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Csonka’s TNA Impact Review 5.29.15

May 30, 2015 | Posted by Larry Csonka
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Csonka’s TNA Impact Review 5.29.15  

Introduction
As a reminder, this will not be another traditional recap, but instead it will be a mash up of the Rs, Instant Analysis and my usual Twitter ramblings I would do during the shows; completely uncensored and as the ideas flow unfiltered to the old keyboard. Remember, this is a review; and I am here to review the show. As always, I encourage discussion and even disagreement, just do so in a respectful manner. I will be doing the review for Raw and most PPVs and iPPVs going forward.

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TNA Impact Review 5.29.1

OFFICIAL RESULTS
~ Steel Cage Match: Tayrn Terrell defeated Gail Kim @ 5:27 via [**¾]
~ X-Division Gauntlet Match Spud defeated Champion Kenny King, Mandrews, Tigre Uno, Crazzy Steve, Argos, DZJ and Manik @ 15:55 via pin to become the new champion [**½]
~ Match 2 In The Best of Five Series For The Vacant Tag Team Titles: The Wolves defeated The Dirty Heels @ 11:05 via pin [****]
~ Ethan Carter III defeated Mr. Anderson @ 8:04 via pin [**½]
~ TNA Title I Quit Match: Champion Kurt Angle defeated Eric Young @ 11:11 [***½]

NOTE ON IMPACT REVIEWS/REPORTS: Starting tonight, I will be doing just the reviews for Impact Wrestling. With the show moving to Wednesdays next week, I will be reviewing ROH TV, Impact Wrestling and then Lucha Underground in the same night. They will be reviewed in that order so that all shows are covered. If we find someone to do the live report for Impact, we will gladly add it back to the site. On with the show…

* Eric Young was shown arriving at the arena and discussing his desire to win the title. Angle was waiting for him as he arrived at the building so they brawled in the parking lot. Security had to separate them.

* Al Snow and his horrible fashion sense are the commentary with Josh this week.

Steel Cage Match: Gail Kim vs. Taryn Terrell: Terrell and her Dollhouse friends now have dollhouses and such on the ramp as they make their entrance. My appreciation to TNA for starting with a match, something I appreciate these days more and more. Kim attacked at the bell and was all business, since Terrell had made the feud personal by trying to get close to her stepdaughters and hitting on her husband, celebrity chef Robert Irvine. While the overall feel of the feud isn’t exactly something I love, I felt that Terrell did some nice little things, like attacking Kim’s hand and trying to bite off her wedding ring. Belle and Jade were mostly kept out of it until the end, where they climbed the cage to stop Kim from executing a high-risk move. Terrell then hit the cutter to pick up the win. Terrell then took out the ref with a clothesline, and they closed the door so that they could beat down Kim. Kong came to the ring to make the save, but Dollhouse beat down Kim with the door locked. Terrell then took off Kim’s wedding ring and appeared to “break Kim’s fingers” as Kong basically did nothing but hit the cage door with a chair. The match was good, but they didn’t get the time to make it great, I would have given them more time and cut the post match a bit. The idea behind it was good but Kong looked like an idiot because she couldn’t get into the cage. You can’t build someone up as a monster and not allow them to do monster things; but at least they are trying to make you hate Dollhouse. This was an overall better use of the opening time than a cut and paste promo segment, that’s for sure.

* When we came back form the commercial, they announced that Kim had suffered a broken ring finger. That’s it.

* We get a video package on the Storm/Mickie/Magnus angle.

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Mickie Talks One More Match & DRAMA: Mickie James came out to the ring and teased that she will have her one final match, and then addressed the recent situation with Magnus and Storm. Storm does come to the ring, and we got into what has been happening. Magnus hadn’t apologized to Storm for breaking the guitar he gave Mickie, and Storm even said he might have done the same thing. Mickie says it comes down to Magnus protecting his family, but Storm keeps having good points like the fact that he saved her from Bram. After some ballyhoo back and forth, Storm says he set up some meetings up for Mickie to help her music career (we got a Corgan name drop in here). Storm told her he would support her no matter what, and he just wanted her to do what was right for her. The Revolution stuff has largely been bad, but the writing for Storm’s character in this angle has been on point. He comes across as the guy that is only doing right for his friend, but you just know that he is a piece of shit. Unfortunately for Magnus (story wise), Storm is so smooth that Magnus comes off like the asshole. I really like the angle so far.

* Angle and Young have been separated and locked in separate offices.

X-Division Title Gauntlet Match: Champion Kenny King vs. Manik vs. Rockstar Rockstar Spud vs. Mandrews vs. DJZ vs. Tigre Uno vs. Argos vs. Crazzy Steve: Royal Rumble rules until we get to the final two men, then it is a regular match. King gets to enter last because he is the champion. ORDER OF ENTRY: Manik, Spud, DJZ, Mandrews, Crazzy Steve, Tigre Uno, Kenny King. ORDER OF ELIMINATION: Mandrews, Tigre Uno, Crazzy Steve, Argos, DZJ and Manik. In many ways I hate what the X-Division has become, since it was at one time the centerpiece of TNA. They get next to no TV time, and then expect fans to care about a match like this. I wish that they could fix that. Argos apparently knocked himself silly here on a springboard RANA try, which is the worst-case scenario for his debut. They worked through a commercial, and Uno was eliminated as we came back. Argos looked to have recovered and was then eliminated. We came down to Manik, Spud and King; with the heels looking to work together until Manik turned on King, only to be eliminated. It was really basic stuff until we got to Spud vs. King, with them playing up the underdog story of Spud being in there since the beginning. Spud got beat on for a few minutes and then countered the royal flush into a cradle for the win. The story was good, as Spud got revenge for having the title stolen from him, but the match was really just there. If you’re only going to give these guys occasional chances, you really need to let them go all out so that it actually feels special. This lacked the action the division is known for, and while the story was good, it lacked the drama that really pulls you into the match.

Match 2 In The Best of Five Series For The Vacant Tag Team Titles: The Wolves {1} vs. The Dirty Heels {0}: The Wolves scored the first win in the series, and the Dirty Heels are looking to even things up here. The Dirty Heels came out aggressively here, to show their desperation in wanting to even up the series. These guys work very well together, and both teams showed some excellent teamwork through out, making this a joy to watch. The Wolves got the heat on Roode, and then Aries got a rally good hot tag and the action continued to escalate well. Aries ran wild and had the last chancery on Richards as Roode had the crossface on Edwards to tease the submission finish. They did an excellent god of starting at one place, and just continuing to build and build and build through out the match and deliver some great near falls down the stretch. Richards saved Edwards late, using a double stomp to break up the last chancery. The Wolves took a 2-0 lead, hitting the powerbomb/back stabber combo for the win. Match one was good, but this was the kind of match people wanted and expected. This was a great outing, and now you have to wonder what will the Dirty Heels be willing to do to get back into the series.

* Kenny King leaves an angry message for MVP, he’s not pleased at all about losing the X-Division Title.

Love and Sky Drama: Angelina Love came out to the ramp, and Sky was in the crowd. She ran down Sky and then called out her own personal security. These guys make red shirt security look badass. Sky remained completely stoic as Love ran her down and reminded her that she was fired. Sky eventually attacked and Love was saved by her security momentarily. Sky then took out some of the security guys and kept attacking. They finally saved Love and handcuffed Sky as Love shrieked like a banshee. It was fine I suppose, the Angelina Love character doesn’t really have any heat with me, I just want her to go away and she is bad on the mic, please stop talking. The feud makes sense due to the fact that Love totally abandoned Sky when she got “fired,” but nothing they are doing is what I would call must see TV, or making me care. It’s not bad, but it’s lacking.

* Mr. Anderson discusses tonight’s match with EC3, without Tyrus involved. Tyrus will be locked in a little cage during the match. It’s basically the old King of the Mountain penalty box.

Ethan Carter III vs. Mr. Anderson: So the gimmick is that Anderson feels he constantly gets screwed by Tyrus when facing EC3, so now he has him locked away and looks to derail the undefeated streak of EC3. It’s simple and effective storytelling. EC3 said that Tyrus wouldn’t be caged, so the match started and Tyrus wasn’t in the cage. Anderson then attacked him and tried to get him into the cage, leading to EC3 attacking from behind. EC3 controlled most of the way, Tyrus was able to get in a shot here and there from ringside. I have to ask, was this just something that Anderson came up with or an official stipulation, because it was unclear in its execution. Anderson eventually threw Carter into Tyrus, beat Tyrus with a chair and then locked him in the cage about 4-minutes into the match. Anderson took control, looked for a senton and was crotched on the ropes, leading to a near fall off of a TKO by EC3. EC3 does little douche things well, like using the Stinger splash since he beat Sting. Anderson would finally hit the senton for a near fall, and then he also kicked out of the mic check. EC3 came back to hit the one percenter for the clean win. Outside of the time it took to get the stipulation set, they did a good job story wise here. The match was fine, perfectly acceptable, but Carter surviving on his own, kicking out of Anderson’s finish and scoring the win clean was exactly what he needed as they continue to build him for a title shot. I don’t think Anderson is an interesting character or a very good pro wrestler these days, but the fact that TNA can hype him as a former world champion and use him to build Carter is what I liked about this. This was an ok match, but a better story and build for Carter, especially with the fact that he showed that he could win on his own.

* Backstage, Spud is so happy about winning the X-Division title, actually treating this like it was something important, which I appreciate. The interviewer brings up Destination X and “option C,” and Spud thinks about it and says that the X-Division title was his goal; but that maybe he needs a new goal.

TNA Title I Quit Match: Champion Kurt Angle vs. Eric Young: In a nice little touch to play off of he show’s open and the feud, they had security escort both Angle and Young to the ring. They started brawling during the introductions and we were underway and they just continued brawling. See, I appreciate this. This is not a “grappling bout” for respect, these guys have built up the hate so locking up and doing a standard match start doesn’t fly here. It’s the little things. Angle threw a metric fuck ton of German suplexes, they worked through a commercial and when we came back Young used his shin guard to lay out Angle and then work the figure four. Angle survived and escaped, which led to Young working the ankle lock to try and make Angle quit to his own hold. Angle then decided that stealing finishes were in fair play and used a figure four on Young. I actually really like the work there, trying to humiliate your opponent by making them quit to their own move to make the loss even worse. Young tapped to an ankle lock, Angle foolishly thought he won, but that allowed Young to get in a low blow; he’s a sneaky bastard. Young threatened to break Angle’s neck, and then tried another piledriver, the cradle variety, but Angle countered into the ankle lock and grapevine; and Young had to quit. They did the opposite of Cena vs. Rusev, which was they didn’t ask guys if they quit every 30-seconds, because that shit was annoying. This was an overall good main event, with Angle winning clean and presumably moving on from Young.

* End scene.

* Thanks for reading.

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“Byyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyye Felicia!”

7.0
The final score: review Good
The 411
This was a good an enjoyable show. The tag match and main event are the must see items, but the show was generally easy to watch and the moved the stories along well. That’s all I ask for.
legend

article topics :

TNA, Tremendous Tirades, Larry Csonka