By Garrett Kidney
May 23rd, 2013
USF Sundome in Tampa, Florida
- Do we really need more months of nonsense between Bully and Brooke? I was fine with it leading into Lockdown because I was happy with the end game (Bully turning) but the likely end game here is Brooke turning and I couldn't care less about the prospect of that. Again TNA opens the show with a muddled promo segment despite sagging numbers. It baffles me that they do nothing to attempt to get people to tune in. The timeslot change should help them but if the first hour continues to be inconsequential filler presented as nothing but filling time between Aces and 8s segments (or quite frankly Aces and 8s segments themselves) people still won't tune in.
And it just amazes me that they've stuck with the Aces and 8s angle despite it failing to connect at all stages. Here's what I wrote back in August:
"TNA allowed a silly, cold angle probably proposed by somebody who's a little too enamoured with Sons of Anarchy to high-jack the show for two months instead of focusing on hot characters who actually had a little bit of momentum like Storm, Aries and Roode. They gave in to the worst elements of live TV trying too often to go for big revelations or cliffhangers while all the same neglecting the likes of Aries who took a backseat to this nonsense when they needed the spotlight more than ever.
I was willing to give the Aces and 8s angle time to actually do something but I'd be shocked at this stage if they have something that makes the squandering of the last two months and making everything else happening (including the Bound For Glory Series) seem like it's irrelevant worthwhile. Nevermind mentioning the damage that's been done to James Storm."
And things haven't gotten better despite the angle being fleshed out fully, the only difference now is the numbers have been tanking. Aries and Roode are midcard tag team wrestlers and James Storm hasn't come anywhere near recovering. I identified back in August that this wasn't going anywhere and it's still not going anywhere now (the focus is still on the Hogans and who is going to be launched as a star coming out the Aces and 8s angle, Magnus could if they booked him to be the guy to take them down but they didn't even let him beat Brisco this week). Fail fast and early.
-I approve of who they chose to play Suicide, he's much more exciting and fleet footed than past incarnations (and I'm a big fan of Perkins in general). Good match (though they said that Ryan was replacing Ion in this match but didn't Ion take the fall last time so shouldn't it have been Dutt here instead?) that could've done with a little more time and the ending came out of nowhere. Petey continues to stand out since he returned, he's looked great (and the crowd are reacting really well to him).
- Another illustration that Magnus should be the guy that TNA really gets behind as he continues to look, talk and now wrestle like a star. Though why they couldn't have given him a win over Brisco is beyond me (and why Brisco is the face of that trio over Doc and even Bischoff is further beyond me). Plus they rushed away from Joe's save far, far too quickly (though this show badly needs Joe (and Styles) wrestling more often). Being jumped before a Gutcheck related match must seem awfully familiar to Sam Shaw aswell.
- Same Angle/Anderson match we've seen a few times but that doesn't mean it wasn't very enjoyable. Angle's timing on his comeback is second to none and these two have always had good chemistry. I still think there may be something to Anderson being an inside man in Aces and 8s (especially with the way they're shifting more focus onto him and it could be argued that he's trying to get D'Lo kicked out of the group).
- I like Gunner, him Crimson and Jay Bradley are three guys with inherent potential and credibility that TNA could get behind as the next slate of upper midcarders (along with Magnus). TNA has been badly in need of shaking up it's major programmes for a long while now and cycling people into feuds with the folks I've listed above (and out of feuds with Aces and 8s) would do the product a world of good. Plus any segment with Shark Boy gets a thumbs up from me.
- Well that womens match fell apart. Velvet's selling of the knee was still awful (and completely random), the communication breakdown in the middle of the match was terrible, the crowd died and the match just wasn't great. At least the turn was pretty well done (and some of the crowd picked up on hit) and the title is thankfully finally off Velvet.
- Good show closer but AJ actually hitting Angle with the hammer seemed a little excessive, though I suppose they wanted to drive home his man on an island act. I've been watching old iMPACT!'s lately (I'm sure you've all been reading the column (and that was a shameless attempt to guilt you folks into reading it)) and the way they booked AJ in '04/'05 was so much better than these days. He'd work solid, entertaining TV matches where both he and his opponent looked awesome and where the announcers talked him up as something special and it worked a treat in establishing AJ as a star. It played to his strengths, this angle doesn't play to his strengths.
Closing Thoughts
This show wasn't terrible (I feel like I've been awfully negative here but there's a lot of things I've wanted to talk about at once), it was a perfectly fine, enjoyable show but there's things that could be so easily tweaked and fixed and it would help this show immeasurably.
