Plusses:
A.J. Styles and Aces & Eights
Ken Anderson told Angle that A.J. was definitely joining the group and to expect a huge celebration for his “patching in” next week. After A.J. hit Angle, they showed everybody’s favorite motorcycle gang reacting as if Christmas was coming twice this year. In my opinion, that segment was one of the most effective things that had been done with Aces & Eights recently: they seemed heelish and overly confident, but it also made A.J. Styles seem like a big deal, something that has been missing in the building of this storyline. They acted as though A.J. was a “great get,” something TNA severely dropped the ball on with Ken Anderson, who joined the group to minimal fanfare.
For anybody who is familiar with wrestling angles (or writing in general), this segment also got across that A.J. will probably not join Aces & Eights. They did a great job of making the heels seem overconfident, setting up the idea that the gang will be totally shocked and hurt when A.J. doesn’t join and they get what they deserve.
TNA has been guilty of letting heels get over on babyfaces too much over the years, and this segment gave viewers hope that the heel group would look foolish on the next edition of Impact. This segment reminded me of Elmer Fudd with his shotgun pointed down the rabbit hole: he has his moment of absolute, gloating certainty that he’s “gonna get the wabbit,” while the experienced viewer knows that Buggs is just off screen, about to step in and kick the moronic hunter in the behind.
This segment was effective because it portrayed Aces & Eights as undeniably heelish while also setting them up for the crushing blow of a babyface actually getting over on them. The A.J. Styles as “Crow” Sting angle hadn’t really been getting over on many fans, myself included, but I thought this week’s edition of Impact did an excellent job pushing that storyline forward and hinting that it was about to kick into a higher gear.
Bully Ray being presented as Main Event
Despite Aces & Eights being featured heavily in the first hour, TNA did a great job holding Bully Ray back and making him feel “main event” for his contract signing. They let Anderson act as the capo in the first hour of the show, which protected Ray from being part of the more midcard Aces & Eights angle. If TNA are going to successfully rebrand Bully Ray as a centerpiece heel after decades as a tag team wrestler, this is the way they need to book him: let him be the dominant champion, not the leader of a million-man, bumbling fool group.
I look back to Raven at the height of his powers in ECW (and somewhat in his WCW run) as the model for Bully Ray to successfully get over. Raven had his army of lackeys and bump guys, but Raven never allowed himself to be lowered or dragged down by their midcard shenanigans. While I liked the previously-referenced Aces & Eights segment showing them overly-celebrating A.J.’s potential induction into the group, one of the best parts of the segment to me was that Ray wasn’t a part of it. TNA was wise not to group their champion in with a bunch of easily-fooled geeks.
Ray also benefitted by only sharing time and space in the ring with Sting. For better or worse, Sting has been presented as the ultimate TNA babyface over the last year, and their contract segment got across that fans are going to see the ultimate babyface versus the ultimate heel at Slammiversary. The introduced stipulation that if Sting loses he will never get another shot at the title serves to effectively kick Ray up to the next level. If he defeats Sting, he will have unseated a career-long main-eventer, essentially communicating to the audience that Sting’s ship has sailed and Ray is now “the guy.” If TNA are going with Bully Ray as champion moving forward, they need a lot more shows like this edition of Impact in which they made him seem truly special, truly main event, and a true threat to the biggest babyfaces in the company.
