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I watched the show yesterday and i can't stop thinking about how truly awful it was
The show opened with Davey Richards and Eddie Edward brawling in the crowd - this was the highlight of the show.
The show immediately went down hill as Jeremy Borash was introduced as an announcer, and Josh Matthews lost his shit. This whole angle is so bizarre. The jist of it is basically: JB comes out and says the new owners want some excitement from the announcers, and buries Josh for being a wwe robot announcer who should have never got the job. OK, fair enough. But Josh doesn't leave! We now have a 3 man booth! And it is the worst commentating you've ever heard. Josh and JB bicker for the remainder of the show. JB keeps saying no one likes Josh and he doesn't know wrestling, josh keeps saying JB doesn't speak to a GLOBAL AUDIENCE and is a jabroni etc. Now this would have been infuriating to watch for just one segment, but to have them basically do it the entire show was down right sadistic. You know commentary was bad when you can say, with a straight face "The pope was best commentator on the show".
The other thing that was weird about this angle was that Josh was buried for being a WWE guy being replaced for a real TNA original like JB. Which totally makes sense and would be fine. But later in the show Bruce fucking Prichard shows up. A guy historically known for being one of Vince McMahon's biggest yes men. Also a man who was in TNA before and was largely responsible for everyone's favorite angle, Aces & 8s. Well this dude shows up. He cuts a promo on how TNA is dead, long live impact wrestling. Impact wrestling is going to be great cause ol' Bruce knows greatness. Bruce was there for Hogan, Austin, The Rock, Cena...you know, WWE guys. Basically Prichard comes out, buries TNA's entire history saying it was never great, and will make it great because he worked for WWE. AND HE'S A BABYFACE. So while I am to hate Matthews (which granted, is very easy) for being a WWE cast off, ol' Bruce is a big babyface for exactly the same reasons. I guess people really do like his podcast.
Then later in the show, Dutch Mantell came out. He was doing his WWE gimmick, right down to riding the scooter and saying "we the people". He basically says that while this is first time on camera, he was here years ago when TNA had the likes of AJ STYLES, SAMOA JOE, BOBBY ROODE, KURT ANGLE, CHRISTIAN AND STING. You know, guys you won't be seeing here, at all! It was especially rich that he lead off with Styles, Joe and Roode - 3 guys who were never used to their abilities in TNA but have become big stars in WWE. Again, Dutch is a babyface for mentioning how good the roster was.
You may have noticed that I have not mentioned any wrestling yet, and that's because all the matches were a complete after thought. Reno scum debuted and were buried by Josh Matthews the whole time. They beat the DCC who are going away, because apparently Eddie Kingston isn't up to the new standards. There was a 4 way x division match which in classic tna fashion set nothing up, developed no character and was basically filler. There was a women's match between Siena and Rachel Ellering where the commentary was so bad they just muted for about 45 seconds.
And lastly there was the main event. The debuting Alberto El Patron wrestled Lashley for the title. Now again, this could have been a great way to re-estblish impact. You have Alberto come in as a WWE guy and lose to your champion Bobby Lashley, showing that impact guys can go with the big dogs (say what you want about Lashley being a WWE guy but impact has really built him as their guy). But of course, they do a double ref bump dusty finish and Alberto leaves with the title in CONTROVERSIAL FASHION~!
Impact wrestling keeps changing their name, their logo, their roster, their channel...pretty much everything but the content. And I know at this point I shouldn't be surprised, but this was a painfully bad show. Not bad in the same way Raw is, where it's just not enjoyable. But actively destructive to your brand. You spent 2 hours tearing down the old TNA - but what are you replacing it with? Reno scum matches? Matt Morgan? How is that making impact great again?
I never thought I'd write this much about TNA again in my life but I just couldn't get over this show.
tl:dr impact is bad and keeps making the same mistakes.
The show opened with Davey Richards and Eddie Edward brawling in the crowd - this was the highlight of the show.
The show immediately went down hill as Jeremy Borash was introduced as an announcer, and Josh Matthews lost his shit. This whole angle is so bizarre. The jist of it is basically: JB comes out and says the new owners want some excitement from the announcers, and buries Josh for being a wwe robot announcer who should have never got the job. OK, fair enough. But Josh doesn't leave! We now have a 3 man booth! And it is the worst commentating you've ever heard. Josh and JB bicker for the remainder of the show. JB keeps saying no one likes Josh and he doesn't know wrestling, josh keeps saying JB doesn't speak to a GLOBAL AUDIENCE and is a jabroni etc. Now this would have been infuriating to watch for just one segment, but to have them basically do it the entire show was down right sadistic. You know commentary was bad when you can say, with a straight face "The pope was best commentator on the show".
The other thing that was weird about this angle was that Josh was buried for being a WWE guy being replaced for a real TNA original like JB. Which totally makes sense and would be fine. But later in the show Bruce fucking Prichard shows up. A guy historically known for being one of Vince McMahon's biggest yes men. Also a man who was in TNA before and was largely responsible for everyone's favorite angle, Aces & 8s. Well this dude shows up. He cuts a promo on how TNA is dead, long live impact wrestling. Impact wrestling is going to be great cause ol' Bruce knows greatness. Bruce was there for Hogan, Austin, The Rock, Cena...you know, WWE guys. Basically Prichard comes out, buries TNA's entire history saying it was never great, and will make it great because he worked for WWE. AND HE'S A BABYFACE. So while I am to hate Matthews (which granted, is very easy) for being a WWE cast off, ol' Bruce is a big babyface for exactly the same reasons. I guess people really do like his podcast.
Then later in the show, Dutch Mantell came out. He was doing his WWE gimmick, right down to riding the scooter and saying "we the people". He basically says that while this is first time on camera, he was here years ago when TNA had the likes of AJ STYLES, SAMOA JOE, BOBBY ROODE, KURT ANGLE, CHRISTIAN AND STING. You know, guys you won't be seeing here, at all! It was especially rich that he lead off with Styles, Joe and Roode - 3 guys who were never used to their abilities in TNA but have become big stars in WWE. Again, Dutch is a babyface for mentioning how good the roster was.
You may have noticed that I have not mentioned any wrestling yet, and that's because all the matches were a complete after thought. Reno scum debuted and were buried by Josh Matthews the whole time. They beat the DCC who are going away, because apparently Eddie Kingston isn't up to the new standards. There was a 4 way x division match which in classic tna fashion set nothing up, developed no character and was basically filler. There was a women's match between Siena and Rachel Ellering where the commentary was so bad they just muted for about 45 seconds.
And lastly there was the main event. The debuting Alberto El Patron wrestled Lashley for the title. Now again, this could have been a great way to re-estblish impact. You have Alberto come in as a WWE guy and lose to your champion Bobby Lashley, showing that impact guys can go with the big dogs (say what you want about Lashley being a WWE guy but impact has really built him as their guy). But of course, they do a double ref bump dusty finish and Alberto leaves with the title in CONTROVERSIAL FASHION~!
Impact wrestling keeps changing their name, their logo, their roster, their channel...pretty much everything but the content. And I know at this point I shouldn't be surprised, but this was a painfully bad show. Not bad in the same way Raw is, where it's just not enjoyable. But actively destructive to your brand. You spent 2 hours tearing down the old TNA - but what are you replacing it with? Reno scum matches? Matt Morgan? How is that making impact great again?
I never thought I'd write this much about TNA again in my life but I just couldn't get over this show.
tl:dr impact is bad and keeps making the same mistakes.
