Pruett's Pause: TNA Impact Wrestling - So much was wrong with Kurt Angle vs. Bobby Roode, Magnus puts Sting out for good, Dixie's lawyer gets to be a character and more!

By Will Pruett

I hated Kurt Angle vs. Bobby Roode. I absolutely hated it. It might be the front runner for the worst wrestling match I will see in 2014. It was bad.

The wrestling was not bad. In fact, the two men wrestled each other valiantly. They fought with vigor and passion. They had a decent cage match, which looked at without the story surrounding it, would be fine. Sadly, TNA is about telling stories and the story told in Angle vs. Roode didn't just lack logic, it undid all of the good TNA had done with their story.

Let's start with the stipulations. Kurt Angle was fighting for his opportunity to someday possibly go into the TNA Hall of Fame. Angle originally denied his induction at Bound for Glory because of his personal issues and began a story about earning his induction. Somehow, Angle saying no to the induction put the power to induct him in the hands of Bobby Roode. Couldn't Angle just say "yes" to his induction and be in the Hall? Does he have to win a match for it? He turned it down himself, so the option to agree to go in is probably there.

Moving forward, on the same show Angle turned down his induction at, he was stretchered out of the arena with an apparent concussion. Angle was stretchered out of an arena just a couple of weeks later with another concussion. Both of these concussions occurred after Angle tried and hit moves from the top rope onto Roode. What happened in this match? Angle went to the top of the cage, did a moonsault to nothing, and came up completely fine. Angle has apparently figured out how to not get concussed. Considering how important the stretcher jobs from Angle were made to seem, the lack of continuity here was awful. How did Kurt Angle manage to overcome his chronic concussions?

The end of the match also left a lot to be desired. Instead of pinning Roode, Angle escaped over the top of the cage and won a race to touch the ground first. Kurt Angle is the babyface who refused to die. Roode is the dastardly heel. Why not have the never-say-die babyface actually win via pinfall or submission? What good did Angle and Roode accomplish when their story went this way?

The disturbing lack of logic in this match was scary. I tend to believe TNA's creative forces are better than this. I'm not sure what they were trying to do with this match, but they failed. It wasn't just a swing and a miss, but somehow it was like they tore every muscle in their body while swinging the bat.

Picking up the pieces:

- The lawyer in the opening segment couldn't have been a worse actor if they had hired Claire Lynch to come in and play him. His explanation of how the investor could hire someone and change matches didn't make a ton of sense, but I think any corporate speak is supposed to dazzle us wrestling fans. Oooo! Look at the man in a tie!

- Speaking of men in ties, did Magnus switch tie collections when he turned heel? Suddenly his ties are much thicker than they were before with obnoxiously large knots. He used to rock a suit rather nicely, now he looks like he doesn't know how to dress.

- Adding a cornerman to the main event didn't exactly make me feel good about the chances for a good match.

- James Storm vs. Gunner was just as clumsy as I expected it to be when Mike Tenay began discussing how the winner had to "have possession" of the case. It was not a good match.

- Austin Aries and Chris Sabin had a match. It was for a title. The focus was on a girl in a cage with a black cylindrical object. I'm not even sure what the goal of trading the X Division Championship back and forth is right now. It isn't helping anyone.

- The Wolves video was far too much like The Shield's original promos were. I sincerely hope this is coincidental and The Wolves are not going to become the pseudo-Shield. Davey Richards and Eddie Edwards deserve better than that.

- I legitimately laughed at Ethan Carter III's pep talk for Rockstar Spud.

- I also found a little entertainment in The Bro-Man's promo with D.J. Zema. I shouldn't have enjoyed it, but I did.

- Eric Young may or may not be friends with Abyss. Good for Young. Bad for all of us.

- Kurt Angle's backstage promo expressing affection towards Sting was odd.

- Samoa Joe squashing Rockstar Spud was fine for what it was. I'm assuming Joe is facing Magnus sometime soon, so this made sense.

- While I enjoyed he main event from a couple of weeks ago with a deluge of run-ins, I hated this week's iteration of it. Where were all of the other babyfaces we know were in the building? Why didn't "The Investor" send The Wolves to prevent injustice? Where was everyone aside from Kurt Angle and Samoa Joe? TNA did a really bad job of explaining this schmoz.

- Earl Hebner being required to act never works for me.

- I know TNA had to write Sting off for financial reasons, but this was a clumsy way to do it.

This was a bad wrestling show and it followed a bad wrestling show. It's my hope that Genesis taping night was just a severely off night for TNA creative. If this is the way they plan to work going forward, this show is in trouble.

So, what did you think of the show? Agree? Disagree? Either way, feel free to email me at itswilltime@gmail.com or to follow me and interact on twitter at twitter.com/itswilltime.