What’s up guys? I’m TheCannon, brining you another review. This week we look at the February 27, 2015 edition of Impact Wrestling. TNA may be done in Glasgow, but the UK Tour continues as we go into Manchester. How would they do in the city? Let’s start the review and find out.
Before we start, I’d like to apologize for this review being a week late. But last week I was focused on other more important things and didn’t feel up to writing it. Throughout the rest of the week I was still focused on that, but I decided I wanted to talk about this show, so I’m writing this up now. Sorry for the inconvenience, but I can only write these when I have the time/want to.
Show starts with Kurt Angle coming out. Highlights from last week’s gauntlet is shown, even though they showed a video recapping the gauntlet before the show started. Angle says he’s not in the mood to wait, so he calls out Lashley. Lashley immediately comes out with the title belt around his waist. Did he just happen to be standing by the entrance ramp with the title belt on? The announcers keep talking about how Kurt & Lashley have never faced each other. Gee, I wonder what that’s setting up... Angle says that Lashley needs to respect the title he’s holding, and he came back from an ACL injury just to win the world title again. Angle basically turns into a whiny b*tch and complains about Lashley not helping him against the BDC last week in the gauntlet. Angle says that Angle vs Lashley would be a good match that everyone wants to see, but instead they’re getting Lashley vs MVP. I don’t want to see it. Angle says he’s not helping Lashley tonight and hopes he’s still the champ afterwards cause he’s coming for the belt. Just a reminder: Kurt’s a face.
After Kurt leaves, the Beat Down Clan comes out. Joe says that it’s good to take Kurt’s advice (“Good luck”), and a “You sold out” chant breaks out. Joe says that Lashley is the one who really sold out, since he owes his title win to MVP & the BDC. MVP grabs the mic and says some generic stuff about Lashley standing alone while the BDC is united like the 4 fingers he’s gonna use to punch and beat Lashley tonight. MVP’s gonna only use 4 fingers to punch Lashley? Why? Anyway, a really boring intro, but it did help build up the main event well, so I can’t complain too much. Did make Angle look bad though.
Match #1 - Ethan Carter III & Tyrus vs. Mr. Anderson & Rockstar Spud
EC3 pulls off pink so well. Tyrus is wearing a wool cap, which I chuckled at. Anderson does his usual self-announcing thing, and Spud grabs the mic and adds “and Rockstar Spud.” Crowd seemed to like it, but I really didn’t. Mandrews (that name will never stop being stupid & awkward) isn’t out with them for some reason. The match really wasn’t that great and didn’t stand out much. Finish makes no sense. Anderson low blows Tyrus and hits the mic check, allowing Spud to get the pin. Anderson & Spud are the faces. Why are they cheating to win?
Winners via pinfall: Mr. Anderson & Rockstar Spud
After commercial, EC3 is going nuts backstage and EC3 is yelling that he’s gonna shave Spud’s head tonight. I usually think EC3 does great in roles, but he didn’t look very angry in the face in that scene.
Taryn Terrell comes out. Taz, why are you impressed by her? I’m not. Taryn says that becoming Knockouts champ is a dream and something about the women in the back she respects. She then calls out Kong because... why not? First time I’ve heard her on the mic, and she’s just terrible. Gail Kim comes out and warns her not to face Kong because of how dangerous Kong is and how she’s taken years off Gail’s career. Taryn says that she wants this and needs to fight Kong. Gail then leaves and Taryn poses until the lights go out and Kong comes out. Now, Kong has been doing this for about 2 months now and everyone should be familiar with this bit by now. So why didn’t Taryn do something like roll out of the ring and try and to get in a position where Kong can’t see her when the lights come back on? It makes sense to me. Anyway, they brawl for a minute and Kong destroys her until posing with the title belt and leaves. Really meh scene. As much as I like Gail she isn’t great on the mic (at least as a face), Taryn was terrible, and the brawl with Kong was boring. I just really didn’t care about this scene. Highlight was Taryn’s hair, which despite looking a tad messy, I still thought looked pretty.
Generic backstage scene with the BDC talking about tonight. The end had someone yell and point at the door to get him (the cameraman) out of there. I love TNA’s cameramen, they can stand there and film whatever they want until someone randomly tells them to leave. Are they invisible for short periods of time?
Someone asks Aries’ thoughts on the main event, and Aries says he’s gonna keep an eye on it and says some stuff, also saying he thinks he has the perfect surprise ending, holding up his briefcase. Gee, that was the most subtle thing ever.
Match #2 - Robbie E & Angelina Love vs. Chris Melendez & Brooke Tessmacher
Zema does some f*cking awesome ring introductions. They need to hire him to do that job permanently; he’s infinitely superior to Christy Hemme & Socal Val. I hate Brooke’s entrance music; it’s just so bad. Also, remember, because this is important: This is a mixed tag team match, not an intergender tag team match! What’s the difference you ask? An intergender tag team match means it’s a male & female vs. a male & female under normal tag team rules. But a mixed tag team match means that you can only have man vs man & woman vs woman. If a man tag into his partner, then the other man much tag into the woman. Why have it a tag team match to begin with then? And why do they still have to tag in then when the partner should automatically become legal? The match was bad, but I didn’t expect much else. The finish made no sense with the established rules. Some nonsense happened (I already forget), and Robbie ends up pinning Brooke. But why was he allowed to do that if you can’t have man vs woman in the match? The whole thing was just stupid. Victory celebration for the Bro-Mans was really entertaining though, especially the “usie” with them all next to Brooke’s beaten body. Not much here outside of the Bro-Man’s entrance & celebration.
Winners via nonsense: Robbie E & Angelina Love
Backstage scene with EC3 entering Spud’s locker room, says “Hello Spud,” and takes out a razor. Great little cliffhanger before commercial, but unfortunately it becomes disappointing. When it comes back, Anderson is running backstage to get in there to stop EC3 from shaving Spud’s head and pulls him off, until Tyrus runs in and grabs EC3 to get him out of there. Spud had managed to grab a little piece of EC3's hair before he got away. Why wasn’t Tyrus standing outside the door to begin with? That would have made sense to make sure no one could have interrupted EC3 & Spud.
Gunner & Angle were backstage. Gunner asks Angle if he thinks his attitude towards Lashley & the BDC is the right move. To try and motivate Angle, Gunner decides to do what Angle did weeks ago and slaps him! I’ve said that needs to happen and it finally did! I would say TNA is stealing my ideas, but I don’t care!
Austin Aries comes out, and the crowd starts chanting “Aries.” He says that he has a first name; which I found funny. Aries says that everyone’s jockeying for power in TNA, but he has all the power in his hands. He asks what if tonight he decided to cash in at the right time and if tonight ended with “and your NEW TNA World Heavyweight Champion: Austin Aries”? Joe comes out. Joe says stuff, and says that with a snap of his fingers, he can have trained assassins in the ring beating him. Are they the ninjas that kidnaped him years ago!?! Aries says stuff about what happened to the Joe he used to know who didn’t know trained assassins, and Joe asks why doesn’t he just come in the ring and snap his neck himself. They end up beginning to brawl around the ring, meaning a match is gonna happen! As we learned last week with EY & Dreamer, brawling around ringside immediately means a match happens. And this isn’t a joke, a referee comes running down and we’re told Aries/Joe is gonna happen when we come back from commercial.
Match #3 - Austin Aries vs. Samoa Joe
An “Austin’s Gonna Kill You” chant breaks out. Really show you how things change. I remember back when anytime Joe came out or was mentioned there’d be a “Joe was gonna kill you” chant starting and he was arguably the most over guy in the company. I think Aries has taken that spot in recent years. Anyway, this was a pretty decent match, but I’ve seen better between the two. Still enjoyable though. Aries couldn’t hit the brainbuster for some reason, even though he’s hit it before on Joe with problem. Has Joe gotten fatter since? Some shenanigans almost happened with Kenny King, but Aries got rid of him. Aries hits a 450 Splash and gets the win. Again, decent & enjoyable match.
Winner via pinfall: Austin Aries
Afterwards the BDC (minus MVP) beat up Aries, puts him through a table, and take his briefcase. Apparently they don’t want Aries to cash in tonight. Aries should have seen something like this coming, so why reveal he might cash in to begin with?
Backstage scene with Lashley. Someone asks him about his chances tonight and he says no one has yet to go through him.... except Bobby Roode. But I guess he doesn’t want to bring that up. He’s then asked about Kurt Angle and says, “Kurt Angle? He’s bald! Looks ridiculous!” Not seriously, but I just thought that was more fun.
Backstage scene with MVP & Eric Young. MVP says some stuff about how great it is that EY got revenge on Roode, but he deserves more, so he suggests getting revenge on Lashley since he took him out. MVP mentions that what’s more important is Young doing what he wants. Pretty boring honestly, so I’m gonna rewrite it to be more entertaining.
EY: I can do anything I want. I could take out Crazzy Steve!
MVP: No Eric, that’s not what I’m talking about.
EY: I’m sick of him with that horn tooting.
MVP: Come on Eric, you gotta stay focused.
EY: I could take out Rellik for scaring me all those years ago! I don’t care if that’s killer spelled backwards!
MVP: Eric, he’s not even on the roster anymore.
EY: I’m gonna go find him!
Match #4 - Noam Dar vs. Rampage Brown
I know what you’re thinking: Who the f*ck are these people? Well from my understanding, they’re two British Bootcamp guys. I guess it’s cool that they’re getting some screen time, but I don’t see the point unless they’re signed to full contracts.
Less than a minute in, Bram comes out and attacks them both, resulting in a no contest. He grabs a mic and gives us some Bram goodness, and calls out Magnus. Grado comes out instead, and Bram beats him up too. Afterwards Bram just yells for Magnus to find him and walks off. Awesome scene. Reminds me of something I’d book in EWR. King of feel bad for Dar & Rampage since they just got thrown to the side for Bram, but Bram is awesome, so I don’t care.
Result via Bram Goodness: Draw
It’s announced that next week, The Wolves will face The Revolution for the Tag Titles. I would have liked a scene with them tonight to set up the match, but I do look forward to it.
Match #5 - No Disqualification match for TNA World Heavyweight Championship: Lashley (c) vs. MVP
Who made this a no DQ match? Seriously, who felt this was the best solution? It leads to the BDC hanging outside the ring. The ref ends up throwing them out. Why can he do that in a No DQ match? They later come back down anyway, so what was the point? The match was okay for what it was worth, but there was so much interference. Not as bad as that AJ Styles/Magnus match from a while back, but insane. There was interference from the BDC (Joe, King, & Low Ki) & Eric Young for MVP while Lashley had Gunner, Drew Galloway, & a returning Bobby Roode interfering for him. Fun thing is that I said why doesn’t Gunner come out, and then he immediately came out. And are they gonna actually do anything with Galloway, or he just gonna attack the BDC every week? It’s really hard to say much about him if that’s all he’s doing. Lashley ends up getting the win after a spear. It would have been cool if Angle had been standing on the entrance ramp watching Lashley just like last week, but that didn’t happen unfortunately.
Winner via pinfall: Lashley
Overall Impressions:
Overall this was a decent episode of Impact. Some fun stuff like Bram & Aries, but overall not much stands out. TNA seems to keep setting themselves up nicely for future stuff, and while they don’t do bad when we get there, they just seem to not produce anything amazing. But regardless there was some entertaining stuff on this show, and wasn’t much bad, so I can’t complain too much. And again, they got me excited for the next episode, so they did right there.
That’s it for the review. Feel free to tell me what you thought of the show or the review, and the review for tonight’s episode should be up much sooner. Again, I apologize for this being a week late. But, that’s it for now. I’m TheCannon, and I will see you guys later.
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