I'll give Impact this much. AJ Styles as Nature Boy mk III (how many people remember that Buddy Rogers was the first Nature Boy?) was awesome. It's the role he was born to play. Mr.
After that, it was boring at best. I mean, yeah, there was a lot more cringe-worthy material even on 1/4, but the show didn't feel like it had Russo's fingerprints all over it outside of the Orlando scr... fuck it, I will never refer to that as what they want me to refert to it as again. Still, it didn't feel like it had a competent touch behind it either. It felt like book by numbers with the wrong people going over and the wrong people being the focus of the program.
And then the schmozz ending to the main event. Okay, where do I start? For one, if you were going to rehash Montreal, wouldn't it have made sense to do it at the first submission hold AJ put on Angle, the figure four? Way to blow the kayfabe right out of the match, Hebner's not going to call for the bell on the first submission because it's not his cue, rather than trying to keep up some semblance like they care about not being totally exposed.
Secondly, they took everything STRAIGHT from the playbook the thing they were imitating. The event was a carbon copy, straight down to the referee doing the screwing. If you were trying to make people believe that this was a shoot, wouldn't the best way to go not be aping the first thing down to the tee?
Third... seriously, that should have ended the show. Not Bischoff coming down screaming that Mick Foley was fired. THIS SHOULD GO WITHOUT SAYING.
Fourth, you make it a point to come out and tell the mutants not to chant obscenities, and then let Angle drop F-bombs? Yeah, that'll show 'em!
Honestly, the narrative in TNA is all wrong right now. The roster's too big to the point where major players aren't appearing every week (where was Jeff Jarrett? where was Samoa Joe? where was Homicide? Amazing Red? Tara?), and they don't have the luxury of having three shows to disperse the talent they have. The focus is misplaced on The Band, Mick Foley, the Nasty Boys, i.e. old washed up guys who can't work anymore. My wife was watching with me and she asked "is everyone in this division old and out of shape?" How are you going to expect to attract new fans if this is the image you're projecting?
I'd say I give up, but for some reason, maybe out of duty, maybe because I feel like even though I'm a hobbyist blogger that I need to see everything I can of American wrestling, I'll be back next week to see what kind of horrors await. Who knows, maybe they'll get something right by accident eventually.
