9-5-13 Impact results and thoughts

Coverage and thoughts on the September 5, 2013 episode of Impact The show kicks off with a recap of what happened last Thursday. Then we get comments from the BFG Series guys about tonight’s “gauntlet”. The actual show starts with Aces & 8s coming to the ring. Bully Ray wants to start off by telling us that the Aces & 8s are in total control. They’re the best bunch of brothers a president could have. Without these guys he’d be nothing. They watch his back & they hang together. Last week might’ve been a bit harsh but that’s the past. Then he hugs all his guys. The fans chant you suck at Tito. Ray tells him that they envy him & that they aren’t as tough as Tito is. Anderson is the best VP a guy could ask for. He’s got more love for Anderson than for Devon. Then he says that tonight Knox will face Chris Sabin, Wes Briscoe & Garrett Bischoff will face the tag champs Gunner & James Storm & Anderson will take care of business in the gauntlet (rumble) match. Ray has Hulk in checkmate & accepts the challenge from Sting. He will beat Sting just like he did at Slammiversary. He tells Knox to stay in the ring as he & Brooke will watch him destroy Sabin. Out comes Chris Sabin. This was a solid opening promo. Ray’s always good on the mic. Chris Sabin vs. Knox. Knox wins by DQ. Knox distracted the referee & Ray tosses the hammer into the ring. Sabin kicks Knox to get a hold of the hammer & he hits Knox with it & of course the referee sees this & calls for the bell. WINNER BY DQ – KNOX. The match was solid but the finish was predictable. Backstage we see Chris Sabin & Velvet Sky. She tries to calm him but he flips because of the hammer being brought into the ring. She says he doesn’t need the hammer. Sabin didn’t bring the hammer into the ring. He only used it against him because he brought it in there. Velvet still tries to calm hi but he’s still steam. He says this is crap & storms off. Then Velvet cries a bit & asks herself what just happened. This was lame. Why are they bringing the real life relationship into this storyline? They’ve always done this in wrestling & it almost always flops. Mickie James comes to the ring. Not only is Cleveland the home of 1 of the last Impacts of the summer but it’s also the home of the rock n roll hall of fame. Then she rambles about some “act” that she put together (who cares) She’s bummed out that she wasn’t invited to the VMA’s but who need that when she has the MJA (Mickie James Award. Brilliant). Then she says Milie is trying to come out of her shell. Mickie knows how hard it is to be a massive star in the music world & the greatest Knockouts Champion of the century. She says more but then out comes ODB. ODB can’t believe Mickie’s talking about Milie Cyrus (Neither can I). ODB tells Mickie she needs to worry about her taking that title. Mickie doesn’t think so. Mickie’s a star & ODB isn’t. Then ODB turns her back & Mickie hits her with the trophy. Then they go at it for a bit. ODB gets the upper hand. ODB holds up the belt. Mickie snatches it & gets in her face. Then she rips Mickie’s shirt off but of course Mickie has another underneath. ODB says Mickie will never be rock n roll & won’t be Knockouts champ for much longer. This was a solid segment. Mickie is good at playing the cocky, delusional heel & ODB is ODB. Backstage JB talks about the BFG Series gauntlet. Then Hernandez & Jay Bradley come in. Jay might not have a lot to gain but he isn’t opposed to being business partners with Hernandez. This wasn’t much. Backstage we see Aces & 8s eating at catering or somewhere. Who cares? This was meaningless. They show Sting arriving from earlier in the day (I’m sick of these “Earlier Today” clips). Hernandez & Jay Bradley come out to start the “Gauntlet.” Before that starts Bradley says there’s a certain group that’s thrown a lot of money his way. All he has to do with Hernandez’ help is to eliminate someone in the match. Hernandez punches him. Match starts. 12 Man BFG Series “Gauntlet”. AJ Styles wins for 20 more points. Since AJ won he finishes in first place in the series. This was good. I usually enjoy these kinda matches. ENTRANCE SEQUANCE – 1. Hernandez 2. Jay Bradley 3. Joseph Park 4. Ken Anderson 5. Samoa Joe 6. AJ Styles 7. Frankie Kazarian 8. Christopher Daniels 9. Jeff Hardy 10. Bobby Roode 11. Austin Aries 12. Magnus ELIMINATION SEQUANCE – 1. AJ eliminates Park before number 7 2. Joe eliminates Anderson before number 8 3. Daniels & Kazarian eliminate Hernandez before number 9 4. AJ eliminates Bradley before number 11 5. Daniels (with assistance from Kazarian & Roode) eliminates Joe 6. Roode eliminates Jeff 7. AJ eliminates Kazarian 8. Daniels eliminates Magnus 9. AJ eliminates Aries 10. AJ eliminates Roode 11. AJ eliminates Daniels The final 4 in the BFG Series are now AJ Styles, Magnus, Austin Aries & Bobby Roode. Backstage Ray is so disgusted he can’t look at Anderson’s face. All he had to do was win his match. Knox won his. He’s sure Wes & Garrett will win their match. What has Anderson done for the club? Anderson says he was in there & fought for the club or something like that. Ray says he kicked out his own brother Devon. What makes Anderson think Ray won’t kick him out too? Ray tells Anderson not to disappoint him again. I think we all know that Anderson is gonna turn face. AJ Styles says he was out of the top 4 & now is in the lead. He gets to pick his opponent for No Surrender. He will win the BFG Series & beat Ray for the world title. Backstage we see Sting & Rampage. Sting says this isn’t about world titles for him. Tonight he owes Ray a thank you because Sting realized he needed back up. Sting has killers for a family. Sting’s confident he can take Ray out because MEM has his back & Sting has been on a rampage for a lot of years. Gunner & James Storm come out for their match & Wes & Garrett attack them from behind. They go at it on the outside for a bit. TNA World Tag Team Champions Gunner & James Storm vs. Wes Briscoe & Garrett Bischoff. Wes & Garrett win when Garrett pins Gunner after hitting him in the back of the head with a chain. This was a solid match. Magnus, Austin Aries & Bobby Roode come to the ring. Break time. Back from break & JB is in the ring. He plugs the finals of the BFG Series. He introduces the 3 guys who are in the ring & then brings out AJ Styles. JB says AJ is the points leader so he can pick his opponent for next week. Who will it be? AJ says decision 3 times. Then he gets in Roode’s face. Then he looks at Aries. AJ says Aries is the only guy that beat him the BFG Series, so AJ picks him. Aries says he’s not big on making predictions & doesn’t like making promises he can’t keep, but he can promise that the winners will be the fans. Aries wishes AJ good luck. Then Roode gets the mic. He says there’s a reason why he teamed up with Daniels & Kazarian. To get in the final 4. As far as Roode’s concerned he got the weakest link. Magnus might have beaten him but next week is a different day. He will beat Magnus & either AJ or Aries. Then he will win back the TNA World Title at BFG. Magnus says they each earned their points at each other’s expense. Unlike Daniels Magnus did it by himself. Daniels might have some new friends but Magnus has a family. Next week the playing field will be leveled. He will go through Roode next week, beat either AJ or Aries & win the TNA World Title at BFG. JB says that next week at “No Surrender” at will be AJ Styles vs. Austin Aries & Magnus vs. Bobby Roode. This was a good segment. All 4 guys were good on the mic here. That said I don’t get why they have this stip in the Bound for Glory series. Shouldn’t the guy with the most points in the series get the title match at Bound for Glory? Why bother with the points system if the guy who finishes first gets to pick his opponent in the semi final matches? Bully Ray, Tito Ortiz, Ken Anderson & Brooke Tessmacher come to the ring. Then Sting comes out. Ray says this is a non title match because Sting lost to him at Slammiversary & can never have a world title match again. Screw Sting & his best friend Hulk Hogan. Then Hulk Hogan comes out. He says he runs the show & Ray has been taking things from his family for awhile so now it’s time for Hulk to return the favor. Hulk has Tito sent to the back but he lets Anderson stay at ringside for some reason. Ray says Hulk can’t just come out here & pull that. Hulk says if Ray didn’t like that he won’t like this. Hulk says that this will be a No DQ match. Sting vs. TNA World Champion Bully Ray. Sting wins by submission. Sting hits Ray with a chair a number of times at 1 point. Then Ray takes apart the canvas just like he did at Slammiversary. Then Sting gets Ray in the Scorpion death lock. Then the rest of Aces & 8s come in but out come MEM to even the odds. Of course this leads to an MEM-Aces & 8s brawl. A little later Sting gets Ray in the scorpion a second time. Anderson makes like he’s gonna hand Ray the hammer but he tosses it away & Ray taps out. WINNER – STING. Afterwards Anderson gets in the ring. He gets in Ray’s face saying Ray couldn’t do it on his own. Then he asks Ray if he knows who he is. He’s the guy who will face Ray next week for the world title. He’s Ray’s worst nightmare & the next world champion. His name is Mr. ANDERSON! ANDERSON! Anderson holds up the title, throws it back to Ray & leaves. Ray sits in the ring all beaten & Brooke is by Ray’s side. This ends the show. I actually thought this wasn’t that bad. The match was solid & I thought Anderson was pretty decent here with his face turn. I thought this was a solid show overall. The opening segment with Aces & 8s was decent. Ray was good on the mic as usual. The Sting-Ray match was decent too & I was ok with Anderson’s face turn promo. I enjoyed the “gauntlet” match too & I thought the BFG Series final 4 segment was also decent. I don’t get why the guy with the most points doesn’t get the title match though. The tag match was also decent. Chris Sabin & Knox had a solid match too but I wasn’t a fan of the Chris Sabin-Velvet Sky backstage segment. The ODB-Mickie James segment was solid too. The Sting-Rampage Jackson backstage bit was pointless but thankfully it was short. I wasn’t really into Jay Bradley offering Hernandez to help him eliminate 1 guy in the “gauntlet.” This was a “bottom 2 guys in the series” angle but it didn’t really make sense. For the most part though I thought this was a decent to solid show this week.