Bully! Hardy! Aces & 8s! Hulk! Brooke! Betrayal! The Beginning of the End? TNA World Heavyweight Championship!

Well it finally seems TNA has decided to do something with the damned masked group.

On Sunday at Lockdown (March 10), Jeff Hardy and Bully Ray squared off in steel cage for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship. After about fifteen minutes, Aces & 8s decided to enter the cage and interrupt the match. It looked like our two heroes were outnumbered.

But what's this? Devon is handing Bully a ball peen hammer? And now Bully is popping Hardy in the dome? Ah, it seems the NEW TNA World Heavyweight Champion was ALWAYS the President of Aces and 8s.

Which... ugh.

I understand that this was the inevitable conclusion. Bully will forever be drawn towards heel work. His and Brook Hogan's marriage was doomed to fail by the simple nature of occurring in a pro wrestling ring. Aces & 8s would forever be considered a job squad until they acquired the promotion's highest title into their ranks.

I'm sorry, though. I'm not going to pretend to be excited about the worst storyline in pro wrestling becoming marginally better.

I'm supposed to believe that since Aces & 8s first debuted on June 14, 2012, Bully Ray has been both leading the masked group and the charge against it? That he was coordinating attacks against members of the TNA roster while wooing Brooke's heart? That for over eight months, there was this large conspiracy chugging along until the precise moment when Bully was in position to win the championship?

I'll put up with a lot of crap in my pro wrestling, but that is really pushing it.

I know one should never start poking holes in pro wrestling storylines, but it's pretty damn hard not to with this piece of crap. Eight months. Eight months of nothing. No, eight months of worse than nothing. At least nothing would have been ignorable.

This has been excruciatingly bad.

Running around and taking roster members at random while losing actual matches left and right. A group without any sense of direction whatsoever, they just seem content to come in and mess up good things. Hell, Devon has held the Television Championship for almost a 100 days, but how many times has he defended it? Thrice?

I just want them all to go away.

Even if I buy the fact that this eight month plan was put together from the very beginning -- and isn't the result of some reverse booking -- I'm supposed to sit by without comment when Bully burns bridges with his wife and father-in-law? That he had the General Manager of Impact Wrestling eating out of the palm of his hand, and he let that go for a freaking title?

Immortal already showed the path here, Bully. Dixie Carter is not that difficult to control when you get close enough. Aces & 8s could have taken over the entire show, and instead settled for a piece of plastic gold.

The least Bully could have done was bring Brooke to the dark side with him. She probably looks good in leather.

I can't even be happy for Bully winning his first heavyweight championship. The man has been through far too much in the business to suffer through this. Yes, championships are props and all that. But they still mean something to the guys raising them. It's about the respect the promotion has given you. It's about the faith the company has with you as the lead guy. By placing Bully at the head of Aces & 8s, TNA has doomed Bully to a forgettable and unfortunate run as champion.

I just think the man deserves better than that.

So this will be our show for the next...(checks calendar)...three, maybe five months. The nature of the reduced pay-per-view (PPV) schedule means there is less opportunity for this to come to an end. Slammiversary XI goes down June 2. Bound For Glory is sometime in October. This angle is looking like it is going to last for over a year.

A full. Damn. Year. Of. Crap.

I hate it. I'm not going to pretend I don't. I'm not going to sit here and lie to you, Cagesiders, and pretend there is any saving grace in any of this.

This is what happens when idiots book pro wrestling shows.

Everything Else! Bullet Points!

• TNA Impact goes on the road to Chicago tonight! As much as I love the Impact Zone -- NAWT! -- it's nice to see a new set of audience members not give a crap about what is going on.
• AJ Styles makes his return to TNA! What has been with his erratic behavior and, more importantly, is he keeping the scruffy beard?
• TNA Knockout Referee Taryn Terrell got into a shoving match with Gail Kim at Lockdown, followed by a quick count that gave Velvet Sky the victory. Look at the ladies getting their own stupid referee angle!

Hopefully, this has prepared you for the night's festivities. Leave a comment below about what you are looking forward to, and please join the entire CSS Thursday night gang in the live blog TONIGHT!