Hey there guys and girls, I’m TheCannon, bringing you a review for the April 17, 2015 edition of TNA Impact Wrestling. After a few weeks of really average and boring shows, how would TNA do tonight when crowning new tag team champions? Let’s start the review and find out.

Josh Matthews is doing commentary by himself tonight, as Taz is “on special assignment” according to Matthews. I laughed when I heard this. For those who don’t know, Taz left TNA earlier this week, so he wasn’t here tonight and we won’t being seeing him again. I didn’t hate Taz or anything, but I was never really a fan and can’t say I’ll miss him.

Match #1 - The Hardys (Jeff & Matt Hardy) vs. The Revolution (James Storm & Koya)

Remember everyone, Jeff & Matt have never been TNA World Tag Team Champions. I can understand how you’d miss that little fact since it’s not like TNA beats you over the head with it every chance they get. Manik & Abyss don’t come out with the Revolution which I thought was weird, but maybe Storm is still angry at them since he feels they failed him?

As for the match... meh. Kinda short really. Definitely the weakest match of the night. This was the first real match I’ve seen with Koya, and he looked... okay I guess. Clearly needs more experience before being allowed to have more real matches. Putting him in tag stuff like this though is a good way for him to get experience while keeping his ring time limited. Anyway, Hardys win after Jeff ducks the Last Call and Storm hits Koya, then Matt hits the Twist of Fate on Storm to get the win. Can’t say I’m happy with this result, but I expected it, so I’m not disappointed or anything.

Winners via pinfall: The Hardys

After the match Storm is yelling at Koya and slapping him for the loss. Why does he do this to every Revolution member except Abyss?

Jeremy Borash is n the entrance ramp to talk to the Hardys after their win, and Jeff says it’s been over 8 years since they’ve been tag team champions and Matt says that tonight they will fufill their destiny and become TNA World Tag Team Champions for the first time. Wait, Jeff & Matt have never been TNA Tag Team Champions? Who would have guessed? Can’t believe this hasn’t been mentioned before.

Eric Young is backstage and says that he wants his title shot. He says that he deserves it and that Angle will find out what happens when you mess with him, just like Lashley did last week. When you mess with Eric Young, he takes advantage of an injury that someone else caused and does a kind of underwhelming beat down that somehow injures you? Go Young?

After commercials, Eric Young comes down to the ring dressed in a Kurt Angle shirt. I actually like how Young wears shirts with the person he’s feuding with. Young says that he isn’t a person to be messed with and isn’t happy, as Kurt Angle is ducking him... somehow. He says that he wants his title shot and is the #1 contender and that everyone saw what he did to Lashley last week. Already make a bad joke about that above, so no need to repeat myself.

Kurt Angle’s music interrupts and he comes out. Angle says that Young has been calling him out every day the past week all over social media, but Young should be talking to him face to face. How was Young supposed to do that exactly? Kurt live sit Pittsburg and EY lives in Nashville (I think). Was Young supposed to go to Pittsburg to talk to Kurt face to face, or was Young supposed to just do nothing all week and talk to Kurt backstage at the show tonight? I know this was all taped and everything, but TNA wants to keep the illusion that it’s happening each week, so I have to question stuff like this. Anyway, Young says that Kurt has something that belongs to him (the world title) and that Angle can be beaten and hurt by him (that line was rather lame). Angle says that Young has turned into a lunatic (it’s why we love him) and that he was a good person once. EY just says that the title was stolen from him and he wants it back (Young, be more original with your lines please). Angle says that Young will get his title shot next week, but he wants to face the old Eric Young in a straight up match. So, Kurt wants to face Super Eric?

Or are you talking about evil foreigner World Elite Eric Young? Or are you talking about crazy comedy Eric Young that was pantsing referees, going after Scott Baio, and married to ODB? Cause if it’s either of those, you won’t be getting a straight up match. And has Eric Young gone through more repackages over the years than any wrestler ever? I haven’t even come close to listing all of them here.

Angle says that EY can fight him fairly or he can be a coward and attack him from behind his back. Angle then turns his back to EY, and EY gets in Angle’s face and says he’ll see him next week. This scene would be cooler had James Storm not done this exact same thing to Angle a few years back.

Backstage Kenny King & Low Ki are cornering Rockstar Spud and telling him that he’s just keeping the X-Division title warm for one of them. ONE of them? Kenny King actually cares about the X-Division title? Where did this come from!?! Mr. Anderson then comes in and makes sure he’s fine. Boring scene really.

Match #2 - Spunderson (Mr. Anderson & Rockstar Spud) vs. The Beat Down Clan (Kenny King & Low Ki)

Yeah, they’re not actually called Spunderson, but someone has to name these tag teams if TNA isn’t going to.

BDC attacks Spud while Anderson is distracted with his self-announcing thing, which I thought was cool. BDC spends most of he match double-teaming on Spud, which makes sense I guess. Leads to stuff where Anderson keeps trying to get into stop it, but the ref keeps him from getting in since he’s not the legal man so Kenny & Ki can team on Spud some more. Eventually Anderson gets annoyed enough that he runs in and takes out both of them, and when the ref is telling him to get out of the ring, he rolls Spud over to the apron and tags himself in. That was a pretty cool moment to me.

Overall the match was pretty decent. Nothing amazing, but decent. King ends up pinning Spud after Ki hit the Warrior’s Way, and gets the pin while Ki keeps Anderson from being able to break it up.

Winners via pinfall: The Beat Down Clan

Backstage we get a segment with ETHAN CARTER III AND BRAM!!! :D EC3 says that tonight he will wet his appetite for championship gold with the tag titles and that they will beat Tigre Uno and... “his partner”. Before EC3 can say much more, Bram interrupts and starts saying that he is the one that is unstoppable and that tonight he is going to rip Tigre Uno’s mask off his face and shove it down his throat. EC3 stands there in silence for a moment before saying, “Great. Just make sure we win the match first.” Bram says that he just wants to hurt people as he walks away. EC3 looks at Tyrus and says that Bram is losing his mind and he (EC3) will reap all the benefits. F*CKING AWESOME scene and we need more of these two together every week.

Backstage we have a segment with the BDC (GET TO THE EC3/BRAM MATCH ALREADY!) and MVP congratulates Kenny & Ki on their win tonight. He then tells Homicide that he wants him to take care of some unfinished business: Kurt Angle. Homicide asks MVP if that means he’s gonna wrestle Kurt, and MVP says that he wants Homicide to fight Kurt. Homicide then gets it and starts walking off. So, Homicide and no one else is gonna be taking care of Kurt Angle? Seems a bit underwhelming.

Match #3 - Mask Effect (Tigre Uno & Jay Rios) vs. Awesomeness (Ethan Carter III & Bram) w/Tyrus

Jay Rios is making his debut in this match. Never seen him before this. Mask Effect isn’t their actual name, but as I said before, someone has to name these teams if TNA isn’t going to. And Awesomeness is the only thing to describe or summarize EC3 & Bram.

The match was pretty enjoyable. EC3 & Bram were great as expected. Tigre Uno was great (he’s a guy who I feel is pretty underrated and really underused by TNA), and Jay Rios looked pretty good. Not amazing, but he certainly put on a good performance and was decent. Not sure if Rios is a full signing or just a one time deal, but I’d like to see him & Tigre become a regular team. Finish comes when Bram hits the Brighter Side of Suffering on Rios, but EC3 tags himself in and quickly steals the win. Loved the finish, and I enjoyed the match. Like I said, I’d really like to see Tigre & Rios become a regular team.

Winners via pinfall: Ethan Carter III & Bram

Afterwards Bram is p*ssed about EC3 stealing the win like that, but Tyrus gets in his face to keep Bram from doing anything while EC3 celebrates.

Next up is some segment hyping up a big Knockouts announcement. Christy Hemme calls out all the Knockouts, and most of them come out (Gail Kim, Taryn Terrell, Angelina Love, Madison Rayne, & Brooke). Awesome Kong doesn’t though. And Havok & Rebel don’t come out either, but I’m not even sure if they exist any more since it’s been so long since we’ve seen or heard from either. The segment is announcing that next week will be an all Knockouts show called “TKO”, for some reason. Matches that will be on the show include Taryn Terrell defending the Knockouts title against Awesome Kong, and a 4-way #1 contenders match between Angelina, Gail, Madison, & Brooke. They all cut some pretty horrible promos that aren’t worth going into. Somehow a huge brawl breaks out, Kong comes out, and Taryn ends up coming out over all f them and celebrates in the ring with her title.

So, next week is an all Knockouts show... meh. If this was late 2009 I could see it. In fact I remember the New Year’s Eve edition of Impact that year was a 4-hour all Knockouts show (in addition to showing what was voted as the 3 best matches of the year) and it was pretty solid. But the Knockouts roster ain’t what it used to be and I’m just not looking forward to it at all. Also, didn’t they say earlier that Angle/Young for the title was gonna be on next week’s show? Did someone screw up here, or is the main event to an all Knockouts show Kurt Angle vs Eric Young?

Backstage Robbie E & Jessie Godderz are talking about their match tonight. Robbie asks Jessie if he’s ready for tonight and Jessie says he is and asks Robbie not to mess up tonight. Robbie walks away and once he’s out of Jessie’s sight, Austin Aries & Bobby Roode approach him. They ask Robbie what the problem with the BroMans is, but Robbie says he knows what they’re trying to do and it won’t help. Aries & Roode says that they figure they have to focus on Robbie to win tonight since he’s the more accomplished and better BroMan and they just talk about how great he is. They suggest that if Robbie is able to beat them tonight he’d probably be in line for a World Title shot. Robbie agrees and says that the only question left is which one of them he’ll beat tonight and Aries & Roode give a worried & shocked look on their face. Robbie walks away and the two start talking about how that was too easy and that they need to go find Jessie now. Not much to say here, but I did like this scene.

Match #4 - The BroMans (Robbie E & Jessie Godderz) vs. The Clean Faces (Bobby Roode & Austin Aries)

I know TNA calls them the Dirty Heels, but that name makes no sense for them when they’re currently faces. So I call them the Clean Faces.

Match starts with Robbie & Jessie arguing about who’s gonna start the match off, only for Aries to go after both of them. They bicker a bit throughout the entire match. But it was another pretty solid match. Told a decent but simple story with the BroMans arguing constantly and Roode & Aries taking advantage of it and playing mind games with them. This might actually be my favorite of all the qualifying matches. Toss up between this or EC3/Bram vs Mask Effect. Finish comes when Roode hits a Spinebuster on Jessie followed by a 450 Splash from Aries.

Winners via pinfall: The Clean Faces

After the match, Robbie & Jessie start yelling & shoving each other, and after a minute of it actually start taking swings at each other. DJ Z runs out and manages to break it up, but Robbie just shoves him and walks away. So, I guess they’re setting up a BroMans split-up. Sad to see. Still, that might not be what they’re doing. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens I guess. Wonder what happens to Zema if they do split up.

Backstage we have Homicide beating on Angle... he’s really handling Angle all on his own? When did Homicide get to be that good? Anyway, they brawl all over the place and it’s pretty boring to watch honestly. I think they just needed some filler time before Ultimate X. They could have placed that Knockouts segment here to fill some time between Ultimate X & a tag team match, but they chose not to. Angle & Homicide brawl to the ring, and when Angle gets the upper hand, the BDC comes out and beats on him. After a moment of this, The Rising come out and chase off Kenny King, Low Ki, & Homicide, leaving just Kurt & MVP in the ring. MVP goes to hit Angle in the head with a chair, but Young runs out and gets between them. MVP agrees to lay off Angle, hands EY the chair, and leaves. Young picks up the chair and goes to hit Angle with it, but he stops and just drops the chair. I don’t know what they’re trying to do here. I guess it has to do with that “old Eric Young” stuff from earlier, but I don’t find it that interesting. I like EY’s current crazy character and want to see him continue that. Personally I would have liked to see him still hit Angle with the chair after chasing MVP off, just to show how crazy he is. But I’ll wait and see where this goes. I think EY will still go back to this crazy self we’ve seen the past few months, as I don’t see them turning him face so soon.

Another video for the Dollhouse is shown, and it’s just as weird and out of place as the last one. Are we gonna get any explanation for these videos when they debut, or are they never gonna be brought up?

Match #5 - Ultimate X for TNA World Tag Team Championships: The Hardys (Jeff & Matt Hardy) vs. The Beat Down Clan (Kenny King & Low Ki) vs. Awesomeness (Ethan Carter III & Bram) w/Tyrus vs. The Clean Faces (Bobby Roode & Austin Aries)

Only the 3rd time ever the Tag Titles are on the line in an Ultimate X match. Aries, Kenny, & Low Ki have all won Ultimate X matches before, while Jeff & Roode have been in some but never won any. First Ultimate X match for Matt, EC3, & Bram. There’s your irrelevant trivia for the day. And remember: The Hardys have never won the TNA Tag Team titles.

Ultimate X match is a match where they have a structure set up around the ring with wires that hang above and go across the ring, and you win by grabbing the object in the middle (in this case being the tag title belts). Just for those who don’t know.

This was a really fun match. King, Ki, & Aries was pretty much made for a match like this and did great. Roode put on a great performance. EC3 & Bram were just awesome as expected. And the Hardys... did stuff I guess. There were some really cool moments in the match though. One of my favorites was when a bunch of guys were climbing towards the middle of the wires, Tyrus was outside and started shaking the structure to cause them all to fall. I had never seen that before and thought it was neat. TNA’s done almost 40 of these, so I always like and am impressed when they can do something new.

A ladder was brought into the match at one point, which usually I don’t like, but I’m fine with it due to the circumstances. Bram & EC3 were the only guys up at one point and Bram wanted to start climbing to get the belts, but EC3 stopped him. He just pointed at his head and went outside the ring to grab a ladder, which he set up so they could climb up and get the belts easier. This section I was fine with, but unfortunately later on some other people were using the ladder and it basically became a ladder match, which makes me curious why they made it an Ultimate X match to begin with.

There was a point where I was thrilled late in the match. Everyone but EC3 was down, so he had Tryus come in the ring and he climbed up on his shoulders so he could reach the belts that way. Unfortunately Aries then did a dropkick to Tyrus and took them both out. Bram did a quick attack and took out Aries, but he was afterwards taken out too. Clean Heels almost have the match won afterwards, but Homicide runs out to stop them. The BDC almost then wins the match, but the Hardys keep them from being able to do it. While Ki is hanging there, Jeff is able to walk across the wires (using the structure to balance himself) and knocks Ki off. He then grabs the belts, while Matt sets up a ladder underneath him for some reason, and the Hardys are the new champs. Why? Cause f*ck you, that’s why. It’s not like TNA has more deserving and more talented teams to get the belts. No, let’s give it to the guys who haven’t put on a good match in 10+ years, aren’t reliable, are sh*t on the mic, are mediocre at best (Matt) or just terrible overall (Jeff) in-ring, and overall just don’t deserve the titles. F*ck you TNA for always pushing the Hardys down our throats. Why isn’t Drew Galloway complaining about these guys being shoved down our throats all the time? I don’t even like Galloway, but he’s better than these two. Just... this is just a horrible move. Get ready for mediocre at best tag title matches for a while; something that could have been avoided if any other team won the titles here.

Winners via idiotic management who won’t stop shoving people who don’t deserve what they’re being given down our throats: The Hardys

Overall Impressions:

Really fun show tonight except for the finish. F*ck that finish. But other than that, really enjoyable show. Most of the tag matches were fun (I thought the opener was way too short), and while I’m not a big fan of this “old Eric Young” thing, I like Angle & Young feuding. It’s something new. Not a big fan of what’s happening with the Knockouts, but I haven’t been a fan in years. Ultimate X match was good, except for the stupid decision to give the titles to the Hardys when they were the least talented team and there were more over guys in the tournament. But like I said, fun show tonight, and easily the best show since we got back to Orlando. I hope TNA can follow up this show with similar quality, but I unfortunately doubt it with that Knockouts show next week. Two hours of EC3 would be better. But we do have Angle/Young (I think), so there’s that.

But like I keep saying: Fun show with a bad ending.

That’s it for the review and I hope you enjoyed it. Let me know what you thought of the show or the review in the comments. I’m TheCannon, and I will see you later.