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I thought this show was okay, but it did a lot to build for the Sacrifice pay per view and that was the definite focus of the show. There were two long matches for Impact and we got a change to the tag title match at the pay per view with the title change taking place.
Since this is the final show before the pay per view, in addition to my thoughts on the show, I am going to discuss whether the segment helped or hurt the build for Sacrifice.
Here are my thoughts on the show:
The opening segment was okay with Rob Van Dam and Eric Bischoff, but I would have preferred to have Rob Van Dam talk a little more. I liked that Van Dam wants to be a fighting champion and not take the night off like Bischoff suggested.
I thought A.J. Styles’ promo was okay but I would prefer if A.J. would return back to the ‘old A.J.’ instead of trying to be the next Ric Flair. I thought his explanation for wanting to wrestle Van Dam to make it easier for him at Sacrifice. I did not like the references to Van Dam or Hardy’s lifestyles during his comments.
If Eric Bischoff had so much trouble getting in touch with Jeff Hardy to let him know that he had a match with Rob Van Dam, why didn’t he just ask him in the back since Hardy couldn’t have been too far if he came out ten minutes into the show.
The segment with Hardy, Van Dam, and Styles did a good job to set up for the World Title Match at Sacrifice because it gives Styles the chance to have an easier match at the pay per view. It also made Van Dam the fighting champion that he wanted to be, but it could affect his health for the match on Sunday.
I thought Madison’s promo about her match with Tara was good because it gave us her reason for wanting Tara out of the company. A win over Tara would do a lot to help Madison’s position in the Knockouts Division. Velvet’s comments suggested that if it is necessary, they will do whatever it takes to make sure that Madison stays the Knockouts Champion, and I would expect to see Velvet make an appearance at the pay per view.
When Lacey was hopping around during Velvet and Madison’s comments, I was wondering if she was doing the ‘pee pee dance’ and I guess she was. It gives the show a sense of ‘being live’ since they had the time for the interview and as a friend of mine would say you need to take care of family business. I don’t know if they are teasing the end of Lacey’s involvement with the group or some other split, but they have had a lot of segments where Velvet is frustrated with what Lacey is doing while Madison tries to be the voice of reason.
I thought that segment of the show did a good job of building for the match between Tara and Madison at the pay per view.
This is the last time that I will mention this in an Impact Thoughts Column, but please stop with the synchronized dance routines with the female wrestlers. There is also overkill with some of the gestures that wrestlers must do before they come to the ring or do something during a match that takes away from the idea of trying to win the match.
I thought the Tara/Taylor Wilde match started off well with Tara being aggressive at the start of the match but once Taylor got a brief advantage, Tara was begging for mercy and trying to be friends with Taylor. It was a good touch to have Tara demand that Sarita be sent to the back to allow Tara to hatch her evil plan as well as to keep the partners separated. This match was too short and I was surprised that the match ended the way it did with the kick as Taylor came off the turnbuckles. I liked the post match attack by Tara. Tara showed some desperation during the attack since this could be her final Impact since she is putting her career in TNA on the line on Sunday.
I thought this match did a good job to set up the match between Tara and Madison on Sunday.
I was not a big fan of the Chelsea was attacked angle that they did on the show.
I liked the Douglas Williams promo before his non-title match against Brian Kendrick. However, as soon as Williams mentioned that Kendrick had not won a match that he could remember and that it was a non-title match that Kendrick would win the match.
I liked Kazarian’s comments during the Williams/Kendrick match. It showed his motivation to come back and what he sacrificed during his time away and his desire to prove what he can do in the ring.
I thought the Kendrick/Williams match was a bit of a let down because it was too short to really showcase what they could do in the ring. I thought the finish of the match was good because Williams saw Kazarian coming to the ring to take Douglas’ belt so Douglas was protecting his property from a potential thief. Williams’ obsession with the belt cost him the match. I liked how Douglas held the title belt after the match to show Kazarian that he might be called the X Division champion, he isn’t the title holder.
I thought this segment did a good job of building the match between Kazarian and Williams to determine the true X Division Champion.
I thought Christy Hemme was doing a good job of trying to be the investigative reporter to find out what happened to Chelsea. She tried to get information from Pat Kenney and while he did not divulge a lot of information, he did tease that once things came out it would be shocking.
When Christy made the revelation that she knew who the attacker was but could not say anything until that person was in custody, I was hoping for her to say that if you want to find out, call her hotline as homage to the teases that were given on WCW programming in the 80s and 90s. The segments with Christy also felt like the Saturday Night Live sketches when Buckwheat was shot.
I did not like the Matt Morgan/Generation Me ‘non match’. Why would Morgan stop in the middle of a match to complain about Hogan’s failure to name his tag partner for his tag title match at Sacrifice. While Morgan should have a valid complaint because he did give Hogan a week to name his partner, and Hogan failed to do so.
I thought that it was good that Hall and Nash took advantage of the situation with Matt Morgan being incapacitated by Samoa Joe to cash in the Feast or Fired briefcase. I believe that when Hall and Waltman made their first appearance in January, we discussed on the Impact audio that night that Hall and Nash would reunite and get the tag titles. Even though it was five months ago and Nash did not carry the case around with him, it did not come off good that the commentary sounded like the case was forgotten. While Morgan was knocked out, you would have expected to see Hall and Nash show a little hustle to get to the ring to win the tag titles.
This segment set up the tag title match at the pay per view so it worked in that sense, but it did not help Matt Morgan since he was knocked out for about five minutes after an enzuigiri and muscle buster.
I thought Joe stayed strong as a monster with the attack on Morgan and it leaves open the possibility of a match between Joe and Morgan as well as Joe and Douglas Williams after what we saw in recent weeks.
The Shannon Moore and Jesse Neal segment in the back was okay because it was talking about their tag title match on Sunday and mentioned that they would be facing Hall and Nash. However, since they record the ‘Reaction style’ segments during the show, it did not help that you could hear Douglas Williams being introduced so if the show is being done ‘live to tape’, they talked about a title change that had not yet happened.
I thought the four way tag match started off well but I thought it lost something once the referee lost control of the match. I did like that they were given a lot of time (when you consider the length of television matches on the show) so things did not have to be rushed. I thought Beer Money and the Motor City Machine Guns looked the strongest in the match even though they were nowhere to be found for the finish. Since Moore and Neal are the current number one contenders, they needed the win more than the other three teams. It also made sense to have Jesse pin a member of Team 3D since they trained Jesse. I don’t know if that means that Team 3D will get involved in the tag title match at Sacrifice or not since they have their own match, but if they win that match they could have a title match against one of their students instead of Hall and Nash.
I thought this match did a good job to build for both the tag title match and the number one contender’s match.
Maybe with the way that Shannon Moore’s ear was lacerated, maybe it will be a lesson to wrestlers not to wear jewelry in the ring.
While the segment with Ric Flair in the back discussed the main event between Styles, Van Dam, and Hardy, I did not like the segment. For a man who turned A.J. Styles into a protégé of his especially with the way that he dresses, Flair was dressed way too casual. I also don’t know why they have the subtitles for Flair.
I also was a bit disappointed by the Hardy and Van Dam ‘reaction’ segment in the back. While the previous segment with Flair was done face to face, this one felt like it was a hidden camera. In the same way that I was critical of the Daniel Bryan promo on Tuesday night (and as Buck mentioned in his audio hotline recap of the show), it doesn’t help when the person is talking about something that did not happen. Jeff thanked Rob for adding him to the match, but it was Jeff’s match in the first place. Of course Bischoff had given Van Dam the night off so it could be argued that Jeff lost his match. And the subtitles took away from the segment.
I did not like the Abyss gets arrested segment. I was talking with some people during the segment and one thing that was discussed was that Abyss was never told what crime he committed. However, Abyss says that he didn’t do it. How could he know if he did or didn’t do it if he wasn’t told what he was being arrested for. When Desmond attacked Abyss, shouldn’t he have been arrested for assault and battery? To build on the conversation between Dave and Buck on the No Name Show, I wonder if someone was hoping to see one of the cops pull out a taser and use it (and if you wanted to see tasers being used on television on Thursday night, check out this week’s episode of Community)
While I did not like the segment, it did advance the storyline for the match at the pay per view between Wolfe and Abyss.
I guess Orlando Jordan got custody of the Big Poppa Pipe.
While the Orlando Jordan/Rob Terry segment in the ring was done to advance the storyline for their match at Sacrifice, I did not like the segment. While it shows that you can be a monster, but once someone goes after your crown jewels, you are helpless. I wonder if Taz’s comment about how that hurts unless you have a cup will foreshadow something that happens on Sunday where Orlando goes for the same testicular claw and Rob is prepared and has protected that region of his body.
I thought the finish to the match between Orlando Jordan and Tomko was good with the guillotine choke but I thought the rest of the match was lacking something. When you have the fast paced action of the other matches on the show, this was too slow.
I would have liked to have heard Taz or Tenay make the comment that Earl Hebner has a history of making quick calls on submissions since TNA has mentioned Montreal 1997 a few times on television.
I guess Lacey’s bladder issues are a good thing for Abyss.
When Lacey was giving her iPhone to Hogan, I wonder if anyone else thought she was going to have Hogan watch something else other than what would be revealed as the set up when she mentioned ‘it was a really big mistake’. Shouldn’t the video to clear Abyss have been shown immediately to get him out of custody?
While the Tara/Sarita match advanced the desperation and vengeance that Tara is showing since her career is on the line on Sunday, I did not like the match they had. I would have expected to see the referee disqualify Sarita since she elbowed him, but maybe because the referee initiated the contact by pulling Sarita off Tara, he could not disqualify her. It is also convenient that the referee recovered just in time to make the three count on Sarita.
Since Sting and Jarrett weren’t on the show, the video package they had did a good job of setting up their match on Sunday.
I thought the Hardy/Van Dam/Styles match was okay. It was a standard triple threat match after the first minute because it was primarily a one on one match with the third person on the floor. I wish they would have given the match more time. While Styles worked on Van Dam’s legs during the match, other than the DDT, he really did not work on Van Dam’s head and Styles was able to get the three count, even though he had a little help from the ropes. I think the Anderson interference was okay but it could have been done after the match to set up what happened after the match.
I thought this match did a good job to build for the main event on Sunday. We also saw some good build for the Hardy/Anderson match especially the brawl by the announce table.
I thought the Anderson/Hardy brawl was okay and I was glad that it wasn’t a match because we were going to get the match on Sunday. It was a good tease for what we can expect. The table by the announce table was conveniently placed but it did make for a good visual. With the show being taped, I don’t know why they went from the straightforward shot of the table spot to a side view which did not get the impact as good as the original angle. Then we saw that angle in one of the many replays.
The video of Desmond and Chelsea in the bathroom was okay, but did they really have time to transfer the video and get captioning put in during the 40 minutes between Lacey showing the footage to Hogan and it airing? Didn’t Chelsea look right at where Lacey was filming? I guess they didn’t see how they set up the fake attack on Lisa on V a few weeks ago. Someone I was talking to during the show wondered if Wolfe and Chelsea should be charged with making a false report. While I did not think it was a great segment, it did the most to set up the match between Wolfe and Abyss on Sunday because being falsely accused should be enough to send Abyss over the edge.
The video package at the end of the show did a good job of running through the card for Sacrifice but did we need the ‘It rubs the lotion on its skin’ clip of Orlando Jordan?
What to watch on your DVR: The Douglas Williams/Kazarian segment; the four way tag match; Styles/Hardy/Van Dam; the Anderson/Hardy brawl.
