TNA Impact results, review, & video (Apr. 13, 2017): End of an Error

TNA Impact returned last night (Apr. 13) with the final episode from the first set of tapings of the Jarrett & Co. regime. You can find all of the results at the live blog here.

End of an Error

Jeremy Borash’s four man team defeated Josh Mathews’ four man team, leading to Mathews leaving the announce booth.

And it was tough to muster up any energy to care about it at all.

The match itself was OK, but nothing worth tuning in for if you missed it. It was 20 minutes (which was too long) of mostly plodding action, with your typical “everyone hits their finish” end of the match. But even if the match were bonkers, the story was never going to hold up its end of the bargain.

Remember, this main event match was based on six weeks (SIX!) of Jeremy Borash and Josh Mathews bickering with each other instead of calling in ring action. The story was about how two men actively ruined Impact for weeks didn’t like each other. Terrible stories don’t lead to rewarding payoffs.

Jeremy Borash is a pretty good play by play guy and coming into this all, I liked him. But this feud with Mathews turned me on him as well. After the last six weeks, I’d be cool never hearing either of them call a match again. So if that was the result TNA was looking for, congrats, y’all got it done.

Of course, to build up to the match, Jeremy and Josh argued over the rest of the show. There was 10 minutes that Josh left to take care of business, but don’t worry, he was back soon so they could continue to distract us from all of the wrestling.

It was almost poetic that during the main event itself, instead of standing in the corner of their respective teams, they both called the match. If you’re going to actively ruin the watching experience for six weeks, may as well see it through to the end. Now Josh is out, but what’s left in the wake of this story? Borash looks worse and for six week’s Impact was less watchable. Great job!

Well at least it’s over. And both announcers, TNA, and all the fans who endured it are worse off for it.

An Inconsistent Mess

Both the world title story and the EC3 eventual heel turn have not been well told stories at all. There’s been no solid narrative or consistent thread from week to week. There hasn’t been logical progression. It’s all over the place and therefore fans have had nothing to attach on to. Frankly, it’s been an inconsistent mess.

To get an idea, here’s a recap of the last six weeks of the TNA title picture:

• Alberto El Patron defeats Bobby Lashley (using the TNA title) to with the championship.
• El Patron relinquishes it at request for management due to the controversial nature of the win.
• Patron defeats EC3 in a #1 contenders match after Carter randomly decided to get a steel chair instead of pinning a knocked out Alberto, thinks better of using the weapon, and loses because of it.
• EC3 interrupts Karen Jarrett and pretty much tells her he doesn’t want anything to do with her.
• After apologizing to Karen, James Storm comes out and makes a claim to the title. EC3 at first is reluctant but then wants the fans to decide. If they want Storm, fine.
• TNA runs a fan poll where fans can decide between Matt Morgan, James Storm and EC3 to choose who faces Lashley next week. Storm wins. EC3 is pissed.

It’s been a month and a half and we still have no idea how title matches are decided around here. Alberto was just handed his title match on the first week, but after he was forced to relinquish it in the most ridiculous decision possible, management said it was up to Lashley if he’d grant El Patron a second match. (Though it wasn’t up to Lashley the first week, just the second.)

That #1 contenders match had zero bearing because we haven’t heard anything about Alberto getting his rematch that he earned by defeating Carter. In fact, Alberto wasn’t even part of the damned fan poll but EC3 was. James Storm won the poll, despite sliding into the story in the middle of everything. And the third member of the fan poll was Matt Morgan, who hadn’t even had a match yet. Is Alberto even in the title picture any more?

And let’s talk about that poll for a moment because it’s not something we should gloss over. This poll was run last week on the TNA website, but remember that these shows were taped over a moth ago. Meaning that Bruce Pritchard announced the winners of last week’s poll six weeks ago! Never mind the fact that a fan poll gimmick is lazy in general, but this is an obviously rigged one given the results were announced months before fans could bother voting. Instead of coming up with a more clever way to get where they wanted, they just did the poll gimmick anyway despite all of us knowing that it was pointless. C’mon, TNA. Can you at least pretend to try?

Carter’s heel turn has been erratic as well with him jumping back and forth from being angry to being nice with little rhyme or reason. And some of that can be him starting to crack, but it’s not a natural decline. The fact that it’s tied into the rough championship narrative is likely significantly hindering it.

It’s just all a mess, and not an entertaining mess either.

Sienna’s Band of Big Boring Men

Allie and Braxton Sutter defeated Sienna and her cousin KM tonight. Allie won the match when Sienna caught her crossbody off the top but tripped over KM. Allie landed on top of Sienna for the winning cover. This type of stuff was fun when they were originally telling the story, but that was when they had Maria and more consistent storytelling. This finish just came out as another dumb part of Impact.

After the match, a big man named Kongo Kong came out and beat up Braxton Sutter. Later Laurel Van Ness came out and beat up Allie.

Now Sienna has a stable of KM and Kongo Kong. I don’t mind the idea of Sienna having a stable, but couldn’t it be a stable of interesting people? Now Kong just debuted so we can give him some time, though he surely didn’t turn any heads on his debut. But we’ve met KM already and he is just a big boring dude. He hasn’t shown any charisma on the mic or in the ring. It’s early on and he could always find his niche as part of this stable, but for now, it’s a pretty lackluster group outside Sienna.

Not Finished Yet

Davey Richards defeated DJ Z with an ankle lock last night. It was a good match, though weird to see DJ Z wrestling when we know that since then, he sustained a severe injury and needed emergency colon surgery. (Luckily, things went as best as they could.)

Post match, Eddie Edwards tried to run out with a slew of security attempting to stop him. However, his wife Alisha was able to make it past security and attack Angelina in the ring. Davey tried to go out after his former brother but the security stopped him too, leaving the two men held back by a ton of security.

It was a fun segment. Last week’s brutal, but enjoyable, Last Man Standing match breathed life into the feud. This post match angle was done well and I look forward to seeing where this goes next.

All the Rest

Tag Team Action

Reno Scum won a triple threat tag match against Laredo Kid/Garza Jr. and Decay. The end was Scum’s Luster the Legend hitting a running Razor’s Edge to Crazzy Steve into Garza Jr, who was in the Tree of Woe. Then Steve took the Reno Scum stomp double finish.

Likely it’ll be Reno Scum vs. LAX as their first title program. Not a bad choice. Reno Scum are an intriguing team with a unique look.

Everett’s Journey

Andrew Everett overcame another hurdle this week on his way to facing Trevor Lee, winning a fatal 4-way. Gregory Shane Helms was one of the men in this match but wasn’t involved often. He would slide in to try something and when it didn’t work, he’d slide back out. We got a moment of Everett taking it to the former Hurricane but it was brief. Helms wasn’t involved in the finish, which was Everett hitting a Shooting Star Press to Marshe Rockett.

After the match, X Division champion Trevor Lee and Helms attacked Andrew Everett. It looks like that title match is coming soon.

Knockouts

Rosemary defeated Santana Garrett in a fun match. Garrett got a chance to show off before the champ got the win. Nothing much to say here. It’d be nice to see Garrett on TV more often somewhere.

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Pros of the Show:

• The Wolves post match angle was good
• Santana Garrett and Rosemary had a fun match

Cons of the Show:

• Commentary still talked over most of tonight
• Main event was an average match and in itself was the payoff of a terrible story
• The title scene and EC3’s actions are inconsistent
• Sienna’s lackluster stable

The few good parts of this show were brief. The majority was dedicated to that terrible Borash/Mathews feud. They continued to talk over all the matches and the main event was average.

Overall, a pretty bad first set of tapings for the new Impact regime. Maybe next time.

Grade: D-

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