Loved the NS recap - especially since it kept Hogan's wacky bullshit in and the FIST BUMP. Good promo from Aries, and Hardy's painted up like an orange. Not a bad look for him. His arm must be damaged though because he didn't quite finish the paint job. Bully's out, blaming everyone but himself, and Aries brought up that he beat him via tapout, which I love. And it's gonna be Hardy-Bully tonight...so they did a show-long injury angle on the PPV just to no-sell it four days later. What a waste of time and money that wound up being. Bully freaking out over Hardy taking his shirt off, then shutting up when Hardy's theme hit was amusing.
X Title match time. Sonjay is for some reason, the number 1 contender, DESPITE LOSING CLEAN. Great little message from Tenay and Taz about King. Very classy move. Loved Taz calling it a video game match after Sonjay did an Asai moonsault 20 seconds in. Ion did the Rings of Saturn, which I'll dub the Rings of Sassoon. Nice post-match attack - they at least tried to get over a new move and further him being a killer. IT WOULD HELP IF HE WAS ACTUALLY ON TV TO KEEP THIS GOING! Zema's hairspray appears to be in a Campbell's soup can. Hogan made singles matches with the tag champs to determine what team they might face. Could be good, or not if they go with Hernandez to face Kaz.
Kurt met with AJ and threatened to wrestle, then Wes Brisco came back and looked younger because he wasn't in bright light that made his face look old. The Storm-Bully-Roode PPV video was way too hectic. Roode's promo was great, but Storm's stomping out to kick some ass was even better. I loved this. I was initially iffy about Aries winning and Roode-Storm not being for the title at BFG, but if any feud can go from world title to a grudge match and still feel as important, it's this one. Might as well use the title match to try and get Aries over as a legit main event star and then you've got some ready-made stuff after BFG.
BUY SIGNED TURNBUCKLES AND OTHER EXCLUSIVE COLLECTABLES! Loved them showing AJ beating Sting - made AJ seem like a big deal and the PPV itself to be a show where big things happen. AJ-Kaz is up, and the placement of that video was perfect. If Kaz wins, then he looks great because it establishes that he can beat a guy who was not only world champ, but who beat Sting. They did a crazy apron DDT/Michinoku Driver. They followed up that idiocy with Kaz doing a monkey flip on the floor - sending his own back on the ground and nearly leading to AJ falling right on Kaz's head. They're apparently going to have multiple matches before BFG on Spike - why not? They've got tons of people on the roster - might as well try to sell a couple of different styles on the pre-show if possible. AJ beat Kaz with the Clash, so they'll get a rematch. Hogan was being an overprotective dad to Brooke, but made sure to talk about how she has houses in NY and LA. And Joseph Park has evidence that he'll reveal next Thursday, and Hogan wants to BLOW UP THE ACES AND EIGHTS! Hulk Hogan, who I believe suspects that Joseph is Abyss, PUT A GUY WHO ENJOYS USING GLASS AND TACKS IN CHARGE OF PROTECTING HIS CHILD.
Bully met with Hardy and demanded that Hardy put his title shot on the line - and then tried to goat him into it with a guilt trip. Then Hardy 'woke up' from his painted-on daze and cut a drug promo and accepted. Hogan came out to say things, brother. Hogan's hyped up about the 12 SUPERHEROES WHO PUT IT ALL ON THE LINE for the BFG Series. He's fine with Hardy putting his shot on the line, which would sure seem to negate THE ENTIRE POINT OF THE BFG SERIES. Oh, and he's LOCKING DOWN THE IMPACT ZONE FOREVER! The Ace guy said that a guy in the front row could be one of them - I hope it's the guy in the wacky suit shirt. Goddamn that sucked.
Terrible editing on the recap video of what just happened. Hernandez and Chavo "acted". Chavo's been around forever and should be better at that. It's Chavo-Daniels, and Chavo's theme is still God-awful. Loved Taz's 'rat desperation" deal. Chavo beat Daniels in a match. Moves were done. No one cared until Chavo went for the cheap Eddie pop after the match. They kept playing Chavo's
ing theme to hype up the BFG contest. Evan Markopolous something is 18 and has been wrestling since he was 13. Seems likeable, if a bit too white meat.
Loved the Gail Kim BFG '07 video. Really made her seem like a big deal. Shame they screwed up the year and said it was '05 - kinda minor league there. They showed Tess on SI.com - great deal for her, also made her seem a bit more mainstream. Crowd's eating Tara's promo up. Tara played up being too nice, then strapped the belt on teasing throughout it that she was going to hit her with it. Then she let her parade around with the title, showing her ass off a ton before thwacking her with a lariat. YAY! Taz saying if you can't beat the champ, ya might as well strap her on was something else. They replayed an earlier Bully-Hardy video to hype up tonight's one.
Dixie returned to TV with no hype and is unhappy with a biker gang. Dixie is scared despite her hubby being able to kick the ass of a former world champ in AJ. D'Lo appeared on-camera for the first time in a while and they said that it could be SOMEONE IN THE ROOM, there's also a weird echo going on. There's banging that no one's reacting to despite EVERYONE BEING AFRAID OF THE A and 8s. Hulk Hogan is taking advice from D'Lo Brown. That's honestly something I never thought I'd see. That was wacky.
Time for the main event. Hardy had no trouble getting his giant rash guard shirt on and isn't showing any signs of injury despite the video saying HE HAD A SEPARATED SHOULDER. They did that stupid cut in for ten seconds shit for this. Bully and Jeff had every other TV/PPV match they've ever had. It wasn't bad, but it didn't feel special, especially for a main event for a title shot at the company's biggest show of the year. It did have a great near-fall with the swanton miss leading to the Bubba Bomb though. Hardy won after a Twist and swanton and for the first time in a long time, they actually went slightly over 10 PM.
Screens -
Bully bump -
Kaz killa
Could be anyone...
INCLUDING THIS GUY!
#hotheelturn