Impact Wrestling on Destination America
Friday, February 20th
SSE Hydro Arena – Glasgow, Scotland
Angle opened the show simply announcing he wanted to win the World title and that he’ll win the 20 man number one contenders Gauntlet tonight.
Matt Hardy and The Wolves vs. The Revolution (James Storm, Abyss and Manik): This match was actually taped in Manchester. Wolves and Hardy started strong with some triple team stuff before The Revolution took over. Hardy eventually hit a Side Effect, made the hot tag and The Wolves ran wild. They caught Manik with the Alarm Clock followed by a Superkick/Falcon Arrow combo but Abyss made the save. Abyss accidentally DDT’d Storm and The Wolves took out the whole Revolution with stereo dives. Hardy hit a neat Twist of Fate while Edwards hit a foot stomp at the same time followed by a Richards foot stomp for the win. Fun sprint. Could have been great with more time. The Revolution laid everybody out after the match. Abyss hit Manik with a Black Hole Slam as punishment for taking the fall. **1/2
EC3 is upset that Ken Anderson interrupted Spud’s scalping last week. He is throwing a bit of a hissy fit. Anderson came out. I have a soft spot for Anderson, in spite of most reasonable evidence, but he’s at his very worst when he’s doing obnoxious goofy comedy. Anderson wants to shave EC3’s head. Anderson went to the ring but Tyrus went to meet him. This gave Spud and Andrews a chance to jump the distracted EC3. They went to shave EC3’s head but Tyrus made the save. Anderson hit a Mic Check on Tyrus and Spud shaved Tyrus’ head. EC3 stood at ringside watching on, not helping Tyrus. Another good angle building toward EC3 and Spud finally going toe to toe.
Al Snow vs. Grado: Grado came out to a Like A Prayer knock off which was no fun at all. You can’t underestimate just how great Grado’s Like A Prayer entrance is. There’s videos on YouTube of his actual entrance with the music. It’s much better. Snow is in great shape. Snow jumped Grado before the bell and dominated early. Snow hit the Snow Plow but Grado kicked out. Al (who is 51 by the way) hit a Moonsault but Grado kicked out again. Al missed a second Moonsault and Grado hit the Wee Boot followed by a huge cannonball in the corner. Grado missed the Wee Boot again, Al went to hit Grado with Head, Grado ducked and hit the Wee Boot for the win. Crowd responded big to the win. Snow was great as the old, bitter veteran here. **1/4
Snow raised Grado’s hand after the match. The Beatdown Clan (BDC) jumped Snow and Grado. A hooded man made the save with a pipe and revealed himself to be none other than Drew Galloway. Galloway has everything you’d ever need to succeed in wrestling; it’ll make me very sad if he turns out to be yet another in the very long list of people TNA made a mess of.
TNA Knockouts Championship – Angelina Love w/ The BroMans vs. Taryn Terrell©: The BroMans are the most underused (as opposed to misused which would be a much longer list) act in this company. They could be a great midcard heel group but they’re always deployed as pointless comedy. Not sure exactly sure what Angelina has done to earn a title match. Last time she won a singles match in TNA was June last year. Angelina hit the Botox Injection for two. Taryn won with the cutter which has inventively been named the Taryn Cutter. Kong appeared and they exchanged forearms. Kong got the better of it and hit the Implant Buster. Gail Kim made the save and they went face to face. Gail vs. Kong is obviously the big match in the KO division. *
Eric Young vs. Tommy Dreamer: Taz after a few weeks of being a good, solid announcer descended back into goofing off and taking little seriously on this show. Young crotched Dreamer on the guard rail and bit Dreamer’s head. Dreamer was bleeding and Young continued to bite the wound. Dreamer pulled a table out from under the ring but EY dropkicked the table into Dreamer. They finally acknowledged that Roode was out of the Gauntlet tonight because of Young’s attack last week. Dreamer went for a DDT on a chair but Young swept the leg. Dreamer hit a big superplex through a table. Young wedged a chair in the corner. Dreamer went for a Death Valley Driver on a chair but EY hit a low blow, threw Dreamer into the chair in the corner and hit a piledriver for the win. It would have stood out more if they didn’t do these kinds of matches so often. **1/4
Mickie James came down to the ring to a strong reaction. Mickie’s TNA music is great. Mickie announced she had gotten engaged. This is the first time they’ve acknowledged Mickie and Magnus as a couple. She wasn’t happy that Bram jumped Magnus from behind. Bram interrupted Mickie. Mickie continued to berate Bram. Bram wasn’t happy that Magnus was a soft, family now and blamed Mickie. Mickie slapped Bram but Simon Diamond and some referees came out to stop Bram from doing anything about it. Mickie was really good here but it’s a shame she’s not doing her insincere babyface act which was awesome.
No. 1 Contenders 20 Man Gauntlet: Aries and Kenny King are the first two out. Entrants are every one minute. Crazy Steve was entrant number three. I think beneath the whole clown gimmick there’s a good wrestler in there with Steve but it’s tough to tell at times. Jessie Godderz is out next. Bram is number five. Never let Aries and Godderz near each other again. Nearly everything they did here looked rough. Khoya is six. Khoya eliminated Crazy Steve. Next up is Chris Melendez for his first appearance since TNA debuted on Destination America.
Mr Anderson is number eight. Back from break and Sanada, Sam Shaw and DJ Z had entered while we were away. Melendez was eliminated. Tyrus was out next. Rockstar Spud was after that as Sam Shaw, Jessie and DJ Z were eliminated. Tyrus eliminated Spud. It’s really annoying me now how little Spud gets on Tyrus. Robbie E was out next as Khoya (who really isn’t very good at all) was eliminated. Sanada blew mist in Tyrus’ eyes and Anderson eliminated Sanada and Tyrus. Gunner is next. None of this has been particularly interesting. Very few standout moments and performances so far.
EC3 is out after that. Aries eliminated Robbie E with a dropkick. Gunner dumped out Bram. Anderson threw out EC3. Nobody at all is standing out. Aries and Kenny King have been in from the start but they haven’t done much of note. Samoa Joe is next and he ran wild. Low Ki is next. Fun Fact: Low Ki is X-Division champion. Not that you’d remember because the division has essentially disappeared again. MVP is next. Notice how often I’ve just written “’X is out next” or “X has been eliminated”. There’s little else to mention. None of the eliminations have really landed as something important. Anderson was eliminated as MVP entered. The BDC dominated Gunner and Aries and eliminated Gunner. Angle is the final entrant.
So it’s Angle, Aries, MVP, Low Ki, Joe and Kenny King left. Aries was unceremoniously eliminated as we came back from break. It’s the BDC vs. Angle. They beat up Angle for a while. Lashley is watching on from ringside. Angle occasionally made some comebacks but was cut off. Angle low bridged Joe and eliminated him. He followed quickly by dumping out King and Low Ki. MVP and Angle are the final two. MVP missed the Drive By and Angle hit a German. King grabbed Angle’s ankle and MVP booted Angle out to win. What a dull, very poorly constructed Gauntlet match. So little of note happened. *1/2
Final Thoughts:
Solid show with decent matches and good angles up until that Gauntlet, which was a very dull 20+ minutes of TV time. The crowds are really helping bring energy to these shows.
