BRM Books the First Impact on Pop TV & Where To Go From There

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Big Red Machine
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BRM Books the First Impact on Pop TV & Where To Go From There

Post by Big Red Machine » Jan 6th, '16, 14:25

As usually happens when I do these things, I wound up thinking a lot further ahead than I had first intended.


I’d open the show with a video package similar to the one TNA had, and then I would go to the ring for a quick speech by Dixie about how history will be made tonight on the TNA debut on Pop TV as they crown a new world champion from the final four guys in the World Title Series tournament etc. etc.
I’d then have the Wolves come out and tell Dixie that they’d like to make some history tonight, too. They say that they’d be honored to be in the first ever TNA match on Pop TV, and they’d like to put their TNA World Tag Team Titles on the line in an open challenge. Dixie agrees, so we get…

TNA WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: The Wolves(c) vs. two masked dudes (I’d put Crazzy Steve and TJ Perkins under the masks)-
We get some quick, fast-paced, hard-hitting action, with the Wolves going over clean in four minutes (and dominating about three quarters of the match), winning when one Wolf gets a submission victory while the other Wolf holds the other opponent at bay with his own signature submission.
The point of this is to establish the following three facts:
1. The Wolves are our tag champs
2. They are hard-hitting, submission-expert badasses
3. The matches here in TNA will be action-packed
They should be out of the ring well before 9:15 (maybe three minutes for the opening video package, four minutes for Dixie’s speech and segment with the Wolves, then five for everything from the jobbers’ entrance to the Wolves celebrating their victory).

Our announcers would be Josh, Pope, and Kurt Angle, and they would tease that Kurt has some huge news for later on tonight.

Then we’d do a video package to hype Ethan vs. Lashley which would end by telling us that that match will take place right after this commercial break.

WORLD TITLE SERIES SEMIFINAL MATCH: Bobby Lashley vs. Ethan Carter III (w/Tyrus)-
Ethan takes advantage of shenanigans from Tyrus which distract Lashley and wins in fourteen minutes.

We get a video package to hype up EY vs. Matt, then we get that match.
WORLD TITLE SERIES SEMIFINAL MATCH: Eric Young vs. Matt Hardy (w/Jeff Hardy)-
EY is vicious and aggressive, but Matt overcomes him, winning clean in fourteen minutes.

DREW GALLOWAY vs. ROBBIE E.-
During this match, the announcers put over Robbie E.’s efforts during the World Title Series and talk about his journey to be taken more seriously. They also put over Drew for being an awesome wrestler. Drew wins clean in seven minutes, but the announcers make sure to put Robbie over for his effort.
After the match, Kurt gets into the ring, calls Drew the future of the business, and announces that he has hand-picked Drew to be one of his opponents on his Farewell Tour, and that match will take place next week.

When we get back from commercial, Drew cuts a quick backstage promo about how honored he is that Kurt chose him to be one of his last opponents. The Wolves come up to Drew and say that they feel slighted that Kurt didn’t choose them. They say that if Kurt thinks so highly of Drew, he won’t have a problem teaming with him against them sometime. Later in the night, we are told that this match has been officially signed for the PPV. Also officially signed for the PPV is Lashley vs. Tyrus, and we are promised that the new World Heavyweight Champion, whoever he turns out to be, will be in action.

TNA Knockouts Champion Gail Kim comes out to join the commentary team for this next match, which will feature Madison Rayne taking on a newly-debuting masked Knockout (Mia Yim). The masked mystery woman with a cool name I am too lazy to think of would win clean in five minutes. Gail is a total babyface and puts the newcomer over as someone she’ll have to keep an eye on.

The announcers hype up Bobby Roode’s open challenge to “anyone from any promotion” to come here tonight and face him for the King of the Mountain Title.

X-DIVISON TITLE MATCH: Tigre Uno(c) vs. Mark Andrews vs. Manik vs. Crazzy Steve (without his facepaint on an with a normal name)-
Six minutes of wall-to-wall spots, with Tigre Uno pinning Steve to retain.

Plug for next week’s show, which will be main-evented by Kurt vs. Drew, but will also see the following stars in action:
TNA Knockouts Champion Gail Kim
Awesome Kong
Ken Anderson
Trevor Lee
Rockstar Spud
“The Monster” Abyss

We get a quick backstage promo from Tigre Uno daring anyone who thinks they can hang with the X-Division after seeing that to come meet him at the PPV on Friday.

TNA KING OF THE MOUNTAIN TITLE MATCH: Bobby Roode(c) vs. Mike Bennett (w/Maria Kanellis)-
Bennett wins in fifteen minutes after Maria distracts the ref and Bennett hits Roode with a low blow, the gives him a piledriver. After the match, Bennett goes to give Roode another piledriver, but James Storm comes out (from the back, not from the crowd) to chase Bennett and Maria off. Storm extends his hand to Roode and we get a very tense moment before Roode tentatively shakes it.

We get backstage promos from Matt and Ethan about the World Title Series finals.
We are told that Roode will get his rematch against Bennett this Friday on PPV. Also, Knockouts Champion Gail Kim will be issuing an open challenge.

WORLD TITLE SERIES FINALS TO CROWN A NEW TNA WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION: Ethan Carter III vs. Matt Hardy-
I would start this off with the same very quick exchange they did between Jeff and Tyrus to set up this being completely one-on-one, except that instead of just leaving, I’d have Tyrus justify his leaving by saying that he doesn’t have any real rooting interest in this match because either his buddy Ethan wins the title, or Matt Hardy will win the title and then Tyrus will be able to cash in the title shot he won at Bound For Glory to face Matt next week.
Ethan would win cleanly in TV time remaining, which I would hope would be 15-20 minutes.

Sooo… for Friday’s live PPV we have:

PPV:
TIGRE UNO OPEN CHALLENGE FOR THE X-DIVISION TITLE: I’d do my best to find an outside talent to answer this, as the point of doing all of these open challenges both on the debut Impact and tonight is to take advantage of the fact that you’re live to make some buzz. The X-Division definitely needs some new blood, but I’m going to rely on Trevor Lee for that for now, so in this particular spot, if you can’t find someone willing to commit to joining TNA, I’d settle for someone making a one-off appearance, even if it’s just clearly someone coming in because you made a deal with AAA or Dragon Gate or someone. Uno would obviously win clean.

SIX WAY MATCH: Bram vs. James Storm vs. Jesse Godderz vs. Matt Hardy vs. Rockstar Spud vs. Eli Drake-
Storm wins clean, pinning Spud. A lot of the announcers’ focus is placed on James Storm and how shocking it was that he saved Bobby Roode on Impact. We to get one storyline-important spot here, which is a stare-down in the middle of the ring between Storm and Bram.

ERIC YOUNG vs. CRAZZY STEVE-
Crazy psycho EY destroys Steve and he is never seen again.

GAIL KIM OPEN CHALLENGE: she offers to put her title on the line, so this is now also a Knockouts Title match. For this one, I’d make a concerted effort to find someone you want to use long-term. Someone from the UK would actually be cool as it would give you a kayfabe reason not to use her for the next few weeks of TV, and then she could make her big TV debut in the UK. Nikki Storm and Kay Lee Ray seem to be really popular among the people who follow the British scene, so I’ll assume one of them would be a good choice (Ray especially would add something new with her high-flying). Once again, Gail wins clean, but we want her opponent to look REALLY good in defeat because her showing here will impress TNA management so much that they will give her a “trial series” on the UK tour where she will once again impress everyone and become a full-time roster member.

LASHLEY vs. TYRUS (w/Ethan Carter III)-
Early on in the match, Ethan makes a big show of walking to the back. Lashley wins clean in ten minutes. Tyrus has his #1 contendership in his pocket so he can afford to take the loss, whereas Lashley will be built up for a title shot.

We get a quick commercial plugging this week’s Impact or something like that.

JB is interviewing Ethan about his match tonight, the details of which haven’t been revealed. Tyrus comes up to Ethan and asks him what the deal was with him abandoning him tonight. Ethan says that he was just doing to Tyrus what Tyrus did to him on Impact… except the difference, Ethan emphasizes, is that Ethan is under no obligation to go to ringside with Tyrus, whereas Tyrus is obligated to be at ringside for Ethan because Ethan pays him. “I’m the boss. You’re just the help.”

EC III SEGMENT- Ethan comes out to the ring to explain his match. He notes that “between the Impact debut on Pop TV and tonight’s PPV, every other champion in TNA has put his or her title on the line in an open challenge so I’m going to have an open challenge, too! (*The crowd roars in approval, thinking they’re going to get to see a world title match*)… But the TNA World Heavyweight Title WON’T be on the line!
Ethan laughs at his own trolling of the fans. Then Tyrus’ music hits and Ethan gets scared and the announcers wonder if Tyrus is going to cash in the title shot he earned at Bound For Glory. Tyrus gets on the mic... and then he apologizes to Ethan for abandoning him on Impact, and says that he is out here to be at ringside and protect his boss.
Ethan accepts Tyrus’ apology and once again issues his open challenge, which is answered by Ken Anderson.

MR. ANDERSON vs. ETHAN CARTER III (w/Tyrus)-
Anderson gets a visual pinfall on Ethan, but Tyrus has the ref distracted. Ethan recovers and eventually picks up the win.

TNA KING OF THE MOUNTAIN TITLE MATCH: Mike Bennett(c) (w/Maria Kanellis) vs. Bobby Roode-
Bennett wins. Not sure if this should be clean or not.

THE WOLVES vs. KURT ANGLE & DREW GALLOWAY-
This is the Kurt Angle Farewell Tour, which means that Kurt is going out on his back after eating the Wolves’ finisher. Handshakes all around after the match.




Some directions that we will be heading in from here on out:

THE WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE:
We have already set up title chases for Anderson and Lashley, and have also started sowing the seeds for Tyrus turning babyface, which would involve him getting sick of Ethan’s constant verbal abuse and eventually cashing in his title shot on Ethan. This could lead to Ethan bringing in a new bodyguard (hopefully a younger one who is probably also cheaper and doesn’t have the “failed WWE character” stink all over him). You could even get an Ethan & New Bodyguard vs. Tyrus & Spud match out of this.
Matt Hardy could start an angle where he is frustrated and depressed that he didn’t win the World Title Series and regain the title that he rightfully won and he starts to regret the fact that he voluntarily gave up the title instead of trying to fight Ethan in court (let’s say Dixie even offered to pay for Matt’s legal fees) all because he was trying to do the right thing for the fans… but that turned out to not be the right thing for him. Matt would tease turning heel at about the time Jeff is ready to come back from his injury, which would lead to Jeff literally trying to knock some sense into Matt for his first match back (this seems pretty PPV quality, but depending on Jeff’s recovery schedule, this might have to wait until Slammiversary).

BOBBY ROODE & JAMES STORM:
The reason for getting Roode’s rematch for the KOTM Title out of the way on the PPV is because the real focus will be on the relationship between Storm and Roode. Storm will seem to have turned over a new leaf: On the second week of Impact on Pop TV he’ll beat Robbie E. clean and give him a respectful handshake afterwards, he’ll be nice to people backstage, save Roode from an angry EY, etc., etc.
He’ll try to apologize to the former members of the Revolution, but will have varying degrees of success. Manik will believe that Storm is genuine, Abyss will seem like he just doesn’t care one way or the other, and Mahabali Shera will not believe Storm at all (so we can still do the Storm vs. Shera match when the India tour is rescheduled). Those who believe that Storm’s repentance is sincere will dismiss Abyss as just being nihilistic since he has been betrayed so many times by now, and they will say that Shera was so deeply hurt by Storm’s manipulations (he thought the Revolution would be his first friends in this foreign country and that Storm would be his mentor, but Storm just used and abused him instead) that he will never trust James Storm no matter what Storm does- and that’s not a criticism of Shera, but more of a counterpoint to the relationship between Storm and Roode, which was so damaged when Roode himself turned on Storm and stole the world title from him…and yet Storm seems to have found it within himself to forgive Roode.
Or has he?
Those who don’t believe Storm will point to his manipulations of Mickie James last year to show that James Storm can be a VERY convincing liar. Maybe he is doing this as some sort of grand plan to get revenge on Roode?
One possible way to pay this off would be to have Bennett and Maria keep screwing Roode out of the KOTM Title in rematches until we set up one big last “no-rematches” match in which there is some point where Storm has the chance to betray Roode but doesn’t (Bennett would still retain the title, though not cleanly).

KOTM TITLE PICTURE:
I’m line babyfaces up for Bennett and have him cheat to beat them using dog and pony show stuff with first Maria and then eventually with Taven as well (maybe we build to a big PPV match where Maria is finally barred from ringside, but that’s when Taven debuts and interferes on Bennett’s behalf). One guy I would definitely build up for Bennett is Robbie E., who would be pushed as a hard-working underdog babyface and would get screwed out of the title once or twice before finally losing the feud due to Taven’s interference (maybe we make the “no rematches” stip almost a staple of Bennett’s title reign?). Robbie would still get some sort of victory in the end as he would branch off into feuding with Taven and would come out on top in that feud.

KNOCKOUTS TITLE:
Gail is the babyface champ. I’d push masked Mia Yim (with a different name) as an up-and-coming babyface while pushing Kong as a heel chasing the title. We’d build to a #1 contendership match between them with the size difference being the obvious selling point (maybe we could do a match between Yim and Rebel the week before to show that she is capable of beating a larger opponent… but Rebel is still not as large as Kong). Yim would win by roll-up, but Kong would attack her afterwards, then hit the Implant Buster and then rip her mask off. We wouldn’t be able to see her identity, but seeing who she really is would make Kong even angrier. Kong would go to get a chair, but Gail Kim would come out to make the save. Once Kong has been dealt with, Gail would go over to check on Yim and thus we would learn her true identity as one of the women who put Gail through so much hell last year.
We’d do a big sit-down interview with Mia Yim the next week where she tells her story. “Jade” from the Dollhouse isn’t really who she is. She just dressed and acted that way and followed Taryn’s commands because Taryn promised her she could get her a job with TNA. Jade isn’t even her real name. Her real name is Mia Yim and she’s been working the indies for X years and she idolizes Gail and she’s wanted to come to TNA for so long etc. etc. The story of their title match is all about how will Gail respond to this info and do we believe Mia or not. Gail wins clean, but she gives Mia a handshake afterwards (this is probably at the PPV, so let’s assume that we’ve also been building other women up as challengers for Gail- I think Brooke still needs her rematch, plus she pinned Gail in the World Title Series).

TAG TEAM TITLES:
Not really sure what to do with these. Maybe you can make Manik and Shera into a team and see what the Wolves can get out of Shera. You also have a match set up against Matt Hardy & Robbie E. because they each beat at least one Wolf in the World Title Series. Maybe you use the UK tapings to build up Spud and Mandrews as underdogs and give them the PPV Title shot.
Of course, this all becomes much easier after the PPV when we have established that the Beer Money reunion is legit, and will hopefully have Taven to team with Bennett, and will eventually also get the Hardy Boys back when Jeff heals up.

X-DIVISION TITLE:
I’d like to try to get Trevor Lee over as a young lion babyface, but I think would actually have his first real feud be with EY. I’m quite sure why, but it just feels like the right thing to do to get Lee over as a tough, crazy SOB, but more in the wild-man way than in the Jeff Hardy daredevil kind of way. I think getting Lee over like that will make him feel different than the usual X-Division guy, which is something the X-Division badly needs. I’d also be on the lookout for a heel I can really build around for babyfaces like Lee and Tigre Uno and Everett (when he’s healthy).

EVERYONE ELSE ON THE ROSTER:
Not really sure what I'd do with most of these guys. Eli Drake vs. Mr. Anderson should be an entertaining feud and should help start to push Drake up the card more.
Drew Galloway would be pushed heavily, though, and he would be the one to take the belt off of one of our top singles heels. I’m not sure when that would happen, but he should probably have a quick feud with Lashley to get his win back before that, though.
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Re: BRM Books the First Impact on Pop TV & Where To Go From There

Post by cero2k » Jan 6th, '16, 14:58

i think the only change i'd make is not have the KOTM title change on Impact and save it for the PPV, just to have something note worthy there. Maybe just have Roode and Bennett interact on Impact, Match on PPV and do Storm's return at the PPV too.

Having said that, i actually like the idea of Bennet vs Hardy after the series too
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Re: BRM Books the First Impact on Pop TV & Where To Go From There

Post by XIV » Jan 6th, '16, 15:08

Well, it'd would be less of a clusterfuck, doesn't leave the usual open-ended questions AND has the benefit of being a good show to start a few things and hope that new/casual fans will go "ooh I wanna see more of that, why are Roode & Storm shaking hands? Are they going after The Wolves? AND HOLY SHIT IT'S THE X-DIVISION!!! GIVE ME MORE OF THAT and hey look! The Hardys are still alive!"
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Re: BRM Books the First Impact on Pop TV & Where To Go From There

Post by Big Red Machine » Jan 6th, '16, 15:53

cero2k wrote:i think the only change i'd make is not have the KOTM title change on Impact and save it for the PPV, just to have something note worthy there. Maybe just have Roode and Bennett interact on Impact, Match on PPV and do Storm's return at the PPV too.
Storm's return needs to happen on the TV for a few reasons:
1. Storm needs to show up on the first show in order to use that to set the tone for where you're going. This is supposed to be a new beginning, and thus it should be the beginning of our story.
2. If you save it for the PPV, you are either going to run into continuity problems by having him appear on the PPV but not on the TVs that are airing for at least a month after the PPV, but are being taped on during the week, or you are going to spoil your big surprise by having him appear at the tapings, at which point it will get out anyway.
3. Related to the above, if he first shows up on the PPV but you also don't want to spoil the surprise, then you can't move the story forward for over a month because he won't be on TV.
4. Let's be honest: The big surprise moment at this show was James Storm showing up, not Mike Bennett's debut. If Bennett's debut was the only surprise debut/return on this show, then I'd be a little disappointed.
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Re: BRM Books the First Impact on Pop TV & Where To Go From There

Post by Big Red Machine » Jan 8th, '16, 08:05

Whoops. Totally forgot to mention that the whole point of the Storm-Bram stare-down spot on the PPV was so Bram could say that he looked into Storm's eyes and could see the evil there, which people would bring up as another point against Storm's turn being genuine.
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Re: BRM Books the First Impact on Pop TV & Where To Go From There

Post by XIV » Jan 8th, '16, 15:28

Big Red Machine wrote:Whoops. Totally forgot to mention that the whole point of the Storm-Bram stare-down spot on the PPV was so Bram could say that he looked into Storm's eyes and could see the evil there, which people would bring up as another point against Storm's turn being genuine.
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Re: BRM Books the First Impact on Pop TV & Where To Go From There

Post by Big Red Machine » Jan 9th, '16, 17:04

XIV wrote:
Big Red Machine wrote:Whoops. Totally forgot to mention that the whole point of the Storm-Bram stare-down spot on the PPV was so Bram could say that he looked into Storm's eyes and could see the evil there, which people would bring up as another point against Storm's turn being genuine.
"Embrace the hate"
Not so much that as "I know hate/evil/whatever when I see it, and I saw it James Storm's eyes.
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