Friday 16 December 2011

My iMPACT Wrestling, December 15th 2011 Recap

The show opened with AJ Styles versus Bobby Roode in an extended five minutes to their previous Iron man match at Final Resolution for the World title, which ended in a 0-0 draw. Although it was only five minutes it was an intense and exciting bout while it lasted. Roode again decided to waste time towards the last thirty-seconds and wonder in and out of the ring, but it almost backfired as AJ managed to pull out a pele kick and went for the 450 splash but just ran out of time.
Sting then announced that Roode and Styles would continue the battle over the TNA World title in a first pinfall or submission match with no time limit. Roode defeated AJ via submission with a single leg boston crab on his injured leg, which made sense and it was a nice touch carrying on the fake injury for Styles. Some consistency makes a nice change in TNA, rare as it can be.
Abyss and Scott Steiner defeated Hernandez and Rob Terry in an above average tag team match. The action in the ring wasn't always great but the it was entertaining at parts and the crowd certainly got behind it. Abyss allowed Steiner to have the winning pin on Terry after tagging him in. He also raised his hand at the end in victory, much to Steiner's bemusement.   
Kurt Angle ordered Sting to the ring and demanded a rematch against James Storm after not one but two consecutive losses to 'The Cowboy'. Sting refused as he explained that Storm now had to move "onwards and upwards" and face some new competition on his way to a rematch with Roode in the future for the title. Kurt Angle then threatened to go "cowboy" on Storm's hometown and take people out until he got what he wanted.
Zema Ion defeated Anthony Nese in the best two out of three series to determine the number one contender to the X Division title at the Genesis pay-per-view. Both men looked very good as they put on an exciting match up with some nicely executed high flying maneuvers. I wouldn't mind seeing some more of Nese in action in the company too in the future, they could use some fresh faces in the division.
Gunner versus Jesse Neal ended in a count out draw when Gunner continued assaulting Neal on the outside of the ring and DDT'd him onto the exposed floor, similar to what he did to Garrett Bischoff last week (except that was a piledriver.) The match up until that point had been nothing special.
Jeff Hardy in the ring began to express his optimism for 2012 and his excitement at the chance to become World champion at Genesis, but was shortly interrupted by Bully Ray. Ray informed Hardy that he was his opponent for the night and also thanked him for his departure from the company after the Victory Road debacle, as it then freed up a slot for Ray to join Immortal. Before Ray was done he claimed that "I'm better then you Jeff Hardy, and I'm going to prove it tonight."
Samoa Joe and Magnus defeated Douglas Williams and Robbie E as part of the wild card tag team tournament. The actual tag team bout itself was decent enough, and it's always nice seeing Williams in action, who in my opinion is far too talented to be left out of iMPACT so often. The duo of Magnus and Joe has some potential too I reckon, Magnus looked pretty sharp here.
Devon warned D'Angelo Dinero that his two sons were his boys and that he was going to "train them the way I want to train them. I'm going to bring them up the way I want to bring them up." He also added that their relationship with Dinero was over, but as he was about to leave Pope halted him "these boys want a cool Dad," he claimed. He went  on to explain that they want someone to look up to that's moving with the times and that Devon wasn't as "fly" or "pimping" as he is. As Pope then went into more personal territory about Devon's ex-wife, Devon began to beat on him until Pope low blowed Devon as his two sons made it clear that they had sided with Dinero.
Madison Rayne defeated Traci Brooks in an average Knockouts bout, quite a fair bit below the standard of the Mickie James versus Gail Kim title match at Final Resolution.  
In an amusing backstage segment Sting exposed footage to both Jeff and Karen Jarrett of them both trying to convince him throughout the night to fire the other one. Sting also announced that he was going to fire both of them.
Jeff Hardy defeated Bully Ray in a decent main event with moments of exciting action. Hardy pinned Ray after a second twist of fate. After the bout Hardy continued the attack on Ray until Roode raced down and helped Bully Ray put Hardy through a table. But Stinger wasn't having any of it as he came to Hardy's aid and struck Ray, only to have Roode crack him from behind with his World title belt. The crowd were indifferent to most of this.  

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