Thursday, January 5, 2012

1/5/12 Impact

Ratings:
Gail Kim & Madison Rayne vs. Mickie James & Traci Brooks (Knockouts Tag Team Titles): *1/2

Gunner vs. Rob Van Dam: *1/2

Zema Ion & Jesse Sorensen vs. Austin Aries & Kid Kash: **1/4

Samoa Joe & Magnus vs. AJ Styles & Kazarian: *1/2

Jeff Hardy, James Storm, & Abyss vs. Bobby Roode, Kurt Angle, & Bully Ray: *3/4
__________________

Reviews/Thoughts:
It's the first Impact of 2012! The big names start the show with a promo: Sting comes out first. Then Hardy, Storm, Abyss, Roode, Angle, and Bully Ray. Basically, a six-man tag tonight for the main event!

Knockouts Tag Title match kicks off the wrestling portion of the show. Fast start to the match. Decent stuff here. Good physicality, predictable heel ending.

Garret Bischoff is back as a ref after being off camera for a few weeks. Welcome to the TNA roster, Eric Bischoff's son! Now make a name for yourself.

Eric Young is weird. But we already knew that.

RVD and Gunner square off. Sort of a botch from both RVD and Gunner, RVD moonsaulting right on Gunner's head. Coulda had a serious injury there. Anyway, it wasn't about pinfalls. Double countout here. Gunner wants to piledrive RVD on the concrete, but reversal! RVD missed that spin guillotine kick on the guardrail. D'Lo sighting!

X-Division tag match. Actually looking forward to seeing this one. Two vets against two young guys, and neither team really cares to tag with one another. Good showing here, best match on the night so far. Lots of high-flying and good use of tense, awkward tagging moments.

Wild Card tag tournament ends tonight, with the winners becoming #1 contenders for the tag gold. Christopher Daniels sighting before the match, which probably means something's up. Late in the match, Daniels appears as AJ looks for the tag. Kaz gets off the apron, leaving AJ high and dry. Kaz looks like he's being forced to do something he doesn't want to do. AJ gets pinned and Joe/Magnus move on.

This AJ/Daniels angle looks to be a good one, since it now involves Kaz. It freshens up the storyline and you have three main event workers. Pretty stoked to see how this one goes.

Six-man tag finishes the night. Roode is quickly looking like he could have a reign like HHH in 2000 for WWE, just having a killer reign at the top. Main event intros for a six-man tag? That's unusual. OK stuff here. Brian Hebner threw the match out because he couldn't regain control. Don't worry, it was meant to be all chaotic anyway. Heels look like they got the last laugh tonight. At least one of the faces should win on Sunday, but I'm thinking Roode retains. Keep the belt on him for a few more months. Build him up as the baddest heel and throw in some real good matches. Roode's on the best roll of his career. Don't stop that momentum.

No comments: