Impact Wrestling – April 10, 2014

Date: April 10, 2014

Location: Impact Zone,
Orlando, Florida

Commentators: Mike
Tenay, Tazz

Reviewed by Tommy Hall

Dixie Carter is back
tonight. Let’s all just take a minute to prepare ourselves for this.
You can almost feel the power struggle starting from here.
Officially she still has some power in TNA as she runs the behind the
scenes stuff as opposed to MVP running the on camera stuff. Tonight
is all about her wrath, which means it’s time for some bad acting.
Let’s get to it.

We open with an In
Memory graphic for Warrior.

Dixie Carter arrives
and has something planned for tonight.

There’s a ten man
gauntlet tonight for the title shot at Sacrifice.

MVP says Magnus
successfully defended his title against three men last week but
tonight he finds out his next challenger. Samoa Joe won’t be one of
the entrants because he’s “not available.”

It’s basically a ten
man Royal Rumble. James Storm is #1 and Gunner is #2 and of course
the brawl is on in the aisle. They get inside with Gunner avoiding a
middle rope ax handle and taking him into the corner for a stomping.
Storm is in even more trouble until Bobby Roode comes in at #3 to
give him a breather. Beer Money reunites for a bit but Gunner shrugs
off the ten rams into the top turnbuckle. Bully Ray is #4 and cleans
house as you would expect him to. A double suplex has no effect
though and he clotheslines Beer Money down.

Gunner and Ray load up
What’s Up to Storm but Roode makes the save Ethan Carter III comes in
at #5 to give the heels an advantage. Ray shrugs everything off and
chops away but Roode punches him down in the corner. No one has been
eliminated yet. Carter and Roode try to toss Ray until Bobby Lashley
is in at #6. The big man cleans house and hammers on all the heels
until Gunner, Ray and Bobby have a three way standoff. That goes
nowhere and they keep beating up the villains.

Abyss is #7 and cleans
house but Ray tries to toss him. Magnus comes out for commentary as
we take a break. Back with Sanada having entered and Eric Young
entering at I believe #9. No eliminations yet. Everyone fights
against the ropes and teases a few eliminations but no one is really
close. Willow is #10 and we get a showdown with Carter. A Twisting
Stunner has Carter in trouble as Spud wheelchairs down to ringside,
only to pop up and pull Willow down for the elimination.

Abyss chokeslams Sanada
and throws him out but walks into a spear from Lashley. Roode throws
the bald Bobby out though, only to get tossed by Ray. We’re down to
Ray, Gunner, Storm, Carter, Abyss and Young. Ray is about to go off
on Carter but Roode trips him up, allowing Carter to throw him out
and get us down to five. Storm nails a superkick to Gunner and
easily throws him out.

The three heels team up
on Young but he skins the cat and eliminates Carter on the way back
in. Abyss lays him out again though and the double teaming
continues. Eric trips both of them up though and actually hits the
top rope elbow on Abyss. Storm takes him right back down with the
Backstabber though, followed by an Orton Elevated DDT. The Last Call
misses though and Young throws him out. Abyss hits Shock Treatment
on Eric but can’t get him out. Young fights back with some right
hands and an ax handle, followed by a clothesline for the win and
title shot at 26:21.

Rating:
D+. ERIC YOUNG? This is the
guy they’re giving a title match to? Not Gunner, Ray, Joe, or ANYONE
ELSE??? They have like five PPVs a year and the guy who was doing a
Dr. Frankenstein gimmick earlier in the year is getting one of the
main event slots? He’s more bearable when he’s serious but my
goodness this matches my head hurt.

Eric calls out MVP post
match. The boss comes out after a break and Eric says he does a
great job. Young isn’t a doctor but since this is live TV, anything
can happen. What MVP just saw was Eric earning a title shot. This
is live TV though and Eric is feeling crazy. He wants his title shot
TONIGHT. MVP asks if he’s sure and says it’s on. Magnus says that’s
fine because everything abides by his rules. MVP says there are no
Magnus Rules in effect, meaning the title changes hands on a countout
or DQ and Abyss is banned from ringside. If anyone interferes,
they’re fired on the spot.

Spud, in a jacket that
looks like it was involved in an explosion at a paint factory, has a
surprise party for Dixie. She tells him to tone it down and accuses
Spud of selling her down the river. Dixie leaves but as Spud follows
her out, Willow invades the room and cleans house.

The winner gets Madison
at Sacrifice for the title. It’s a brawl to start with the girls
pairing off in the corners. Gail and Angelina start double teaming
Brittany but get in an argument over who gets the pin. Brittany
fights back and cleans house until ODB comes back in and runs
everyone over. Angelina takes a Bronco Buster but Gail kicks ODB
down. Brittany hits a handspring moonsault for no cover on ODB but
walks into a Downward Spiral from Love. Eat Defeat doesn’t work and
Velvet sprays hairspray in Gail’s eyes, setting up a Brogue Kick from
Angelina for the pin at 4:37.

Rating:
D+. Well that was….obvious.
Angelina has been feuding with Madison for weeks now so the match at
the PPV is the logical progression of the story. It wasn’t anything
to see but Brittany got to show off a little bit. I’m still not wild
on the Beautiful People reunion as we’ve covered just about
everything they can do.

Dixie
comes in to see MVP and mocks some of the stuff he’s done lately.
Apparently MVP stands for Massive Violation of Power. She says all
of this is because of one disgruntled wrestler and she’ll take care
of him tonight. Dixie wants him in the front row for her moment
tonight.

Robbie E.’s flight is
canceled but MVP thinks Jesse and Zema should defend the titles
against the Wolves tonight unless Robbie can make it here by bell
time.

We recap Eric getting a
title shot tonight.

Magnus thinks Eric is
making a huge mistake.

Here’s Dixie for her
big moment. She immediately calls out Bully, drawing a WE DON’T LIKE
YOU chant. Ray comes out and the fans want him to put Dixie through
a table. He thanks her for being around this week but Dixie talks
about Roode suckering him into an attack a few weeks ago. Dixie rubs
it in that Roode put Ray through three tables last week before
ranting about him costing her the company.

Ray says this is the
fans’ company and the wrestlers’ company but never Dixie’s company.
They talk over each other a lot until Dixie says she wants her money
back for Ray not doing his job. Ray says he’s spent it on a new car
and at Rick’s Cabaret in New York. “You’d like it. They’ve got a
lot of wine, women and song. A lot of women actually.”

Ray loads up his
catchphrase but Dixie slaps the mic out of his hand. She’s from
DALLAS, TEXAS and is responsible for every check that comes out of
the company. Dixie slaps him in the face but Roode jumps Ray from
behind. They load up a table but Ray fights back, only to have Roode
bail from a powerbomb. Ray stares Dixie down and we take a break.

Post break Magnus wants
to know what Dixie is doing. She says she’s going to her hotel,
having a glass of wine and going to bed. Magnus calls her a typical
woman and Dixie yells about him having an insurance policy before
leaving.

The Wolves are
challenging. Eddie chops Jesse to start but Davey (now with a blond
mohawk on top of his regular hair) makes a blind tag and double teams
Jesse down. Zema snaps Davey’s throat across the top rope to give
the champions control. The Wolves send the champions outside and hit
stereo suicide dives to take them down again.

Back inside and Jesse
slips in a knee from the apron to stagger Eddie, only to have him
catch both of them in a hurricanrana at the same time. Hot tag
brings in Davey to clean house with kicks and suplexes. A missile
dropkick gets two on Godderz and the toss into the kick looks to get
the pin, but Robbie E. runs in for the DQ at 3:43.

Rating:
C-. Not bad here but this time
the ending was somewhat in doubt. I actually thought they might
change the titles here, which would have been a
bit too early with the PPV coming up in a few weeks. The Wolves are
the best team in the company and having them chase the titles for a
few months is a good idea.

Christy
is going to shock us with something about Samuel Shaw tonight. She
wants to talk to him in the ring about commitment.

Here’s
Christy to the ring to invite Samuel for a chat. She
insists that he’s not creepy and says this whole thing is
complicated. Shaw says he’s the love of her life and she agrees.
Christy asks if he trusts her and she rubs her hands over his face.
She wants to know if Shaw would go anywhere she asks him to go but he
just slowly rips off his glove. Christy makes some rather suggestive
noises and tells him to close his eyes.

A
van with the words Psychiatric Services shows up on screen and of
course Anderson pops out. He comes into the arena and rubs his hands
behind Shaw’s back before laying him out with a Mic Check. The fans
chant funny farm and Anderson chucks him over the top. He crawls
towards Christy but Anderson chucks him into the van in the back.
Shaw pops out and runs away though, making this whole segment pretty
worthless.

Willow
blames Carter and Spud for costing him the gauntlet match and wants a
handicap match next week.

Impact
is coming to New York City in June.

Eh
why not. It worked at Wrestlemania XXX. Young scores with a quick
dropkick and flips over the corner before strutting down the apron.
Apparently Young has a bad arm coming into this to really hammer in
the similarities. Magnus avoids a charge into the corner and sends
Eric out to the floor with a big running knee. Back in and Eric
sends Magnus to the floor, only to get nailed as he tries a suicide
dive.

Magnus
sends him into the steps and we take a break. Back with the champion
getting two off a gutwrench suplex and we hit a sleeper on Young.
Eric is quickly out of the
hold but gets caught in a camel clutch to work on the back as well as
the bad arm. Young powers
up into an electric chair and both guys are down. Back up and some
forearms and a clothesline drop Magnus. The arm seems fine at the
moment. Eric tries a wheelbarrow slam into a neckbreaker but mostly
drops Magnus on the way down.

The
top rope elbow gets two and Magnus nails the Michinoku Driver for the
same. He brings the belt into the ring but the referee takes it
away. Young loads up a Death Valley Driver but gets hit low for two.
Magnus is livid and gets caught in a crucifix for two. Eric comes
back with a piledriver for the pin and the title at 13:05.

Rating:
C. Eric Young is the TNA World
Champion. Yes it’s a blatant ripoff of Daniel Bryan on Sunday, but
Eric Young hasn’t earned the spot like Bryan has. He’s a comedy guy
that has kept a job for a long time. That doesn’t mean he should be
the World Champion. I’m assuming this doesn’t make it past
Sacrifice, but I’ve only been able to tolerate Young for this many
years. Having him as World Champion is too far for me.

Overall
Rating: C. The ending just
doesn’t do it for me as I’ve already explained. The rest of the show
wasn’t bad, but this is the kind of show you need to build up to. I
get that they needed to do everything in one night, but let us know
in advance that this is coming. The Dixie stuff didn’t do anything
for me but it’s probably continuing over the next few weeks. The
wrestling was ok tonight but this is a very questionable way to use a
story like this.

Eric Young won a
gauntlet match last eliminating Abyss

Angelina Love b.
Brittany, ODB and Gail Kim – Bicycle kick to Kim

Wolves b. Zema
Ion/Jesse Godderz via DQ when Robbie E. interfered

Eric Young b. Magnus –
Piledriver