BLOGS & ARTICLES
Posted on 08/17/10

Total iMPACT #012: The Whole F'n ReACTION
By Chris Gorst



Opening the show was a non title match between #8 Contender, Kurt Angle and TNA Television Champion and #6 Contender, "The Phenomenal" AJ Styles. While not the best match between the 2, it was still a very good, uninterupted 8 minute match. We've seen what these 2 can do given more time, and they've shown that in 8 minutes they can still have one of the best matches of the week.

Next up was the Knockouts Championship. I wasn't expecting a classic, I wasn't even expecting anything but a squash, what we got was one of the best womens matches I've seen from WWE or TNA in a number of months. The wrestling was adequate and there was also storyline progression with the biker chick, Velvet coming out and attacking her made sense, and also will (hopefully) lead to a big reveal in a few weeks (as opposed to how Joey Mercury was revealed as the masked member of the SES at a random point with no build and no prior warning).

Then we had a triple threat between Matt Morgan, Mr Anderson and The Pope. The match was a throwaway match and serve as a way to give Matt Morgan a win, but also continue the Anderson/Pope feud (although both are babyface). I liked the beginning of the match with Pope and Anderson beating on Morgan before trying for pins and them breaking up the others pin attempts. After that series ended, Morgan shoves Pope into Anderson, Anderson didn't know Morgan was to blame, the 2 faces fight, Morgan sneaks in and gets the fall.

Jeff Hardy's Open Challenge was next, I was actually disappointed in the choice of opponent, but Shannon Moore put on possibly his best match since...well, WCW. The match was good, Moore being able to counter a lot of Hardys offence and getting a fair amount of offence in on Hardy made this better.

Next up was the final in the best of 5 series between the Motor City Machineguns and Beer Money. This series has been the best thing in wrestling over the last month and a half, and this was possibly the best of the lot. The first fall was some of the best tag team wrestling that has been seen since probably 2001 during the heyday of the Hardyz/Dudleyz/E&C. 21 minutes long (including a commercial, which is the first commercial that has interupted any match in this series) and proof that Beer Money and the Guns are the 2 best tag teams in the US mainstream today.

The main event was Rob Van Dam vs Abyss in a Stairway to Hell match (I refuse to call it the Stairway to Janice), this had some fun hardcore spots and the first sighting in TNA of both the Van Daminator and Van Terminator (into a barbed wire board no less). Abyss got "Janice" but it wasn't used in the match.

Following the main event, Hulk Hogan comes out and says how EV2.0 are great, bigs them up, says they're backstage etc and then brings them out. Hogan gives the mic to Dreamer, he starts to thank the fans, but there is no sign of Sandman in the ring, lights go out to tease Sandman's arrival, but instead, its Fortune (without Flair), Matt Morgan and Doug Williams brandishing various weapons from a kendo stick to an axe handle. This leads to a 3 minute beatdown that leaves all the EV2.0 guys down and bleeding, Flair comes out, shouts and Dixie saying it was her fault, then we cut backstage to RVD lying in a pool of blood, and Abyss holding a blood soaked "Janice" before he screams and Tenay and Taz talk about getting an update on Van Dam's condition.

To me, this was the best televised show of the year. There were 2 matches I'd rate as 4 stars, and 1 that is even better than that. The beatdown at the end looked brutal, in a good way, Fortune came across as badass, and I think this made more of a statement than the initial Nexus attack. I also recommend looking at TNA ReACTION, it is a great addition to the TNA lineup giving a unique point of view for viewers to see behind the scenes. Exclusive interviews and reactions from the TNA Superstars and staffers (for example this week the trainer was saying how RVD's injuries were worse than any he'd seen in TNA before).

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