Saturday, January 28 2012 saw TNA return to Wembley Arena for their fourth “Maximum Impact” show… a show that was switched to a TV taping about three weeks beforehand. Two episodes of Impact, which will air in the first two weeks of February on Spike TV in the US and on Challenge TV in the UK. Spoilers – albeit badly-written, done on a phone as the show went on – lie after the break…
There were lot of seats tarped off at the back of the arena. If sold out, crowd will be around 7,000 (and there were empties even after they covered off a lot of seats).
Dixie came out before the show to thank us all. Crowd booed the mention of the TNA German and french TV partners. The show had a very basic stage, which will come across as extremely weird and possibly even low-rent in comparison to the on-the-road Impact tapings they’ve already done in the US. No entrance videos for anyone, as the video screen (in the photo) only showed the Impact Wrestling logo on a loop, and there was no place for the commentators, with neither Tazz or Mike Tenay in the UK.
February 2nd show
Bully Ray and Bobby Roode come out for a show-opening interview. Roode calls out Storm, who is followed by Sting who announces a four way main event for Against All Odds: Roode, Ray, Storm and Hardy for the title. Sting also booked Roode vs Storm and Ray vs Storm tonight (I thought Sting was a babyface GM?)
1. Magnus & Samoa Joe vs Matt Morgan & Crimson in a  Buckingham Brawl. The rules were that the winners of the coin-toss had a 2-on-1 advantage the whole time, whilst the losers had to tag in and out. Joe and Magnus won the toss (albeit after Borash threw the coin out of the ring in error!)
Magnus and Joe win a decent, if not confusing match, after Magnus hits the knees off the top to Morgan.
2. Austin Aries beat Mark Haskins by submission. Haskins botched a shooting star press Lesnar style (Haskins got a minor concussion after this, which will probably air knowing TNA’s history!). Brainbuster followed by a roll into submission. Haskins was helped to the back after the match.
3. Bobby Roode beat James Storm with a spear after interference from Ray in a very good match. Ray and Roode attacked Storm post match, Sting made the save.
Eric and Garrett Bischoff segment. They’ll reveal who trained Garrett. My money’s on Hogan. Cornette Face made an appearance here, for those Botchamania fans!
4. Tara beat Gail Kim with Widow’s Peak. Some botched moves, and interference gone wrong from Madison Rayne led to the finish.
5. James Storm beat Bully Ray after a super kick. Storm had taped ribs, Roode and Sting came out during the match to interfere and prevent it… Sting fended off Roode with a black cricket bat to prevent Roode interfering in the finish.
Main event segment: Garrett came out to announce his trainer. Eric and Gunner came out to mock… but in the end Hulk Hogan is revealed as Garrett Bischoff’s trainer. Insert joke here.
February 9th show
1. Daniels beat AJ Styles after hitting him with brass knuckles during an attempted Styles Clash. Daniels had thrown the knux to Kazarian at ringside, who acted conflicted when it came to throwing the knux back in.
Interview segment with Ray, Roode. Sting comes out and adds himself as enforcer at PPV. Books Ray and Roode vs Storm and Sting for the main event.
2. Alex Shelley beat Doug Williams and Austin Aries in a 3 way, pinning Aries with the Sliced Bread after Aries had kicked Williams low following a Chaos Theory on Shelley.
Magnus and Joe promo. Huge pop for Magnus who did a patriotic speech, ending with a line: “this is England”. They challenge Crimson and Morgan to the titles at the ppv. Champions come out and send them packing.
3. Velvet Sky beat Mickie James. Crowd did not know what to make of this face vs face match. Sky won with an inside cradle.
Segment with Garrett and Hogan. Crowd turned on Garrett after he got the Hulk Hogan seal of approval. Wonder if this will be edited, as nobody seemed to care about Garrett for the entire night, and when they tried to force him down our throats, well… you know the rest! Hogan announced Garrett vs Gunner for Against All Odds. Eric then low blowed Hogan, and Gunner / Eric took out Garrett. Hulk hulked up, and tosses out Garrett. This storyline is not going to go well…
4. Main event: Sting and Storm beat Roode and Ray when Sting made Roode tap to the Scorpion Deathlock. Ray teased interfering but bailed on Roode.
Slow paced match, but the crowd liked it. Everyone seemed really burned out at this point though.
Good show all in. Hogan and Sting got the biggest reaction. The lack of an interval between shows killed the crowd towards the end of show 2. No Angle or Flair for the tapings (Hardy had been announced in the week-long media build as not appearing – likely due to his recent stint in jail), which was surprising. Pretty much two Impacts using what would have been the house show crew, plus a few names.
Kurt Angle did come out after the tapings finished, interrupting after a Sting promo (typical “thank you” to the fans – Sting announced here that he’d “blown out his heel” in the match, and he was visibly limping). Angle, Ray and Roode beat down Storm and Sting, before Hogan came out to make the save and do his posedown routine to send everyone home happy.
More photos available on Facebook via Wrestling-Online.com.
