IMPACT STRESS TEST

Does last night’s IMPACT pass the Stress Test?

Yes, my weekly Impact review has a new name – The Impact Stress Test. Read on to find out how Impact fared in the first Stress Test.

Impact starts with a recap of last week’s big event, Dixie going through a table! (Very Popular moment from what I can tell.)

We go live to Bully Ray in the ring.

Ok, here I have a confession to make. When it was the Dudley Boys and even Team 3D I used to HATE Bully Ray (Bubba, or Buh Buh Ray). I never thought he was any good. I always thought Devon was much better.

When they separated a few years back, I looked forward to Devon getting the push. That didn’t happen. Bully Ray received the push.

Guess what, I was wrong. (I don’t admit that lightly). Since their split Bully Ray has gone on to easily become one of the best wrestlers in the business period. He has been awesome, whether in Immortal, as a Face or the leader of Aces and Eights. Bully Ray had two great World Title runs.

As a Face, he is good. As a Heel, he is better. At anything they have asked him to do, he has been great.

So, anytime IMPACT starts with Bully Ray, is good to me.

Ray, puts over the fans, puts over the Stieners, the Road Warriors and brings out Devon! As Devon starts to talk, he is interrupted by . . .

The Hardys!

Cue decent exchange between Mat and Bully talking about their long feud in the past and their Ladder and Tables Matches (for the WWE). This leads to the much talked about ‘One More Match,’ as both teams agree it’s time for them to steal the show.

Backstage we see Spud, EC3 and Rhyno arrive.

Elsewhere Aries, Roode and Young are talking, the have a six-man match with King, Lashley and MVP. The three agree it’s time to take out the trash.

X-Division Elimination Scramble match! Zemi Ion, Manic, Tigre Uno, Crazy Steve, Homicide (love seeing him back) and Low Ki. This was a decent match, but not great. I thought Crazy, Tigre, Manic and Ion were eliminated to fast, leaving it one-on-one between Homicide and Low Ki, with Low Ki winning.

Low Ki now goes onto face Samoa Joe next week for the Title.

Backstage again, EC3 and band accost some stagehands enjoying the footage of Dixie going through the table as they make their way to the ring.

Hostage takeover! EC3 and band take to the ring where Spud cuts a passionate promo about Queen Dixie Carter and asks for a moment of silence. When he doesn’t get it, he goes ballistic, spews hate toward the crowd, and threatens to knock them all out. Rhyno calms him down while EC3 takes to the mic.

EC3 demands that Bully Ray be fired, and they are not leaving the ring until that happens. Cue the boss, Kurt Angle. Kurt never mentions Bully, but tells EC3 they have two options, wrestle tonight or leave the ring. EC3 refuses to wrestle.

Another Wrestling Arrest! Kurt calls on the Fuzz to drag EC3, Rhyno and Spud out of the ring. But, not before Spud cuts a promo and resists arrest and EC3 throws money at a cop, trying to ‘bribe him.’ According to Tenay and Tazz, EC3 and Spud may not farewell in jail. But, according to Tazz, Rhyno might fit in.

This was an okay segment, but felt very familiar.

In a backstage segment with Gunner and Shaw, Shaw takes the blame for what happened last week. Gunner tells him none of this is his fault. The problems between him, Gunner, and Anderson will be worked put in the ring tonight.

At this point we are 45 minutes into this broadcast, with two long segments and one match. So much for Total Non-Stop Action. We have at least four more matches in what will amount to about one hour of actual broadcast.

There wasn’t much of a match between Gunner and Anderson, a little bit of a fight but not much. Punches thrown, Gunner knocked to the mat and as the Ref check on him, Shaw ran into the ring. Anderson decks Shaw! Shaw takes down Anderson. Gunner pulls Shaw off Anderson. Stare down while Shaw tells Gunner Anderson hit him.

I was not a big fan of the Anderson/Shaw feud, but I like this story. Is it truly about redemption for Shaw, has he changed? Or is Anderson right? Is Shaw just using Gunner?

The match may have been a dud, but it served to further what is going on between the three men.

L2, L3 and a hairline Rib fracture, according to Tenay, Dixie has a broken back due to being put threw the table by Bully Ray last week. This is revealed when they show ‘never before seen footage’ of the aftermath of the event, which includes Bully Ray signing ‘The Wicked Witch is Dead’ and seeing Dixie stretched off.

Next Thursday Tenay will have an exclusive interview with Dixie. Yes, the graphic aired did read NEXT THURSDAY, but didn’t they announce earlier in the night that next week Impact moves to Wednesday? Way to pay attention, guys.

Knockouts! Yeah. Yes, I am lukewarm on the Diva, but I love the knockouts. They are the best thing about TNA. Here we have a four-way match for the Knockouts Title, Gail Kim defending about the Beautiful People and Taryn Tarrell.

A short but good match that sees the BP’s argue amongst each other. Angelina gets upset that Velvet actually tries to win the match! This friction and selfishness by Angelina leads to Gail winning and retaining the title.

The six-man tag between MVP, Lashley and King versus Aries, Roode and Young was a good match, lots of action, and a few good high spots. Lashley gets the pin on Aries after MVP hits Aries with his crutch.

The Wolves cut a promo hyping the Team 3D versus Hardys match, and challenge Team 3D to a match with the titles on the line anytime, anywhere.

How stupid was the segment with Abyss, Bram and Magnus? Very Stupid. They are fighting over Janice, a piece of wood with nails. And everyone is pushing this as if Janice is real. Next week Abyss and Bram will have a stairway to Janice match, for ownership of Janice.

At one point, Bram even said that Janice ‘does it for me.’

They continue to build the Sanada and Storm story. Storm is leading a revolution apparently and tells Sanada, that he, Storm, is his light. I like where this has the potential to go, if it leads to Storm building an army. However, I hope this doesn’t become a Wyatt Family rip off.

12 years! For the first time in 12 years it is the Hardys versus Team 3D. I am tired of hearing the 12 years hype. Yes, it has been, but that was WWE, yet they seem to making it sound like it was in TNA. Newsflash, TNA didn’t exist when the first Hardys versus Dudleys match take place.

The match itself was very, very good. Perhaps the best televised match for TNA all Year. But what would one expect from these two teams? Team 3D won with the Dudley Death Drop (3D), but both teams celebrated in the ring to end the show.

PROGRAMING NOTE: IMPACT is moving to Wednesdays! I don’t know if that is a good thing or not. Don’t forget to reset your DVRs!

Does Impact pass its first Stress Test? NO.

This broadcast laid bare the major issue I brought up in my State of TNA last week: copycat.

It wasn’t? Let me provide some evidence for my argument.

The TNA arrest. There have been two recent arrests on Monday Night RAW, and here TNA follows suite. (yes, I know these were pre-taped) Plus, this segment involved two men who made their names in WWE: Kurt Angle and EC3 (Derrick Bateman). Rhino was also in WWE, after ECW.

TNA Knockouts match. Gail and Taryn made their names in the WWE.

Lashley.

Hardys versus Team 3d. The hype for this match made me feel like I was watching a promo for the WWE Network. All we needed was to hear $9.99

Final Rating: 4.5

IMPACT OF THE NIGHT: None.
MATCH OF THE NIGHT: Hardy versus Team 3d.
WRESTLER OF THE NIGHT: Gail Kim.