SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
At Wednesday night’s TNA Impact TV taping, TNA taped the January 12 Impact episode, plus more matches for their One Night Only PPV series.
TNA Impact TV Taping Report
January 6, 2016
Bethlehem, Pa.
Report by Randy Boone of Kunkletown, Pa.
Night 2 of the Impact tapings for Pop TV proved to be a wonderfully entertaining night of fantastic wrestling. Estimated attendance was 250-300, or about half of Tuesday night’s crowd for the debut on Pop. After the introductions of Jeremy Borash, Christy Hemme, Josh Mathews, and The Pope, we went right to the first match.
Dark Match: Rockstar Spud & Grado beat Shera & Aiden O’Shea. There was early dissension between Shera and O’Shea due to O’Shea bullying Shera. Shera ultimately had enough and popped O’Shea before telling Spud to “Finish him!,” which Spud did. Spud and Grado win by pinfall.
Jan. 12 Impact SPOILERS
– TNA champion Ethan Carter III began with a “redemption” promo. There was some tension teased with Tyrus, but then Jeff Hardy interrupted. Hardy handed ECIII a paper, telling Tyrus he gave it to ECIII because ECIII can read, which prompted a “You can’t read” chant at Tyrus. Funny stuff. ECIII told Hardy he had to work his way up from the bottom and called out someone from the back. Who answered the call? Shinron!
(1) Jeff Hardy beat Shinron. Hardy, who was reportedly out until the end of 2016, had a good, fast-paced match in his return match. Shinron played the heel, and Hardy won by pinfall in about four minutes. I’m a Shinron fan, and the match was competitive enough to give me hope that this wasn’t a one-off for him in TNA.
(2) The Dollhouse (Jade & Awesome Kong) beat Velvet Sky & Madison Rayne in a Street Fight. Jade and Kong were announced as the Dollhouse participants, and the BPs announced that it would be… a street fight! There were chairs, kendo sticks, a trash can lid, etc., and there were multiple group spots. In the end, Jade hit a package piledriver on Madison for the pin and win. Good showing from the whole bunch.
– Next up was a segment with Beer Money having a beer party in the ring. It was interrupted by Eric Young and Bram. E.Y. called out Roode for a King of the Mountain Title challenge match, and it was on!
(3) Eric Young beat Bobby Roode to capture the KOTM Title. After some decent action, Bram pulled Roode out of the ring during a cover attempt, Storm got involved to even the odds, and EY eventually won clean with a piledriver to win the King of the Mountain title!
– Next up was Mr. Anderson doing a new interview segment called “Huh?!” I hope this never makes it to air; the fans crapped all over it, and it was pretty awful and just hard to watch. Anderson brought out Matt Hardy, Reby Hardy, and their son. He began to interview Hardy, egging him on about losing the title tournament while still acting buddy buddy. This went on for about ten minutes, and Reby got frustrated and led the Hardys out of the ring. No idea what the point of this was, unless it was to set up Hardy-Anderson down the line, but it didn’t even seem to be going there. Weird and awkward segment.
– Next was a short Drew Galloway promo with him speaking about his opportunity to wrestle Kurt Angle.
(4) TNA tag champions The Wolves & Tigre Uno beat Jessie Godderz & D.J. Zema & Eli Drake in a six-man tag match. D.J. Z started the match, and Eli and Jessie refused to tag in until they had a clear advantage. They abused D.J. Zema until DJ Z turned on them and superkicked Jessie, which led to the Wolves pinning Jessie. Another good match. Jessie Godderz is really entertaining live, and he’s really improved as a wrestler since I last saw him live a year or so ago.
(5) Kurt Angle beat Drew Galloway in the Impact main event. This was a really good match that went about 12 minutes. It was about what you would expect from these two. I cringed every time Angle took flatback bumps, and he did the series of German suplexes, too. In the end, Angle won with an Angle Slam off the turnbuckle for the pin.
– The last Impact piece was a segment with Matt Hardy and ECIII. Matt proposed that he gets one more title match, and in exchange, he will leave TNA forever if he loses. ECIII declared that they will do it on his terms…next week…Last Man Standing!
***
Xplosion Taping
(1) Mike Bennett (w/Maria) beat Mark Andrews. Bennett was very entertaining, and Maria was hugely over with the small crowd. Bennett won via pinfall.
One Night Only Taping
Christy Hemme referred to One Night Only as “Rivals,” as if that will be a theme of an upcoming ONO show.
(1) Eric Young beat Chris Melendez. Pretty basic match. EY did not wear the KOTM Title belt. EY ripped off Melendez’s prosthetic leg part-way through, and Brian Hebner carefully placed it in a corner. (Why give it back to Melendez, eh?) Melendez rallied on one leg, but EY hit the piledriver for the pin.
(2) Jessie Godderz beat Robbie E. This was mostly comedy, but it was entertaining. Jessie wanted to make it a posedown, posed, and mocked Robbie. Robbie posed as Jessie made fun, then Robbie said he had one more pose and flipped Jessie the bird. Jessie declared himself the winner and went to Earl Hebner for confirmation. Earl flipped him the bird, and the match was on. Short match, with Jessie winning by pinfall, perhaps with a pull of the tights. (I was on the opposite side, so I couldn’t tell.)
(3) Mr. Anderson beat Bram. No idea what this match was for. Bram attacked Anderson with the mic to start things off, and the match later involved chairs and a table. In the end, Anderson hit a Mic Check through a table for the pin and win. There was no mention of this being anything other than a regular match, so the lack of a DQ was a little confusing.
Overall Thoughts
For the second night in a row, every match ended with a relatively clean pinfall. No submissions (though some were teased, such as Angle’s anklelock), no DQs (though some could have been called), no count-outs, etc. This has to be a conscious decision by TNA. Every match over two nights has had a clear winner that didn’t insult your intelligence or make you groan. On the downside, some variety might have been nice, too.
All in all, this was a really solid show in terms of the wrestling. There wasn’t a bad match, and several were quite good. Even the matches that went a little hardcore (Dollhouse vs. BPs and Anderson vs. Bram) weren’t overdone or ridiculous. From top to bottom on the card, the effort was great, and the wrestling was the best I’ve seen at a TNA show, for sure.
We got to see Jeff Hardy’s return match and Kurt Angle’s return match, as well as a KOTM title change. There was no appearance by Dixie Carter tonight.
After two nights of tapings, everything was really smooth from a production standpoint, especially considering these were the first shows taped for Pop. Overall, another night of good entertainment, and a solid night of wrestling action that went almost four hours. It was a total steal for the $25 and $10 price.
Randy, thank you for the analysis and your opinion on the matches. Real pro wrestling fans want everyone to succeed and do well, and TNA is deserving. Let’s hope the viewership increases.