BRM Reviews the 11/19/2014 Impact

[Big Red Machine]

OPENING VIDEO PACKAGE- I thought the visual effects were pretty lame here, but they hit the important notes.

BOBBY ROODE PROMO- good. He called out Lashley and they had a brawl in the crowd but got pulled apart.

EC III (& TYRUS) PROMO- He started out by talking about EY having an unfortunate injury. That’s ironic. The promo as a whole was okay. He will be wrestling Spud tonight. How the hell did they not advertise this?

WOMEN’S TITLE VIDEO PACKAGE- FANTASTIC!

TNA KNOCKOUTS TITLE MATCH: Havok(c) vs. Gail Kim vs. Taryn Terrell- 7/10
They did a great job creating an atmosphere for this match. When Havok was in there, things were slow and plodding, as this gigantic bear of a woman mauled the other two. The camera shots also seemed to emphasize Havok’s height. When the two babyfaces were on offense, every strike felt like it was a desperation move. The babyfaces had to work together to take Havok out, and when it was just Gail and Taryn in the ring, it was very fast-paced, with every move feeling like it had an air of urgency to it because they had to get the win as quickly as possible before the big monster came back.
Taryn took a SICK hot-shot on the guardrail. Havok did a terrible splash where it was clear that her chest did not come close to touching the mat, but she sold her chest anyway. That was the only real flaw in it (that and the fact that they changed camera angles way too much early on). Some might not like the finish, but I loved it. It just kind of worked for me. Despite the fact that crowd was dead for the match, they came alive for Taryn’s title win, and it felt like a big moment.

KENNY KING & MVP BACKSTAGE- decent. MVP is going to do something tonight.

BOBBY ROODE PROMO- very good, but as a long-time TNA viewer, I half-expected him to claim that by attacking EY and Aries the way he did, Lashley had broken the “Heavyweight Code.” It was just way too similar to AJ calling Joe out.

KENNY KING vs. SGT. CHRIS MELENDEZ- 4/10
Kenny & MVP attack Melendez with a chair. Anderson showed up too late to make the save.

SPUD PROMO- good

KURT ANGLE CHECKS ON MELENDEZ BACKSTAGE- he declares that MVP has now gone too far. Why? What makes this attack different from any other similar wrestling attacks? Because the guy is a war hero? Welcome to wrestling, pal. Or is it because he has a prosthetic leg? If it is, then you shouldn’t be letting him in the ring in the first place.

EC III & SPUD SEGMENT- EC III & Tyrus came out and EC III cut basically the same promo he cut backstage… so why do the backstage promo? Spud came out in an AWESOME brick wall-patterned suit.
EC III told Tyrus to stay on the outside no matter what. I really didn’t like Spud getting such an ass-kicking here. Then Tyrus gave him Bad Luck Fale’s finisher, so we know he’s been watching some New Japan. Ethan then cut Spud’s hair and vowed to ruin his career, which got some good heat.

KURT ANGLE & KENNY KING BACKSTAGE- MVP jumps Kurt from behind.

HARDCORE MATCH: Tommy Dreamer vs. Bram- 5.5/10
Dreamer shouted “T! N! A!” to fire up, which would have come off a lot less phony if he hadn’t been wearing his House of Hardcore t-shirt.
Bram needed Magnus’ held to beat fat old Tommy Dreamer. Magnus got his butt kicked by old Al Snow, so basically the young guys got buried.

KURT ANGLE IN HIS OFFICE- great.

MANIK & MAHABALI SHERA BACKSTAGE- okay.

FOUR WAY MATCH FOR THE VACANT TNA X-DIVISION TITLE: Tigre Uno vs. Manik vs. Low Ki vs. Crazzy DJ Zema Ion- 6.75/10
So let me get this straight: Now that Crazzy Steve has actually started to win matches, he DOESN’T get any more title shots?
AHA! It just hit me why I think Manik’s new outfit looks so corny! Because Magneto wore something similar at some point in the late 80’s.
This show has been in the can for TWO MONTHS now. At no point during this time did anyone notice that the hashtag they wanted you to Tweet about it with said #XChampCrownded. Yes. “Crownded.” With an extra d.
I thought the spot where Manik locked Tigre Uno in the Mexican Surfboard and Zema crawled underneath Tigre Uno to pin Manik was BRILLIANT! As a whole, the match was a fun spotfest.

MVP CALLS LASHLEY ON THE PHONE- he wants Lashley to help them do something. They might decide to “burn this place to the ground.” It would have been totally awesome if they didn’t get a new TV deal and decided that if they were going to go out of business they would go out with a CHIKARA-esque bang and actually have MVP burn the Impact Zone down.

CLOSING SEGMENT-
Kurt Angle comes out and says that MVP “used his buddies” to get the top. Um… no he didn’t. He BOUGHT HALF OF THE COMPANY! Doesn’t anyone remember this? It was LESS THAN TEN MONTHS AGO!
Then again, Kurt’s mind is clearly addled because he called TNA over the last few months “the best in-ring product ever. Period.”
Kurt called out MVP and said that “real men do their business right here.” I giggled. It’s 2:30 am.
Kurt says he’ll have to talk to the Board of Directors to determine what MVP’s punishment for attacking an executive will be. MVP cut a promo. Kurt vowed to “start the new year off right.” IT’S NOT EVEN THANKSGIVING YET!
Kurt slugged MVP and beat him up. Kenny King came out to make the save. MVP shoved Kenny a bit so he could get his licks in on Kurt. MVP hit Kurt with his finisher. Ken Anderson then came out to brawl with Kenny King. King gave Anderson a low blow, then Lashley showed up and gave Anderson a spear. Kenny King reacted like this was the funniest thing he had ever seen and laughed in the most annoying manner possible, because he is an awesome heel. Bobby Roode came out and brawled with Lashley, and we went off the air with them trading punches. No mention of the new TV deal, but they did push the Best of… show in two weeks, so maybe they’ll mention it there.

A good show from TNA.

STUPID ANNOUNCER QUOTES:
1. Dumbass Taz claims that Taryn “stole the victory,” which clearly isn’t what happened. Tenay, who is also a dumbass, concurred with him.
2. Taz had to make sure to tell us that Melendez’s story was “a legitimate story. Real. It’s real-life.” Thank you, Taz, for sh*tting all over kayfabe for no reason.
3. Tenays speculates that MVP attacking Melendez with a steal chair right in front of the referee “saved Kenny King from a loss.”
HOW?! HE GOT DISQUALFIED BECAUSE OF IT, YOU DUMB SH*T!

[cero2k]

EC III (& TYRUS) PROMO- He started out by talking about EY having an unfortunate injury. That’s ironic. The promo as a whole was okay. He will be wrestling Spud tonight. How the hell did they not advertise this?

they did, all matches were advertised all week via social media

HARDCORE MATCH: Tommy Dreamer vs. Bram- 5.5/10
Dreamer shouted “T! N! A!” to fire up, which would have come off a lot less phony if he hadn’t been wearing his House of Hardcore t-shirt.
Bram needed Magnus’ held to beat fat old Tommy Dreamer. Magnus got his butt kicked by old Al Snow, so basically the young guys got buried.

If Liger can beat Chase Owens and Negro Casas can beat RUSH, then yeah, Al Snow can beat Magnus. Look at that man and tell me he's easy to beat

[Big Red Machine]

EC III (& TYRUS) PROMO- He started out by talking about EY having an unfortunate injury. That’s ironic. The promo as a whole was okay. He will be wrestling Spud tonight. How the hell did they not advertise this?

they did, all matches were advertised all week via social media


And yet there was no match, so what did they advertise?
HARDCORE MATCH: Tommy Dreamer vs. Bram- 5.5/10
Dreamer shouted “T! N! A!” to fire up, which would have come off a lot less phony if he hadn’t been wearing his House of Hardcore t-shirt.
Bram needed Magnus’ held to beat fat old Tommy Dreamer. Magnus got his butt kicked by old Al Snow, so basically the young guys got buried.

If Liger can beat Chase Owens and Negro Casas can beat RUSH, then yeah, Al Snow can beat Magnus. Look at that man and tell me he's easy to beat
1) both of those guys are much bigger stars than Al Snow ever was
2) Both of those promotions are in MUCH better shape than TNA is. TNA needs to create new stars. Magnus could be one. Al Snow... not so much.

[cero2k]

EC III (& TYRUS) PROMO- He started out by talking about EY having an unfortunate injury. That’s ironic. The promo as a whole was okay. He will be wrestling Spud tonight. How the hell did they not advertise this?

they did, all matches were advertised all week via social media
And yet there was no match, so what did they advertise?
I stand corrected, they only had graphics for the KOs match, X DIvision match, Bram's match, and King's match. What I saw with Spud as that I'm with spud thing, but i didn't watch the video

HARDCORE MATCH: Tommy Dreamer vs. Bram- 5.5/10
Dreamer shouted “T! N! A!” to fire up, which would have come off a lot less phony if he hadn’t been wearing his House of Hardcore t-shirt.
Bram needed Magnus’ held to beat fat old Tommy Dreamer. Magnus got his butt kicked by old Al Snow, so basically the young guys got buried.

If Liger can beat Chase Owens and Negro Casas can beat RUSH, then yeah, Al Snow can beat Magnus. Look at that man and tell me he's easy to beat
1) both of those guys are much bigger stars than Al Snow ever was
2) Both of those promotions are in MUCH better shape than TNA is. TNA needs to create new stars. Magnus could be one. Al Snow... not so much.

losing a little fight is not gonna stop them from creating those new stars. New stars need to lose every now and then too

[Big Red Machine]

EC III (& TYRUS) PROMO- He started out by talking about EY having an unfortunate injury. That’s ironic. The promo as a whole was okay. He will be wrestling Spud tonight. How the hell did they not advertise this?

they did, all matches were advertised all week via social media
And yet there was no match, so what did they advertise?
I stand corrected, they only had graphics for the KOs match, X DIvision match, Bram's match, and King's match. What I saw with Spud as that I'm with spud thing, but i didn't watch the video

HARDCORE MATCH: Tommy Dreamer vs. Bram- 5.5/10
Dreamer shouted “T! N! A!” to fire up, which would have come off a lot less phony if he hadn’t been wearing his House of Hardcore t-shirt.
Bram needed Magnus’ held to beat fat old Tommy Dreamer. Magnus got his butt kicked by old Al Snow, so basically the young guys got buried.

If Liger can beat Chase Owens and Negro Casas can beat RUSH, then yeah, Al Snow can beat Magnus. Look at that man and tell me he's easy to beat
1) both of those guys are much bigger stars than Al Snow ever was
2) Both of those promotions are in MUCH better shape than TNA is. TNA needs to create new stars. Magnus could be one. Al Snow... not so much.
losing a little fight is not gonna stop them from creating those new stars.
Well it sure isn't going to help in any way. So why do it?
New stars need to lose every now and then too


Losing is fine, but not to washed up old losers that no one cares about. If an up-and-comer is going to lose, he should lose to a main evneter after a strong showing.