1. The first thing and the most important thing? They have GOT to get out of the Impact Zone. Get your pay per view on the road in front of a better crowd. Rick Ross being in attendance was a nice touch, but this is a step up from wrestling inside a retirement community. If you want to be taken seriously, take your product seriously. Hit the road.
2. Quality match to start the show. Austin Aries is entertaining as always. Amazing corkscrew off the top rope from Zema Ion. That said, they should have opened up with a bigger match. Storm vs Angle would have made sense. Either way, I’m glad A Double still has the strap.
3. Devon’s kids defecting to The Pope is an odd angle. They might both be future heavyweight champions, but they have A LOT of work to do. They look very uncomfortable on camera. Garrett Bischoff’s push seems to make a lot more sense. How long has this feud been festering? I would be lying if I didn’t admit I marked out a little when Brother Devon hugged his boys.
4. Velvet Sky. Yowza. Founding member of the “Yank it over my head Club.”
5. Gunner vs RVD on paper did nothing for me. However, I would pay 40 dollars to watch Ric Flair accompany wrestlers down to the ring, every time. The match itself ended up being just fine. It’s strange that TNA doesn’t have more for Van Damn to do. He is easily more over than 75% of their roster. I wonder why he isn’t more involved?
6. Mickie James. Yowza. Founding member of the “Yank it over my Head Club.”
7. Bully Ray is hilarious. The punch through the trashcan spot was great. Both of these guys can really bump well for their size. A brutal Monster’s Ball match that obviously helped to get the crowd into the PPV. Both men should get some sort of fight of the night bonus. Bravo.
8. If you’re going to sell Crimson as some sort of unbeatable force, why is he tagging with a wrestler that dwarfs him physically? As per usual, Joe outshined everyone else in the contest. He was also the most over with the crowd. Not that any of this is shocking. I don’t know if the WWE would book this guy any better, but I hope we get the chance to find out.
9. I wish Kurt Angle and James Storm could feud for the next 6 months. Great matches between two excellent professional wrestlers. That said, the finale for this particular contest was not good. Storm was heavyweight champion very recently; for him to be pinned as a result of a waist high kick to the head seems less then ideal. Hopefully though it means we get a couple more scraps between these two. PS: Angle’s new merch is already bought by the guy with two thumbs.
10. Bobby Roode lost the lyrics to his entrance music? Weird. Hardy is still infinitely over. I know that Roode’s latest gimmick is that he’s changed, and that he’ll take a short cut to be champion. Even with that knowledge, I’ve grown weary of him kicking referees in the balls. Heel or not, Roode should be able to win clean every once in while.
11. A decent PPV. In-ring action was very good, but TNA could really benefit with some better storylines. Outisde of that, there were multiple technical difficulties that lessened the viewing experience. If you have that any issues playing a video package on your PPV, what does that say about your product? This company has been grasping at challenging the WWE for years. Unless they are willing to invest in themselves, it will never happen. The production values are simply not where they need to be, and they certainly don’t match with the in-ring capabilities of the talent. TNA will sign big names and put on great matches but they won’t buy a decent ring apron? They won’t pay for credible entrance music? It’s baffling.
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