TNA Impact Wrestling Review - May 22, 2014

Bobby Lashley pounds away on Eric Young.

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

TNA World Tag Team Champions The Wolves Confronted MVP

MVP, Kenny King and Bobby Lashley did their best in explaining their actions from last week, but the logic gaps are still very much apparent. Lashley was fine on the mic and while I'm a fan of King, he acted extremely annoying here for one reason or another. I appreciate the attempt in making sense out of all of this, but I'm not buying it in the slightest. The Wolves coming out was logical given their association with MVP and if nothing else, the attack on The Wolves, especially Lashley spearing Davey Richards off the stage, was a strong visual.


TNA World Heavyweight Champion Eric Young Called Out MVP, Kenny King and Bobby Lashley

This would have been a solid segment at the halfway point of the show, not immediately following another talking segment. With that in mind, this felt like it dragged and completely pointless. Young's promo was good, but it all seemed unnecessary. Didn't Austin Aries turn heel only a few months ago? And now he's face again? I realize he's had problems with MVP all along, but so did Lashley and King and they're aligned with him now. Seriously, what is wrong with this company?

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Bully Ray comes face-to-face with MVP.

Knockouts Champion Angelina Love def. Brittany in an Open Challenge Match

The main difference between WWE's Divas division and TNA's Knockouts division is that the Knockouts have stories to work with. Are their stories very good? No, not really, but at least they have actual feuds. One thing that WWE has over TNA, however, is that they don't degrade their women. Is every referee for the Knockouts a pervert? Earl Hebner had the hots for Madison Rayne only a few years ago and now this bald referee (Slick something) is peeping on Velvet Sky. I mean, I know I would too, but this is just stupid. It didn't do anything for Brittany and was simply filler for the feud between Love and Gail Kim.


Austin Aries def. MVP by Disqualification

I enjoyed their first encounter a few weeks back, but I was hoping for it to be longer. The rematch on this show allowed them to right that wrong, but this match ended up being even worse somehow. Not only did last three minutes, but it ended via disqualification after the predictable interference from MVP's goons. It's already been established that MVP can beat Aries clean, so what purpose was this supposed to serve? I'm glad Aries is being utilized for once, but it's being gone about the wrong way.


Dixie Carter Confronted MVP

The fact Dixie is still on TNA TV despite losing at Lockdown angers me to no end. MVP is a heel authority figure anyway so there is no point to her being around anymore. She questioned MVP's antics and even MVP was curious as to why she and Bully Ray were there despite being "banned" from the Impact Zone, but you know something? Nothing was ever accomplished or answered! It was literally one giant waste of time. I couldn't care less about Ray's feud with Dixie or Young's feud with MVP or... well, anything in TNA right now.


Willow def. Magnus in a Falls Count Anywhere Match

This whole angle involving Willow, Magnus and Bram has been incredibly bizarre. The matches have been decent and even this one was pretty good. No Falls Count Anywhere match should be shorter than five minutes, but at least they made the most of the time they were allotted. I have zero idea when Bram didn't interfere on Magnus' behalf when he was on the verge of losing since there were no disqualifications, but I guess all of Magnus' recent losses are building to him either turning face or adapting an edgier side. I'm content with either scenario but they need to hurry up and get to that point.


Eddie Edwards Brawled with Kenny King

Edwards looked like a valiant babyface for calling out the faction that took out his tag team partner earlier in the evening, but why couldn't this have been a backstage segment or something? There was already so much talking on this show that I had almost instantly tuned out when I saw a mic in Edwards' hands. The brawl was well worked and made up for King looking goofy in the opening segment, but it further overexposed King and the rest of his faction (who oddly didn't come out to help him at any point).


Bobby Lashley def. TNA World Heavyweight Champion Eric Young (Non-title)

For being as limited as he is in the ring, this was a pretty good matchup from Lashley and probably the best he's had in TNA since debuting in March. A lot of that can be credited to Young who carried him to a passable bout that was surprisingly given good time. The interference not being called by the referee was foreshadowed with the earlier backstage segment, but it gives me fear that we'll be seeing more silliness such as that in coming weeks. Just seeing the trio of Lashley, MVP and King united once again to close the show made me roll my eyes since they had made what felt like a dozen appearances on this show already. They weren't even established as a strong faction, just a completely random gathering of three individuals who just so happen to be African-American.


Overall Show

TNA has been pretty bad in general as of late, but I don't think anything will top this as the single worst episode of Impact Wrestling in recent memory if not ever. From the overexposure of the new heel faction to the small amount of actual wrestling to the terrible storytelling and lack of excitement around the product, TNA is in a very poor place right now. They have seemingly digressed in the last few months, which I thought was impossible. They can still make a comeback, but it will be very difficult, especially with the next few shows being much of the same. I'm not at all looking forward to Slammiversary and am just praying that it only gets better from here, though I'm not getting my hopes up. If you wish any ill will on anyone, force them to watch this show. It doesn't get any worse than this, folks... or at least I hope not. 

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