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Notes In Observance – Impact Wrestling 3/9/17: Make Impact Great
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.
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 2/23/17: Procure, Procure, Procure
Photo courtesy of Inside Pulse.
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 2/23/17)
Procure, Procure, Procure
– The opening video brought us to Cameron, North Carolina at the Hardy abode. Broken Matt Hardy sought the advice of trusty giraffe, George Washington on the Seven Deities demanding that he return to his Egyptian roots. In only the way a man and giraffe can communicate in the Broken Universe, this cracked us up. Next, Matt spoke to Vanguard 1 about rumors of his drinking problems. A freaking drone. Ha. Anyways, Brother Nero approached Matt, as he was informed that they’d be transported to somewhere unknown. Matt basically asked Nero to “house his abilities” in his vessel and to change things up, Nero had the premonition that Matt would go to Egypt and just like that, Matt disappeared. If you powered through those few sentences without any trouble, then this show should be just for your liking. In any other gimmick, this would burn, but the Hardys always make it work. It’s like a niche at this point.
Notes In Observance – TNA Impact Wrestling 2/2/17: Night Of Open Fight
Photo courtesy of Inside Pulse.
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
Photo courtesy of Inside Pulse.
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?
TNA One Night Only: Live! 2017 Reaction
Photo courtesy of YouTube.
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 12/1/16: The Decayed Crusade
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 12/1/16)
The Decayed Crusade
– The opening video put over The DCC, as they took out Broken Matt Hardy and gave him amnesia upon a wild backstage brawl. We relived the journey by Matt’s family to jog his memory back, as they tried everything from footage, hypnotism and the Lake Of Reincarnation to no avail. Finally, it took Matt begging “the seven deities” to give him a sign before lightning struck him down and to Reby’s delight, Broken Matt was back. Those few weeks of Ice Cream Social/Engineer/Peach Cobbler Matt were fun, but the return was key to the next step in the war (should we call it that?) against The DCC.
Notes In Observance – TNA Impact Wrestling 11/10/16: The Reveal
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 11/10/16)
The Reveal
– The opening in-ring segment with Ethan Carter III, Eli Drake, TNA World Heavyweight Champion Eddie Edwards, The Miracle, Maria and Moose was standard as far as what we’ve seen on the mic from all involved here, with the mission to push specific programs. Of course, we knew that Drake would challenge Edwards for the belt later as per his “Bound For Gold” briefcase. We also had Miracle and EC3 in a clash over who was rightful to challenge for the belt next. Everybody spent a good minute to put themselves over before Moose came down to commence the physicality. In the end, it was apparent this was used to hype the match to follow.
Notes In Observance – TNA Impact Wrestling 10/20/16: The Dream That Won’t Stop
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 10/20/16)
The Dream That Won’t Stop
– The opening video was a good mashup of current storylines, as we saw the outcome of last week’s Moose-Ethan Carter III main event to determine who’d face Lashley this week where Moose cleanly stood victorious. Also featured was Maria’s downfall, as she lost the TNA Knockouts Championship and then control of the Knockouts Division to end her “reign of terror” and lastly, we saw how the main event match for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship between Champion Eddie Edwards and Cody was set up. This was a decent show on paper with some can’t-miss stuff.
Notes In Observance – TNA Impact Wrestling 10/13/16: Fate’s A Funny Thing
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 10/13/16)
Fate’s A Funny Thing
– The opening video showed us some quick flashes from Bound For Glory, before we saw last week, how Lashley confidently talked himself into a Title defense, as TNA President Billy Corgan allowed him to choose between three opponents. Lashley chose Eddie Edwards (someone he once beat twice) and it backfired when Edwards cleanly defeated him. While we liked the idea that Edwards was the one to beat Lashley and it surely was an accolade, Lashley had built up so much momentum that when he lost, Edwards didn’t get the rub that he should’ve. Anyways, you can’t go back in time, so we were curious to see how they followed that up.
Notes In Observance – TNA Impact Wrestling 10/6/16: Don’t Call It A Miracle
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 10/6/16)
Don’t Call It A Comeback
– Now that we could get past the rumor that the Impacts after Bound For Glory wouldn’t happen due to financial issues, it was time to see how the follow-up would be. We saw still-shot highlights of BFG, with highlights like Aron Rex as he became the inaugural TNA Impact Grand Champion, Gail Kim was inducted into the TNA Hall Of Fame and beat Maria to become a six-time TNA Knockouts Champion, Cody/Brandi Rhodes debuted, “The Great War” stole the show and in a shocker, Lashley retained his TNA World Heavyweight Championship over Ethan Carter III in the main event to stay the dominant threat in maybe all of pro wrestling.
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