TNA Impact Wrestling Review - January 9, 2014

Magnus reigns supreme over AJ Styles.

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Dixie Carter Called Out TNA World Heavyweight Champion AJ Styles

I don't know how smart it was of TNA to put two of their weaker mic workers in the same segment together, but Styles delivered one of his best promos to date. Carter was mediocre per usual (although she was good at times), but Styles saved the segment with his strong verbal exchange with Magnus, who also performed well on the mic. This was solid hype for the champion vs. champion match for later in the evening.


World Tag Team Champions The Bro-Mans def. Joseph Park and Eric Young (Non-title)

Has the tag team division ever been in worse shape than it is right now? The Bro-Mans have done next to nothing since winning the titles at Bound For Glory in October. They are a joke of an act, and competing in matches against fellow comedy tag teams such as Park and Young won't help their credibility. DJ Zema is an outrageously annoying act that garners go-away heat as opposed to actual heat. Is the Park/Abyss storyline still going on or was that randomly dropped again? It was business as usual for him, which was strange.

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Gunner and James Storm come face-to-face.

James Storm Confronted Gunner

It is still unclear as to who is the heel and who is the face in this feud, or if they are both still faces. Storm has come off more as a heel than Gunner has in recent weeks, though I think that would be the wrong move since he is more over. I am not exactly thrilled to see another Pole match next week, but at least it is another nice addition to the stacked Genesis card.


Samoa Joe vs. Ethan Carter III Ended in a No Contest

The match was decent for what it was, but it was way too short to really get a feel of how well they work together. There were two very obvious spots that constituted as a disqualification loss for EC3, yet the match was still thrown out as a "no contest" anyway. How is that supposed to make sense? I understand his attack on Joe was done in order ensure he wouldn't interfere in the night's main event, but a win over Joe would have been huge for EC3 going into his match with Sting next week.


Kurt Angle def. Bad Influence in a Handicap Steel Cage Match

All three competitors are great in the ring and worked hard to put on an entertaining match. It had several cool spots and was well wrestled. It wasn't your classic cage match (and probably not even worthy of being in the cage), but I realize it was done to build toward the Steel Cage match between Angle and Bobby Roode next week. Speaking of Roode, he cut a great pre-match promo and left fans wanting to see Angle get his hands on him.


Bobby Roode def. Sting in a Steel Cage Match

They worked a solid match, but it was nothing special. It is just so hard to get excited about a Sting match these days when he wrestles with a shirt on. His matches aren't what they used to be, so why couldn't he have jobbed clean? The interference from EC3 and Rockstar Spud and trying to aid Roode behind the referee's back was asinine considering it was a no disqualification match to begin with.


Magnus def. AJ Styles in a No Disqualification Match to Unify the TNA World Heavyweight Championships

After their great match at last September's No Surrender event, I was expecting much of the same from Styles and Magnus on this show. I couldn't have any more wrong. This was the most horrendous match (from TNA or any company) I have seen in a long, long time. If that wasn't the definition of "overbooked", I don't know what is. It made sense from a storyline standpoint after all the faces were taken out earlier, but it was so poorly executed that it made for terrible television. Don't they realize that this is why people hate their company? It didn't even help Magnus, who now looks like the weakest champion in the world. I honestly do not blame Styles at all for leaving TNA after that atrocity of a match. He deserves much better than this.


Overall Show

Without a doubt, this was the worst episode of Impact Wrestling in recent memory. It wasn't even that it was a flat show. It was just bad. Very, very bad. It was a bad show to begin with before that terrible main event. Even the Bully Ray-Mr. Anderson segment was unbearable to watch to the point where it was actually quite comical. As a fan of TNA, it is sad to see that they have fallen this far, both creatively and financially. Am I predicting their demise? No. This was only one show and it could very well go back to being enjoyable next week, but this episode did nothing to make me optimistic about their future.

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