Here is every TNA Impact of 2016 graded

TNA Impact tonight is going to be a Best of 2016. So what better time to look back at how each individual episode stood up by looking at the individual Impact grades. There are a few gaps here and there as their switch to Pop TV required me to get creative with viewing until switching cable providers.

Jan. 12: B- (One More for the Road)

Jan. 19: A- (The Double Turn)

Jan. 26: C (A Means to an End)

Feb. 2: C (All Hail the First Lady)

Feb. 9: B (Shades of Gray)

Mar 1: C+ (An Unfair Advantage)

Mar. 8: C+ (The End of the Road)

Mar. 15: B+ (Shake It Up)

Mar. 22: A (Opportunity Breeds Competition)

Mar. 29: C (An Inconsistent Turn)

Apr. 5: B- (A Dish Best Served Cold)

Apr. 12: B- (A Limited Vocabulary)

Apr. 19: B (Death From Above)

May 4: B- (In the Eye of the Beholder)

May 10: B+ (Demons from the Past)

May 17: D+ (The end of an ICON)

May 24: C+ (Playing a Rigged Game)

June 7: B+ (The Finishing Touches)

June 14: B (MAKE IT POP!)

June 21: B (The Seven Deities Can’t Help You Now)

June 28: C+ (An Interactive World)

July 5: A (DELETE! DELETE! DELETE!)

July 12: C (Moose!)

July 21: B (Don’t Talk About Playoffs)

July 28: B+ (Rosemary Year One)

Aug. 4: B (All the Titles)

Aug. 11: B- (The Level Playing Field)

Aug. 18: C (Treading Water)

Aug. 25: B (Allie Bomb!)

Sept. 1: B- (Bound for Deletion)

Sept. 8: No Grade (DELETE OR DECAY - a Vidence reviewed episode)

Sept. 15: C- (An Unwelcome Diversion)

Sept. 22: C+ (A Grand Grudge)

Sept. 29: B- (Onto Bound for Glory... hopefully)

Oct. 6: C (Hot Shot)

Oct. 13: C (Rushing Along)

Oct. 20: B- (Slow Down)

Oct. 27: B (Family Feud)

Nov. 3: C- (Fallen)

Nov. 10: A- (Unmasked)

Nov. 17: C- (Holding Pattern)

Nov. 24: C+ (Silence)

Dec. 1: B- (The Demon Assassin)

Dec. 8: C (No Contest)

Dec. 15: B- (Broken Hardy’s Opus)

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Here’s the break down:

As: 4
Bs: 22
Cs: 17
Ds: 1

So what do we make of this?

I think the big takeaway is that TNA had a consistently above average year. I look at anything in the B range as a good show and most of the grades were Bs. I grade a show in the C range when they are average or mediocre. However, when it comes to how I grade, the pluses and minuses of the C range hold some weight. A C+ was a show that had its moments but wasn’t there as a whole. A C- show had only a segment or two worth watching. To Impact’s credit, there were twice as many C+s (6) as C-s (3).

Looking back over the grades also gave me a bit of insight on how I grade things. Clearly, I’m not one to grade on the extremes, giving only 4 As and 1 D (with 0 Fs). Other people may have used the entire A-F scale more liberally. Instead, I use the plus/minus scale to help differentiate shows and save the extremes for shows that really earn them.

But it also illustrates that while they were very consistent this year, which is a good thing, they didn’t hit a ton of home runs. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing though as consistent is almost more important than random great shows surrounded by subpar offerings.

If you pay attention to the grade trends, you can see that the episodes of the Big Money Matt Hardy champion era, which was the beginning of the year, were rather mediocre (although I loved that character.) However, headed into Slammiversary (which was June 12) and then into the summer, which was the genesis of Broken Matt and the Final Deletion, TNA did its best. And it wasn’t just Broken Matt carrying those summer episodes. Lashley was on fire and the Knockouts started focusing a bit more on Maria and Allie.

However, the grades trail a bit heading into Bound for Glory (Oct. 2) because I felt they focused too much on building Moose at the expense of building EC3, who was the actual number one contender.

It’s a mixed bag coming out of Bound for Glory. They suddenly hot shotted the TNA title from Lashley to Eddie Edwards, derailing a great Bobby Lashley story. From there on, things were hit or miss with no real tight stories developing outside Broken Matt’s amnesia and Allie’s continued feud with Maria.

Overall, it was a consistent year for TNA, settling in at above average, which is good for a wrestling show. Of course, these grades just represent one man’s opinion. What did you all think of Impact in 2016?