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 7/21/16)

Bound For Destruction

– The Hardy saga continued in the opening video as we saw Jeff Hardy atop a valley mountain, the same one where he infamously injured himself on the motorcycle to cost him and Matt the TNA World Tag Team Championships, but this time he was next to Matt, who dared him to try it again and rooted for him to fail. This was everything great about the Hardy story to this point, that Matt has continually bragged about how he now owns Jeff and this was a nice tie-in to one of Matt’s biggest personal gripes to cost him success as he looked to make him pay now. Jeff complied and the camera cut away before he landed, to raise the suspense. Smart for TNA to continue to showcase the best thing they have going now, while the rest of the show catches up, though they’re not far.

– The in-ring segment with TNA World Heavyweight Champion Lashley, The Miracle, Moose, Dixie Carter, TNA X-Division Champion Eddie Edwards, Jeff Hardy, Matt Hardy and Reby was an unraveling of sorts, but was a great follow-up on many levels. We first started with Lashley, who had a beef with Moose and stood to his heel personality as he bragged about how he was better than an NFL player because he “didn’t wear protective equipment to compete” and as he called out Moose, we got The Miracle, who complained about the company and targeted Lashley for having what he wanted before he introduced Moose, as they made their way down the ramp, before Edwards attacked Moose from behind before they all brawled, which made sense. Dixie’s promo set the tone in that it gave the Six Sides Of Steel main event “Title For Title” rematch a stipulation that promised a winner and threatened to fire Miracle if either of them interfered in the main event. Thank god they covered that loophole. Dixie also previewed the next match as she told Miracle his opponent in the Bound For Glory Playoffs First Round would come out, revealed to be Jeff Hardy.

– The BFG First Round match between Jeff Hardy and Miracle started with the storyline twist from Matt as he showed a video that played Jeff’s second motorcycle wipeout and “redesigned” Jeff’s theme song to be a voiceover that said, “I fade away and classify myself as obsolete” as Reby shouted, “Obsolete!” in his face as he made his way to the ring. Awesome. We questioned though how Dixie could keep her eye on the “Title For Title” situation and not on the other problem where one member of her roster owned “the intellectual property” of another. It was what it was though. The bout was designed to be an easy win for Miracle as Jeff was too deflated from his injury and it continued their saga while Miracle got closer to his main goal. The post-match angle where Matt told Jeff to leave his ring was good progression.

– The BFG Playoffs First Round match between Matt Hardy and James Storm was a good continuation of what we saw, as Matt aspired to “show us how it’s done” and it was basically a spot match that involved the steel steps and the barricade. Yeah, not much of a match, but we liked how Reby got involved in the finish with the hammer/mallet thingy to cost Storm the match in a stunning Twist of Fate. See what we did there? It also helped propel Matt at the same time as a big name in the BFG conversation.

– Edwards’ backstage promo was geared more towards appreciation for Dixie and the second chance at the World Title than anything else, but it gave us good main event hype and maybe something that could point towards a future feud with Miracle/Moose if they go that route.

– To hype his appearance in the BFG Playoffs, we got a decent Ethan Carter III video package that put him over as someone who made a lot of progress in the last two years as an unbeatable force, to an extent. His biggest accomplishment to boast was that he has beaten “The Destroyer” and couldn’t wait to do it again.

– The backstage segment with Miracle, Moose and Maria was different, but we liked that it – A) Hyped the “State Of The Knockouts” segment for later where Maria would have to address the deep Knockouts roster of six and B) Showed us that Moose was a loose cannon for Miracle, as he wanted nothing more than to get his hands on Lashley, while Miracle warned him that he’d get fired if he did that.

– The in-ring segment with EC3, Drew Galloway and TNA King Of The Mountain Champion Eli Drake gave us a preview of the next match while it primarily focused on advancing the Galloway-EC3 saga, with the notion that now the next time they could face off to see who was the best was if they both advanced to the Playoff Finals. They each built their credibility to each other, before Drake came out with his “Yeah!” catchphrase and warned them not to think about the Finals and overlook him because he was in the Playoffs too. At least Drake has caught on with the crowd, as they chanted for his catchphrase, which he brilliantly played off of.

– The BFG Playoffs First Round match between Drake and EC3 gave us a good effort from both men, but it was obvious that EC3 would win this from the get-go. Commentary tried several times to tease a potential upset, but we didn’t buy in. We weren’t crazy about the finish since it made it look like EC3 barely squeaked by Drake, who isn’t quite on the same level as him. It made EC3 weaker to a point. It was all good though, as we expected Galloway to also win his match.

– The Vanguard 1.0 drone appeared again during the backstage segment with Matt and Jeff Hardy as it previewed next week’s BFG Second Round match between Matt and EC3 as the drone portrayed an image of EC3 before Matt asked it to show “his key to victory” and demanded the camera cut away, but Jeff seemed to look, which appeared to be okay with Matt. That’ll probably be the loophole that costs Matt the bout.

– The backstage segment with Maria and Allie hyped the upcoming “State Of The Knockouts” segment and gave us more awesome Allie humor, as she suggested Maria needed to meditate while Maria saw through Allie’s fakeness and told her to stop kissing her ass. Maria also complained about Dixie, because that’s what she does.

– A Tyrus hype video alred as a pseudo-infomerical for a product called “The Fixer” as he offered to be the solution to various conflicts. At least they’re trying to get him over now.

– Lashley’s backstage promo stood close to his “Destroyer” mentality as he complained about Dixie and vowed to take everybody out to get what he wanted, because he could. Good stuff, as Lashley has greatly improved on the mic.

– The “State Of The Knockouts” segment with Allie, TNA Knockouts Champion Sienna, Gail Kim, Jade, Marti Bell and Madison Rayne was fine in that it showcased the biggest problem that half the roster didn’t like Maria’s vision and painted her as a fake and a coward. We also saw advancements in the Jade-Bell feud as they found a reason to brawl some more and the biggest thing out of this was Rayne’s apparent heel turn, as she attacked Kim from behind after Maria booked a match where Kim would have to fight the entire Knockouts division to get another Title shot. Rayne’s turn was more in line with WWE’s Natalya, in that she was looking out for herself now.

– The backstage segment with Bram and Rosemary hyped Bram’s upcoming match with Galloway in the BFG Playoffs First Round. Based off what happened with Galloway and EC3 earlier, we already knew Galloway would win, so perhaps this was a good reason to advance the Rosemary/Bram storyline, but all we saw was them make out after she offered to help him win and he didn’t know what to say. Rosemary’s line that they were both changing was interesting but probably won’t lead to anything.

– The backstage segment with Mahabali Shera and The Tribunal was a simple short segment where Shera was attacked from behind by Tribunal during an interview. Grado or Coach Al Snow were nowhere to be found. Nice.

– The BFG Playoffs First Round match between Bram and Galloway presented them as competitive as they aggressively locked up in the first minute and it was a good match, but again, because of the EC3/Galloway feud, it took the “pop” out of the predictability and we knew Galloway would win, though we liked the Future Shock DDT off the top rope as the finish.

– The backstage segment with Galloway and Miracle hyped their BFG Playoffs Second Round match as Galloway spoke about the finals when Miracle came in and told him he needed to worry about him because he already beat him in the past and could do it again. Galloway was smart to bring up Moose’s “loose cannon” personality as something that could cost him his spot.

– The “Title For Title” Six Sides Of Steel match for the X-Division and World Heavyweight Championships was actually a great bout that surpassed last week’s by plenty. We didn’t think it was possible, but they gave them a lot of time and cleverly had Edwards come out of the gates strong and hang with the World Champ to almost pin him several times. It became quite competitive down the stretch and that was a good thing for the match. We loved the aspect of the finish in that it took a superplex off the top of the cage and two spears for Lahsley to finally put down Edwards to become the new X-Division Champion and retain his own belt. Now, Lashley had two belts and was the ultimate juggernaut. The post-match angle that brought out EC3, Galloway, Matt Hardy, Miracle and Moose to the dance made sense given they were all competitors in the BFG Playoffs and inadvertently hyped everything to take place the following week. TNA has done a great job at showcasing the right things and that’s why their main event scene looks so polished. Everybody is a contender, even if it appears they’re going to have a Finals between Galloway and EC3 to settle the score.

Quick Results

• Bound For Glory Playoffs – First Round – Moose Is Banned From Ringside – The Miracle def. Jeff Hardy (w/Matt Hardy, Reby) via pinfall to advance to next round 
• Bound For Glory Playoffs – First Round – Matt Hardy (w/Reby) def. James Storm via pinfall to advance to next round
• Bound For Glory Playoffs – First Round – Ethan Carter III def. Eli Drake via pinfall to advance to next round 
• Bound For Glory Playoffs – First Round – Drew Galloway def. Bram via pinfall to advance to next round 
• “Title For Title” – TNA World Heavyweight Championship/TNA X-Division Championship – Six Sides Of Steel – Lashley def. Eddie Edwards via pinfall to retain World Championship and become new X-Division Champion