The +/- #’s: Impact Wrestling, 6/27

Segment 9: Samoa Joe vs. Mr. Anderson

Positives: Joe in the Main Event Mafia is a good thing. Granted, his first stint in the Mafia was during his “long pants and scary knife” period, which was something like Steve Austin being the Ringmaster, only with the implication that he was slicing up people’s faces.

Negatives: If TNA is going to get the Bound for Glory series over as important, they need to somehow establish that the matches are sacred enough that interference is not tolerated whatsoever. Also, thanks to being positioned at the end of a double taping, this match never had the crowd, which makes it hard for anything to come across as important or exciting.

Segment Score: +0

Segment 10: Suicide Reveal

Positives: TNA effectively told a short-arc story that started in the first half hour of the show and ended in the final minutes. The story fit into their larger summer story arc of the build toward Destination X. This is what’s called “solid booking,” regardless of how much you like or dislike the players and specific situations involved. Oh, it’s also good that this is probably the end of the Suicide character.

Aries as SuicideNegatives: Aries has put in solid work this year, but his character is really poorly defined. He’s against Ray, so now he’s a babyface? Wasn’t he just a heel? Isn’t jumping someone backstage and stealing their place in a title match a heel move? This reeks of Eric Bischoff – pushing a cool heel rather than thinking of a way to effectively turn him babyface. TNA is being lazy and falling back on the fact that they know the crowd will cheer Aries for being “awesome.” They’re in dangerous waters if they really plan on promoting “Cool Heel” against “Mean Heel” at Destination X. Why should I want either of those jerks to win?

Segment Score: +0 (this could have been a +1 for the storytelling if Aries was facing a babyface champion…)

NET +/- FOR JUNE 27 EDITION OF IMPACT WRESTLING: +0

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