TV REPORTS TNA IMPACT ROUNDTABLE REVIEWS 2/4: Parks, Shanks, Wilkenfeld rate and review
Feb 5, 2010 - 2:29:25 PM
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Greg Parks, Torch Columnist (6.5)
I gotta admit, I spent much of the episode coming up with names TNA could use for AJ Styles, since that sounds like what's next for him. In any event, Impact has been more focused lately but still some problems remain. The re-emphasis on Samoa Joe was good, but seemed to come out of nowhere. Hopefully, they are able to protect his character a little better than they've done in the past. Pope vs. Styles was good and the right people went over in most, if not all of the matches.
The main event lasted only two minutes, but it was brutal. I'm not sure what to make of the attack on Nash by Hall and Syxx-Pac, unless they thought he wasn't trying hard enough to bring them in. Or they're under Hogan's thumb. I couldn't tell if Anderson's mic work at the outset of the show was sarcastic or not about Hogan calling him a future champion. If it was sarcastic, then it means Hogan and Anderson are on opposite sides, so why did Hogan bring him in? If it wasn't sarcasm, that means he and Hogan would be on the same sides, but Hogan hasn't been portrayed as a heel. They still need to work on fleshing out what side these guys are on.
Curtis Shanks, PWTorch.com Contributor (6.0)
Overall it was a decent episode of Impact this week, but the ending left me scratching my head. Hall and Waltman shouldn't be the focal point of the show, but we faded to black with the last image being those two standing tall after a surprise beat-down of Nash and Foley. This may be a way to write them out of the company for their actions, but you shouldn't have two wrestlers with the upper hand who will be gone in a few weeks as your show-closing segment. The main event was a let-down. Foley and Nash didn't need to go fifteen minutes and bleed heavily, but I was still expecting more.
Dinero and Styles was a good match and I liked the outcome. This helped the Pope a lot more than it hurt Styles. Samoa Joe running out to make the save and giving a fired up promo was just what his character needs. He's been lost in the shuffle for what seems like months now and he should be one of the few select guys you choose to build a company around.
I'm not sure what the deal was with Tara, as she had her top blurred out for the last part of her match. It was apparently some sort of wardrobe malfunction, making the case all the more clear that we need TNA to go live ASAP. Mr. Anderson was decent to watch this week. His promo style is different and stands out, so I hope that they find something to do with him in the latest tournament rather than letting him get lost in the shuffle.
Solid show, but it's hard to get momentum with a roster of their size. Too many talents are missing for weeks at a time, and we're suddenly supposed to care when they return. Guys like The Guns, Generation Me, Homicide and Beer Money should have weekly spots rather than the monthly cameos we are getting so we can get into the natural flow of their characters and storylines.
Daniel Wilkenfeld, PWTorch.com Contributor (7.5)
I very much enjoyed this show. There were several really well contested matches, most notably of course Styles-Dinero. Joe I thought took another step to reestablishing his sorely missed bad-assness, Foley and Bischoff were mic gold, and Nash was great. Everything was cruising nicely until the main event—if you're going to have a two-minute main event match, it had best have some really cool angle. Otherwise there's really not much point. I was just settling in when the match ended. Clearly it was designed just to get the post match wackiness, but was there really no other way to get Kevin Nash out into the ring?
Also, I think the emphasis on Hall and Pac's craziness might have taken away from the zing of the turn—why not expect a turn from people you've already told us are crazy? Hall randomly attacked a fan at the PPV — that makes him attacking Nash slightly less shocking. I think as an angle it has plenty of possibilities. They can have a little mystery regarding who's giving them orders, with then maybe a big reveal of someone not Bischoff (or else a really good fake to someone else before the inevitable Bischoff reveal). But as a show ending segment, it was just bit lacking.
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