Bound For Glory

[redfiona99]

Even more than usual, I want to say that any negativity about the PPV is not due to the wrestlers who, as per, are doing what they can. It's just everything else.

Actually, I want to expand on this further. If you look back on 9/10ths of my TNA comments, it starts with "no disrespect intended to the wrestlers who are doing their best". The problem with TNA has never been the people that do the wrestling. It's always been the froofrah that goes around it that's been the problem, and the froofrah keeps overshadowing the in-ring stuff.



Which appears to be where they've shunted off the tag teams. The long short version is Bro-Manz, with their new friend, get to face Drunken Vikings at the PPV, Joseph Park is carted off stage bleeding and Bad Influence vow revenge.


I'm breaking the thing down into individual matches because I want to show how none of the problems were anything to do with the wrestlers.



The first thing, that is no one's fault and isn't actually a problem as such, is that I don't like the Ultimate X gimmick. It's a lot of potential danger for very little extra pay-off.

And the line up seems weird. Weren't Kenny King and Austin Aries feuding recently? Where is Kenny King?

And why is Samoa Joe in there? Why have we not been hearing his reaction to the Magnus/Sting stuff? Why do I get the feeling they have forgotten that Samoa Joe exists and suddenly spotted him wandering around and went "OMG we must give him something to do!"

The match went the expected way, a variety of dangerous bumps, sudden appearances of ladders due to J. Hardy, Chris Sabin the world's least terrifying bad guy threatening Velvet Sky into doing something she doesn't want to do and unexpected Sabin win.

It all just felt mildly unsatisfactory.




Bro-Manz win over the Drunken Vikings.

Now I'm actually happy about this because I like Bro-Manz. Or rather, I find them suitably repellent and narcissistic for their roles. And Phil Heath works well with them (also, from a friend of an acquaintance, he's apparently a pretty cool dude in rl). And TNA might remember to do something with them because they've done nothing with Drunken Vikings, up to and including them not having a name. Did you know they've been tag champs since June? Did you even notice they were tag-champs?



Okay so far things are going along. Nothing truly untoward has happened.

Then suddenly there's the

It makes no sense because if Angle was going to turn it down, why wouldn't he have turned it down the night before at the big shindig that you, TNA, just did a video feature on and it just ruins what could have been a quick feel-good moment for no obvious reason. I agree with Sting's confused face.

Next up is the

Which was my highlight of the night. Yes, I'm biased but it had a couple of fun spots, no one looked like they were about to die and it made sense. This is how easy I am to please.

While I see why people are saying the Gail Kim/Lei'D Tapa hook up is a blatant rip-off of the AJ Lee/Tamina Snuka angle over in WWE, I also think it's a great way to hide that Lei'D Tapa is super-green. Although suitably terrifying, see also that powerbomb on Brooke Tessmacher.





Which had a really weird finish. If it turns out that one of the two was legitimately injured and they had to make it up on the fly, then I apologise. But it didn't feel that way, and it was just really awkward and weird.




Which did it's job. Ethan Carter looked like a stuck up jerk bully, Norv Fernum got some suitable hope-spots, and it all worked.





I see what they were going for. I really do. I just don't think it worked.




And again, this is not either of their faults, because Bully Ray made me want to punch him in the good idea and AJ was the heroic never-say-die hero Gothan TNA needs even if it doesn't deserve him, and yet I still spent most of the match hiding my head somewhere due to the mixture of really stupidly dangerous spots and that way AJ Styles has of lying there looking half-dead.

Very happy with the ending, despite everything. I also loved Earl Hebner growling at Bully Ray and AJ deciding that no, he was a good guy so he wouldn't use a hammer.

See TNA, we want to cheer for AJ.


It's weird cause when I go through them, there's nothing wrong with most of the matches individually, but the overall thing was unsatisfying. I really can't explain it any better than that.

I think the Hall of Fame mess and the ending of the Roode/Angle match really hurt the PPV, and the first thing is certainly the kind of peculiar angle that TNA seems powerless to resist.

Comments

[angstbunny.livejournal.com]

AJ was the heroic never-say-die hero Gothan TNA needs even if it doesn't deserve him

This is so true, it's almost physically painful.