TNA Impact Wrestling Review - November 15, 2012

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Strange segment to kick off the show featuring James Storm and Bobby Roode. Storm's promo was very well done and made sense coming off his big win at Turning Point, but it all went downhill when Roode entered. Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge fan of Roode's and even a bigger fan of his feud with Storm, but his personal shots at Storm's daughter were weak. While Roode's tactics may make him a smart heel, Storm comes off as moronic for putting his number one contender spot on the line.

Nice match with Rob Van Dam defeating Kid Kash to retain his X-Division Championship. It was a fun first match and a good win for RVD, despite the fact that it was illogical that Kash got a shot at the gold after being off television for so long. The action didn't blow me away, but it was a nice little match for what it was worth.

---

Fine match with Jesse defeating Eric Young. I don't care for either guy, so I certainly didn't care for this match. However, the two made the best of it and provided something that wasn't horrendous and was actually better than expected. That being said, it wasn't long and was mostly meaningless.

Decent tag team match with Kurt Angle and Garrett Bischoff defeating Devon and another member of Aces and 8s. The action was fine what it was, but the finish was mind boggling. Why have Aces and 8 lose yet another match to Angle for no apparent reason? Garrett's involvement in this didn't help matters, but I hope he's revealed as a member of the stable soon so we'll be given a reason to boo him.

Good Knockouts Battle Royal that saw Mickie James become the new number one contender to the Knockouts Championship. The match featured a few returns and quite a bit of actual wrestling, which was nice to see. James is the perfect fit for the Knockouts title picture and it's great to see her back to being pushed. I was worried that the title would become a joke after being featured regularly in the comedy angle between Tara and ODB in the last month, so this was a step in the right direction.

Great promo featuring AJ Styles, Daniels and Kazarian. Styles isn't the greatest talker, but he was pretty solid here with his promo and really sold it through his facial expressions. It foreshadowed his inevitable heel turn, which is necessary to help reinvigorate his stale character. Daniels and Kazarian were also good here, as the history between all three guys over the course of 2012 made this segment logical. I'm sure the match between Styles and Daniels next week will be fantastic, but it's happened so many times by this point that I've just stopped caring.

Solid match with Bobby Roode defeating James Storm to become the new number one contender to the TNA World Heavyweight Championship. It wasn't as excellent as their past bouts, but it was still very good nonetheless. As good as the match was, the finish overshadowed it all. While Roode vs. Hardy for the TNA title makes sense, why not just book it like that from the beginning? Having Storm lose his contention in fluky fashion days after winning it makes absolutely no sense to me.

Overall, an average show that felt missable but not entirely terrible. The matches and promos were good as a whole, but the booking was all over the place. Nothing was bad at all, but nothing was all that exciting or enjoyable either. It's might've been the taped format of the show, but hopefully they bounce back going forward.