Pruett's Pause: TNA Impact Wrestling - Kurt Angle vs. Samoa Joe, Bobby Roode celebrates his TNA Championship retention, Hulk Hogan makes the match for Open Fight Night, solid action and story-telling highlight a good show
May 18, 2012 - 04:47 PM |
By Will Pruett
- The opening segment of Impact was pretty great. Bobby Roode's promo was right on the money. Hulk Hogan played the babyface authority figure well. The interaction between them was solid. I don't love how Hogan got under Roode's skin again, but in this moment, it works.
- I love the challenge in front of Bobby Roode on his quest to become he longest reigning TNA World Champion. It makes next week's Impact episode feel extremely important. This is one of the few times lately that TNA made an episode of Impact feel like a major happening.
- Next week's Open Fight Night was extremely well built. This should be a very exciting couple hours of TNA programming. My only question is why TNA did not wait until they were doing their first live show to have Open Fight Night.
- Finally, TNA makes Open Fight Night make sense by showing that the entire roster is gunning for Bobby Roode. This was missing last month and needed to be addressed.
- Will the four men who qualify for Open Fight Night be fighting in a four-way match, or will they be chosen by bad game show host Hulk Hogan?
- Rob Van Dam sold the injuries from the Ladder Match pretty well and they played into the finish of his match with Bully Ray expertly. Bully Ray going into the top four for next week's Open Fight Night makes sense, since you have to have a heel in that mix.
- I'm quite interested in Bully Ray and Joseph Park/Abyss, but I would like this story to move a little quicker. At this moment, it feels like they are trying to stretch it out a little too much.
- King Mo signing with TNA will be fantastic for the company, unless he happens to get knocked out in his first MMA fight. That would be disappointing and is the major risk TNA is taking with him.
- Madison Rayne's mystery man better not be Garett Bischoff.
- The Battle Royal was a pretty entertaining match. It is hard not to make these kick and punch festivals of boredom and TNA rose to the challenge. Gunner, A.J. Styles, and Austin Aries all performed extremely well in this one.
- After what we saw from Styles and Aries in the final three, I expect to see those two main event Destination X. That would be a great, fresh match from TNA. It would also be one of the closest matches they have to a dream match.
- For my money, I would have put Austin Aries in the main event next week against Bobby Roode. Roode could beat him clean, but allow Aries to hold his own. In that situation, a star gets over by hanging with the champion.
- The subsequent promo between Kazarian, Christopher Daniels, and Styles was entertaining, but I still dislike the involvement of Dixie Carter in this story. I understand where they seem to want to go, but it could be counterproductive in the long run.
- I really enjoyed the videos and segments recapping the Kurt Angle and Samoe Joe rivalry in TNA. It was one of the best in company history and enormously entertaining. Revisiting that on this show was a joy.
- Imagine what we would see if Samoa Joe was as motivated, in shape, and well pushed as he was in those recaps with Kurt Angle. I don't know what factor keeps creative from pushing him, but he is worth far more to TNA than they tend to use him for.
- Why did everyone on this episode of Impact have iPads? Are we going to find out Dave Lagana is behind the push for iPads the same way he is for Twitter?
- The Christopher Daniels vs. Samoa Joe vs. A.J. Styles three-way match from Unbreakable 2005 was absolutely amazing. It may have been the best match in TNA history and is definitely one of the top three three-way matches in history.
- I still don't know what the Jeff Hardy vs. Ken Anderson feud is about.
- If there are title matches on Impact every week, what makes Open Fight Night and pay-per-views special?
- Gail Kim had a clumsy match with Velvet Sky and Brooke Tessmacher. After her performance on Sunday, I would say this was not Tessmacher's fault. Sky is bad in the ring.
- Can at least one commentator not be a pervert during Knockout's matches? I'm seriously grossed out by Mike Tenay and Taz.
- Kurt Angle and Samoa Joe had twelve minutes to give a sample of what they can do five years after the peak of their feud. There was nothing wrong with the match, but my hopes were very high going in. Neither man is as good as they were then and there was less on the line, so I shouldn't be disappointed.
- This match did focus on Joe as a monster with tons of power offense. That would be a nice transition in his wrestling style and his current look does not exactly promote him as a quick moving big man.
- The final moments of the show pointed towards next week extremely well. The four contenders showing up in the arena made Roode seem threatened and surrounded.
- Why does Hogan choose who faces Roode? Would anyone rather see Hulk Hogan make a choice than actually see a decent four-way match? Why not make it a tournament over the course of the night? TNA has plenty of options here and they are going with the one that makes Hogan look better than all of the talent on their roster.
This was a very good episode of Impact Wrestling. It didn't feel like a rehash of they pay-per-view or like a waste of time. Instead, it pointed back at Sacrifice, continued story-lines logically, and hyped next week's Open Fight Night very well. This is the kind of show that TNA should strive for coming out of a pay-per-view.
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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