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 10/14/15)

Beer Money Meets Again

– The opening video highlighted how Matt Hardy won the TNA World Heavyweight Championship at Bound For Glory by pinning Drew Galloway, only to relinquish it to throw out an injunction filed against him by former Champ Ethan Carter III. Doing so created the idea for the World Title Series, with eight different groups of four competing round-robin style. It hyped the tournament’s continuation. Given the situation where TNA needed to make matches taped in July feel relevant by October, it has been handled quite well, mixing these matches with more recent footage of promo segments.

– Really? You put Matt Hardy – the guy who just won the damn World Title in a group called “Tag Team Specialists” with Davey Richards, Eddie Edwards and Robbie E? Way to downplay your last Champion, guys. Where the hell did Crimson come from getting grouped with the “Future Four” with Micah, Eli Drake and Jessie Godderz? Guess we were misspelling Micah’s name too. Oops. It also shows how much they care about Group XDivision with Mandrews, Manik, DJZ and X-Division Champion Tigre Uno when the graphic showing all four guys was up for a millisecond. At least the Group TNA Originals made sense with Eric Young, TNA King Of The Mountain Champion Bobby Roode, James Storm (next week should be a fun one for that fellow) and Abyss.

– There were many candidates for “most useless segment” on the show and Robbie E “laying a challenge” to National Football League athlete Rob Gronkowski in his car was definitely up there. A fair amount of this show was dedicated to showcasing a “new” Robbie E and we applaud those efforts, but everything in this segment felt like an unnecessary need to showcase Robbie E’s old “party” persona. Can the “Bro” stuff go away? TNA isn’t doing any favors by having its talent unsuccessfully call out celebrities (see: Tigre Uno challenges Donald Trump) and we hope this was just an excuse to mention that TMZ gave TNA publicity for this story.

– The Group Tag Team Specialists match between Matt Hardy and Davey Richards was good since it had time to tell a story, and then commentary was actually smart here in discussing both guys’ chances – with Davey being more experienced recently in tag style wrestling while Matt was more experienced in singles competition. Hardy winning made sense here to get him three points.

– Certainly appreciated the attention to detail in showing everyone Bobby Roode and James Storm’s long storied history as both partners and rivals hyping up their main event match later. This made their feud the show’s focus and it paid off by the time the main event came around, despite the fact that Roode no longer cares about money or Storm about beer.

– They actually did a roundtable discussion as its own segment? Wow. However, it was the least interesting conversation with an awkward convo between Group XDivision, who threw around childish insults, especially towards Mandrews for looking like a little boy. Meh.

– The Group Wildcard match between Aiden O’Shea and Kenny King was more of the “unique bout dynamic” this tournament can bring out. That was the nice way of putting it quite frankly. Commentary tried making the most of it by discussing King as a group favorite and establishing O’Shea as an experienced brawler (a fighting Irishman, of course) and that was good, but there’s only so much you can do with this awkwardly assembled group. Just look at that roundtable discussion for goodness. Oy. That said, the match was alright though King’s finishing maneuver was nicely done. King got three points which is a good standing for him but considering his current non-existent status in the company, now moving on to Ring Of Honor, we know King will likely not make it far in the tourney.

– Eric Young’s backstage segment was actually a good promo that put himself over as the guy who decided the World Title’s fate (which was kind of true with his history with Lashley, Kurt Angle and Roode) and how he looked to unmask Abyss once again. He again proclaimed his World Title obsession and how he needed it, which also could be backed by previous storylines. This tourney could do wonders for EY if he’s positioned correctly throughout.

– Richards’ backstage promo did what it had to do in putting Matt Hardy’s singles abilities over and his own disappointment, aspiring to come back better and hungrier.

– The most effective roundtable discussion was the TNA Originals one, as the universal question asked was “Who’ll not be advancing?” which is a guaranteed way to start an argument. This was useful though since we had four guys with long histories sitting there. Roode selected EY not to go because of his unstableness, which Young used to make a statement that Roode better remember this moment because he’d make him pay for it. Meanwhile, Storm selected Abyss and tied it into the Revolution storyline. Abyss actually came off strong here as he told Storm he was the one that was approached and got nothing that was promised to him.

– The Group TNA Originals match between Eric Young and Abyss was okay, considering these two deranged characters meeting could only give us so much. Abyss winning was predicted by The Pope, which made us think it’d go the other way, but when EY couldn’t effectively cheat, we knew Abyss was getting this.

– The EC3 Skype promo/interview had him talk about the “travesty” that was BFG, because he was “robbed and not defeated” and protested the idea of the tournament because he should still be Champion. It also hyped next week’s match against Lashley well from his views. We also had a well-edited Lashley hype video of him in training mode.

– EY’s backstage promo had him seriously approach the loss, that he’d win the tournament regardless. Abyss proclaimed it was Young’s night and Roode/Storm would have their time soon, as he was back and more aggressive than ever. At least Abyss is getting a little push from this. That said, not sure why commentary is calling Young losing “a slump” when they talked about Richards losing his match and went about it as “Oh, he still has plenty of time left to make up ground.”

– The Group Tag Team Specialists match between Edwards and Robbie E was good for what it was too. We can appreciate the newfound effort to establish Robbie E as a more serious guy and it was backed up with a decisive pinfall victory to get three points, but let’s hope it’s not too much, too late at this point.

– The Bobby Roode backstage promo put over his tournament group and that he was on the quest to get back his gold and he sent a message to Storm that history would be behind them and who’d want it more. We almost forgot Roode had that toy belt for a moment there.

– Robbie E’s backstage promo put himself over as a Tag Team Champion and specialist, as well as a X-Division Champion. He said it was a new Robbie E and “here comes the boom.” Meh. Would’ve come off better than that final line. Meanwhile, Edwards’ promo mentioned that Robbie was more than someone to laugh at, but wouldn’t win if they met again.

– The Group Future Four roundtable segment… oh, where do we start? Firstly, Eli Drake excelled in this environment and insulted everyone there, particularly Micah who he used to be a stablemate with in The Rising. Crimson came off as unintelligible here, which didn’t help his comeback cause. Godderz said the least, but came off incredibly well, since his thing was that he had a big ego. Micah was rough here in speaking for himself also. Not a good start for a singles push. Interesting that both Drake/Micah denied any past history.

– The Group Wildcard match between Mahabali Shera and Crazzy Steve had crap written all over it. This was one of those instances where TNA’s taping schedule further ruined what was already throwaway material. Matthews tried to explain why Shera had “Khoya” written on his attire as that of trying to remind himself of what he wasn’t, but that came off as ridiculous. TNA got too cute here by obviously grabbing footage from another Impact episode of the fans doing Shera’s dance and it didn’t work. This was taped when it was heel Khoya fighting Crazzy Steve, who probably only gets cheered because of his interesting style and attire, but the guy talks with a horn. Thankfully this didn’t last long and Shera won decisively.

– Thanks to some big hype throughout the night, the Group TNA Originals main event between Storm and Roode felt important and the result was a fun back-and-forth match that had some tight final minute thanks to the time limit winding down. The story was that Storm tried numerous times to cheat, but came to no avail when Roode caught him with an old finisher to get the win and three points. A good end to a better show that had some focus and put good hype to next week with EC3-Lashley set as the big match.

Quick Results

• Group Tag Team Specialists – Matt Hardy def. Davey Richards via pinfall (Hardy +3, Richards +0)
• Group Wildcard – Kenny King def. Aiden O’Shea via pinfall (King +3, O’Shea +0)
• Group TNA Originals – Abyss def. Eric Young via pinfall (Abyss +3, Young +0)
• Group Tag Team Specialists – Robbie E def. Eddie Edwards via pinfall (Robbie E +3, Edwards +0)
• Group Wildcard – Mahabali Shera def. Crazzy Steve via pinfall (Shera +3, Steve +0)
• Group TNA Originals – Bobby Roode def. James Storm via pinfall (Roode +3, Storm +0)