Motor City Machine Guns-Generation Me match is highlight of TNA Impact
The best match on paper on Thursday night’s TNA Impact was the eight-man tag team main event pitting Fourtune (that’s the correct spelling) against Kurt Angle, Jeff Hardy, Mr. Anderson and “The Pope” D’Angelo Dinero.
But as the saying goes, matches aren’t wrestled on paper, they are wrestled by little people inside our TV sets (or something like that), and the best match inside my TV set was the non-title bout between TNA world tag team champions The Motor City Machine Guns and Generation Me.
It wasn’t an instant classic like the Guns’ recent series of matches against Beer Money, but the fast-paced, six-minute match was highly entertaining nonetheless.
Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley gave Max and Jeremy Buck an opportunity to shine in defeat, and the Bucks came through by pulling off several breath-taking double-team moves. The Bucks definitely have a bright future.
Other thoughts on Thursday’s show:
The star-studded eight-man tag match wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t as good as I thought it would be. By the way, Fourtune facing four top guys seems like more of a fair fight than Fourtune versus the old ECW crew. …
It was made clear that Fourtune is Abyss’ “they.” During the TNA Reaction show that followed, however, it wasn’t as definitive. Nothing can be simple in TNA, the only company that could create a Four Horsemen-inspired group and put six members in it. …
TNA was going for shock value in the opening segment when TNA president Dixie Carter’s husband was beaten down by Fourtune, but I don’t think it really worked, as Carter’s acting wasn’t very believable. Still, the segment did do a nice job of setting up the main event, as Hulk Hogan, Angle, Hardy, Anderson and Dinero made the save. …
Right after Carter had announced that she was suspending Ric Flair for 90 days, Hogan said that he was over-ruling her and negating the suspension. His reasoning was that putting Flair on the shelf would be going too easy on Flair, but Hogan going against Carter’s wishes could be more proof that Hogan is turning heel and that Sting and Kevin Nash are ultimately going to be revealed as babyfaces. Hogan and Eric Bischoff also looked pretty heelish when Bischoff distracted Sting and Hogan hit him from behind with a chair. And Sting choking Flair with his baseball bat and telling him that Fourtune was next on his hit list also seemed to indicate that Sting and Nash are misunderstood babyfaces rather than heels. Whatever is going on here with all these guys (and Jeff Jarrett), I just wish TNA would deliver the payoff already. …
The segment with Samoa Joe turning down Jarrett’s request for him to be in Jarrett’s corner for his match against Nash was an effective way to establish Joe as an anti-hero with no allegiances. …
Tommy Dreamer’s on-air role is way too prominent in my opinion. There’s no way he should be wrestling a top guy such as A.J. Styles on the next pay-per-view (No Surrender, Sept. 5). …
Beer Money’s victory over The FBI was pretty much a squash, which is exactly how I would have booked the match. …
Stevie Richards going toe-to-toe with Abyss in a backstage brawl was a little hard to believe. …
I think Desmond Wolfe and Magnus will make a fine tag team, but it seems odd for them to be getting a title match at No Surrender when they haven’t even teamed together once on Impact. …
It was nice to see Angelina Love and Velvet Sky kiss and make up – in the figurative sense. It would have been extremely nice to see them kiss and make up in the literal sense. …
Styles coming down the ramp for the main event with a big feather from his robe on his head was unintentionally hilarious.
Comments
Douglas and Wolfe have been teaming on TNA Xplosion and won a tag team tournament to become the #1 contenders
RESPONSE FROM KE: Yes, but hardly anyone watches Xplosion.
Posted by: Tomblie | August 28, 2010 12:29 AM
I really liked the MCMG match. I actually cheered! Wonderful spots. Abyss facing both Stevie and Rhino was awkard to me. I am happy to see the BP back together again and I can do without Madison's screeching. It is quite annoying. The 8-man was okay but now they have the four contenders split up 2 and 2 and team with each other? It seems to me that that is a strange waste of time which could be better spent using the other Knockouts like Sarita, Wilde, Hamada and please bring back Alyssa Flash. Please somebody put Hogan out of his misery (and mine).
Posted by: Johnny Valentine was great | August 28, 2010 12:29 AM
To my taste, a very weak episode of Impact this week. The show is just all over the place and full of stables. Fourtune and EV2 aren't enough, now they got the fatal 4 going, and jerks are popping out from the back all the time starting pointless wars. If suddenly a stable is short on members they just tack on anyone without reason. Abyss is suppose to be a monster but he's getting his butt kicked by everyone now and brawling with Stevie Richards... wasn't that dude his therapist not too long ago? The writing is bad and every angle is being rushed and executed poorly and it's coming off as cheesy when it could of been dramatic. In my opinion the show is a mess right now. EV2 is overstacking things. I wouldn't be surprised if ratings start slipping to the .8's again, this time I'm actually kinda hoping for it so that they cut out all the EV2 crap.
Posted by: Lorenzo | August 28, 2010 12:38 AM
where is Hernandez? I hope TNA doesn't release him like Homicide...
Posted by: MitZi | August 28, 2010 2:14 AM
You forgot to mention the match between Nash and Jarrett, though that's probably because the match was so boring that you fell into a temporary coma. The Impact Zone, which has been long established would cheer for anything no matter how retarded, was dead silent during that whole match until Hogan/Bischoff came out.
If they're gonna have six guys in the faction, then don't freaking spell it "Fourtune". Can these idiots even count?
And who the hell is Serge?
Posted by: Loco | August 28, 2010 5:46 AM
I don't know how many people remember, but Richards and Abyss have a past, with the whole Dr. Stevie gimmick last year. Richards got the best out of him on multiple occasions. Same with Rhino-I'll never forget the original Monster's Ball matches featuring Rhino, Abyss, Sabu, Raven, Jeff Hardy, and Monty Brown.
RESPONSE FROM KE: Of course I remember the Dr. Stevie gimmick, but I don't remember Stevie getting the better of Abyss.
Posted by: paul | August 28, 2010 9:15 AM
Nice writeup! Hate to be a stickler for typos, but you forgot the word Guns in your second paragraph.
RESPONSE FROM KE: Thanks. Fixed.
Posted by: Anonymous | August 28, 2010 11:14 AM
Will TNA Xplosion be on American tv anytime soon? Have you heard anything?
Posted by: Peter | August 28, 2010 11:20 AM
I am not into the whole Fortune vs EV2.0 thing going on, but I do enjoy seeing Rhino more often. Flair and Foley are just really boring me more and more lately. I liked Foley back in the 90s, not so much now. I thought the fight after the fight which had Douglass Williams cut his head at the hands of Sabu did not look staged at all. Looked to me that Fortune was seriously mad about that.
I like seeing a tag team division in wrestling. WWE really does not have one after 9 years. (I still go back to the death of the WWE tag team when Billy and Chuck were champions and The Dudleys were broken up) I really enjoyed the match between Generation Me and the MCMGs was one of the best I have seen in awhile. Beer Money''s was a total squash.
After seeing Reaction, I totally understand why Joe did not want to help Jeff Jarrett. I want to see Joe get a title soon, but with all the former WWE talent in the final four of the tournament, it does not look very likely.
Another week without a X division title match.
Posted by: Peter | August 28, 2010 11:30 AM
EV2.0, or just EV2, no one cares. Stevie Richards, as Dr. Stevie, has been jobbing to Abyss consistantly over the past year or two, kinda weird that he was almost even with him. I really thought that Abyss was going to land a shot with Janice, just joking, you'd have to be an idiot to think that.
FBI are very good at getting squashed (taking 360s off of clotheslines and whatnot). However, that makes me care even less about EV2.
Posted by: Phillip Reynolds | August 28, 2010 12:38 PM
Kevin, I'm surprised that you didn't mention AJ Styles' promo prior to the main event. In my opinion it was the strongest that he has ever delivered. Yes he has mentioned that he "built" TNA in prior interviews, but then turning the tables on Dixie Carter by mentioning that Fortune were his "guests" and that Dixie wouldn't have been involved in TNA if it wasn't for him was powerful and delivered with conviction.
Posted by: Neal Baker | August 28, 2010 2:20 PM
What are the chances Abyss's "they" is actually the anonymous Raw GM?
Posted by: Matthew | August 28, 2010 2:36 PM
I was a little disappointed in impact this week although the guns and gen me match was brilliant.
Yes the storylines are all over the place at the moment which up until recently has not bothered me because the calibre of matches over the last few months have been great ie joe v van dam, joe v hardy, angle v aj, etc. Every week there seemed to be at least two very good matches and I was quite happy to ignore the stupid storylines.
The problem is the show struggles with continuity and this needs to be addressed.
I quite like the fortune group, I'm a big fan of all of them especially aj and morgan. Also, I could watch Flair let rip all night but does every faction have to take over the entire company? What happened to the good old days when wrestlers in groups just helped each other cheat? Bobby Heanon never tried to take over wwf, neither did Jimmy Hart, the horseman never wanted to run NWA. Ever since the NWO days this whole wrestlers taking over storyline has been repeated by both companies a million times and i'm sick to death of it.
On another note, I don't mind EV2.0 featuring on the show in small doses but why not stick Sabu in these matches instead of Dreamer? I think Sabu versus AJ would be great to see
Posted by: Scott Taylor | August 28, 2010 2:44 PM
>>>Stevie Richards going toe-to-toe with Abyss in a backstage brawl was a little hard to believe. …
Yes, but Paul Roma defeating anyone and becoming a member of the Four Horsemen has got to be the hardest.
Posted by: Bradley | August 28, 2010 3:48 PM
Kev, who or what do you think "Shore" is going to be?
RESPONSE FROM KE: It's two characters (played by indy wrestlers Rob Eckos and Becky Bayless) based on the Jersey Shore reality series.
Posted by: Jeff | August 28, 2010 6:14 PM
Dixie Carter should not be cutting promos. Does anyone really care who's in charge of TNA?
Oh, and how about Hogan calling Angle, Hardy, Anderson and Pope, all of whom came from the WWE, the "heart" of TNA (or whatever exactly he said, instead of the group containing Styles, Kaz, Storm, and Roode? These guys just have no idea how to book a wrestling show.
Posted by: Ken Raining | August 28, 2010 6:52 PM
Whoever decided to name them "Fourtune" needs a few slap in the face with soap in a sock. Or if it's Dixie, she needs to watch her favorite clothes burned. I thought the group was finally going to be good until you enlightened me of their actual written name.
Whoever is responsible is probably the same one who had wrestlers, "steal titles and not give them back" from champions, and who kept Madison and LVE in the Beautiful People for months.
As for Abyss, "They" are clearly a fifth group/faction, maybe the "monsters" group I read a rumor about. No one currently on the roster has a reason to like Abyss.
Posted by: Jmasters | August 28, 2010 7:41 PM
Someone had sent me a great promo of Magnus and Wolfe this week. I noticed that the backdrop had an "Xplosion" logo. Started asking around,seems the rest of the world is watching it. A type of recap show shown internationally. If anyone wants to watch it, its listed under "TNA Xplosion 20100811 Desmond Wolfe & Brutus Magnus Promo" on youtube. Didnt want to put a direct link to it, out of respect to Kev.
The English marks got to be lovin this team!
Posted by: Ryan Berrigan | August 29, 2010 1:08 AM
It's like watching a TRAIN WRECK everyweek. I think they make up the angels during the show. For some reason I just can't put my finger on it, I have never liked Jeff Jarrett. And Flair was actually entertaining. WOOOOO
Posted by: Ric in Baltimore | August 29, 2010 12:33 PM
In recent years, I have stopped watching the various wrestling promotions for different reasons, which I won't get into. I just wanted to comment on the Dixie Carter thing on last week's Impact.
I have never bought into the whole "management" getting involved in the wrestling because of one reason. If the wrestlers lay a finger on her, they're fired. It is that easy. Touch me and you're fired.
The whole storyline with "renegades" attacking the CEO or owner or whatever just unsuspends my suspension of disbelief faster than just about anything else. It doesn't work on WWE and it works even more poorly on TNA.
Thanks for the recaps, Mister Eck. You are the only reason I am still up to date on the wrestling world.
Posted by: Wayne | August 30, 2010 1:16 PM
Now that I think about it, the only time Stevie got the best of him was when Raven returned. I almost positive that TNA posts Xplosion matches on their Youtube channel. I wish they'd be on TV though. With another version of British Invasion (Magnus and Wolfe) now together, any chances we might see Paul Burchill in TNA as part of the team?
Posted by: paul | August 30, 2010 7:08 PM
What the hell is going on in T.N.A? is it just me or does anyone else feel like Samoa Joe is being misused. Ever since Joe stepped in T.N.A he and Styles carried the company and now he's in the opening bout against a weirdo like Orlando Jordan. Dixie Carter is more timid than Teddy Long no one respects her authority, Nash vs. Jarrett who cares. Beer Money vs FBI booooooring! No Hernandez and 4 Ex wwe Stars teaming up in the main event.
Posted by: darren taylor | August 31, 2010 7:00 PM