It appears that Impact Wrestling’s James Storm is not going to WWE with AJ Styles, Shinsuske Nakamura, and the Bullet Club. After doing a few TV dates with NXT, James Storm is scheduled for TNA’s TV tapings all week in Bethlehem, PA, concluding in a PPV Friday.
Storm was put on television without signing a WWE deal, which was highly unusual. He worked a taping, missed a taping, then was back for another taping, and then hadn’t been seen again.
The listing of the Doll House as Marti Bell, Jade and Rebel in the advertising for a match against The Beautiful People on tomorrow night’s Impact didn’t include Taryn Terrell. Terrell today confirmed in a video she is not returning to TNA, stating it was a personal decision, noting that she had gotten married, and the path her life is on TNA is not the right fit for her anymore. As noted earlier, Angelina will not be wrestling but will be appearing because she is pregnant.
Don’t forget to tune in tomorrow to TNA on POP TV, featuring a new opening song performed by Smashing Pumpkins.
Event card:
Bobby Roode defends the King of the Mountain Title
World Title Series Semi-Final Match: Ethan Carter III vs. Bobby Lashley
World Title Series Semi-Final Match: Matt Hardy vs. Eric Young
World Title Series Final match to crown a new TNA World Heavyweight Champion
Big Takeaway: Tino Sabatelli takes a step backwards, Sami Zayn works on his shoulder rehab, and Dana Brooke gets injured by Asuka’s ass on another chaotic episode of Breaking Ground.
Show Recap: As with last week, an unfocused journey through NXT.
Building off last episode’s cliffhanger, Triple H commends Bayley and Sasha Banks for their performance at TakeOver Brooklyn, notes that he thinks they left some “story on the table,” and asks them to main event the next TakeOver event in an Iron Man match. They (obviously) accept.
Scott Hall visits the Performance Center for a week and is asked by Matt Bloom to work a bit with Baron Corbin. He gives him a few pointers as far as working heel goes, but aside from that and giving Apollo Crews some pointers on doing interviews – don’t make it seem like you’re cutting a promo, just speak like you usually do – he doesn’t really do much of anything.
Sami Zayn is back at the Performance Center working on his shoulder rehabilitation and hopefully to get closer to a return. He’s not cleared yet and he does some resistance exercises that are designed to test his shoulder. Regal still thinks Zayn has a ways to go yet as a performer and wants him to focus on the basic notion of pro wrestling: at its core, it’s two people competing. Since he’s not cleared yet, he focuses on helping Tyler Breeze tutor Eva Marie. He offers her this advice on using pin-fall attempts to pace a match: “If we’re selling a story, these [sequences] are sentences, [pinfalls] are the punctuation.”
Tino Sabbatelli is given a match, his second match ever, on a house show against Apollo Crews. He develops his character by looking at sweet suits. Tino does not look great in his match with Apollo. His striking looks terrible and he turns away from contact on a drop-kick in a way that almost endangers Apollo. Bloom gives him a rundown of what he did wrong, emphasizing paying attention to details and his striking (Vince’s motto is apparently “Men throw punches.”). Corbin pulls him aside and gives him some advice, too (noting that he’s had two matches and to put in the work). After the show, Bloom tells Tino that he’s being put back in Robbie Brookside’s beginners class (presumably so he can work on some fundamentals).
Dana Brooke works out with the new Australian girls – Billie Kay is specifically identified – and talks about not being intimidated working with Asuka, who’s finally identified on this show. Anyway, immediately after talking about not being intimidated, she’s knocked loopy by an Asuka hip attack in a work-out and that’s the big cliffhanger: did Asuka’s ass kill Dana Brooke? (Spoiler: no.)
In less important news: Josh from Tough Enough’s wife and daughter move to Florida finally, Nia Jax designs her ring gear for her TV debut, and Mojo Rawley has a party.
Final Thoughts: Sadly, it was another fairly unfocused episode, as it included way too many NXT personalities for any of them to really register as important.
TNA’s debut on Pop TV last night drew 111,000 viewers for a “Best of” show which had little going for it past Internet and social mediapromotion.
TNA and Pop TV had been pushing 1/5 as the debut of the show, built around the final four in the world title tournament. It was only in the past week when the announcement was made that it would debut with taped programming last night in its new Tuesday at 9 p.m. slot..
The audience was barely half of the “Days of our Lives” show that did 211,000 viewers.
While the lack of publicity and fact it wasn’t a new episode means the number really can’t be taken as a strong sign of where they will end up, it is a number that points to where the TNA base audience is at this point. Between the change of network and change of day, and TNA, with the exception of the move from late Saturday to Thursday prime time, has always taken a hit when changing days, it took take some time before TNA gets to where it will probably be.
However, the idea that they will get back to Spike levels, which Pop TV execs spoke of, doesn’t seem likely.
It has been confirmed by TNA that there will be a live PPV show on Friday, 1/8, from Bethlehem, PA.
inDemand literature had come out advertising the show, taking place three nights after the debut on Pop TV, for a show called “One Night Only Live.”
That was the name of the show that was originally planned to be taped in India during the canceled tour, as a live special in that country, and would air starting 1/8 as the One Night Only show in the U.S.
Tommy Gilbert, a mainstay in Tennessee wrestling during the 60s, 70s and 80s, passed away earlier today at the age of 75.
Gilbert and Eddie Marlin were a regular babyface tag team in the 60s, battling the top heel teams of the era like The Interns and the Von Brauners. He also formed championship tag teams with Bearcat Brown, Ricky Gibson, Sputnik Monroe, Tojo Yamamoto, Ron Wright and did a father-and-son tag team with son Eddie Gilbert.
Gilbert’s father, Arlie was a pro wrestler and his sons, Thomas Jr. (Eddie), who passed away in 1993, and Doug, who still wrestles, were wellknown wrestlers.
He worked most of his career for promoters Nick Gulas and Jerry Jarrett in Tennessee and Alabama, as well as Puerto Rico. He also used the name Johnny Starr while wrestling in Texas in the 70s. His son Doug wrote, “Earlier this morning, my dad Tommh Gilbert left us and is now home in heaven with Eddie. Prayers during this difficult time are appreciated.”
Continuing our two-week look at the combat sports wear industry, we go to the squared circle in the 16th episode of Josh Nason’s Punch-Out for a look at the history of Pro Wrestling Tees, one of the fastest growing success stories in pro wrestling t-shirts over the past few years.
