TNA Impact Wrestling Review - February 28, 2013

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Decent opening segment featuring Bully Ray, TNA World Heavyweight Champion Jeff Hardy and Bad Influence. The mic work from everyone involved, but Kaz and Daniels made the segment worth watching with their entertaining one-liners. Ray seemed way too over the top in his babyface role, but it seems that a heel turn could be in Ray's future come Lockdown, which I think could be the best thing for him at this point. This promo also set up the main event tag team match nicely.

Fine match with Velvet Sky defeating Tara to successfully retain the Knockouts Championship. Of course, Sky isn't the division's best in-ring worker, but Tara brought her to a good match. The focus was more on Gail Kim's commentary rather than the actual match, which I'm fine with since Kim has since been named the new number one contender to the title. Having Tara invoke her rematch clause at Lockdown would have made more sense, as I'm not sure why they're rushing into a Kim vs. Sky feud at this point.

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Nice match with World Tag Team Champion Austin Aries defeating Hernandez. Although the bout was a bit brief, it was fun while it lasted. The finish was well done in having Aries outsmart Hernandez to score the victory, which helps further their feud going into Lockdown.

Good match with Kenny King defeating Rob Van Dam to win the X-Division Champion. I liked the stipulation that King would have to leave the X-Division if he lost the match since it added much more intrigue to the contest, but why add that huge stipulation moments before the match? It should have been advertised ahead of time or at least gone down at the Lockdown event. Nonetheless, the match was nothing out of the ordinary since we've seen them do battle so many times in recent months. It's about time they took the title off RVD and put it on King, who can hopefully bring new life to the division as champion.

Great segment featuring the announcement of the two teams in the Lethal Lockdown match at Lockdown. Aces & 8s' team was typical, but I'm absolutely loving the team Sting assembled. Sting, Samoa Joe, James Storm, Magnus and Eric Young all have history with the stable (who doesn't?), so it makes sense. It's awesome to see Magnus get a significant spot on the team and I'm fine with Young returning given the fact he was taken out by Aces & 8s a few months back and there weren't many other options.

Impressive match with Ivelisse Valez defeating Lei'D Tapa in a Gut Check Challenge. I'm familiar with Valez from the latest season of WWE Tough Enough, so I'm ecstatic she was given another chance to shine in TNA after being released from WWE late last year. She and Tapa had an interesting clash of styles with both women playing their respective roles well. Valez scoring the victory via submission was a nice touch and I hope to see her win a TNA contract come next week's show.

Harmless segment involving Robbie E and Robbie T. With their inevitable split being teased in recent weeks, it came as no surprise when Robbie E turned on Robbie T. They haven't done much as of late anyway, but is it smart to break up two guys that no one cared about to begin with?

Solid match with TNA World Heavyweight Champion Jeff Hardy and Bully Ray defeating Bad Influence. The match was well wrestled, but the outcome was never in doubt. Regardless, it received great time and helped build towards the TNA title match at Lockdown. Kurt Angle targeting Aces & 8s backstage following the contest was oddly timed, but Angle pulling the mask off one of the members and not revealing who it is immediately will help build suspense going into next week's edition of Impact Wrestling.

Overall, a great show that featured enjoyable action and a number of solid segments. They successfully hyped the Lockdown pay-per-view next Sunday, which has the potential to be a pretty good event if booked correctly. The two hours went by quickly and had me looking forward to next week by the end of the show.