IMPACT HITS & MISSES 2/16: Perhaps the worst episode ever highlighted by Richards-Edwards angle, plus what’s going on with Josh Matthews?

HITS

Davey’s Beat down: An exceptionally strong ending to a dreadful episode of Impact. Personally, I would have held off on the Wolves going at it for weeks, but we were given their first battle only a week after their break up. Luckily they made the best of it. Once again, Davey got the best of his old partner, and it was absolutely the right call. Richards looked vicious, and beat down Eddie in a way that came across as pretty extreme compared to just about anything you’ll see in WWE. Angelina Love kicking Earl Hebner in the balls for no good reason, and then making out with Davey over an unconscious Eddie only cemented how deplorable the two are. Hopefully the company has a long term vision on where they want to take this angle, as it’s been pretty compelling so far.

MISSES

Oh, Hey Josh Barnett: Josh Matthews has been raising some eyebrows lately with his proclamation that he’s the best in the business at play-by-play (it’s not the first time either, as he claimed that same thing a couple years back in a Livecast interview with Wade Keller), but he sure seems to drop the ball quite often on things that should be obvious to even a mediocre announcer. For example, Josh Barnett showed up out of nowhere on Impact, and Matthews treated it with the excitement of Robbie E walking out on stage. He should have been over-the-top in highlighting what a shock that was. Even though Barnett isn’t at a Brock Lesnar-type level, he’s a former UFC Heavyweight Champion who had NEVER appeared up on Impact before! So at the very least he should have been more surprised that the guy was randomly in the arena.

Bachelor Party/Bridal Shower: Completely embarrassing on every level. These segments were not only horrendously unfunny, but they looked like crap. Do they not own a boom pole in TNA? From a pure production standpoint the bridal shower sounded awful. The bachelor party wasn’t lit properly. Then the segments themselves were amateur hour. Even if these skits were thought of on the fly they should have still been more entertaining. I’m guessing Jeremy Borash didn’t direct them? Whoever did needs to take a beginning film making class at a community college before attempting to direct again.

Godderz Wins: Impact gave Jessie Godderz a mini-push a few months back as a potential threat to Aron Rex (as an aside, not seeing him last night should perhaps earn a hit as well). Then he disappeared. Now he’s back with another push, which came at the expense of the DCC. This is getting ridiculous. Why push them as major threats who took out EC III, Eli Drake and Tyrus just TWO WEEKS AGO and then have Kingston lose to the lowly Godderz? It feels like there’s a new creative team every week on Impact lately, and none of them are very good at their jobs.

The Hardy’s First Trip: This was really disappointing for me. I was hoping to see an actual match… which is what they heavily promoted last week and this week. It was bizarre to show clips from the match with text that said “coming up…” and then only give us more clips! This may have had something to do with them not being able to show the ref’s face due to a contract with Lucha Underground (which would have been an editing nightmare), but it came across as too hectic and nonsensical to really get excited about. I mean, Vanguard 1 got a lot of women…so that’s a thing. Not quite for me. Maybe some will love it, but it just further highlighted what a weird place this company is in right now.

The Overall Show: This was the worst Impact of 2017, and one of the worst in years. I don’t recall seeing anything this actively bad since the early days of the Hogan/Bischoff/Russo era, with brilliant ideas like the Lock Box challenge and Rob Terry pushed as the next Goldberg. Well… maybe Dixie Carter as a heel feuding with MVP as a heel could rival this show. Even though we’re going back in time, the influence of Jeff Jarrett, Scott D’Amore, and Dutch Mantell can’t come fast enough.

NOW CHECK OUT LAST WEEK’S ARTICLE: IMPACT HITS & MISSES 2/9: Davey RIchards’ heel turn off to a hot start, but Hardy Teleporting to Mexico & Aron Rex still Misses