2/13 Shore's TNA Impact Wrestling live coverage: MVP and The Wolves in action for the first time, Chris Sabin vs. Velvet Sky, Bully Ray vs. Ken Anderson in a casket match

By Chris Shore

TNA Impact Wrestling on SpikeTV
Taped on 1/31 in Manchester, England.

[Q1] Dixie Carter, Ethan Carter III, Rockstar Spud, and Magnus made their entrance. Dixie said she wasn't worried about MVP. She made some sort of crack about having a bad hair day and said she had what MVP never could, the TNA Champion Magnus. EC3 jumped in and said she also had the man who ended the career of Kurt Angle.

Magnus took the mic and got a huge "You sold out" chant. He took shots at Manchester and said he wasn't a paper champion. He put over Dixie Carter how he signed him. That got a "boring" chant. He turned to MVP and said he didn't know what jail cell he crawled out of, but Magnus was the top of the pecking order. He said MVP couldn't buy him because he never sold out.

MVP made his entrance to the stage with Samoa Joe. MVP essentially called Dixie a used up piece of ass and announced that Joe will face Magnus at Lockdown for the TNA Championship. Gunner's music hit and he came to the ramp with his briefcase. Gunner teased cashing in the briefcase and then said he would give Magnus a week's notice. He said he would cash in next week and the winner would face Joe at Lockdown.

Dixie jumped in and said Gunner might not have the briefcase next week. She said he would face EC3 with his case on the line. MVP said "C3PO" had a tag title briefcase too so his was on the line too and they would put both above the ring for a ladder match and the winner took both. Dixie agreed. MVP said if anybody interfered he would "level the playing field…"

Shore's Slant: An uninspiring startr to the show. There was just too much going on there. It started Magnus vs. the world, then Magnus vs. Joe, then Magnus vs. Gunner, then Gunner vs. EC3. It's just too much to process at one time so your mind dismisses everything as unimportant.

[Q2] 1. Ethan Carter III vs. Gunner for both the TNA Championship and Tag Team Championships briefcases. Gunner went for a ladder early and EC3 hit a dropkick from the apron. He yelled "Ow" after landing. He put the ladder in the ring and Gunner stopped him. Gunner took the first ladder bump via a drop toe hold, but he hit a powerbomb off the ladder on Carter. Magnus ran in and attacked Gunner until James Storm made the save…

Ethan Carter III fought Gunner to an apparent no contest at 3:34.

MVP came out and booked the match to continue as a tag match with the briefcases still on the line…

2. Ethan Carter III and Magnus vs. Gunner and James Storm for both the TNA Championship and Tag Team Championships briefcases. Carter and Magnus argued on the floor…[C] The heels were in control when the show returned. They tossed James Storm and then hit a splash on Gunner on the ladder. EC3 was going to climb the ladder but Magnus stopped him. They argued, allowing Storm and Gunner to recover. The hit a double hip toss on EC3, but the match broke down and everyone powdered but EC3.

[Q3] Gunner hit a slam from the apron on Carter. He followed with a diving head-butt and climbed the ladder for the briefcases…

Gunner and Storm won the two briefcases at 8:57.

Post-match, the heels argued as the babyfaces celebrated… The announce team hyped Bully Ray vs. Mr. Anderson in the casket match. Backstage. Anderson cut a promo on the match and said it was about what he had that Ray didn’t, family. He showed pictures of his kids…[C]

Shore's Slant: OK, I'm totally lost. So Storm and Gunner made amends and now they are going for both titles? For what purpose? I don't understand where this is going. Plus, I don’t understand why you take the briefcase from Carter. He's not in a tag team. But there are plenty of stories there to tell.

Backstage, the Bro-Mans cut a promo with their backs to the camera to Rockstar Spud, complaining about Storm and Gunner winning the tag title briefcase. MVP came in and they all bickered. MVP booked Bro-Mans and Zema vs The Wolves and a mystery partner. He said it wasn’t him and sent them to the ring for the match…

A video recapped the Monster's Ball match last week between Abyss and Eric Young. Bro-Mans and Zema made their entrance. The Wolves were out next…[C]

Shore's Slant: That was a completely chaotic segment. I don’t understand why the camera was behind Bro-Mans and Zema. Of course there was very little about that segment that I understood.

[Q4] Samoa Joe ran to the ring as the mystery partner…

3. Bro-Mans and Zema Ion vs. The Wolves and Samoa Joe. The announce team slobbered all over the Wolves. The Wolves had the early run, but Davey was hit from behind and took the heat. Joe got the hot tag and the Wolves dove on the Bro-Mans. Joe hooked the rear naked choke on Zema for the win…

The Wolves and Samoa Joe defeated Bro-Mans and Zema Ion at 5:36.

Backstage, Abyss was walking and choked a guy out for looking at him. He was hyped for next…[C]

Shore's Slant: Nothing like your tag team champions serving as jobber to the stars. Yuck.

Velvet Sky asked Dixie Carter to cancel her match with Chris Sabin. Dixie said her colleague taught her you can't just sit on your backside and she couldn't cancel the match, MVP was sitting there and took offense to her blaming him. Dixe said she wished MVP was still wrestling so she could put someone against him. Spud volunteered and MVP accepted…

[Q5] Abyss made his ring entrance, sand mask. He apologized for the way things had played out, but his buddy Eric Young wanted to prove Abyss and Joe Park were one and the same. He demanded EY come out and see what he had created. EY made a tentative entrance and stopped short of the ring. EY said he was just trying to help. Abyss asked why EY wouldn't come closer. EY slid in the ring and they stood face to face.

EY said he didn't understand why he was upset. He said Park asked him to help him find Abyss and he did. Abyss held up his mask and said this was the reality of the situation. He said he proved Park was Abyss. EY said he loved Abyss just like the people did. EY said when he pulled the mask off he proved who Abyss was. Abyss screamed at him "Who am I? Better yet, who the hell are you?"

Abyss said he had carved his body to bits and destroyed lives and careers. Abyss said the scars on his arms tell the story. He calmed down and sounded like Joe Park. He said he couldn’t be Abyss anymore with the conscious he now had. He said he couldn’t be violent anymore and he needed help. EY said they would finish this together and he could help.

Abyss said he didn’t want or need his help. He said they were done. Abyss said he needed to go away and fix EY's mistake by finding someone who truly understand him. He dropped the mic, threw the mask down, and left… MVP was shown heading toward the ring…[C]

Shore's Slant: Maybe that segment would have meant something f the Joe Park story hadn't been so stupid for the past few months. EY is not the guy you want trying to get a serious storyline over, and this angle suffered because of it.

Backstage, Sam Shaw approached Christy Hemmed and helped her load a bag. She was uncomfortable about him and Shaw said he agreed they needed to keep it professional. He shook her hand and then acted a little weird about that hand as he walked away…

[Q6] Spud and MVP made entrances. The match should have started here, but Spud kept fleeing the ring and doing his gimmick on the floor. MVP chased him and Spud attacked when they slid back in the ring and the match started…

4. Rockstar Spud vs. MVP. MVP hit all his signature spots and hit a running kick to the head for the win…

MVP defeated Rockstar Spud at 0:58.

Backstage, Bobby Roode stormed around jerking doors open and screaming for Dixie…[C]

Shore's Slant: Welcome back to American TV MVP. Too bad your first match was a squash.

A CRAZY ass video had a guy who looked like Jeff Hardy in a black and white mask with his face painted talked about…well, I don’t know. The voice was all affected and I couldn’t make it all out. He said something about an avenging angel. A graphic said "Willow is comoing."…

Backstage, Dixie was on the phone with someone when Roode found her. He pitched a fit and said Dixie owed him for saving Magnus not once, but twice. She said she didn't owe him anything. He got in her face and said she didn’t want him as an enemy and stormed off…

Velvet Sky made her entrance as a video showed Sabin challenging her last week. Sabin was out next to less heat than I would have expected. Sabin took a mic and said since he was a gentlemen, he was going to give her the first shot absolutely free. He stuck his face out and then offered to close his eyes. Velvet wouldn't bite. Sabin called her a skank and said he had no idea what he ever saw in her.

She kicked him in the knee, and when he asked her why, she kicked him in the nuts. Sabin laughed and pulled out a cup. She hit him with another low blow and pounded on him. Some rough looking woman ran in the ring and attacked Velvet. She put her in a full nelson and whipped her around until Velvet passed out. Sabin covered and the woman counted, but the match never officially started. She put Sabin on her shoulders and they celebrated…

[Q7] Backstage, Bully Ray found Anderson's stuff and took his phone. He called Anderson's wife and told her when Anderson came home again he would be in a coffin. He told her to tell the twins daddy said goodbye…[C]

Shore's Slant: So there's a new Knockout? Is that what we are supposed to take away from this? Or is she just Sabin's valet? Way to leave us with a mess TNA! I'm not buying the Ray vs. Anderson storyline. It's just too over the top at this point.

IQG asked Roode what happened in Dixie's office. Roode said things were too much right now and it was over. IQG asked what he meant. Roode said he needed to get away and think. The guy asked about what. Security walked up and told Roode he had to leave the building because Dixie said so. He left without a fight…

A video recapped Gunner winning the match earlier and the announce team announced he would cash in the TNA Championship briefcase next week… A video recapped the Anderson vs. Bully Ray feud. Ray made his ring entrance holding the chain. Anderson was out next. The casket was ringside already. Ray pulled his coat off to show a Liverpool football uniform. Liverpool is the rival of the Manchester club…

Bully Ray vs Ken Anderson in a casket match. Anderson attacked and snatched the jersey off. He choked Ray with it and that got a good pop.

[Q8] Anderson beat up the jersey and went to the floor with Ray. Anderson played to the crowd, allowing Ray to hit him from behind…[C] A video showed both men hitting each other with chairs. Anderson bled from the face, but he setup a table in the ring. Ray hit a big boot and put the casket in the ring. Anderson tried to sneak up the ropes, but Ray knocked him down and hit a chair shot, followed by a superplex.

Ray put Anderson in the casket and picked up the lid. Ray tried to put it on, but Anderson pushed away. Ray hit him with the lid and stood perfectly over the casket for Anderson to hit a nut shot. Ray recovered for a powerbomb through the table. That started an unearned "This is awesome" chant.

Ray setup for a piledriver in the casket. Anderson slipped out and hit a Mic Check into the casket. He put the lid on for the win…

Ken Anderson defeated Bully Ray in a casket match at 11:54.

Backstage, Dixie offered to buy MVP's shares of TNA. He asked why he would do that. She said her experience was that wrestlers were poor businessmen but she thought even he could see this as a good deal. Dixie handed him a contract and MVP agreed it was big money. He said he wasn't there to make money; he was there to make TNA better. He threw the contract away and offered a deal. He challenged her to find a team to face his team at Lethal Lockdown. They argued with Dixie refusing to make the deal. At least I think that's what it was because what she said didn't make perfect sense to me…

Shore's Slant: A mediocre casket match. They worked hard, but the build for it had been thin, It didn’t feel like the casket mattered at all, it was just the dumb stipulation for how it ended. Speaking of dumb, the Lethal Lockdown challenge is dumb. MVP is already changing things, why risk all that all of a sudden on that match? It's too rushed. This is the problem with Lockdown. They never really build it right so you're left with a bunch of cage matches where the cage is a detriment to the story.

All in all this was a poor episode of Impact that dragged on and on. They are still suffering from thin storylines and poor logic in the bulk of their feuds, and now they are trying to sell a PPV based on those flimsy stories. Not goo. Jason Powell will have more tomorrow. Thanks for watching along tonight.