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Kester's TNA Impact Rundown: Bully Ray goads Brooke Hogan, Hulk Hogan gives Styles an ultimatum, and the new X Division continues to take shape

Posted in: Kester Editorials, MUST-READ LISTING
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Apr 6, 2013 - 10:20 AM

By Ryan Kester

Bully Ray

It's almost a weekly occurrence in these Rundowns, but Ray continues to shine in his return to his heel role. Ray is easily one of the biggest highlights about TNA television. Still, even with his consistently enjoyable work, he is beginning to run out of things to say with this leg of his story.

It's time for the next chapter in Bully Ray's story. TNA has done a great job of taking a step back and allowing Ray's role as the head of Aces and Eights to sink in, but he needs more material to work with soon to keep the act gaining and maintaining heat. Repeated replays of his big turn are not going to cut it much longer.

Hulk Hogan and AJ Styles

This story care right out of left field on Thursday and felt rather forced. I understand having Styles brood for a bit and feud with Storm, the man that made him unable to challenge for the top title in TNA for a full year. That can easily make for an entertaining story, so why is Hogan and Aces and Eights getting involved?

One has to wonder if this a sign that TNA is going to cast Styles in the savior of TNA role after a month or two of questioning his allegiance. It would be unfortunate if that were the case because Styles was in need of a character shift before his departure. He had grown stale and it's doubtful that just a few months of a darker attitude will do enough to shift him from the babyface persona he ran with before. If it does, great, but TNA needs to have a plan to keep Styles fresh that doesn't involve another extended feud with Christopher Daniels.

X Division

The X Division qualifier was a bit of a mixed bag. It was great to see Petey Williams again and the participants did their parts well, but the new format simply isn't engaging for this viewer.

The problem stems from the way that the short triple-threat matches cater to spot fests. While spot fests can occasionally be entertaining purely from a spectacle standpoint, they quickly becomes forgettable popcorn matches that satisfy the need for action on a wrestling show, but they don't provide any lasting enjoyment. It's so much better to have memorable and impressive spots woven into a strong narrative than it is to have a weekly rotation of spotfests between guys that see little to no characterization.

Overall Show

Thursday's Impact wasn't very entertaining. The show was focused on hyping a future edition if Impact and resorted to too much filler and repeated videos to draw viewers into the action. TNA really hasn't began to take advantage of the extra time they have between PPVs, and if they take many nights like this off they won't see the benefits of a more limited PPV schedule.

If you have any questions or comments or just wish to chat with a fellow wrestling fan about whatever, then feel free to email me at ryan.kester@gmail.com or follow me on Twitter.

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