BRM Reviews the 9/5/2013 Impact

[Big Red Machine]

OPENING SET OF BFG SERIES PROMO- great! It made the gauntlet look like a huge deal, everyone was good, and the promo from Jay Bradley and Hernandez, who have no shot at getting into the final four, set up something intriguing for them to do that will make them still feel important in the battle royale.

ACES & EIGHTS PROMO-Holy f*cking sh*t! A heel realizes that he has said something that has pissed off his friends and is now almost apologizing! Someone acting like a REAL person, rather than a self-destructive evil overlord from a stereotypical sci-fi b movie.

Apparently Bully vs. Sting isn’t a title match. Some segment acknowledging Hogan’s screw-up would have been nice because now we have no reason at all to trust that anything that Hogan says will happen as Hogan says, so we have no reason to trust that they will deliver the matches that they promise.

CHRIS SABIN vs. KNUX (w/Bully Ray & Brooke Tessmacher)- no rating, good segment.
For that one moment where he picked up the hammer and hit Knux with it, Sabin looked like a stone-cold killer. This will likely play into his relationship with Velvet somehow (or else they wouldn’t have brought it up last week).

SABIN & VELVET BACKSTAGE- awesome.

MICKIE JAMES & ODB SEGMENT- started off great, but once ODB started to get in some offense, it sucked. They should have just kept it simple and let Mickie get heat for next week’s match.

JB INTERVIEWS JAY BRADLEY & HERNANDEZ- good

WAIT… THE BFG SERIES GAUNTLET IS UP NEXT! The second match on the show? WHAT THE F*CK?!

BACKSTAGE PRE-TAPE OF STING ARRIVING AT THE BUILDING- was this really even necessary? All it was was Sting walking down a staircase. He didn’t say anything. There was no sound at all, other that Tenay’s voice-over. The entire purpose of this was to ensure us that one of top babyfaces in the company didn’t no-show a big match. Did anyone really think he would?

BFG SERIES 20 POINT BATTLE ROYALE- 6/10
Someone in the front row was holding up a sign that said “Claire Lynch.”
Wait… Anderson gets eliminated by JOE?! WHAT THE F*CK?! Anderson should have been eliminated by Jay Bradley to set up the suspicion that Bully paid him off to ensure that Anderson would lose, which Anderson can use to turn face for their title match next week (does anyone really think that anyone other than Anderson will wind up with the title shot next week?)
Having AJ face Daniels at the end was a nice touch because it created just a small fraction of doubt that AJ would win and that this would just be one more thing that Daniels screws AJ out of.
The announcers mentioned that these twenty points were important because they let you pick who you would face in the final four, but I don’t think that they ever mentioned that aside from Hernandez and Bradley, and win here would put anyone into the final four, and thus give them a shot at earning a world title match at BFG. That’s a pretty important thing to not mention.

BULLY & ANDERSON BACKSTAGE- not bad, but it is hard to get behind Anderson as a babyface when he is working his ass off to help the heel stable. This also probably would have worked a bit better if it had happened after Wes & Garrett won their match.

AJ STYLES PROMO- decent, though it seemed like they cut AJ off in the middle of his promo.

STING & RAMPAGE BACKSTAGE- Sting tells us that he has won the world title so many times already that he doesn’t care that he can’t challenge for it anymore. Way to bury the title and the stip from Slammiversary. They also rehash the beginning of the new MEM, which brings to mind all of the horrible flaws that has.
I think that a much better use of this time would have been to have Sting cut a promo about how disappointed he is that he can’t challenge for the belt anymore because now that finally has the MEM lined up behind him and other guys like Sabin and Jeff Hardy who don’t like the MEM and Devon is gone and he finally has the chance to get the belt off of Bully… but he can’t because of the stip at Slammiversary.

JAMES STORM & GUNNER vs. WES BRISCO & GARRETT BISCHOFF- 4/10
The heels jumped the babyfaces from behind during their entrance. That was good. Unfortunately, by the time the match got into the ring, the babyfaces were already dominating. Good finish, though. More of a segment than a match in some ways.

BFG SERIES FINAL FOUR HYPE SEGMENT- great

STING vs. BULLY RAY (w/Tito Ortiz, Brooke Tessmacher, & Mr. Anderson)-
So after his whole speech earlier about how he had realized that he needed backup and thus formed the MEM, Sting comes out totally alone. Bully Ray cuts a promo in which he needlessly reminds us that Sting can’t challenge for the title because of the stipulations of their match at Slammiversary. The real purpose of this promo was to create some pointless “dramatic” excuse for Hogan to come out. Hogan then proceeds to ban Tito Ortiz from ringside. A few problems here:
1) This once again craps all over the “we need to get the title off of B ully because the title gives him power” thing.
2) So he bans Tito from ringside, but not Anderson or Tessmacher or Taz or any other members of Aces & Eights?
3) For whatever stupid reason, Tito didn't come back to ringside. If all it takes to keep Aces & Eights from interfering was Hogan banning them from ringside, why hasn't he barred them from ringside before?
4) So what? Tito is not on payroll so Hogan can’t suspend him or fine him for not obeying this directive. The only thing he can really do if Tito decides to come back would be to DQ Bully Ray…
So, of course, the next thing that Hogan does is make this match a No DQ’s match… meaning that now Tito can come back with absolutely no consequences at all, making banning him from ringside in the first place totally pointless!
So this match became…

NO DISQUALIFICATION MATCH WITH TITO ORTIZ BARRED FROM RINGSIDE: Sting vs. Bully Ray (w/Mr. Anderson & Brooke Tessmacher)- DUD!
Bully is yelling at Hogan, so Sting, the babyface, decides to jump him from behind.
Bully, the horrible, evil heel is on offense… and the crowd is chanting “WE WANT TABLES.” GRRRR!
I am giving it a dud, but not because this was offensively bad or anything like that. To be honest, it was more of a segment, but aside from the BFG Series battle royale, every match on this show felt like a segment (which was too much) and this one was the main event and it was a bad segment. It’s just that there was a much, much, much simpler and better way to do this!
Leave the match as a regular match with Tito still at ringside. Do a ref bump and have Garrett and Wes run in (not Knux, though, because he got hit in the head with a hammer less than two hours ago. When that happened to Jeff Hardy he was stretchered out and missed a month of TV… when it happens to an undercard grunt like Knux, he is okay later that same show). Then have the MEM come out and fight them off (this way Rampage and Tito can brawl to build up their MMA match, which is the entire purpose of having them here). Then when Bully and Sting do a double down and are both getting ready to get back up have Taz give Anderson the hammer, then have Anderson jump in and do a swerve where he looks like he is going to hit Sting, but have him hit Bully instead. This makes Anderson turn babyface in a much less obnoxious way (he was f*cking insufferable at the end of this segment) and doesn’t involve an old guy who is completely ineligible from getting a world title shot making the champion tap clean.

Impact wasn’t bad this week, but I don’t think it came anywhere close to living up to its potential and the main event was booked extremely poorly.

[cero2k]

The announcers mentioned that these twenty points were important because they let you pick who you would face in the final four, but I don’t think that they ever mentioned that aside from Hernandez and Bradley, and win here would put anyone into the final four, and thus give them a shot at earning a world title match at BFG. That’s a pretty important thing to not mention.

i'm pretty sure this has been the case for the previous BGF series, that the top guy decides who to fight.

[Big Red Machine]

The announcers mentioned that these twenty points were important because they let you pick who you would face in the final four, but I don’t think that they ever mentioned that aside from Hernandez and Bradley, and win here would put anyone into the final four, and thus give them a shot at earning a world title match at BFG. That’s a pretty important thing to not mention.

i'm pretty sure this has been the case for the previous BGF series, that the top guy decides who to fight.

For at least last year, I think. The first one might have been by ranking. Either way, the more important thing (IMO) was getting into the final four, which I didn't hear mentioned at all.

[Big Bad Booty Daddy]

One of the things that pissed me off bout the gauntlet was everytime someone entered Taz said "who's next"

Well if its in reverse order of Standings then Taz should know who was about to come out. It made him look a complete idiot!!

[Big Red Machine]

One of the things that pissed me off bout the gauntlet was everytime someone entered Taz said "who's next"

Well if its in reverse order of Standings then Taz should know who was about to come out. It made him look a complete idiot!!

Did you hear Tenay say "that's right, Christy!" after one of the eliminations? I think it was Kaz but he got clotheslined over the top rope or something so Christy announced his elimination, and Tenay, unhelpful idiot that he is, just says "that's right Christy! Kaz has been eliminated." or something along those lines. HORRID announcing.

[Big Bad Booty Daddy]

One of the things that pissed me off bout the gauntlet was everytime someone entered Taz said "who's next"

Well if its in reverse order of Standings then Taz should know who was about to come out. It made him look a complete idiot!!

Did you hear Tenay say "that's right, Christy!" after one of the eliminations? I think it was Kaz but he got clotheslined over the top rope or something so Christy announced his elimination, and Tenay, unhelpful idiot that he is, just says "that's right Christy! Kaz has been eliminated." or something along those lines. HORRID announcing.

Lol no missed that one