Teasing a Fourtune reunion, Bully Beatdown-Impact Edition, and the Return of 3D - There is so much win in this segment that I can't do it all justice. James Storm gives AJ Styles credit for developing another submission hold and spends the early portion of this segment appealing to AJ in the crowd and calling out Aces & Eights. Bad Influence talks about reviving Fourtune (which I find odd, given that the stable had next to no real success and came during TNA's crap period) and humor ensues. The class of the promo, though, is when Aces & Eights comes in, beats down Storm, beats down Joseph Park (who intervenes), and then Ray and Devon hit the first 3D through a table in two years. SO much awesome here.
The promo continues into the next segment and it's mostly Bully Ray calling out Hulk Hogan for later tonight. Ray on the microphone is always a good thing and this got me excited for the final segment. The two segments will get a 9/10 and a 8/10, respectively.
Hyping the title matches, specifically the Knockouts title - I get that they want to both keep people interested in the show and give everyone a breather after the long promo, but we have gotten pretty deep into the show without any action that was actually scheduled to happen. 3/10
Taryn Terrell d. Tara (aka Tiffany v. Victoria) - I just realized how small the knockouts division is. I feel like it should have around 10 women readily available, especially since Velvet is battling injuries and Madison is out for months with pregnancy. But anyway, this match was surprisingly good. Taryn has clearly been working on her game since leaving WWE, and having 6:30 with Tara to tell a story in a match only helped matters. A secondary feud for women. I LOVE IT! 2.25 stars for the match and 6/10 for the segment.
Rob Terry d. Jessie Godderz (w/ Robbie E) - There are some gimmicks I just know I'll never care about and just want to go away. Robbie E is one of them, and adding in Mr. Pectacular here isn't helping matters. The right guy went over, but this just sucked. 1.25 stars and 3.5/10.
Bad Influence influences Bobby Roode and MORE video packages - Bobby Roode is next to be recruited for the return of Fourtune and Austin Aries is NOT happy. I like the possibility of in-team tension but prefer Aries and Roode both joining to create a far more emotionally unstable Fourtune. Oh, and more talk about stuff we already saw a few weeks ago. Kudos to TNA for trying to be new-viewer-accessible, but I'm not a new viewer so this is just redundant. I guess the whole thing rounds out to a 5/10.
World Tag Team Championship match - Chavo and Hernandez retain against Roode and Aries - This match felt longer than the 9 minutes it got, but I think that's good in this case because it was due to Spike not breaking the match up with a commercial. Roode and Aries' tension after the Fourtune recruitment was done well and Bad Influence is MONEY on guest commentary. My only issue is how Bad Influence ran interference because it wasn't necessary to tell the story, but overall a fun segment. I suppose the match gets 2.75 stars and the segment is 7/10.
Matt Morgan has a SOLUTION - Morgan has been randomly on the sidelines for a while now, but this segment really played that off well. He is established to be a legitimate threat and Hogan puts over that he no doubt could be the solution. BUT Hogan wants him to be honorable about it and not be a hired hand, like Morgan wants to be. I don't see the issue as that big because Morgan fighting Bully Ray SHOULD be for the title anyway, but Hogan at least has an argument in place. I really hope TNA has a good payoff here because Morgan's storyline just got way more compelling. 7.6/10
World Women's (Knockouts) Championship - Velvet Sky retains against Mickie James - Well... that was anti-climactic. The match was really well-hyped. The crowd was INSANELY into it. Mickie and Velvet told a good in-ring story and for the most part sold her knee injury well. The match got more time than any other match on the card and kept me interested the whole way through. And then it just kind of... ended. I mean, come on, a roll-up pin again? This felt like a good time to turn Mickie James heel by going too hard on Velvet's knee. That may still be the story, but if Velvet needed to go over here, couldn't it have been a move that Taryn Terrell didn't just use to finish her match earlier? The match was pushing for 3.25 stars for a while, but it'll have to settle for 2.75 stars and a 7/10.
Hogan and Ray confront each other; Sting kills a segment - This promo was actually pretty damn impressive for a while. Both men bounced off each other and I was really getting hyped. Unfortunately, once Aces & Eights came out, things went a little screwy. The 50-something-year-old Sting comes in and LEVELS ALL OF ACES & EIGHTS WITH A BASEBALL BAT. It would be one thing if he took most of them out in the dark, but once they all saw him? Is he Mr. Miyagi? What the hell. I will admit, it was a nice moment live and the crowd really got me to mark out for a few moments, but this is kind of nonsensical thinking back. This would have gotten another 9, but I have to dock points here and give it a 7.5/10.
Overall: I really had fun with this episode. Yeah, there was a lot of disappointment in the payoff, but a lot of good setup has been done. I can only hope the crowd stayed into the taped episode this week. The whole show averaged out to a 6.4/10.
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