TNA Impact Wrestling Review - February 14, 2013

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Effective opening segment featuring Huk Hogan and Sting. While the delivery of their respective promos wasn't all that exciting, the announcements certainly packed a punch. They established that matches would be held throughout the night to find a new number one contender to the TNA World Heavyweight Championship at Lockdown. Not only that, but Sting foreshadowed a potential multi-man match at the event as well. 

Good match with Magnus defeating Christopher Daniels. Their styles meshed well together and Kazarian made for an entertaining addition at ringside. The England crowd absolutely adored Magnus, so it was great to see him pick up the victory here. Although the bout was only a mere five minutes and definitely could have gone longer, I enjoyed it whilie it lasted.

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Solid match between Kurt Angle and Samoa Joe. These two always work well together, but their matchup this time around didn't feel as intense as the last time they clased. Nonetheless, the commentators did an effective job of acknowleding the fact that Angle and Joe are allies and potentially reluctant to fight one another. The Aces and 8s interference was logical and teased a tag team match between the two tandems for down the line.

Nice six-person tag team match with Knockouts Champion Tara, Jesse and Gail Kim defeating The Blossom Twins and Party Marty. Since I've never seen British Bootcamp before (aside from last week), I found the team of the twins and Marty to be fresh and they scored some impressive offense throughout. Here's hoping they're featured on TNA television more regularly going forward and aren't just being used for the tapings in England. The announcement of next week's Fatal 4 Way for the Knockotus title from Brooke Hogan was well done as well.

Fun match with James Storm defeating Rob Van Dam. This was another match that I felt could have easily gone longer, but they made the most out of the time they were given. They developed some great chemistry over the course of the contest and pulled out some cool spots. Of everyone in contention for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship at the moment, Storm seems like the most logical choice to face Jeff Hardy at Lockdown.

Entertaining match between World Tag Team Champions Bobby Roode and Austin Aries. Obviously, since both guys are heels at the moment, that aspect certainly hindered the overall action. However, I enjoyed their heel antics against one another and combined great wrestling with harmless comedy. The double count-out finish makes sense since it furthers their feud with Hernandez and Chavo Guerrero, but I still question putting the newly crowned World Tag Team Champions against one another just one week after capturing the titles together.

Fine ending segment with Hulk Hogan, Sting and Bully Ray fending off Aces & 8s. Hogan's promo was kept brief and the involvement of Sting and Ray helped hype the Lethal Lockdown match next month. Once again, I don't think it was a smart idea to have Aces & 8s look weak by backing off, but I maintain hope that TNA has a bigger picture in mind for the feared faction come Lockdown.

Overall, a good show that featured some enjoyable moments and logical booking. With TNA reducing their number of pay-per-views per year to only four and Lockdown being a month away, it was good to see the build for the event kick off on this edition of Impact Wrestling. Similar to last week and the week before, the England crowd once again made for an excellent environment.