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 12/2/15)

Round Of 16

– The opening video hyped the “win or go home” Round of 16 in the TNA World Series, with Ethan Carter III-DJZ, Matt Hardy-Bobby Roode, Awesome Kong-Jessie Godderz, Gail Kim-X-Division Champion Tigre Uno and Bobby Lashley-Drew Galloway hyped. It was a night for some easy marquee bouts with a share of unique intergender contests.

– Given how TNA continues to push EC3 as the undefeated one, were we expected to curve our expectations in a match against an X-Division blue-haired mohawk fellow with Championship implications? Oh please. Nothing to rag on the match about, as they tried their best to make DJZ look as threatening as possible, but despite his attempts to get the crowd in it, it was hard to buy DJZ being the guy to beat EC3. The match quality was high though, but EC3 was the victor before a second thought.

– Intergender matches shouldn’t be a big deal in 2015. Companies like Lucha Underground are working on making sure that’s the case, but in TNA, we believe it was a first. Hey, progress is progress. We had some historical significance in the Kim-Uno match. Kim’s pre-taped promo pointed out how the Knockouts had set the bar for female athletes and they were capable of anything, which was a decent way to go about it. We can see why they went with Uno to face Kim since he had experience with intergender matches in AAA, but was “awkward” the perfect word for this, Josh Matthews? Sigh. It doesn’t help the vibe this match gave off in the opening minutes, but Kim had strong crowd support and could hang with Uno, since she was versatile in the ring and even took most of her spots well. Given that this match was taped in advance, it’s interesting to see how they explained that one to the crowd in attendance. The initial novelty of an intergender match wore off by the end, when Uno emerged the winner. So much for that.

– It’s a shame that Bram had legal troubles away from the ring, otherwise he could’ve been presented in a better way in this tournament rather than an afterthought. Despite that, he felt equal against Richards, who gave off the impression that he was gelling as a singles competitor in TNA, even though we knew he could go in that territory since his Ring Of Honor days. Commentary cleverly billed this as a conventional battle of power against agility. We had some competitive action and a taste of Bram’s maniacal tendencies that were in full force in his feud with Magnus and that was enough to keep it entertaining. We actually figured Bram would go over when Matthews got too excited for the idea of a Richards upset, but that was a ruse, when Richards won on a surprise inside cradle. Enjoy the rest of your 2015, Bram.

– Eli Drake has always been a good talker, reminding us of The Rock’s early days in the Nation Of Domination with his mic work. We saw more of Drake’s strengths as he went into a match with Mahabali Shera, putting himself over as the man on top of the “Future Four” and reemphasized the pronunciation of his name. As for the match, all hope ended there, since given the monster push Shera has received, there was no way he was losing this match. For heaven’s sake, they dedicated another two minutes of the show to Shera’s journey in a video package, something not even EC3 had. Drake carried the match, as Shera’s still incredibly green, but like we said, the end result was as predicted.

– Matt Hardy’s strong backstage promo put over Roode as a legitimate contender and his game plan was that of winning with a Twist of Fate since he was on a journey to win back the World Title with no lawyers or BS. Given his hardcore push of sweeping group play, we expected Hardy to go over Roode in what would be a competitive contest. The match fell below those high expectations, but wasn’t bad. We think Roode was heel again since he yelled at the crowd, but it’s hard to tell these days. They told the story of Roode letting his competitiveness hinder his chance of winning as it cost him the match. Good way to roll. Hardy wins.

– Galloway has also greatly benefited from being featured in the WTS as a legitimate contender, as we again saw more promo work that put over his desire to get back to fighting for gold he felt rightfully belonged to him as he wanted a reward for putting in work for a job he loved. Who’s going to argue with that?

– Since the winner would take on Hardy, it was hard to see any kind of “progressive” result for the Godderz-Kong match and with that in mind, we guess they did everything possible you could do. Godderz mocked the idea of Kong being a beast and assumed she’d want to touch and kiss him like most women, which high-pitched shrieks only confirmed. It was entertaining more than anything, since we knew Kong would punch his lights out. It wasn’t wrong to call Kong the favorite, but a Kong-Hardy match would be incredibly awkward, so they danced around it the only way possible – giving Godderz a cheap win, by having him barely pull on Kong’s tights.

– The TNA Kenny King story came to its foregone conclusion as he took on Eric Young, as he showed some confident moves in the ring, but it was all halted by a Piledriver. EY at least has been able to get by under the radar seemingly and we’d expect him to even get to the Round Of Four. Young’s post-match promo brought nothing special to the table, as it was just him saying nothing could stop him. Geez, at least let the guy randomly attack somebody backstage.

– The Lashley-Galloway main event was as good as it could’ve been considering who was in it, but we can’t help but feel that Galloway lost something by not moving forward to at least the Round Of Eight, but making Lashley the winner wasn’t a bad road to go down either, since the story was that he had Galloway’s finisher well-scouted and it worked out that way. The Round Of Eight matches were announced as follows – Lashley vs Shera, Young vs Uno, Hardy vs Godderz, and EC3 vs Richards.

Quick Results

• Ethan Carter III (w/Tyrus) def. DJZ via pinfall to advance to Round Of Eight
• Tigre Uno def. Gail Kim via pinfall to advance to Round Of Eight
• Davey Richards def. Bram via pinfall to advance to Round Of Eight
• Mahabali Shera def. Eli Drake via pinfall to advance to Round Of Eight
• Matt Hardy def. Bobby Roode via pinfall to advance to Round Of Eight 
• Jessie Godderz def. Awesome Kong via pinfall to advance to Round Of Eight 
• Eric Young def. Kenny King via pinfall to advance to Round Of Eight
• Bobby Lashley def. Drew Galloway via pinfall to advance to Round Of Eight