Impact Wrestling on Destination America
Friday, February 13th
SSE Hydro Arena – Glasgow, Scotland

We open the show with Angle making his way to the ring. Angle thanked Gunner and Aries for joining him to defeat the Beat Down Clan (BDC) last week. Angle now wants to set his sights on the World title and asked Lashley to make his way to the ring. Angle and Lashley shake hands. This was mostly to begin the build toward Angle vs. Lashley. I still insist Angle vs. Lashley is the biggest match TNA have at the moment. It should be an extremely easy feud to build with both men’s backgrounds. There are three big matches TNA need to get out of Angle this year: Lashley, Aries and EC3. Looks like they’re going for Angle vs. Lashley first.

I mentioned this last week, but it bears repeating. I like MVP. I think he’s generally a really good promo, but I can’t help but zone out of all his BDC promos. They’re nearly all the same (“Look how tough and great we are”) and they nearly always cover very little in terms of important story points. Anywho, moral of the story here is Angle and Lashley vs. the BDC is made for later in the show.

Bobby Roode vs. Austin Aries: These two always have great matches and there’s no reason why this should be any different. Next week there’ll be a twenty man Gauntlet match to determine the next number one contender and the story here is essentially that the winner of this match will be entrant number twenty in that match. Some really nice back and forth counters to start, exchanging submission and finisher attempts.

Aries hit a big axe handle off the top to the floor. Roode countered a Missile Dropkick with a dropkick of his own. Roode connected with a spinebuster for a near fall. Aries tried to make a comeback but Roode cut him off with a Blockbuster. Aries escaped a Roode Bomb and connected with a Missile Dropkick. They exchanged Brainbuster and Roode Bomb attempts before Aries knocked Roode to the floor with a discus forearm and followed up with the Heat Seeking Missile but Roode sidestepped it and Aries collided with the barricade.

Aries floated out of a Roode Bomb attempt into a roll up for two but Roode seamlessly transitioned into a crossface. Aries tried to roll out but Roode rolled through and picked up the submission win. In some ways these kinds of matches frustrate me most about TNA. Give these guys ten more minutes in front of this crowd and they’ll deliver a top quality match that will get people talking, which might create a bit of buzz around the product. As it was, it was about as good a match as they could have in the time allotted. ***1/2

Fun fact: This is Roode’s first televised victory over Austin Aries. Roode and Aries shake hands after the match and Aries goes to the back. Roode wants a rematch vs. Lashley. Eric Young jumped Roode from behind and hit a piledriver. Roode sold that piledriver like a million bucks. After the break they replayed the piledriver multiple times and cut to Roode being helped to the back. EY jumped Roode again and hit another piledriver on the stage. Decent way to put some heat back on EY after losing to Roode last week.

Al Snow was in the ring and bringing his British Boot Camp feud with Grado to Impact. They could’ve done with a video introducing Grado and his feud with Al. Snow offered Grado a chance to back out of next week’s match. Grado came out sans entrance music to a strong reaction. Grado told him to shut up. Snow told Grado’s mom, who was sitting at ringside, that she should be ashamed of her son. Naturally she responded by slapping Al. Grado came to the defence of his mother and Al bailed. Snow was great here and this was a really good set up for next week’s match.

Crazy Steve vs. Bram: I refuse to spell crazy with two z’s. Bram towered over Steve. Bram called out Magnus (whom he jumped a couple of weeks ago in a bar) but Magnus was nowhere to be seen. Implant DDT gave Bram the win. SQUASH

Ethan Carter III and Tyrus vs. Mark Andrews, Rockstar Spud and Jeremy Borash: I don’t really like how they’ve introduced Andrews. Instead of bringing him in as a really talented wrestler who could spark some much needed life into the X-Division, they’re treating him as this underdog geek. Team Spud got a good reaction. Tyrus is still beating up Spud and Andrews all the time. JB went face to face with EC3. JB blocked EC3’s punch and laid in some shots before EC3 cut him off.

JB made the tag to Andrews who hit a Missile Dropkick and immediately got cut off and beaten up. Andrews finally made the hot tag to Spud and Spud ran wild. JB hit a plancha off the top to the floor on Tyrus. Fair play to JB for that. EC3 then hit the One Percenter on Spud for the win. EC3 went to shave Spud’s head but Ken Anderson returned to make the save. **

Madison Rayne vs. Awesome Kong: Madison tried to do a promo before the match but the beginning of Kong’s music kept interrupting her. Kong finally came out and Madison tried to hide behind Earl Hebner (who she was once romantically involved with in an angle forgotten to time). Kong won with the Implant Buster. SQUASH

They replayed Jeff’s big fall a bunch of times. Matt Hardy came out and said last week was the first time he’s witnessed a broken Jeff Hardy. Out comes The Revolution. Storm gloated about taking down Jeff. The Revolution beat up Matt until The Wolves made the save. The Revolution and the BDC are doing very similar things on this show.

Kurt Angle and Bobby Lashley vs. MVP and Samoa Joe: The BDC beat up Gunner and Aries earlier in the show. MVP and Joe worked over Lashley. Lashley’s booking over the last month has been awful. Lashley finally got the tag to Angle and Angle ran wild with suplxes. MVP broke up a pin attempt after Angle hit the Angle Slam on Joe. MVP drove Angle into the ring post and took back over.

Angle finally caught Joe with a middle rope dropkick and made the tag to Lashley who ran wild himself. Lashley hit a spinebuster but Joe made the save. Lashley was looking for a Spear on Joe but Angle grabbed an Ankle Lock instead. Joe rolled through and Angle nearly hit Lashley. Lashley dodged but MVP rolled him up for the win. They’re teasing dissension between Lashley and Angle. **1/2

Final Thoughts:

A decent show with one really good match, a really good Grado/Snow segment and the EC3/Spud feud ticking over. I always feel like these UK crowds are a lost opportunity for TNA. The structure of their show doesn’t really allow the great, engaged crowds to elevate much. Most of this show was talking and squash matches. If TNA cut some of the better roster members loose in fifteen-twenty minute matches these crowds would help make them seem special. It just seems like the company leaving a great opportunity on the table.