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 1.05.16
Jack McGee
TNA Impact 1.05.16
– World Title Series Semifinal Match: Ethan Carter III defeated Lashley @ 9:22 via pin
– World Title Series Semifinal Match: Matt Hardy defeated Eric Young @ 8:13 via pin
– King of the Mountain Title Match: Champion Bobby Roode defeated Bram @ 4:38 via pin
– Beautiful People (Madison Rayne & Velvet Sky) and Gail Kim defeated Dollhouse (Rebel, Marti and Jade) @ 4:06 via pin
– World Title Series Finals For The Vacant TNA World Title: Ethan Carter III defeated Matt Hardy @ 10:17 via to become the NEW TNA World Champion

THE Right:
Beer Money is Back: This one has seemingly gotten a lot of criticism, but I for one was a huge fan of the Beer Money reunion. I don’t know James Storm, but I do know this, if he indeed did receive more money and guaranteed for two years, then good on him. While I was excited to possible see him in NXT/WWE, because in one way I feel he has done all he can in TNA, I will not hate a guy that wants to do what is best for him. He chose to come back to TNA, and reunited with Bobby Roode and did so by basically burying the horrible Revolution run and promising to have fun. Beer Money has delivered so many of my favorite TNA moments, and if they can find that magic again, I will be a happy viewer.

The Miracle Has Arrived: The Miracle arrived in TNA this week, and he is Mike Bennett along with Maria. While I didn’t think that Bennett knocked it out of the park, I felt that he delivered a good promo and was presented like a star. He had an odd Shane Douglas/Chris Jericho vibe going with his promo, and will need to remain a strong promo to differentiate himself from the rest of the roster. TNA needs some fresh talent to go along with the established names, and I have no issue with them taking a chance on Bennett. He has a lot to overcome to a segment of fans, as some think he’s an average wrestler that has gotten a lot of chances in the US and Japan due to Maria. To me it doesn’t really matter how he got the chance, it only matters if he can deliver. It was a good first week, and I am willing to see where it goes.

puRgatoRy:
Ethan Carter III defeated Lashley: Truth be told I have been a really big fan of Lashley’s TNA run. He came back and had a good run with the title, having a lot of really good to great matches with a lot of different opponents; so when this ended up as one of the semifinal matches, I was excited. Carter doesn’t have a long list of “great” matches, but showed that he can have them. This match was just off, and a lot of that falls on Lashley. I am not sure if the man just had an off night, or (and this is peculation I heard from a lot of people) he possibly got knocked loopy in the opening brawl. He was really off his game, being out of position a few times and his overall timing was off. In the end it wasn’t bad match, it was decent enough, but it wasn’t good. We’ll chalk this up to the right guy winning a below average match when it was all said and done.

Matt Hardy defeated Eric Young: The second semifinal match was exciting on paper, as I personally felt that Hardy and Young delivered some really good performances in the World Title Series. I knew Hardy would win, and the attack by Young worked as an old time storytelling device to set Hardy as the real underdog heading into the finals. When you do this right, you get the crowd’s sympathy and that can add some great heat to the finals match. Unfortunately the match never really got going for me. This was far from a bad match, but I never got into it. It lacked energy, and considering the first match I was hoping that the quality of matches (in the tournament) would improve as the night went on. It was better, but nowhere near the greatness of some of the other World Title Series matches. It was fine, but I felt the right man won.

Champion Bobby Roode defeated Bram: Bobby Roode defeated Bram to retain his KOTM title. This was an open challenge from Roode, and while they teased that it could be an outsider or debuting talent, it was just Bram. The match had a decent energy, but it was the typical Bram brawl and walk match at times, and wasn’t the best utilization of Roode. I liked the Roode won clean and that they had another title match on the show, but this was just an ok outing.

Ethan Carter III defeated Matt Hardy to become the NEW TNA World Champion: Ethan Carter III defeated Matt Hardy to become the NEW TNA World Champion, which was the right call. I do not hate Hardy like many seem to these days, he is fine in his spot, which was to help elevate EC3, and that was basically accomplished. I loved that Jeff and Tyrus were not at ringside for this, and that we got a straight up singles match without all of the shenanigans. But again, much like the semifinal matches, it just didn’t deliver in terms on in ring quality. It was fine, but there was no big match feel, and the work felt largely phoned in, I am excited to have EC3 back on top, which is the big takeaway, but this match simply existed. Considering that it was the culmination of the big World Title Series, I did not think it delivered what it needed to in terms of action.

THE wRong:
Beautiful People (Madison Rayne & Velvet Sky) and Gail Kim defeated Dollhouse (Rebel, Marti and Jade): In my opinion this was easily the worst thing on the show. I never felt that they got into a rhythm, outside of Gail Kim and Jade, who should be working a singles program and likely should have been featured here instead. The initial announcement of the match lacked sense, with Love pregnant (Kim replaced her) and Terrell’s status up in the air (she officially announced she was done before the show). This was largely a mess, not the dirt worst or anything like that, but it wasn’t good. Rebel is a beautiful woman, but she needs a lot of work to become even a passable wrestler, Great look, great attitude, looks the part but she is constantly out of position and doesn’t know how to bump; I am honestly afraid of her either hurting herself or even worse, someone else. The faces won and Kong appeared and took them out as she has claimed the Dollhouse as her own. Hopefully they recover from this and have the angle planned out. And again, Jade needs to be used so much better than she currently is.

Kurt Angle Gets Interrupted: Kurt Angle came to the ring, and discussed the fact that he is stepping away/returning from wrestling and that he’d be picking his final opponents. On the surface this is a great idea, because Angle’s final matches should be in reality something he wants, and it makes it feel like a fun farewell instead of a sad one. “Hey guys, I kicked ass here and want to do some cool matches before I go to thank you.” He picked Drew Galloway to face off with next week and put him over big time, leading to Galloway coming to the ring. I was really enjoying the segment, until Eli Drake and Jessie Godderz made their way out; I am all for building new stars, but neither of these guys bring anything to the table for me. Godderz has improved, but he is a body with bad mic skills. Drake feels like a parody of a pro wrestler when he talks, and isn’t very good between the ropes either. They yammered on for a bit, came to the ring and were dispatched quickly. I was leaning for purgatory here, but then they did the follow up backstage. Galloway and Angle were having a discussion of their match and the Wolves appeared. After some discussion, they set a tag team match for the PPV on Friday, and I was HYPED. Angle’s final matches, getting a tag match with the Wolves and I like Galloway, this to me was money. And then, then Eli Drake and Jessie Godderz came back and the bottom line is that they made this a three-way tag match. This was no buys to me. Angle’s final appearances are possibly one of if not the most precious commodity that TNA has right now. Galloway, the Wolves, a Carter rematch, a Lashley rematch and even Bennett getting shots are all good ideas to me that could lead to high quality matches (because Angle will bust his ass to show he can); I just don’t feel Drake and Godderz are good enough to really benefit from a match involving Angle, so I had to go wrong here.

THE Ridiculous:
No X-Division: The worst thing about this show was that there was no attention paid to the X-Division. Who is the champion? Where was the introductory video package? To see the division that helped put TNA on the map continue to be bastardized is a sad thing to be sure.

The 411:
I didn’t think that TNA’s debut episode on POP TV was an actively bad show, but I felt that it disappointed. I didn’t need 10 surprises or debuts, hell I didn’t even need them to try and reinvent the wheel here, but I had hoped that the tournament matches would deliver and that the show would have a fresh vibe to it. Unfortunately the tournament matches weren’t very good, and the show felt largely the same. Hopefully it gets better form here.

Show Rating: 5.5

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 1054 edition is over…