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 4/12/16)

Hardy Family Tradition

– The Hardy brothers continue to lead the show along with TNA World Heavyweight Champion Drew Galloway and with Tyrus creeping along in the background with a Title shot anytime of his choosing that he has to declare. It’s all building to a point. In a time where TNA is running on borrowed time with guys like Bobby Roode and TNA King Of The Mountain Champion Eric Young, they’re making the most of it by focusing on other talent. The opening video highlighted last week’s Galloway-Matt Hardy match for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship, showing how Jeff “evened the score” so his brother couldn’t cheat his way back to the gold.

– The opening in-ring segment with The Matt Hardy brand and Jeff was a fun exchange that set the tone for the main event. Matt plays the delusional heel to a tee, as he’s obsessed with his brother mooching off his family name to the point he wants him to abandon it. Jeff on the other hand, is the popular brother defending the legacy of the TNA World Title by keeping his brother from getting it underhandedly. Liked Matt’s perspective of taking care of his brother, but now dismissed him as selfish, with added ammunition from Reby, who called Jeff scared. It set things up so Jeff would be riled up enough to want to fight his brother and that’s what happened. Of course, given the segment’s content, it would’ve made more sense to have them fighting with a stipulation where Jeff’s name was on the line, but stipulations would work their way in later in the show.

– They had a perfect opportunity to take the belts off TNA World Tag Team Champions Beer Money here with their “Open Invitational” involving three other teams – Crazzy Steve/Abyss, BroMans and TNA King Of The Mountain Champion Eric Young/Bram. However, they stayed the course of keeping the wealthy alcoholics still champions, while also letting Young/Bram delve further into dissension, as it was their miscommunication that cost them the match. BroMans was eh here, despite Jesse’s good athleticism and Decay was kind of just there. If you ask us, Decay would be our picks for next Champions.

– The backstage segment with Matt, Tyrus and Jeff added on the official stipulations, as Matt wanted Jeff to quit the business, while Jeff wanted a Full Metal Mayhem bout. Jeff then proposed a tag match where he’d find a partner to go against Matt/Tyrus that put both guy’s stipulations on the line for their match next week. Nothing like raising the stakes.

– While Maria comes off great as a condescending “lady,” it’s a little confusing as far as her role on TV. Anyways, at least her backstage promo set things up for the in-ring segment we’d see in a bit, her full focus on that of Gail Kim, who she cost the TNA Knockouts Championship.

– As Eddie Edwards was found backstage holding his shoulder on a night where he was supposed to compete against X-Division Champion Trevor Lee, we almost assumed that Gregory Shane Helms had something to do with it.

– The in-ring segment with Maria, TNA Knockouts Champion Jade, Kim, Marti Bell, Rebel, Madison Rayne, Velvet Sky and Billy Corgan was a lot to digest. It revolved around Maria trying to convince Jade that because she let her win the Title, she was entitled to be handed the belt, which caused a stir with people like Jade and Kim, who refused to let anything be handed over in the Knockouts division. Of course, some of the insults here were a bit uncalled for, especially when you’re trying to portray a division as upbeat and athletic. Everybody argued against Maria and we liked the little tension between the Dollhouse and Jade, but when Corgan came out and booked a match next week to decide a “leader” for the Division, it didn’t make much sense. He also decided Jade would defend against Rayne later on. What did she do to earn that?

– Ethan Carter III’s backstage promo hyped the upcoming match with The Miracle, as he said he saw similarities in Miracle and how he used to act before he learned a lesson through humility and was willing to teach Miracle a lesson in ass-kicking because he was a star. This was more of the babyface EC3 that we should get to see.

– The DJ Z-Lee match was made when Edwards was deemed unable to compete and GSH buttered him up, saying no one had balls to face him until DJ Z came out with an odd mask and the match was apparently on. Not much of a match, but the finish saw GSH try to cost DJ Z the match, which almost worked, but it backfired. Also liked the consistency of Edwards coming out to make the save (injured shoulder and all), setting up an appropriate three-way for the X-Division Championship the following week.

– The Miracle continues to knock his promos out of the park, as we saw in his backstage promo that hyped his bout with EC3, saying he didn’t need to change and wrote the course of his own history and would gladly affect EC3’s. At least his mic skills are always on point.

– The Jeff/Galloway backstage promo solidified their alliance based off the previous week, as we saw Galloway return the favor of Jeff helping him defeat his brother. Logical.

– Despite the hype, the actual action in the Miracle-EC3 match was of limited supply, but we liked the story and how it played into the finish. Maria interfered on Miracle’s behalf three times and eventually led EC3 to get raged to the point where he just went bonkers with a chair, inadvertently costing himself the match but feeling satisfactory. This also lets the feud continue on, since it didn’t come off as a payoff of any sort.

– Al Snow’s backstage promo was a good set-up to what we’d see in the ring, as he acknowledged his actions as wrong and welcomed Mahabali Shera to the ring, who nearly came to blows with Snow for what he did to his friend Grado. Snow did a good job of covering his perspective as a veteran who was jealous of newcomers and being genuinely regretful and saying he’d pay for Grado’s medical bills and train Shera before effectively turning on Shera and attacking him relentlessly. Sort of seen it coming, but it was handled well. Ironically, Shera being trained or having a manager onscreen isn’t a bad idea. Maybe they’ll explore that in due time.

– They continued to tease tension between Tyrus and Galloway, as Tyrus warned Galloway he had a World Title shot anytime he wanted and hung it over his head.

– Snow’s backstage promo was a great follow-up as he was fired up and didn’t feel obligated to explain his actions, angry over the fact he had to apologize for roughing up “punk kids who walked into his world.” It’s definitely building up to a Grado-Snow feud, which can be a great alternative program on the lower card at this rate.

– The TNA Knockouts Championship match between Champion Jade and Rayne was passable, allowing both ladies to do their thing besides being underrated wrestlers on the TNA spectrum. Commentary was a bit much, with Josh Mathews inexplicably comparing Jade to Ronda Rousey and plugging Pop TV shows so terribly. At least this was an effective way to show Jade decisively defending her belt.

– With next week’s main event being an “I Quit” Match or a Full Metal Mayhem match, we figured Jeff would go over next week, but to make that go smoothly, this would be Matt’s time to win and set things up. The match was entertaining and allowed evil Matt to do his thing, as he hit Jeff with Reby’s diaper bag hammer to get the win. Also nicely done here was the post-match attack by Lashley on Galloway, which means they might do this match sooner than later. The latest Lashley build has been so well, we hope that they don’t waste an Impact episode on this. Save it for Slammiversary.

Quick Results

• TNA World Tag Team Championships – Fatal Four-Way – Beer Money (Champions) def. BroMans, Crazzy Steve/Abyss (w/Rosemary) and Eric Young/Bram via pinfall to retain 
• The Miracle (w/Maria) def. Ethan Carter III via DQ
• TNA Knockouts Championship – Jade (Champion) def. Madison Rayne via pinfall to retain
• If Matt Hardy/Tyrus Win, Next Week’s Main Event Is “I Quit Match,” If Jeff Hardy/Drew Galloway Win, Next Week’s Main Event Is Full Metal Mayhem – Matt Hardy/Tyrus (w/Reby) def. Jeff Hardy/Drew Galloway via pinfall