BRM Reviews the 12/9/2015 episode of TNA Filler-Mania

[Big Red Machine]

TNA WORLD TITLE SERIES QUATERFINAL MATCH: Bobby Lashley vs. Mahabali Shera- 4.25/10
Lashley did the best he could, given his extremely green opponent.

TNA WORLD TITLE SERIES QUATERFINAL MATCH: Eric Young vs. Tigre Uno- 6/10
EY wastes time demanding that Tigre Uno leave the ring and forfeit the match… and Tigre Uno actually appeared to be ready to do just that. It’s a good thing EY called him a coward, because if he hadn’t Tigre might have just given up.
In various promos, EY decided to be xenophobic because cheap heat the only kind of heat he can get with this terrible “world class maniac” character.

TNA WORLD TITLE SERIES QUATERFINAL MATCH: Matt Hardy vs. Jesse Godderz- 7/10
Godderz worked the back. Matt was a good babyface.

JOSH MATTHEWS INTERVIEWS DIXIE CARTER- filler.
SOOOO generic. I also loved the way she said that they “started the year off in January in the UK” as if those big ultra-hyped debut on Destination America TV Tapings (you know- the first two months of TNA TV this year) had never happened. I presume the reason for this is because those tapings were so BDC-centric, and all of those guys are currently on the outs with TNA. Then she proceeded to talk about EC III’s actions at BFG. So much for a year in review.
Everything Dixie said after that point was either genric platitudes of stuff we’ve heard her say before about whoever wins this tournament deserves to win it because he will have worked so hard, etc. etc. They focused pretty much only on Matt Hardy and EC III.

She did announce that a new world champ would be crowned on January 5th in Bethlehem.

TWO COMPLETELY RANDOM MATCHES ARE ANNOUNCED FOR NEXT WEEK- Well… Roode vs. Anderson vs. Spud vs. Eddie Edwards looks promising.

TNA WORLD TITLE SERIES QUATERFINAL MATCH: Davey Richards vs. Ethan Carter III (w/Tyrus)- 7.5/10
EC III wasted time before the match telling Davey Richards that he would beat him. Davey then cut the only good promo of the show.

There was SOOOOOOOOOO MUCH FILLER on this show to the point where I just couldn’t enjoy it (aside from the Hardy vs. Godderz and Carter vs. Richards matches). They gave us several “previews” of an interview with Dixie Carter… and each of the PREVIEWS themselves were at least 45 seconds long. Even worse, this show committed the cardinal sin of filler- they showed the same video packages multiple times.
Another factor that hurt this show was the booking of the tournament. I think TNA sacrificed some unpredictability in this round in exchange for added unpredictability in the previous round, and with their only being four matches on this show, that really hurt it.


STUPID ANNOUNCER QUOTES:
1. Josh Matthews described the World Title Series run of Davey Richards- one half of the TNA World Tag Team Champions, and a man who Josh himself had previously said “could outwrestle 95%” of the world, as a “Cinderella story.”

[cero2k]

there was a lot of filler, but it wasn't bad or inappropriate filler IMO, I wouldn't have liked to see other non-tournament matches mixed in with these matches.

[Big Red Machine]

there was a lot of filler, but it wasn't bad or inappropriate filler IMO, I wouldn't have liked to see other non-tournament matches mixed in with these matches.

But it wasn't inappropriate filler, but it wasn't good filler, either, and any filler that isn't good is by definition bad. There is no such thing as "mediocre" filler.
This is a problem they created for themselves by squishing the entire first round into one week. If they had spread it over two weeks, combined with some non-tournament matches, it would have been much better. We're in for three more weeks of this.
The other problem is that, while some of the non-tournament matches will surely be good, they missed a big opportunity by not booking the tournament to use the earlier rounds to set up some of the matches that would be used to fill the shows as the remaining number of tournament matches dwindled. This should have been used to get up title defenses for Gail, Tigre Uno, and Roode or set up some sort of story that we could get into. Instead, they're just booking random matches. What's even the point of doing "Group X-Division vs. Group Future 4." Those are completely arbitrary distinctions that don't even matter anymore.