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.

---

TNA Impact Review 1.26.16
Jack McGee
TNA Impact 1.26.16
– Feast or Fired: Grado, Galloway, Eli Drake and Storm won cases @ 14:00
– X-Division Title Match: Champion Tigre Uno defeated Mandrews and DJ Z @ 6:30 via pin
– Awesome Kong defeated Velvet Sky @ 3:41 via pin [½*]
– Non-Title Match: Champions The Wolves defeated Abyss and Crazzy Steve @ 6:10 via DQ
– TNA World Title Match: Big Money Matt Hardy vs. Jeff Hardy was a no contest because Jeff Hardy got destroyed

THE Right:
The Opening Segment: While building Hardy vs. Hardy all in one show, and not giving it time to breathe and maybe attack more viewers was a mistake, I do feel that the opening promo segment between the brothers Hardy. Jeff came off better than he usually does on the mic, likely because he really wants to help his brother and make a program between them work. While he pandered a bit too much at times, but he did well and felt more natural out there. The Matt Hardy stuff was really good. The look and presentation of Team Matt (evil bitch wife, the heavy carrying the kid like a big old nanny) and Matt demeanor all clicked for me. I think he needs to go a bit further, and channel some of that vitriol he uses on the twitter machine, but I like it. Really good heel stuff is always either rooted in truth or makes you believe that they believe what they are saying. Matt feels he always comes up short because he did the right thing, the evil wife gets in his head and says Jeff even abandoned him when he got hurt, and she pushes all of the right buttons. They have a lot going against them; the Hardys feuding has largely been shit in the past, maybe it works this time with Matt’s new persona. So far I have enjoyed what they are doing with Matt.

Tigre Uno defeated Mandrews and DJ Z: Tigre Uno defeated Mandrews and DJ Z to retain his X-Division title on this week’s show. The show was story heavy, and there wasn’t a lot of great wrestling, so maybe that is why this one stuck out a bit more. All three guys worked really hard and made the most of their time, they aren’t really given a chance to succeed is the real issue. They get no build, not a lot of time, but credit to all three for putting on an enjoyable match. We got good and fast paced work and they tried to remind people why they love the X-Division. Once Uno retained, he got a third visit from Shane Helms to set up a title match for next week. We need new bodies and a direction, so hopefully this is the start of that.

puRgatoRy:
Feast or Fired: The Feast or Fired match returned, and it was basically fine overall. The match comes off as a giant clusterfuck to me, with little flow and a lot of times where the action feels stagnant. I will say that the best parts of the match were the times that the people with issues (current or past) constantly paired off and worked; this made sense, and I appreciated it. Also, the reveal stuff came off as way too corny to me. I didn’t like the Mike Bennett interaction segment during that time. It came off as too forced, like they had to use him somewhere and just shoehorned him in there. I know it’s to set a program with Galloway, but I didn’t think it was done well. It was ok overall, it’s a TNA tradition, but I’d be lying if I said I thought it was good.

The Wolves defeated Abyss and Crazzy Steve via DQ: TNA followed up on the angle from last week where Crazzy Steve and Abyss beat down the Wolves and stole the tag team titles. The new duo, now known as The Decay, also has a female manager, named Rosemary. She’s a Harley Quinn like character to do the talking for them, which is a good call. I liked her presentation, and the overall change in the Crazzy Steve character. As I said last week, I Steve and Abyss have been complete dog shit in the ring for the better part of a year. Steve going evil has potential and I love the idea of getting Abyss out of pointless hardcore matches with no hype or importance. I felt that they did well I week one, delivering a solid outing with the Wolves. The entire segment lacked any real heat, it didn’t feel as if anyone bought the new group and there wasn’t any real sympathy for the Wolves. They need to get out of this venue yesterday, I can’t wait for the UK shows.

Writing Out Jeff Hardy: Overall the actual angle to write out Jeff Hardy was well done. Having Bram and Young do the dirty work, involving the other tag teams to try and get some heat on that division and Matt Hardy just standing there as his brother was destroyed, it all came together and worked. The piledriver spot is a good one, and I do appreciate that it is being used to write him out for a long time. Unfortunately the problem comes when we all know it is coming, the big joke coming out of the show was that it was the yearly angle to write out hardy because he can’t go to the UK. We all knew it was coming, so in that regard it took away from the angle.

THE wRong:
Awesome Kong defeated Velvet Sky: Overall I have to go with a big thumbs down on the ladies segment this week. First of all there was the match, I hate to say this was it wasn’t any good. Velvet Sky has never worked well with Kong, and unless they were trying to protect Rayne, I do not know why she wasn’t given the spot. She has worked well with here in the past, she knows how to sell Kong’s offense and can work believable comebacks. Sky was there to throw awkward kicks, sell poorly and make awkward faces. So we had a bad match, and then the post match just feels like the same old post match beat down. I have no issue with the trying to build up the new Dollhouse, but the division feels completely flat. Kong has not been the same since her return, Kim is great but they don’t have her working anyone new, Jade works well with Kim but is a second tier performer, Belle exists, Rebel is great looking but horrible, Rayne is a capable performer stuck in the 14th incarnation of the Beautiful People, Sky feels completely stale and it the same performer she’s always been (average leading to bad); there is nothing fresh happening here. Much like the X-Division, we need a new direction and new blood, and we need it soon.

THE Ridiculous:
Nothing

The 411:
I felt this week’s effort was a solid follow up to last week’s show, with some solid direction, it was far from a blow away effort, but I feel that they are putting a lot of pieces together and doing good things. Matt Hardy is very good in his role; we’re getting some movement in the X-Division (which is needed) as well as in the tag division (which is also needed). The thing to me was that there was no real energy on this show, partly due to booking/layout, but mainly due to the crowd. The reactions were so tepid, almost non-existence at times; an average crowd could have made this so much better, but unfortunately the show feels a bit lifeless at times because of the lack of reactions. Thankfully this run of shows will be done soon, and the UK shows will at the very least FEEL exciting due to the crowds being into the product. They really need to avoid Bethlehem for tapings going forward, the company may be getting a good deal to tape there, but it hurts the product. There are some good things happening here, but it feels like nothing is happening, and that is a shame.

Show Rating: 6.5

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 1063rd edition is over…