Instant Reaction - Impact Wrestling 5/3
By Benjamin Tucker, PWTorch TV specialist

Overall Score - 4.0

Filler. Filler. More filler. Filler. Nothing happened tonight. There was a mock mini-episode of Tough Enough (which makes no sense, considering you're breaking kayfabe in a kayfabe-based TV show - would Dr. House start hiring new water boys midway through the episode of a show?), several short matches that were average at best, and several storylines that did nothing but coast. Did we learned anything new about the feuds with Roode and RVD, the Knockouts, or Daniels, Kaz, and Styles? Not really. You can say that Aries-Ray was a nice segment, which it was, but at the same time we've seen this exact segment before - about a month ago. Remember? When Aries got powerbombed after attacking Bully Ray for mocking him? Rings a bell, no?

That's essentially how the rest of this show went. Lots of repetition. Last week, Kurt Angle got upset with Kaz and Daniels, who were taunting Styles over the mysterious pictures. This week? Same thing. Devon's match was a filler segment, and the Knockouts match did nothing to build upon the non-existent character of Tessmacher. The Gut Check segments, as mentioned above, really don't fit in with the rest of the show by having so many insider terms that break the fourth wall. Plus, Silva still shows me nothing. Last week, his selling was terrible, and this week his mic work and facial expressions sucked. Flair was right!

The "Pick Your Poison" hype for the World Title match worked okay, but it seemed more as a way for the feud to coast rather than develop into a personal feud - just like the rest of the show. Yep, I'm being uber cynical tonight. Anyway, this show did nothing for me. Sure, there may have been minor developments here or there, but in the end, I felt this show did not develop storylines or produce quality matches. So, in all respects, I thought it failed.

Any questions or comments? Follow me on Twitter at BTuckertorch, or e-mail me at btuckertorch@aol.com.

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