The Official Weekly LIVE iMPACT Wrestling Thread!

gnfnrhead

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

I think Ryan has an interesting gimmick, it wouldn't harm to take a chance and give him a short term trial contract to see how the crowd take to him.

They gave Silva a full time contract and he has nothing going for him other than he has a decent look. He'll be released within a year while Ryan would have been a very solid addition to the X-Division.

If that 87% thing was true, they are idiots for turning him down.

BohsJohnny

Machismo Fan wrote: »

Why? It's essentially a streamlined version of Tough Enough.

giving indy wrestlers a tryout is grand but the way they are doing it with 3 judges is pretty boring especially making out that the final promo is more important then the actual match.

DEFTLEFTHAND

Taz is not very articulate... :pac:

Reganio 2

Why are people saying aw I can't believe he didn't get a contract? From the sounds of it I reckon he will be back next week and attack Tazz setting up a feud with him where he wins and gets a contract off the back of it.

Cherry_Cola

Do you think that will be the end of him on tv though? I wonder could they have him showing up at events campaigning for a contract, possibly trying to attack Tazz etc. It'd be a pity if they didn't do something more with him.

CMpunked

This thread has more posts than some raw threads lately.

gnfnrhead

Reganio 2 wrote: »

Why are people saying aw I can't believe he didn't get a contract? From the sounds of it I reckon he will be back next week and attack Tazz setting up a feud with him where he wins and gets a contract off the back of it.

That would be good but to me it sounded like Taz was telling him to piss off and try again in a few months time.

Machismo Fan

I really doubt we'll be seeing Joey Ryan in the immediate future. While Alex Silva shouldn't have gotten a contract, Joey Ryan didn't show anything special on TV and they need to change the precedent they inadvertently set with Silva.

gnfnrhead

CMpunked wrote: »

This thread has more posts than some raw threads lately.

The earlier start probably helped. It's easier staying up until 3 than it is until 4:15.

gnfnrhead

Machismo Fan wrote: »

I really doubt we'll be seeing Joey Ryan in the immediate future. While Alex Silva shouldn't have gotten a contract, Joey Ryan didn't show anything special on TV and they need to change the precedent they inadvertently set with Silva.

They made a joke of the whole thing by trying to do that. Ryan was better in every single way but got one yes compared to the three that Silva got. Do 2:1 instead of 3:0 and it would have done the same.

CMpunked

gnfnrhead wrote: »

The earlier start probably helped. It's easier staying up until 3 than it is until 4:15.

I expected it to. Hence why im on now and not earlier.
Did they do a "behind the curtain" show at the beginning, gnfnrhead?

gnfnrhead

Poor Kazarian having awful trouble with those cable ties :pac:

Reganio 2

gnfnrhead wrote: »

Poor Kazarian having awful trouble with those cable ties :pac:

They are really hard to do in fairness add in all the pressure and movement of Angle its gonna be extra hard

gnfnrhead

CMpunked wrote: »

I expected it to. Hence why im on now and not earlier.
Did they do a "behind the curtain" show at the beginning, gnfnrhead?

Missed the first minute or so but the Roode/Sting match was already started so I'm guessing no

Still did the Gut Check one though.

gnfnrhead

Reganio 2 wrote: »

They are really hard to do in fairness add in all the pressure and movement of Angle its gonna be extra hard

The first one he did backwards meaning it just pulls open, the second one he missed Angle's hand complelty. Just as well Daniels saved him with the title belt shot, we could have been there all night! :pac:

Didn't they advertise a surprise for the show a few weeks ago? Was it the going live or Brooke, or something?

DEFTLEFTHAND

I really enjoyed that tonight, will definitely be tuning in next week for more.

Machismo Fan

gnfnrhead wrote: »

Didn't they advertise a surprise for the show a few weeks ago? Was it the going live or Brooke, or something?

I assume it was Sting. Nice to see wrestling act like episodic television for once.

spiritcrusher

I'll probably give it another shot next week too. It was decent enough with plenty of wrestling.











*cough*Christy Hemme*cough*

gnfnrhead

Machismo Fan wrote: »

I assume it was Sting. Nice to see wrestling act like episodic television for once.

But he was back last week?

Doesn't matter either way. They seemed to stop mentioning it in recent weeks anyway.

Bar the middle section with the backstage Gut Check segment and the Dixie/Brooke borefest, I thought it was another really good show. TNA seem to be getting their act together big time just as WWE seem to be losing theirs.

Machismo Fan

gnfnrhead wrote: »

They made a joke of the whole thing by trying to do that. Ryan was better in every single way but got one yes compared to the three that Silva got. Do 2:1 instead of 3:0 and it would have done the same.

Which is pretty much exactly why they had to raise the standard by turning down Ryan (who really didn't show all that much).

gnfnrhead

Machismo Fan wrote: »

Which is pretty much exactly why they had to raise the standard by turning down Ryan (who really didn't show all that much).

But Ryan is one of the best they could have gotten unless they plan on going for the really big Indy guys like Generico etc. They seem to be looking at the lesser known guys and Ryan is one of the best in that category. I don't see what reason they can have for denying him after giving Silva a contract. It makes a joke of the whole thing and sends out the message that you're only getting a contract if you have a sob story to tell, while your in ring ability and charisma don't count for anything and you damn well better not try using a gimmick to stand out.

EDIT: Either Joey is signed up already and working a storyline, or he is pissed: www.twitter.com/#!/joeyryanonline

Furious-Red

When a fan tweeted Hulk Hogan about Mickie James not appearing on iMPACT! last night when originally scheduled too, Hogan posted the following in reply…

“Sorry u feel that way but Dixie (Carter) has a whole battle plan laid out for Mickie.”

On the Joey Ryan angle where he was declined a contract, he stated the following…

“Working on the Ryan situation now.”

http://www.tnawrestlingnews.com/headlines/hulk-hogan-comments-on-mickie-james-joey-ryan/

Eire-Dearg

Thought that was very refreshing, great to see an insight into the workings of a wrestling company. Don't religiously follow TNA but I'd watch it if it was on, and have definitely been impressed.

It was my 1st time watching TNA in a good year - year and a half last night (since whenever bravo went under and stopped showing it) but I enjoyed it I have to say.

jaykhunter

Thoughts on the Live iMPACT show 31st May :

Bobby Roode taps out clean to Sting in 10 minutes.
I thought Roode lost way too fast to be this clean, I was hoping for at least some more lumberjack interference, but I imagine it's just to get up the tension when they face at Slammiversary and Sting puts on the scorpion death lock. This didn't look competitive though, I think it hurt Roode worse than it helped Sting. Never a fan of starting a show with a world title match, i'm sure it was to jump-start people into finding the show at the right time.

Bully Ray/Joseph Park confrontation
This was absolute gold. I LOVE watching both of these guys. Bully is just that, a cowardly, big-mouthed bully, and Joseph Park's gimmick is hilarious. His mannerisms are fantastic. This was great. I really hope when Abyss really returns, they're able to get a similar enough body double, and have them interact. Favourite part of iMPACT.

Austin Aries vs Chris Sabin
Very smooth X-D match, just it was far too short. Both great wrestlers and so the match was fun for as long as it lasted.

Gut Check Segments
Backstage, Taz tells Hogan that if he joins Gut Check, you'll get the "real" Taz, i.e. his commentator role is a phoney. It really pissed me off. So we're getting bull****ted for 90% of the show?
Pritchard, Taz and Snow chat about Joey Ryan, smashing kayfabe. They go over his gimmick etc, and this really, really angered me. How are we supposed to take Joey Ryan/your show seriously if it's literally telling you it's fake? You can't have it both ways, either shoot or storyline. Awful concept.

Dixie introduces Brooke Hogan
She looks like she's had too many late nights, wow she's aged. Not as many boos as I would've hoped.

D-Von vs Jeff Hardy
I love Jeff's look. He really does look like a superstar. Of course it's a DQ finish so Hardy doesn't have to lose and D-Von retains. Probably the smartest decision when the match has been booked.

James Storm had a nice vignette of him at his ranch with his daughter, getting upset about Lockdown.

Gut Check Time as the Three Judges talk to Joey Ryan out of character, while he remains in character. Although an interesting segment, it is horrible in it's concept. You can't have it both ways. Ryan delivers a terrible generic promo cutting his own legs off and Taz "the badass" reads him the riot act. And goes back to being an idiot commentator.

Main Event : AJ Styles vs Daniels
These guys are super smooth and get about 10 minutes together. As expected the match is a joy to watch. After a post-match beatdown w/ Kaz, Daniels plays an exerpt of a phone call between AJ and Dixie. I'm not a huge fan of the storyline but I'd imagine casual fans would be. Dixie storms to the commentators desk and screams for them to stop the audio. That was great. She dropped a few F-bombs.

Overall
All in all it was a fun show, TNA are getting their act together. Unfortunately I think this kayfabe smashing stuff has no place on the main broadcast, since that's supposed to be the show. It's like playing a 5-minute "making of" video during Game of Thrones. Breaks all illusion, shouldn't be done. TNA are going full steam ahead with it, and that's gonna hurt....well their PPVs are already hurt. So I guess it'll just annoy wrestling fans like me.

Garseys

I don't get the logic of breaking kayfabe like that. It's pretty much doing it for the sake of it.

I love subtle breaking of kayfabe though (i.e. the Vince million dollar mania set falling on him and Vince saying "Paul I can't feel my legs")

I glad TNA are getting sorted though, I think a majority of wrestling fans want them to suceed and they have a pretty decent roster.

This weeks show was alright, Jay summed up my feelings for it pretty well. Gut Check really should be a seperate show....

gnfnrhead

Garseys wrote: »

This weeks show was alright, Jay summed up my feelings for it pretty well. Gut Check really should be a seperate show....

it would be fine if it was shorter. Last months was awful. This month was much better but still too long. Cut out the backstage segment (stick it on the website for anyone interested) and just do the short in ring segment. Let the wrestler cut his promo and THEN the judges say yes or no instead of having two judges decide before the promo even happens.

Also, Taz could do with leaving the blatantly obvious tough guy act at the door. He's an idiot on commentary then were supposed to believe that he's suddenly not an idiot who laughs at his own jokes but is instead a bad ass?

Furious-Red

I thought that the title was on the line in the Roode/Sting match and when i seen Sting won i was like FFS why did they have him drop it to Sting :rolleyes:

Enjoyed the show and have to say im actually enjoying the Daniels/Kaz/Aj/Dixie storyline more then i thought , felt Dixie played her part well at the end of IMPACT .

After the Aries/Sabin match i presume Sabin is going heel and would love to see a full time programme with those two

Even though we have seen AJ/Daniels numerous times they still put on some great matches everytime

rovert

DAVE MELTZER ON A MAD ONE.


Seriously though he has some interesting gut check posts.

First relating to Joey Ryan:

A guy who will go nowhere.

Regarding Taz, in the 90s, the big two were All Japan and New Japan more than WCW and WWF, so Taz was in New Japan in far less than 12 or 13 years and was a genuine main eventer in ECW.

He was under contract for $375,000 per year before ever making "the big two" so trying to compare that with Joey Ryan is kind of silly.

Man, you can't be serious if you think Joey Ryan has any major league star potential. Can he be a guy on the roster in TNA? Sure, his work is solid. Does he have even a smidgen of major league star potential? No. Seriously, if you're not trolling and can't see that, you have little idea of what major league talent is.

There's a world of difference is getting over in front of 300 people doing a cheesy gimmick and making it work at the national level where he's no better than anyone else on the roster. The gimmick both makes you rememeber him and will keep him in the openers since it's such an obvious dress up and play fake pro wrestler gimmick.

First of all, I've seen him for years. He's a take it or leave it guy. Second, I think TNA should use him again coming off this in an angle, but I don't see what he brings past a very short-term thing of his gimmick being different.

Second a massive retraction on Flair/Silva plus more Joey Ryan:

Last week on the Flair thing with Alex Silva, the story that Ric went off script is true and that's how he got the job.

They were told to treat it as a shoot, but at the same time, it's not a complete shoot. Although in this case it was. Everyone was told to treat it as a shoot, and Flair was impressed with the promo.

Just wanted to say that because I had been told the opposite.

They could have taped it again if they wanted to. The feeling was that Silva's promo was so good that he earned the contract. You can say Flair went off script, but all three guys were given the option that if there was a blow away performance, they go with the flow. The fact they didn't tape it again tells you what they thought of the interview.

The Ryan thing was not a shoot although everyone will tell you it is, like they will tell you Dixie asked for Brooke and Hulk was the last to know. However, the guys themselves are not clued in. It's like the Diva Search and Tough Enough where the coaches know what they are saying and working but to the guys, they don't know.

Had he done what Taz thought was a blow away interview, Taz presumably could have changed the outcome, and this was live TV.

Machismo Fan

Main event this week is Roode, Daniels and Kaz vs. Sting, Styles and Angle.