BRM's thoughts on the 1/6 Impact

[Big Red Machine]

1. The opening segment was awesome. Good heel stuff from Bischoff, and good stuff from RVD as well. It announced some matches for tonight's show, too, which is good.
My only issue with it was some of Bischoff's logic. Why is he JUST NOW starting to get worried about scrutiny from judges and stuff. Shouldn't he have been worried about this a month and a half ago?

2. Jarrett's changes to the MMA challenge were very good. Angle was great as well. The one thing I don't really like is them promoting an "MMA Exhibition," simply becuase it is pro wrestling. It is a work. One of wrestling-haters' favorite ways to bash pro-wrestling is by calling it "fake MMA." And that is EXACTLY what this match is being billed as: "fake MMA." I am fine with it IF it is used as a way to allow Kurt to wrestle again as long as it doens't carry on for too long.

Wow. Two good segments in a row? Is this actually Impact?

4. AJ Styles & Kazarian vs. MCMG- 5.5/10- one of the best five minute matches you'll ever see.
Beer Money beat up MCMG after the match

5. The stuff with Bicschoff and AJ was very good. Taz did an AMAZING job here.

6. Pope cuts a promo about something. He says that someone is following him, and that he has been "falsely accused" of something. I have watched every single episode of Impact since he has joined the company, and I have absolutely no idea what the hell he is talking about.

7. The AJ-Bischoff-Flair segment backstage was also awesome. Bischoff just drove AJ to the point where he doesn't give a damn at all if he is kicked out of Immortal because Bischoff is pissing him off.

8. Pope is complaining because someone is follwoing him around with a video camera. Someone has been following EVERYONE around with a videocamera for the past 9 months! Furthermore, Pope seems to be upset that this person caught him collecting money for charity. That might be the LEAST heinous act one could be caught doing!
Pope also said that "his Congregation is behind him." They made very clear at Turning Point that "Pope's Congregation" was a select group of friends of his. Not his fans. And those friends sold out to Bischoff. If Pope still considers them to be friends (he also still thinks that they respect him), he is an idiot.

9. This segment was so stupid that I didn't even mark out for Joe's return. Joe comes out and says some stuff.

10. This is starting to make sense... but it is just really poorly done. We never saw any of Joe's evidence (and still haven't seen it yet, come to think of it). The one thing I did like was Joe mentioning Pope in the strip club. Finally... ONE of my questions gets answered.
Pope's responses to Joe were okay. They weren't great... but at least they made sense.

This was a TERRIBLE way to start off this angle. They went and based an angle off of absolutely nothing that we have seen. It would have been much better to actually SHOW some of Joe's footage over the last few weeks (Alex Shelley style!)

11. Devon's promo was okay... aside from the part where he said that something that would have happened three months ago happened "about a month ago."

12. Madison & Sarita vs. Mickie James & Velvet Sky- 3.5/10. Dull with a dunb finish and not such good ringwork. Mickie was barely involved at all.

13. Taz and Tenay keep trying to put over the fact that Sarita is "bullying" Velvet. It's hard to feel sorry for Velvet, considering that she spent two whole years bullying almost every other woman in the country.

14. The RVD-Bischoff segment was great.

15. Rob Terry vs. Doug Williams-N/A. AJ attacks Williams and he and Terry injure Doug's arm.

16. The Bubba-Devon segment in the parking lot wasn't very good. It isn't really anything that we haven't seen over the last two months, but it did hype the angle before the PPV, so that was good.

17. Calling Bubba "Bully Ray" is just plain moronic. It sounds so stupid it's not even funny.

18. The camera had to show us a random girl holding a "THEY ARE HERE" sign. This woman was obviously a plant, and here is why"
1. No one who cares enough to bring their own sign would make a sign supporting "They." Especially not such a generic one. I can maybe see a sign supporting "Immortal," but "They"... no way.
2. Isn't it a little late for that sign? "They" have been here for almost three months already! Again, a real fan wouldn't bring a sign for months ago.

19. Abyss vs. Jay Lethal- Same as Williams vs. Terry, except it gave Kaz the chance to be a dick... and boy was he ever. Kazarian proved his ability to be a giganntic jackass.

20. The Anderson-Morgan interview was pretty good.

21. No DQ's match: Jeff Jarrett vs. RVD- 5/10. Too short and pretty dull.
The aftermath was very good, but the way Tenay sold it was just... obnoxious. Not that Tenay didn't do his job well, but we went through the "did Anderson hit him with the chair on purpose? or was it an accident?" angle SIX MONTHS AGO.


Overall, anything that was a segment, rather than a match was, at the worst, great (aside from Joe-Pope)... and everything in the ring... well... let me put it this way. The match of the night was a five minute long opener. And that isn't good. I want to watch pro-wrestling, not just drama. There is a reason that I watch Raw and don't watch All My Children.
Even worse, we still don't know who RVD's opponent will be... and I don't think the whole "mystery opponent" stuff will really sell the PPV all too well.

Stupid Announcer Quotes:
1. Tenay (about Kurt using the "it's not wrestling. It's an MMA exhibition" excuse to get around his promise that he would never wrestle again if he lost a match)- "He [Kurt] closed the loophole"- no he didn't. He slipped through the loophole. "Closing" the loophole, would mean PREVENTING Kurt from using this as an excuse to wrestle. That's what the expression means!

2. We managed to make it for at least a few weeks without Taz saying "let the pegeons loose." I was hoping for a pigeon-free year, but...

3. Taz tells us that Williams & Terry are both from Britain, to which Tenay responds "Or Wales." *FACEPALM*

4. Tenay (while AJ and Terry are stomping on Williams arm)- "WHAT WOULD BE THE PURPOSE OF THIS?" What a great question, Mike. I can't think of a single reason that it would be advantageous to a wrestler to injure another when the two of them have a match against each other in three days.

5. Taz- "Bully Ray came out flanked by security, so it wasn't even fair fight in the first place."- why the hell would security be on Bubba's side? Security would have been trying to keep them apart.

[KILLdozer]

not that i looked it up but yes i do know who rvds opponent is

[Big Red Machine]

not that i looked it up but yes i do know who rvds opponent is

But they didn't say it on the show. So it can't help them sell the PPV.

[cero2k]

that Pope/Joe feud just makes me sad, to think that two awesome wrestlers are gonna feud over whether pope is telling lies or not. Not to mention that Joe is videotaping people now??

[Earth Child]

Joe's been the one peeping around with a camera on everyone?

[Big Red Machine]

Joe's been the one peeping around with a camera on everyone?

This was my thought, too. The segments with Pope have looked no different than any other backstage segments that we have seen from the secret camera.

[Earth Child]

Maybe, just maybe, he could possibly be spying for the people who kidnapped him

[cero2k]

Maybe, just maybe, he could possibly be spying for the people who kidnapped him

you know, worse than not telling us who kidnapped him, would be to try and revive that storyline one year later out of nowhere...

[Rabid619]

I was hoping for a Pope heel turn, i was crossing my fingers that it was going to happen but that segment just collapsed.