maybe that’s due to his lack of mic time. Regardless, he was able to pull out the victory, giving me the luxury of seeing Roode, Daniels, and Aries all miss out on winning this series. I just hope they stay out of the tag team division for good now.
I’m anxious to see what is the point of DOC not following the plans for the battle royal. Another side note: DOC went to the same college as my wife at the same time. There’s only about 4,500 students there. I like to think that they had a class together. That makes me a gigantic mark for DOC. I want a push out of this, dammit! Anyway, Anderson gets the nod. I knew he was before the match. Let’s continue.
Main event: AJ Styles takes the win over Kurt Angle on flash pin number three of the night. This match got a lot of love on Twitter. Even "Stone Cold" Steve Austin gave it a thumbs up. I liked it too, but I didn’t see it as anything great. Angle and AJ can both work when they want to, so I’m not surprised. However, I certainly didn’t rise up off the couch to watch it. You knew AJ was going to win because he’s winning the whole thing, so maybe that killed it for me too. Oh yeah, and Rampage Jackson came out. *Yawn*
In closing, I can’t help but express how excited I was for all the action. But to sum up where we are, those in the BFG Series are: Hernandez, Jay Bradley, Samoa Joe, Jeff Hardy, Bobby Roode, Kazarian, Christopher Daniels, Joseph Park, Magnus, Austin Aries, Ken Anderson, and AJ Styles. If it wasn’t clear how this were to play out, I’ve already said that I believe AJ is going to win. That being said, I’ll go with AJ, Hardy, Aries, and Anderson in the final four. AJ is the favorite to win, Hardy is the most over face, Aries is the most talented heel, and Anderson brings hope to Aces and Eights that they can keep the title in-house. I really like the talent we have here. Again, unfortunately, there’s going to be little story developing for them over the next several months, but they certainly put their best in position to headline their biggest pay-per-view. I could do without Hernandez, Bradley, and Joseph Park (really, I love the character, but I can’t stand him faking his working abilities), but they had to fill out the twelve slots, right?
Again, good show. Lots of wrestling. Let’s see more of it!
Overall rating: B+