Coming off the heels of the rather underwhelming TNA Sacrifice PPV, all sights turn to the WWE’s next PPV offering in WWE Over the Limit this coming Sunday. WWE had their go home shows this week for the PPV event this Victoria Day weekend. Both Raw and Smackdown were pretty good, but did not really sell you on the fact of paying another fifty dollars for a second PPV in the month of May. TNA Wrestling launched their rebranding of their flagship show formerly known as TNA Impact, but more on my thoughts on first episode of the newly christened Impact Wrestling later in this article. In other news, ROH has been sold to the Sinclair Broadcast Group and is going to be producing a new TV show starting this September. For ROH fans that do not get any stations owned by Sinclair they can catch the show on the Internet. This is great news for some of us who could not catch the show on HDNet or find the ROH TV show on any of the streaming sites. Cannot wait until September; the WWE and TNA might see some steep competition for the Silverdome Match of the Week once the ROH TV show starts. Now that we are on the topic of the Silverdome Match of the Week, this week’s winner beat out the likes of Jeff & Karen Jarrett vs. Kurt Angle & Chyna from TNA Sacrifice, CM Punk vs. Kofi Kingston and Alberto Del Rio vs. Rey Mysterio both from Raw and Drew McIntyre vs. Evan Bourne from Superstars to win the award. This week’s winner of the title of Silverdome Match of the Week is Christian vs. Sheamus from Smackdown.
This week’s Smackdown started off with a bang as Christian and Sheamus tore down the house. Christian and Sheamus went back-and-forth trading a series of closed fists, knees and uppercuts. Sheamus would soon take control with a boot straight to head of Captain Charisma. Sheamus took this chance to land a few good strikes on the dazed Christian. Sheamus’ advantage would not last long as Christian would reverse the Celtic Warrior’s attempts to bring the Instant Classic crashing to the floor outside the ring. Instead Christian would send the Irishman to floor below. Christian’s advantage would not last long though as Sheamus would knock Christian off of the top rope causing the Pontiff of the Peepulation to take one hell of a tumble to the outside. This time Sheamus would hold on to the momentum he just gained by slowing down the match to his pace. Sheamus used his advantage to wear down Christian with some slams, knee drops and forearms. Momentum would swing yet again when Christian reversed Sheamus’ slam in to an inverted DDT. Christian and Sheamus would go on to trade move-after-move, near fall after near fall in one exciting seesaw battle. These two superstars would pull out all the stops in order to get the win. Eventually Sheamus tried to end the match with the Celtic Cross, but Christian would escape the Celtic Warrior’s grip and roll him up for the win. Great showing from both superstars to open up Smackdown as Christian was made to look strong going in to his World Title match against Orton. Even though Christian went over when everything was said and done, Sheamus was still made to look as dominate as ever.
Well if you thought that TNA turned a new leaf last week by changing the name of TNA Impact to Impact Wrestling, you are sorely mistaken. It is the same old crap, just a different name for the show. For how aggressively TNA has been pushing the “Wrestling Matters Here” tagline, it is funny to see as much time or even more dedicated to promos and backstage segments rather than actual wrestling. Also TNA decided to take this opportunity to put the final nail in the coffin which was the X Division. It is sad to see a division that severed as a cornerstone for this company and made up its identity be disrespected in this way. There was a time when the X Division defined how great TNA was. You could always rely on the X Division stars to put on the best display of athleticism each night. Some of TNA’s main event stars such as AJ Styles, Christopher Daniels and Samoa Joe saw their start in the X Division. This humongous burial of the X Division looks to be the start of bigger feud, which we will see the pay-off in the coming months. Personally I do not care anymore. TNA has poorly managed this division long enough that I rather see the X Division gone for good than go on watching this once proud division and its talent be mocked week-in and week-out. This first episode of Impact Wrestling was one big misstep. There was only one part of the show that was interesting and that was seeing Mr. Anderson dressed up as Sting’s attire from the 80s and attacking the Icon. It was short yet very effective. My advice to TNA, if you are going to push that “Wrestling Matters Here” is more than just words, actually dedicate more time to actual wrestling rather than promos and backstage segments. Also one more thing, get a new creative team. Sorry for the long-winded rant dear readers, really needed to get that off my chest. That is all for May 22nd. Hope everybody enjoys Over the Limit this weekend and have a fun and safe long weekend. Cheers.
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