TV Review: TNA Impact Wrestling – “It’s On”

The Episode: 09-15-2011 – “It’s On”

Sting and Flair battle for king of the old men, the Knockouts division gets their own division makeover, and TNA World Heavyweight Champ Kurt Angle puts some obstacles in front of Bound for Glory series winner and number one contender Bobby Roode.

Guy’s Take:

After weeks of some pretty abysmal programming, it wasn’t that hard for TNA to show a little improvement with this week’s episode. How did they (slightly) improve? By having (slightly) less talking and gabbing and posturing and instead devoted (slightly) more time to the actual wrestling. Now if they can only get some of those wrestling matches up to par, then we’d have something here.

For a hot second it looked like they were going to flip the typical weeknight wrestling show formula on its head by having Ric Flair come out in full gear and call out Sting to the ring to wrestle. It would have been ballsy to start the show with the main event, but when Sting came out to answer the call, they just had a little back and forth on the mic, patiently waiting for the middle-aged, fat security guards to come out and separate them. So this battle of the mega stars indeed will have to wait for the end of the show.

The first match of the night was a stinker and a half, as the four members of Mexican-America took on the team of Devon, the Pope, Tara and Tessmacher in an eight-person intergender tag match. It was a mess of a match, incoherently combining two storylines into one hunk of hell. Why are Devon and the Pope suddenly so simpatico? Is Devon now cool with his twin sons looking up to the Pope? Tara and Tessmacher got the dual pin on Rosita and Sarita for the win, and everyone in attendance in the Impact Zone died a little inside.

Backstage Karen Jarrett rounded up the Knockouts wrestlers to inform them of the “Queen’s Qualifier” matches she has planned for them. For the next three weeks leading up to the Bound for Glory pay per view, two Knockouts wrestlers would face off one-on-one, with the three winners taking on Knockouts Champ Winter in a 4-way match for the title — not a bad idea, actually. The first of the three qualifier matches started with Velvet Sky against Angelina Love, and it’s obvious TNA isn’t going to break up Winter and Love anytime soon, as Sky got the win in a halfway decent match that at least had a little something going for it in terms of energy and making some sense in a grander scheme (as opposed to the terrible match that started the show).

Tara and Tessmacher got the dual pin on Rosita and Sarita for the win, and everyone in attendance in the Impact Zone died a little inside.

Outside of the Sting-Flair opening bit in the ring, there was really only one extended promo of the night, which is a good thing because they need to keep that crap to a minimum. Fortune members Kazarian, Christopher Daniels, A.J. Styles and Jason Storm took turns kissing their partner Bobby Roode’s butt and congratulating him for winning the Bound for Glory series and getting the world title shot at the pay per view against Kurt Angle. Outside of Daniels using the opportunity to also berate Styles in a backhanded way while he praised Roode, this was just a bunch of meatheads in the ring talking about how awesome they are and how much they like each other.

Fortunately TNA Champ Kurt Angle broke up the party and announced that he somehow had the power to book matches, leading to Roode having to face his fellow Fortune members in one-on-one matches for the next three weeks leading up to the pay per view. And if he lost to one of them, he would also lose his number one contender slot. This led to Kazarian against Roode in the first of these “Fortune on Fortune” battles, and it was actually a decent match, with Roode getting the submission win with a crossface. Roode is getting a nice build up now, it’ll be interesting to see if TNA really has faith in him to lead the company as their heavyweight champion.

Jeff Hardy wandered around backstage like a contrite child, looking for forgiveness and acceptance from anyone who would listen. A.J. Styles essentially told Hardy to fuck off, and then Devon told Hardy that he had his back, so it looks like there will be a pro-Hardy / anti-Hardy split in the TNA locker room. Meanwhile, let’s see if he can stay clean while wrestling.

In a submission match, Matt Morgan took on Samoa Joe, and after an okay bout, Joe got the win with a heel lock, making the gigantic Morgan tap out pretty quickly. This was Joe’s first win in literally months, and it looks like this was a quick wrap up to the Joe-Morgan feud to make room for a Joe-Crimson feud in a couple of weeks.

In the main event, old man Sting took on the older Ric Flair in a slow, plodding match. Sting is still capable of some decent matches at his age, but Flair looks like he needs to be put to rest. Flair did have a great match last year in TNA against Mick Foley, and it was a match for the ages despite both men being essentially old and feeble, but just one year later it doesn’t appear as if Flair has it anymore. Furthermore, Flair looks like a chocolate Easter bunny left in the sun for a couple of minutes with those melted fudgers and saggy muscles of his. Despite some Immortal interference, Sting got the win via submission with the Scorpion Deathlock, thus guaranteeing him the match that no one is asking for – Sting versus Hogan at Bound For Glory. Heaven help us.

End Credit:

This was an okay show at best, as it went by pretty quickly and without offence. Of course, this particular show seemed okay because it has been so bad lately, so hopefully this is a case of a TNA turnaround and not perception clouding reality.

Rating: 5 out of 10