wrestling / Columns

The Wrestling 5&1 10.22.11: Tiffany versus Maria!

October 22, 2011 | Posted by Greg De Marco

TNA is a big focus this week. They presented their WrestleMania in Bound For Glory, and had a very newsworthy edition of Impact Wrestling on Thursday night. So we’ll break form and start with the news this week…

Austin Aries defeats Brian Kendrick to retain the X-Division Championship

In what many have called the best match of the night (second best for me), Austin Aries defeated Brian Kendrick to retain his title. And at this point, it’s truly HIS title—he’s carrying the division. And this match might be the best example of his entire career at just how talented he truly is. He worked the hell out of the Philly crowd, and was the perfect combination of a cocky-asshole heel and a man who gave the people what they wanted (see that Bruce?).

The Philly crowd was totally ready for this match, and greeted Aries with a loud “Austin Aries” chant. Aries’ pop was the biggest of the night until AJ Styles came out. Personally, I also had a big smile on my face when they busted out a loud “Ring of Honor” chant when Aries was wrestling as well (since I doubt Aries is really basking in any ROH glory there). Great match that saw Kendrick’s Sliced Bread finisher come in to play many times, but Aries got the clean win in the end.

Rob Van Dam beats Jerry Lynn in a Full Metal Mayhem match

There was a really bad botch early in this match that saw both men eventually roll to the floor (since they were likely supposed to go over the top). However, after RVD acknowledged a fan saying he botched the move, this match actually got started. Lynn proved that he can still contribute, and RVD was 100% motivated (possibly by the crowd, possibly by the botch, likely by Lynn). They delivered a great match with one of the best Van Daminator I’ve ever seen, and RVD picked up the win after a great Van Terminator.

Crimson won a three-way match over Samoa Joe and Matt Morgan

Samoa Joe was greeted with a king’s welcome, but not quite to the level of Aries. Joe did very little to try to turn the crowd against him, but didn’t stray from his heel antics either. This lead to something that made be a very happy viewer—a motivated Samoa Joe. And that motivated Samoa Joe carried this match, a fact that showed when it was just Crimson & Morgan in the ring. The early story of this match was Joe’s heel antics, along with some high flying action that you wouldn’t expect from all three men. Later in the match things broke down between Crimson & Morgan, with both men trying to score the win on Joe. In the end, a missed Carbon Footprint from Morgan to Joe (but his knee connected) led to a Crimson spear and pinfall on the “Samoan Submission Machine.”

Mr. Anderson defeated Bully Ray in a Philadelphia Falls Count Anywhere Match

Still not sure why it had to be a “Philly” anything, but that’s a standard crutch that bookers and promoters have used to years—and I doubt it ever adds to anything. There were no cheesesteaks flying and no one got thrown into the Liberty Bell. In fact, it seemed like they took this match backstage because they had to, not because they wanted to.

The match itself was great. It’s so easy for people to hate on Anderson, but he delivered in this match, taking the lead when necessary and following Ray when necessary. There was only one botch that I felt Taz did a horrible job with on commentary—they could have made it appear as if Anderson planned to connect with his dive in the manner in which he did onto Ray on the table on the floor, and then sold the Mic Check finish. But that is a minor gripe on a great match—one that I’m calling the Match of the Night.

At this point in the card, I was texting with my good buddy Patrick O’Dowd, telling him that i was excited to write about how great of a card this is. I had a great feeling about the card, knowing that we’d get a big moment at the end to really seal the deal for Bound For Glory 2011.

Yeah…

Velvet Sky won a four-way match against Madison Rayne, Mickie James and Winter to win the Knockouts Championship

I knew things were off to a bad start when the Knockouts walked out to a mild reaction at best (for Velvet and Mickie). Karen Jarrett completely sucked the life out of this match. It really looked like a match where the four competitors had no clue what was supposed to happen—as if nothing was laid out.

The obvious did happen—Karen Jarrett was taken out of the match, and Traci Brooks was apparently the only available referee to step in. Velvet Sky hit her finisher on Madison Rayne, got the fall and had her “big moment” on PPV. Except it was completely flat thanks to the outside factors. A standard four-way match would have worked just fine here. Instead we got a mess of a match that did nothing but take the crowd out of this event.

AJ Styles beat Christopher Daniels in an I-Quit Match

Now, after the knockouts debacle, I was confident that this show can be saved. Even the best WrestleManias have one bad match to point out. TNA was putting two of their best wrestlers—in fact, two of the best wrestlers in the world—in the ring to showcase their abilities. I was a little worried that the stipulation would hinder their efforts, but I was also sure they could overcome that small detail.

I was wrong.

This match did in fact include a little wrestling. The movie theatre crowd popped for AJ’s moonsault-inverted DDT combo. But the microphone and Daniels’ mid-match promo destroyed this match. And since those were the central factors in this contest, it was obviously doomed from the start.

Towards the end of the match, Daniels put a chair across AJ’s throat, revealing that he didn’t care to win the match. He then talked directly to the camera, telling Wendy (AJ’s wife) to put the kids to bed and turn away as he was about to murder her husband in cold blood.

Wait… What?

Yes, he was going to murder his best friend in cold blood, simply because he never got the attention or billing that AJ got. That necessitates murder. Eventually AJ got a hold of the screwdriver that Daniels introduced early into the match, causing Daniels to immediately quit and run. Daniels eventually attacked AJ on the ramp afterwards, but it didn’t matter at that point. It didn’t matter to TNA either, as they quickly cut away from the shot.

Jeff Jarrett-Jeff Hardy promo/pull-a-part brawl

Since this was an episode of Impact Wrestling, Jeff Jarrett stormed down to the ring to call out Jeff Hardy. What? You mean this isn’t an episode of Impact Wrestling?

This wasn’t bad for a pull-a-part brawl… not at all. The fans in Philly popped big time for both guys—but that was dwarfed by their pop for D-Lo Brown. Something tells me we might see a D-Lo return in a future episode of Impact Wrestling. Jeff Jarrett deserves a ton of credit for this segment. Philly has never been kind to Jeff Hardy. In fact, they tend to hate him. But Jeff Jarrett’s promo work was so stellar that he got the Philly crowd solidly behind Jeff Hardy. To a casual fan, that’s nothing. But the hardcore fan knows just how big of a deal that is.

All said, this wasn’t a bad promo/brawl. For an episode of Impact Wrestling. But this isn’t a free TV show, this is a PPV. Granted, TNA obviously knows that no one is paying for this PPV, since they gave away the exact same segment on free TV during Thursday’s Impact Wrestling. Except on Thursday, we got the D-Lo head wiggle. Sunday 0, Thursday 1.

After the last two matches and one promo, things were definitely headed in the wrong direction. But TNA still had their two biggest matches left, and one was obviously going to mean the end of Hogan’s storyline reign over TNA, allowing a shift of focus to go onto the homegrown stars, starting with soon-to-be new world champ Bobby Roode. So TNA is still in perfect position to finish strong and get a rating of “great” for Bound For Glory 2011.

Yeah…

Sting defeated Hulk Hogan to send control of TNA back to Dixie Carter

3.5. That’s the number of bumps Hogan took in this match. And it’s about 3 more than I expected. They were slow that I had time to recount each one to Patrick O’Dowd via text. The last bump only gets a .5 since Hogan hit a knee and rolled.

The match itself was really better than it deserved to be, and Sting deserves a ton of credit for that. He bumped his ass off for Hogan early on in the match, and it did elevate this match. Dixie Carter sat ringside and watched this match with great anticipation… making so many people just so happy that she was being the focus of the company again! Yay!

There was another important element to this match—Jackson James. Earlier in the card, a ninja-cam revealed that he was Eric Bischoff’s son (something all but the most casual of fans already knew). This was a possible storyline device that many in the IWC knew was coming eventually, but it still seemed out of the blue. I actually liked the segment where they revealed his role. It was a father-son moment that was genuine—since they really are father & son. Vince & Hornswoggle could never have pulled that off!

During that segment, James promised Eric (his dad) that he had Immortal’s back, just like he had done so many times in the past. Immortal could count on him! Obviously the big moment of truth came (a little later than needed thanks to way too much stalling early into the match) as Sting locked in the Scorpion Deathlock and turned Hogan over (sort of). Hogan writhed in pain—briefly—then tapped out. Would Jackson James call for the bell? Would be play dumb? Oh…the conflict!

Well, with a brief moment of contemplation, Jackson James did “the right thing” and called for the bell. The match was over, Sting had regained control of the company for Dixie Carter. What followed was absolutely amazing. Dixie was shown kissing her husband in celebration, then was quickly forgotten about. Immortal hit the ring, assaulting Sting and Jackson James Bischoff. Abyss, fresh off of a previous attack on Impact Wrestling, was shown hiding by the stage. That was all he did. But who would save Sting? The Icon was in trouble, who would possible stop the onslaught from Immortal? Well, Sting apparently had an idea. It was a stupid idea. But Sting hasn’t exactly build a career of trusting the right people, has he? Sting asked Hulk Freakin’ Hogan to help him. HULK HOGAN! The guy who stole the company that Sting inexplicably loves so much right from Dixie Carter! He’s going to save Sting?

I guess Sting is very persuasive, because his two sentences to Hogan seemed to work. “Save me Hulkster! Save me brother!” was all it took. Hulk “Hulked Up” and saved Sting. Together they cleared the ring, and had their hands raised by Jackson James Bischoff. Dixie Carter was finally shown on camera again…CHEERING FOR HOGAN!

I’m tired of people justifying the moment based on the nostalgia pop. The Philly fans popped big time for this moment because it was a Hogan moment. It had absolutely nothing to do with Dixie Carter, Sting, and definitely not TNA. Hulk Hogan had found a way to put himself over everyone—again.

Kurt Angle pinned Robert Bobby Roode to retain the TNA World Heavyweight Championship

Nostalgia pops are good in wrestling. Sting winning was supposed to be the big moment, and we all knew Hogan would turn face at some point. Yes, it took away from Sting & Dixie Carter’s moment, but maybe TNA will give them extra time on Impact to make up for it (see what I did there!). We now had the true main event, which TNA pulled a rare good move—they let it go on last. The company is back in Dixie Carter’s hands, and we’re ready to put the strap on Bobby Roode and move forward to prosperity!

Yeah…

The entrances started after 10:30 (eastern), meaning we had to be short on time. TNA couldn’t possibly be giving us another Sting-Jeff Hardy moment. Jeremy Borash did the introductions as both men made their way to the ring. And Bobby Roode finally had a shirt! That seals it, he must be winning.

The match itself was good, if a bit rushed. Kurt Angle was obviously hampered by his hamstring injury, but that didn’t stop him from nailing some great German suplexes, and taking a huge flipping German from Roode off of the top. Kurt sold it like death, as he should. The crowd was a little down after what happened during the prior match, but Roode escaping a great nearfall brought them back in a big way. Some finishers were reversed, as you could expect in this match, and Kurt Angle hit the Olympic Slam in a manner that sent Bobby to the ropes. Kurt covered, despite Roode being in the ropes. Kurt grabbed the ropes, too, but Brian Hebner started to count anyway. That’s cool, because it’s always more fun if the ref notices that stuff after the two count. One… Two… Three? Three? THREE?! “What the hell was that!?” was the question going through the minds of Robert Bobby Roode, Taz, Mike Tenay, everyone in Philly, and everyone watching (including everyone in the theatre I was in). Roode saw in the corner with his head in his hands—which was a great way to describe what this PPV had become. Everyone waited for Dixie Carter to come out and restart this bad boy, but she needed to hurry as we were down under three minutes left in the broadcast. Taz & Tenay wondered what was going on some more as the cameras focused on Roode—obviously waiting for Dixie, right?

Wrong. Roll credits, PPV over. Epic Fail. (Sunday 0, Thursday 2)

Overall: My overall rating of this event is a failure. Even though Roode-Angle was a good match before the finish, the finish still happened. Even though the first matches were good-to-great, the last four put this show in an unrecoverable position. Velvet Sky’s big moment was wasted. AJ Styles’ & Christopher Daniels’ talents were wasted. Dixie Carter’s winning her company back was wasted. And a near 5-month build for Bobby Roode was wasted.

It’s sad, too. From the start, you could see that everyone was working hard. The talent was ready to make a statement in front of what was likely their largest PPV audience of the year. The Philly crowd was hot. We seemed to be on a random weekend between WWE PPVs, so it was the right time to step-up and make this one great. But TNA is TNA, and they can’t book a lesbian sex scene without a midget showing up, kicking both lesbians out and filming himself calling Hulk Hogan on the phone (but that’s a different Hogan project, not this one).

Best Match of the Night: Mr. Anderson vs. Bully Ray
Worst Match of the Night: Knockouts Four-Way
Best Performance of the Night: Austin Aries

You Decide: Was Bound For Glory a failure in your opinion?

I know I haven’t reviewed Impact Wrestling yet, but obviously the big news of the week is James Storm’s victory over Kurt Angle to capture the TNA World Heavyweight Championship. Angle lost to Storm in three minutes in a match set-up by TNA’s new Authority Figure, Sting. Robert Bobby Roode was campaigning for a rematch, and Sting was ready to oblige when Kurt Angle shared that he had language added to the Bound For Glory contract which stated that Bobby Roode could only wrestle Kurt once. Once ever? Once at Bound For Glory? Once during Angle’s reign? Once in October? Who knows. Once was the word. It’s a cheap storyline device, but it put Roode over when Angle explained that Bobby was in fact a threat, one that Kurt, Hogan and Bischoff were scared of. At least someone put the guy over!

Roode & Storm are doing a great job selling the emotional toil of being best friends who are both ascending up the card at the same time and realizing that only one can be the top dog at any given time. Storm’s backstage promo selling the fact that he didn’t deserve the match followed by Roode’s pep-talk was one of my favorite moments of this entire build/angle, and that’s saying a lot.

The match itself left little to be desired. But Kurt Angle is obviously hampered by a hamstring injury, and that likely dictated the match length. The post-match celebration was what it needed to be, including Robert Roode putting the title around Storm’s waist (although a small part of me wanted Roode to waffle Storm with the belt). With Angle gone we’re opened up to all sorts of fresh match-ups at the top of the card in TNA. Bully Ray, Anderson, Rob Van Dam, Samoa Joe, Scott Steiner the remaining members of Fortune, and Christopher Daniels (if he’s not arrested for threatening to murder someone) all come to mind as challengers that can help elevate Storm’s reign. While I would save Bully Ray for an extended program (same with anyone from Fortune), I think Samoa Joe is the perfect first challenger. No, he doesn’t “deserve” a shot, but Storm wasn’t exactly #1 contender either. Regardless of how he’s booked, Joe remains over and is a credible challenger for a really good Impact Wrestling main event title shot. However, spoilers (that I will avoid here) reveal a different direction for the early weeks of Storm’s reign.

I am happy for James Storm, and I think he deserves to be pushed as the companies champion as much as Robert Roode or Kazarian would. The company needs to build new stars at the main event level, and they’re trying to do that with Roode and Storm. Problem is, they didn’t build Storm, they built Roode. And that I have a problem with.

Two days before Bound For Glory, Hulk Hogan gave a very public interview where he shared his thoughts on Bobby Roode. “Bobby’s not the guy.” Brother! Hogan basically revealed this all to us in advance, much like he told us months ago he’d be turning face. In fact, when making suggestions of who “the guy” is, he listed Jeff Hardy and—you guessed it—James Storm.

The company spent over five months building Bobby Roode as “the guy.” Are we to believe that Hogan just came to this realization last Thursday? In fact, I do agree with the sentiment that Bobby Roode was screwed. Not by the referee or by Kurt Angle, but by Hogan and the booking/writing team. You don’t know if Roode is the guy, brother! You don’t know if Storm is, either. Roode’s build to Bound for Glory was PERFECT. The last time I saw a build this good was before Lex Luger beat Yokozuna for the WWF Championsh—ah, nevermind. Roode got Luger’ed.

There is one circumstance where I am actually okay with the booking of Bound For Glory and subsequent edition of Impact Wrestling. If TNA Wrestling pulled both men into a room before Roode knew he was winning the Bound For Glory Series and told them this: “Listen Brothers. We’re going to push you guys to the moon. In fact, we’re putting the world title on James the Thursday after BFG. But here’s how we’re going to do it. Bobby, I’ve decided you’re winning the Bound For Glory Series, not Crimson. We’re going full blown Rocky on your march to the PPV too, brother. But the twist is that you’ll lose, and the champ will block a rematch. Then James comes out of nowhere and wins the title, with your support. Beer Money remains strong…Fortune remains strong.”

But we all know better than that. Roode got Luger’ed, because Hulk Hogan said “he’s not the guy, brother.”

Pro Wrestling Guerrilla presents Steen Wolf on Saturday in Reseda, CA. Many indy fans have been calling for 411Mania to present more news about PWG. Well, we had one of the PWG Six on The Greg DeMarco Show this past Tuesday in support of this card. We’re also going to do that for each PWG card in the future. Friday we posted the full card to advertise.

I will be honest. I am spearheading the effort to get more PWG news on the site. I’m a huge PWG fan, and firmly believe they could be much bigger if they wanted. They do not—as Joey Ryan confirmed on Tuesday’s Greg DeMarco Show, right after he announced that The Dynasty of Ryan & Scorpio Sky vs. Los Luchas would be contested under Lucha Libre rules at Steen Wolf.

If you’re anywhere near SoCal on Saturday (and I know I have a decent amount of readers in the area), you definitely need to check this show out.

Here is the card:
Pro Wrestling Guerrilla presents “Steen Wolf”
Saturday October 22, 2011, 8 PM
American Legion Post #308, Reseda, CA

Ladder Match for the Pro Wrestling Guerrilla World Championship
“Mr. Wrestling” Kevin Steen (Champion) vs. El Generico (Challenger)

Pro Wrestling Guerrilla World Tag Team Championship Match
The Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson – Champions) vs. Adam Cole & Kyle O’Reilly (Challengers)

Ricochet vs. “The Kentucky Gentleman” Chuck Taylor

Willie Mack vs. Davey Richards

Los Luchas (Phoenix Star & Zokre) vs. The Dynasty (Scorpio Sky & Joey Ryan)

TJ Perkins vs. “Azúcar” Rocky Romero

RockNES Monsters (Johnny Goodtime & Johnny Yuma) vs. The Fightin’ Taylor Boys (Brian Cage-Taylor & Ryan Taylor)

Six-Person Tag Team Match
Famous B, Chris Kadillak, & Candice LeRae vs. “Pretty” Peter Avalon, Freddy Bravo, & Ray Rosas

Outside of the top two matches, watch out for Willie Mack vs. Davey Richards. Mack has been on a major roll lately, and should be PWG’s next big “homegrown talent.” And despite my feelings towards TJ Perkins, I can honestly say his match with Rocky Romero could steal the show. This is basically a super-card without a super-card name, and is likely to be the best super-card of the weekend…with a vengeance!

For more information, visit ProWrestlingGuerrilla.com.

The Wrestling Observer is reporting that Lucha Libre USA’s show on MTV2 is being cancelled, and this weekend’s show is being labeled a season finale. I can’t dispute that some media guides are labeling this episode a “season finale.” But cancelled? I mean, television listings have never been wrong before, right?

As you know, I hate when the Meltzer’s of the world take a story and run with it. I absolutely hate it. thanks to The Greg DeMarco Show (with Greg DeMarco & Patrick O’Dowd), I have a good connection with Lucha Libre USA. So I sent a couple of contacts of mine an e-mail when I heard.

The response: “This is absolutely false. Where did you read that?”

After some back and forth messages, I have my official statement on the cancellation of Lucha Libre USA.

“According to a reliable source within the promotion, Lucha Libre USA is not presenting a season finale this Saturday on MTV2, and has not been cancelled. For more news about the promotion & show, be sure to check out LuchaLibreUSA.com.

Congrats Dave Meltzer… you did it again!

Brief news-bite to finish this section off. Ring of Honor announced a new concept that really just makes an often enforced “unwritten rule” official. Any match featuring the World Champion but not for the title will be termed a “Proving Ground” match. If the champ loses or is taken to a draw, the opponent will receive a title shot within 60-days. This is obviously done to bring more importance to any random singles matches signed for their soon-to-be-increasing house show schedule.

I like the idea. It’s a 2011-style idea. I know I said it’s been used plenty of times before, but I like the thought of making it official. I often thought a company like ROH could be smart to shorten their title match time limits, too. Make World Championship matches 45-minutes in limit. If the challenger takes the champ to a draw, then we can have a 60-minute time limit. No one really wants to sit through a 60-minute match in 2011. And while ROH’s fan-base is a group of very loyal and very hardcore fans (of which I am one), they’re also smart enough to sniff out a 60-minute draw and find it boring until the end. Adding in a little device like this can make old ideas (like the person pinning the champ in a non-title match getting a title shot or a title match going Broadway) feel special again.

The first “Proving Ground” match has been announced, as ROH World Champion Davey Richards will face Michael Elgin at the television tapings on 11/6 in Louisville. In the effort of full disclosure, I hate the “Proving Ground” name for this type of match. To me, that’s reserved for a younger wrestler taking on a seasoned veteran (like, say, Adam Cole vs. Roderick Strong). But ROH doesn’t exactly have the best track record with their name decisions lately. “Ringmaster Challenge” anyone?

You Decide: What do you think of this change?

And that wraps up the news portion of this week’s 5&1… BRING ON THE GIRLS!

Last Week: Tiffany took Reby Sky behind the woodshed in a manner that no amount of spam votes could thwart. She is now three steps away from immortality.

This Week: Tiffany’s opposition comes in the form of Maria Kanellis, a woman that many readers have asked for in the past. A personal favorite of mine, she’s been quite polarizing in the past for many of you. These results will be very interesting…

Does Tiffany get win #2, or are we going on a Maria journey?

Take your pick.
Stay tuned as next week as I’ll reveal the winner!

Earlier in this 5&1, I pointed out how much TNA wasted AJ Styles & Christopher Daniels on PPV. The fact is, they’ve met on PPV plenty of times in the past, and at Bound For Glory no less.

October 23, 2005, Impact Zone in Orlando, Florida
Bound for Glory: AJ Styles vs. Christopher Daniels in a 30-minute Ironman Match

You Decide: Did TNA truly waste these two at Bound For Glory?

Hit up the ‘Mania on TWITTER (so Ashish will like me, okay?)

http://www.twitter.com/411mania
http://www.twitter.com/411wrestling
http://www.twitter.com/411moviestv
http://www.twitter.com/411music
http://www.twitter.com/411games
http://www.twitter.com/411mma
http://www.twitter.com/demarcolives – that’s me!

I am actually taking a section off this week, and this will be that section. Comments will return next week!

This week’s Impact Wrestling featured fallout from Bound For Glory 2011, and turned out to be one of the most newsworthy shows of the year—but also one of the worst.

RC Sutton’s Impact Wrestling Instant Analysis was used for the segment breakdown and match times. But those ratings are mine. And to make sure it’s different, I am rating things out of six. Six—the number of sides the TNA ring should have!

Segment #1 – Really Long Promo Part 1 – Sting & Hulk Hogan (2/6)
I can actually buy into Sting’s explanation of what he did to “get Hogan back.” All of the Joker bits, every crazy antic was done to bring Hulk Hogan to the “good guy side.” It seems weird that Sting was SO obsessed with pulling this off. Sting is a Hall of Fame caliber performer, but he’s always painted as a second tier guy—and now Hogan’s biggest fan. Sting and Hogan should be held on the same level.

Segment #2 – Really Long Promo Part 2 – Sting & Dixie Carter (2/6)
So it appears like Sting is now in charge of Impact Wrestling. And apparently with the title of “Authority Figure.” So he’ll oversee matters involving people like “Non-wrestler” Hulk Hogan and “Contracted Wrestler” Bobby Roode. Err, okay! At least Dixie Carter won’t be on TV.

Segment #3 – Really Long Promo Part 3 – Sting, Dixie, Kurt Angle & Robert Bobby Roode(2/6)
This likely should have gotten a 3/6, as it puts Roode over as a strong challenger that Angle is afraid of. But it was the third segment that this damn promo extended through, and it’s officially two segments too long! But surely this is it, right?

Wrong.

Segment #4 – ~~Really Long~~Never Ending Promo Part 4 – Just add James Storm (2/6)
Okay, this is just stupid long now. James Storm stepped up and challenged Kurt Angle to a title match since Roode was screwed out of his rematch (Roode’s reaction behind Storm was quite telling, too). Angle balked, but Sting (the new Authority Figure) made the match. Roode delivered Storm’s catchphrase and we’re out. I guess it doesn’t really pay to be Roode at this point, does it.

Segment #5 – Tara and Brooke Tessmacher beat Winter and Angelina Love to retain the Knockouts Tag Team Championships (4:00, 6/6)
A WRESTLING MATCH? WOW!!! Seriously, this was a good match. Maybe it looks better because it’s the first match 45 minutes into the program. Whatever. I’m giving it a 6 just for being a match!

Segment #6 – The Jarrett Family Promo with Jeff Hardy (and a hint of D-Lo Brown!) (2/6)
Basically, since TNA realizes that barely anyone ordered Bound For Glory, they re-did the Hardy-Jarrett beatdown. Pretty much the exact same thing, except D-Lo shook his head. That makes this the better one.

Segment #7 – Abyss beats Gunner by Count-out (less than three minutes, 2/6)
Gunner is developing as a talker, I have a feeling they’re counting on him to carry things in the future (you know, with Roode, Storm and apparently Crimson). Abyss came out (and I feared that this would be a confrontation and not a match) and they had a short match that ended when Gunner ran away. Makes sense, since Daniels did it on Sunday! Oh TNA, you so silly.

Segment #8 – Velvet Sky promo with Karen Jarrett, Traci Brooks, Madison Rayne and an attack from the returning Gail Kim. (2/6)
I honestly don’t buy Velvet as a strong face champ. She’d make a much better heel champ, or a heel the fans cheer for (like The Beautiful People). Karen Jarrett is great at her role, but Vickie Guerrero still does it better. RC Sutton brought up the same point in the Instant Analysis that I was thinking—can’t Sting just remove Karen from power and reinstate Traci as Knockout Law? Sting is a heavy Christian, so I don’t think Traci will even need to sleep with him. That should make Kazarian happy—although who knows, he’s still married to the lady and he’s still letting Bischoff walk.

Segment #9 – Eric Bischoff & Immortal promo with Hulk Hogan, plus appearances from Sting and ~~Jackson James~~Garrett Bischoff (3/6)
Just what we needed, more promo time with Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff. I’m shocked they came out, it’s not the opening segment. Sting came to the rescue of Hulk Hogan, and Garrett Bischoff punched daddy in the face. Shane and Vince had a great match…I have a feeling Garrett and Eric won’t be able to pull that off.

Segment #10 – James Storm beat Kurt Angle to win the TNA World Heavyweight Championship (1:21 (seriously), 4/6)
4/6 is very generous, I know. The match was bad, and the booking behind it is very frustrating as a “smart” fan. But the moment was great, and I am indeed happy for James Storm. Sure, he should have been built up over the past five or so months and won the match on PPV, but that’s apparently too much to ask.

Best Match: Tara & Brooke Tessmacher vs. Angelina Love & Winter

Best Promo: Really Long Promo Part 3

Overall Rating: 2.7 out of 6

Overall Thoughts: Wow. This has to be one of the worst episodes of Impact Wrestling I’ve watched in a long time. Three matches totaling less than 8 minutes of wrestling on a two hour program. An opening promo that lasted over 45 minutes and spanned three commercial breaks. A new world champion that happens to be the tag team partner of the man we just spent five months building. And Hogan is a face with many new reasons to steal TV time. No AJ, no Kazarian, no Joe, no Matt Morgan, no RVD, no Aries, no–you get the point…lots of people were missing from this week’s show. You’ll notice they quietly dropped the Wrestling Matters marketing campaign long ago.

You Decide: What did you think of Impact Wrestling this week?

This week on The Greg DeMarco Show, presented by 411Mania.com, Greg and Patrick O’Dowd welcomed PWG and WRP star Joey Ryan! Joey stays with the show for over 45 minutes, discussing his involvement in Jeff Katz’s Wrestling Revolution Project—including his role as gay wrestler “Chase Walker.” Ryan talked about the three day taping that included over sixty matches. Joey also talks about starting Pro Wrestling Guerrilla as one of the “PWG Six” and where the promotion has gone and where he sees it going in the future. Ever wonder who in PWG comes up with the show names? Ryan reveals that on our show! Before leaving, Joey talks about his experiences in both the WWE and Wrestling Society X, as well as his thoughts on the backstage climate at TNA. Joey Ryan’s appearance was sponsored by Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, who presents “Steen Wolf” this weekend. The card is headlined by PWG World Champion Kevin Steen defending his championship against El Generico in a Ladder Match! Also on the card is Joey Ryan & Scorpio Sky vs. Los Luchas, and as Joey revealed on the show, this will be contested under Lucha Libre rules. For information on Steen Wolf, head over to ProWrestlingGuerrilla.com. For more information on Joey Ryan—and to purchase your own Joey Ryan merchandise—visit Joey Ryan Online on Facebook.

411Mania’s own Steve Cook and Ryan Byers joined the program in hour #2, and the boss himself Larry Csonka sat in for some Bound for Glory discussion in hour #1. We also talked secondary championships with Justin “Good Ol’ Days” Freemyer, and welcomed our very own Buggy Nova back after a one week absence! Also remember to stick around for over 40 minutes of bonus time with Greg and Steve Cook!

As usual, this is a podcast not to be missed. You can listen to the program by clicking here, or you can listen here:

Listen to internet radio with Greg DeMarco on Blog Talk Radio

One of the big challenges of holding the top spot in the Hall of Bang is you never get featured anymore. That’s why I present your And1 Model of the Week… Maryse!