Category: Wrestling Television Musings

Impact (February 8th, 2024) – A So-So Show Highlights A Morbid Weekend

Coming out of a miserable weekend on the personal side of things, but fortunately, we have another episode of TNA Impact to bring some much needed good vibes to an otherwise morbid period… never did I ever think I’d be describing TNA or Impact as anything involving “good vibes.” This truly is a new era.

Well, until the next set of tapings come along, that is… then we’ve got another “new” era of TNA to endure since the departure of one of its key figures, but we’ll save that discussion for later down the road. I’d like to keep things a little upbeat for the moment.

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Impact (February 1st, 2024) – Settling Into A Groove

Could it be? Another weekly IMPACT musings?!

Why, yes… yes, it can…

This show is easy to watch, you’ll get a couple decent matches out of it, and for what it’s worth, the few little angles that they’ve got going on here and there aren’t that difficult to follow. I will admit that the shows have settled into a groove and probably won’t hit the heights experienced with that initial outing, but hey, so long as the shows are entertaining enough and fly by quickly, I’m more than content with that.

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AEW Dynamite (Jan. 31st, 2024): Undisputed Boredom

This is going to be short because I’ve got very little to say about this show. Not even gonna bother with a banner.

Jon Moxley beat Jeff Hardy in the opening match… I’d want to say that this is a big deal, but when was the last time Jeff Hardy was used in any meaningful way? I do like that Mox went for a handshake after the match and Jeff flipped him off… I laughed. This followed by Hangman Page getting a win over some guy I’ve never heard of, but this is supposed to be Swerve Strickland’s chosen opponent for Page to continue that feud. The match was okay in a vacuum, but clearly nobody figured Hangman was losing this one.

The Young Bucks – sporting goatees to get away from the creep mustaches – fine an intern for getting their names wrong… I wonder if they’re going to extend that to special favors backstage to really push this tired joke further. And speaking of tired jokes, Wardlow almost kills the Kommander with a power bomb that even I could tell looked a bit. I know they signed this big Kommander guy so he could lose a lot, but that doesn’t mean kill him outright.

And speaking of killing things… the Undisputed Kingdom of jobbers come out to beat up on poor Kommander until Orange and Friends come along to save the day. By the way, I know it’s been a while since I last watched an episode of AEW, but weren’t these Kingdom guys doing comedy bits the last time I saw them on TV or something? And now I’m supposed to buy them as the next big super heel group? Seriously, guys?

Chris Jericho, fresh off the Jericruise and looking somewhat “out of it” as a result, defeated some guy. Former TNA wrestler Deonna Purrazzo defeated Taya Valkyrie while Timeless Toni was on commentary talking about titties or something, so clearly that was the thing you’re supposed to be paying attention to… I can at least say that for the moment, this gimmick is still somewhat likeable. And then in the main event, Swerve beat RVD in a hardcore match. And then we have a confrontation between Swerve, Hangman, and Joe.

Yeah, so this was playing a less-than-full crowd and it sort of explains while AEW has been playing to less-than-full crowds as of late. Tony probably should’ve gotten pointers from TNA on how to make a near-empty arena look full because they used to be really good at that. Not the worst show I’ve seen, but I was bored through most of it, so…

Next week, Tony Khan has a big announcement.

To quote a great man, “that’ll put butts in them seats.”

Impact (January 25th, 2024) – All This And Okada, Too…

Yes, your eyes do not deceive you. We’re doing another episode of TNA Impact.

Before anyone asks, yeah, I’m making the point to publish these every Monday morning since I tend to watch these show during the weekend. Also, not having to do a post the day after allows me to reflect on things a little more… and sometimes, I do need to reflect on things a little more.

Continue reading “Impact (January 25th, 2024) – All This And Okada, Too…”

Impact (January 18th, 2024) – Here We Go Again…

For those who didn’t get the memo… TNA Wrestling is in the midsts of a brand new era… again.

And yes, I can call it TNA Wrestling because they changed BACK to TNA Wrestling after years of calling themselves IMPACT Wrestling. And to be fair, I probably wasn’t the only person who was still calling them TNA. And so with a big name change, we invariably need

Technically speaking, this new era began with the Hard To Kill PPV that took place a couple months back, where they crowned a bunch of new champions and also featured the TNA debut of one Nic Nemeth a.k.a. the former Dolph Ziggler. Not even one show out of the woodworks and we’re already hiring WWE rejects.

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Want More AEW Musings? Get Tony Khan Off Twitter.

So I was going to sit down and watch the latest edition of Dynamite that I have recorded on PVR; the episode was supposed to be really good and I wanted to support new AEW World Champion Samoa Joe on his long-deserved World title run on a major wrestling show. I like to be able to enjoy the Hangman Page/Claudio match, which was a tremendous bit of action. I want to be able to enjoy the Brodie Lee Tribute 8-Man match, which was loads of fun. There’s stuff I want to enjoy that I thought were pretty good and I wanted to write about all of that.

But I really don’t want to reward bad behavior.

Tony Khan is a madman on Twitter, bitching about people complaining about Hook getting a title shot at Samoa Joe’s world title while no one is batting an eye over perennial loser Jinder Mahal getting a World title shot out of the blue. I say madman because from what I’ve seen, NOBODY is complaining about Hook getting a title shot and a great MAJORITY of people are wondering why a guy who hasn’t won a match in over a year is getting a World title opportunity on RAW, even if it is the consolation prize World title held by Seth Rollins. I would very much like to see this part of the world where nobody is hindering Jinder and everyone is shitting on Hook.

TK thinks he’s being clever by bitching about something online that the other guys are doing and then he sneaks in a tweet hyping up his big show. The problem with that strategy – and something that is EASILY verifiable by even the most inept social media user – is that the end result is everyone making fun of TK and calling him a fucking tool because he let one bad tweet get to him. He thinks that every bit of social media that doesn’t immediately praise him or his booking as what the cool kids call “god tier” is an attack on his very being. Is this his way of fearing for his online life or is this more of those anti-AEW bots that he likes to bring up every so often?

I wanted to give Dynamite another run. I was actually looking forward to it. But then TK had to go and be a fucking Twitter fool and now that’s all I’m thinking about. AEW has some issues that need fixing and one of them involves the guy on top. Keep him off Twitter or on a tight leash where he’s doing nothing but promoting matches on his shows and I might give this another try. I’m done with backstage drama tainting the wrestling shows I watch. I would very much like to enjoy these shows unhindered.

No pun intended.

AEW Dynamite (Dec. 27th, 2023): The Devil Is This Poop?

Tuned into AEW for the first time in what seems like months and what do I get for my efforts?

– The finals of the Continental Classic is going to be another match between Jon Moxley and Eddie Kingston at AEW’s New Year’s Eve Eve PPV this Saturday, which I’m sure will be a nice bloody affair and those guys will absolutely maim each other for the opportunity of carrying three shiny belts that mean absolutely fuck all. (Seriously, why do we need more belts?)

– With Swerve out of any title picture, we’ll finally getting that Swerve vs. Keith Lee match that every one of YOU (not me – I don’t care either way) have been clamoring for. Hey, no knock of Swerve; the guy’s got a great main event feature if anyone is willing to pull the trigger on him, but him and Keith Lee going at it seemingly years after their deal mattered means nothing at this point. But hey, a payoff long past its due date isn’t completely alien to AEW these days.

– This Devil storyline is still going on? Does anybody really give a shit at this point? There were a couple points beforehand where the devil should have been revealed and we’re STILL doing this shit?

– By the way, speaking of belts that don’t matter, your new ROH tag titles are the masked mystery men that nobody cares about.

I don’t want to rail on this show entirely; you had good matches in Mox/Swerve/White and Danielson/Kingston. Statlander/Blue was also pretty good even with the hokey finish and the fact that your TBS title program is the battle of the scary ladies (I’d do a Cornette Face, but that’d be feeding the Cult Of Corntards, so I’ll refrain), and Le Sex Gods reuniting so we’d have SOME title match for Starks and Big Bill is a nice, wholesome Boxing Day moment… but fuck me, this Devil shit needs to die in 2023. It’s already occupied a spot in the Losers Of 2023 listing and I’ve only watched ONE show involving this shit.

AEW Dynamite (April 5th, 2023): Tony’s Big Announcement

Well, that was certainly a “big” announcement.

So a couple things happened on last night’s edition of Dynamite. AEW had signed Jay White of Bullet Club fame to an #AllElite contract and aligned himself with Rock Hard Juice in the latter’s feud against Absolute Ricky Starks, which was almost expected despite rumors that he might sign with WWE – I guess word of Vince being back in the saddle changed his mind. Either that, or he watched Mania… or the RAW After Mania.

FTR won back the AEW World Tag Titles, putting a merciful end to this Gunns experiment. Meanwhile, Women’s Champ Jamie Hayter retained over Riho and a good match, House Of Black retained their Trios titles over the Best Friends – I guess the almighty SUE wasn’t enough of a motivator, but the match was fun at least. Sammy beat some commander and made pot shots at Cody, which is the wrestling equivalent of kicking a puppy; sure, it’s horrible, but at least one person found it funny… oh, and Hangman Page got a screwdriver stuck to his eyeball courtesy of Bryan Danielson. Well, that’s a screwjob driven to the ground if I do say so myself.

As far as Tony Khan’s VERY IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT… well, they brought Nigel McGuiness on board… but the actual announcement is that they’re gonna run All In (yes, ALL IN) from London… from WEMBLEY STADIUM… this coming August 27th. Okay, I will admit that. That was a BOLD announcement and I wish them all the best. However, I also notice that date falls a week before Labor Day weekend, which is traditionally when AEW holds their annual ALL OUT PPV. And then a week or so after that, they usually hold the annual Dynamite from Authur Ashe Stadium in New York. That’s going to be quite a juggling act to build all those shows up and get people to care about them… unless there’s something else in the works that we don’t know about.

Beyond that, the show was… just there. A couple fun matches here and there, but then you’ve got stuff like MJF Day which put me to sleep, the Outcasts cutting another promo that is giving me serious Divas segment vibes – that is NOT a good thing, by the way – and just a really nothing happening show at the moment with nothing of note worthy of keeping my attention on a weekly basis. That said, we’ll see if anything interesting pops up during the build to Double Or Nothing, but for now, I’m taking that extended break.