TNA Impact returned to Spike TV last night (Aug. 8, 2013) from Wichita Falls, Texas, featuring the go home show the Hardcore Justice event next week in Norfolk. Not much happened and it wasn't a very good show, we might as well get that out of the way early.
Click here to get full results and to check out the live blog. Now let's get right to reactions:
- I don't know why this stuck out to me but Brooke Hogan, in all her glory, looked significantly bigger than Chris Sabin, the TNA heavyweight champion. To make matters worse, she was out there in high heels. Being small is not a bad thing, unless you're trying to make me buy into a guy as a heavyweight champion. Sabin is good at what he does, sure, and Hogan is a gigantic woman, but with Bully Ray also in the ring it made the champion look downright diminutive. Not a good look, at least not for me.
- Plus, the booking of this is so obviously building towards Sabin losing the belt back to Ray at Hardcore Justice next week. I'm not entirely sure what the point of his title reign was if that's the case. To keep the X Division title stipulation at Destination X a big deal? I suppose that makes sense enough, and a hot potato title won't make much of a difference with a company like this anyway.
- Oh and last word on Sabin: The benefit of hindsight made him look like the biggest geek in history when he plotted with Sting and Kurt Angle, asking for their trust with this big plan he had for the main event. What did the big plan end up being? He walked out with Sting long enough to distract Ray and Devon so Angle could sneak up from behind and get the upper hand with a sneak attack. That's the big plan that required the two to "really trust" Sabin. This was so stupid.
- Hey, at least that main event match was put together well after that nonsense and everyone worked hard to get it over. It was fun, if nothing else.
- I love Bobby Roode, I love Christopher Daniels, and I love Kazarian. I really like the idea of the three of them just randomly showing up in Bound for Glory Series matches to get guy's disqualified to cost them 10 points. I mean, yeah, the entire concept behind that is beyond ridiculous but it's pro wrestling, so the logic is goofy enough already. It's all a stretch, so why not enjoy three awesome characters working in tandem to fuck the system?
- Give me Jeremy Borash over Mike Tenay every day of the week.
- I don't mind Bro Mans and think they're actually mildly entertaining, especially Robbie E, but I don't want to see Mickie James associating herself with these two mid-card jobber clowns. She's so far above their level it just makes her look much worse for having been in a team with them.
- Also, Gunner and James Storm are just dying that slow death as tag champs, aren't they?
- Samoa Joe couldn't have been made to look any stupider than they had him look here. He's in the middle of wrestling Jeff Hardy, a formidable foe indeed, when Mr. Anderson, who is inexplicably on commentary alongside Taz and Borash, just randomly stands up. He didn't move toward the ring, he didn't frantically wave his hands, he didn't even feign jumping the ring, he just stood up from his chair and this was enough of a distraction for Hardy to get the pin on. I just can't even.
- I wrote about how I felt about Tito Ortiz's promo here.
Normally, Impact can rely on good to great wrestling to get by on when the show is filled with lame segments, pre-tapes, and interviews, but this one didn't even have that.
Grade: D
That's it from me, Cagesiders. Now it's your turn to sound off with all your thoughts on last night's show in the comment section below.