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

How the 4Rs of wRestling Work!
Here is a quick explanation of the 4R’s. The column will run TWO-THREE 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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TNA Impact Review 1.12.16
Jack McGee
TNA Impact 1.12.16
– Jeff Hardy defeated Shynron @ 2:40 via pin
– Street Fight: Kong and Jade defeated Sky and Rayne @ 5:37 via pin
– King of the mountain Title Match: Eric Young defeated Champion Bobby Roode @ 7:30 via pin to become the new champion
– The Wolves & Tigre Uno defeated Eli Drake, DJ Zema Ion & Jessie Godderz @ 6:55 via pin
– Kurt Angle defeated Drew Galloway @ 15:05 via pin

THE Right:
The Wolves & Tigre Uno vs. Eli Drake, DJ Zema Ion & Jessie Godderz: I heard many refer to this match as “unwelcome filler,” but I completely disagree. I felt that this was a fun, high energy match that served to establish Ion as a babyface (he’s someone that needs to be used better) and to get the tag and X-division champions on the show. I felt that last week they missed the boat by not even getting video packages in for the X-Division guys and the Wolves only had cameo appearances. This week, the Wolves and Uno got TV time in a fun match, which was very enjoyable. They showed off some of what they can do to new fans, and most importantly, the champions walked away with the win. To me, when the match is quality, fun and the champions walk away looking good that’s a good segment.

Kurt Angle vs. Drew Galloway: Kurt Angle vs. Drew Galloway was the evening’s main event, and easily the best thing on the show. It’s a shame that it happened in such a lifeless and dead feeling location, but they worked their asses off and finally got the crowd involved. Overall this was just enjoyable, with Galloway looking to prove himself against someone he admires, while Angle was trying to prove that he still had it. I dig the idea of the Angle retirement tour, going out with matches against guys he hand picks. While it would be great for Angle to lose some matches, and I hope he does. I don’t see any shame in losing to Angle as long as the matches are good and there is a lot of back and forth with the guy losing appearing as if he could bet Angle. If you are short on time, make sure that you catch this match. Angle is working good right now and appears as if he wants to put on some great stuff prior to his leave of TNA and so far he is two for two as the tag match from the One Night Only PPV was also a good piece of business.

puRgatoRy:
Opening Segment, Jeff Hardy In Ring Return: The show’s open this week was solid, and made sense following the EC3 title win; I had just that they didn’t start last week’s show with a promo as well, because the shows then tend to feel like a WWE show, and I don’t want that from TNA. Anyway, EC3 cut a good promo about winning the title, and had some funny/important interaction with Tyrus, who you may have forgotten, does own a world title shot (from Bound for Glory). I liked the liked the planting of the seeds there, because it was done with minimal effort, and some good facial reactions from Tyrus. Jeff Hardy then came out and tried to get himself a world title match; EC3 declined and instead told Hardy he had to start at the bottom. Shynron, who has performed in CHIKARA, was used as Hardy’s return opponent. He got some flash at the beginning, but was easily dispatched by Hardy. This was all fine, but I agree with many that TNA needed to hype Hardy’s return here. You don’t have to hype the match, but hype his appearance and even the confrontation with EC3. Jeff is one of the company’s biggest stars, and you need to use that and promote that to sell tickets or gain viewers. Unfortunately TNA failed to do that.

Street Fight: Kong and Jade defeated Sky and Rayne: Following last week’s six–woman tag, where Kong joined/took over Dollhouse and made it known that she wanted Kim’s title, we got this tag match. Continuity wise I appreciated the match because it was the next step and made sense. I also really liked that they tried to make it feel like a street fight, it was really clunky at times and even sloppy, but it had a good vibe to it, way better than last week’s match. Finally, and this can obviously change, but they seem to be changing the booking of Dollhouse. Before it was always about Terrell, she won everything, she always looked the best, and Jade and Marti always got their ass beat and lost. Two weeks back and I feel as if they are putting some shine on Jade, last week she looked good against Kim and she again looked great this week and even got to pick up the pin. Overall a definite improvement from last week and I feel they are moving in the right direction.

Beer Money Reunion/King of the Mountain Title Match: Eric Young defeated Champion Bobby Roode : The Beer Money Beer Bash was a mixed bag for me. At times, it was very entertaining, with some awesome callbacks to their feud (like when Storm took the glad bottle away from Roode after Roode apologized for cracking his dome with one years ago to win the title), unfortunately it felt long in the tooth. Basically they didn’t have enough material for the time, and it started to drag, which was unfortunate. That’s not a TNA problem, it’s a wrestling problem, You have talent that are good on the mic, and then you leave them out there for a bit too long when less is always more. It wasn’t bad mind you, but would have been better as a slightly shorter segment. Young and Bram arrived, leaving to Young challenging Roode for a shot at the KOTM Title. The Roode vs. Young match was fine, they work well together, but this didn’t have the juice I hoped it would. I really hoped that they would go balls to the wall prior to the shenanigans and title change. If this frees up Beer Money for say, a long feud with the Wolves, I am all for it.

THE wRong:
Setting up EC3 vs. Hardy Again: In theory I have no issues setting up a Hardy vs. EC3 rematch, but it is the execution that lacked here for me. This all has more to do with the show’s layout, and dedicating three talking segments (one of them horrendous, and I will discuss that below) to this. It felt as if they went through at least three weeks of TV in one show to get to this. The slow burn of Hardy feeling like a failure, being questioned and reminded that he failed to reflect the change in attitude during the segment with Anderson, leading to him becoming desperate and putting his career on the line should have been a journey and a quality story; instead it all happened in two hours. Stories in wrestling are just as important as the match that pays them off, and this was completely rushed and feels like a disservice to the performers.

THE Ridiculous:
Mr. Anderson’s Miserable Attempt at a Talk Show: This, in theory, should have been a very important segment in the journey of Matt Hardy. Keeping this spoiler free, this segment was to be important in regards to the Hardy character and the hints that he’s changing tone. Hardy didn’t come off as a face here, discussing fighting hard and trying to win, he whined and made excuses and was not acting like himself. They were dropping clues more than that annoying friend that found some success and drops names at the high school reunion. Unfortunately this was completely lost due to the execution of the segment. Ken Anderson is a bad pro wrestler, and he is bad on the mic these days. He felt more as if he was having fun and amusing himself here instead of building an important segment for the company. He bullshit, shitty attitude and constant talking over Hardy destroyed this segment. He’s basically back doing his poor man’s Steve Austin and brings nothing of value to the TNA product in 2016.

In conclusion, Mr. Anderson, what you’ve just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.

The 411:
I feel that this week’s show was an improvement from the first episode on POP. They are clearly laying groundwork for things, Angle and Galloway was a very strong main event and they are trying to build angles to where the new fans can jump in and be invested. But it is apparent that taping in Bethlehem, PA was a horrible plan. There is only a small number of paying fans and then a lot of comp tickets from the casino; between the lack of crowd investment these shows have largely felt lifeless and dead as far as their environment goes. And that’s unfortunate when you have a great main event like this week and some very strong mic work from EC3: because those are shining stars of the show but feel as if they are struggling due to the vibe of these shows.

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

The 1058th edition is over…