By Will Pruett

- The Impact Zone looks so minor league when it comes to pay-per-view time. They change absolutely nothing (aside from the rope color) and do nothing to reward pay-per-view buyers for actually spending money on the product.

- I’d guess and say this show will come in with even fewer buys than the average TNA show. The very beginning was up against an NFL playoff game in overtime featuring one of the most polarizing players in the country. Bad luck for TNA on this one.

- I really did not enjoy the X Division four-way match. I appreciated the elimination aspect of it, but didn’t love all of the action. It didn’t measure up to the sheer quality of the Destination X four-way and the interference in the finish was very disappointing.

- While discussing interference, there was quite a bit of it on this show. I get that TNA does not always rock clean finishes 24-7, but it would be awesome if they did so for at least half of their matches on pay-per-view.

- As much as I didn’t love the match, Austin Aries’ top-rope brainbuster was a great example of a relatively safe move being put over like a dangerous killer of a move. That touch was much appreciated.

- Nothing about the feud or the match involving The Pope and Devon was good. I hated the acting job done by the Sons of Devon (the hottest tag team in TNA) and the quick turn. The match itself was just boring. Can this feud please end?

- I had no idea who Velvet Sky was when she first appeared on screen. Does this mean that I don’t pay good enough attention to TNA or that they don’t do a good job differentiating between their different female acts?

- Gunner and Rob Van Dam had a better match than they did on Impact on Thursday, but that is not saying much. If the injury angle was meant to put RVD out of TNA, it could not be coming at a better time. He’s meant very little to TNA since he first lost the TNA Championship in 2010. It was a nice attempt at using a veteran act, but his run hasn’t turned out to be successful.

- Jeff Hardy’s face paint looked awesome on this show. He stepped it up a notch creatively (at least in painting his face) and I appreciated the effort.

- I kind of appreciate to effort that TNA put into repurposing the penalty box from their King of the Mountain matches to turn it into a pink Knockout’s shark cage. I don’t appreciate the fact that TNA tacked on a gimmick in an unadvertised manner that fans should have enjoyed.

- Mickie James and Gail Kim seemed like they had to opportunity to have a decent match, but it turns out the booking was very much in the mood to get in the way of it. If a heel is going to retain a title in TNA it is pretty much guaranteed that they will do so in a screwy and non-satisfying manner.

- Abyss and Bully Ray had a hardcore match that set the wrestling business back quite a few years. I hated their brawl both for the superfluous weapon shots and for the comedy aspects of it. The audience at the Impact Zone is dumb enough to chant “This is awesome” in a downright stupid match like this and that just goes to prove that TNA desperately needs to get out of Orlando.

- My least favorite chant in wrestling is “This is awesome” simply because it isn’t real heat. Nine times out of ten it comes from a crowd desperately trying to be part of the show and comment on it as opposed to getting invested in the match and cheering for one wrestler or another.

- Speaking of the fans, who were they supposed to cheer in the tag team championship match? Matt Morgan and Crimson have come off as heels on TV recently and Samoa Joe and Magnus are two heels. This lead to the awkward silence the crowd fell into in this match.

- James Storm was funny in his segment with Jeremy Borash but the attempt at humor came at the cost of the intensity of his feud with Kurt Angle.

- Kurt Angle and James Storm had a quiet match once again. There is a serious gap between the intensity of the buildup for these matches and the actual matches themselves. Hopefully in the rubber match next month they have a chance to really shine in the ring.

- What was with all of the angles with Abyss and Bully Ray after their match? If Abyss is going missing, shouldn’t that take place on TV?

- Bobby Roode is not doing well reciting his talking points on the mic.

- Jeff Hardy and Bobby Roode had a pretty good match leading into the finish. They really worked hard right up until the finish. I feel like that is true of all the TNA main events from Bound for Glory to today. The finishes seems to be getting in the way of good matches.

- When the mostly unintelligent fans at the Impact Zone are chanting for the babyface authority figure even though at least half of them probably don’t follow the product, TNA needs to realize that their unsatisfying finishes are obnoxious.

This show was bad. There is no other way to see it. TNA does not care about pay-per-view and it is obvious by the way everyone from the bookers to the wrestlers to the announcers phone it in on these shows. I understand that TNA signed a contract, but no one can be making money on these atrocious shows. Next time someone from TNA tries to defend their product, I’d like to hear them discuss how under 8,000 buys counts as a successful show.

Yes, pay-per-view is a quickly dying format, but if TNA is going to have them, why not at least reward viewers with quality matches and mildly satisfying conclusions?

Let's do some good old fashioned talking about this show! Feel free to email me at itswilltime@gmail.com or to follow me on twitter at twitter.com/itswilltime.

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