Impact (5/22/2008)

[BorneAgain 0]

I'm digging Booker as this cocky heel, it really works.

 

I think I heard a little King Booker accent, and could he be bringing King Booker back, if he wins King of the Mountain?

Well, with Regal suspended, its not as if anyone else is using the King gimmick.

[HollywoodSpikeJenkins 0]

Yay, AJ finally threw the crown away.

[The Ghost of bps21 0]

I hate to make this statement because I know it's just going to be later replied to by all the usual suspects going off the very basic topic I'm about to lay out:

 

Here's a positive about TNA:

 

Joe is the champion and they have Nash slowly burning in his corner, Booker T ready to get the top spot he believes he deserves and we all forsee Sting sitting in the pipeline down the road. AJ is finally moving on up to pair with Angle, both of whom are ready at any moment to main event with Joe. And Christian can cycle back up top at any time they want. Meanwhile, Roode is already staring down his first ppv main event, and at least one of Tomko, Rhino and Storm will be joining him. And Abyss is coming back.

 

There's no shortage of guys at the top of the card right now.

 

If they could just get the X division in order and push the Guns towards LAX they'd really have something. The Knockouts are still taking care of their own.

[The Ghost of bps21 0]

Slick Johnson needs to start dressing like a real ref. That storyline ended about a year and a half ago.

[RedJed 0]

Damn, Styles is bleeding a gusher.

 

Great turn on Styles from Angle there too. The storyline played out well throughout the show relating to Karen, Kurt, AJ, and Tomko. Karen called for help, out came Angle to apparently help Styles, and then KOs AJ. Builds some strong sympathy for both AJ and Karen.

 

Strong ending to the show for sure.

[The Ghost of bps21 0]

I am so glad that AJ is finally out from the Angle alliance grouping.

 

What's more I'm glad that they had him stand up for himself before the group destroyed him. That helps in avoiding what happened to Randy Orton with Evolution years ago. Where he was a face...just because his friends decided to beat him up. AJ stood up...and that's what he gets for it.

[RedJed 0]

Yeah, if that Tomko/Styles segment wouldnt have been booked on the show, the ending would have been a little less effective. Styles completely stood up for himself (finally!) and turned off the goofy passive character he's been doing, going more back to the old babyface AJ Styles who was still definately cocky, but more confident versus arrogant.

[BorneAgain 0]

I did like that it appeared Kurt was coming to AJ's defense, but seeing Karen trying to comfort Styles combined with egging on by the likes of Bubba Ray and D-Von just drove him over the edge.

[The Ghost of bps21 0]

now we'll see how they follow it.

 

Perfect world: They have a Styles interview via sattelite from his home where he defiently announces that he'll be at Slammiversary to kick someones ass.

 

What they usually do: He'll be in a match with someone next week.

[BorneAgain 0]

Hopefully with the rotation of guys who weren't on this week (Christian, Rhino, Storm, MCMG, the X-Dvision, etc) they'll be enough people on the next show to keep AJ off.

[AlaskanHero 0]

I wasn't really paying full attention to the show, but I really enjoyed this episode of Impact. Nothing really stood out as bad and that last angle, with AJ getting brutally beat down, was very strong. AJ looked very good, fighting against the odds before being overwhelmed. Kurt, Booker, 3D, and Tomko looking particularly evil in how they destroyed him. Everything just clicked to me and with some hesitation, I look forward to what happens next. TNA does a lot of things wrong in my mind, so tonight they get a little dap for doing something that was good.

[RedJed 0]

Thought I'd post a small preview for next week already.....courtesy of Observer site....

 

For the show taped on Monday:

 

King of the Mountain qualifiers

Christian Cage vs. Tomko

James Storm vs. Rhino

 

Ace Young from American Idol will be there to shoot an angle

 

Roxxi vs. Angelina Love

 

A.J. Styles wants his revenge for tonight's beating.

[The Truthiness 0]

Where can I see the AJ beatdown?

[BorneAgain 0]

Youtube has the tail end of it along with Angle's appearance.

 

I'd check dailymotion soon. I typically see parts of Impact uploaded within 24 hours.

[The Truthiness 0]

Why did Tomko turn on him?

[BorneAgain 0]

Tomko was still pissed about AJ losing the tag belts, choosing Super Eric for the Deuces Wild tag tournament, and probably didn't take to Style's speech earlier in the night about becoming his own man and how he didn't need him or Angle.

[The Truthiness 0]

Makes sense.

[luke-o 0]

Finally saw Impact. You're all right, that beatdown at the end was pretty awesome. But I did chuckle to myself when Tenay said, "I've never seen anything as brutal and violent as this" - he must have forgotten when Christian Coalition beatdown Abyss...

 

Apart from that it was a pretty average Impact. The matches we're pretty good and the vignette promos for matches/wrestlers were well done. And that Awesome Bomb was excellent. I could watch that over and over.

 

Was it CandianDestroyer who used to do the gifs of TNA? He needs to do one of that Awesome Bomb.

[CubbyBr 0]

But I did chuckle to myself when Tenay said, "I've never seen anything as brutal and violent as this" - he must have forgotten when Christian Coalition beatdown Abyss...

 

LoL thats exactly what I thought.

[cd213 0]

Is it me, or from the ending, does it seem like they might be leading to some sort of former WWE wrestlers vs. TNA "originals"? Booker, 3D, Tomko, and Angle (all former WWE wrestlers) beat down on a TNA original. The only former WWE wrestlers (stars) that weren't in the beat down were Steiner (not on TV since his loss at the PPV), Christian and Rhino (faces), Kip and BG (no one cares about them anyway), and Nash (storyline with Joe). I wouldn't mind that if they put together a good team, and didn't really bring up the fact that it is WWE vs TNA. Plus, they would have to have Team TNA go over.

[BorneAgain 0]

Hard to say if there's a stable forming or not. Booker and 3D are definitely alligned it seems, if just for the fact they were together at the previous Impact as well.

 

With Tomko though, he seemed to be there just to screw over AJ and beat the shit out of him. Same with Angle, who intially came out to save Styles.

 

A group with Booker, Tomko, and 3D could work. As could one with Angle in place of Booker. But one with both Kurt and Book has two main event heels, which seems like a little much.

[RedJed 0]

I don't know why, but I think Booker on his own for the most part would better fit him, given his no nonsense take no shit gimmick he's doin right now. Angle aligned with Tomko and 3D would work, though.

[The Ghost of bps21 0]

I like Booker with 3D more than Angle.

 

Unlike Angle, Booker hasn't been able to get to the top on his own in TNA. I like him as just a jerkoff heel who beats the shit out of people with 3D since he can't get his way.

 

Angle will always, at the end of the day, be better off as just a solo guy who backs up his brashness with legit wins.

[cabbageboy 0]

This was a fun show and the end angle was good stuff, though I do wonder why anyone would buy into Kurt remotely coming out to save AJ from the beatdown. It was obvious he was going to nail him with the chair, but that was a good sort of obvious. I didn't even blame Kurt for doing it really since he figured Styles is banging his wife and all.

[The Ghost of bps21 0]

I knida took it as "angle really wanted to show off for his wife" but when he did what she wanted, she ran to AJ's aid instead of being pleased with him.

 

...

 

From that mindset...yeah...I'd have waffled him with that chair too.

[Jingus 0]

Tomko was still pissed about AJ losing the tag belts, choosing Super Eric for the Deuces Wild tag tournament, and probably didn't take to Style's speech earlier in the night about becoming his own man and how he didn't need him or Angle.

Wait. What? That doesn't make sense at all. It was Tomko who lost them the tag belts, they were stripped of the championships after he got hurt in Japan. And he was still hurt during Deuces Wild, so AJ couldn't have picked him for partner. And didn't Tomko himself do the "I'm my own man" angle like just a few months ago?

[AlaskanHero 0]

Tomko was still pissed about AJ losing the tag belts, choosing Super Eric for the Deuces Wild tag tournament, and probably didn't take to Style's speech earlier in the night about becoming his own man and how he didn't need him or Angle.

Wait. What? That doesn't make sense at all. It was Tomko who lost them the tag belts, they were stripped of the championships after he got hurt in Japan. And he was still hurt during Deuces Wild, so AJ couldn't have picked him for partner. And didn't Tomko himself do the "I'm my own man" angle like just a few months ago?

No, AJ lost the tag titles. He took the pin in the title match against Kaz and Super Eric. The tag titles were stripped from Kaz and S. Eric after S. Eric refused to admit he was Eric Young (who was booked as Kaz's rightful partner). Also, Tomko's anger with being replaced by S. Eric makes sense to me in a "He's completely wrong, but I could buy why he'd be pissed about it" way.

[The Truthiness 0]

Tomko was still pissed about AJ losing the tag belts, choosing Super Eric for the Deuces Wild tag tournament, and probably didn't take to Style's speech earlier in the night about becoming his own man and how he didn't need him or Angle.

Wait. What? That doesn't make sense at all. It was Tomko who lost them the tag belts, they were stripped of the championships after he got hurt in Japan. And he was still hurt during Deuces Wild, so AJ couldn't have picked him for partner. And didn't Tomko himself do the "I'm my own man" angle like just a few months ago?

 

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing, but didn't want to get accused of being "nagative" again. But I can see Tomko being pissed at AJ, he was the one that got pinned, and lost the tag titles, and than he goes and teams with the guy, who's responsible for him and Tonko losing the titles.

 

I also think Kurt was justified in beating the shit out of AJ also, Aj has been scheming on the Kurt's wife for months now.

[MillenniumMan831 0]

I think they should reference the fact AJ already had a golden chance to bang Karen when they went out on their "date" and AJ passed it up . . . granted he was more oblivious to it than anything but still.

[The Ghost of bps21 0]

When taken as the over the top soap opera that the storyline has been...the characters have actually made sense throughout the whole Kurt/Karen/AJ ordeal.

 

Karen was used to seduce the idiot Styles into joining Kurt's side...but Styles was too much of a rube to understand that and took her affection as genuine.

 

Kurt is an ass who always treats Karen with no respect, while idiot Styles treated her like a lady.

 

Karen pulls away from Kurt who only cared about retiring Joe at that point, finally realizing that Kurt doesn't respect her.

 

Now that Kurt decides he has time for Karen again he more or less demands her back which she refuses.

 

Kurt more than suspects Styles as having been with Karen...and with the egging on of the other heels KOs him when his efforts to do something for Karen end with Karen in Styles arms.

 

It's all ridiculous as an angle...but at least they've had the characters heart in the right places. Karen SHOULD want away from Kurt...and SHOULD be flattered by Styles. Kurt SHOULD want to beat the shit out of Styles. And Styles, for all his part in this (may or may not be with Karen) SHOULD stop acting like an idiot and stand up for himself.

 

Especially from Kurt's perspective it doesn't matter that Styles and Karen probably aren't sleeping together...he's a heel and he's going to blame Styles for breaking up his marraige when anyone else can see that Kurt was a terrible husband.