TNA Impact Wrestling Review - December 27, 2012

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Fine promo from Bully Ray to kick off the show. He basically recapped his relationship with Brooke Hogan and offered nothing more, but it seems as if Brooke is up to something in trying to make Hulk Hogan believe there's something going on. This had mildly interesting, but only slightly, so I'm glad this story-line was kept to a minimum this week.  

Brief match with Samoa Joe defeating the Masked Man from Aces and 8s. It was so short that there's really nothing to discuss other than the fact that Joe completely dominated him.  It's just a shame that Aces and 8s continues to lose matches, as their consistent losses don't help their credibility whatsoever.

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Horrendous "Bro-off" between Robbie E, Robbie T and Jessie. Not one bit of this segment was entertaining and felt like a complete waste of time. Even if this was foreshadowing a potential split between the two Robbies, no one seemed to care at all and I don't blame them whatsoever.

Decent match with X-Division Champion Rob Van Dam defeating Christian York. I expected more from these two, but the action was fine for what it was. York looked impressive against the champ and I hope they're able to clash paths once again down the road. However, my only issue with this match is the fact York has yet to win a singles match since coming to TNA, despite his solid performances. We got a brief backstage promo from Kenny King, but I would've liked to see an altercation between him and RVD to further that feud.

Good tag team match with World Tag Team Champions Chavo Guerrero and Hernandez defeating Bad Influence. Firstly, the pre-match promo from Kazarian and Daniels was hysterical and was a perfect impersonation of AJ Styles. I'm just hoping this isn't leading to another match between Daniels and Styles. As for the match, it was fun and received great time. Bad Influence is such an entertaining tag team that I hope they reclaim the tag titles at some point down the line.

Nice match with Gail Kim defeating Miss Tessmacher. Kim calling out Tessmacher made sense given their past history and match itself wasn't bad at all. Both Knockouts had good showings and I liked how Kim pulled out the pleasantly surprising victory. Sure, it's a shame to see Tessmacher no longer being promoted as the division's top face, but hopefully this leads to a strong year for Kim in 2013.

Enjoyable match between Austin Aries and Bobby Roode that ended in a no contest. Their various heel tactics kept the crowd entertained, but I felt somewhat disappointed by the actual lack of wrestling. These two are capable of amazing matches as seen this past summer, but they obviously held back here given their both heels. The non-finish was logical and it was the best way to protect both guys. Jeff Hardy's run-in at the end pretty much guaranteed a Triple Threat for the World Heavyweight Championship at Genesis, which has the potential to be a great match.

Overall, a decent show that wasn't the best way to close out 2012, but it's a holiday week, so it's understandable. This show obviously served as filler going into next week's first edition of the new year, so at least they were effective in hyping the Steel Cage match as well as Sting's return.