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| Why can't Joe just kill folks, starting with Magnus? Photo Credit: Impact Wrestling.com |
There was at least some action on this "wrestling" show. Austin Aries carried Kurt Angle to a passable match, but mostly the matches uniformly had room for improvement. In all, I believe that they people of Cincinnati saw Ken Anderson and Bully Ray a total of six times in one night while seeing Kurt Angle and Bobby Roode seven. This is part of the problem with trying to build a "pay-per-view" in two shows.
I really saw nothing write about about this show in particular. Nothing of note really happened outside of trying to force these two feuds down our throats and really making me resent the my continual viewership of their program. With that being said, I'm going to look into the future rather than the past and take a look at this free pay-per-view that TNA has built in one night's taping.
Gail Kim and Lei'd Tapa came out and issued an open challenge for the upcoming Turning Point event. The lack of depth on the Knockouts roster really makes me feel as though this could only mean that ODB or Velvet Sky answer the challenge, leaving me to give even less of a crap about it altogether. The only reason that this will manage to grasp my attention is if Kim manages to lock in the figure four around the ring post, which is quite possibly the coolest move in all of wrestling and is unfortunate that she is the only one I know who still utilizes it.
Quite possibly the most interesting of all the matches is Joseph Park's challenge that he issued to his brother Abyss. I'm not sure if the more intriguing part is Joseph Park tangling with his "alter ego" or actually seeing Abyss and the Television Championship, you know... on television. Either way, my interest is genuinely piqued.
Onto World Title Tournament, we finally get moving towards completion with two matches in one night. I don't necessarily care about the Samoa Joe vs. Magnus match, although I would love to see the Joe of ten years ago show up and just obliterate everyone in this tournament. Then, I might care about this match because Magnus is awful. Even after James Storm, Bobby Roode, and Joe all cut really good promos this week, Magnus managed to drag down the entire segment despite trying his best. If anyone in this world cares about me, they will ensure that Magnus does not move on in this tournament so that he can continue into obscurity. That'll never happen though.
The match that I do care about is Bobby Roode and James Storm. These guys have proven that they not only have chemistry in the same corner, but in opposite ones as well. It's very unfortunate that they did not build this tournament to come down to these two "young" talents that could really make one hell of a feud with AJ Styles when he comes back. But as long as it happens, I'm happy. I just wish that it had more meaning to it, but I'll take what I can get.
The main event of the evening appears to be Bully Ray versus Ken Anderson in a club versus career match. A year ago, I would have prayed for Bully to win this and send Anderson in the same direction that I'm looking for Magnus to go. However, with the reinvention of Anderson into Aces and Eights and then back to Mr. Anderson has rejuvenated his character for me. Add to that the fact that Aces and Eights lost all steam three months ago, and you see where this match should go. Look for TNA to go the other way.
I see this match as just another chapter as TNA tries to drag out this Styles defending in other promotions story, but man, I can't wait for him to get back. Maybe then we can get some good shows together and make this thing worth watching again.