Pruett’s Pause: TNA Impact Wrestling – Sting announces his return to the ring at Victory Road to take on Bobby Roode, James Storm and Jeff Hardy team up against Kurt Angle and Bully Ray, Brandon Jacobs appears again


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Pruett Editorials


Pruett’s Pause: TNA Impact Wrestling – Sting announces his return to the ring at Victory Road to take on Bobby Roode, James Storm and Jeff Hardy team up against Kurt Angle and Bully Ray, Brandon Jacobs appears again
Feb 24, 2012 - 12:10 PM


By Will Pruett

- The build throughout the evening for Sting answering his “I’m done” tweet was actually fairly well done. It was a slightly more organic use of social media than we usually see from professional wrestling and it gave the show a nice arc.

- Bobby Roode’s opening promo was one of the best we’ve seen from him. His character felt like it finally dropped in and he found his rhythm. Roode taunting Sting worked extremely well and the heat he got, piped in or not, fit the situation.

- Matt Morgan and Crimson returning to a feud against each other might just be worse than there tag team was.

- The tag team title rematch with Samoa Joe and Magnus defending their newly won belts was really fun. I don’t mind the heel tag champs taking some punishment, since they are supposed to be opportunistic heels. They still got more offense in this one match than Bobby Roode has in his entire World Championship run.

- Crimson and Morgan played the same finish that they did at the pay-per-view. For the seven people who watch TNA’s pay-per-views, this was disappointing. For the rest of the audience, I’m guessing the finish was fairly intriguing. I don’t like where Morgan and Crimson are going, but I love where Magnus and Joe are.

- Brandon Jacobs was left alone in the ring on the mic for far too long. He tried his best to excite the crowd, but he just did not connect. I don’t want to say he was awful, but he was not given the right opportunity to shine. If only TNA had a babyface on their roster that could cut better promos than almost anyone in the wrestling business…

- Bully Ray is such a great heel. He took what was a mildly tepid reaction for Brandon Jacobs and managed to get the crowd completely behind him. Bully Ray has been a standout performer for almost a year and I continue to be amazed by it.

- Zema Ion and Alex Shelley had a better match than a four-minute match should be. I would love to see these guys get a real chance to tear it up like Shelley and Austin Aries got at the pay-per-view. The new X Division is really picking up.

- After the great match at the pay-per-view and how he was positioned beforehand, I was surprised to see Alex Shelley lose for the second week in a row on Impact. He is the only wrestler that seems capable of being Austin Aries’ babyface equal at this point and it seems that he is not destined for that role.

- Here comes our weekly Garett Bischoff segment and I still could not care less. The video was the same that we saw last week and it was even less entertaining the second time around. We then saw Hulk Hogan backstage making sure that Garett knew what he was getting into. I can’t believe Hulk would waste what little rub he has left to give on this atrocity.

- I’d be much more intrigued by Madison Rayne and Gail Kim’s impending feud if TNA did not seem to be doing the same thing with Matt Morgan and Crimson. While the women are far more talented, the men are probably going to get more attention. Stop telling the same story twice.

- ODB and Gail Kim just did not mesh. This was not the really entertaining and serious match that ODB had with Mickie James. There was a little more comedy in this one than was necessary. In the end, it was a solid victory for Kim.

- For a short moment, I thought A.J. Styles was saying that the TNA TV Title meant something to him and was important. Lucky for us, no one actually cares about that belt.

- The Jesse Sorensen video was really well done. It is my hope that he makes a full recovery. I hope we continue to get these videos discussing his recovery.

- Robbie E. actually looked serious going into his TV Title match with A.J. Styles. This could be a good way to push him and that little red toy belt at the same time. Of course, I strongly doubt that this will continue.

- With another dose of outside interference we saw this match end. There was just too much of this on this show. Why can’t TNA just decide not to tell the same story over and over? The writing team may have eliminated Vince Russo, but there are still major issues.

- James Storm finally got the opportunity to cut a big promo; sadly it was to promote Brandon Jacobs. This guy is one of the best in the business on the mic and it seems the only opportunity he is getting to show that is to promote a football player.

- Kurt Angle returned to the ring on Impact with nothing really being said about it. This is how you use one of your biggest stars?

- Since when can a running back do a chokeslam? That was an impressive table spot from Jacobs, but I would have rather seen something other than a chokeslam. Of course, that is one of the easiest moves to perfrom.

- Sting did a really nice job in the final segment of Impact. It was built well throughout the night and the pay off was nicely done. I don’t love the return to Joker-Sting, but it makes sense.

- Bobby Roode once again did a nice job in the closing segment of the show. The matchup with Sting is a logical one, even though I would rather see this time used to further heat up Roode and Storm for the cage match. Sting is a fantastic place-holder match for Roode.

- I sincerely hope that TNA plans to have Sting put over Roode very strong going into Lockdown. If Roode takes a loss before his championship defense in the cage, then TNA is making a major mistake. At this point, Roode and Storm needs to seem like a clash of titans, not a match with a foregone conclusion.

This episode of Impact Wrestling clipped along rather nicely. Sometimes it actually clipped too nicely. The show was fast. Nothing really got a lot of time and nothing but Sting and Brandon Jacobs got a lot of focus. With announcing a main event about two months out, TNA has put themselves in long-build mode and they have to deliver on that.

Slow down, tell a story just one time per night and remember the end goal TNA. If you do these things, you’re going to have a solid build to Lockdown. If you don’t then the change you’ve enacted behind the scenes will be worthless.

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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