By Shane McKinley, PWTorch Specialist

Jay Lethal and Consequences Creed/Suicide for Beer Money's tag team belts? Hmm. So far, it doesn't look like the outcome of the Feast or Fired match would be like last time. Perhaps the Feast or Fired is TNA's Money in the Bank, but more cheesy and convoluted. They are fighting for title shots that, quite frankly, mean jack. You can attribute that to just how weak the championship title belts are in TNA, and how TNA usually treats championship matches. Sad to say, but if they were fighting for $100 grand that would be more of a incentive than just winning a ho-hum title shot to a ho-hum title.

Something to look forward to with possibly Christopher Daniels coming back. Looks like the Curry man character has sailed.

Tonight saw a lot of the Motor City Machine guns in their "whiny punks" role. Picking on Borash (credit to slam.canoe.ca for pic).

I was wrong in the Beautiful People match. I thought it was going to be under six minutes. It was about eight. Filler, but at least it seemed planned out beforehand and served its purpose.

Might as well pull the trigger on Bashir vs. ref Shane Sewell in the ring. Crowd pops for a ref because there are two chumps fighting each other in a match that is meaningless for a worthless title. TNA would be stretching if they kept ref Shane calling the matches for Bashir, and especially after being busted open. Kind of sad that a feud with a ref (that is Sewell's persona) is overshadowing the X Division, but maybe it will lead somewhere. Frankly, I would take Sewell as X Division champion just to get rid of seeing any more of Sewell "hulk up" and attack a TNA wrestler.

Not much to the Hemme vs. Kong match. Understandable that it needs more hype put into it.

Angle takes the role of "craziest lunatic wrestler." Not quite sure why he wants to rip Jarrett's head off, but it's intriguing. At least he's not doing skits involving blind dates with Team 3D.

Suppose I should be grateful that at least Beer Money sold being afraid of Abyss and used brass knucks instead a beer bottle. At least it was somewhat different. But it's hard to believe that people spent more than five minutes in planning the match. With matches and finishes like these, Beer Money is pretty much asking that somebody take away their tag titles. Perhaps Lethal and his buddy win, then they face Motor City Machineguns. Beer Money faced MCMG at the last PPV and there was nothing there. The only thing between Beer Money and MCMG is this: "Abyss got drunk, MCMG smashed a beer bottle on his head." Some heavy stuff.

I liked the Cornette "tennis racket" quip by Alex Shelley. MCMG have been getting promo time and they are taking advantage of it. Haven't seen much of MCMG wrestling, but TNA would rather push the character than the wrestling. (credit to tvparty.com for pic)

Alex Shelley has been getting under the skin of Mick Foley. Perhaps they are planning a "Foley vs. Orton" deal with MCMG. Perhaps Foley vs. MCMG at a PPV? Or just Shelley? It's obvious that MCMG need some sort of win. Right now they are nothing but punks who aren't threatening at all.

Suicide could be the wildcard. TNA could play up the "mystery" of Suicide in the coming weeks.

The evil Al Snow sides with Kurt Angle. Maybe it's a one night only deal for Snow. Angle could use Snow to do his dirty work in his "ongoing" war with Foley. Angle could then toss Snow to the curb, showing what lengths he will go to get revenge. I am intrigued to tune in next Impact to see if TNA will use Snow.

Nash giving Joe the low blow and Sting picking up the win was a well-done finish. Many people were expecting some swerve by Team 3D, appearance by Cage, or some stupidity with Styles winning the title but not pinning Sting. We got none of that. What we got was refreshing and a good reminder that TNA knows how to do a good finish that plays into a storyline convincingly. Sting wants to do things the right way. It felt like a PPV main event. Too often the PPV main events were just glorified TV main events, just longer and without commercial breaks.

FINAL THOUGHTS

One word comes to mind for this PPV: sensible (compared to recent TNA PPVs). The knock on TNA PPVs is that they were unreliable and often unfocused. From the looks of it the main outcome of the Feast or Fired match was pushing MCMG as whiny heels. They ran with that for the rest of the PPV and it worked. TNA was prone to have backstage skits that were pointless just for the sake of showing Foley or something. Of course, fans don't know the real deal. Hopefully it would be as simple as this: Homicide gets an X Division title shot, Hernandez gets a TNA championship title shot (shouldn't the Legends Championship be up for grabs?), and Curry Man gets the boot.

They could have an "LAX splits up" storyline, but I don't see the point. The main knock against the Feast or Fired match is that it feels too much of a gimmick match. It doesn't hold as nearly as much weight and hype as the "Money in the Bank" match. It's easy to remember that Punk cashed in his Money in the Bank briefcase to win the World Heavyweight Championship.

There could be a battle for the locker room at the next PPV, but Cute Kip needs to go. The Beautiful People could once again get Kong on their side while Wilde and Roxxi get Hemme. Match had a point to it. It's pretty much past the point that ref Sewell can call a match with Bashir in the ring and not have the fans ignore the match because of the feud between Bashir and Sewell. Probably need some background in Sewell being trained as a wrestler. If TNA tries to drag this out with Sewell being the ref at another Bashir match, TNA would be portrayed as looking idiotic (for TNA management putting Bashir to ref) and dragging their feet. Sewell being busted open just pushed this feud to the boiling point. Not sure why TNA went the lengths of having Young win the title yet get stripped of it again (that's twice).

Hemme vs. Kong was nothing but a tease for a bigger match, and while Beer Money at least tries to do their matches differently, it's still the same old song and dance. It's getting old and stale to watch.

Looks like Suicide won't just be another X Division wrestler. Probably would be the wildcard, meaning TNA gets to do the "lights out" trick with Suicide.

If TNA signed Al Snow to a deal, I would be interested to watch to see what they do with him. He'll fade into just being another guy. It's hard to imagine Snow wearing the MEM suit and MEM sunglasses (after all, his character for years had HELPME printed backward on his forehead and carried around a mannequin head). Maybe just as simple as Foley vs. Snow (credit to slam.canoe.ca for pic)

And lo and behold, TNA has a solid match with MEM vs. Frontline. No craziness or ending that reeks of stupidity. The action in the ring was well-done and the finish served the point of perhaps Sting disagreeing with the methods of MEM. The main knock on TNA's PPV main events is that the finishes were dumb as hell and just confusing (Joe vs. Booker, Joe vs. Sting). Tonight fans didn't feel "cheated."

And TNA managed to make the next Impact pretty loaded. Some decent stuff with the results of the Feast or Fired match, but MCMG, Al Snow, Sting, and Suicide are worth at least checking out. This PPV did not feature an outstanding match like Angle vs. Abyss, but what it managed to do is have every bit be somehow significant and meaningful. Some huge questions are bound to rise up in how TNA will handle some certain storylines and feuds, but for tonight this PPV wasn't "filler" or a "waste of time."

However, the fault of this PPV was that it was stretching logic at various points. TNA can either look like geniuses or fools in how they handle this Sewell vs. Bashir feud. Al Snow showing up indeed saved both men...but it is stretching to believe that Snow sided with Angle just because he has a beef with Foley. And plus...he's Al Snow. Last time I saw him he was a trainer on WWE's Tough Enough. Plus...he's Al Snow. So if they are going to use Snow in some fashion a lot of work needs to be done on his character to make him believable. If Snow was just used for a one-night-deal, that's pretty cheap of TNA. They could get any wrestler associated with Foley and explain it as "Mr. X has had problems with Foley." The outcomes of the feast or fired match, Sewell vs. Bashir and Al Snow helps Angle can all be great... or it can all be very, very weird.

Some questions in how TNA will handle some aspects, but for right now a show that seemed more focused. I would have given this PPV a lower score if it was just lower/mid-card crud that expected the main events to save the show.

POSTIVES

-- MCMG get pushed as whiny heels in a effective manner
-- Finish of the MEM vs. Frontline match showed promise, as it was a direct departure from "controversial" (e.g. bad) PPV main event finishes in the past
-- Solid PPV. Nothing outstanding, but things were well planned out in advance. A hopeful sign compared to previous bad PPVs in recent memory

NEGATIVES

-- Hemme vs. Kong was nothing more but a tease for a later match
-- I don't pay attention to Beer Money matches because they don't go anywhere
-- Unsure in how TNA will handle this Sewell vs. Bashir feud or "Al Snow helps Angle win." Both are somewhat odd
-- Many fans will feel that this PPV was lukewarm because it did not deliver an epic moment

VERDICT: In The Middle Of Absurdity

Email is mckinley.torch@gmail.com.

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