Wrestling’s 4Rs: The Right, Wrong and Ridiculous of Impact & Smackdown

How the 4Rs of wRestling Work!
Here is a quick explanation of the 4R’s. The column will run TWO times a week. We will group our feelings on the shows in various categories: The Right, the wRong and the Ridiculous. The Right is stuff that worked very well: a great promo, a great match and so on. PuRgatoRy is a section between the right and wrong. It shows equal traits from both sides that cannot be ignored and needs discussed. It is not a bad place per say, as things can get remedied or go the wrong way the very next week. The wRong is what it sounds like: bad matches, bad or boring promos and so on. The Ridiculous is stuff that had no right on TV: Stupid angles and so on. And there is always a possibility of a 5th R, which is as bad as they come. This column is supposed to be analytical, and at the right time very critical of the shows, it was the whole reason it was created. This is not a “mark” column, nor a “smark” column, our goal is to analyze the show from many different fronts, reward the good and call out the bad. We will not apologize for our opinions, they are as they are, whether positive or negative.

---

By Daniel Clark
Smackdown 3.12.15
QUICK MATCH RESULTS:
* Tyson Kidd and Cesaro and Los Matadores def. The Usos and the New Day at 7.00 by pinfall
* Ryback def. The Miz at 2.55 by pinfall
* AJ Lee and Paige def. Cameron and Summer Rae at 2.23 by submission
* Daniel Bryan, Dean Ambrose and Dolph Ziggler def. Bad News Barrett, Luke Harper and Stardust at 17.31 by pinfall

THE RIGHT:
Los Matadores/Tyson Kidd/Cesaro vs. The New Day/The Usos: A fatal-four way between these teams since pretty much a lock now for WrestleMania with the only question being whether it is on the pre-show or whether it does make the main card. This was a pretty decent eight man tag match with everyone trying to take their chance to prove that they should be the champion, and Los Matadores appear to have added something new to their act with this new heelish nature to take the titles, and the switcharoo is something that although not unique, is a staple heel tactic. The match was pretty decent and was a good way to kick off the show, and their Mania match should be pretty decent as well.

Ryback vs. The Miz: Ryback is one of, if not, the favorite to win the Andre the Giant battle royal and he continues to pick up wins and keep his momentum high heading into that match. But the real story here was again between the Miz and Damien Mizdow and the official break-up of their partnership can’t be too far away. Again, the Miz belittles Mizdow and acts super-confident, loses the match, and the Mizdow is seen laughing and smiling afterwards. The Miz continues to be completely delusional and doesn’t seem to be aware the Mizdow is playing him. I fully expect the turn to happen at WrestleMania and would perhaps happen when Miz and Mizdow are the last two left in the battle royal, as that would get Mizdow a great pop and a big moment to start his face push, and also give these two the Mania moment that their ‘feud’ has deserved. The only thing holding this back at the moment would be that the Miz has lost so many matches as of late, I’m not that he will be pushed as a possible winner.

Roman Reigns promo: Having spent months building up Roman Reigns as an unstoppable monster, it does seem slightly out of keeping that they are hanging his match with Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania around the fact that no-one believes that he can beat him. His promo was short and effective, saying that he will be the champion and you can believe it, only for Mark Henry to interrupt. Henry, as usual, did some good work on the mic, selling the history that he has had with Lesnar and he knows what he can do, and almost goads Reigns into hitting him and then spearing him through the barricade. And then later on, says that Reigns is an animal. This was an effective way of continuing the build of Reigns as you take a man in Henry who has faced Lesnar and after a confrontation with Reigns, thinks that he might have a chance at Mania.

puRgatoRy:
AJ Lee and Paige vs. Summer Rae and Cameron: There was a match. Paige and AJ Lee won it. There is not a lot more about the match that can be added really. Things got more heated after the match between them and the Bella’s, but it seems as if all the build for this tag team match at WrestleMania has already happened and that they don’t have any new ideas as to where to go next.

Randy Orton interview: The interview and the clips were intertwined well and Orton did a reasonable job of explaining why he felt he needed to rejoin the Authority, but I’m sure that if Orton had just returned after four months and got the revenge on Seth Rollins that he spent four months waiting for, then everything would still be as it is now, with Rollins happy to accept a match with him at WrestleMania. At least Orton, although nominally still a face, is retaining his heelish attributes by saying how he enjoyed beating Rollins up and how on Raw he is going to spit in his face before challenging him.

Daniel Bryan/Dolph Ziggler/Dean Ambrose vs. BNB/Luke Harper/Stardust: These six men had plenty of time in their main event match which turned out to be a match of two halves really. It took a while to get going and was quite slow and methodical for the first half, but once it did kick into gear, it became a really good TV match with everyone getting a chance to show what they can do. The ending, with Ziggler hitting the Zig Zag, but Bryan tagging himself in and hitting the knee gave the face team the win and they continue to have all of the momentum heading into WrestleMania. At the moment, Bryan, Ziggler and Ambrose are being painted as winners, while Stardust, Harper and BNB are being made to look like losers, while R Truth with his belt-stealing isn’t even wrestling at the moment but hasn’t been made to look strong for a while either. Given how the show ended (see the ridiculous…) and the tension between the faces, it would perhaps have been better for some miscommunication between them to have cost them the match. This would have at least given them a reason to be upset with each other and would have made the heels look more legit.

THE wRong:
The IC title contenders speak: Other than Daniel Bryan opening the show and officially entering himself into the IC title match after talking up the importance of the belt, nothing actually seem to happen here other than the other men coming out and saying that they will win the match. It was just a typical, average, run-of-the-mill promo in which a lot of people spend a lot of time saying nothing and which means nothing, only to get to the brawl at the end. This was basically a ten-minute plus set up for the main event and didn’t really accomplish anything.

THE Ridiculous:
THAT ending…: Someone, somewhere, must have thought that the best way to build to a ladder match was for two men to call a third man in that match a turd. However, I am fairly sure that the only person who thought that this was a good idea would be the person who wrote it. Daniel Bryan’s reaction to it told its own story in the sense that I wonder if he actually knew what was going to be said, as he had a look of such bemusement on his way, as if he was thinking what the hell is this and that this cannot be for real. Ambrose and Ziggler calling a Bryan a turd just is ridiculous in every sense. Firstly, given all we know about Bryan, he seems like the nicest guy in the world, so no one is going to believe them. Secondly, there has been no tension between them before this so why suddenly pick a fight out of nowhere. Thirdly, is a turd seriously the best insult that they could come up with? And fourthly, and perhaps most importantly, how does this do anything to build to and promote a ladder match for a title?!!!

The 411:
It is almost like the WWE are sleepwalking into WrestleMania without a lot of thought being placed into the majority of the angles, and it definitely showed here.

It is good that there a lot of focus being placed on the Intercontinental Title situation, but there was no originality in any shape of form on this show at all. The show opened with the same promo that we have seen many times in the past when more than one person is contending for the title, with them all coming out and spending ten minutes saying they will win the belt, all for it to lead to the tag team match later in the show. And although it was a pretty decent match, the ending with the face team winning again, has led to a situation where three men of the seven in the ladder match look so much stronger than the other four, so much so that you have to question why they are even in the match – and that includes the nominal champion Bad News Barrett. The way the show ended as well – with Ambrose and Ziggler calling Bryan a turd – is just so bizarre and counterproductive that words can’t really describe it. It is the kind of thing that a five-year-old would come up with and not in any way helpful is building to a ladder match.

The build to the divas match and the tag team title match at Mania is both very much in the same vain. The divas seem to have run out of ideas as to how the progress their feud and we are now just waiting for their match to take place, while the challengers to Kidd and Cesaro’s belts are just because they are the other tag teams and not because there is a real reason for them to be fighting.
The Miz/Damien Mizdow angle continues to be one of the best booked around as both men are making the absolute most of every chance that they get, but in an ideal world the trigger on the Mizdow face turn would be pulled in the next week or so as it has been made clear that he is almost playing Miz now, but with WrestleMania a few weeks away and the turn sure to happen in the battle royal, it is going to have to be stretched out a bit longer.

The Roman Reigns story continues to be told in a way that is both confusing and intriguing at the same time. For months Reigns was treated as an unstoppable beast and yet now that he is only a few weeks away from facing Brock Lesnar, we are told that everyone is doubting him and is unsure as to whether he can beat Lesnar, with only Reigns sure that he can do so. Mark Henry is the next man to doubt him, but after facing Reigns, changes his minds are starts to believe that he can win, and it is things like this that work well in making us believe that Reigns could win, as guys who have been in the ring with both of them think he could win.

Another week has gone by and we are a week closer to WrestleMania and although the card is falling into place, with just Randy Orton/Seth Rollins and the tag title match to be added, it still doesn’t feel like it is right around the corner, and throwaway episodes like this don’t help things.

Show Rating: 6.0

As a reminder, I will be going by the 411 scale…

0 – 0.9: Torture
1 – 1.9: Extremely Horrendous
2 – 2.9: Very Bad
3 – 3.9: Bad
4 – 4.9: Poor
5 – 5.9: Not So Good
6 – 6.9: Average
7 – 7.9: Good
8 – 8.9:Very Good
9 – 9.9: Amazing
10: Virtually Perfect

By Jericho Ricardi
Impact 3.13.15
QUICK MATCH RESULTS:
* Bobby Roode def. Eric Young in a Last Man Standing match (Roode Bomb through a ringside table) at 20:00
* Drew Galloway def. MVP via DQ at 3:00
* Magnus def. Bram via DQ at 7:00
* Brooke def. Robbie E via pin (Jackknife cover) at 5:00
* EC3 def. Rockstar Spud via pin (One-Percenter) at 17:00

THE RIGHT:
Brooke Tessmacher’s Butt: No explanation needed.
Starting with a match: And a really good one, too. Roode and EY totally dismantled each other here, and the crowd was hot as hell. Factor in the better lighting and the new set, and the show had a vastly better vibe right off the bat than the past few shows. There was a lot to like here, from Roode’s Hulk Up to the Roode Bomb through the table. Damn fine match, and set the tone for the whole night. And on that note…

Two TNA MOTYCs: Both Roode/EY and EC3/Spud qualified as best match of 2015 so far in TNA. While the main event was the superior of the two matches, an argument could be made for Roode/EY as well. It’s good that the show spaced them out from one another so much. Getting two TNA MOTYCs in one night is pretty awesome.

Video Packages: We got some excellent video packages to hype up the three main matches tonight. All of them were well made and gave the show as a whole a PPV feel. They built up next week’s show excellently as well, with Lashley and Angle getting some pretty sweet video montages. Next week feels like part two of the PPV that started this week.

Bram, Mickie, and Magnus: This segment was uncomfortable as hell. The match itself was very good, but ended too soon (a common issue with the show right now). The DQ finish was also a cop-out, especially considering the match before this ended in a DQ. Either guy losing would be a step back for the feud right now, so this match was screaming for a no contest / ref stoppage of some sort. Having the ref just throw the match out because he can’t control either guy would have been perfect. Yes, it would have still been a non-finish, but at least it wouldn’t have been the same exact kind of non-finish as the one we saw a few minutes earlier. All of that said, the person keeping this out of Purgatory was Mickie James. Mickie’s involvement gave the whole thing a lot more gravitas than it had before and elevated the feud to the level of “blood feud”. I appreciate that she stood up for herself to Bram and gave him a good slap rather than just whimpering in the corner like a defenseless damsel. Despite standing up to him, she was still far outweighed and could only do so much to protect Magnus. Was this appropriate for all viewers? No, but the show is TV-14 for a reason.

Supplemental Right to DJ Z: This guy continues to be a very underrated talent. During his match intro, he mentioned all of the arguments Brooke and Robbie used to have; his very obvious disgust towards Brooke for giving Robbie such a difficult time at home was hilarious. BroMans before girlfriends, I guess.

Brooke Vs. Robbie: This is a matter of opinion. Lots of people would probably put this in the Wrong or Purgatory for being a fairly stupid segment overall; then there’s the uncomfortable man-on-woman nature of it that followed so soon after Bram holding Mickie James against her will. Personally, I loved this match, sue me. Robbie is going places, and the way this went down, I don’t think he actually lost any ground from it. Brooke pretty much had to win, and she did so in a way that made sense. She took a couple of suplexes that were, again, uncomfortable, but she got her comeuppance in the end and I was fine with it. Brooke looks a lot more powerful having survived the offense of a bigger foe, Robbie is more interesting having had another chance to be the most hilariously awful person in TNA, and the match managed to be entertaining. At the end of the day, as far as the man-on-woman violence in this show goes, I’d say the first case (Mickie) furthered a story well and had a woman standing up for herself, while the second case (Tess) featured the woman emerging victorious (and, again, standing up for herself).

EC3 Vs. Spud: And now we arrive at even MORE man-on-woman violence (add your own Chandler here!) …I actually thought EC3 had taken his first loss when Spud hit the Stunner. Unfortunately for Stone Cold Spud, it was just the non-finisher version of the Stunner from all of the old wrestling games. Even his Acid Drop finisher didn’t get the job done, and again the match had me on the edge of my seat. I’ll probably get flack for saying this, but it’s similar to Robbie/Tess in that both participants came away looking better. EC3 is STILL undefeated and dispatched Spud without ever really being in danger of losing, but it took so much effort on his part – and Spud had so much fight in him – that Spud looks better for having taken it to a much bigger opponent and refused to stay down. Also loved Spud’s tributes to wrestlers of olde, like Hulking Up and doing Ultimate Warrior’s shaking of the ropes to psyche himself up more. This match was excellent, across the board. Good call letting EC3 and Spud close the show and saving Angle/Lashley for next week, as this deserved to stand alone as the main event.

puRgatoRy:
Story Time With Drew: This was another good promo from Drew. Turns out if you give the guy a microphone and let him speak, he’s actually great at connecting with the audience. His current character is like CM Punk did the fusion dance with Sheamus, and it works. Looking forward to seeing this guy go on to big things in his new company. One complaint that brings it down from good to neutral though: I thought it was fine to have him take shots at WWE in his first promo (and quite frankly, he said what tons of us are thinking these days). However, taking more shots in his second promo is a bit much because it didn’t make a whole lot of sense this time. Either talk about leading a revolution to fix the industry, or talk about taking down BDC. Don’t conflate the two in this weird way of talking smack about WWE but acting like you’re talking about BDC. It’s weird and confusing. Either go for one or the other (or both).

MVP Vs. Drew Galloway: This match was too short to be anything particularly good. Drew’s offense got stifled a bit, the BDC interference was too quick, and Drew didn’t give us the comeback that we expected. When Samoa Joe came out the audience was totally ready for him to turn face, but instead the beat down just continued. This segment was a general wasted opportunity with Joe and it made Drew look weak. The thing keeping it out of the Wrong is that we got a good closing moment with the BDC holding up a bleeding Drew. We’ll see where this goes.

THE wRong:
DQ Finishes: Too many of these tonight, and it detracted from the “feud-ending” vibe the show had going in. Much like Lockdown, it appears that most of these feuds are going to continue. This was just another stop on the road, not the destination. Regardless, having back-to-back DQ endings is much worse than back-to-back debuting DDT finishers last week, and all of their bluster about “taking back pro wrestling” rang a bit hollow when we then got a pair of DQ finishes in succession. The era of rampant DQ finishes needs to be over with.

Grayscale Blood: Dafuq was this? Monochroming the blood out is something that numerous people complain about WWE doing nowayears and Impact was above the fray for a while. Not anymore, I guess. It actually kinda sold the brutality of what was going on, but it was so distracting at the same time. Why was it so random? This was a case of production detracting from the story being told. More on that in a moment.

THE Ridiculous:
Ending the show abruptly: This has been a quintessentially TNA problem for so long. While WWE tends to drag things out (we really didn’t need to see HHH and Steph being sad in the ring for FOUR MINUTES at the end of Survivor Series), TNA tends to cut things short. I don’t know which is worse. You NEED to give the audience time to let moments sink in, especially big moments that can really leave an impression. The ending of this show was one such moment, with EC3 being extremely vile and a bloody Spud hanging upside down. These images should have had a minute to linger, perhaps with EC3 standing there looking over his work. Instead, as soon as possible they just cut to next week’s preview before we could let the moment sink in or process it. Wrestling is a storytelling medium that has the benefit of visuals, so let those visuals have room to breathe. ADD jump-cutting can ruin otherwise outstanding storytelling. EC3 and Spud did an amazing job and the show production let them down at the end.

The 411:
Production problems and poor agent match layout aside, this was an excellent show. It felt way more like a “major event” than Lockdown or Bound For Glory did; part of that is the crowd and the energy it created, part of it was the high-quality matches at the beginning and end that were designed to cap off feuds, and part of it was the videos that gave us the story so far.

Regardless, this was the best Impact I’ve seen since last Summer. I’ll give it a clean 9 out of 10, as far as modern wrestling shows go. It was a somewhat captivating show, every segment accomplished something, and the main event was driven by legit emotions. This show was already en route to being a very solid 8.0 or so, but the main event added a whole point. And on that note, I’m leaving out my usual cheap plug here to emphasize the rating and let the moment breathe, which is something TNA should have done at the end of the main event.

Cheap plug time, support this site and this column by sharing it with your homies. Also, support my site Coronajumper.com by reading my musings on video games, including TNA Impact for the PS2/PS3. Featuring gratuitous Rebel.

Show Rating: 9.0

As a reminder, I will be going by the 411 scale…

0 – 0.9: Torture
1 – 1.9: Extremely Horrendous
2 – 2.9: Very Bad
3 – 3.9: Bad
4 – 4.9: Poor
5 – 5.9: Not So Good
6 – 6.9: Average
7 – 7.9: Good
8 – 8.9:Very Good
9 – 9.9: Amazing
10: Virtually Perfect

The 972nd edition is over…

“I’M A NINJA!”