The Impact Crater 09.06.07

Welcome, one and all, to the Impact Crater. This week, we’ve got an opportunity to see what the fine folks at TNA wrestling can do to sell people on their big pay per view event just days before it is set to take place. Last week’s show was surprisingly good, and we’ll see if they can’t make it two in a row.

Quck & Dirty Results

Segment #1: Travis Tomko def. Frankie Kazarian
Segment #2: Samoa Joe def. Raven
Segment #3: Jay Lethal & Abyss def. Kurt Angle & Sting

Angle Numero Uno: Pac-Fu

It’s interesting to note that, for this particular pay per view, the TNA Title has almost taken a backseat to their World Title. I have no problem with this, as will be explored in more detail in our reader feedback section for the week. What they did to advance the Tag Title angle tonight was fine, although it simultaneously allowed some of the problems with the “Kurt defends all three titles in one night” concept to come to center stage.

As far as the Tag Title match itself is concerned, Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man laid out Sting last week, and now they’ve laid out Kurt Angle. Now we have to pay to see the face team get their revenge. There’s nothing innovative about that, but wrestling angles don’t always have to innovate. Sometimes the classics work just fine. In fact, if you look at the past couple of years, it’s been classic angles straight out of the 1970’s and 1980’s that have been behind every top-performing pay per view event. The only thing that I might like to have seen is one more week between Angle being laid out and the pay per view, just so the champions can cut one last promo about how they really want to get their hands on the Pacs. This would probably pique fans’ interest a bit more than their last image of the feud simply being Kurt Angle laying face down with spray paint on his back. Really, though, this storyline is fine aside from the small fact that Jones is barred from setting foot in the ring.

Despite the good build to the Tag Title match, TNA did book itself in to a bit of a corner with the three title defenses by Angle. On the last Impact before the PPV, it felt like TNA suddenly realized that they had only really built up one of the defenses and needed to pull the trigger on something at the last minute that would spark some interest in Abyss’ World Title shot. The old “pin the champ in a tag match” gimmick is as good of a way to do that as any, but, frankly, the time that was devoted to the Abyss match on this show could have and should have gone in to providing more hype for the tag encounter. After ignoring Abyss for three weeks, it’s simply too late to do anything that will actually get the audience behind him going in to the PPV, so you may as well just run a couple of minute long video packages on the guy and all of the destruction he’s wrought. Devote his time to the angle that people are already somewhat invested in so that they become more invested in it. After all, it’s not like a pay per view really needs multiple big matches in order to draw buys. One big match, if promoted sufficiently, will be enough to do the trick.

Angle Numero Dos: The Samoan Submissive Machine

I hate to sound like every other “smark” on the internet, but I am really sick and tired of this company’s booking of Samoa Joe. It’s as though TNA completely forgot everything that got the guy over in the first place or, worse yet, remember what got him over in the first place and are consciously doing the opposite. Samoa Joe is not meant to be the babyface who fights from underneath and has to overcome the odds. He’s meant to be the dominant, agile big man who sends all but a select few heels scattering. If any other face on the roster was involved in the dancer angle on tonight’s show, I would have loved it. However, I’m just sick and tired of seeing Joe beaten down on every single episode of Impact. He could never get the upper hand on Angle during their feud, and now apparently he can’t get the upper hand on Christian either. It’s ridiculously frustrating as somebody who has seen the man booked effectively in both ROH and in TNA.

And what’s with all of the Tomko on tonight’s show? He got a heck of a lot of face time for a man who doesn’t even have a major pay per view match.

Angle Numero Tres: Frank n’ Roode

It strikes me as odd that TNA is giving more attention to Frankie Kazarian and Bobby Roode’s spat than it is angles like Storm versus Rhino or Harris versus Rhodes, but I’m glad that they’re doing it. Frankie Kazarian is one of the most underrated wrestlers in the company and has been for quite some time. I’d be surprised to see him come out on the winning end of this rivalry, but that’s fine because at this stage of the game exposure does him just as much good as a victory. (Though, ultimately, he will have to start winning in order to be taken seriously.) Meanwhile, Roode is a great performer who TNA could have elevated after his ultra-hot feud with Eric Young. Instead, they dragged that angle on for far too long and left both men in the exact same positions they were in prior to the rivalry. Now, in his angle against Kazarian, Roode finally has the opportunity to climb up the card that he should have had a year ago. All in all, this angle has been exactly what both men need at this stage of their careers, so it gets a big thumbs up from yours truly.

The only thing that really aggravates me about it is that it must involve Roode arguing with Traci Brooks. I’m begging TNA to put together just one tag team, stable, or wrestler/manager duo who actually GETS ALONG. They’ve done this lame “partners who hate each other” schtick so many times over the course of the last year or so that it has completely lost any impact that it could have had.

And the Rest . . .

~ Jimmy Rave and Lance Hoyt are apparently going to team in the gauntlet match at the pay per view. The only time I liked Hoyt was in his tag team with Kid Kash, but Jimmy Rave is NOT Kid Kash.

~ Speaking of the gauntlet, is it a “gauntlet” in the TNA sense of the word (Royal Rumble) or is it an actual gauntlet match? I might have missed that explanation . . . or it may just not have happened.

~ What’s the deal with Chris Harris saying that Dustin Rhodes used to be his friend? Are casual fans really supposed to remember the two week period during which AMW and Rhodes were allies? If they do remember it, are they really supposed to care given the short duration?

~ Speaking of relationships that lasted for short periods of time, what happened to Bobby Roode being a part of Christian’s stable? That went nowhere.

~ The “James Storm looks for Rhino” vignettes still aren’t doing anything for me, which says a lot about their quality since I generally think James Storm is awesome.

Overall

I’m going to give this edition of Impact a hesitant thumbs up. There were no major flaws in the execution of the show. They did nothing to completely turn me off on the current crop of angles after getting me invested in a couple of them with the good show last week. Yet, at the same time, this episode lacked the “oomph” that you typically want a go home show to have. Though the company did most everything correctly from a technical standpoint, the PPV just feels like a show featuring matches that result from decently booked angles. Nothing feels like a must-see, larger than life encounter. Though a show featuring a bunch of ho-hum programs is better than a show featuring a bunch of programs which actively suck, at some point TNA is going to have to kick things in to high gear and remember how to put together can’t miss programming.

Reader Feedback

Usually, I don’t enjoy Impact. Usually, this results in me getting e-mail from people who bash me for not enjoying Impact. Last week, I did enjoy Impact. It resulted in me getting e-mail from people who called me out for failing to not enjoy Impact. I just can’t win, can I?

Let’s start off with a man who calls himself “The Marino”. I don’t think he’s any relation to Dan:

I usually agree with your thoughts on TNA and do this week too! It was a much better Impact than usual, but one question:

Anyway, glad you’re back, good job as always.

Jobbing out Sabin and Shelley didn’t bother me aside from the fact that they probably could’ve just used that time for the brawl. I think both guys are phenomenal wrestlers and would love to see them high on the card in TNA, but, at the end of the day, I realize that you need talented wrestlers at every level in a promotion. You need talented main eventers, you need talented midcarders, and you even need talented job guys. Sabin and Shelley have apparently been chosen to be those talented job guys. It’s a shame for them personally but it’s necessary for the promotion. Plus I don’t hate VKM nearly as much as a lot of other folks on the ‘net seem to, primarily because I’ve always been a big mark for the Armstrong family and think that Road Dogg can still cut effective promos when he’s not given godawful material about feuding with the boys “up north.”

On the post-brawl cut-away: I didn’t care because it’s not a primary part of the show. If they’d cut away after a major title victory or huge injury angle, that would have annoyed me. However, what you had here as a quick angle that will set up a match that’s probably going to be one of the first two out of the gate on the next PPV. It’s no big deal.

And now let’s go to Larry D.:

I can’t believe that you didn’t call TNA out again this week. I agree that their show pacing was better. But you said that this week they spent 60% of their time on the most important angle (the Tag Titltes). Isn’t the World Tittle supposed to be the most important angle. How can Abyss not be on the show! How does the world title challenger at the next PPV not even get a vignette. I have never seen a televised wrestling show where a top title challenger is in NO way featured. I know that the smarks understand that Abyss isn’t winning the title at No Surrender, but they need to at least put some doubt into somebody’s mind.

Couple this with another Angle challenger not being featured (Lethal) and TNA should call their next PPV “No Purchase.” Even if WWE suspends everyone for wellness except Mabel and Punk, they could still put on better TV.

To answer your first question, no, the World Title does not have to be the most important angle in the promotion. Historically it has been, but there’s nothing wrong with a company promoting a major show in which they make something other than their top title the number one priority. For examples of this, look no further than Wrestlemania XVIII (Rock/Hogan being promoted over the title), Backlash 2003 (Rock/Goldberg being promoted over the title), Vengeance 2006 (DX/Spirit Squad being promoted over the title), Survivor Series 2000 (Austin/HHH being promoted over the title), Armageddon 1999 (HHH/Vince McMahon being promoted over the title), Armageddon 2005 (Orton/Undertaker being promoted over the title), or WWF St. Valentine’s Day Massacre (Austin/McMahon being promoted over the title).

Granted, if you too frequently treat a match other than your World Title bout as the primary draw of the PPV, it does devalue the belt. However, the matches listed above – and numerous others – prove that it can be a perfectly acceptable business decision to make something other than your main strap the main focus of your show. Based on recent booking, it looks like TNA has decided that, on this particular pay per view, their Tag Team Title match is more important than their World Title match. There’s nothing wrong with this so long as they provide the crowd with a rational, compelling build to the match that they have determined is the most important. They did that last week.

As far as the credibility of Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man is concerned, that argument makes a little bit more sense but still doesn’t quite pan out. Pac-Man’s size is a non-factor in TNA. If you’re going to start calling out small wrestlers for not being credible, then we may as well write off the X Division now. When it comes to his experience, that is certainly a better argument, but how exactly is Pac-Man’s in-ring debut different than the debut of any new wrestler? If a non-celebrity rookie is starting off in a promotion – even if the rookie is immediately thrust in to the main event – fans don’t normally assume that he completely lacks credibility. They take a “wait and see” approach and judge him after he gets in to the ring. I don’t see why Pac-Man should be any different. When it comes to Killings, I did a quick check through my archives, and the last Impact match he wrestled was in DECEMBER. If the fans perceived him as a jobber back then, plenty of time has passed for that memory to have been wiped away.

Is it stupid that TNA is promoting Pac-Man as wrestling despite the fact that he can’t touch anybody? Absolutely. However, I have already mentioned this in past columns. At a certain point you just have to let go, quit beating the dead horse, and judge the company based on how they’ve chosen to build to the match that you don’t think should be happening. That’s what I’ve done here, and, despite the fact that I don’t think the match should be happening, they’ve done a good job of building to it.

And thus concludes another week of the Crater. I’ll see you all on Sunday for the Custom Made News Report. If you want more of me before then, check out the MySpace, where you can check out exclusive blog content and add me as a friend to receive a notice whenever I post a new article here on the site.