Less than satisfying entertainments...
After bitching about not being able to see TNA on Friday, I slapped myself in the head and remembered the joy that is Bit Torrent. Subsequently, I downloaded the show and watched it.
Well, I'm not that impressed. To steal a bit from my boy Swift, here's my Good, Bad and Ugly about Impact.
The Good: The show is designed to be a promotional tool for TNA's PPV, and as an entry level wrestling show for WWE fans, it's not bad. Fox's production has put a ticker at the top of the screen that tells you who is wrestling and has a theoretical time limit for each match.
Also, the matches that were featured had an emphasis on actual technical wrestling of the kind that used to show up on ECW or in the first hour of Nitro. The X-Division is the kind of thing that could break the promotion out huge. (Though promoting the fact that you allow your performers to pull the kind of spots that Vince stopped letting his guys do after a few too many career-enders is not so good.)
The 6-sided ring is kind of interesting, though I don't see it being the huge innovation that the commentators want you to believe it is.
The Bad: Jeff Jarrett is the world champion. Vince Russo has an on-camera role, as does Shane Douglas, and unfortunately, so does BG Jammes, formerly known as the Road Dogg in WWE. Part of the reason that TNA is seen as a second-rate promotion is a reliance on ex-WWE stars(most of whom are no longer employed by Vince because they burned their bridges) who never were top level guys. I mean, Ron "The Truth is that I used to be K-Kwik" Killings was their world champion until this past Wednesday night.
Also bad is the utterly incessant shilling for the weekly PPV shows. I mean, I understand that you want to promote the show, but you need to give those of us who don't want to pay ten bucks a week a reason to keep watching.
The crowd is obviously ringers to an extent, as the first row was filled with people with Impact shirts and a couple of guys in Luchador masks.
And The Ugly, well, I mentioned that Jarret's the champ. And on Impact, they thawed out Dusty Freakin' Rhodes to get involved in a stupid promo with Jarrett which I guess is designed to get Jarrett over as really heelish. I mean, come on, Dusty Rhodes? Even Vince wouldn't bring Dusty back.
Overall, I'll watch the show if I can find it(or else just DL it), but it doesn't make me want to buy the PPV.
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Showtime's boxing card Saturday night pretty much sucked. It wasn't Showtime's fault, mind you, but it still was very dissatisfying, as the Lacy-Tsypko fight was halted in the second due to a nasty, nasty, nasty cut on Tsypko's forehead. Lacy and Tsypko both went for the same punch at the same time and clashed heads. Tsypko was cut nearly to the bone. Pretty bad stuff, made worse by Showtime's encouragement of Lacy's statement that Tsypko could have continued. The Verno Phillips fight only went 6, with Phillips pretty much having his way with Bojorquez. The card definitely suffered from not having Ouma, and Bojorquez did all he could with a fight that he took on 4 days notice.
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Raw tomorrow night, which should be pretty hot going into Bad Blood, and possibly a review of one of the Mondo films, if I have the opportunity to watch it.
Well, I'm not that impressed. To steal a bit from my boy Swift, here's my Good, Bad and Ugly about Impact.
The Good: The show is designed to be a promotional tool for TNA's PPV, and as an entry level wrestling show for WWE fans, it's not bad. Fox's production has put a ticker at the top of the screen that tells you who is wrestling and has a theoretical time limit for each match.
Also, the matches that were featured had an emphasis on actual technical wrestling of the kind that used to show up on ECW or in the first hour of Nitro. The X-Division is the kind of thing that could break the promotion out huge. (Though promoting the fact that you allow your performers to pull the kind of spots that Vince stopped letting his guys do after a few too many career-enders is not so good.)
The 6-sided ring is kind of interesting, though I don't see it being the huge innovation that the commentators want you to believe it is.
The Bad: Jeff Jarrett is the world champion. Vince Russo has an on-camera role, as does Shane Douglas, and unfortunately, so does BG Jammes, formerly known as the Road Dogg in WWE. Part of the reason that TNA is seen as a second-rate promotion is a reliance on ex-WWE stars(most of whom are no longer employed by Vince because they burned their bridges) who never were top level guys. I mean, Ron "The Truth is that I used to be K-Kwik" Killings was their world champion until this past Wednesday night.
Also bad is the utterly incessant shilling for the weekly PPV shows. I mean, I understand that you want to promote the show, but you need to give those of us who don't want to pay ten bucks a week a reason to keep watching.
The crowd is obviously ringers to an extent, as the first row was filled with people with Impact shirts and a couple of guys in Luchador masks.
And The Ugly, well, I mentioned that Jarret's the champ. And on Impact, they thawed out Dusty Freakin' Rhodes to get involved in a stupid promo with Jarrett which I guess is designed to get Jarrett over as really heelish. I mean, come on, Dusty Rhodes? Even Vince wouldn't bring Dusty back.
Overall, I'll watch the show if I can find it(or else just DL it), but it doesn't make me want to buy the PPV.
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Showtime's boxing card Saturday night pretty much sucked. It wasn't Showtime's fault, mind you, but it still was very dissatisfying, as the Lacy-Tsypko fight was halted in the second due to a nasty, nasty, nasty cut on Tsypko's forehead. Lacy and Tsypko both went for the same punch at the same time and clashed heads. Tsypko was cut nearly to the bone. Pretty bad stuff, made worse by Showtime's encouragement of Lacy's statement that Tsypko could have continued. The Verno Phillips fight only went 6, with Phillips pretty much having his way with Bojorquez. The card definitely suffered from not having Ouma, and Bojorquez did all he could with a fight that he took on 4 days notice.
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Raw tomorrow night, which should be pretty hot going into Bad Blood, and possibly a review of one of the Mondo films, if I have the opportunity to watch it.
posted by Jon M. at
10:18 PM
1 Comments:
Well, before my "free" TNA ran out, I really enjoyed watching it most of the times. Granted most of that was during the AJ Styles 1st and 2nd title reigns and the pinnacle of the X Division, before they started with all this X-Cup crap.
But on another note, tomorrow I finally get to see Versus!! Kitamura, blow me away!!
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