BRM's thoughts on the 12/23 Impact

[Big Red Machine]

1. "And you could have waited until I asked you to come out." These sorts of lines arre why I LOVE having Bischoff as an on-screen character. He adds in little lines like this that are both good and human.

2. Okay segment at the beginning, but full of great promos. Good promo by Foley. Flair's promo reeked of worked shoot, and is a perfect example of when worked shoots WORK- when the guys actually believe what they are saying (but get along with each other enough to trust each other with their bodies). Bischoff's promo was very good, too.

3. I really dislike the cold open for a wrestling show. It just doesn't feel right. If they want to have a voice over-preview/hype, that's fine, but a full cold-open just doesn't seem right.

4. The Hardy- Anderson backstage segment was eh. It wasn't bad, but it doesn't seem necessary either (the time probably could have been used better).

5. Jeff Jarrett vs. Amazing Red- They did just about everything they could to protect Red here. He had somthing in his eyes. He got jumped. He wasn't prepared for the match. Everything. Was it a good segment? Not really, but at least it didn't hurt Red too much, and Jarrett still came out of it looking like a douche.

6. I can't fault them for the Tara-Madison backstage segment. It wasn't long, it worked in the Tara-Gen Me. angle, and it hyped the KOs Tag Team Title match.

7. Good promo by RVD.

8. 4 Way match for #1 Contendership to the X-Division Title: Robbie E. (w/Cookie) vs. Kaz. vs. Max Buck vs Jeremy Buck-4/10. WAY too short. The Buck in question took almost no damage before being put away. He just went toe-to-toe with MCMG for 15 minutes on the last 3 PPVs, but can't last 3 minutes here?
Maybe I wasn't paying attention, but I don't remember Gen. Me getting any intro or acknowledgement AT ALL before the match.

9. For the 25th week in a row, we get a backstage brawl involving the knockouts. COME UP WITH SOMETHING NEW!!
(Edit:) Yes, it build to something, but it still looked JUST LIKE all of the other backstage brawls we have seen week-after-week-after-week

10. It's convinient that they have all this time to show us what happened during the break. I guess that nothing is happening at all in the Impact Zone. That's boring.

11. We get another backstage pep-talk from Bischoff to Immortal. Not bad, but nothing that we havne't already seena nd heard over the last few weeks.

12. What the hell is Brian Kendrick smoking? And why are we wasting TV time following him around?

13. Match for the vacant TNA Knockout's Tag Team Titles: Mdison & Tara vs. Angelina Love & Velvet- No Rating.
Velvet isn't here because of the earlier attack by Sarita. It did what it wa supposed to, which was put the belts on Winter & Angelina. Why Winter is allowed to be in the match, I'm not sure, since the match was "Angelina & Velvet," not "The Beautiful People" or anything else that would allow any Freebird-ing.

14. Time wasting stupidity with EY, OJ, and Pope.

15. 15 minute Iron Man match for the TNA TV Title: Doug WIlliams(c) vs. AJ Styles- 7/10.
AJ vs. Doug Williams in an Iron-Man match. Because this doesn't sound like anything that you would want to advertise.
Does the stip make much sense? No- but Bischoff is in charge and he thinks that AJ will have the best chance of beating Williams in an Iron Man match, so the logic is still good.
From a prodcuton point-of-view, there should have been a scoreboard on the screen. If keeping track of falls is important, then it should be made easy for us to keep track of them.

All things considered, if they were going to do a draw, I would much rather that they just ahd a straight 20 minute draw on TV and then have the Iron man match on PPV. But I guess that's TNA for you: give aay a free,unadvertised gimmick match in order to build to a regular match on PPV. It makes about as much sense as everything else in this company.

16. The post-match segment was very good, although Williams refusing to fight at first was a little odd. Obviously, Williams will win, and AJ will turn babyface, but the match should be very good.

17. The Anderson interview with Taz & Tenay was okay, but it was definitely building towards something.

If you were Bischoff, and you were booking this match, why would you have MCMG team with guys they can trust? Why not have them team with members of Immortal, who would just lie down for Beer Money?
18. TNA World Tag Team Title match: MCMG(c) & RVD & Morgan vs. Beer Money, Abyss, & Jeff Hardy-7.5/10. Really good match, would have been better if it got more time (10 minutes for a main event?!). RVD tod their part of the story perfectly. Honestly, I don't want RVD tog et at Jeff until Destination X, where he should lose because of interference, setting up RVD beating Jeff at Lockdown.

Stupid announcer quotes:
1. Tenay calls Kaz's new finisher a tombstone piledriver. Anyone who has watched wrestling in the past 20 years knows what a tombstone piledriver looks like, and THAT AIN'T IT.

2. Tenay (after time runs out in the Iron man match, with the score tied)- "What do we do now?"- Well, both precedent (AJ vs. Daniels) and the glaringly obvious solution tell us that we will have overtime in some fashion (whether right here, right now, or a rematch sometime).

3. Tenay- "Did AJ just say 'I want five more minutes'?"- No, Tenay. He said "I want five more doughnuts" OF COUSE HE SAID "I want five more minutes!" What other phrase, combined with that hand-motion, COULD POSSIBLY MAKE SENSE?!

4. Taz: How bad does Rob want to get his hands on TNA World Champion Jeff Hardy?
Tenay: Months and months, he's been waiting to do it. Wouldn't you say August?
Taz: Yeah, August
No. Ocotber. Although Jeff may have made his deal with Hogan & Bischoff in August, RVD DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT IT until October.

[yourcrapsweak]

4. Taz: How bad does Rob want to get his hands on TNA World Champion Jeff Hardy?
Tenay: Months and months, he's been waiting to do it. Wouldn't you say August?
Taz: Yeah, August
No. Ocotber. Although Jeff may have made his deal with Hogan & Bischoff in August, RVD DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT IT until October.

Ummm... 10/10/10? MORONS.