Chris Sabin and Austin Aries had an OK match that saw a new X-Division Champion crowned, but once again I feel like television isn’t the proper place for title matches. Sometimes they work, most of the time they don’t. You can only get so good on TV when you’re interrupted by commercials, and when your live crowd sucks. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed some of the action from these two veterans, and I look forward to a rematch. I just can’t remember the last time TNA had a really fantastic wrestling match. They should consider getting Spike TV on board with a commercial free television special one of these days. I still don’t care about Sabin’s relationship with Velvet Sky.
As expected, Bullly Ray completely ran away with the show, attacking Ken Anderson before Feast or Fired. For those wondering, his promo was almost entirely a quote from a Motley Crue song entitled “In the Beginning”. I’m glad the Aces & Eights are gone, and I’m really looking forward to more from these two. Their rivalry is personal, and definitely has meaning behind it. The piledriver was a great spot, and the frustratingly bad crowd should have responded better to it.
Feast or Fired was pretty fun. The major spot from the match saw everyone taking turns diving to the outside of the ring, and then us watching it all over again via replay. Ethan Carter III, Chavo Guerrero, Zema Ion and Gunner walked away with briefcases, in what might be the least star-studded winners circle in history. My guess is that Gunner’s case will force a feud for the world title between him and his tag team partner James Storm. Zema Ion would be a natural X-Division Championship pick, and Chavo Guerrero makes sense as a tag team winner, having partnered with Hernandez since arriving in TNA. That leaves EC3 to be “fired”, meaning that nobody will be fired, since “Aunt D” can simply over-turn the decision. Safe booking decisions from TNA, if all my predictions are correct. Safe rarely means entertaining, unfortunately.
I hate to be so critical of the Impact Wrestling product right now, as they had a rough year and are going through some major changes. A return to the Impact Zone has severely hurt crowd reactions; people who pay for wrestling just care more about what’s happening. A good crowd can make a lackluster show worth watching. The flip-side of that is a bad crowd makes a lackluster show even more unbearable. I’m excited for next week’s big TNA World Heavyweight Championship match, the 2-out-of-3 falls contest between Kurt Angle and Bobby Roode, and hopefully more AJ Styles. And I hope TNA can walk out of 2013 with their head high. Right now I’m just not picking up what they are putting down.
