Kester's TNA Impact Wrestling Rundown: Austin Aries stands tall over Jeff Hardy, DOC takes out Sing, and Christian York passes his Gut Check judging

By Ryan Kester

Jeff Hardy and Austin Aries

While I still may not be high on Aries and his increasingly copycat character, I did enjoy his promo work at the end of the show. He managed to sell a few PPV buys with his mic work, and the image of him standing tall over Hardy at the end of the show was great for making him look like a threat.

Despite my misgivings the previous weeks on the creative aspect of this match, I am looking forward to the match itself. These two men work well together and I am sure they will produce a solid match. I simply won't be as into the action as I could have been had this match been backed with a compelling story.

DOC (Director of Chaos)

Let me get this out of the way, Director of Chaos is a terrible name, both for a group role and for a wrestler's name. It makes what was a realistic biker gang sound like a cartoonish bunch of super villains and DOC sounds like it was ripped right out of a comic book. Every time the announcers had to stop to explain this godawful name, it took me right out of what was happening on screen.

Getting past that decision, DOC still did a good job making an impact. His hammer beat down of Sting looked brutal and the announcers did their part in selling the assault effectively.

Gut Check

Christian York showed that it's his mic kills that have likely kept him out of the top organizations last night, but the current version of TNA has managed to find a way for Hardy to wear their world title while working around his own limitations on the mic. If they can find a similar role for York, he will be golden.

I still believe that York should have been the first person to win a Gut Check match, but every other aspect of his introduction was handled well. The Gut Check judges were emphatic with their yesses and they didn't try and undercut him for the sake of "reality."

Overall Show

Last night's show was a vast improvement. TNA reigned themselves in and delivered a focused show that had a nice, even flow from start to finish and gave appropriate focus to the top angles. I still cannot claim to be excited about TNA's creative direction, but it was a great night of wrestling television.

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.