1/30 Impact: Entertaining from top to bottom


The Final Impact
January 31, 2015
By: Josh Boutwell of WrestleView.com

Impact has been very inconsistent since returning and that kind of continued last night, after a pretty bad week last week this week’s was much, much better. It was entertaining from top to bottom, which is a good thing obviously and we can hope that the consistency returns.

The opening with Lashley and the three title contenders was solid and I know some will think it makes Lashley look dumb for accepting a title match with three top guys, but I think it just makes him look like the strong, defending babyface champion that will face anybody, anytime which is what they are trying to go for with this title reign. Lashley still continues to say little which is for the better but it just doesn’t work as well when he doesn’t have a mouthpiece like he had with MVP. MVP was part of why Lashley’s heel run was so good last year. He really needs a babyface manager but I couldn’t even start to think of who that could possibly be at this point. The manager is a lost art in wrestling these days and even the top managers in wrestling right now are almost exclusively heel (think Zeb Colter, Paul Heyman, Lana, etc.). I can’t even think of a babyface manager off the top of my head.

Solid Knockouts Match between Terrell, Gail, and Madison; those are three of the top in-ring workers in TNA as far as the women go and they didn’t disappoint. It was primarily done to make Terrell look strong but I’m a bit confused as far as where they are going to go with her. A feud with Kong would be the obvious thing but Kong is busy with Havok right now, and Gail Kim is waiting in the wings for yet another feud with Kong. Is Kong a babyface or a heel or just a tweener monster? Too many questions left to be answered.

The stuff with Magnus and Bram has been complicated from the beginning and I actually like the dynamic those two have, it looks like that dynamic has become a full blown feud now with Bram absolutely losing his mind. I love the Bram character and I think TNA does too which is a great thing. This guy’s intensity is on another level from everyone else in TNA.

There were way too many run ins in the Monsters Ball but it was fun as hell regardless and a great brawl. Abyss and Jeff Hardy have had tons of great garbage style matches, especially in Jeff’s first run in TNA back in the early 2000’s. This was right up there in terms of entertainment, the Cage Match next week should be really fun between Revolution and the Hardyz.

Spud seems to be showing more and more of his in-ring ability every single week and I really dig Mark Andrews so far too. They are a pretty fun little X-Division style high flying, fast paced tag team that could be good. Tyrus and EC3 against those two could be a good little series of matches, but it really looks like TNA is trying to protect EC3 by having Tyrus do all the matches. EC3’s injury must not be close to being healed yet.

The Main Event was really fun with everyone working hard and going hard. Lashley looks strong as hell still and really everyone looked good in that match. I also like that they aren’t attempting to make Lashley look like Mr. All American guy saving the other heroes as he turned his back on Team Angle for next, but then again that could all change. He’s doing the lone wolf thing right now and it really works for him though he still needs a manager like I said.

Lockdown has been the PPV I look forward to all year ever since TNA did the first one so I hate that it has been switched to just a special Impact, primarily because there can only be four matches or so but I’m still really looking forward to next week.

– Segment/Promo of the Night: Bram attacking Magnus/opening segment
– Match of the Night: Fatal 4-Way (***1/2)
– Overall Grade: B

Until next week… PEACE!

Follow me on Twitter: @BamaBoyJosh

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