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 5/31/16)

Trouble In Charge 

– Dixie Carter’s an interesting lady. While we applaud the idea that the show’s “chaos” behind the feud between TNA World Heavyweight Champion Drew Galloway and Lashley prompted her to give the show to someone else for the night, it didn’t make sense. That said, who ended up in charge was okay. We also saw highlights of how Jeff Hardy earned the right to face his brother Matt at Slammiversary, with the storyline focused on Matt’s darker character after Jeff took him out. The last of the highlights focused on the Ethan Carter III-Miracle feud.

– The in-ring segment with Maria, Miracle, EC3, Galloway and Lashley set the night’s tone as it was revealed that EC3 was in charge and made it no secret that revenge was his goal. Miracle/Maria have been a fierce duo in TNA and come off as big stars. EC3 made their Slammiversary match official and gave Miracle the night off so he could do other “duties” (janitorial kind) while he also had something for Maria in the form of a job evaluation from Gail Kim. Lashley’s portion of the segment was strong as he intimidated EC3 for being in his business all the time. We won’t doubt an EC3-Lashley feud before the year’s up. This transitioned into the “pick your poison” theme as Galloway joined the stage and introduced Lashley’s opponent, TNA King Of The Mountain Champion Bram. Pretty good, all things considering.

– The bathroom segments with EC3 and Miracle were of several through the night, where he had Miracle clean out the toilets against the heel’s wishes. There was also a funny moment where Earl Hebner called Miracle “an asshole” (of course there’s history there) while we learned that EC3’s next job for Miracle was to make him a Referee for one of the night’s matches to make him learn respect for officials.

– The Bram-Lashley match was lengthy, yet felt like a waste of time by the end with the blatant Lashley DQ finish. Sure, we get there was a need to protect both Lashley and the KOTM Champion, but it didn’t make it feel more important. Above all else, at least it was shown that Lashley didn’t care about anything else but the World Title. Liked that Galloway chased Lashley off with a chair to continue their feud. This also then set the stage for Eli Drake to cash in his “Feast Or Fired” briefcase.

– The KOTM Championship match between Champion Bram and Drake seemed to be that of a failure initially when Drake’s first pinfall attempt was unsuccessful. However, he worked his way to an eventual pin to win the Title out of nowhere. It was probably for the best as far as Bram, who can be built as a bigger star without the crutch of that stupid belt. It also allows Drake to have his moment and gives the two something to feud over. Maybe this’ll be set for Slammiversary? Either way, as good as this might’ve been, commentary sounded dumb for the ways they backed the idea that “Feast Or Fired” ever pays off. Why put your career on the line for a Title shot when you can simply earn it down the road without that risk like everyone else?

– Raquel seems to be that pretty lady who gets passed from act to act. Reminds us of Maryse circa 2010. Of course the latter came back strong, but we’re not excited about Raquel. The hype video with her and The Bro-Mans was painful, with them under her control as she gave them the “key to real winning,” which was in other words, watching her do a striptease on a beach. Oh, TNA.

– It was kind of entertaining to watch Drake troll a bunch of backstage hands with a “champagne celebration” only to throw it in their faces. Nice.

– The Rockstar Spud/Tyrus-Bro-Mans match had odd Slammiversary implications on top of Miracle being Referee with the winners getting shots at the Tag Titles on the show. So-so match with the expected result of the faces winning, since we couldn’t imagine Spud/Tyrus taking on the TNA World Tag Team Champions Decay. It really spells how desperate the tag team scene is when the Bro-Mans of all teams get a shot. Miracle didn’t even factor into the match besides reluctantly ringing for the bell when Spud tapped out to the Adonis Crab.

– The backstage segment with Maria and EC3 continued to show EC3 having momentum as the authority figure and caught Maria complaining about him to Billy Corgan on the phone. It basically set up the next segment to follow, which would focus on Maria’s “job evaluation.”

– So basically, it’d been building to a match between Kim and Maria at Slammiversary, long story short. Didn’t like the idea that Sienna, pushed as a brute enforcer, was faded to the background on a tag team with Allie, who was decent in the ring. On the other hand, it allowed TNA Knockouts Champion Jade to excel in the ring as she tagged with Kim against the two heels. This might’ve actually been Jade’s best performance to date. That Pele Kick though. The talking between Kim and Maria wasn’t great, but at least the in-ring action sufficed. Unsurprisingly, the faces won.

– EC3 would book Miracle in action to take on James Storm because he was a “pathological liar” and though the match was nothing to write home about, we liked that Maria was the deciding factor by the end, as she cost Storm the match with the distraction. Ec3’s post-match promo was great though and “set the stage” for Slammiversary and set up Miracle to take a fierce Last Call to the face. Exclamation point.

– Al Snow has been a strong “status quo veteran heel” as of late in his feud against Grado/Mahabali Shera. It also seems as if he has used the angle to push talent out of his own wrestling academy and it was decided that it’d be The Tribunal (Marcus Louis and Sylvester Lefort of NXT fame) as his understudies. Snow was great on the mic as he explained his mission objective to bring pro wrestling back to its glory days, but Tribunal were rough on the mic and didn’t capture any crowd heat. That said, things perked up some once Grado/Shera joined the fray. It was unintentional comedy, but a gut-buster when Shera screamed to Snow how he loved his mother. The footage talk was simply done to show Snow setting things up in his own point-of-view, while Shera/Grado showed the actual footage, that proved that Snow bent the rules to win matches. Eventually, it led to a heel beatdown and that at least was well-done.

– Once known as Pepper Parks, it appears the “reset button” has been pushed and he has been renamed Braxton Sutter, a humbled veteran who has finally gotten his break. He was well-spoken in his brief video package promo and we’re wondering where it goes next. Until we read it elsewhere, we forgot this was Pepper Parks. That’s convincing promo skill.

– We could see why Lashley would set Galloway to face Decay in the main event in a handicap, to torture him, but it made for some dry melodramatic television. Did anybody honestly think Galloway wouldn’t win? The only thing they might’ve not guessed was the finish where it took a Lashley accidental spear on Abyss to do the trick. Fine for what it was, but it showed us first-hand that the Tag Team Champions are clearly beneath the World Champion in the ring. Don’t remember much from the actual match, but keeping Galloway strong was easily the smart option. We would’ve used a different team though.

– Now on to the Hardys segments… This was actually a better portrayal of Matt’s darker character when shown in his humble abode. Also liked how Reby/Maxel tied into it as she was shown leaving the house in a panic earlier in the night only to reappear when Matt convinced Jeff to join him in their family ring and tossed a baby doll to him. It felt so outlandish and “B-Movie”-esque that it actually kind of worked in its own little world. Do we want to see this kind of thing every week? God no, but this probably needed to happen to get a better explanation of this new Matt character and why he’s acting the way he is. On top of that, the episode ended with a painful thud as Matt signed the contract only before he eventually delivered a sick Side Effect off the apron and through a wooden one-piece coffee table, played in slow-motion for our pleasure. Ouch.

Quick Results

• Bram def. Lashley via DQ
• TNA King Of The Mountain Championship – Eli Drake def. Bram (Champion) via pinfall to become new Champion
• Winners Receive TNA World Tag Team Championship Title Shot At Slammiversary – The Miracle As Special Guest Referee – The Bro-Mans (w/Raquel) def. Rockstar Spud/Tyrus via pinfall 
• Jade/Gail Kim def. Allie/Sienna via pinfall
• The Miracle (w/Maria) def. James Storm via pinfall
• 3-On-1 Handicap – Drew Galloway def. Decay via pinfall