AJ Styles vs. Christopher Daniels
I still haven’t been given a reason to care about this match, outside of their history for putting on modern day wrestling clinics at an alarmingly consistent rate. But both AJ and Daniels can pull good-to-great matches out of a toaster; I’m going to need more before I drop $40 on a pay-per-view to see this match. What’s stopping me from going to YouTube and checking out any of their other matches, which are free and guaranteed to be of high quality?
At the very least, as bad as the Claire Lynch story was – I apologize, I know we promised never to speak of it again – that match made sense. It had drama, and a reason for being on a pay-per-view card. What is their encounter about this time? AJ isn’t getting the job done anymore, and it’s all Daniels fault? TNA is being out-classed by Ring of Honor in at least one way right now. If you want to see a bitter rivalry done correctly, tune into Final Battle on iPPV next Sunday at 2pm ET and watch Kevin Steen and El Generico beat the holy hell out of each other.
And again, please don’t think I throw the blame for this anywhere near AJ Styles or Chris Daniels. One has single-handedly made TNA’s tag division relevant; hell, he’s still doing it without holding the belts. And the other has been churning out good matches despite getting dealt the worst creative garbage I’ve seen out of TNA in years. “Hey AJ, thanks for putting up with Claire Lynch. As a reward, now you can’t challenge for the World Title for the next 12 months.”
Prediction: Christopher Daniels wins. It’s the only thing that makes sense to me here. If you’re going to kick AJ Styles while he’s down, do it until you can get something out of his redemption.
TNA World Tag Team Championship Match
Chavo & Hernandez (c) vs. Matt Morgan & Joey Ryan
TNA wasted Matt Morgan’s return by doing anything other than revealing him with Aces & Eights. It was simple, and it made sense. Instead, they decided to couple Morgan with Joey Ryan. If you’re not in bed with the Impact product every week, Joey Ryan is a character loosely based off Will Farrell’s character Ron Burgundy, in Anchorman. He’s cocky, overly sexual at all times and treats women like objects. The big difference is that Will Farrell is a comedic genius, and he makes the walking, talking cliche that is Burgundy work masterfully. The result is one of the most iconic comedies of its time.
Joey Ryan and Matt Morgan? Not so much. It’s bad enough they have nothing in common, but they’re on entirely different paths as well. Morgan is waging war against Hulk Hogan on a vendetta that is way too vague, and for some reason involves an old costume the Hulkster wore a long time ago. He’s big time. It’s not that I dislike Joey Ryan – although I really want to mute his promos so far – it’s quite simply that I don’t understand what these two are doing together. Why is Morgan anywhere near Ryan? Why is he fighting for the tag belts? Why waste his time doing the dirty work of a rookie when you’re in the midst of a plot against the general manager? Oh I know…because Bully Ray and Brooke Hogan are currently in that spot. It seems like everyone and their father is feuding with Hulk Hogan right now. Actually…
Prediction: Morgan & Ryan will win, and I’ll have no clue as to why.
