By Nicholas Jason Lopez

“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.

(Aired 7/22/15)

Always Room For One More 

– Dixie Carter started the show by announcing the latest 2015 TNA Hall Of Fame Inductee was Jeff Jarrett, of course pushing his actual acceptance of it to next week. Odd way to start things out, since it paid homage to a guy who is running a different company, though he’ll probably be a prominent part of storylines in due time. We called it first.

– The Magnus-Bram street fight came off as something impromptu without any explanation, which also seemed odd, even though they’ve recently feuded. The action was okay, though nothing special and the main result saw Bram give a Low Blow to win the match using the rules to his advantage. James Storm attacked Magnus with the Cowbell and gave some hype as to who his new partner was.

– Eli Drake’s new music is terribly generic. At least he’s getting some new life with this heel turn and him coming out holding the crutch as a visual aid was a nice touch. His promo was strong in terms of his intentions and how he felt overshadowed by Drew Galloway and used The Rising for his benefit. His delivery was a lot like The Rock in his early heel days, which is a good thing. Galloway’s response was one of his better promos since he was talking how he felt hurt by Drake more than physically and yearned his desire to beat him up. Did he need to channel Undertaker circa 2000 with the “I’ll Make You Famous” line though? Could’ve stretched it out a little bit longer to have the actual physicality happen next week, but it’s not the worst thing in the world. Thankfully, Drake got away before he could get caught in the Future Shock.

– Liked the little set-up they did to make Taryn Terrell’s interruption feel more “spur of the moment” by having her interrupt an on-stage network advertisement. Terrell was actually good in her screaming tantrum promo. Brooke’s response was having her advocate for the people and got stronger towards the end by throwing a challenge down. Gail Kim appeared when Terrell was on the outside and Kim tore apart The Dollhouse. The segment was good, but was strongly hindered by the lack of crowd reaction here as they were mainly quiet for Kim. How can a viewer get excited if the people there aren’t?

– Sure, “The Law” Bully Ray wanted people to see the Slammiversary main event because it was just that good. Sure.

– We can understand what they’re doing with Tigre Uno to make him more relatable by having him address Donald Trump and want to challenge him, but he needed a video package like that regardless to make him come off as a well-known star. That’s the problem – we know little about him and this at least attempted to fix that. We are probably sure Trump didn’t accept the challenge, but maybe a new contender will next week?

– The segment involving James Storm’s induction of the newest female Revolution member was decent. Storm’s promo was okay as he explained why he formed the group (lackluster as it is) and it was good to see Serena be inducted, long hair and all. Her bald “Straight Edge Society” look would’ve actually fit in more. Appreciated Pope’s backstory on Serena’s career upbringings with Mickie James taking her under her wing. Her storyline reason for being angry with Mickie didn’t make much sense though. Could’ve gone more into why she felt forgotten and lost.

– The Chain match between Eric Young and Rockstar Spud seemed quite random and inconsistent of “The Law,” since he gave Spud a Title shot last week and now Spud was in a match that seemed to favor EY more. It did give Spud an environment to be an underdog and he was scrappy, but this was all EY towards the end as he used the referee for his advantage and delivered a Piledriver on the chain that Spud sold like a champ. Again though, this was a random filler match that served no other purpose and will be forgotten a few weeks from now.

– The Number One Contender’s Table match between Matt Hardy and Bobby Roode already sounded favored towards Hardy since he’s gotten the main event push as of late and the stipulation called for tables. Plus the winner would fight Ethan Carter III, the new heel champ. Hardy-EC3 sounds investable as opposed to Roode-EC3. The match didn’t run long and was incredibly mediocre for the predictability factor despite the final table bump being a good one.

Quick Results

– Street Fight – Bram def. Magnus via pinfall

– Chain Match – Eric Young def. Rockstar Spud via pinfall

– TNA World Heavyweight Championship Number One Contender’s Match – Tables – Matt Hardy def. Bobby Roode