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 9/2/15)

A Corporate Hostile Headache 

– The opening video chronicled the official Global Force Wrestling invasion as Jeff/Karen Jarrett led the charge in attacking Drew Galloway. Sigh.

– The GFW roster came out in full. Jeff talked about how he made things better when he was running things and that he was declaring a “corporate hostile takeover.” The term must’ve been used about 1,300 times throughout the night. Karen also talked about how she had Bully Ray and Galloway taken out. Chris Mordetzky challenged anyone and out came Bobby Lashley, headed into the first commercial break. This already feels very cliche and underwhelming.

– The Mordetzky-Lashley match felt very “going through the motions” since we have no reason to emotionally get invested in this match. Mordetzky hasn’t been established as a character for us to hate him enough, despite his WWE past. Sure, Lashley came close to a win, but the GFW roster peeps put a stop to that for the Lashley DQ win, which was followed by a Wolves run-in to no avail. Jeff called for Karen to bring down the special surprise. So the notion is that the show is “out of their control”? Lame. Literally nothing about this is exciting. Who is truly over here? The surprise turned out to be “their friend” Magnus’ “feast or fired” briefcase for a Tag Team Championship Title shot, which Earl Hebner turned down and refused, which was applauded until Jeff punched him out and they got another referee from backstage who was forced to ring the bell. On one hand, why didn’t we get even a storyline explanation of why Magnus switched sides, since the last time he was on TV, he was engaged in a personal war with James Storm? They could’ve even had him say he blamed TNA management for not taking care of his wife and letting her get in harm’s way, but then again, that makes sense. TNA doesn’t make sense. Oops, silly us.

– The Tag Team Championship match between The Wolves and Brian Myers/Trevor Lee was just a way to “enhance” the GFW invasion by having shenanigans almost overcome by The Wolves eventually do them in. Can’t really judge the match on a technical level for this reason. They really ended The Wolves’ reign for this? A briefcase face shot for this. Pathetic. It’s almost as if they sought out to undo all the hard work put into that Best-Of-Five series.

– Bobby Roode’s backstage promo talked about being tired of being disrespected by everybody and he didn’t care about the chaos and only cared about winning Championships, calling out Black for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. At least Roode’s character was consistently on point on this show.

– The Ethan Carter III/Tyrus backstage promo hyped the main event Championship match. Liked the references to The Hardy Boys book series by EC3 and how he was practically buttering up Jeff to become his assistant.

– The King Of The Mountain Championship match between Black and Roode was preceded by a Roode promo that necessarily put himself over as a true TNA original; the first sign of any TNA rally cry. Also liked the new “confident” attitude from Black shown during his entrance. This was the first instance all night we could actually care about something from this lousy invasion angle. The finish was overbooked since it involved Dutt and Galloway, but it also allowed Roode to get the win afterwards to become new KOTM Champ. GFW came down and Jarrett reacted angrily. The back-and-forth between Dixie and Jarrett was mostly lame, though it set up people like Galloway, The Wolves and Lashley to join forces in The Frontline 2.0 for one match to decide the future that would give the winner full control of TNA. Meh.

– Aww, look at Team GFW all united backstage. Cute.

– Kenny King talked about an identity crisis in TNA having no flags or masks and seemed to come off as a face now, thankfully. He challenged anyone from TNA or GFW and Bram came out. Okay, finally something good on this show. The match itself was alright while it lasted and King got to show off some of his skills on a babyface level, but at the same time, it seemed like this was just a glorified squash for Bram, which made King look weak in the process. Hopefully they turn this into a program of sorts. Yes, we know what recently happened with Bram, but this show was probably taped about two months ago, so there’s plenty of footage left we’re sure.

– The Hardys’ backstage promo talked up the stipulation of the main event, with the theme of family here. Decent way to go about things.

– Velvet Sky’s in-ring promo touched up on why she’d been silent, referring it to a “personal revolution.” She also called out Taryn Terrell, who answered back on the video screen that saw her say she was a star but was always compared to Velvet and put over her Dollhouse mates, who came out to confront Sky, who urged them to take her on, leading to a takedown. Sky’s backup came in the form of Angelina Love and Madison Rayne, a Beautiful People reunion. Yes. We’ll go for it. Why not?

– The Team TNA backstage segment saw Galloway ask Dixie if it was the right move, while she backed it up by saying it was to help the people fighting for her. This match will be for control in Lethal Lockdown (who decided that?) and in two weeks apparently.

– The TNA World Heavyweight Championship match between EC3 and Matt Hardy was actually good right after the first near-fall, as Hardy kicked out several times. This was the dirtier side of EC3 though winning the match, needing low blows, title shots and outside interference to win, which was never in question. At the least, this new storyline should be an interesting way to fast-track to what is likely the Bound For Glory main event match in EC3-Jeff Hardy. We’re all for it in that case. All in all, this was a horrendous show when it involved the lackluster invasion angle, but was slightly better focused when it was just TNA storylines.

Quick Results

• Bobby Lashley def. Chris Mordetzsky via DQ
• Tag Team Championships – Trevor Lee/Brian Myers (w/Jeff Jarrett, Karen Jarrett, Sonjay Dutt, PJ Black, Royal Red, Lei’D Tapa) def. The Wolves (Champions) via pinfall to become new Champions
• King Of The Mountain Championship – Bobby Roode def. PJ Black via pinfall to become new Champion
• Bram def. Kenny King via pinfall
• TNA World Heavyweight Championship – If Matt Hardy Loses, Jeff Hardy Must Become Ethan Carter III’s Personal Assistant – Ethan Carter III (w/Tyrus) def. Matt Hardy (w/Jeff Hardy) via pinfall to retain