All posts tagged Matt Morgan

This Is Awkward: TNA Post BFG

Written by Robbie_G_CH

Photos by Impact Wrestling

The dust has well and truly settled on this years Bound For Glory event as TNA gear up for the Turning Point PPV but the after effects from BFG can still be felt and the build up to next year has already started. A few major talking points have emerged with this years ‘reset’ but does this make the next few months and year excitable or disposable.

The Redemption Of Jeff Hardy

Jeff Hardy celebrates with his Heavyweight Championship

As much as it was annoying to see Aries lose the title after such a short period, the BFG series really needed to produce a winner otherwise the tournament wouldn’t have the impact to carry it through another year, it’s just a shame that it wasn’t Bully Ray, James Storm or Samoa Joe that came up trumps in the series; but at least Aries managed to get a good match of Hardy. The main event of BFG saw Jeff Hardy rise back to the top of the locker room by becoming the new TNA World Heavyweight Champion and complete his redemption after his drug ordeal including the infamous main event at Victory Road 2011.

After winning the Championship Hardy has since swapped the belt for a personalised one, although at times he was carrying both until Aries stole the actual title back to set up the rematch at Turning Point. Aries has done most of the promo work to set up the rematch as Hardy’s mic work is still less than stellar with creative deciding to go with inner monologues to work with the shortcomings taking away from the ‘live’ aspect of the show.

Unfortunately for those of us who are not ‘creatures’ I can see Jeff holding the title for a few months until he decides on whether or not to stay with the company or jump ship for a bigger pay day; which is likely the reason they have taken the actual belt away from the champion for fear of him walking away from the company with it in his possession. If he decides to leave a title change will likely happen at Victory Road but if he decides to stay we may be looking at an extended run at the top for the ‘Charismatic Enigma’.

Dead Man’s Hand

Devon was unmasked as one of the group.

Devon was unmasked at the event as one of the group members to the shock of Hulk Hogan, Sting and his former tag partner Bully Ray causing a deathly silence between them filled by the arena crowd chanting ‘This Is Awkward’; with Luke Gallows being unmasked on a later edition of Impact. The other big talking point that came out of BFG which has significantly changed the landscape of Impact Wrestling is that the group of Aces and Eights have gained access to the Impact Zone after putting Bully Ray through a table in a No DQ match-up.

The access has caused many brawls between the group and roster members which is quickly becoming tedious as every match the group are involved in ends with the group causing a disqualification with a beat down bringing out various wrestlers to match them.

The story has massive flaws, starting well before BFG but being continued with questions including: isn’t that assault? are they contracted? why did Hogan make the match a No DQ without having a back up plan to ensure the group wouldn’t win? The biggest question will be how do they plan on transitioning the action from brawling back to wrestling? why would the group who have had so much success thus far by just fist fighting decide that holds and slams would be the way to go.

It’s clear that members of the group are going to be unmasked at various stages of the next few months with a few shocks to be had along the way, which will likely end in a multi man tag match similar to a traditional Survivor Series match-up, although it remains to be seen how they will filter into the roster once the big reveals are said and done.

Morganmania

Morgan and Ryan

Morgan is annoyed with TNA management, especially Hogan for holding him back and has vowed to go through the whole roster to get to the Heavyweight Championship, unfortunately this is occurring the same time as the previously mentioned Aces & Eights with both there quests being very similar. Matt Morgan returned at BFG by hitting Al Snow with the Carbon Footprint and starting a war of words with Hulk Hogan whilst also allowing Gut Check reject Joey Ryan to win a contract.

Joey Ryan however has set his sights on RVD and the X Division Championship. This is a strong feud to throw Ryan into but if booked correctly could put him over and could see him become the face of the X Division for a good part of the next year, maybe even until Destination X where the title holder has the chance to transgress to the main event scene.

The two are on odd pairing and I doubt they will stay together for very long with one likely to screw the other over, I just hope they don’t decide to make them team as that would harm both parties.

Minor Impacts

The commentary of Impact has been overhauled with two sets of commentary teams, Jeremy Borash and Todd Keneley take the microphone for the first hour and hand over to the familiar Taz and Tenay. No explanation has been stated for this change but it is akin to how WCW’s television shows were called. So far Keneley has done a solid job as the play-by-play for the first hour despite Borash usually taking this role on Xplosion but time will only tell of how long this will continue, whether a member drops out and they form a three man team or whether further changes are coming.

Tara’s Hollywood boyfriend was revealed to be Jessie Godderz who was apparently on Big Brother for a number of series, further research has shown that he has been in Ohio Valley for a year honing his skills and has won a few tag team titles whilst there, at least this explains how he knows to wrestle.

Bobby Roode, A.J Styles and James Storm will compete in a three way match for a shot at the Heavyweight Championship but with a price, the man who gets pinned won’t be able to have another title shot until next years Bound For Glory!

With a number of title changes, new members to the roster & commentary team and new feuds started the foundations of TNA have been shaken to give the feeling of a new year to freshen things up, change isn’t always a good thing but with everything you can’t please everyone! The company have been moving in the right direction in the past year and they are not going to get everything right but besides a few things to iron out, Impact Wrestling remains to be a consistently good wrestling show.

Rob’s Reaction: Against All Odds

On February 12th TNA held their second PPV of the year, Against All Odds; an interesting theme for a PPV with its Vegas décor and gambling related graphics but being held in the Impact zone thousands of miles away from Sin City did TNA play their cards right?

#1 Contenders Match for the X Division Championship: Zema Ion defeated Jesse Sorensen via countout

The X Division match kicked off the card and I don’t need to tell you what happened as it was one of the biggest talking points of the PPV, but I would like to take this moment to wish Jesse well and hopefully he will make a full recovery. Kudos to Ion for keeping character although the concern for his competitor was apparent, it’s just a shame these two didn’t get the chance to showcase themselves.

Open Invitation Match for the Television Championship: Robbie E (c) def. Shannon Moore by pinfall

With the TV title not being defended on TV for months it was a last-minute addition to the card, which is a surprise that it hasn’t been forgotten about! I was surprised that Moore answered the call as he hasn’t been on TV in a while and he should be (in my opinion) me giving the X Division more depth. The match wasn’t much to shout about but at least it meant the belt was defended, for months I have been saying that the TV title should be given more prominence but to do so a better division needs to be built, the belt should be a stepping stone to the heavyweight championship rather than just a show filler.

Knockouts Championship: Gail Kim (c) def. Tara by pinfall

A solid match as expected between the two knockouts and a title match that Madison Rayne didn’t get involved in as she walked away from ringside mid bout. Kim picked up the pinfall after Tara hit a top rope moonsault but sold a knee injury on the landing which Kim capitalised on. It was good to see Tara get so much offence on Kim compared to their Impact match a few months ago when Tara jobbed within a minute. The match however was more another step in the Kim / Rayne storyline rather than a match where the title could change hands.

Tag Team Championship: Samoa Joe & Magnus def. Matt Morgan & Crimson (c) by pinfall

A better match than the one that took place at Genesis but that was to be expected as the challengers have had more time to gel as a team. There was good back and forth action and the end of the match came with Joe & Magnus hitting their snapmare / top rope elbow double team move on Morgan.

New Champions (photo by Lee South)

Joe and Magnus make for a good team and can hopefully bring about a rise in the tag division, Magnus is a rising star and Joe seems to have re-emerged from the wilderness of pointless feuds in a direction that will hopefully see him rise to the top again. Morgan and Crimson will most likely go on to have another ‘Dream Match’ as the competitive streak and tension between the two has been their since Sting put them together.

X Division Championship: Austin Aries (c) def. Alex Shelley via submission

As I predicted in my preview this match was the highlight of the night as both men were on form in a back and forth match that was a good advert for the X Division.

Aries has now gone onto beating everybody in the division and although he will be defending against Zema Ion in the near future it is difficult to see where ‘the greatest man to ever live’ will lose the title, as it will soon get to the point where either Aries will have to move up to find greater competition or the competition comes and find Aries.

Kazarian (w/ Daniels) def. A.J. Styles by pinfall

A slow starter but strong finisher this match was the first in what will probably be a series of match ups involving the three which I would imagine to keep on going until Destination X. The match included some good action between the two as would be expected although I felt a lot of direction was taken away from Kazarian as the fan’s continued to show their anger at Daniels, but this is to be expected as we still don’t know why Kazarian has sided with Daniels despite not being comfortable with it.

Kazarian getting the win gives him a little more prominence as he has been the weakest link in this fued so far, not in his ability but the fact since losing the X Division championship last year he hasn’t really had much to do, hopefully these matches will elevate him.

Gunner (w/ Eric Bischoff) def. Garett Bischoff (w/ Hulk Hogan) via pinfall

A match that I feel shouldn’t have been on PPV managed to land itself the Semi Main Event slot and managed to match my expectations of nothing. Gunner continued his ruthless streak but that means nothing when he is facing somebody who is making his PPV debut, especially as the pinfall came moments after Hogan was ready to throw in the towel.

Forcing Garett down fans throats isn’t the way to go, if we are to get behind him as a wrestler then he has to prove himself and pay his dues, going straight into the semi main event above seasoned pro’s such as Austin Aries, Samoa Joe and A.J. Styles is a slap in the face to them and proves it’s who you know (or who your related to) rather than what you know.

Hopefully after this shambles Garett will be taken off TV for a while, ply his trade at house shows to gain more experience and work his way from the bottom of the card… but we all know realistically that sadly wont happen.

World Heavyweight Championship: Bobby Roode (c) def. Jeff Hardy, James Storm and Bully Ray via pinfall

Yet another main event that ends in an angle rather than an actual finish. The match was entertaining up until the end when the ref took a bump and Sting, who was enforcing the match, stepped in to stop Roode using the belt as a weapon and ended up knocking out Hardy with the championship and slow counted the victory.

Victory Road's likely Main Event (photo by Lee South)

The finish to this match sets up Sting vs. Roode which is likely to happen at Victory Road as Hardy had his rematch on Impact and looks set to enter a program with Kurt Angle whilst Ray and Storm had a number one contenders match with Storm facing his former Beer Money Inc. partner at Lockdown.

Hopefully this will be the last time we see a PPV event to end with more questions and no definitive winners as it is doing the company more harm in the long-term as fans are unwilling to pay for matches that they get no reward from.

Overall Against All Odds was a bit of a let down, it was hard to build back up from the accident that occurred in the first match, a lot of this event is building to bigger things in the future, with Vince Russo leaving TNA hopefully things will get on track and provide quality PPV events that are worth the money that fans are being asked to stump up on a monthly basis.

@Robbie_G_CH

All posts tagged Matt Morgan

This Is Awkward: TNA Post BFG

Dead Man’s Hand

Minor Impacts

Rob’s Reaction: Against All Odds

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