TNA Impact returned last night (December 9, 2015) with the Round of 8 of their World Title Series.
In this week's Impact preview, I speculated what TNA was going to do with all their free time in the show because four matches leaves a lot of time fill. I even left a poll for people to vote in and it looks like the majority was correct for voting for a lot of backstage filler. Because asides from the four announced matches, which I timed and put in the review below, there was nothing of significance asides a brief Dixie Carter interview that contained little worth tuning in for. There were a lot of video recaps concerning how they got where they are overall and how each individual wrestler got to this point in the tournament.. There were brief backstage interviews before and prior to the matches. But it was clearly filler.
A show that should have been an hour show stretched to two hours is never going to be good. Though if you have it on DVR, you can breeze through it.
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Bobby Lashley defeats Mahabali Shera via pinfall in 10 minutes 25 seconds
The match played out as follows: Shera came out strong but when he got Lashley in the corner and stepped on the first rope as if he were to deliver some punches, he danced instead. He was powerbombed for his stupidity and then Lashley beat the tar out of him through the commercial break and into the next segment. Shera was able to get the upper hand again towards the end. However, Lashley was still able to hit the spear after blocking Shera's Sky High Powerbomb for the win.
I've noticed that some of Shera's matches haven't been as sloppy as of late. Unfortunately, this was not one of those matches. I said in my preview that any match nearing 10 minutes is going to expose Shera. At 10 minutes & 25 seconds, this surely did. Most of the offense was clubbing blows and while Shera was on offense, he often looked like he was thinking about what move he should do next. Who knows when this match was taped, and it's most likely that the man has improved since this was filmed. But the fans aren't supposed to have to speculate that to debate how good the match was. This is a quarter-final match for the world title. A clunky match with a very green competitor is disappointing in this spot.
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Prior to the match between Eric Young and Tigre Uno starting, EY gets a microphone and tells Uno to get out of the ring because Tigre does not want to have to face him. After Tigre goes through the ropes, Young calls him a coward. Tigre then springboards off the top rope and hits EY to begin the match.
Eric Young defeats Tigre Uno via pinfall in 11 minutes 42 seconds.
I had higher hopes coming in this match but it never connected. The first ten minutes (which had a commercial break in between) was Eric Young getting almost 100% of the offense. There's something to be said about having a heel work over the face for awhile to get us excited for the come back. But there's a problem here: TNA has never given us any reason to care about Tigre Uno. Sure there was the time he called out Donald Trump but that was rather moronic of an angle.
Around the 10 minute mark, Tigre Uno started getting his offense in so the match picked up. But it wasn't enough to save the match. Plus, Eric Young's piledriver has seemed awkward in the pacing of the matches lately. Tonight, there was no real build to it. He just suddenly decided to use his piledriver and won.
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Matt Hardy defeated Jessie Godderz via pinfall in 17 minutes 22 seconds.
This was a long match (though it did contain what felt like a very long commercial break) and probably 5 minutes longer than a Godderz/Hardy match should be. But it still really picked up the latter half and ended up being. Jessie Godderz, despite getting beaten 90% of the match against Awesome Kong last week, looked really good last night. And they've done a good enough job with it that it wasn't completely ridiculous that he had a really good showing.
I appreciated that while he had a bear hug on the mat against Hardy, Godderz sneaked his foot on the ropes for leverage a couple of times. That's a small thing to do to get heat during a rest hold to keep the audience engaged during the slow build to the end.
I hope there's a spot for the young midcarders when TNA moves to Pop and can film full shows again. Guys like Jessie Godderz, Eli Drake, and Robbie E can be very entertaining and I hope they get a chance to show it.
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Dixie Carter has a sit down interview with Josh Matthews
They begin with a recap of the year. Dixie discusses Drew Galloway's debut and talks him up. Then it turns to her relationship with her nephew Ethan Carter. She says she still believes in him and he's family but he's going to need to get over his entitlement. Then she goes on to discuss how she respects what Matt Hardy did for the title by relinquishing it. Dixie talks about the Series and says if EC3 wins it, it'll be because he deserves it and same for Matt.
The big announcement is that the semi finals and finals will be on their live show on PopTV on January 5th.
Most of this interview was skippable. I found it funny that she mentions that both Matt and EC3 would be deserving for the title but neglected to mention Eric Young or Lashely, who are still in the tournament, which pretty much telegraphs what could be an obvious final match.
The semis and the finals on the live show makes sense, and it means all those rumors regarding who won at the tapings can be thrown out. Even if that was the plan, it is now a decision that can still be very up in the air. But of course, that means there are three more weeks of TNA on Destination America and those are going to be some bleak shows.
They already announced that there will be matches next week containing random mix ups of the past Series groups. If it proves to be as insignificant as it sounds, it may end up being my last TNA review (since I don't have Pop to review them in January.) Though if TNA only announces two meaningless matches for next week, I may call it after this one.
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Prior to his match with Davey Richards, Ethan Carter gets a microphone and says that this is the round when they separate the men from the boys or Wolves from winners. Davey says that he may not have what EC3 has but he has the Wolves Nation behind him.
Ethan Carter defeats Davey Richards via pinfall in 16 minutes 38 seconds
Predictably, this was by far the best match on the show. Carter worked his size advantage early, but he was never going to keep Richards down forever. And when Davey gets going, he is a sight to behold. I know many people dislike him for various reasons but I am a fan of his work and really enjoy watching him. He matched up with Carter well, who when things got quick, kept up admirably. Despite having a very predictable ending, this was easily the best match tonight.
The fact that Carter can put on a good match with guys with all different styles and he's loaded with charisma really means they should put the title back on him when they debut on PopTV. It would also be a good statement to new people watching that they are going to go with youth and not guys whose prime was a decade ago. However, my money is still on Matt Hardy winning it all because that's what the story dictates.
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Pros of the Show:
Carter vs. Richards was a fun match
Jessie Godderz is really coming along
Cons of the Show:
Just two good matches and four total in two hours?
Shera came off as super green in his match
Eric Young and Tigre Uno didn't click
Since I am reviewing this for someone who sat down at the beginning live and sat through a bunch of filler and some clunky matches just for two pretty good matches, this was a bad show. If you watched it on your DVR (lucky you) it wouldn't have been that bad.
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