TNA Manchester Impact TV tapings - spoiler

Just got back from the double tapings of Impact and have to say it was a great double show to witness.

Ill get a full write up done in the morning but the main highlights were...

Aries and Roode are the new tag champs, Aries was getting huge chants all the time too for him. Chavo got 'Chavo sucks' chants most of the time. Hernandez is built like a s**thouse. Aries beat Chavo in a singles match earlier in show to set it up.

Wes Brisco and Garrett Bischoff finally were revealed in Aces & Eights, possibly the worst kept secret in wrestling, both were jeered with chants of 'You cant wrestle'

Hogan and Bully Ray made up, Bully Ray and Sting tagged together against DVon and DOC in a tables match, Bubba 'Hulked Up' for the win.

Samoa Joe v Daniels in a singles match, Joe got a huge pop and the 'Joe's gonna kill you' chant kept happening.

Robbie T turned face when Robbie E and Spud got into a fracas.

Angle v Mr Anderson in a cage match was the opener, couple of decent spots although Angle was a shadow of himself in honesty.

Joseph Parks v Rob E had a number of good moments, Parks is really over with the crowd and has great expressions.

Magnus got a great home pop when he interrupted Kazaniels, hurled both out the ring and then beat DVon.

Biggest pops:

Hogan as expected
Bully Ray
Magnus
Samoa Joe
Austin Aries
Blossom Twins

Biggest heat

Aces and Eights
Chris Daniels (with chants of 'where's your boyfriend?'
Chavo
Bobby Roode (when he spat at Hernandez)
Robbie E

Sound brilliant mate.

Can you imagine how good a feud between Kazaniels and Roode/ Aries would be?

So is that the result from two shows worth or just the first taping?

Surprised Chavo and Hernandez got heat to be honest they were majorly over in Glasgow. And Hernandez really is huge but really quite a good wrestler and did a load of great looking ariel moves. (I know Ariel is spelt wrong but I have man flu so bite me!)

Here's a write up from another site with my thoughts added in italics:

Before the below stuff happened Dixie came out and asked for the Blossom Twins to come out, they got a great reception and Dixie said they both could come to America as well to be signed up.

TNA taped the steel cage match from Manchester between Mr. Anderson and Kurt Angle first. Angle won a great match back and forth before a masked Aces and Eights member attacked angle and revealed himself to be Garett Biscoff. Wes Briscoe came for the save and turned himself revealing another Aces and Eights jacket.

The cage didn't really have a huge 'impact' in the match itself, used a couple of times for Anderson to attempt to escape from only to be dragged back (one for an Angle slam) Angle himself has really slowed down recently, Ive seen him in the flesh before and this was unfortunately a pale comparison, an Angle on half tank though is still a damn fine wrestler and the crowd loved him, Anderson got chants of 'you sold out' and then after the match finished a masked A&8s guy climbed into the cage whilst Brisco was there in support of Angle. Bischoff revealed himself (not in a smutty way) and then Briscoe attacked Angle from behind, both gave him a beating (and ignored their teammate Anderson until afterwards). Really solid opening


*Impact then taped their opening. Bad Influence dressed as Scotsmen in kilts and bragged about beating Jeff Hardy up but lost due to Hardys' face paint being toxic. They were ran off by Magnus (huge pop) who then challenged Devon as part of Open Fight Night. D.O.C and the former Mike Knox came down. Magnus threw all of them over the top rope and posed as Aces and Eights retreated.

To say the Magnus pop was huge was an understatement, it lifted the roof. Kazaniels have great understanding on how to work the crowd and IMO a World Title run however brief for Daniels is really deserved. Bit odd though he's number one contender yet gets thrown out of the ring by Magnus and then loses clean to Joe

*Earl Hebner came out next to huge heat. UK fans are huge Bret fans.

Yep I was chanting 'you screwed Bret' as well.


*Joseph Park came out to a huge pop for Open Fight Night and calls out .... but before he has chance to say who, Robbie E. interrupts. He rips the UK crowd before teasing a stare down with Robbie T, who seems offended. The match between Park and Robbie E was fun. The crowd was very involved. Parks won with a big splash! Fun match.

I really hope he doesn't back to Abyss too soon as this gimmick is really over at the moment, obviously though there will become a point where he cannot continue to be the trainee guy who gets lucky with moves, but his facial expressions are hilarious.

*Austin Aries out next, accompanied by Bobby Roode. There was huge pop for Aries and they had to rip the crowd for heat. He called out Chavo Guerrero with the stip that he beats him, then he and Roode get a tag title shot. Massive Austin Aries chants. It should be interesting to see how this is edited for the TV show. Aries wins to a huge pop.

Simply put Aries could have come out in a Liverpool FC top and they'd still chant his name. Everyone loved him and wrestling wise he really put on a show.

*Bully Ray and Brooke Hogan out next. Bully is over huge as a face. Big, big pop. Bully asks for his suspension to be lifted. He called Hulk Hogan family and said they have a common enemy. Bully called out Sting out to appeal to Hogan. Sting comes out to a massive pop. Huge respect for Sting. Sting calls Hogan out. Biggest pop of the night as the Hulkster comes down. Bully opens the ropes for Hogan. Sting asks Hogan to side with him and Bully against aces. Hogan says he did the right thing for Brooke walking her down the aisle and will do the right thing again and reinstates Bully. Hogan announces next week it's Aces and Eights vs. Sting and Bully Ray in a tables match.

The Hogan pop was weird, Ive never been a fan of neither him as a person nor as a wrestler yet when he stepped out onto the ramp you just feel the hair on your arm stand on end and somehow are drawn out of your seat to stand with everyone else and applaud for him, I've never been one to be suckered into a mob mentality but in that moment I was properly under as he certainly draws you in.


*Velvet Sky calls out Tara and Jessie. James Storm comes down to make it a tag match. Storm gets a great reaction and it's a shame TNA can't get out of Orlando more with live crowds Like tonight. There is a pedigree by Sky for the win.

This match could have been great or awful, it was hard to tell as I was fixated on Velvets bum for most of it.

*RVD vs. Zema Ion vs. Kenny King. RVD was the crowd favorite and match started with big RVD chants. This was a great match with all three hitting their spots. There were TNA chants from the crowd. RVD hits a frog splash on Kenny but pinned the already down Ion for the win.

RVD certainly got a big reaction and the fans really like his entrance music (can it be referred to as music?) but the stars of the match were certainly King and Ion as RVD spent most of it on the mat outside the ring. Ion in particular hits some really nice moves and for me its a shame that RVD is such a big name that these guys get overlooked as much with a few guys near me not even knowing who they were.

*The show starts with British Boot Camp winner Rockstar thanking the UK before Robbie E., comes down and runs him Down. Rock star beats him down before dancing with Robbie T.

Wow Spud is tiny, he does actually look a midget next to Robbie T. He seemed quite nervous with his first big TV showing but held himself together well and it certainly helped him he had a partisan crowd behind him and a great jobber heel in Robbie E to beat up. It'll be interesting to see in the coming weeks the guys he can work with due to his huge height difference.



*Austin Aries & Bobby Roode defeated Chavo Guerrero and Hernandez to win the TNA Tag team titles.

This was match of the night, all four guys put on a great show and whilst Aries & Roode were the supposed heels it was Chavo who bore the brunt of the fans vilification with 'Chavo sucks' echoing around the arena at times. Aries and Roode worked on him for vast periods not letting Hernandez in and whilst the 'heel' pair had squabbles at times including a section where Roode stormed up the ring to leave Aries by himself (which only proceeded to get Aries cheered even more as the underdog) they got the titles. Super Mac is a behemoth of a fella, shame really that when TNA teased a push on him a couple of years ago nothing came of it.

*James Storm over Jessie Godderz with Last Call. Jesse out first to rip the crowd and Storm out to defend them. Beer celebration at the end.


I went for a wee and nachos at this point. Have to be honest and this goes against a lot of people on the board but James Storm doesn't do a lot for me, not the most exciting wrestler move wise and is basically Austin with HBKs hair and hat.


*Aces and Eights out next. There were massive "You can't wrestle" chants for Garett. He said last year in the UK, the same chants made him decide to join Aces. Wes Briscoe rips Kurt Angle and said says his dad trained Kurt. They call Kurt out and said if he shows tonight, they will end him.

The 'You can't wrestle chants' were huge and you couldn't hear what the guys in the ring were actually saying at times due to it. D'Von as well was on the stick and everyone ripped him with 'What?' chants after every pause. You could see Anderson and Gallows smirking something chronic at the fan reaction.

Daniels comes out and rips on the UK crowd before Samoa Joe comes out a huge pop. Great great match with Joe winning clean at the end with his finisher after catching Daniels mid air. Lot of love for Joe.

Joe was certainly over and Id heard beforehand Joe wasn't going to be in Manchester which was really disappointing as he's my fave guy in TNA. Proper old school TNA match up with the fans chanting 'Joe is gonna kill you' and I hope Dixie and Hulk were listening backstage to how much love Joe got, he really should be top of the bill, he's be criminally underused for far too long.

Devon and DOC vs. Bully and Sting tables main event. Bully wore Sting face paint. Big table chants. Bully hulks up at the end and puts Devon through the table for the win. Hogan comes down and raises Bully's hand to end the show.

Bully is a great show person, certainly eclipsed Sting for the fans and he did some great moments such as pushing Sting for the tables (to which Sting pushed him back and they both shouted it instead) and the tribute to Hogan where he Hulked up, pointed at D'Von and hit the leg drop.

The arena was taped off at the top but must have had 5,000 in tonight. Really good double taping and Tna really needs To take TNA on the road more often for TV .

This was the second big wrestling show Ive ever attended, the first was right in the midst of the Attitude era where I saw a prime Austin, Rock, Taker, Angle, HHH etc, and I preferred this show. Yes it may be fresh in my mind but everyone just seemed to really revel off the atmosphere generated and put on a show, they appreciated the fans giving it their all and it turn wanted to return it. I feel dirty in saying this but...well done TNA.

two things about your review:

1. Surprised about your thoughts on James Storm.I never really bought into him but since his return, he has grown on me immensely. He exudes star quality in my opinion (as do storm and aries).

2. Aces and eights - did you enjoy their entrance. Its really grown on me ad I love the music. How did it go down last night?

Final thing - if Spud was a foot taller, the guy would be the next big thing.

1. I don't know what is it about Storm but I just don't feel it, when he comes out there's no buzz for me in him, all the ingredients are there to make the recipe but somehow when combined the cake doesn't work.

2. It didn't help that I was sat opposite the hidden door they kept sneaking in through so I knew they were about to do run ins. But no they could have the best music best entrance video etc in the world, I fail to get excited by Garrett Bischoff, Wes Briscoe, Dvon Dudley, Mike Knoxxx and Luke Gallows as a collective group. Roll a turd in glitter and its still a turd.