The First Thursday Night Back: TNA Impact! Review and Opinions

TNA Wrestling returned to Thursday nights with its flagship show, Impact!   However, despite a ratings increase for the third straight week, TNA scored a 0.93 (0.9) with 1.3 (1,275,000) million viewers.

I will be providing my opinions on the show and ratings.

I felt that the show began with a strong start with Eric Bischoff, Rob Van Dam, AJ Styles, and Jeff Hardy setting up a “dream match” between the three of them—RVD, Styles, and Hardy. 

The first match between Tara and Taylor Wilde was short one, lasting just two minutes.  I do like what TNA is doing with Tara, turning her into a vicious heel. 

We then cut to Chelsea crying backstage and Christy Hemme providing feedback on the situation.  I felt that this storyline is to develop a rivalry with Abyss and Desmond Wolfe.  Abyss was wrongly accused.  Do I personally like what they are trying to accomplish?  I wasn’t very interested.

The second match was between Douglas Williams and Brian Kendrick, in which was another short confrontation.  

Matt Morgan, who calls himself “Matt & Morgan” humiliated The Young Bucks.  After an attack from Samoa Joe which knocked out Morgan, all the members of The Band (Kevin Nash, Scott Hall and Eric Young) came out to ringside, revealing in their briefcase a tag team title shot (which Nash won in the Feast or Fired match -ED.).

Nash pinned Morgan to earn the titles.  Hall and Nash have held many titles together and have a history, but I don’t believe it will last very long.

We then moved on to a four tag team match up between Team 3D, The Motor City Machine Guns, Ink Inc., and Beer Money, which was won by Ink Inc.

Orlando Jordan, who is involved in a controversial storyline with Rob Terry, faced Tomko.  If Tomko won, Jordan would leave TNA.  The fight looked a little bit like MMA style but wasn’t exactly enjoyable to watch.  For those wondering, Jordan won the matchup. 

After being ordered to perform again by Bischoff, Tara beat Sarita and continued her vicious heel turn when she attacked Sarita after Tara's second victory of the night.

Off we go to the main event, which was Rob Van Dam vs. Jeff Hardy vs. A.J. Styles.  It wasn’t too bad of a matchup but a bit messy and short for a main event. 

We then see Mr. Anderson interfere, which would set up a confrontation with Hardy.  The final piece of wrestling for the night was Hardy flip-diving on Anderson, driving him through the table.  I thought that was a great way to end things and straighten their feud. 

The actual closing of the show was a video recorded on a cell phone showing Wolfe and Chelsea rehearsing their false report on Abyss and a video package promoting Sacrifice. 

Overall, I felt Impact! was a bit weak this week.  The storyline involving Abyss and Chelsea wasn’t very interesting, nor should it be belonged in pro wrestling. 

Other thoughts of the show: messy matches; could have used more promotion on Sting-Jeff Jarrett, maybe a confrontation in the ring; Hall and Nash as Tag Team Champions?  I’ve always enjoyed watching them since the day of WCW but this decision is a little questionable.

Rating wise, TNA must start fresh again with building an audience.  I wasn’t surprised at the 0.93 score because of the move back to Thursdays.

However, I believe that it wasn’t a bad start in building up an audience and I expect more jumps in the ratings, close to the 1.3s they were doing.