TNA Impact Wrestling Review - November 12, 2014

Austin Aries takes flight against Lashley.

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

James Storm and Abyss def. The Wolves to Win the TNA World Tag Team Championships

While I found the whole Storm manipulating Davey Richards angle to be slightly intriguing, it was flawed from the get-go because fans had no reason to believe that The Wolves were splitting up. I had completely forgotten about Storm's Feast or Fired briefcase, so that came as a shocker when he cashed it in. However, Abyss joining the group came right out of left field. Then again, it hardly matters since next week's episode will be the last through the end of the year.


Taryn Terrell def. Madison Rayne

Both Rayne and Terrell are good workers, but this feud between them hasn't been going on long enough for this match to have much meaning. It was a good match and Rayne played up her heel tendencies well, but Terrell's win felt premature since this rivalry started all of two weeks ago. That said, I look forward the Triple Threat match for the Knockouts Championship next week.

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Samoa Joe vacates his X-Division Championship.

Kenny King Called Out Chris Melendez

King has always been great on the mic, but you don't take notice of talented he is on the stick or even in the ring for that matter when he's being overshadowed by Lashley and MVP. I understand why Melendez and Mr. Anderson are being paired together and this was a decent segment, but this apparent feud between Melendez and King doesn't excit me whatsoever.


The Menagerie def. DJ Z, Jesse Godderz and The Beautiful People in an Elimination Match

Talk about a match I couldn't care less about. First off, I had zero idea this feud was still going. Secondly, why is it even happening? And finally, who am I supposed to be cheering for? The BroMans and The Beautiful People are obviously obnoxious, but The Menagerie has done nothing to establish themselves as babyfaces. The match felt more like filler than anything else because in the end it didn't serve a purpose.


Eric Young def. Tyrus

The match was fine for what it was, bu Tyrus debuted all of one month ago and he is already losing cleanly. Why? WWE never utilized him correctly as Brodus Clay, and it boggles my mind that TNA is repeating their mistakes. Young had nothing to lose, so why not give Tyrus the win? At the very least, they could have had Lashley attack Young and Rockstar Spud during the match and instead of after it to protect Tyrus in defeat.


Samoa Joe Relinquished the X-Division Championship

Joe showed a nice range of emotion and intensity when giving up his X-Division title due to "injury" even though the live crowd probably had no idea what he was talking about. Joe has done well as X-Division champion the last few months and I question the move to strip him of the title. To those that say it was because of the injury, he wrestled at Bound for Glory two weeks after this show was taped. So, what was the point?


Gunner def. Samuel Shaw in a No Disqualification Match

As someone who hasn't been interested in this storyline at all, I was entertained by this bout more than I thought I was going to be. It wasn't an instant classic or anything, but both guys put forth a strong effort and took some wild bumps. However, as I've said countless times as of late, we've seen so many hardcore matches in TNA over the last five months that it's ridiculous they're still happening on a weekly basis. Does Gunner winning the feud is already over?


Lashley vs. Austin Aries Ended in a Double Count-out

It's odd how inconsistently Aries has been booked over the last year. He's gone from headlining pay-per-views to not being on TV at all to contending to the world title to losing random matches. However, I can't complain about this match because Lashley and Aries have always worked well together and this was no exception.


Overall Show

TNA has put on a solid strong of shows recently, and although this was a decent edition of Impact Wrestling on the whole, they wasn't much about it that peaked my interest. The main event and even the no disqualification match were well wrestled, but everything else was either mediocre or forgettable. With one show left in this set of tapings, it's hard to get invested in any of the current storylines since TNA will cease airing original content until the end of the year.

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