By Ryan Kester

Overall Show

In my live coverage last night, I went into great detail about the things I did not enjoy about last night's show, so I will get much of that out of the way here. TNA took several steps back with their booking last night, and the show felt like a repeat. There was far too much focus on the authority figure situation; Mexican America returned with more of their xenophobic shtick; the Kurt Angle and Jeff Hardy storyline progression was overshadowed by Garett Bischoff, and the whole affair left me with a bad taste in my mouth. I have enjoyed much of the recent editions of TNA Impact, but they worked really hard to undo a lot of that with last night's episode.

That isn't to say that the entire show was terrible, however. The live crowd was hot for what they got and some of the various performances worked well, but a lot of what was set up on last night's show does not excite me going-forward.

If nothing else, my biggest qualm with last night's show was how it felt like the TNA Title picture was once again taking a back seat to Hulk Hogan and control of the company intrigue. Frankly, I simply do not care at this point. The entirety of last year was spent telling that story and the conclusion of that story was at Bound For Glory. Returning to this idea, especially with such zeal, comes off as an admittance that TNA has no new ideas for what to do next. I hope I am wrong, but returning to the same story so soon is just not what TNA needs to be doing at this moment.

Bobby Roode and James Storm

The video package that chronicled the history of Bobby Roode and James Storm in TNA was very well done, and it was further highlighted by some excerpts from the Storm and Roode characters. Equally impressive was Storm's promo and interaction with Bobby Roode's "legal advisor." Storm has a lot of potential in his everyman role, and I hope to see him have more chances to flex his promo muscles as we continue to build towards Lockdown.

As I mentioned in a previous Rundown, Bobby Roode's attack on Dixie Carter didn't impress me much because I felt like it was overdone to the point of absurdity, and the replay of that on Impact only served to further that notion. I can understand having to do something for fans that missed the PPV, but TNA would have been better served having their announce team talk about it or actually having Roode involved in the show to boast about his accomplishments. If they're going to go with that type of angle to put heat on Roode, then Roode might as well have been present to garner the heat himself.

Still, James Storm looked like a star last night. I was disappointed to see such a short match for him, but one has to assume that the ankle injury that plagued him at the PPV accounted for the short match last night. I was surprised to see him go over both Kazarian and Daniels at once, though, as the two men just came off of a clean loss on the PPV.

Austin Aries and Bully Ray

This was another case of accomplishing a short-term goal without taking into account the long-term ramifications of the booking. Bully Ray's attack on an X-Division match that was just getting going gathered him heat, but it was at the expense of a Division that Aries has been slowly building up for half of a year. The entire point of the separation in weight classes before was to allow the X-Division to get some breathing room and prevent this sort of nonsense, but a lot of that was undone in just a quick segment.

If this is an attempt to set up an Aries vs. Bully Ray feud, I can't really think of a worse way to go about things. Aries has the talent and is over enough to leave the X-Division and hang out in the main event, but where would that leave the Title and the X-Division as a whole? Aries is the only truly established star of that division outside of Zema Ion, and the last thing that division needs is another overhaul angle.

I can see them combining the X-Division, led by Aries, to face Bully Ray and his buddies in a Lethal Lockdown match, but that has a distinct, been-there, done-that feel, and I really hope that's not where we are headed.

Matt Morgan and Crimson

Crimson displayed a much greater comfort than I have seen from him previously with his character last night. He didn't have a great deal of time at his disposal, but he quickly established why he was feuding with his former partner, and the cocky attitude he displayed worked well.

Matt Morgan getting his hand on Crimson instantly took a lot of Crimson's heat away from him, though. Crimson is doing a better job of establishing his character at the moment, but I am not sure what to make of Morgan's character at the moment or how TNA is expecting me to react to him. He's obviously intense and wants to get his hands on Crimson for losing their titles, but he's been the same level of intense since their initial feud heading into Turning Point last year. Since that time, he has been acting the same, but TNA has presented him as both a face and a heel, so I am finding it increasingly difficult to connect with the current iteration of his character.

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 at @TheRyanKester.

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