Impact Wrestling
March 16, 2017

First thing we see is last week's post-show with Lashley talking shit to the Mexican fan in the crowd. Josh and Borash are still bickering to each other. We also got some footage of Prichard and Alberto arguing about the championship win. He may have cheated, but they're making cases to think that Alberto should keep the title. Finally we get the video they released mid-week with the Impact bosses forcing Alberto to give back the title. Basically the same Bayley story, but Alberto did stay babyface. New regime bosses also don't have the power to make title matches for some reason. Not good. Here we go...

We got another recap of last week's show, but an overall recap. It was a great recap package, like really good, but we JUST saw the post-stuff of the whole recap. If they had shown it backwards, could have been good.

Ok, finally the show is on....

Alberto El Patron Promo - There is ONE really loud kid that hates Alberto. He cuts a promo about how he proved the fans and the office that he deserves to be the champ. This is super babyface fire Alberto, but c'mon, we all saw you use the belt to win that match last week. He calls out Lashley, but out comes....

ECIII Promo - Kinda the same thing as last week, but this time, instead of just talking, he challenges Alberto to a Si vs 3 match. Alberto rejects the idea and talks down on ECIII, then he goes all babyface, ugh, i'm seriously confused here. Either they'll work towards a super burial of the Carter family. ECIII gets personally, brings out his inner Eddie, and tells him he has No Mas Testicles. "No Cojones" vs "Yes He Does" chant battle. Patron STILL rejected fighting ECIII until Ethan had to get physical. And we got a pull off. ECIII gets his match later tonight. Good segment, but Alberto tweening is seriously confusing.

Impact Bosses Address the Tag Title Situation - This happened during the week. They all understand that Decay have the titles, but since they only got knowledge of the exchange by what Decay's story was, they're not just going to accept them as champions. Prichard says he 'got this'.

Tyrus/Eli Drake Saga Recap - Ok recap.

Eli Drake and Tyrus vs Laredo Kid and Garza Jr. - 6.5/10
Kuddos for Impact hooking up these guys, I don't know how good their english is, but Garza is money. Even with a roll up win, this was a good showing for the Mexicans, fans have no idea who they are, but they were exited about having some Lucha on Impact, so I'd say it was a good move to bring some legit luchadors to the roster. Match was good, Laredo was a babyface in peril after Tyrus had control of the match, bad hot tag from Garza. Both teams were pushed as 'top contenders' interested in the tag titles.

During this match, Borash and Josh officially announced the relationship between The Crash and Impact Wrestling.

((The bickering between Borash and Josh is still there, but it has really calmed down))

Recap of Moose, Storm, and Eddie in Pro Wrestling NOAH - Great PR package, good promos by all three guys. Lot of name drops of the NOAH roster, unfortunately, we didn't get actual match footage.

Kayci Quinn vs Brandi Rhodes - DUD, great segment.
Well, hello there Kayci. she's a looker, like wow. Before the match can start, Cody Rhodes interrupts and says that this match is not taking place. Impact is not going pimp out the name Rhodes. Cody offers to pay off Kayci to take off

Cody: Here's 40 dollars, it's 20 more than what they were going to pay you... - AWESOME!

Kaicy doesn't take the money. Cody hijacks and starts cutting a promo on Moose being in Japan. He challenges Moose to a Grand Championship Match. Cody orders Brandi to leave with him. Kayci wins her debut match by forfeit, right?!

Back from commercial, Rosemary came out and beat the living shit out of Kayci. She's kinda green, but took the Red Wedding like a champ. Medics check on her. Seriously, she is beautiful.

During the show (last week too) they showed these little "Make Impact Great Again" interviews with some guys, this week we saw Eddie Edwards, Madison Rayne, Moose, and ECIII. Most were meh, but I really liked ECIII's, he said the same thing critics have been saying that he has been making Impact great since he arrived and it kinda showed how he really turned a lot of things around when he debuted. His character is really become a big thing for Impact.

Ethan Carter III vs Alberto El Patron - 8/10
Kinda surprising this is happening at this point of the show. This felt at times more like a brawl than a match. Alberto worked ECIII's arm/shoulder and he did a great job selling it. This was a really good match that was kinda hurt by commercials and the unnecessary dramatic introduction of a chair (wasn't used, but still), but I did like Alberto playing possum, it kinda serves ECIII right. ECIII definitely lost because he didn't capitalize.

Post-match - Alberto shows respect to ECIII, he kneels and claps for him, he puts ECIII over big. Code of Honor followed.

Reno Scum Promo - Good promo, I really enjoy their promo voices and energy.

Backstage we see ECIII pissed off, Prichard trying to calm him down. I guess ECIII didn't appreciate Alberto's respect.

Suicide Return Vignette - Sure, why not, whatever. I just wanna know who is underneath the mask this time. Also, why not Manik? Also, we already know that Perkins WAS Suicide last time, are we just going to assume it's the same person and not say anything?

X-Division Championship Match
Suicide vs Andrew Everett vs Braxton Sutter w/Allie vs Trevor Lee w/Gregory Shane Helms - 7/10
Man, this really felt like old school X-Division. Great action from all 4 guys, the new suicide was really good. We got a bunch of those one-on-two moves that look cool, we got a really unique version of the tower of doom. At one point Van Ness came out through the crowd like a zombie and attacked Allie, Sutter got distracted at this and Lee used it to take him out for the win.

Post-Match - AK-47 Sienna came out. She is coming for vengeance for what those two did to Maria. Awesome promo. "Romeo and Juliet always come to their tragic demise."

Bruce Prichard Addresses the Tag Title Situation - He says that titles are won inside the ring (no Falls Count Anywhere matches in Impact I guess). In two weeks, the top 4 teams are fighting for the titles. This brings out...

Decay - Pretty much said that they got the titles from The Hardys and Prichard SHOULD give them what they deserve. Out comes....Reno Scum, not much of a promo, they've only defeated DCC. Talking about only having one win, out comes Garza and Laredo Kid. Laredo cuts a promo in Spanish, Garza in English, good English actually. Brawl starts and Decay clear the ring. Suddenly...

BAANG BANG BANG!! LAX!!! Konnan and Homicide are back!! And they've got younger back up!!

Konnan Promo - They're back! LAX is now Konnan, Homicide, a girl called Diamante (FKA Angel Rose), and the team of Ortiz and Santana (FKA Angel Ortiz and Mike Draztik, EYFBO). Technically, LAX could go for all the titles.

Borash closes the show saying, next week, "She'll be here", holy fuck, is it Shelob the Spider!?

OVERALL THOUGHTS:
A much better show than last week's. We got some better direction with the tag division, the Allie/Sienna/Van Ness story properly continues, got some developments with Alberto/Lashley/ECIII, and KC Quinn debuted! (I'm gonna write KC, Kayci looks dumb). Josh and Borash kept it really civil this show too, so it's all good. oh yeah, AND FUCKING LAX IS BACK VATO!

Only three matches; one of them didn't have a clean finish and another had overbooking. Is it really that hard for them to cleanly?

Suicide is probably some random luchadore lol, or DJ Z since he wasn't in the match lol

KILLdozer wrote:Suicide is probably some random luchadore lol, or DJ Z since he wasn't in the match lol

Right. I don't understand why they continue to use this idiotic character that no one could possibly care about as opposed to just letting the person under the mask be himself.

Big Red Machine wrote:Only three matches; one of them didn't have a clean finish and another had overbooking. Is it really that hard for them to cleanly?

they were both technically clean finishes. ECIII didn't use the chair and Alberto won for being smarter than ECIII, and the X Division one, Van Ness attacked Allie, but match wise, Lee won cleanly. Sutter got distracted by something not even in the match or affecting him directly. Overbooking, i guess, kinda, but at least it was more of a distraction than someone actually getting involved in the match directly, which i find a whole lot less frustrating.

Big Red Machine wrote:

KILLdozer wrote:Suicide is probably some random luchadore lol, or DJ Z since he wasn't in the match lol

Right. I don't understand why they continue to use this idiotic character that no one could possibly care about as opposed to just letting the person under the mask be himself.

it's the only character they own 100%, they're probably gonna make some merch or something. I'm ok with the character, but why did they go back to the dumb 'suicide' name, it's not a name that looks good

cero2k wrote:

Big Red Machine wrote:

KILLdozer wrote:Suicide is probably some random luchadore lol, or DJ Z since he wasn't in the match lol

Right. I don't understand why they continue to use this idiotic character that no one could possibly care about as opposed to just letting the person under the mask be himself.

it's the only character they own 100%, they're probably gonna make some merch or something. I'm ok with the character, but why did they go back to the dumb 'suicide' name, it's not a name that looks good

And do they really think people are going to buy freakin' Suicide merch? This is something ROH does, too, and it drives me nuts. They'll waste time and money designing merch for complete and total undercard loser characters who are portrayed in such a way that no one could possibly care about. Who the hell is going to by a t-shirt for the f*cking Rebellion? No one.
TNA and ROH both need to realize that they're not WWE. They can't demand exclusivity on contracts and they can't try to make all of this merch just for the sake of having it because they're just not at that level.

I still remember when they said he was literally "a video game character that came to life."

That was nice.

KILLdozer wrote:I still remember when they said he was literally "a video game character that came to life."

That was nice.

Yeah. In f*cking 2008. They thought people would think that was cool. LOL.

Big Red Machine wrote:

KILLdozer wrote:I still remember when they said he was literally "a video game character that came to life."

That was nice.

Yeah. In f*cking 2008. They thought people would think that was cool. LOL.

I figured more along the lines of "Biggest insult to the intelligence of wrestling fans ever."

KILLdozer wrote:

Big Red Machine wrote:

KILLdozer wrote:I still remember when they said he was literally "a video game character that came to life."

That was nice.

Yeah. In f*cking 2008. They thought people would think that was cool. LOL.

I figured more along the lines of "Biggest insult to the intelligence of wrestling fans ever."

in 2008, if you had the video game, i could totally see how it was appealing. Again, in 2008, i actually was into him, maske wrestler, x division, we knew Daniels was under the mask, and that cool entrance.

It's cool up until the point where they want me to believe that the dude on screen is a freakin' "video game character come to life." Not even WWE ever asked us to believe something like that.

It was also a pretty obnoxiously transparent marketing ploy. I think it would have worked better if they had pushed Suicide for a few months and then announced that he was in the video game.

Big Red Machine wrote:It's cool up until the point where they want me to believe that the dude on screen is a freakin' "video game character come to life." Not even WWE ever asked us to believe something like that.

It was also a pretty obnoxiously transparent marketing ploy. I think it would have worked better if they had pushed Suicide for a few months and then announced that he was in the video game.

Yeah, I'm not sure how you really get around the whole "making a wrestler out of a video game character." Like you said, do you just subtlety mention there's a guy in a video game that he's based off of...Or what? Lol

KILLdozer wrote:

Big Red Machine wrote:It's cool up until the point where they want me to believe that the dude on screen is a freakin' "video game character come to life." Not even WWE ever asked us to believe something like that.

It was also a pretty obnoxiously transparent marketing ploy. I think it would have worked better if they had pushed Suicide for a few months and then announced that he was in the video game.

Yeah, I'm not sure how you really get around the whole "making a wrestler out of a video game character." Like you said, do you just subtlety mention there's a guy in a video game that he's based off of...Or what? Lol

I don't think that was ever meant to be literal you guys

cero2k wrote:

KILLdozer wrote:

Big Red Machine wrote:It's cool up until the point where they want me to believe that the dude on screen is a freakin' "video game character come to life." Not even WWE ever asked us to believe something like that.

It was also a pretty obnoxiously transparent marketing ploy. I think it would have worked better if they had pushed Suicide for a few months and then announced that he was in the video game.

Yeah, I'm not sure how you really get around the whole "making a wrestler out of a video game character." Like you said, do you just subtlety mention there's a guy in a video game that he's based off of...Or what? Lol

I don't think that was ever meant to be literal you guys

Then why would you promote the guy like that? Do they really think that this character we've never seen before in a stupid costume would be better publicity for the video game that AJ Styles, Sting, or Kurt Angle?

Big Red Machine wrote:

cero2k wrote:

KILLdozer wrote:
Yeah, I'm not sure how you really get around the whole "making a wrestler out of a video game character." Like you said, do you just subtlety mention there's a guy in a video game that he's based off of...Or what? Lol

I don't think that was ever meant to be literal you guys

Then why would you promote the guy like that? Do they really think that this character we've never seen before in a stupid costume would be better publicity for the video game that AJ Styles, Sting, or Kurt Angle?

they all were publicity back in 2008,suicide wasn't even in the cover of the game, but if the gimmick first appeared in the game, why not just say that it was based on the video game character. This is like believing that the Undertaker is a dead person

Yeah, I just understand don't understand how we were supposed to see it as anything else. I actually played and completed the game so I wasn't sure lol.

Bt

cero2k wrote:

Big Red Machine wrote:

cero2k wrote:I don't think that was ever meant to be literal you guys

Then why would you promote the guy like that? Do they really think that this character we've never seen before in a stupid costume would be better publicity for the video game that AJ Styles, Sting, or Kurt Angle?

they all were publicity back in 2008,suicide wasn't even in the cover of the game, but if the gimmick first appeared in the game, why not just say that it was based on the video game character. This is like believing that the Undertaker is a dead person

Undertaker... is a relic from another age. Because WWE has never, ever said "The Undertaker is a zombie. He used to be deceased but he is now alive again." TNA flat-out said "it's the character from TNA's video game come to life."
And with the possible exception of TJP, the guy in the big goofy suit always had a lot more personality than this idiotic idea of "Suicide" ever did.

Big Red Machine wrote:Undertaker... is a relic from another age. Because WWE has never, ever said "The Undertaker is a zombie. He used to be deceased but he is now alive again." TNA flat-out said "it's the character from TNA's video game come to life."
And with the possible exception of TJP, the guy in the big goofy suit always had a lot more personality than this idiotic idea of "Suicide" ever did.

i mean, the dude has super powers.

"it's the character from TNA's video game come to life." doesn't literally mean that he gained life and a body somehow, it's just the gimmick that was once a video game character was now being portrayed IRL

cero2k wrote:

Big Red Machine wrote:Undertaker... is a relic from another age. Because WWE has never, ever said "The Undertaker is a zombie. He used to be deceased but he is now alive again." TNA flat-out said "it's the character from TNA's video game come to life."
And with the possible exception of TJP, the guy in the big goofy suit always had a lot more personality than this idiotic idea of "Suicide" ever did.

i mean, the dude has super powers.

"it's the character from TNA's video game come to life." doesn't literally mean that he gained life and a body somehow, it's just the gimmick that was once a video game character was now being portrayed IRL

Which is stupid, too. "HEY EVERYONE! THIS IS A N ACTOR PLAYING A CHARACTER AND IT'S NOT REAL ALL AT ALL!" How the hell is that supposed to get Suicide over?
The use of the character created absolutely zero interest in the TNA video game, had no chance of getting over, was done at the expense of guys who would have gotten over as themselves, and was presented in such a way that many fans thought they were being told that a video game character had come to life. Nothing about it was a good idea.