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Notes In Observance – TNA Impact Wrestling 3/2/17: Money Is For Marks
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 3/2/17)
Money Is For Marks
– The Last Knockout Standing match for the TNA Knockouts Championship between Champion Rosemary and Jade with Madison Rayne on commentary sparked things off as the two traded punches on the ramp. They set it up with last week’s decent segment. Jade performed a suicide dive and a few German suplexes. She was being walloped with a garbage can and asked for more. Would we get a Van Terminator spot from Rosemary? Yes. Jade powerbombed Rosemary onto the trash can. Rayne actually improved on commentary here, she added a lot to emphasize Jade as a thirsty challenger who has withstood other harsh matches. Jade jumped into the mist from the top rope and was hit with the Red Wedding. She got up at 8. RW on the floor now. She got up at 9, but way to miss it, camera. Sigh. Jade spit water at the Champ and connected with a powerbomb onto the steps. Ouch. Rosemary got up at 9. Jade attempted another powerbomb, but got spit with mist again. A third RW on the ramp. That’ll probably do it. It’s cool to see a female break out the F5, though it’s not quite as effective as Brock Lesnar’s. That was it.
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?
Notes In Observance – TNA Impact Wrestling 12/8/16: A Twisted Fate
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 12/8/16)
A Twisted Fate
– The opening video recapped when Ethan Carter III defeated Eli Drake to become the new TNA World Heavyweight Championship #1 Contender (and silenced Drake for the rest of 2016), which blended into a sleek “promo clash” as they dipped in separate soundbites from TNA World Heavyweight Champion Eddie Edwards and EC3 that pushed the big Title match. Edwards showed confidence aplenty as he claimed to be “the man” that EC3 used to be and needed to be beat, while EC3 put the belt over more than anything and that after the bell rang, friendship aside, he’d “choke his ass out.”
Notes In Observance – TNA Impact Wrestling 7/12/16: Destination X 2016
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 7/12/16)
Destination X 2016
– Say what you want, but “The Final Deletion” was one of the more unique storylines in TNA history. From its simple yet deep story of a brotherly rivalry mixed with Matt Hardy’s character evolution into darker territory and top-notch cinematic elements, there was a lot to like here. How does one follow-up a “Final Deletion”? The opening video did a solid job, as we saw Jeff Hardy wake up in a bed, as Matt paraded around with a black garbage bag filled with “materialistic remains of Brother Nero” as he stood upon a boat, where one of his drones dropped off a yellow tank top, what Jeff wore before he was deleted. A “Public Deletion” was hyped for later in the show. We saw more of those entertaining thematics.
Notes In Observance – TNA Impact Wrestling 7/5/16: The Final Deletion
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 7/5/16)
The Final Deletion
– If TNA has done anything right in years, it has actually been the pseudo-cinematic feud between “Broken” Matt Hardy (derivative of his “Big Money Matt” character) and Jeff Hardy. To this point, Matt and Jeff had clashed several times with Jeff getting wins, but now Matt was eager for “The Final Deletion” and it was to take place from Cameron, North Carolina. We had to know what we were in for when we saw an old man cutting a disclaimer promo in Spanish not to repeat what we’d see. The opening video was actually kind of brilliant, as it showed Matt and Reby planning a “fiesta” for Maxel and Matt needed the event documented. It was epic, as the old guy was also revealed to be Señor Benjamin, Matt’s gardener.
Notes In Observance – TNA Impact Wrestling 6/28/16: Tonight, Tonight
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 6/28/16)
Tonight, Tonight
– As of this show, TNA’s biggest storylines were Ethan Carter III/Drew Galloway earning respective World Title shots (which would happen on this night), the continuation of the Hardy brother saga as Jeff outlasted Matt in Six Sides Of Steel with a definitive dive off the top of the cage and with Dixie Carter absent thanks to Billy Corgan, The Miracle was granted a shot at the TNA X-Division Championship (a plan to get to the TNA World Heavyweight Championship via “Option C”) and used cheating tactics to win the Title. This episode would advance all those storylines and more as we saw in the opening video.
Notes In Observance – TNA Impact Wrestling 6/14/16: When Live TV Attacks
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 6/14/16)
When Live TV Attacks
– After a ho-hum Slammiversary Pay-Per-View, TNA appeared to gather some mainstream momentum when they advertised a live “Gold Rush” edition of Impact where we’d see the Slammiversary fallout along with four Title matches. The biggest draw was “The Destroyer” Lashley, who beat Drew Galloway to become the new TNA World Heavyweight Champion. Then we had a “LOL TNA” moment when the majority of the show’s airtime went to four Pop TV commercials played on a loop because of technical difficulties. This had to be frustrating for many fans who’d hope to see a live show, especially since a lot of the show was dependent on that formula. TNA tried to redeem themselves by playing the show later on in the night with limited commercials, but the damage may had already been done. We’ll assess the show as it later aired in its entirety.
TNA Slammiversary 2016 Reaction
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
In the wake of the tragedy in Orlando that unfolded less than 24 hours before the event, sometimes people need an outlet to “get away.”
For some, pro wrestling fills that void.
You’d probably wonder who’d rely on TNA for a stress-free product, but the company has had a better 2016 than 2015.
Where Slammiversary 2015 was known for its “technical shortcomings,” we had a packed card for this year’s and with the exception of a few matches, Slammiversary 2016 would be known for being disappointingly average.
Pro Wrestling Opinion 