After TNA Wrestling decided to move to a four-pay-per-view-a-year system, these kind of Sundays have been far and few between. You know what I mean, the Sundays where you know you are going to get long, quality (hopefully), uninterrupted matches that you rarely see on television. Pay-Per-Views at one point in time were something TNA did tremendously well. And quality matches were the very reason.
Despite Sacrifice feeling like a sudden throw-in among this system, the excitement for such wrestling and the pay-offs to certain feuds was there. Well, at least for me. Sacrifice wasn't an unbelievable show, but it was good. Above average. A bit more than acceptable. Nothing overly terrible, but nothing was ground shaking - well, except for James Storm vs. Gunner. More on that in a bit.
- I know it's rather small, and sort of nitpicking, but the TNA product visually looks AND feels differently when blue isn't the primary color. I'm sure there is some psychoanalytics behind that, but it's just an observation. The red gives off a different vibe. The black ropes from #OldSchool pay-per-view is a personal favorite.
- I'm not sure why people gripe about the BroMans. They're terrific in my opinion. You just want to see them get whooped. Isn't that their jobs as heels? Regardless, this was a fun opener with The Wolves finally capturing the Tag Team Championships with some fast pace action.
- I usually am not one to gripe about certain small details like this ( I know, this makes two already!), but it's hard not to notice the lack of enthusiasm in the product shown by Mike Tenay tonight. Not sure what was going on there, or maybe it was just an off night (hey, we all have them), but his subtle call of The Wolves Championship win and the missing of several finishing maneuvers was very apparent tonight. At one point, Gunner hit three "Hanger 18s", his patent finisher, and Tenay (nor Taz) picked up on it until later. Just very noticeable tonight, which isn't a good thing.
- I actually liked the "committed" match. I know, I know...however, it felt like the 90's again, and sometimes Wrestling doesn't have to be so serious. Those quirky gimmick matches are good once in a while. However, most importantly, with Shaw off to the "funny farm", you have to be intrigued by where he goes from here, right?
Giving credit to something I just ripped Tenay and Taz for, they did put over Shaw's chock hold grip. I like how it's been built as something Shaw has perfected, and to which no one has been able to escape as of yet. Nice touch.
- Speaking of nice touch, kudos to TNA for some awesome video packages tonight. All of them were fantastic!
- The tag team match with EC3/Spud vs. Willow/Angle was eh. I'm not sure, why, but it was OK. I still feel like there is more, as good as it is, that we can see from the Willow character.
- FINALLY! I am now intrigued by Knux and Rebel (?), especially after weeks of the back-story playing out. A story I was wondering how they would tie it back into wrestling. I'm way more interested in Knux now than his stint in the Aces and Eights. Speaking of, did you also hope the other "two" weren't Brisco and Bischoff?
Bringing the carnys to Impact could be very interesting and kind of unique. Although, how long before the very-reaching "copying the Wyatt Family" dialogue begins? Oh, wrestling fans.
- I REALLY liked Sanada vs. Tigre Uno. Despite a rather annoying crowd through this one, these two had a very fun, and very old-school X-Division match. Tonight proved that what the X-Division needs more than anything is time and quality matches. If anything, the short blase' matches on Impact does more harm to the division than anything else.
- Which brings me to the match of the night. If the year ended tomorrow, Gunner and Storm are the company's co-MVPs (you know like, most valuable player. Not the wrestler, or his silly managing principles). Just another awesome match between these two which not only made Storm look great, but gave Gunner another quality win.
From the blood, the superplex by Gunner to Storm on the guardrail propped-up by chairs (That had to hurt a lot, like A LOT!), and the crazy, intense ending to the match, it was probably my favorite TNA match of the year - so far. Kudos to both men.
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| No shame in tonight James, I'd quit too! (Courtesy: Impactwrestling.com) |
By the way, after Gunner's latest Impact365 video, shouldn't "blood speaks" be his catchphrase. Heck, I'd by that T-Shirt.
- The Beautiful People are so much better than Angelina Love and Velvet Sky being separate entities. They just are. TBP is one of TNA's home run gimmicks, and is one that should be exploited as much as possible. I'm actually really curious of where the whole Brittany following Rayne thing will go? Does she join TBP? Turn on Rayne? Or eventually earn Rayne's respect?
- Bully Ray is Awesome. Bobby Roode is Awesome. Yet, seeing Dixie dressed as a dude, who could pass for Lil' Spike Dudley on a whim's glance, toss Bully Ray off the top turnbuckle through a table on the outside floor was THAT moment for me.
Brooke? #TNASacrifice
— Dome Pondering (@DomePondering) April 28, 2014
lol Dixie? #TNASacrifice
— Dome Pondering (@DomePondering) April 28, 2014
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| Spike, is that you? (Courtesy: Impactwrestling.com) |
Everyone will gripe. Everyone will arm chair book and complain about the finish. In my opinion, it had me shocked, had me quickly guessing for a moment, and was actually pretty funny in my opinion. Also makes you wonder if we'll see Dixie go through a table at some point? Oh boy...
- Finally, let's just say what everyone was thinking heading into this match- can EY and Magnus be a main event? A legit main event? In my eyes, they didn't disappoint. It was actually very good. I liked the kick out of the piledriver by Magnus. I especially liked how EY's top-rope elbow was the finisher, as he performs a pretty sweet version of it.
All in all, EY secures the clean win. Should be interesting to see where everything goes from here regarding Young, and especially, Magnus.
Again, a solid pay-per-view. I enjoyed it. If you didn't see it, go out of your way to see Gunner vs. James Storm. Tremendous stuff.