BOUND FOR GLORY 2018

[DreamBroken]

I hope so. thought Aries was doing some really great work the last several months. Callis made a comparison to Shane Douglas in ECW back in June, I loved that.. he came off like their franchise as of late with Moose & Kross as his triple threat, really excellent promos lately. Shame if he is indeed gone at a time like this for Impact.

[MapRef41N93W]

21 hours ago, Thibs said:

The entire idea of a wrestling angle is to do things to make you believe that it is real.

 That’s what they’re doing. 

The entire idea of a wrestling angle is to make you want to see the wrestling show. For a lot of fans, myself included, work-shoot nonsense like this has the opposite effect.

[Thibs]

1 hour ago, MapRef41N93W said:

The entire idea of a wrestling angle is to make you want to see the wrestling show. For a lot of fans, myself included, work-shoot nonsense like this has the opposite effect.

Not sure if you’ve been paying attention but what they’ve been doing for the last 8 months has slaughtered the little audience they had left. 

So there’s nothing wrong with trying something new. The idea that its somehow bad to try to make a wrestling angle seem real is silly. 

[MapRef41N93W]

The problem is not that they're trying something new, or that they're trying to make it seem real. The problem is the specific way they've apparently chosen to do this (if Aries's post-match behavior was part of an angle, which I bet it was).

It's one thing to have real-life animosity between wrestlers in the back of viewers' minds, or to base storyline events on real events. It's another, way stupider thing to try to present in-kayfabe and supposedly-out-of-kayfabe stories simultaneously and hope for either to be taken seriously. A wrestler celebrating a big win and his opponent throwing a tantrum about being booked to lose cannot successfully be presented to the audience at the same time, except maybe for laughs.

[Curt McGirt]

The problem is that we're all too old for this shit

[Raziel]

The other problem is never in the history of pro-wrestling has a "worked shoot" angle like this ever drawn a dime, and more often than not, drives viewers away rather than bring them in (see: Russo era TNA, Russo Era WCW, etc) . That, and angles such as this that rely so heavly on "real life" usually end up with one or more parties getting screwed over huge and it not ending well.  Toss in Napeolean's known issues of taking his ball and going home when not getting his way and how everyone engaged in heavy Stamford-fucking with him when he hit the indies, and this reeks of desperation and the whole thing not ending out as a positive for the company, which has been progressing to get the stink of the last, oh, all of it's existance off of it, and this seems more a regression than step forward.

 

I get that the ratings are falling and everything, but Impact at best is so damaged as a brand that it's a long term reclaimation project and there isn't a short term fix for it.  Throwing shit at the wall like this to see if it stick is going to hurt more than it helps.

[Thibs]

2 hours ago, Raziel said:

The other problem is never in the history of pro-wrestling has a "worked shoot" angle like this ever drawn a dime, and more often than not, drives viewers away rather than bring them in (see: Russo era TNA, Russo Era WCW, etc) . That, and angles such as this that rely so heavly on "real life" usually end up with one or more parties getting screwed over huge and it not ending well.  Toss in Napeolean's known issues of taking his ball and going home when not getting his way and how everyone engaged in heavy Stamford-fucking with him when he hit the indies, and this reeks of desperation and the whole thing not ending out as a positive for the company, which has been progressing to get the stink of the last, oh, all of it's existance off of it, and this seems more a regression than step forward.

 

I get that the ratings are falling and everything, but Impact at best is so damaged as a brand that it's a long term reclaimation project and there isn't a short term fix for it.  Throwing shit at the wall like this to see if it stick is going to hurt more than it helps.

 

When you’re losing 50%+ of your audience its not a matter of long term fix... its a matter of trying to hang on to people that haven’t left you yet. And by presenting the type of product they were the last few months, people were leaving in droves.

Also, its not like they’re going all shooty era WCW 2000. It was one angle and I would check out the spoilers page before you make any hard assumptions. They’re still doing a lot of things you’ve liked. But you can’t keep blatantly shoving a product down people’s throat when they keep turning the channel. 

In terms of it never drawing a dime, the 90’s were built on inside comments, “shooting”, etc. Austin/McMahon was built on this stuff. So saying it hasn’t drawn a dime just isn’t true. It drew lots of times, even a few quarters.

it just depends how you do it. If you go over the top with it and blatantly call the show fake and beat people over the head with it, then its a problem. 

If you strategically insert it, where the audience does a double take for a second and says “wait, that wasn’t supposed to happen”, it really adds to the show. 

[nate]

On 10/15/2018 at 1:17 PM, hammerva said:

 

 

I need to hear what Moose knows about shrimp cocktail, enh?

[Nice Guy Eddie]

I would love a new Embassy with Nana, Moose, and Killer Kross. 

[Web Conn]

14 hours ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

I would love a new Embassy with Nana, Moose, and Killer Kross. 

I got a more detailed (read rambling) review coming but while I was watching Tommy and Eddie vs Moose and Kross I was thinking I would mind seeing Moose and Kross as a Powers of Pain type tag team holding the division for ransom as champs just destroying the competition for a few months. Nana as their manager would be a nice addition to that.

[Archibald]

I get the point that Impact is dropping in terms of TV viewers but I'm not sure if this kinda of stuff really helps. What could help? I don't know, maybe doing more simple wrestling instead of supernatural, erotic and "real gangztas" angles. Lucha Underground went all in with their supernatural thing and it looks like it isn't doing that hot with viewers either.

I probably would be less annoyed by what happened if similar thing didn't happen some time ago with Alberto (and to lesser extent Low Ki) so instead of feeling "ok, what is going on here" I get "oh no, not same shit again" reaction.

Oh, and Tessa/Taya was MOTN without a doubt and I don't really like women wrestling in the first place.

[Thibs]

How much more simple can it get? Honestly? Despite some of the super natural stuff, the week to week show is paint by numbers wrestling. Pretty much every storyline is “I want the belt or I’m better than you”. The show is predictable and there’s no “I need to tune in or I might miss something” feel to it.

I mean, they’re going into their new timeslot and what are they promoting? Johnny vs. Fenix. No personal isssue, no storyline, no building up Fenix to where we can take him seriously.  Just a predictable match that they hope people will tune in simply because of the quality of the wrestling. And as we’ve seen, the opposite is happening— people are tuning out. 

[Nice Guy Eddie]

3 hours ago, Thibs said:

How much more simple can it get? Honestly? Despite some of the super natural stuff, the week to week show is paint by numbers wrestling. Pretty much every storyline is “I want the belt or I’m better than you”. The show is predictable and there’s no “I need to tune in or I might miss something” feel to it.

I mean, they’re going into their new timeslot and what are they promoting? Johnny vs. Fenix. No personal isssue, no storyline, no building up Fenix to where we can take him seriously.  Just a predictable match that they hope people will tune in simply because of the quality of the wrestling. And as we’ve seen, the opposite is happening— people are tuning out. 

I guess I'm different because all I need is quality wrestling to tune in.

[Web Conn]

I don't follow Impact all that much but I enjoyed Slammiversary so I thought I'd give this one a watch

If TNA has had one positive constant it’s how well done their video packages have always been. They know how to tell an intriguing story in 3 minutes. Opening video package no exception.

I like the venue. Everyone being right on top of each other gives it a real intimate vibe it feels like you're there watching it live.

Rich Swann and Willie Mack vs Matt Sydal and Ethan Page I thought was a really good opening contest. The crowd was hot for it. It was fun they hit a lot of movez, I would have liked if Swann sold his arm a little more after the heel time worked it over for half the match but whatever.

So with the Johnny Impact-Austin Aries stuff I don't know if they worked themselves into a shoot or shot themselves into a work but Aries does come off as a jerk who takes himself too seriously.

The Ellsworth stuff was what it was. Crowd shitted on it cuz they gave their hopes up that Jericho was actually gonna show up. He didn't. Ellsworth was a nice surprise he's great on the mic he truly is. Dude knows the role, he's great at it. Drake is great on the mic too. Match wasn't much but didn't have to be. The Abyss stuff I found to be a fun surprise, It may have better suited them to have Abyss come out and no Ellsworth based on the crowd reaction but hey maybe they weren't confident Abyss could work a match or maybe Abyss didn't want to work a full match. Fun to see Abyss chokeslam Drake through a table though. 

The Knockouts Championship between Tessa and Taya was really good I thought. It was nonstop action (total nonstop action if you ask me) from the bell but they still took time to sell and tell a tory. I thought Tessa's little meltdown at the end there after the Buzzsaw DDT when Taya kicked out and Tessa was just so certain it was over. I like those little holes in Tessa's cocky demeanor, maybe she isn't as sure of herself as she likes us to believe. But of course after Tessa won she was right back to being her normal cocky self rapping along to her theme while grabbing the belt out of the refs hands.

I didn't mind Eddie Edwards vs Moose bleeding into Eddie and Tommy Dreamer vs Moose and Killer Kross. I do like that style of booking where the heels outnumbered the face bet him down get the match thrown out then another face makes the save and we got ourselves a tag match boys! I did mind the camera crew missing that Outside dive Eddie hit as Tommy was making the challenge to Moose and Kross. who ever in this thread was talking about the camera missing shit throughout the show, boy did they. and it's a small layout how do you miss anything? there's a camera on everything at all times. Match was cool though. Tommy baby birding water into Eddies mouth for Eddie to spit it in Moose face was gross. But the rest of the match really fun, they beat the shit out of each other. The crowd was chanting LowKi at Kross cuz he does kinda look like a teller LowKi during his last New Japan run doing that Hitman gimmick, I found that chant funny. Jylan Ware of the New York Giants shoved Moose at ringside and the camera missed that too. I was expecting this to be a bloodbath with tons of plunder it wasn't. I was more than ok with the hard hitting physical brawl that it was though.

I was surprised by the lack of blood in the Eddie and Tommy vs Moose and Kross match. I thought for sure there'd be blood in the OVE vs Lucha Bros and Cage match. That match happened and there was no blood. I remember Slammiversary having more blood. Tons of movez in the match. Some really cool moves like Fenix hitting a double stomp on Callahan as Pentagon had him positioned for a package piledriver or Jake Crist coming off the top rope and hitting a cutter on Fenix who was on Pentagons shoulders. but there wasn't in much in terms of in ring psychology or storytelling. There's merit in guys hitting cool moves on each other, but to me thats what this match was. Liked it though.

Worked shoot or not I really fucking like Aries' promo. It came off really good. Aries was pissed off and cut one hell of a promo. There's some truth in what he was saying Impact wasn't doing to well at the beginning of this year when Aries showed back up. Aries did put in alot of time, along with many others to get Impact turned around. I do think him flipping Morrison shit for taking time off to get married and be on Survivor was a little too much. There's life outside of wrestling Austin you might want to try it.

I don't if this makes me a snob or not but I didn't think the trios match was anything to write home about. Sure there was some cool moves like the Lucha Bros hitting that double stomp piledriver combo moves on Callihan or Jake Crist hitting a cutter on Fenix who was standing on Pentagon's shoulders. For me these match was a ton of cool moves but match didn't really make me feel anything other than oh that was a cool move. 

I really liked the Concrete Jungle Death Match. LAX vs OG'z is one of my favorite things in Impact over the summer/fall from what little I've seen. I like the cinematic short films, I like how they've been telling the story like a movie, I really do. Some don't like it but different strokes for different folks. The match was a little sloppy, they kept slipping on the boards. It could have went very wrong at any moment. I can't believe they bumped on those boards. I mean there's a vague difference between those boards and canvas but Jeez Louise that Superplex Hernandez took was fucking bonkers dude. I also think it was a really good idea not to use Konnan until the finish, he was limping out to the ring, it would have made me nervous if he was out there for the entire chaos. He didn't really need to do anything more than swing around his slapjack (ha!).

Aries vs Morrison, I liked the match. I did. I don't know how I felt about Aries "no selling" the finish and flipping everyone off and leaving, if it's a work its dumb if it's a shoot he's dumb. The actual match I thought was really good. It was a fight, an actual fight, they were trying to sink in submission holds and there was aton of ground work and strikes it looked like Pro Wrestling Shoot fighting in a really good way. Plus there was enough flips and dips to make it exciting. Going off what I said about the trios match, where i didn't feel anything other than oh cool moves this match made you feel. I felt as if there was bad blood (which no way there isn't, these two don't like each other) but they kept it professional. They were both fighting for the championship, they both are passionate and wanted the same thing. When I first heard of this match I was like oh brother two ex wwe guys fighting for the championship typical TNA. but this didn't feel like that it felt like two guys fighting for the top championship of their respected promotion and nothing else matters to them.

All in all a cool show with some tight shit throughout.