By John Moroe
TNA Impact Wrestling Hits
Kurt Angle farewell ceremony: The primary focus of this opening segment was the Kurt Angle farewell tour and TNA did a good job making this look like a final moment. Drew Galloway continues to ham it up, but since it’s established that’s who his character is it really enhanced and legitimized Angle’s departure. Lashley is also doing some of the best work he’s ever done on the mic and that all due to being very subtle. He’s no Heel-tista, but as the soft-spoken monster, he’s starting to develop a badass-ness that he’s never been able to hone in on due to his mannequin-like facial expressions.
Decay Music Videos: I forgot to give them credit in past weeks, but TNA is really doing a good job with these Decay music videos. These vids look professionally made and it helps to have the licensed music to accompany it. In a very indirect way, this also enhances the tag team division by making another team other than the Wolves and Beer Money look major league. If only the X Division and King of the Mountain divisions could do the same.
The Wolves vs. Beer Money: As usual with the Wolves, we got a Hit of a match. Beer Money also looks better when they wrestle rather than do their comedy act. It was sad to see Davey Richards tear his ACL. Austin Aries said last year that the tag team titles were cursed and he’s right as far as patterns are concerned (aside from that GFW thing). They almost escaped this title reign minutes before Davey suffered the injury. Hopefully Beer Money can pull together a good reign and hopefully escape without an injury.
Kurt Angle vs. Lashley: Angle and Lashley have great chemistry together in the ring. Lashley got to work a style that we usually see in his encounters with MVP by stepping up the MMA game of his moveset to counter Angle’s MMA-style moveset. We had more kicking out of finishers, but it works since this is Angle’s last match. Like Drew Galloway picking up the win, the nearfalls didn’t hurt since Lashley picked up the win in the end. I also like TNA elevating Lashley by having him destroy a good upper portion of the roster during his heel moment at the end. TNA has something WWE wishes it had in a good top heel roster with Matt Hardy, Lashley, and possibly Mike Bennett. I also see what they are doing by holding off on EC3 and Lashley engaging in physical contact, as they are saving that for a confrontation down the road.
TNA Impact Wrestling Misses
The King of The Mountain Match: I usually give this title a Miss due to the dumb red belt or the dumb convoluted match. This miss was different in that it reeked of those pointless X-Division ladder matches that are usually filler on the show. If they’re going to have a title, wouldn’t you build matches up in advance and have people gun for the title? Other things in this match were misses too. Will Ospreay is highly touted, yet he only got a few flashes of goodness here. Jimmy Havoc looked the best out of the other guys, but it’s still disappointing because they’ve been building the guy up with Decay over the past few weeks and now he was just another guest UK wrestler.
Gail Kim vs. Jade: Before the finish, this match was a Hit due to Jade looking very credible. I also like the touch of Dollhouse not being at ringside. The Miss comes into play again because the finish with Gail Kim picking up yet another win. Even a screwy finish would have helped Jade. Kim looks so dominant. This ultimately looked like what we’ve seen in the past with Gail Kim coming out on top yet again.
There shouldn’t even be a KOTM title let alone a “division.” Lol