Instant Reaction - TNA Impact Wrestling 4/5
By Benjamin Tucker, PWTorch TV specialist

Overall Score - 5.0

My review may be affected by the fact that I just got back from being in the center of a crowd of thousands yelling "Yes!" while watching Brock Lesnar destroy John Cena in the middle of the ring, but Impact this week didn't do much for me.

The show continues to have that feeling of a regression story-wise, as if TNA has hit the panic button due to poor ratings recently. Hogan's back in charge, Dixie Carter is in at least one segment on a show, and that exact same never-ending power struggle storyline is continuing. At least in WWE they seem to be getting solidly behind one sole leader in Laurinaitis for the time being, with no one challenging his authority. In TNA, being in power has less job security than one of the latter Roman emperors. I wouldn't be complaining if Hogan's rise to power felt different or took a different approach, but he's actually regressed in character development, with the exact same attitude that he had back in 2010. It's just not interesting anymore. Neither is Garett Bischoff's feud with his father, where I still feel no connection to Garrett as a person. What are his morals and goals, other than "Fight Daddy?" And, the segments involving him or Hogan take up so much time that it really brings down the program in the long run.

However, there were three very nice matches tonight, with the opening, closing, and Storm vs. Styles matches being very entertaining. Of course, the main event had to have a cheap finish, but that's practically a given now. Storm is being built up well, and Hardy vs. Angle had some great spots. Why they would do so much just to hype another match between the same two men in just a few days leaves me scratching my head, but it was still a lot of fun. The other two matches on the show weren't quite as successful, though.

The Knockouts challenge match was clunky, clunky, clunky, and the finish never really felt like it was in doubt. At the same time, the Motor City Machineguns's return received little fanfare, and while their return match was overall decent, the botched move at the end looked pretty bad. One complete success tonight, though, was the Ray-Aries segment. While Bully Ray did brush off Austin Aries's offense a bit too well, it was still a lot of fun to watch. Ray looked like a monster. And, for the most part, Aries looked like an underdog, but a capable one.

That being said, the overall negatives of the show take Impact down a couple of notches. Hogan being shoved in viewers's faces every other segment got annoying, and I still got nothing out of the Garett storyline. TNA needs to stop panicking, and put less focus on Hogan.

Any 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]

We suggest these recent related articles...

10/5 WWE Raw Hits & Misses: Natalya vs. Paige, Owens vs. Cara, Stephanie McMahon, Sasha Banks, Xavier Woods

COLLECTIBLES COLUMN: The History of Foam Hands in Pro Wrestling

9/28 WWE Raw Hits & Misses: Kane's Split Personality, Divas Revolution, Heyman & Big Show, Reigns vs. Wyatt