Tonight’s Impact Title: “Crimson Sees Red”
SEGMENT #1: Kurt Angle talks, Immortal attacks, and the main event is set
Angle opens the show again, talking about everything that went down last week and then into how he said several months ago that he would never wrestle again. He mentions how sometimes there are things you have to deal with and for him, it is Jeff Jarrett currently. He does everything for his fans and asks if they would like to see him in the ring one more time. This led to Bischoff and Immortal coming out.
Bischoff says there is no chance of Angle wrestling again because he is retired and says Kurt needs to find a new hobby. Eric directs Immortal to the ring and they lay into Kurt. Crimson runs in for the save with a bat (hint hint) and clears the ring.
Flair rants on the two of them saying that THEY is Bischoff, Hogan, and himself. Because he is Kurt’s god, he lifts the ban on Angle wrestling and signs Angle/Jarrett tonight. Jeff and Karen flip out but Flair finishes saying it is Angle and Crimson vs. all of Immortal (including Phil “Gunner” Shatter!”.) We then go to break.
Thoughts: Decent promo overall. I do find it very funny now that Crimson was brought in as Amazing Red’s partner, and Crimson has more or less done more in a span of weeks than Red has in his entire TNA career (even during the Nashville days). I find it sort of silly to give away Angle’s return to the ring on TV, but I suppose nobody will be buying the PPV anyway so who cares. All the promo did was advance stuff which was its purpose so I guess that’s that.
SEGMENT #2: Sarita/Tara/Madison Rayne vs. Velvet Sky/Mickie James/Angelina Love (Elimination Match) *1/2
Match result: Angelina wins last eliminating Sarita in about 13 and a half minutes
In the back before the match, Winter was seen with the Beautiful People and is screaming at Angelina about why she is doing this to the two of them. Angelina tells her that Velvet is her BFF and to calm down. Winter flips out.
This match felt like it lasted FOREVER. Madison got eliminated by landing on her loaded glove. Sarita then quickly eliminated Mickie, leaving it to Tara and Sarita/Angelina for the whole second half of the match. During this portion, it was shown that Velvet was taken out backstage. Angelina eventually made the comeback to take out Tara and Sarita to win the match.
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Kurt Angle is seen in the back on the phone with someone saying they have to accelerate their plans. ForeshadowingForeshadowingForeshadowing
SEGMENT #3: Max Buck vs. Amazing Red vs. Chris Sabin **
Match Result: Max Buck pinned Amazing Red via Elevated DDT in just over five minutes.
Apparently, this is the first of three matches going into a match at Against All Odds to determine a #1 contender for the X-Division Title. Ironically, this is the first thing even remotely determined for that PPV seeing as all of the build has been towards this coming week’s Impact. Each of the three had their own side video during their entrances, with Red stating how he has been the face of the X-Division for eight years (even though he was not employed by the company from around 2005 to 2009), Max states that is either he or his brother’s time. Sabin says destiny is knocking at his door. Kazarian, who is on commentary for this match, has some snide comments for all of their videos.
This was a rather fun match though. Very similar to one that was had on Xplosion only with Jeremy/Nick in Matt/Max’s places. There was one particular spot that Red and Sabin did where Red went for a springboard and Sabin caught him and gave him a Total Anarchy, vintage Arik Cannon. If they get very legit behind this “rebuilding” of the X-Division, I am all for it especially if they do end up signing people like TJ Perkins and El Generico for it. I will fully believe it when I see it though. This match was probably the best segment of the show though.
SEGMENT #4: Jeff Hardy and Mr. Anderson talk.
Jeff Hardy trash talks the fans. He took the title and the money at BFG because he is TNA. Half of the crowd is booing him while the other half cheers Hardy. Next week, he will take back the title and shove it up the fans asses. With some of the creatures that occupy the Impact Zone, that might be a lot of work.
Anderson came out and says Jeff Hardy’s moans a lot like Charlie Brown’s mother. He puts over how everything in wrestling is about wins and losses. Next week, it is all about the title and when it is all said and done, Anderson will still be the “Total Nonstop Action Total Nonstop Asshole.”
Thoughts: When it was just Hardy in this promo, it was quite atrocious. When Anderson came out, it improved substantially but it was still sort of there.
In the back, Crimson is shown saying that he showed up for Red but recently was given an offer that he could not refuse. HINT HINT. They then show everything that Crimson has done including essentially MURDERING Abyss last week who is now out indefinitely. The Happy Days theme is now playing in my head.
SEGMENT #5: Velvet Sky screams at Winter and the two brawl.
Velvet is still angry about being taken out earlier by Winter and calls her out. Winter comes out and the two brawl for quite a while. Eventually, Angelina came out to break it up.
Thoughts: They gave a lot of time to the KO’s division in this segment and the match earlier and somehow it felt like a lot more time was given to it than all of Angle/Jarrett last week. I still am trying to figure out why the Knockout’s Tag Titles still exist…or the regular Knockout’s title for that matter.
SEGMENT #6: Pope confesses
Pope comes out and says that he may have said some things that he should not have. He is pure which is why he always wears white, but tonight he is going to confess to something. He talks about how all of the fans are all guilty of stabbing people in the back as well as some other things. He is bigger than that though and he is better than all of the fans. He wants to say that he does not like Joe at all. He doesn’t like who he is or what he stands for. With Joe, there is no hope, but what he can do is next week he will give a member of the Pope’s Congregation a chance to confess their faults.
Thoughts: When he wants to, Pope can really deliver on the mic and as a heel, he is definitely MUCH better in that regard. It actually did more than most of this meaningless pandering that Joe and Pope have done throughout several weeks.
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Backstage, Flair is giving a pep talk to Immortal and Eric Young is in there as well. Why? After Immortal left, he calls Eric’s title meaningless and Eric leavings saying Good talk, Ric. Uh…..k.
RANDOM NOTE: The logo for that show “1000 ways to die” has a logo very similar to the Pro Wrestling Noah logo.
SEGMENT #7: A word with Dixie…almost literally
They recap everything going on with Dixie/Bischoff/Hogan including the big injunction that took place on Reaction on THANKSGIVING that has gone next to unnoticed for the past two months. Tenay and Taz then speak with Dixie on the phone who says next week this will all be decided. Bischoff then has a rebuttal afterwards saying that next week Immortal will get the world title back, Hogan will be back, and that THEY will not show up since he is a part of THEY.
Thoughts: This was sort of silly as, much like many things that are hyped up on Impact, it led to nothing. They had Dixie hyped up the whole show for less than 30 seconds of airtime, which was only airtime on a PHONE no less. Not to mention, does anyone actually WANT her back on TV? Maybe Serge, but I doubt anyone else does.
SEGMENT #8: Mr. Anderson vs. Matt Hardy (non-title) *
Match Result: Mr. Anderson pins Matt Hardy via cradle pin in slightly over four minutes.
The whole plan for this match for Matt was to soften up Anderson for Jeff next week. I will say, Matt is much more tolerable to watch in short matches like this as opposed to nearly thirteen minutes like Genesis. With that said, this still was not good and I do not blame that on Anderson. He is so slow and out of it, that if not for the people running TNA, I am sure he would not be signed currently due to the state he is in.
After the match, Jeff attacked Anderson with Matt until RVD made the save and the Hardys left.
Although I am complaining a lot here, this match did do some things right hence why it at least got a “*” rating from me. It set up Anderson’s left arm being injured going into next week’s match with Jeff.
SEGMENT #9: Kurt Angle/Crimson vs. Immortal *1/2
Match Result: Jeff Jarrett pinned Kurt Angle in about four and a half minutes.
Crimson and Angle dominated this for a while, but eventually the numbers game gave in. Jarrett, who was not originally in the match (probably due to Karen’s warnings about fearing what Kurt can do), came out after Angle had gotten laid into. Angle fought back, but again, lost to the numbers game. Jarrett hit the stroke and pinned Angle.
Immortal continued the beatdown until Morgan came out for the save but he also lost to the numbers game. The lights went off and sirens blared in the Impact Zone as Scott Steiner made his return to TNA and cleared the ring. He looked at Angle who was smiling. FORESHADOWING
Thoughts: This whole thing was kind of weird, much like the main event segment of last week. Angle was so calm going into the main event, but they took quite the beating before Steiner eventually showed up. The pop Steiner got was nice at least. I WONDER WHO WILL SHOW UP NEXT.
OVERALL THOUGHTS
They built to next week’s Impact pretty nicely at least. With that said, they did not promote a lot to get me to WANT to see it. There is Hardy/Anderson for the belt, the second they revelation, Pope making someone confess, and the next X-Division three way at least, but they did not even make it a focal point to point out that all of this is taking place next week. It was all pointed out in separate segments. Oh and in other news, the next PPV (the show that requires MONEY for viewers to see) is two weeks away. Not a bad show this week, but nothing particularly great.
6/10 for the show.
Best Segment of the Night: Max/Sabin/Red
Worst Segment of the Night: The Six woman KO’s tag (mainly due to how long it was.)
i have been a fan wrestling since i was eight
i hope anderson loses thursday