Self Loathing by Evelyn Astegno from fineartamerica.com

– I can’t believe how mind numbingly bad the opening two segments are for Impact Wrestling. MVP was walking backstage with Bobby Lashley and Kenny King. They ran into Kazarian, who was talking to Chris. It is Wrestling 101 to take out a leaving wrestler. Normally it helps to get someone over. The problem in this instance is that Kazarian was last a heel so another heel beating him up doesn’t get them over. To make matters worse, they barely beat him up. If you’re going to send someone on their way, make it count. Kick his ass from pillar to post.

– MVP when finally in the ring tried to explain away plot holes that are large enough for rabbits are living in some of them. It was made quite obvious that they were back tracking to make this angle sound. Nothing made that statement more than Kenny King grabbing the mic and saying that his problems with MVP & Lashley were all faked. Going back to the Wrestling 101 handbook, I see that you need to have a reason to believe that the opposite may be true to say you hood winked someone. MVP, King & Lashley never afforded us that opportunity. I may not like Stephanie McMahon’s execution sometimes, but at least she’s saying one thing “Kane! No! Stop!” and clearly unleashing him at the same time. If you’re going to take your champion queue’s from the WWE, please pay attention to this detail in story telling.

– At least the Wolves, Davey Richards & Eddie Edwards, showed up. They were pissed about not being in on the plan. That makes complete sense. The problem though is that it also points out an obvious flaw in the plan. If MVP wanted to reign over TNA with Kenny King & Bobby Lashley, why didn’t he just hire them instead of the Wolves? Lashley came back as a baby face so he’d be great to fight against the “evil” Dixie Carter. Kenny King got reset with vignettes of him spending money all over Las Vegas acting like a baller that was supposed to get under people’s skin. Easy solution, right? Make the vignette’s portray King as a baby face, which I believe he was before whatever caused his absence and recasting. Then you have three baby faces booting the “evil” Dixie only to they themselves turn out to be corrupt. Instead the Wolves have to come out to back track to try and make this angle appear to work.

– I was thinking it during the beat down of Davey Richards & Eddie Edwards that either Eric Young or Austin Aries should have come out to save them. We would have a team of three baby faces against three heels. Instead, Eric Young is shown steaming mad coming to the ring after the damage is done. He comes out to grouse the very next segment. Why did your top baby face just leave two guys hanging who have a beef with the very same person he does? Austin Aries has also made clear since returning that he called out MVP early on and using this turn as proof that he was correct. Aries comes out to save EY which was nice but also late. His buddies from ROH were left hanging in the earlier segment too. Were you late to work? You’re a both bums Young & Aries.

– I was surprised that Eddie Edwards didn’t return during the beat down of Aries & Young. He just had his ass kicked by them and his partner was sent to the hospital. He showed back up later and issued an open challenge. We knew Kenny King was accepting because MVP already had a match and Lashley had one scheduled. It was smart money to have King win the brawl, even if I could have done without some of Edwards’ offense. It should have been a straight beat down because of his earlier damage.

– Dixie Carter has a problem with MVP because of the way he has acted the last couple of weeks. That makes sense because MVP could have just worked with her and become champion instead of Magnus. Instead, he boots her from power for some gain, which I would call being the Direction of Wrestling Operations. I’m not sure when MVP came in so this idea may not have worked. But it sure does seem like TNA is pushing Magnus towards being a baby face again since he continues to refuse being extra brutal for Bram.

– This is all that I’m going to mention the terrible segments with the dumbest heel ever James Storm and Ken “I think I’m hilarious” Anderson.

– The Samuel Shaw and Gunner segments told a decent story. Gunner helped out a buddy so thinks he can help out Shaw. Gunner didn’t deserve the push that he was getting so them putting him in a cooling off period doesn’t bother me. I know TNA would have to do something to change up his stalker persona but why are you turning him face? Just have him dial down his attention on women in general. Have him focus his rage on his next opponent. With all of these other guys flipping sides, there’s not reason to flip yet another character. You’re just moving pawns across a table. It doesn’t change the feuds much.

– Somehow, TNA ends on the right foot when Bobby Lashley pinned Eric Young with help from MVP, Kenny King and an intimidated referee. On top of that, they had the heel faction beat down Austin Aries who had come out for the save. You may have needed to do some writing gymnastics to make this angle “work” but they ended on a high note. – Kevin