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

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.

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By Jericho Ricardi
Impact 4.10.15
* Awesome Kong def. Gail Kim at 7:20 via pin (Sitout Powerbomb)
* Koya def. Abyss and Manik in a triple threat at 2:50 via pin (Sky High to Manik)
* The Rising def. Beat Down Clan at 7:00 via DQ
* Davey Richards def. Zema Ion at 5:30 via pin (Kick to the head)
* Kurt Angle def. Bobby Lashley and Eric Young in a triple threat at 12:04 via pin (Moonsault to Lashley)

THE RIGHT:
Opening Segment: They immediately followed up on Eric Young defeating Bobby Roode last week. I mentioned that it was a symbolic #1 contender’s match at the time, and it looks like the company followed that same logic. This effectively set the stage for the rest of the show and demonstrated what Kurt Angle is up against as champion.

Kong Vs. Kim: Decent #1 contender’s match here. That’s all it was, though: Decent. Any match between these two will invariably be compared to their classic matches of the past, and this simply never clicked into gear. Regardless, decent.

James Storm in general: Good stuff with him interacting with Mickie James and later The Revolution. We finally got an explanation as to where the hell Sanada has been; apparently Storm fired him? Or murdered him? One or the other. So I guess it actually wasn’t that much of an explanation. Did something happen with Sanada that I somehow missed, given that I watch every week? Did he just quietly go back to Wrestle-1 and they’re retconning it? Either way, James Storm carried these segments really well with his presence and talking ability. The wrong guy won the three-man match…or at least, the wrong guy got pinned. Shouldn’t have been Manik, given how over Manik is getting with the audience these days. Hopefully this leads to him striking out on his own.

Kenny King’s Yeast Infection: The Rising vs. BDC was a big part of the show, and for the first time it came across as a very intriguing feud. On one hand, I thought that they definitely should have held off on this match for a week after the excellent dueling promo between the two factions. Having it right away seemed like a wasted opportunity. However, for what it is, inside this show, the promo segment and the match were both excellent. We needed an introduction to The Rising and we got one; Micah is the son of Haku, which instantly gives him credibility, while Eli Drake has a ton of presence and charisma. I could see Eli Drake being a breakout star; he has the aura for it, for sure. Not to leave out Drew Galloway, as he continues to impress with this run.

Davey Richards vs. Zema Ion: Good match here and I presume it’s leading to a Davey Richards singles run. I think Zema Ion deserves better than he has gotten, but he’s an enhancement guy and that doesn’t seem to be changing any time soon. Supplemental Right to the extremely hot crowd making this match seem even better. Very entertaining audience reactions here from bell to bell.

The Hardys and their Fairly Adequate Career: EC3 reminded all of us that he has been undefeated for NINETEEN MONTHS now. The resulting segment with all of the tag teams staking their claim for the title ended up being the best segment on the whole show. This whole storyline is very interesting, though I’d rather it be an eight-team tournament. A five-team schmozz followed by an Ultimate X match sounds less compelling. We have some great teams in this tournament either way, and I’m curious about whether or not the tag team title briefcase held by Magnus will come into play. Magnus in his current incarnation isn’t a cash-in type, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see him resurrect Gunner as his partner and challenge the winners to a match the following week.

puRgatoRy:
The Main Event: This was a good match, featuring the two most formidable faces having it out while the current top-ranked heel slinked around and looked for an opportunity. To bring up WWE again, I call this the Seth Rollins Triple Threat Methodology. So, if this match was good, why is it in Purgatory? Because I feel like they’re overexposing Angle and Lashley at the moment, and they needed a one-on-one rubber match before other people got brought into the title feud. I also would have put that Lashley/Angle rubber match off for a bit, maybe even till Slammiversary, and let Eric Young have a few shots at Kurt Angle in the meantime. Having this match so soon after Angle’s last title defense takes a bit of the oomph out of things; you can’t make Angle seem like the exciting special event that he is if he’s having a match every week. But that’s just my opinion.

Live Tweet Edition: This was a great idea. If the show can’t be live, at least it can still utilize some of the advantages of being live. This was headed right for the Right pile, but they overdid it and it got kinda annoying pretty quickly. They overdid it with the frequency of the tweet windows, and they took up too much of the screen. A small chyron at the bottom like WWE does would be a much better idea for something like this. This is very close to ending up in The Right instead, they just need to make some modifications to cut down on the obnoxiousness. Otherwise, I like that they’re finally getting involved with social media; the fact that they’re utilizing live social media with taped shows is pretty awesome, and actually negates a lot of the bad stigma around being taped.

THE wRong:
The Thrilling Conclusion: The haunted barn segment…was there. Stuff happened.

THE Ridiculous:
NOTHING

The 411:
Good show this week; flew right by. The tag team title scene is intriguing right now, in large part because the wrestlers are treating it like a very big deal. The Rising/BDC feud is also suddenly a lot more interesting than it was previously; all three members of The Rising are here to prove something, and you can tell. Eli Drake could be TNA’s next breakout performer that they can tout as someone WWE dropped the ball on, much the way EC3 is now. The only real negative to this show was the Twitter overkill. It’s also worth noting that the crowd was insanely hot tonight; not sure what the difference is between this crowd and last week’s crowd given that they’re both from Orlando, but this week they were turned UP. I want to note here that May 1 is going to be my last Impact 4Rs. I started on May 8 last year, and May 1 will complete a full year of Impact recapping for me. It’s a fun gig, but I’m ready to move onto something else. This also means that I’m looking for a replacement; so if any regular readers are interested in taking over, let me know.

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: 7.5

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 980th edition is over…