It took quite some time, but TNA Impact has finally made it to Australian cable television! I always couldn’t work out why Impact had yet to air here as we have been able to purchase the promotion’s pay-per-view events for a couple of years now. From what I know, the TNA ppv’s do not sell too well down under. I believe there was initial interest (including from myself) and the likes of Bound For Glory & LockDown get a little peak, but I believe figures to be very low otherwise. This makes sense because how the hell are we meant to be involved in the ppv in the lead-up if we don’t get to view the weekly shows?

Of course, it may still be rather useless as the timeslot given to Impact is the terrible one of Saturday nights at 10pm. If by chance you do happen to be at home, there is still live local sport to be watched, not to mention the beaming in live of English Premier League soccer games. So I don’t expect ratings to be high for TNA Impact in Australia for that reason more than any other! Of course, that’s where videotape, DVD recorders and whatever new technology that I do not understand comes in handy.

Anyway, the videotape was indeed set for record this past Saturday night and I thought this was a good opportunity to write on the promotion. I will attempt to just give more general thoughts, rather than actually review the weekly episode in question. Point form may be the best method to do this, so here goes:

- A lot (& I mean a lot) of talking begins the show. There is first a backstage segment near Cornette’s office, then an in-ring segment hyping an upcoming ppv bout, then a backstage interview of Kurt Angle, before finally a car-park interview of Scott Steiner! It was clearly way too much time to be taking up at the beginning of the show with non-wrestling & to be honest, not a great deal was achieved apart from some ppv hype. I will sum up what I made of it all (apart from the fact that Tomko should never be given a mic) in my concluding thoughts.

- I must admit that I got a chuckle out of ‘The Monsters of Rock’ wandering around with Guitar Hero guitars… And Christy Hemme looked great!

- I couldn’t believe that TNA allowed Rellik to talk on the mic. It totally ruined his character by humanizing it way too much.

- There was some impressive & fantastic double-team moves from The Motor-City Machine-Guns in the 8 man tag-team opener. Lax were good too… And Salina (aka Ariel) looked great!

- I’m sick of (Super) Eric Young ending up on top every time I watch TNA.

- Following a Sting backstage interview, we see a pre-taped promo of the upcoming Road Dogg vs Billy Gunn feud. I couldn’t think of anything worse to watch as the 2 are so far past their best that it is not funny. More talk follows with a sit-down interview of Awesome Kong & her Muslim mouthpiece, then a backstage interview of ‘Cowboy’ James Storm. For f**k sake, I watched this to see some wrestling!

- Hooray, its AJ Styles… He can’t talk, so we thankfully will get to see some wrestling! And the update is that he is still phenomenal in the ring. Unfortunately, the latest attempt to add some personality to his character is by way of a goofy prince gimmick. That’s not the way I would have gone about it, but I’m happy as long as he is wrestling. Solid tag bout between AJ & Tomko against Christian & Rhino, before the War Machine gets bored of it all & gores the referee. This isn’t the original ECW buddy!

- It’s X-Division time as Elix Skipper battles Shark Boy. These 2 might not be the best there are in the division, but they’re still worth watching on a weekly television show. As for Shark Boy impersonating ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin, it is totally useless & ridiculous in the ring, but I must say I did get a kick out of his vocal impersonation when being interviewed afterwards. Of course, I would never support impersonation just for the sake of it… And that’s the bottom line coz The Prototype said so!

- Time for the knockouts next as Traci Brooks wrestles Payton Banks. I paid little attention throughout as I know these 2 are nowhere near the best the division has to offer. It is good to see TNA attempting to make something out of the division and I could sort of see the potential from the pre-match locker-room interview and the post-match where practically every female roster member got involved.

- Interesting & effective pre-taped Samoa Joe training promo. Kurt replies in the ring before being interrupted by Scott Steiner who apparently has stolen the Money in the Bank briefcase from CM Punk. For once, Big Poppa Pump was understandable & concise with his mic work. It’s nowhere near as humorous when he makes sense!

- The main-event of the night was Sting vs James Storm. Decent enough match with its main purpose being the face turn of sorts for special guest referee Matt Morgan. While it was rather surprising & I admittedly didn’t pick it, it wasn’t exactly a memorable moment either. Could a turn back to the dark side occur at the pay-per-view…???

Overall, my main conclusion after viewing this episode of Impact is that TNA are yet to learn how to structure a 2 hour show. While Raw and SmackDown occasionally also have 5 matches like this show did, they hardly ever appear as drawn out and definitely do not have as many non-wrestling segments, some of which were annoyingly repetitive.

Maybe more importantly, despite the added length of the show, too many of the company’s important members played nothing but cameos… For Example; Booker T, Samoa Joe, Kurt Angle & Christopher Daniels. Hell, you can even add Jay Lethal, Petey Williams & Sonjay Dutt to that list! By all means, have 3 or so main focus points throughout a show, but intersperse them wisely between more solid matches that are allowed to fully play out. For longtime fans, think 1997 WCW for what I am attempting to suggest.

Furthermore, I think TNA may have gone on gimmick overload. I understand that they are attempting to add character to their lesser lights, but it is way over the top. How about letting some old-school heel tactics get some of the heels over and wrestling talent allowing some of the faces to become successful? It is almost contradictory when you think it through as TNA are apparently attempting to aim their product at a more mature audience, yet are trying to do so via numerous immature means. I know it worked with WWE’s D-Generation X, but when there are so many similar types of gimmicks, the effects are never as strong individually.

Right now, I suppose I can forgive TNA for all the criticisms I have made throughout this section. They haven’t been airing a 2 hour weekly show for all that long, while I’m probably not the best person to comment as I am not up to date with all the characters & storylines. Then again, I am exactly the kind of casual fan that TNA need to win over in order to progress! And smetimes that opportunity for winning over casual fans needs to be done immediately!