BRM Reviews the 10/20/2016 Impact

[Big Red Machine]

OPENING VIDEO PACKAGE- fine.

OPENING SEGMENT- Cody’s promo was very good. Then Eddie Edwards showed up and cut a promo that wasn’t bad in and of itself (I’d even venture to say it was decent), but coming right after Cody’s promo it made it feel like a mutual admiration society segment, which is rarely every a good thing. Then it devolved into standard “I won’t let you beat me” promos and it got very tiresome. This was another unnecessary TNA padding segment. It would have been better to just have Cody cut his promo and give the rest of this time to the world title match these two men would wrestle later.
Now here is Lashley coming out and saying that he is going to beat whichever one of them wins. And once Lashley came out you knew Moose would be coming out. I think segments like these would be much better done as individual promos backstage. If it’s a segment that is going to end in an authority figure coming out and addressing all of them then it’s fine, but if it’s just a bunch of guys coming out and cutting promos all in a row I think it should happen backstage in separate segments. I’m a big advocate of minimizing suspension of disbelief wherever possible, and having the guys all come out in a row like this is just a little bit hokey to me. Not damagingly so, but enough that it’s something I’d like to see avoided if it doesn’t serve a greater narrative purpose.

#1 CONTENDERSHIP MATCH: Bobby Lashley vs. Moose- 6/10
This should not have been an opener. This should have been its own main event next week or something like that. Also, it should have been much longer. This match was such a waste of three months of build. Seriously… this went 7:40. That’s it.

JB INTERVIEWS THE TRIBUNAL- JB doesn’t know why they attacked the Hardys last week, which shows that he is either a moron or doesn’t watch the show. The Tribunal were cutting a good promo but…
THE FEED IS INTERRUPTED BY THE MASKED MYSTERY CLOCK PEOPLE BRIGADE- apparently “chaos arrives tonight.”

FACT OF LIFE WITH ELI DRAKE- atrocious
They’ve got a sound box for this thing now, which is killing it even worse. The guest was Aron Rex, who came off like a total heel. This ended with EC III coming out to confront Eli. The way they shot this I spent the first 90% of this segment certain that the talk show set was actually somewhere else and that they were just trying to make it look like they were in the same place but they really weren’t.
Finally we had a brawl between Ethan and Eli. During that brawl Jesse Godderz came out to attack Rex…so I guess they’re feuding now and Jesse is back to being a heel.

Is it just me, or are these ads for Wolf Creek more annoying than ads for other shows on other networks?

TNA WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: The Broken Hardy Boys(c) (w/Reby Hardy) vs. The Tribunal- 5.5/10
Apparently just jumping the champions is enough to earn you a title shot… and these are two guys who were on the verge of being fired last week. This was a basic tag team match. The Hardys won in under eight minutes. No effort has yet been put into trying to build up real characters.

Or. Maybe here is something…

THE ALBINO KNIGHTS OF THE RED DAWN MAKE A BLACKOUT (see what I did there?) AND THEN BEAT UP THE TRIBUNAL- so three masked men who have already interrupted TNA’s TV feed have now appeared in the ring and are assaulting TNA employees… and TNA send no security out to help.

BRAXTON SUTTER & ALLIE BACKSTAGE- good.
Allie is rehearsing the “I deserve respect” speech she is going to give to Maria later. Braxton Sutter shows up and tells her that what happened out there last week wasn’t her fault. Okay, fine. What about the first eighty-three times when it actually was her fault? Eh. He’s probably just trying to get into her pants. Laurel Van Ness shows up to summon Allie to Maria and then hit on Braxton Sutter.

ANOTHER MESSAGE FROM THE ACES & EIGHTS BLACK & WHITE- they’re to show places and attack people and we’ll never know when or where it will happen. Snore.

CODY & LASHLEY BACKSTAGE- fine

MARIA & LAUREL YELL AT ALLIE IN THE RING- good segment until the end.
Maria is going to get rid of Allie, but Laurel stops her, asking who will correctly order their sushi if Allie is fired. Based off of empirical evidence, I highly doubt that Allie can correctly order sushi.
So Allie get to make her big babyface turn by standing up to Maria. The fans went nuts for this, and Laurel jumping Allie from behind got tons of heat. Then Maria booked Allie vs. Laurel for next week. Isn’t losing her booking power the very thing Maria is blaming Allie for?
Also, where is Sienna?

EDDIE EDWARDS & LASHLEY BACKSTAGE- fine until they started talking. Well… really until Eddie started talking. His promo was just one big cliché, but the fact that this segment was unnecessary was what made worse. With Lashley’s promo I’m more just curious whether he would have specifically mentioned Holly Holm as an example of an underdog who scores the big upset and then loses the belt in next fight if he wasn’t under contract to Bellator.

TYRUS & SHERA BACKSTAGE- funny

EC III & JESSE GODDERZ PROMO- they want a tag match next week against Eli Drake and Aron Rex. It was only at this point that I remembered that Rex had seemed to turn heel last week. They should have recapped that before the Facts of Life segment.

MAHABALI SHERA (w/Tyrus) vs. MIKE BENNETT (w/Maria Kanellis Bennett)- 3/10
Short match but fine booking. It gets Shera’s new angle over but Shera doesn’t need to win yet, meanwhile Bennett needs a win to keep him in the title picture, so he gets one.

MORE DETAILS ON TEAM X GOLD- bad
DJZ is being interviews by McKenzie Mitchell. He tells us that Team X Gold is another sign of how the X-Division is “forward-thinking.” How is a tournament in which three teams compete to see which team is the best in a match whose gimmick is that the rules are follow in any way “forward-thinking?” He also talks about how the X-Division is bringing together wrestlers of different styles. Well then… so much for everything they’ve said over the past fifteen years about “the X-Division style.” By the way, we still don’t know what you get for winning or when this thing ends or even who the third team is.
Spud comes out and demands to know why he a former X-Division Champion is not on any of the teams. This shocked me, as to my knowledge (and what do I know, I only watch the TV show every week), they don’t even have enough X-Division guys in the company to fill three teams. Spud says that not only is he not on a team, but because of this he has assembled his own, fourth team, so that’s another (I’d call it a “mystery” if anyone could actually care about it) team.
I think it was last week’s Impact where I said how much better the show would be if they would just use graphics to explain things to us in a way that would avoid any possible confusion. This week I’m going to say that they should be using graphics to get important info out to us right away so that I’m not left wondering what this stupid gimmick is about even though we are now three shows into its existence.

TNA WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH: Eddie Edwards(c) vs. Cody Rhodes- 6.75/10
A very good match that ended with one of my least favorite spots of all time (when one guys does a superplex but then the guy who took the move catches the first guy in a small packages as the first guy tries to get up. SOOOOO DUMB! Why even hit the move if it’s going to have no effect?) At least they gave this one close to fourteen minutes. It should have gotten more time than that but this is TNA and they seem to think people enjoy pointless backstage padding more than wrestling.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- Maria attacks Brandi from behind pulling her off the apron and running her into the steps. This was a good angle but I would have saved it for next week.

This was a much better show than usual for TNA, but the same problems still remain. Nothing is being done for any belt but the world title, matches are not given anywhere near enough time, and there is way too much padding on the show.

STUPID ANNOUNCER QUOTES:
1. Josh Mathews- “Dax likes to call himself ‘the judge.’”
Has he ever said that on the air? Even once?

[cero2k]

It should have gotten more time than that but this is TNA and they seem to think people enjoy pointless backstage padding more than wrestling.

actually, this may not be far from the truth, it's one of those things we have to thank the attitude era for

[Big Red Machine]

It should have gotten more time than that but this is TNA and they seem to think people enjoy pointless backstage padding more than wrestling.

actually, this may not be far from the truth, it's one of those things we have to thank the attitude era for

The Attitude Era was mostly "crash TV" style where there were a million backstage segments because a million things were happening. These segments that TNA does don't actually advance any sort of story in anyway.

Also... has TNA really not yet learned that the stuff that worked in the Attitude Era doesn't work for them? Hasn't that been the lesson of the majority of the existence of that company?

[cero2k]

The Attitude Era was mostly "crash TV" style where there were a million backstage segments because a million things were happening. These segments that TNA does don't actually advance any sort of story in anyway.

Also... has TNA really not yet learned that the stuff that worked in the Attitude Era doesn't work for them? Hasn't that been the lesson of the majority of the existence of that company?

but this isn't TNA's fault here, it's the fans, people are definitely more inclined to pay attention to storyline segments and not necessarily a match itself, they're interested in who wins the matches sometimes, but i totally believe that unless you're a hardcore, you're ok with skipping some matches. Backstage segments as long as they're relevant and not comedy or commercials, fans will rarely want to miss those. The attitude era made wrestling a soap opera, and now fans are more inclined to look for stories rather than wrestling.

[Big Red Machine]

The Attitude Era was mostly "crash TV" style where there were a million backstage segments because a million things were happening. These segments that TNA does don't actually advance any sort of story in anyway.

Also... has TNA really not yet learned that the stuff that worked in the Attitude Era doesn't work for them? Hasn't that been the lesson of the majority of the existence of that company?

but this isn't TNA's fault here, it's the fans, people are definitely more inclined to pay attention to storyline segments and not necessarily a match itself, they're interested in who wins the matches sometimes, but i totally believe that unless you're a hardcore, you're ok with skipping some matches. Backstage segments as long as they're relevant and not comedy or commercials, fans will rarely want to miss those. The attitude era made wrestling a soap opera, and now fans are more inclined to look for stories rather than wrestling.

If that's the case (and I don't think it is) the solution should be to cut out the unnecessary matches just like you would cut down on unnecessary skits in order to give more time to the important matches. In TNA's case, this is even more important. If they want to get the most possible bang for their buck in terms of turning one TV taping into a large number of episodes, what they should be doing focusing only on the very important matches. No Team X Gold or pointless Mahabali Shera crap. Redundant segments are redundant nevertheless.

[cero2k]

If that's the case (and I don't think it is) the solution should be to cut out the unnecessary matches just like you would cut down on unnecessary skits in order to give more time to the important matches. In TNA's case, this is even more important. If they want to get the most possible bang for their buck in terms of turning one TV taping into a large number of episodes, what they should be doing focusing only on the very important matches. No Team X Gold or pointless Mahabali Shera crap. Redundant segments are redundant nevertheless.

i'm not disagreeing with you, TNA (and WWE and to a lesser extent ROH) tend to do a lot of unnecessary backstage segments, I understand those bad Shera matches because you need to get the dude out there somehow

[Big Red Machine]

If that's the case (and I don't think it is) the solution should be to cut out the unnecessary matches just like you would cut down on unnecessary skits in order to give more time to the important matches. In TNA's case, this is even more important. If they want to get the most possible bang for their buck in terms of turning one TV taping into a large number of episodes, what they should be doing focusing only on the very important matches. No Team X Gold or pointless Mahabali Shera crap. Redundant segments are redundant nevertheless.

i'm not disagreeing with you, TNA (and WWE and to a lesser extent ROH) tend to do a lot of unnecessary backstage segments, I understand those bad Shera matches because you need to get the dude out there somehow

In ROH the problem is that they have unnecessary matches, not unnecessary backstage segments. In WWE the problem is more the content of the segments than the pacing of the show/time given to matches.