BRM Reviews the 6/14/2012 Impact

[Big Red Machine]

THE BOUND FOR GLORY SERIES IS BACK- oh come on! We all know that Storm is going to win (or, at least, we would if TNA were booked by someone competent, so I guess it's not really a lock).

ULTIMATE X- MATCH FOR THE TNA X-DIVISION TITLE: Austin Aries(c) vs. Chris Sabin vs. Zema Ion- 6/10
Nothing says "this stipulation is a big deal" like having it unadvertised, opening the show, and not even showing the entrances of the challengers for the title. And it's not like the first Ultimate X-match in almost a year should be a big deal or anything. the thing that just pissed me off the most was Tenay saying (paraphrasing) 'tweet all of your friends and tell them that there is an ultimate X match right now!' The thought that ran through my head was "maybe if you would competently hype matches like this, my friends would be tuning in on their own because they wanted to see the match, rather than me having to do your job for you and them missing the beginning of the match!"

To make matters worse, it looks like Sabin may have hurt his knee.

AUSTIN ARIES PROMO & SEGMENT WITH HULK HOGAN- great promo by Aries. Then Hogan comes out and we cut to commercial... and I guess it took Hulk the entire commercial break to make it down to the ring because when we got back from the commercial break, he hadn't started talking yet. Then Hogan put Aries over strong... then says that he can't have someone be the champion of two divisions, so, if Aries wants a shot at Bobby Roode, he will need to vacate the X-Division Title. No explanation of why it is impossible is given, and the logical solution of doing a Goldberg-style thing where if Aries wins the World Title, he will vacate the lesser title if completely ignored.

JOSEPH PARK & BULLY RAY SEGMENT- eh.

TNA TELEVISION TITLE MATCH: Devon(c) vs. Hernandez- 5.25/10

AJ & DIXIE BACKSTAGE- So the only possible way that Dixie can explain this secret away to everyone is if she does it on TV? Because that makes sense. It's not as if she owns a company where she could just tape a video of herself and air it on the website, or put out a press release or something. And even if she didn't, why can't she just buy a webcam and post a video on youtube (you know, like the average teenager who doesn't have ultra-rich parents does)?

BOUND FOR GLORY SERIES GAUNTLET MATCH- 6/10
They're calling it a "gauntlet" but it is really just a battle royale. Christy tells us that it is "scheduled for one fall," which it isn't, because it is a battle royale with a lot of people.
I will, however, give TNA some credit here, as this was a great idea to reveal the competitors in an an exciting manner.
POPE IS BACK! YAY! Apparently, all of these months, Pope has been (according to Tenay) doing TV and movies. So one of your wrestlers has been doing this "mainstream" stuff Bischoff and Dixie seem to love so much... and they never once mention it on the air?
And Robbie E. somehow got put into the Bound For Glory Series? How the hell does that make any kayfabe sense at all. The guy keeps losing and has no star-power whatsoever! the only kayfabe explanation I can come up with for why Robbie E. keeps getting all of these big matches is if he is either blackmailing or screwing Hulk Hogan or Dixie Carter (oh, wait, they're already doing an angle like that).

JAMES STOR PROMO- great

BOBBY ROODE PROMO- great

AJ STYLES & KURT ANGLE SEGMENT- okay segment. I think this would have been much better if they had lost a non-title match first.

MADISON RAYNE vs. BROOKE TESSMACHER- 1/10
Ridiculously short.

BROOKE HOGAN & GAIL KIM SEGMENT- I actually enjoyed this. If you wanted to establish Brooke as being someone who will stand up to the talent, this was a good way to do it.

TNA WORLD HRAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH: Bobby Roode(c) vs. Mr. Anderson- 6.75/10
Very good match.

AJ & DIXIE BACKSTAGE- so we will finally get some answers next week.

RECAPPING THE ENTIRE SHOW- what was the point of this? This time should have been given to the main event.

STING PROMO- bad. Sting says that he “had one goal, and that was to take a big chunk out of Bobby Roode.” So winning the TNA World Heavyweight Title wasn’t important?

Then three guys jump the guardrail and attack Sting and security is nowhere in sight. And where the hell were the wrestlers? You just played this video package with guys like AJ, Angle, Devon, Gunner, Joe, Aries, etc putting Sting over and talking about how Sting is such a legend… you’d think someone might want to come help this legend.

Overall, an eh episode of Impact with some major logical hiccups.

[cero2k]

i enjoyed the show. it had some ups and downs, but i found it overall watchable.

[Big Bad Booty Daddy]

Im amazed that neither Taz nor Tenay mentioned that Abyss, had somehow lost his beard since he had gone missing. Because lets face it both have said worse =))

[Big Red Machine]

Im amazed that neither Taz nor Tenay mentioned that Abyss, had somehow lost his beard since he had gone missing. Because lets face it both have said worse =))

I didn't notice this either.