TNA Impact Wrestling Review for the 12th April 2012 episode.

The opening for this episode sees a replay of Hulk Hogan announcing the stipulation for the Bischoff family feud at Lockdown.

Eric Bischoff makes his way to the ring. He insults the fans, before talking about how Hogan and Garrett feel like they’re in control. Eric tells the fans he’ll have a legacy in this business because he is a leader, before introducing his team for Lockdown: Bully Ray, Gunner, Daniels and Kazarian. Bully says he is proud to be on his team, but Eric made 1 mistake: Garrett. Eric tells him, he knows they’ll take care of that mistake. Garrett comes out and tells his Dad, that his own team is chomping at the bit, before introducing his first pick: Miiiiiiiiiiister Annnnderrrrrrrrrson! (…..Anderson).

After a commercial, it’s Mr Anderson vs Gunner, in the first match in a best of 3 series between Garrett and Eric team members. Winner of this gets a man advantage at Lockdown. Anderson really took the fight to Gunner, even seeing it spill outside. Gunner opened the wound from last week (when Bobby Roode bottled Anderson), which caused Anderson to snap and choke Gunner out in the corner, getting disqualified. Strange match, but Eric’s team are 1 up.

Backstage Eric Young is talking about his wedding, and how good he looks. Joseph Park enters the room, and asks Eric if he’s thought of getting a pre-nup…in typical EY fashion, he replies “no, we have thought of getting another dog though”. Joseph then asks about Abyss, as Young has been in the company for so long, and the groom tells him how Abyss did get involved with Immortal. Maybe a sign this storyline will FINALLY go somewhere?? I hope so.

Back to the ring, and the Motorcity Machine Guns are on the mic. Chris Sabin discusses how injury has plagued them, but they’re now gunning for the titles. Alex Shelley mentions how the Guns have been a team longer than the Champs, beaten better teams, and jokes how the Champs are “not fighting Curry Man and Shark Boy”. This brings out Samoa Joe and Magnus, with the Brit telling them he respects them, and this Sunday will be a battle of two of the best teams on the planet. Magnus suggests they fight right now, but before they can do anything, Mexican America come out. Anarquia reminds everyone how Mexican America were Tag Champs for 6 months, and want in. These causes both the Champs and their challengers to beat down a member of Mexican America, to show the other team what they can do.

Time for match 2 in the best of 3 Bischoff Teams battle, and it’s Daniels vs the 2nd addition to Garrett’s team: Austin Aries! Aries had the tens and tens of people in the Impact Zone behind him as he out-manoeuvred Daniels, until Daniels dropped A-Double on the turnbuckle. The match goes back and forth till Daniels misses a BME, and Aries hits two dropkicks before a Brainbuster to make it 1-1. Good match, would love to see these 2 fight again.

Jeff Hardy makes his way to the ring as the cage is being set up for the wedding. He talks about how his feud with Kurt Angle started because of Kurt costing him the World Title, and it will end in a cage. Hardy mentions they have history and will hurt each other, it’s envitable and he loves it. Seems crazy to have what felt like it should have been a backstage segment, in the ring.

Speaking of backstage segments, we cut to one off air from last week, with James Storm and Montgomery Gentry. Storm tells Bobby Roode he’s sick and tired of him, and Roode will find out Nashville is Storm’s town. Then Montgomery Gentry say they want revenge at the Pay Per View too.

Once again, we cut back to Eric Young who is psyching himself up, until Rosita and Sarita enter his room. They reckon he’s only marrying ODB as he has the titles with her. If he lost the titles, he could walk away from her, but marrying her means he won’t be able to. They open their robes to try to tempt him, but he says no, and leaves.

Now it’s time for the wedding between Eric Young and ODB. Important notes out the way now, Eric wore a baby blue tuxedo, and nerd style glasses, while ODB was in a camo style wedding dress. The vicar runs through the usual spiel that happens at weddings, before we see a video of the couple’s best bits, to a cheesy boyband style song. For their vows, EY promises to always be there for ODB, even when she farts, ODB promises to take his ring music rather than last name, and slap his ass often. When the vicar asks if anyone knows why they shouldn’t wed, Rosita and Sarita come out. They recommend showing Eric what a real Knockout looks like, and take off their robes, both in lingerie. Ay carumba!! ODB tells Eric, she doesn’t have what they do, but she does have something better, and strips down to her underwear. Eric tells her, she’s perfect for him, and he just realised what will make this wedding perfect, and strips down to boxer shorts, before they make the vicar do the same. The best part of the wedding for me, when the vicar asked “Do you take this person to be..”, the fans chanted “YES! YES! YES! YES!”. They finished off the wedding, which some may felt a stupid segment. It was, but it was funny at the same time. I love their gimmicks and think they are great together, so I loved this!

2 backstage segments now. First off, Team Eric are talking, and Ric Flair tells Bully Ray that the team needs the win tonight, and he doesn’t need anyone having his back. Then we see Bobby Roode, saying he has no problem with meeting James Storm face to face tonight, but in 3 days, it’s personal.

The rubber match between Team Eric and Team Garrett took place, as Bully Ray took on the 3rd addition to Garrett’s team: the Phenomenal, AJ Styles! Both teams and leaders were at ringside. Bully tried to keep AJ grounded, everytime he tried to battle back, Bully would stop him. AJ finally battled back, and hit a huricanrana off the top rope, impressive to see on a guy of Bully’s size. Kazarian tried to trip AJ, which started a brawl outside between all wrestlers at ringside. As that happened, Eric Bischoff slipped Bully Ray’s chain to him and he used it on AJ, to pin him. Decent expected ending to a good match.

Hulk Hogan made his first (and only) appearance of the night. He congratulated Eric on the win, and said he saw how it happened. Now, I expected Hogan to reverse the decision like he did with Bobby Roode/Mr Anderson last week, but he didn’t. Instead, he announces it will be 5 vs 5 at Lockdown, while warning Eric just 3 minutes to decide. After a short break, Eric tells Ric Flair he knows Hogan will put himself on the other team, and that Flair can beat him, before changing his mind and putting himself in the team. Hogan tells Eric that he’s too predictable, and he won’t be in the match, as he is taking his General Manager position serious. He allows Garrett to announce the 5th member to his team: Rob Van Dam!

We’re treated to another video promoting James Storm and Bobby Roode at Lockdown. The ending of this video has Storm saying “10 years to build a company, 4 years to build a friendship and 1 bottle to ruin it all….but in 3 days, the bullshit stops”. Great comment to end the video, but amused me how bullshit wasn’t censored, yet when it was said earlier on, it was blanked out (as well as the word “ass”, yet Mr Anderson is fine to say asshole).

Knockouts action time, as Knockouts Champion Gail Kim teamed with “on again, off again BFF”, Madison Rayne took on Mickie James and the number 1 contender, Velvet Sky. Decent little match, seeing the women change over who was in the ring, until both Rayne and Kim gain momentum, keeping Mickie in. As Gail goes to attack Mickie in the corner, she misses, allowing the hot tag to Velvet. Velvet took down Gail, and Madison breaks the count. Velvet DDT’s Madison and Gail tries to escape, before Mickie stops her, throwing the Knockouts Champ back in. Gail tries to hit Eat Defeat, Velvet blocks it and hits the In Yo Face to pick up a big win over the woman she faces at Lockdown!

Final segment of the show sees James Storm and Bobby Roode in a face to face confrontation. Storm talks about a story of them taking a trip to Japan, where they discussed how cool it would be for one of them to fight for the World Title, before running through Beer Money’s accomplishments. Roode says he won’t pretend Beer Money never happened, as it was a proud moment in his life, but it was also a proud moment winning the Bound for Glory series. Roode talks about facing Kurt Angle that night, while Storm did nothing, to which Storm replies “I watched you lose, and then less than a week later, I beat Angle in record time to become World Champion”. Roode counteracts with “Yeah, and 2 weeks later, I beat YOU for that title”. Storm mentions how that night, a tag team and a friendship were destroyed, but Roode tells him they were never friends, and that Storm is jealous of all Roode has done, to which the Cowboy denies it. Storm tells Roode, that where he comes from, family and friends still mean something, and that Roode does this for the money, while he does it for the love of wrestling, and the fans. Roode says he doesn’t give a damn about
any of that, and Storm tells him “You’ll need a miracle to get out of Nashville and out of that cage”. Roode tells Storm he’s sick of hearing about luck, and reminds Storm of the history of bad luck he’s suffered with the death of his father and 2 brothers, which infuriates Storm, and sees them go nose to nose as the show ends.

I actually really enjoyed this episode. First off, I’ve really enjoyed the feud between Bobby Roode and James Storm, and this go home show for Lockdown didn’t disappoint as far as those two are concerned. The back and forth discussion was good, and that last jab by Roode, while controversial, lit the torchpaper for Sunday. I can’t wait for their match. The wedding, while wacky, was fun. As I said above, I enjoy these 2, and was expecting a crazy wedding. This was crazier than I thought it would be, with a good addition from the lovely Mexican America mamacitas. While I’m bored of the Bischoff family feud, I felt this week was fine. It brought us some good action in the best of 3 matches, and hopefully after this weekend, one of the Bischoff’s is gone! Fingers crossed it’s Eric.

Thanks for taking the time to read this review, would love to read any thoughts or comments from you!

@GoofyVillain of @TheTopRope crew