TNA Impact Wrestling 11-19-14 - Spike TV Finale

It's hard to believe that in the fall of 2005, TNA hit Spike and it felt like such a breath of fresh air. The roster was young, the video packages were exciting, and the crowd was rabid. Now, nine years later, the company finds itself in a dire situation with a TV deal that may or may not be made with a station that is several layers below the Earth's core compared to Spike - and Spike hasn't had many signs of mainstream life since losing UFC outside of last Saturday's Bellator. TNA really couldn't be leaving the network at a worse time since the network could very well rebound and find itself with Brock Lesnar on the Viacom payroll. While Lashley's future is secure, I'll sure miss Devon randomly in the crowd at Bellator during the Aces and 8s angle, or Taryn as a ring girl...that was not the worst thing ever. Last week's show went off the air without a mention of this being it for TNA on Spike, but they did tease MVP doing SOMETHING that would in theory be an on-air reason for them to be kicked off the station I guess. They got their Destination America deal, so they're in theory safe for a while.

A weird echo-filled video airs recapping the Lashley-Roode rematch. MVP's crew's problems are recapped and we get more with the Angle-Lashley staredown and a recap of Lashley killing dudes last week. Tenay runs down tonight's KO and X Title matches. Roode comes out in ripped jeans and his shirt to start the FINAL FIRST-RUN IMPACT EVER ON SPIKE. Roode rambles on for a bit about having a true friend in EY and it not being about wrestling, HE WANTS A FIGHT with Lashley tonight. Lashley lightly jogs down to brawl with Roode. Lashley swings a chair and they separate them. Boy did this not do a damn thing for me, and I loved what they did last week and dig Roode. EC3 and his pompadour are with Tyrus talking about Spud and how he'll face him tonight to see if he's a man. Tenay says that Impact Wrestling will return on December 3 with a special look at 2014. Havok killing spree recap sets up the three-way title match really nicely. The music is so loud that it's drowning out the voice work in the video. Their match is next.

STORM SORRY/NOT SORRY stuff on sale on ShopTNA. Boy no thanks. Tenay plugs becoming a TNA-Lister. Months of this and I still have no idea why I should sign up. Taryn bounce out first. Taryn beating Madison to get this shot is recapped. Gail came out with her left shoulder taped and they talked about how destructive Havok ahs been. Story-wise, they've done a fantastic job putting Havok over as a killer despite the wonky timeline of her losing the title and then defending it and such. Gail hits forearms on Havok, but Havok hits both with a clothesline and corner charges them. Havok wheelbarrows Gail onto Terrell. Shoulder toss into the post from Havok, who then hits a bearhug slam to Terrell. Headscissors Octopus from Gail to Havok leads to a combo with the Muta lock! Double kick sends Havok out. Havok catches Taryn, but Gail dives off the apron and sends them both down - nice! Except for Gail almost DDTing Taryn right on the floor in the process.

 

 They come back and Gail gets 2 off a small package - Havok's still out on the floor. Kick to the gut sets up a Moonlight Drive from Terrell. Terrell headscissors Havok, but eats an electric chair drop to the barricade. Gail avoids this but eats a sick bearhug slam! God, the splat on this was just sickening - such a shame that move isn't in a game. Havok sends them in and gloats. Havok hits a splash off the second rope to both, but only gets 2 while Taz talks about his calendar collection. They try to send her to the floor like a battle royal and Gail does a legdrop-ish thing off the top. Taryn throws Gail in to continue the action. Corner press from Gail. They fight up top for a superplex, but Havok gets a sitout powerbomb variant of the tower of doom. Stacked splash misses and despite landing on her knees, Havok sells the belly. Taryn traps her setting up a Gail flying DDT. Each challenger gets 2 off a crossbody. Eat Defeat hits setting up a Cutter and Taryn cradles Gail to win - so the final KOs Champ on Spike wins it by beating the first KOs Champion. Taryn celebrated, but the crowd really didn't care beyond a little boy who was overjoyed. Kenny King was angry with MVP, who wants to prove he's more than just a manager.

They recap Joe's announcement and show off the graphic for tonight's X Title match, then go to a recap of the Roode-Lashley stuff earlier. Oh hey, Kenny King has a theme - good for him. Well, it's like 20 seconds repeated over and over. He's facing Chris Melendez here, and while we hear about what happened, we don't get a video recap. This match STARTS WITH A LOCKUP. Taz breaks down just how impressive it is for Chris to be as good as he is with one leg. Kenny gets cocky and goes to the floor, leading to an eye rake from King and a kick. Kenny gets a chinlock and some crossfaces. Melendez hits a kick with the fake leg and attacks with some clotheslines. Fisherman's suplex gets 2 for Chris and he's now able to bend the leg a bit on it, which is amazing. HELLUVA KICK IN THE CORNER WITH THE PROSTHETIC LEG! MVP attacks with a chair while wearing a goofy vertically-striped shirt and blue pants with a giant yellow M on the back. He destroyed the right leg and...yeah this was a lot better in theory than in execution due to what MVP was wearing. Spud in a new brick suit talked to the camera guy about giving Ethan what he wants tonight.

 

They recapped the Melendez-King match perfectly, putting Chris over huge. Kurt has NO IDEA WHAT HAPPENED. The doctor wants Chris to go to the hospital, "or at least get an MRI"...at the hospital. Ken wants to kick ass, but Kurt says he'll find MVP. This was a bit of a cluster and the acting was horrible. EC3 and Tyrus are out. Taz sings EC3's theme while he enters the ring. God, it's a shame he's hurt right now, because we might wind up getting a Tyrus push out of it. Tyrus looks fucking gigantic in there with EC3. EC3 cuts a silly promo and then Spud comes out while Taz talks about him having a set...of bad suits, and cites the brick suit. EC3 has Tyrus leaves and THEN the crowd chants "you can't wrestle." Spud mans up and EC3 says that he ruined Spud's life and it entertains him so much. He'll give Spud the first shot and begs him to hit him. "Mr. Carter, I'm not going to hit you in the face - I'M GONNA KICK YOU IN THE BALLS!" Tremendous. Spud got his ass kicked here, but it was glorious. Nasty landing for Spud right on his head off a go-behind toss. He goes for the 1%er, but Spud drops down, gets up and eats a lifting Samoan spike from Tyrus. EC3 got busted up during this and EC3 says he'll end Spud's career, but he'll start by cutting off his hair. He gets a bit of a haircut, but this felt like too much right now. Spud's also busted up a bit. Kurt yelled at Kenny and MVP jumped Kurt. This is where Kenny "WHAT DID YOU JUST DO!" thing from last week was from.

They recap the MVP-Kurt thing and someone with a generic theme comes out. It's Bram. Oh yeah, it's Bram-Dreamer. Video recap of his reign of terror set to a really cool song. They do some shit and Dreamer dives to the floor off the apron. Basic weapon shit and Bram says WHO'S HARDCORE! Dreamer gets punched and busted open. Suplex on the floor. Whatever. This is like a WWA hardcore match from 2001. They come back for step shots and "I YAM BRAM!" He rubs Dreamer's blood on his chest - well, that I dig. Dreamer avoids a shot and regroups. He squeals and hits a clothesline. Side Russian legsweep gets 2. They do a slow-mo atomic drop on the chair for Bram. Nice diving Hart Attack off the second rope from Dreamer - I'll be damned, for the first time in 15 years, HE INNOVATED VIOLENCE! T-N-A tree of woe dropkick with the can. It actually got a chant, so hell, keep him on the active roster because they crowd cares about this. Toss on the chair from Bram gets 2. Double juice mid-card match here.

 

 Dreamer's DDT gets 2. Dreamer gets a chair wrapped in barb wire. Magnus jumps him and hits whatever his Mark of Excellence is called. They attack him, probably for wearing Twitter pants. Another generic theme hits and Al Snow comes out looking more ripped than ever. Taz outright asks what he's on and he sends Magnus to the back. Dreamer eats the barb wire chair in the corner and loses to an impaler DDT. Well, this over-delivered. I was dreading it going in because I'm just tired of these matches, but this wound up being a lot of fun and kudos to Tommy for actually innovating some violence. Kurt swears vengeance on MVP. X Title match is next, and the main event will be him doing something with MVP.

Recap of Storm's cash-in, which I completely forgot about - so this was wisely put in the show. Manik met with Shera, who asked why Storm doesn't like it. Manik and his stupid mask alongside an #XCHAMPISCROWNDED hashtag tells Shera that all Storm needs is for him to awaken. DJZ starts this off and man is he a fun act. TIGER ONE follows him and then Manik before Low-Ki comes out last. Tenay talks about Ki teaming with Joe to get the tag titles, but now he finds himself trying to replace Joe as champion. Tenay says it's been EIGHT YEARS since he was X Champion - back when they were doing those goofy skits burying the X guys for having no personality. EIGHT YEARS. Uno does a wacky run-up kick for 2 on DJZ. Tenay puts over the Amazing Race. I guess they're going to wait until the final week to do the Destination America plug, which is a mistake since this is the last first-run show. During a surfboard, Z went for a cover and Ki hit the stomp for 2! That ruled. Everyone falls to the floor so Uno can be caught for a corkscrew dive.

 

 

 Ki gets shoved off leaving to a DJZ DDT, a Manik dive, and Uno getting 2. Uno and Ki fight up top leading to a SUPER KI CRUSHER ON UNO FOR THE WIN. Well, that damn sure should've been the finish and it was. Not the best match on Earth, but fun to watch. Ki was almost crying over the win. Amid all the issues, Low-Ki's return to TNA has been a feel-good story for the company this year. The X Title really needs to be booked stronger next year, because against Lucha Underground, just doing highspots won't work. MVP calls Lashley to get him back in the fold. MVP wants to burn this place to the ground if they don't get what they want. It's 10:50 and Kurt's headed to the ring...for a break.

THE POPULAR VELVET MECHANIC is on sale. Kurt comes out at 10:55 and they recap the MVP-Kurt thing. At least they've got a top-level program for the Destination America debut...and a World title program too. Kurt talks about telling MVP to stop talking, and he'll have to consult the board of directors about what to do with MVP. MVP's theme thankfully cut him off as he kept losing his train of thought. MVP talked about Kurt being a former world champion and Olympic gold medalist who is now reduced to calling his mama to protect him from MVP. MVP is sick of the company. Boy, this might've been a really fun program when MVP was on the rise in '07. Now, we're going to get it in 2015 - roughly EIGHT YEARS LATER. Kurt says he's not going to fire MVP, HE'S GONNA FIGHT MVP ON THE FIRST SHOW OF THE YEAR...in theory. He just brawls a bit with him now before King comes out. MVP attacks and then shoves Kenny aside. Driveby to Kurt is now called the Blackout. Anderson fights Kenny King. GODDAMMIT NO, KEN ANDERSON IS BACK AS A MAIN EVENTER! Lashley attacks Anderson and here comes Roode. He beats up Kenny and stares down Lashley while they brawl and say Roode-Lashley III is inevitable. They hype up the first best of show, and it should be a good one.

Screens -
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