TNA Impact Review 7/31/08 A hard Look At TNA

I’ve been reviewing TNA positively for a while now, so this time around I’m going to give it my best shot to look at it critically, and review the majority of the show, instead of segment by segment recaps. Follow along.

King Booker Segment:

Booker T’s wife is looking hot. Can I say that? Sure? He’s turning into his Royal T gimmick, which I kind of like. I have a feeling we’re going to have a lot of backstage and in ring segments on this show.

Beer Money defeated Rhino & Christian Cage to become the #1 Contenders for the Tag Championships

As far as tag team matches are concerned, this wasn’t too elaborate. I for one enjoyed watching the match, however, I couldn’t help but think that TNA is going the route of WWE by throwing together Christian and Rhino as competitors for the Tag Titles. Obviously, the outcome of this match changed the chances for them to get the title shots for winning the match, but they were close.

My problems with the current stage of tag team wrestling is not so much the matches themselves, or the people involved in them, as much as it is the way established tag teams are treated. It seems that no matter what, tag teams that are in unison somehow are treated like second rate wrestlers and we do not see them triumphant for more than a short time. I understand the ideas of pushing singles stars, but with so many teams just thrown together, into dream team situations, it just seems like a convoluted division of professional wrestling.

This match had Beer Money over with tons of interference from Team 3-D, pushing their feud a little further with Christian and Rhino. However, the cluster ending is just lame. Beer Money is looking good together, and the fact that Jackie is interfering with the ref, the match, and is causing trouble for the other team is genius. If only more teams could be like Beer Money in the way that they act in the ring, and how their manager works, we’d have a more worthwhile tag division in WWE and Tna as a whole. They need more tag teams that are dedicated to just that.

The Rock and Roll Infection Interview Segment

Christy Hemme has a HUGE forehead for such a little woman. She’s so annoying, and if that’s what she is going for, she has done it, because she is the most annoying manager of all pro wrestling, at least right now.

Curry Man, Shark Boy, and Jay Lethal defeated Johnny Devine, and The Rock and Roll Infection

Curry man’s gimmick is great. I could watch that entrance anytime. Other than that though, the “copy cat” gimmicks are stupid. I can’t believe that TNA doesn’t have the skills to have their own gimmicks, and they have to rely on copying and parodying old gimmicks from the WWE. I think that’s really stupid, but Curry Man, wow, that guy is awesome. I much prefer The Fallen Angel, and his wars with Samoa Joe for the X-Division title, but a good wrestler can do any gimmick and he’s really giving it all for the sake of this gimmick. I love that. Curry Man is the highlight of the match up. Jay Lethal pulled off the win, and looked quite well, but he’s not as good Macho Man, sorry. Macho Man just oozed it out for free, and didn’t go back to some regular dude. In fact, I’ve never seen Macho Man talk normal. He’s always in that over the top gimmick.

So Cal Val & Machismo In Ring:

Lame. Who cares about this? Not me.

Super Erik Backstage:

He’s going to find So Cal Val’s ring.

Samoa Joe Parking Lot Segment:

Samoa Joe is waiting for Sting to show up, so that he can confront him.

Samoa Joe Locker Room Segment:

Nash and Joe are in the locker room arguing about Sting.

Samoa Joe & Booker T Segment:

Why waste time setting up the cage with plunder on it, and not use it? Joe gets beat down for being in the ring, than a bat comes into play, and we’re suppose to just get hyped over this feud? This is just stupid to me. This is dumb. These guys are at each others throat verbally, week in and week out, can’t they just brawl it out? Not only that, it makes Joe look like a weak dude, he’s constantly out smarted by Booker T, and Kevin Nash never seems to help him. Samoa Joe is almost like Chavo Guerrero, he has a bodyguard that never helps, he gets beat down every week for seemingly no reason, and he doesn’t have a legitimate match up until the ppv. Sound about right? What a waste of time.

AJ Styles In Ring Segment:

AJ wants to talk to Sting, he’s yelling and calling out the Stinger! The lights go out and AJ gets slammed, and he sells it like he’s never had a bump in his life. This is stupid too, talk about over reacting, I am not seeing the logic in this. AJ can not be possibly hurt, it was just a move! I’ve seen him take far worse and through tables, and yet the Olympic Slam is sold the same way a baseball bat to the back or a chair shot to the head would be sold. Stupid.
Locker Room Segment Curry Man & Shark Boy & The Beautiful People Segment:

The two super hero gimmicky wrestlers are looking for Val’s ring, and talk bad about the blondes, and I must admit those chicks, despite being annoying, are kind of hot to me. Except the act is really stupid, and I’d have to put a muzzle on them!

Big Petey Punp Segment:

Big Petey Pump is interviewed and he looks stupid. Why can’t TNA get real gimmicks or real wrestlers? He’s just a parody of Big Poppa Pump, and Petey Williams is too talented to look like this. Oh well.

***I must note the fact that we’re about one hour into the broadcast and we’ve had way more segments and interviews than wrestling. We have seen very little wrestling, and a lot of commercials for what seems to be no reason at all. At least The WWE allows for some more wrestling than segments sometimes, and they do not do segment, after segment, after segment, for about thirty minutes time. This is a great annoyance for me, and am fortunate enough to have DVR to fast forward through commercials.

Consequences Creed defeated Big Petey Pump

Creed is back and he’s moving on up right? Creed is a great new wrestler, I like his style, and his in ring abilities are amazing. Why didn’t WWE pick this guy up? He’s like Orlando Jordan, only faster, stronger, and way better in the ring. Or maybe Jordan just didn’t get a fair shake while in WWE and now who knows where he is? Petey Williams has always been a great athlete in my book, however, I just don’t like his look now, he’s just better as himself, rather than a clone of Scot Steiner. Creed wins again, in a non title match up, with a quick roll up. They’re really making his wins look like flukes, but I like the kid’s style, and he’s a great new wrestler in a scene that has a lot of parody and horrible gimmicky situational wrestlers.

LAX & Superhero Segment:

Shark Boy and Curry Man accuse LAX of stealing Val’s ring.

AJ Styles Interview:

AJ Styles challenges Kurt Angle to a Last Man Standing match for the ppv. Wasn’t he dead? He took two Angle Slams and he is fine now? Whatever.

Karen’s Angle Segment:

This stupid segment goes again, and Kaz talks about TNA. This is supposed to be a shoot interview, and he seems to be quitting, but you know he’s not right? This is stupid. I don’t want to see this crap, get this piece of trash out of here. This is a stupid show, this is a stupid angle for Kaz and I want to see the set burned down. Where’s Kane? Someone call Kane and burn this mother down! Oh yeah, Tyson Tomko finally does something! He jumps in and trashes the set, and hopefully this is the end of the show!

Kevin Nash & Samoa Joe Locker Room Segment:

Joe looks so stupid to me. Always throwing his words around, and Kevin Nash is always sitting around doing nothing, just telling Joe not to do it. Wow! I wish I got paid to just show up for five minutes at a taping, and look goofy. What does Nash even do for TNA? What a load of crap. Fire that idiot, or make him wrestle, don’t just randomly leave him back stage to do nothing else but talk to Joe.

Matt “The Blueprint” Morgan defeated Some Random Jobber

This is stupid too. I am not a fan of Matt Morgan, and I’m tired of seeing him treated like a monster. He’s the antithesis of Koslov from the WWE. Koslov and Morgan are each on their own streaks. This time around the match looked like a Goldberg, WCW, match up, only Morgan has the charisma of a wet noodle. This is lame.

Morgan calls out Tomko, and the two start to go, but Security holds them back, and they go at it in the ring. Hopefully we get a real match up between the two, but not exactly a technical classic, that’s for sure. These two idiots can’t wrestle their way out of a paper bag.

The Super Hero’s Backstage Segment:

The Super Hero’s are backstage and they are still looking for the ring, and they randomly run off after saying that next week they are going to do something cool.

Team 3-D Interview Segment:

This is boring. Another segment on TNA? IS this a wrestling show? There are so many interviews, that this makes me sleepy. I’m not a big fan of all these segments. They can resolve these things off camera.

Rough Cuts Segment:

Another segment? Man, this sucks. The women talk about Taylor Wilde’s championship victory, and no one seems to like her. Hugh Morris is on the phone though, that’s kind of cool, and he says that she’s a really good wrestler and that her skills shocked the company. I fell asleep for a moment.

Gail Kim & Taylor Wilde defeated The Beautiful People

Once again, I’m going to say that the best part of the show is the women’s division. These are NOT divas, these girls can go, and really do a great job in wrestling. They are kind of hot, but they can really wrestle! That’s definitely a big plus for me, and although they aren’t exactly putting on Bret Hart matches, they are doing a lot better than anything I’ve seen in WWE with their divas. These women are proving yet again that women’s wrestling doesn’t always have to be a pillow fight, or something stupid like that. It’s nice to see that TNA is giving the women’s division a fair shot, and putting them so high up on the television show. Not as the opener or an afterthought.

Samoa Joe Rafters Segment:

Samoa Joe tries to talk to Sting in the rafters, and the announcers are all scared or whatever, and Joe finds a Raven. That’s it.

Is RAVEN coming back? No wait, that’s a Crow right? Another gimmick steal? The show ends with Joe scared.

TNA Impact 7/31/2008 Quick Results:

Consequences Creed vs. Big Petey Pump
Curry Man, Shark Boy, and Jay Lethal defeated Johnny Devine, and The Rock and Roll Infection
Beer Money defeated Rhino & Christian Cage to become the #1 Contenders for the Tag Championships
Matt “The Blueprint” Morgan defeated Some Random Jobber
Gail Kim & Taylor Wilde defeated The Beautiful People

TNA gets hated on a lot by the wrestling media out there. However, they do put on quite the show at times. I think that TNA is a strong competitor for number 2, but is not like WCW at all. WCW at least had a really deep roster, and promoted their cruiserweight division and stuffed in a lot of matches instead of just interview segments. However, it seems that TNA is only sticking to a few old WCW adages, and are creating a show that isn’t all that great at times.

What’s up with all the segments? I’m tired of seeing segment after segment, then commercial break for no apparent reason. I don’t like that aspect of the show.

The best part of TNA is definitely the women’s division. I love their knockouts division, it’s like real wrestling! It’s the type of wrestling and story telling that I expect from the men’s division of WWE.