No Surrender

Coffee Table Thoughts {16} : No Surrender

Knockouts Championship Match

Miss Tessmacher (C) Vs Tara

There is no bad blood between these two. In fact, they both respect each other very much. Miss Tessmacher believes that she has learned everything that she knows from Tara during their time as knockouts Tag Team champions. And it is not a lie. During an episode of Open Fight Night feature of Impact Wrestling, Miss Tessmacher (who was the Knockouts champion at the time) called out Tara for a match. She was the Knockouts champion at the time and yet she needed to prove herself to...herself. The challenge failed, however and Tara was declared the winner of the match. Because of this victory, Tara got a shot at the Knockouts championship which I am sure Miss Tessmacher happily agrees to. This rivalry is what we would call a healthy competition and it’s important to have such rivalries once in a while.

On to the match, although it is Miss Tessmacher who is the champion and will be defending her Knockouts championship, it is an upheaval task for her to one up her very mentor! I like the tone of this storyline. Tara is a great wrestler (looks very cute in those sports bikini bottoms) and Miss Tessmacher is slowly improving in the ring. I expect a good match between the two.

Knockouts division has faced quite a huge loss in the last month or two with a lot of high profile exits but you know what? I actually like that situation. I think every single Knockout has been there for quite a while and every match-up that the management was able to come up with seemed very outdated. Winter may have been a relative new face and could have had some feuds but otherwise there were only same old faces in the Knockouts division. I think it is a great time for TNA to pick up not only some rookie female wrestlers but also some well decorated Indy veterans. This will ensure there are fresh wrestlers and feuds to look forward to. However, for some time, Gail Kim, Tara, Miss Tessmacher and Madison Rayne can carry the division well. This current rivalry is too fresh to let it end so soon and the title reign of Miss Tessmacher has been very short after regaining it from Madison Rayne. I think both the feud and the reign will continue.

TNA X-Division Championship Match

Zema Ion (Champion) Vs Sonjay Dutt

I have heard a lot of praises for Sonjay Dutt who is a fellow Indian but I have not witnessed his work. He was weirdly entertaining in the brief period for which Ring Ka King lasted. But I hadn’t witnessed the whole thing and never saw his match. I am looking forward to see him in action in No Surrender.

Due to the paucity of time, both of these wrestlers haven’t been present on television as much as one would wish. So there is not enough fuel in their feud. But X-Division has been a staple of good wrestling in TNA and this particular belt has been the most important championship of the organisation many a times. It isn’t that time right now, but we can expect an entertaining and fast match full of spots.

World Tag Team Championship

Christopher Daniels and Kazarian (C) Vs AJ Styles and Kurt Angle

Christopher Daniels has been an entertaining watch during his time in the company. His never ending feud with AJ Styles is annoying sometimes but Daniels always saves the segment/match from being bad. I loved that baby shower segment from a few weeks ago with Daniels and Kazarian giving out entertaining gifts to the future child of AJ Styles, which was not to be.

This last episode of Impact, Hulk Hogan was set on a task to find the team that could challenge the team of CD and Kaz. AJ Styles was rejected outright because he did not have a partner. Kid Cash and Gunner had been eliminated because they had taken the feud with Chavo Guerrero and Hernandez very personally. Finally, after eliminating the team of two Robbies, he had given the nod to Mexican team of Chavo and Hernandez. And what a fun match it turned out to be! A fast paced, action packed tag team match. Do look out for it if you like yourself some tag wrestling.

CD and Kaz were able to retain their titles despite a brilliant effort from CG and Super Mex. Hulk Hogan then came out to declare that they would be defending their titles against AJ Styles and the partner that he was missing earlier, Kurt Angle. And the tag team scene in the TNA went from not so good looking to absolutely hot! This feud is not going to end anytime soon but I would wish Chavo Guerrero and Hernandez get added to the mix soon.

Magnus Vs Rob Van Dam

Magnus was a part of the Bound for Glory series. But ever since he was booted out of the tournament, he started behaving funnily. He even snapped after losing to Samoa Joe. But because the good guy that he is, he came out to apologize to Samoa Joe for his actions and reminded everyone that “We were good. I mean I was great, but we were gooood!” Stating in no unclear terms that Samoa Joe held him down. And then he attacked Samoa Joe from behind. After Rob Van Dam had lost his match, and was getting interviewed, Magnus showed up again. He mocked Rob Van Dam for not being the same RVD that had set the bar so high that even he cannot reach it anymore.

There is not too much history between the two, this feud hasn’t been slowly in the making either. But it doesn’t need to be. Impact Wrestling Creative team took the short time that they had for building this feud and used it very well. Now, the feud may not have been in the making for a long time but the character development of Magnus has been in the works for a few weeks at least and it fits in very well. He wants to be cocky and look for fights at any place that he can get.

Rob Van Dam has pretty much been the same wrestler that he has always been. So there is nothing absolutely groundbreaking that can be expected from this match. However, it will be worth a watch how Magnus handles the story of the match. I have heard nothing but praises for Magnus and it would be great opportunity for him to show off his worth.

Austin Aries Vs ‘The Arm Breaker’

Aces and Eights has been the focal point of the Impact Wrestling tapings for months. It is a group of people that are undisclosed and wear masks and beat down Impact Wrestling Superstars. They ambushed their World Champion too and even tried to break his arm. So Austin Aries, being the stud that he is, is looking for some revenge. He called out the big guy and now they’re set to fight against each other. One thing to note here is that Austin Aries is the World Champion right now and he would be competing in a non-title match in such a huge pay per view. Does it make any sense?

It makes all the sense in the world, actually. See, Robert Roode had been the World Heavyweight Champion for far too long. He lost his title to Austin Aries and then lost a rematch too. If the intention was to keep the title on Aries for some time, it didn’t make sense to make Bobby job out to Aries thrice in a row. Also, as the Bound for Glory is not far away, it would have defeated the purpose of the tournament if someone else was given the opportunity.

It may piss of a few people, but I like how TNA avoids putting a World Championship match on the line on some of the Pay per Views. Such a situation also existed when Bobby Roode fought Sting. It takes away the monotonous nature of World Championship matches and we avoid some unnecessary match-ups in the process.

One more thing I like about TNA is how they handle their main event talent. Notice how Bobby Roode has been absent in recent times? Noticed how Mr Anderson was given some time off earlier this year because Creative had nothing for him? Remember James Storm taking time away to go home and spend some time with his family to find out if he still wanted to do this? If a wrestler is absent from television for a few weeks, he may be erased from the memory of the audience in normal circumstances. That is not the case for the main event level talent, though. These short breaks actually provide a sort of refreshment to them and also to the audience. If they keep getting featured on every episode without much to do, they might get stale and that is not a good thing. So I think, in a way this short space of air-time that TNA has is actually helping them in some way.

Interesting point about this match is that we don’t know who this Giant is. We don’t know if he is going to remove his mask or not. I think it will be ending with the rest of the Aces and Eights coming in to cause a disqualification. I don’t think the pay-off to this storyline would come this soon.

Bound For Glory Series

James Storm was on the top of the leaderboard and therefore he got to choose his opponent for the Semi finals of the Bound for Glory series. So whom does he choose? He chooses Bully Ray because it is Bully Ray who had defeated James Storm in the last year’s Bound for Glory series semi final match. Also, Bully Ray had a hand in making James Storm look like a villain when he claimed, along with Bobby Roode, that James Storm was a part of Aces and Eights.

So there is a nice little story woven in there. The aspect that interests me the most is that Bully Ray was the one that had defeated James Storm in the semi finals in the last year. It’s an interesting stat. More and more such stats would keep coming over the years and this series has been a real highlight of the Impact Wrestling for the time it stayed.

James Storm has been pushed heavily during the last year and even in the Bound for Glory series. He was head and shoulders above everyone else. He has already proven that he is a worthy main eventer and it would be very difficult to hold him back. Many had predicted from the time the series began that it would be James Storm who would emerge victorious. A lot of things have changed since then, though. For one, who is right behind James Storm in the rankings? The Samoan Submission Machine, Samoa Joe. Samoa Joe is an absolute beast of a performer. He brings a level of intensity in his matches that can only be matched by the man that never even existed. He has been with the company for a long time and has been a former world champion but his booking and position in the company during last couple of years was not very umm, good. However, he has been pushed heavily during the Bound for Glory series. His possible return to the main event probably began when he started teaming up with Magnus and began a reign of terror on the tag team division. The company may have found a likening to this man all over again and that’s why I won’t count him out of this tournament just now.

Then, we have Jeff Hardy. Everyone remembers that Victory Road incident. Jeff Hardy has come a long way from that night and has turned his career and life, apparently. He is more over than probably anyone else in the company right now. So it is not that difficult to imagine him becoming the series winner. And if that happens, it can be a true Cinderella story. This would be seen as a huge triumph for him and makes for a good story.

What also makes a good story, however, is a tag team wrestler for life turning his career around and, after 15-20 years in the business, finally winning the most coveted prize in one of the major companies in the business. Bully Ray has made himself into a hateable character and does not seem out of place from the main event. Consider also the fact that the champion right now, is someone that has had some interesting rivalry with Bully Ray in the last year. In fact, out of all the 4 participants, Bully Ray seems the most appropriate choice to fight Austin Aries. Austin Aries is a face and so are the rest of the three semi-finalists. It makes sense to have Bully Ray as the winner as a heel going up against a face.

Most importantly, it is Bound for Glory where we are headed. It is TNA’s version of Wrestlemania. Or at least that’s how they have treated the event as. What that means is we are more likely to see the major feuds that took place during the year to end there. Those feuds that haven’t ended. There hasn’t been a conclusion to the awesome rivalry between James Storm and Bobby Roode which pushed both of them to hopefully, the Superstardom. Samoa Joe has a ready nemesis in his former partner, Magnus. I am not sure about Jeff Hardy – will he fight Mr Anderson?

My gut feeling says it will come down to Bully Ray Vs Jeff Hardy. And one of them will go on to have a triumphant story at the Bound for Glory.

In any case, I am looking forward to this event. Hope you enjoy the event too.