TNA Impact review and wrestling news - 2/4/10

This may be a long post. Just warning you.

First off, Impact. This was a pretty good Impact, for the the most part. Our first match of the night, at the top of the show no less, was Brutus Magnus and Ken Anderson in an Eight Card Stud tournament qualifier. Anderson won this pretty easily. His push in TNA appears to continue. After that we had Hernandez and Matt Morgan defending the Tag Titles against Team 3D. This was a good match. Team 3D lost due to interference from the Nasty Boys, but after the match Morgan and Hernandez helped 3D fight the Nasties off, and the two teams exchanged fist bumps. Good to see.

Our next match saw Samoa Joe basically squash Jesse Neal. I was glad to see Joe get a strong victory, as he hasn't had one lately, but I didn't like seeing Neal get squashed. I think he could have potential.

Match number four was AJ Styles vs. the Pope, D'Angelo Dinero in a non-title match. This was easily the match of the night. Lots of great action from two crazy guys willing to put it all on the line for the fans. I remember when pretty much every match was like that in TNA. But I digress. Dinero actually managed to steal a win here after countering an attempted suplex with an inside cradle. As soon as the bell rang, Ric Flair dived into the ring and he and a shocked AJ proceeded to beat the pulp out of the Pope. This prompted Samoa Joe to run back out. He came to Pope's defense and eventually the two of them tossed AJ and Flair out of the ring. Joe then got on the mic and called AJ out. He accused AJ of going soft and forgetting what it means to be a warrior. This set up what will hopefully be a great program between these two yet again.

Next we had another Eight Card Stud qualifier, between Kurt Angle and Tomko. Angle won this after multiple German suplexes and application of the ankle lock. This match was not what it could have been. Maybe it was just because I'd just watched the AJ/Pope match, but this seemed slow. Angle looked good, but Tomko needs to tighten his game up. I've been a fan of his ever since he started in TNA, but he seems to have lost a step, and gained a few pounds. A little time in the gym and some extra time in the ring would do him good.

Next we had Tara defending the Knockout Championship against Angelina Love. The match was solid, but I couldn't help but be distracted by the big blur over Tara's chest. Apparently she had a bit of nipple pop out during the match. It was like that for a good half the match and all of the aftermath. Why didn't anyone say something to her? Anyway, Tara won the match, and afterward the Beautiful People came out to attack Angelina. I'm glad they let this match end clean. I expected Angelina to lose because of the Beautiful People. Tara helped Angelina fight the Beautiful People off, and that was pretty much that.

Finally came the main event, our seventh match of the night! I hope the powers that be in TNA decide to give us this many matches on a more regular basis. My only problem is the ridiculous policy of going to commercial during the matches! But anyway, our main event, Kevin Nash vs. Mick Foley. This match came about after a segment earlier in the night where Foley and Bischoff had another argument in the ring. Fighting Nash was basically Foley's punishment. I really hate the wrestler vs. boss angle. I didn't like it when it was Austin vs. McMahon and I still don't like it now, but I suppose it's going to continue as long as Bischoff is holding Abyss's job over Foley's head.

The match, which was no disqualification, was pretty terrible. Now, I'm a huge fan of both Mick Foley and Kevin Nash. Always have been, always will be. I even got to meet Nash once, and he was pretty cool. But these two guys are so broken down that putting them in a match against each other was just a bad idea. There was no one to carry the match. All we got was some sloppy shots with chairs and a barbed wire bat, some minor offense by Foley, and then an out-of-nowhere big boot from Nash. Nash won the match. Afterwards, Hall and Waltman showed up again, but this time they jumped Nash. Not really sure where that's going, since Nash has been the one guy in the company that keeps going to bat for them, but whatever.

Non-match segments included more development of the issues between Angle and Hogan. Apparently Angle believes Hogan asked Hall and Waltman to attack him last week. Of course, Hogan denies this. I wonder if this is leading to an actual program between Angle and Hogan. So far it hasn't looked like Hulk has any interest in getting into the ring in TNA. I'd like to see him wrestle again, but the problem is that ever since he's been in the company, he really hasn't acted at all like Hulk Hogan, or even Hollywood Hogan. He's pretty much just acted like Terry Bollea, and Terry Bollea is kind of an ass.

Overall this was a really good Impact. Lots of quality matches, even though the main event was weak. I'm still very worried about the direction Hogan is taking TNA, though.

Now for some quick tidbits going on in the world of wrestling.

I read a bit of news concerning Hogan's frustration with TNA. Well guess what, Hulk? The fans aren't all dancing in the aisles right now either. Apparently Hogan is upset because he's not being allowed to push everyone he wants to. Dixie Carter has said that she doesn't want any/all of the TNA originals being buried, but Hulk just isn't high on all of them. He said he liked Tomko, because at least Tomko looked like a wrestler. This is not something I like hearing. This makes me think that Hogan feels the same way Vince McMahon does, that all wrestlers should be big men. I don't have a problem with big men, if they can move well, but you have to have smaller guys as well! Look at the success of the X Division. They're mostly all smaller guys, and they're also pretty much what put TNA on the map. Look at how successful the Knockouts have been. With the exception of Awesome Kong and maybe ODB, you couldn't call any of them big men. Big women? Either way, they're all smaller technical or high flying wrestlers, and they often have the highest rated segments of the night. And you can't say that's because they're hot, because if that were all it was then WWE's Divas would be just as highly rated.

And hey, look back further. Look at the success of WCW's Cruiserweight Division! That was so over they made them their own tag division, much like TNA's Knockouts now. I just don't want to see Hogan throwing his weight around and turning TNA into a WWE clone. They're successful because they're different. Big men are fine, but don't hold back smaller guys just because the big men can't keep up.

One last bit, it seems WWE is getting rid of their version of ECW, and I say good riddance. It was actually a good show, the few times I watched it, but I always hated that they had the nerve to call a show ECW. ECW, the real ECW back in the day, was something special. This show that WWE ran on Tuesday nights was decent, but it was not ECW. Apparently WWE plans on replacing the show with a new thing called NXT, for the next generation of wrestlers.

Only one problem with that. There's already a company called NXT Wrestling. They're based out of Scotland, and have been around since 2007, I believe. And NXT out of Scotland uses the next generation gimmick as well. Of course, this won't stop WWE from just doing whatever they want anyway. But when WWE NXT starts airing, just remember that the entire concept of the show is ripped off from another company.

My 1,000th comic!

If any of you read my first handful of posts, you know that I had at the time 999 comic books in my collection, and had talked about ordering my thousandth. Well, here it is! Gambit, vol. 3, #1.



There were five different covers for this comic, the ace, king, queen, jack, and ten variants. I got the ace cover. So now I have one thousand comic books, and I just wanted to share that with you.

George Lucas on The Daily Show

It came to my attention today that George Lucas was on The Daily Show last month. If you didn't see it, or just want to see it again, you can do so here.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
George Lucas
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

I thought it was a great interview, myself. John Stewart, aside from being funny and very good at his job, is obviously a big Star Wars fan. I especially liked what George had to say about people liking or not liking the new trilogy.

Movie review: Legion

Hey, look, a review for a movie that's actually still in theaters! Cool. Okay, let's get to it.

As far as horror/action movies go, I can't say this movie was bad, but I certainly can't say it was great, either. The very premise of the movie, that God is sick of humanity and decides to kill us all off with angels, is out there at best. Apparently there's a baby about to be born, one that will somehow save mankind, and the angel Michael decides to defy God and come to earth to make sure that baby is born. The other angels, by possessing ordinary humans, are trying to kill the unborn baby, and anyone else who gets in the way. So Michael, the mother, and the people who just happen to be at the diner in the middle of nowhere the mother works at have to defend themselves from the angels until the baby is born. With guns. Lots and lots of guns.

The movie tries to flesh out the other characters, but ultimately fails. Why does the one guy have a hook for a hand? We don't know. Why is one guy going through custody issues, and why does he carry a gun? We never find out. There's a lot of stuff like this. We also never find out exactly what the significance of the baby is. Is he somehow holy? Well, that's doubtful, since the forces of Heaven are trying to kill him. But how, then, is he supposed to lead mankind out of the darkness? Wouldn't that be something God would be down for? At one point in the movie Michael tells another character to "find the prophets," and "learn to read the instructions". There's a brief reference later to the instructions being the angelic tattoos all over Michael's body (and that somehow manage to appear on a human for no apparent reason), but there is no mention at all of any prophets. None. They're not brought up again. Was this something the writers just forgot about? If I buy the inevitable extended director's cut DVD, will this be explained?

And on top of all of that, the dialogue was not great. A lot of unnecessary cursing. I'm not opposed to foul language in a movie, and this was rated R after all, but these lines sounded like they were written by an eight year old kid who just discovered swear words.

All of these problems aside, though, it was still worth a watch. But I wouldn't pay full price in the theater for it. If you can catch a matinee showing, go for it. Or maybe wait for it to hit second run theaters, it probably won't be long now. Or you could just wait for the DVD and rent it. There were some good actors in the movie, and they made the best of what they had to work with. The action scenes were decent, even if there weren't enough. Just don't expect it to be a riveting story. It's basically Terminator with a lot of underdeveloped characters and subplots. And a questionable religious angle.

Oh, I almost forgot. The one really awesome thing about this movie? I saw a trailer for the new A-Team movie in front of it! That looks awesome!

Movie review: Stan Helsing

Stan Helsing is a horror movie spoof, lampooning tons of recent and classic horror films. In the movie, Stan is a video store clerk trying to deliver some videos while on his way to a Halloween party with his friends. They get lost in the sticks and have to go up against parodies of such greats as Freddy, Jason, Pinhead, Chucky, and more. As spoofs go, it's a pretty good one. Lots of great laughs, and some hot women as well. There's one thing all truly great spoofs have in common, and this one is no different. That thing is Leslie Nielsen. His role in this movie is relatively small, but memorable.

If you spot this movie in a five dollar bin somewhere, it's definitely worth picking up. It may even be worth a bit more than that. Or if you are just bored and are looking for something funny to rent, this is a good choice.

Movie review: The Haunting of Molly Hartley

I like horror movies. That is to say, I try to like horror movies. So many of them simply don't live up to their expectations, and this one was no different. The basic premise of the movie was good. Molly's parents made a deal with the forces of evil to save her life as an infant. In return, she would be taken by the evil on her eighteenth birthday. This much I got just out of the commercial. Unfortunately, the movie itself never brought any of this up for at least the first half of the film! For all I knew, I could have been watching any teen drama, as all the movie dealt with was Molly moving to a new school. All of the scares were fairly cheap, people popping out from around corners and that sort of thing, and had nothing to do with the story.

Even when things started to get rolling, they still didn't make much sense. It was never explained what exactly was going to happen to Molly on her birthday, nor was it explained exactly who the people were that were behind it. Was it the devil? Was it witches? Demons? Some cult? You never find out. Even the ending, which I won't spoil for you, wasn't entirely clear.

It's movies like this one that re-enforce my rule when it comes to horror flicks. Always watch them before you buy them! They often turn out to suck.

Pro Bowl results

So I have a confession to make. I did wind up watching most of the Pro Bowl. But it wasn't by choice! I was over at my buddy Shin DT's place, and he was watching the game. The AFC won, which was nice, and it was good to see Chad Ochocinco make some good plays. Too bad he didn't get a chance to score, though. The celebration would have been awesome, I'm sure. I didn't catch who won MVP, but oh well.