20 New Blood, Steel Cage and Change

Coffee Table Thoughts {20}: New Blood, Steel Cage and Change

New Blood

In the recent times in Impact Wrestling, there has been an influx of new talent. There is enough variety in the talent too; they have come in all shapes and sizes.

We have Alex Silva and Sam Shaw who both are X-Division category with their small frames. They are both young and know the moves that suit this division. After some time on the roster, they will be able to gain experience and get more comfortable both in the in-ring aspects and other showmanship aspects that are associated with the professional wrestling industry. They already have a lot of talent but it is more in the form of potential. I am quite sure that they both will be headlining the X-Division in not so distant future.

We have Wes Briscoe who comes from a legendary wrestling family – his father Gerald Briscoe and Uncle Jack Briscoe were NWA mainstays. He seems to have a good wrestling acumen and a well built frame. He has been inserted in a storyline with Kurt Angle where Kurt is acting as his mentor. This can only point to good things in his future and I don’t think TNA will hesitate in giving him proper pushes from time to time. They need the aura of second generation superstars as their roster is not exactly full of them.

There is Jessie Godderz from the Big Brother who has got the look that chicks fall for and well, one of the hotties is already all over his body. I’m sorry, that’s all I see when I see Jessie and Tara together – Tara and her seductive antics. As far as the intangibles are concerned, he seems to have a good grip of that. He has a great screen presence and knows how to take advantage of every single minute afforded to him. He brings with him the previous success of a reality show so he can bring a lot of media concentration on the company which is in bad need of it. Plus, he seems to be athletic enough and doesn’t seem out of place in a wrestling ring. His look effectively puts him right at the top of the food chain – as a main eventer and possibly as the face of the company. But it is too soon to call on that. Right now I am just happy to see his progress and of course, Tara.

Then, we have Joey Ryan who seems to be some sort of Indy Darling coming up from little feds. Now I know, there are a lot of people who find him obnoxious and over the top but he has developed quite a fan-following in the IWC (who, by the way, also find him obnoxious and over the top). His in-ring ability is good and he has been placed in a tag-team with Matt Morgan. As odd as the pairing seems, it will give him a lot of exposure and he will be able to learn a lot in-ring wise by facing opponents the like of Chavo Guerrero.

DOC, of course is not new to the limelight as he has come from WWE. But he has been thrust into a major storyline in the TNA in the form of Aces and Eights and so far he hasn’t disappointed. He looks believable in his role of an evil enforcer, although, everyone in Aces and Eights is essentially an enforcer only. The storyline with Aces and Eights may have run out of gas and may ultimately be nothing more than a bust but Doc is surely set for a great run in TNA.

Meanwhile, those who have peculiar interest in redheads may not worry, for Taeler Hendrix has been added to the Knockout roster. I am yet to see her matches in more detail but I liked her first match after being added to the Impact Roster when she challenged the then Knockouts Champion! Currently she seems to have been lost somewhere and isn’t presented on television but she will surely be getting some exposure in that division some time in near future.

Have I missed something? Oh Yeah.

Christian York has arrived.

There is this feel good story about him. He has been in this business for about 15 years and has only now been able to reach the big leagues. He was there on the very first TNA show but he was let go afterwards because he wasn’t ready.

But now, he is.

And how!

He is ready to be the member of the Impact Roster and a very prominent one at that. Already, he has fought a former World Heavyweight Champion and the current World Heavyweight Champion. Granted, he lost both of these matches but he put on a showing that assured the fans and the management alike of his ability to become a major player in future.

Although those two matches were high profile matches, I think it was only for testing the waters. He is not going to be placed in the World Heavyweight Championship matches any time soon. But that is not necessarily a bad thing. He has been added in the Mini tournament to determine the number one contender for the X-Division Championship. I would bet my hard earned money to predict that he will win this tournament, and go on to challenge Rob Van Dam, whose respect he has already earned (in Kayfabe).

At 35 years of age, he is not exactly a young man. There are what, about 5 to 7 years left in his career. He is not starting things at the top of the card and he may spend well over a year in the mid-card. But sooner or later, he is going to be too important a part to keep away from the main event.

Look for the big things in his future.

 

Aces and Eights

Not required. That’s what my initial reaction was to the idea of Aces and Eights.

But alas, we have to endure what has been started. Many of us who were excited for this group of thugs have grown bored of their repetitive antics and lack of faces. We had two faces revealed in over 6 months – Devon and Doc. Now there is a third face – Mike Knox from WWE (That’s how he was described when unmasked).

To be honest though, I think the storyline with the Doc was handled pretty well. And Doc has worked well to get that character over as a heel. The reason why they have gone for the slow reveal is (what I think anyway) that they really want to give room to these characters. If all the faces were revealed in a short span of time, we wouldn’t be noticing the character traits of each individual and none of them would be getting the spot light. In the given scenario, Doc has been well exposed for well over two months, audience have come to know him and therefore, he doesn’t need that spotlight that much anymore. Hence, it’s a good time to put the emphasis on Mike Knox right about now. He will be given all the spotlight that one can come to expect and his role will be the major part in the coming weeks.

Speaking of the unmasking, I have to throw some light on the manner in which it was done. Firstly, a Steel Cage tag-team match was held between the team of Devon and an unmasked member of Aces and Eights (Not too difficult to guess who turned out to be Mike Knox of the two) and the team of Samoa Joe and Kurt Angle. While there was nothing negative to say about the quality of the match or how the things were worked around the match – there was one huge eye-catching fault – The Camera Work.

A Steel Cage match is the one where the ring is surrounded by a Steel Cage. There is just one door through which one can enter or exit. There is also an option to climb up that Steel Cage and enter from over that cage and into the ring, which can be a risky move.

Do you know, however, that these Steel Cages also have a large hole in them through which a Camera-man can record all the in-ring action? A hole large enough that even a man the size of Samoa Joe can enter/exit through it? No? What if I tell you that this particular Steel Cage did not have one, but two such holes in it?

And these hidden doors, so to speak, weren’t shown just once or twice but throughout the match! Yes! Throughout the match, on national television on a show that was hyped month long – 1. 3. 13!

I hope that this matter gets brought to the notice of the TNA Management and they take some corrective measures in ensuring that these loopholes don’t get exposed ever again!

Inter-Continental Championship

The year 2012 hasn’t really been kind on the WWE Inter-Continental Championship. We saw uninspired title reigns of Cody Rhodes, Big Show, Cody Rhodes, Christian, The Miz and Kofi Kingston.

Things did seem to be going in the right direction on quite a few occasions but they never really materialised into anything worthwhile. The most important of it all was the potential of a feud between The Miz and Kofi Kingston. There were some good to great matches the two had and it seemed that The Miz was able to get under the skin of Kofi and was forcing him to react – for a while anyway.

But then it cooled off. Kofi won the championship; there were a couple of rematches. And that was it.

In the end of 2012, Kofi found a new challenger in Wade Barret. Wade Barret failed to win the championship at TLC. However, he did win the title on the first Raw of 2013. Well, there was a rematch on Smackdown again and Kofi did not manage to win his title back. To be honest, this is more of the same old, same old here. There is a credible challenger. There are about two to three matches in a very short span of time. Challenger wins it either the first time or the second time. Then there is a rematch. The former champion fails to win back. The winner (and the Champion) goes on to another challenger. It would be far-fetched to even call these shenanigans a feud.

However, there was something that I noticed on this week’s Smackdown that I liked; something that tells me that a change is coming; for better.

First, let me tell as to what all took place on Smackdown. Two separate interviews were conducted by the very talented, Matt Striker. One with the current champion, Wade Barret and another with the challenger, Kofi Kingston. 

This is standard affair, so far.

In his interview, Wade Barret bigged himself up and ran down Kofi Kingston for allegedly attacking him from behind after he had already beaten three different opponents in a Gauntlet match in the Main Event this week. This is a very basic heel tactic to distort the picture and present the facts in a skewed manner. But he did it #LikeABoss. His mannerisms, his voice and his annoying self-belief tells me that Wade Barret will represent the belt in a much better way than any of the former (and talented, I must add) champions that I mentioned above.

Then, in his interview, Kofi Kingston said he is not challenging for the Inter-continental Championship tonight because of what happened at the Main Event. He is challenging for the title tonight because he wanted that title back from the very moment that Wade Barret took it from him. He can’t forget that moment when Barret stood in the ring, when Kofi lied down on his back, and held that title. Kofi Kingston showed emotions. He showed the pain through his eyes. It wasn’t a do-gooder Kofi anymore. He showed a desire to win, a desire to avenge. He showed confidence and determination, but more than all that, a desire.

More so, he brought those emotions in the match. Throughout the match, he kept coming with these emotional outbursts. Once, he had Wade Barret covered in a pin attempt and Wade Barret was able to kick out just in time to save the match for him. Kofi went right on Barret’s face and showed though hand gesture, that he was this close from winning.

The match itself was a great match to witness. It should not come as a surprise to anyone, given the calibre of the competitors involved. It was not a Kofi Kingston match, however. Well, it indeed was a Kofi Kingston match because he dictated the pace and the direction of the match, but it wasn’t a normal Kofi Kingston match. This is because Kofi had toned down his high flying offence. There still were a lot of high flying moves, but the majority of match was fought with ground offence. Kofi came up with many submission moves and even more pinning combinations. He concentrated on winning. Gone were the attempts to cheer the audience by mesmerizing them with his moves. He was purposeful the entire match.

He did not win the match, sure. But he had changed. For the better.

   

Yet Another TNA Column

Coffee Table Thoughts {21} : Yet another TNA column

TNA Tag Team Championship Scene

What we were hoping for

There were many of us who were hoping and praying for TNA to be bold over here. It would have been a hitherto unseen competition between two of the most entertaining acts in the modern history of professional wrestling.

The Bad Influence has been on a roll, entertainment-wise even before it was named as such. With their mere presence, they are able to convert even the worst of the segments and storylines in pure gold.

Even though the Clair Lynch farce of a storyline continued well over a decade, you cannot argue that it was still bearable due to the antics of Christopher Daniels. Alright, may be that was a hyperbole. Wait, where are you going? Please don’t go away, I promise I won’t mention that name again. Promise!

Bad Influence consists of Christopher Daniels and Kazarian, two of the very solid performers that have been in TNA, on and off, for a very long time. There are many admirers of the in ring ability of Christopher Daniels; his matches in the X-Division and against AJ Styles are still talked about to this day. He is no slouch in terms of mic skills either. In fact, he can make you puke by making you laugh so hard. With all that said, he is at the most, an upper mid-card guy in the TNA wrestling.

Kazarian is a solid in ring performer but he is not at the level of Christopher Daniels. He also is solid on the mic but you won’t find yourself get immersed in his promos.

However, when you combine both of them, it becomes a Super Combination. Christopher Daniels definitely leads the team but Kaz is very good in his role as a lackey of Daniels. They entertain in the ring, they entertain on the mic and you are always wondering what they will bring to the table next as they are constantly looking out for more and more things and people to fuck up with.

It’s an unmatched combination.

Or so we thought.

After having lost their world championship opportunities, both Bobby Roode and Austin Aries entered into a love-hate relationship. It followed with constant efforts of one-upping each other. For example, if Bobby Roode came out in his robe, Austin Aries would come out in his robe and wearing a t-shirt inside. Amazing, isn’t it?

As much differences as they had between themselves, they agreed on one thing. They agreed that they were both miles ahead of the rest of the roster. That was enough for them to form a tag team and begin a quest of capturing all the gold that TNA has to offer.

In terms of credibility, surely the team of Austin Aries and Bobby Roode are on a much higher rank than Bad Influence, if we take the individual achievements into consideration. However, as a team, I would argue they are quite on an equal footing. Austin Aries and Bobby Roode is a team of titans, while Bad Influence compensates that in the form of teacher-student kind of relationship. Kazarian is the least entertaining of the four guys involved but he can hold his own against any of them and his partnership with Christopher Daniels has only improved his charisma.

If TNA had been gutsy, they would have gone with a direct feud between these two teams. Let me tell you, if this would have happened, nothing in the weekly dose of wrestling would have been as much entertaining as this.

But alas, it didn’t.

What we got

For now though, they have gone with the 3^rd ranked team in the 3 team division of TNA Wrestling. That being the team of Chavo Guerrero and Hernandez.

In the last episode of Impact Wrestling, we saw an unusual Contract Signing for the World Tag Team championship match. These kinds of things are usually reserved for World Championships.  In the contract-signing, a stipulation was added to make it a best 2 out of 3 falls match. Going further, the heel team of Double A and It Factor went on to add a stipulation that if Chavo and Super Mex were to lose the said match, they will no longer be able to tag along in future. Basically, their team would be dead. This made sense because Hernandez and Chavo had ample opportunities at the Tag Titles but were unsuccessful in capturing them every time they faced against Aries and Roode. There was a need to raise the stakes in order to make them hungrier.

It was interesting to see how it all went down. When the stipulation was suggested by the heel team, it was Chavo who jumped on and agreed to the stipulation without any resistance. He was ready for the challenge, ready to risk it all. But Hernandez on the other hand, was sceptical and wasn’t ready to risk it all. He tried to talk Chavo out of it while Chavo was trying to talk him into it. Ultimately, Chavo convinced Hernandez to sign the contract, although it was clear from the expressions of Hernandez that he was doing it out of compulsion and not on his free will.

This disagreement, however little it was, led me to believe that we were about to see the Mexican team disbanded. I hoped that we would be getting a feud between the two of them. And to tell the truth, I was quite looking forward to that feud. How awesome it would have been if Hernandez would have called out Chavo for using his family name in excess of required and that Chavo is nothing but a self hyped glorified jobber.

In the match itself, there were many moments which could have led us to believe that the Mexicans were about to lose the gold opportunity as well as the right to stay together. Early on in the match, Team Extraordinary got an advantage as Super Mex was disposed off outside the ring while Chavo was rendered motionless inside the ring. They got the early first fall too. It was fitting, wasn’t it? The man who was hell bent on accepting the challenge was the man who got pinned. And that too in such a short time. Hernandez would have all the more reason to get angry.

Chavo, however, was able to get the balancing pin fall soon enough due to the unnecessary mocking and rejoicing of the Aries and Roode that followed the first fall. Soon enough Super Mex was back in action and was on a super strength roll.

Once again there came a point in the match where it seemed that the champions were about to win the match when Hernandez came running from the ramp straight into the ring on to the team of Double A and It Factor. However, both the champions were able to move out of the way just in time to keep Chavo right in the middle of the ring where he would take the crash landing of his own partner.

But alas, it was for nought. Chavo and Hernandez managed to win the match despite all the obstacles thrown at them. It was a beautiful story to see unfold before my eyes.

Here I would like to point out that I feel the wrestling product, that is the in ring product, presented by TNA is different from the product presented by WWE. WWE’s in-ring product seems to be an assembly line manufactured product whereas there’s a lot of difference in every match that TNA presents. Or maybe not. I need to observe a little more trend in TNA matches before I can conclude this. But I do get more entertained by TNA matches than the WWE matches as far as regular weekly television is concerned.

I was looking forward to having to get rid of Chavo and Hernandez as a tag team. I like Hernandez; he’s an absolute beast inside the ring and moves very fast in the ring for someone of his size and mass. But Chavo Guerrero bores me to tears. No, actually he irritates me a lot.

These ill feelings towards Chavo Guererro and this team changed, however, during the course of the match as I was able to comprehend just how solid a talent Chavo actually is. He is not going to win Oscars for his acting ability and he is not going to bring thousands of listeners through his promos (quite the opposite, actually) but he sure is a great wrestling talent. It always feels good to watch those three amigos thrown in any match! After the match and the result, I found myself excited for this team as the champions. I have to give the credit of this change of heart to the match and to the efforts put in by of all the four participants

Where do we go from here?

Now his win points out to an exit from the tag division of Austin Aries and Bobby Roode. Or maybe they will continue the feud with the Mexi-Guererro. May be this is a way of getting the strap from an awesome heel team to some team from Aces and Eights without making this phenomenal team look weak. Who knows really? It would be interesting to see where each of these teams goes from here.

May be Austin Aries and Bobby Roode will start feuding with each other by blaming each other for the loss of tag team straps. Or maybe they both join in the forces to fight against the Aces and Eights.

Meanwhile Bad Influence seems to be getting back in fucking up with the innocent mind of AJ Styles...

What if they go with a completely unexpected route by making Aries and Roode join Bad Influence? That would be an epicity of HAM! Or maybe we will eventually indeed get the feud between Bad Influence and the team of AJ Styles and Bobby Roode? May be they are waiting for a more opportune time? Slammiversary, anyone?