Crazy Cornette: Jim Cornette has been a joke of an authority figure over his long term in TNA. His dealings with Matt Morgan were ridiculous. He hasn’t been good at being a call-it-down-the-middle GM, or more of a babyface GM, so why not go this route? I like that TNA is playing up how he is a bit unbalanced. He is angry at how he has been treated by the wrestlers and he is starting to go over the edge, or to cross the line. I can’t take him seriously as an authority figure, but I can take him seriously as an authority figure who is losing his mind. He makes stupid, rash, illogical decisions all the time, but now he has a reason to make them.
Machine Guns vs. Rhino & Cage: This was the best of the three tag team matches on Impact this week. It had a ton of energy and good wrestling action. Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin deserve a better push, but it was at least good to see them in a long (12 minute) tag match on Impact with good quality opponents. The match went back and forth and had a few really nice near falls at the end. There were high spots, but not too many as can often happen in Machine Gun matches. It went back and forth and never dragged for an instant. It also didn’t seem too formulaic as so many tag team matches are. Part of that is that it was face vs. face which helped break the monotony of traditional tag team matches.
In Ring Action: In addition to the match mentioned above, and the one below, Impact also featured two other solid tag team matches. The first was Rellik & Black Reign vs. Team 3D. It went 10 minutes and had solid action. The first half was ugly, but the second half was better. It wasn’t a Hit, but it wasn’t a Miss either. The other was Sting & Booker T vs. Roode & Storm. Again, a solid tag match that went a good length (12 minutes). It was a bit formulaic and repetitive after two other tag matches to get a Hit, but it was far from a Miss. All in all, there were four matches that all went at least 10 minutes, were at least two segments, and were all solid at worst. By just having four matches, TNA put on longer matches than usual which was very nice. The wrestling action was solid to very good, and there wasn’t anything to complain about.
Main Event Hype: TNA did a good job of hyping the huge Main Event of Samoa Joe vs. Kurt Angle. The focus of the hype was a segment in the middle of the show that featured Jeremy Borash interviewing Kurt Angle, a very good video package recapping the history between the two, then a pre-taped segment of Mike Tenay interviewing Joe earlier in the day during his training for the match. All three bits were good at setting the stage for the match and allowing Joe and Angle a chance to talk about the match. They both played their parts well. My only complaint is that the hype could have been better spread out throughout the show and not jammed together, but that is a minor complaint as TNA did a good job of making the Main Event feel like a huge deal.
Main Event: Angle vs. Joe did not disappoint. It wasn’t a great match, but it was a very good match. It went 23 minutes, and we got to see 16 of those minutes which is very good for an Impact Main Event. The 16 minutes we saw were filled with very good wrestling action. In addition to the action, there was good ring psychology as well as Angle worked on Joe’s injured knee. There were logical submission holds with Angle trying to capitalize on Joe’s injury and Joe trying to slow down Angle’s onslaught. Joe kicking Angle’s legs out from underneath him and catching him in the rear naked choke was such a smooth and well executed spot. That was probably my favorite spot in the match. The cheesy Kevin Nash appearance, the lack of great near falls at the end, and the cop out finish with Scott Steiner’s interference kept the match from being great. But, Angle and Joe worked very hard and put on a very good match.
IMPACT MISSES
Hectic Opening: One thing that I did not miss while on vacation was the hyper active Impact openings. TNA does a much better job with the pacing of Impact on a whole than they used to, particularly when the show was just an hour, but they still cram as much content into the show before the first commercial. Impact started with a head-scratching scene with Matt Morgan beating up Kip James for some reason. Then there was a recap of last week, then the Impact intro, then the in ring segment with Booker T, Sting, Robert Roode, James Storm and Jim Cornette (by the way, Roode calling Storm his “drunken cowboy friend” was one of the best lines of the year). After Cornette announced the Deuces Wild Tag Team Tournament and Sting & Booker vs. Roode & Storm, it cut to the back with Jeremy Borash, AJ Styles and Karen Angle. Before that could sink in, the opening match started. The over all pacing is better, but more can be done in the first 15 minutes to make the pacing even better.
Knock Outs: The scene in the back with the Knock Outs talking about the weird invitations from Cornette was terrible. They were all just yelling over each other. Their scene with Cornette later in the show wasn’t much better. I wasn’t thrilled with most of Cornette’s decisions on the show as you will read, particularly with his Sacrifice Knock Outs match that he announced. Just like with WWE Divas, when you focus on the Knock Outs as a whole and not on any individual feuds or match ups, the Knock Outs blur together. It is hard for any of them to stand out when they are lumped together like this. They have talent in the division, but plenty of dead weight also, and they should focus on the talent and a few key angles and not keep putting them all in all encompassing concept matches.
Cornette’s Decisions: While I like Cornette playing the crazy character, I don’t like most of his decisions, as they almost always involve silly new gimmick matches. The Deuces Wild Tag Team Tournament is silly. I find it amusing that Cornette even admitted to the baffling nature of the idea as he said he would have something in writing for the wrestlers to understand it. Why can’t they just have a tournament? It is very WCW to have half of the tournament made up of random draw teams. His Knock Out Make Over Battle Royale or whatever he called it is silly. Again, it is a gimmick that just takes a bunch of wrestlers and throws them into a match with odd rules that change in the middle of the match. TNA loves Battle Royale type matches where the rules change and it no longer is a Battle Royale at the end. The head shaving is stupid. He also announced that next week he will introduce his latest crazy concept, after announcing two crazy concepts this week. And at the end, he did the very predictable thing to announce a triple threat Main Event for the PPV. I knew all along it would be Joe vs. Angle vs. Steiner, as soon as I read the results of last week’s Impact. It is not a match that I look forward to seeing.
Jon Mezzera is PWTorch.com's Hits & Misses Specialist, providing his point of view for Raw, Smackdown, ECW, and TNA Impact each week. Email him at jmezz-torch@sbcglobal.net.
For another view from the original Hitlist author, compare Jason Powell's views to mine by visiting prowrestling.NET's "Hitlist" section here.
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LATEST PRO WRESTLING TORCH NEWSLETTER #1045 (20 PAGES)
This issue begins with a cover story by Wade Keller on Jake Roberts's indy show meltdown... Keller's BBL looks at WWE's decision to put all three World Champs in a Triple Threat on the MyNetwork debut of Smackdown... Page 2 Buzz with Jason Powell features tons of insider news items from WWE and TNA... Part three of the "Torch Talk" with Lanny Poffo... Pat McNeill's "At the Bar for Unforgiven" column... In-depth coverage of the TNA No Surrender PPV including the newsletter-exclusive Roundtable Reviews from Keller, Mitchell, and McNeill... Plus WWE Newswire, TNA Newswire, and ROH Newswire, Keller's reports on Raw, Smackdown, and Impact, the Top 5 Stories of the Week... PDF EXCLUSIVE features include the Greg Parks's review of the new Mr. Perfect DVD and Brian Hoops looks at pro wrestlers with Olympic backgrounds........
