With TNA Sacrifice quickly approaching, another episode of “Impact” has come and gone. It was a show that technically featured six matches, but none of them lasted very long, including one that was over in just a few merciful seconds.
Below you’ll find our regular assessment of the episode’s highs and lows, where tonight, we discuss “Action” Mike Jackson, the visually appealing but all-too-brief world title face-to-face, and the overall rough state of TNA. There are things that didn’t quite make the cut, like Leon Slater’s promo aimed towards Eric Young and the opening match between Frankie Kazarian and Home Town Man, but you can best believe we’ll be talking about whatever the hell it was that OBD is serving out of her food truck.
For a more detailed rundown of the show, you can read our results page. Here and now, we’re getting into the things that made tonight’s “Impact” a little more bearable, and some of the moments that made us wish we weren’t watching.
Loved: Mike Jackson brings the action to Mr. Elegance
Of all of the things that occurred on this edition of “TNA Impact”, the match between Mr. Elegance and Mike Jackson was truly the absolute last thing I expected to be my favorite thing to come out of this episode – let alone TNA as a whole over the course of the last several weeks. Well, here we are now!
Yes, this may have been nothing more than a squash match at the end of the day and therefore wasn’t given a ton of television time. Yes, I also could’ve lived without the ODB appearance in the moments that followed the match and the pouring of the meat on Mr. Elegance that happened. Despite both of those things, I still found myself having a really good time watching Mr. Elegance and Jackson do their thing in the ring and thoroughly enjoyed every second of what was playing out in front of me. It was also really cool to see the live crowd be super into the match, as it added to the overall vibe of things and made something that was already fun to begin with that much more engaging and special.
Considering that Jackson is 76 years old, his performance in this match was also absolutely incredible. Had I not known his age, I probably wouldn’t have guessed it with how smooth he was in the ring and the various moves he pulled out such as the dive to the outside of the ring or walking across the top rope on two sides of the ring. I was blown away watching him still do his thing in the ring after all these years, and found it pretty inspiring to watch.
Written by Olivia Quinlan
Hated: Wasted TV time
With The System’s history of slimy actions, including mid-bout interferences and merciless attacks, a logical being would bar non-competing members from ringside ahead of a match, especially one that’s announced well in advance. A logical being would also preemptively bar The System members from ringside if a competitor is glaringly banged up (both in storyline and legitimately). Still, despite his decades of wrestling experience and familiarity with The System, Director of Authority Santino Marella didn’t enforce a ban until just moments before Brian Myers faced Moose.
Yes, Marella told them they’d be prohibited from surrounding the ringside area at some point backstage. Given their aforementioned pattern of behavior, though, did he actually think they’d listen?
This may be overcritical, but the time that the entire System spent posing, then being scolded by Marella near the ring could have been reserved for Myers’ match against Moose instead. After all, Myers is currently a number one contender to the TNA Tag Team Championships, taking on an injured and limping Moose. Shouldn’t he have at least lasted longer than eight seconds?
Television time is valuable in wrestling. In those particular moments, most of them seemed wasted.
Written by Ella Jay
Loved: Two incredible tag team matches this week
The tag team divisions on both the Knockouts and men’s sides were explosively awesome tonight! Now I’m one for a good tag team match, and between Dani Luna and Knockouts World Champion Arianna Grace versus The Angel Warriors, and The Nemeths against The Righteous, both certainly delivered the slobberknocker action we crave every Thursday night.
With the Knockouts match, I appreciated the nice and long time allowance it had. TNA has always taken great pride in its women’s division, and the match we saw tonight proved just how much appreciation this company has for its women. Watching the closer, and the tension that arose now that Grace will have to defend against Luna and Léi Yǐng Lee added a must-see tally ahead of their triple threat match next Friday at Sacrifice.
And over on the men’s side, it’s always fun to watch two brothers and former TNA World Tag Team Champions crush their competition. But it’s so hard to dislike the Righteous. Their unpredictable cult-like energy is so hypnotizing. You can’t look away. I’ll be the first to celebrate (by writing it here) when they win the world tag titles in the near future.
Two don’t blink tag team matches certainly made my night. Great job on the tag team matches, TNA!
Written by Brie Coder
Hated: Not enough time for the face-to-face confrontation
“War. What is it good for?” Dr. Death and Mayhem. But did we get enough time to see the face-to-face confrontation between Mike Santana and Steve Maclin, respectively, tonight? Not as much as I would’ve liked.
Now let me clarify here. For weeks now, I have loved the segments between these two. The storytelling they have is savagely enticing. However, when given the platform to sit across from one another, I was saddened how quick it was. I get it: It has an allotted time. But for a World Championship match set for Sacrifice, I was disappointed that we couldn’t hear either of them take more shots at each other.
Think about the WWE. CM Punk and Roman Reigns. Their in- ring diss battles have lasted, what, 20-30 minutes each time, give or take? Sure, Punk and Reigns have decades of history between them. But so do Santana and Maclin. I believe what was lacking tonight, will be made up in the ring when these two throw down next Friday. I believe we’ll see them both bring the best out of each other. My soul was craving more time to allow these two to butt heads tonight without the audience “What-ing” them or other interferences.
I do agree with my co-worker Max, that the cinematic feel this meeting had was stellar. TNA have always been champions in that realm. Just please, more time next time. Time should extend for Mayhem and Dr. Death.
Written by Brie Coder
Loved: Something interesting
TNA is becoming a bit of a slog to watch live each and every week, with nothing ever seeming to be really going on – at least nothing that feels in any way moving. However, there are always some glimmers of entertainment to be found from the USA’s number-three promotion, and this week they came as cinematic segments rather than anything inside the ring.
Firstly, there is something uniquely bizarre, random, yet all the more fascinating in the return/resurrection of Allie. Rosemary probably encapsulates all of those adjectives at the best of times and then there was a little cameo from Raven as well. What’s not to love about that? None of it really makes all the sense in the world, but neither does “Charmed” and I was equally locked into the hokey fantasy of it all.
Later on in the main event, TNA had a face-to-face between Mike Santana and his challenger Steve Maclin. But rather than holding it in the ring or backstage like so many before, they met at the booth of a bar where and enjoyed some liquor as they exchanged words.
It might have been befitting a single-season cop show pilot, but it was different and the attempt was welcome, especially since it closed the show it in a pretty clean way. It’s not much. But it is something. There is a resemblance of a show that could be interesting every week. Maybe a little more of this would be better.
Written by Max Everett
Hated: Is this it?
One glaring issue became clear to this writer during this week’s show within each international commercial break, with TNA showing off little snippets of its past and matches including the likes of Jordynne Grace, Roxanne Perez, and Deonna Purrazzo. The issue: it’s not great to leave the viewer feeling disappointed when those clips cut back to the live show.
There are little glimmers of brilliance to TNA, but it requires one to suffer through an entire load of sub-par storytelling and acting with no discernible direction.
The Elegance Brand is currently being positioned high on the card, while also having questionable-looking foodstuffs thrown on them by ODB and “Action” Mike Jackson. Mike Santana’s current challenger for the World title is a man who was fired via Feast or Fired, and he got his title shot – and job – by just refusing to accept that he was in fact fired. All while Daria Rae and Santino Marella tussle for whatever ceremonial power it is they hold, because TNA President Carlos Silva is a bit of a regular on programming.
Arianna Grace, a “WWE NXT” talent, is the Knockouts World Champion because of constant interference, reinforcing the fact that she maybe shouldn’t be the World Champion, as she does not really wrestle on “NXT.” Everything feels like a collation of the very worst of 2010s WWE programming applied to some legitimately great workers.
The show feels to be wrestling in its most fake form, a pantomime with tired punchlines and a waste of what could be quite great. And as said, it’s not like TNA isn’t capable of producing some really great TV when it gets it right. Leon Slater, Mike Santana, Nic Nemeth, Trey Miguel, Lei Ying Lee, and even Tessa Blanchard, all have something to them that could be utilized to make a truly good wrestling show, rather than focusing on making terrible jokes and conforming to the same bad habits that have never paid off for anyone.
Written by Max Everett
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