Instant Reaction - TNA Impact Wrestling 1/5
By Benjamin Tucker, PWTorch TV specialist

Overall Score - 6.0

I thought tonight's episode of Impact was pretty average. There weren't many "wow" moments to the show and pay-per-view hype was solid but extremely basic, but the in-ring action did range from decent to good. The real things that stood out to me were little. Of course, there were the over-booked finishes. How many Impacts lately have had main events that ended in an overbooked finish? There was this week and last week, not to mention several others at the end of 2011. It's been happening so much that now I simply consider it the norm rather than the exception.

I also have to question the multiple face and heel turns tonight. Both Magnus and Kazarian officially went from face to heel (or, I at least think Magnus was face - he was hardly on TV in 2011). Why not give each talent some time to grow into their characters as a face or heel before turning them? It would really help guys like Kazarian, who hasn't really found a solid character to delve into with his constant turns.

As mentioned above, pay-per-view hype was unspectacular. They gave very little hook to entice people to buy the show, and, while hype was prevalent throughout the show, it was in the most basic sense and it felt a bit rushed (though, considering TNA only has two hours a week to hype their shows, I'll give them a little leeway there). And, while hype was unspectacular, there were several good matches on the show. The X Division tag was good, as well as the main event, and, without the screwy finish, I enjoyed the Wild Card tag finals, too. By the way, did anyone else notice how almost none of the tournament matches ended without some sort of gimmickry? I know it sounds like I'm harping on this, but over half of the tournament had screwy finishes!

The real star of the show was Bully Ray. Even without the mic in the opening segment, he managed not only to enhance the main event, but also some of the other characters, especially Roode. The way he catered to Roode and gave him a constant pep talk made Roode seem like a much bigger star than he's seemed as of late. Some really fantastic stuff from him tonight.

But, while the show was above average, it wasn't by much. Several over-booked matches and a lack of interesting hype for Genesis hurt my enjoyment of the show, but there were some decent segments. I'll even admit it - Eric Young and ODB are hilarious.

Questions or comments? Follow me on Twitter at BTuckerTorch, or e-mail me at btuckertorch@aol.com!

[Torch art credit Grant Gould (c) PWTorch.com]

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