The Final Impact
August 9, 2013
By: Josh Boutwell of Wrestleview.com
This week’s Impact just felt flat, that’s the only way I can really describe it. Really everything from the promos to the matches, with one exception which I will get to later.
The opening segment was just that, flat. Neither Bully nor Sabin were very interesting and the way they got to Bully agreeing to the match stipulation for Hardcore Justice was really lazy.
None of the matches last night were very good. Joe/Hardy was okay with some cool mat wrestling but it really never got out of first gear for whatever reason. Anderson/Magnus was really in the same way, it just never really got going good. The 6-person tag was too short and the Knockouts barely even got involved. The best thing about that match (other than Mickie James once again in those short shorts) was the reaction Jesse had to getting Superkick, that was priceless.
Now to the exception, I loved everything about Bobby Roode & Bad Influence last night. First off, the story they’re telling with Roode right now is really fun. Getting the points leader DQ’d just to drag his points down fits right in with that “leader of the selfish generation” motto he had, just perfect. The way they sold the Bad Influence arguments was great, they even went as far as to wearing their singles gear in the ring. The match was actually really fun to with a ton of great reversals and chain wrestling before the draw.
The Bobby Roode and Bad Influence combination is Fortune without AJ but it doesn’t feel like Fortune which feels really unique to me. I really hope they come up with a different name from them instead of just calling all three Bad Influence or just rehashing the Fortune name. Gamechangers came to mind after Roode’s promo but I don’t know how well that would work. Roode’s promo was excellent and I really want to see where this goes. Could be interesting to see Aries get involved with this stable in the future.
Tito Ortiz’s angle was boring, I really have nothing else to say about it.
The Main Event was by far the best match on the card and they had a fun old school tag team match. Angle being an idiot and getting a DUI last week may throw a monkey wrench in a lot of things including the 10-Man Tag next week, but honestly if this going to rehab works for him and gets him better from not doing stupid things like that I’m all for it. I know there are a lot of people that want him fired especially since this isn’t his first offense, but I’m not one of those. If it happens again then yes even I wouldn’t be able to overlook it and it would be time to move on, but personally I’m not ready to throw the towel in on Kurt.
Big letdown this week after several really positive shows but hopefully Hardcore Justice will bounce back. The Ladder Match has the chance to steal the show but I don’t know how good of an idea it is to put Hardy in that match. He seems like he’s been working through a hip or leg injury for awhile and everyone knows that he feels like it’s an obligation for him to do at least one massively dangerous spot in a Ladder Match. Hopefully for his sake someone in TNA pulls him aside and squashes that before he even thinks about it IF he is working through an injury like I’ve been suspecting.
– Promo/Segment of the Night: Roode/Bad Influence
– Match of the Night: Sabin/Angle vs. 3D (***)
– Overall Grade: C
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