Blog Archives
Notes In Observance – Impact Wrestling 3/9/17: Make Impact Great
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.
(Aired 3/9/17)
Make Impact Great
– The opening video began with a look back at the various moments of the company now formerly known as Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA). As you’d imagine, there were shots of AJ Styles, Samoa Joe and Jeff Jarrett. Given Styles and Joe made their names here, but have gone on to bigger places. Cough, cough. Anyways, more highlights included Monty Brown’s infamous cage tightroped huracanrana at Turning Point 2004, random shots of tope con hilos to push the “no limits” X-Division and soundbites from Don West because it just doesn’t count without him. They also showed Kurt Angle’s headbutt to Samoa Joe in their hot feud from 2006-2007. Ironically, it’s almost 15 years to the month when TNA emerged on the scene. The basis of the video stated that change was inevitable and we’d have to live with it. There was a flashy new opening montage/theme that was eh. We guess this will be more like Anthem’s “Impact” than anything we’ve previously seen.
Notes In Observance – TNA Impact Wrestling 2/9/17: The End Of The Wolves
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.
(Aired 2/9/17)
The End Of The Wolves
– February 2017 has been a disappointing month for fans of The TNA World Tag Team Champions, The Broken Hardys, but alas, they’ve uncovered something new and crazy for them to explore. We started the show with a peak in the parking lot as the Champs, complete with King Maxel/Queen Rebecca, mainly focused on Maxel’s preferences towards unhealthy carbohydrates. Entertaining as always, there was a hook that “everything would be revealed tonight.” Thank god for that.
Notes In Observance – TNA Impact Wrestling 2/2/17: Night Of Open Fight
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 2/2/17)
Night Of Open Fight
– Welcome to the one night in TNA Wrestling where various employees can challenge (or “call out”) others for intense quarrels or whatnot. “Open Fight Night” still remains a cheesy take on “Open Mic Night” and whenever it’s uttered, it’s hard to not automatically think of 2012. Hulk Hogan, Bully Ray and Brooke Hogan much? Anyways, they combined OFN with the former “Feast Or Fired” in that the briefcase holders had the right to challenge for any belt of their choosing. Or most of them. We’ll get to that shortly. To start things off, we got some kooky close-ups of the case holders – Jeff Hardy, Trevor Lee, Eli Drake/Tyrus and The DCC. Talk about close-ups. This just looked plain bad.
Notes In Observance – TNA Impact Wrestling 1/26/17: Genesis 2017
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 1/26/17)
Genesis 2017
– The TNA World Tag Team Championship Three-Way match between Champions The Broken Hardys, Crazzy Steve/Abyss and Bram/Kingston was about as formulaic as you can get in terms of putting a multi-team match together. With the Hardys on this “mission” to become the best team in space/time, it was hard to believe that they’d ever lose this, albeit it was a good attempt to establish other threats in the division. DCC will always be cheating pushovers and Decay are just crazy mofos. Not much of a story to tell, but they’re all here and want to wrestle and it’s Genesis (or Genesis-themed, they’d have you believe) so why not? There was also a good amount of hype towards the next week’s “Open Fight Night” episode, though with little structure introduced besides those goofy briefcases and the idea that anybody can be called out at any time. Isn’t that every wrestling show? Matt Hardy’s “pree-muh-nee-shun” that we’d see them “start a tag team revolution” was intriguing, but alas, it only opened the door for James Storm to drop a reference about that time he led a group of disgruntled midcarders in 2015. Not that 2017 is any different. Shaking our heads. Decay’s only vocal trophy was that they “eradicated Beer Money from TNA.” True as that could’ve been, that wasn’t much of a line. DCC held a briefcase, though we don’t remember what color or that it’ll actually matter. Same for “Nefarious Brother Nero.” On with the match, we suppose. With the silly tag-in scenario for a multi-man underway, the crowd was obviously into the Champs the most. DCC broke rules when they could and Decay was just crazy mofos again. That’s their thing. What don’t you get, child? Matt did break out this cool bulldog/clothesline combo on Kingston (not Kofi)/Steve. The finish was unfortunate for the decayed ones as Steve’s green mist went into Kingston and with not-Kofi out of the equation, Steve took a crazy Twist Of Fate from Matt, while Nero took care of everyone else. Don’t you love that?
Notes In Observance – TNA Impact Wrestling 1/19/17: Race For The Case
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 1/19/17)
Race For The Case
– The opening video chronicled Lashley’s World Title contention resurgence as he defeated (barely) Ethan Carter III in a Last Man Standing match to earn a future shot. Some focus was also paid to it being another heartbreaking loss for the “Ass-Kicking Machine.”
Notes In Observance – TNA Impact Wrestling 1/12/17: Rexual Chocolate
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 1/12/17)
Rexual Chocolate
– The opening video highlighted the Triple-Threat TNA World Heavyweight Championship match between Champion Eddie Edwards, Ethan Carter III and Bobby Lashley. They omitted the One Night Only: Live Pay-Per-View for reasons unknown. Davey Richards’ return prevented Lashley’s shenanigans as he helped his Wolves partner retain. Being that there were established conflicts between Richards/EC3 on ONO, weird that they didn’t even show that. Maybe they’ll follow up on it later.
TNA One Night Only: Live! 2017 Reaction
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
Genrally, Total Nonstop Action Wrestling’s “One Night Only” Pay-Per-View specials are reminiscent of themed filler with a few marquee matchups, but ultimately nothing special.
Last year, we made an exception to cover a “Live!” edition of the show which featured The Miracle/Maria’s debut and Beer Money’s return.
A year later, Beer Money’s gone, but Miracle/Maria remain. They half-heartedly pushed the show on the previous night’s Impact Wrestling, so with this now an apparent tradition and with the company under new ownership, we figured why not see what happens?
The thing with TNA so far in 2017 was that we had fears of major changes, but two shows in, it’s apparent they’ve retained a lot of 2016’s flavor, which was fine with us because that was probably the company’s best creative year.
Notes In Observance – TNA Impact Wrestling 1/5/17: Three-Way Dances With Wolves
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 1/5/17)
Three-Way Dances With Wolves
– The opening video highlighted TNA World Champion Eddie Edwards, also known as “Mr. Anything Is Possible” (yes, they’re making that a thing) and his run thus far. He fulfilled his dream and “Never Said Die.” They ran through the controversial finish where he defeated Ethan Carter III in a defense and then the undecided finish at Total Nonstop Deletion when he/Lashley literally battled themselves into Acocalypto and through a door frame along the way. With the way they set that up, one would only assume a three-way for the Title would be the next and best chapter. Oh yea, it’s 2017 now, so gone is the old logo and now appears the infamous blue owl of Anthem Sports & Entertainment. Look into its eyes. Look at it now. To us, it looks like more of an angry blue mustache.