The show starts off with Dixie and Tenay giving us contradictory reasons for why everyone is standing around the ring. This doesn’t bode well.

OPENING SEGMENT- Hogan deal with a whole bunch of things at once, Jim Cornette style, which was good until they scared me hinting towards Hogan vs. Flair. Bobby Roode’s promo was eh, and they seem to have written themselves into a corner with this “Bobby Roode’s only contractual obligation is to defend the belt at Lockdown” thing (which is ridiculous for the reasons I explained two weeks ago) as there is now no kayfabe reason that Roode has to compete against Anderson tonight if he doesn’t want to.


JEFF HARDY vs. KURT ANGLE- 6.5/10

KURT & HOGAN BACKSTAGE- good logic, but Jeff seems content with his count-out victory (he should have been chasing Kurt if he wasn’t), so there doesn’t seem to be an actual need for this match.

FLAIR CALLS BISCHOFF- Ric Flair calls Eric Bischoff and talks to him on speaker phone for the benefit of the cameraman he doesn’t even know is snooping on him

BULLY RAY PROMO & SEGMENT WITH AUSTIN ARIES- good

STUFF WITH ABYSS’ BROTHER- this is getting old.

JAMES STORM & AJ STYLES BACKSTAGE- good

WINNER GETS A SHOT AT THE TNA KNOCKOUTS’ TITLE AT LOCKDOWN: Velvet Sky vs. Angelina Love vs. Tara vs. Winter vs. Mickie James vs. Madison Rayne- 4.75/10

KEN ANDERSON & BOBBY ROODE SEGMENT- Roode was eh. Anderson was good.

FOOTAGE OF JAMES STORM & JEFF HARDY AT THE ACADEMY OF COUNTRY MUSIC AWARDS- they want to show footage of this? Fine. But why is 80% of the footage of them hanging out with KISS? I don’t know much about music, but I’m pretty sure that KISS doesn’t qualify as “Country.”

ERIC YOUNG’S BACHELOR PARTY- what is the kayfabe reason for airing this? It makes no sense to for TNA to air something if there is no kayfabe purpose for them to air it. What is the kayyfabe reason for airing this? I’m 100% serious here. Why would the kayfabe wrestling company that is TNA Wrestling waste time on their TV show with this? Anyway, this, like everything else that EY has done for the past year or so, was crap.

JAMES STORM vs. AJ STYLES- 6.75/10

HOGAN & STING SEGMENT- dragged on for a whole minute, which was WAY too long. They just kept repeating the same things.

BOBBY ROODE MESSES WITH JAMES STORM’S COUNTRY MUSIC FRIENDS- en.

So Mexican America comes back after an absence and gets a World Tag Team Title shot. The Guns come back, which much more hype and fanfare… and have to wrestle Mexican America. Mexican America didn’t injure the Guns, so there is no grudge here. Also, Sarita & Rosita are now back with Hernandez and Anarquia. I guess they got super rich over the last two weeks. That or they have just decided to take the gold-diggers back because… they are as dumb as Zack Ryder, I guess.

MOTOR CITY MACHINE GUNES vs. MEXICAN AMERICA (w/Sarita & Rosita)- 5/10
Very good for how short it was. I think that having Mexican American in here was a mistake for a few reasons. First, this match should have been purely about MCMG showing off and getting their spots in. A nice re-introduction to the crowd (like the Briscoes’ first match back at ROH’s Fourth Anniversary Show). Hernandez and Anarquia are just too physically large for the Guns to dominate the way that they needed to dominate. Secondly, throwing them in there with Mexican America with no build at all eliminated the possibility of doing an angle where Mexican America take credit for Sabin’s injury, leading to a feud. I think it would have been better to take smaller team (like Mikey Nichols & Shane Haste, who are OVW guys that TNA seem to be high on as they have been used in anonymous bump-taking spots recently [one of them was Roode’s lawyer who got Superkicked by Storm, for example], who just got some iPPV exposure with ROH last week, and who aren’t too big for the Guns to believable dominate) and give them a bit of a tryout. If they impress, sign them. If they don’t, it doesn’t matter because they put the Guns over.

FLAIR & BISCHOFF- dumb and unnecessary. Flair seems just plain delusional here, and there was no point to this segment. All it did was tell the audience things we already know, and there was no reason why Flair and Bischoff couldn’t have had this conversation over the phone and off camera.

HULK HOGAN & ERIC BISCHOFF SEGMENT- So Gunner vs. Garrett at Lockdown becomes a team match in which it is Loser Leaves Town for Eric Bischoff and Garrett Bischoff (Hulk, of course, doesn’t seem to have consulted Garrett at all before putting his career on the line). Oh, and Eric Bischoff is putting the rights to his name on the line. Tenay assumes that this means it will be Lethal Lockdown (which is a reasonable assumption) but neither Hogan nor Bischoff ever said so, which seems like an important detail to leave out.


The ref orders Roode’s personal security to the back. Roode was just complaining that TNA was a hostile work environment, so h got himself some rent-a-cops. If TNA is trying to avoid a lawsuit or whatever from Roode, sending his rent-a-cops away from ringside is going to be counter-productive.

MR. ANDERSON vs. BOBBY ROODE- 5/10
WAY too short for a main event. And can we please give Bobby a clean win for once? After this, Hogan and Storm chase Bobby off and then Hogan reverses the decision. The problem wit this is that Hulk now needs to reverse the decision in every bit of cheating we see from now on, or else he is selectively enforcing the rules.

Overall, Impact was better than normal this week, especially in the ring, but I certainly wouldn’t dream of calling it “good.”

STUPID ANNOUNCER QUOTES:
1. Tenay “It’s not too often that someone stands up to the bully”- Yeah. Since he has started using this gimmick the only people to stand up to him aside from Aries have been Devon, Devon’s kids, AJ Styles, Mr. Anderson, Abyss, Sting, Jeff Hardy, James Storm, Brandon Jacobs, and Brian Kendrick… so… just about any babyface with whom he has had any sort of interaction.

1. KISS is a more recognizable group than any current Country Music stars; I'm guessing TNA noticed this and just used that footage so as not to make it look like Hardy and Storm were just hanging out with random ppl.

2. You're just not a fan of Eric Young it seems; I thought the segment was funny. WWE showed Steph's bachlorette party, so I had not problem with this. Esp considering the fact that THEY ARE GETTING MARRIED IN THE RING NEXT WEEK!

3. Mexican America and MCMG are the ONLY other tag teams in TNA besides the champs; that's why they're contenders. And Saben DID get injured during a match with Mexican America; they showed the clip right before the match.

4. How is the Abyss angle getting old? It's only been a few weeks? You don't wanna give it a little time? The one thing TNA at least tries to do that WWE almost never does is work an angle for several months, on the lowdown so ppl don't get too tired of it AND so there are things to reference when the angle comes to a head.

I'd say in the ring the show was good; the Hogan stuff was the bad parts of the show. Roode and Storm were good; I still love EY and ODB.

badnewzxl wrote:1. KISS is a more recognizable group than any current Country Music stars; I'm guessing TNA noticed this and just used that footage so as not to make it look like Hardy and Storm were just hanging out with random ppl.

2. You're just not a fan of Eric Young it seems; I thought the segment was funny. WWE showed Steph's bachlorette party, so I had not problem with this. Esp considering the fact that THEY ARE GETTING MARRIED IN THE RING NEXT WEEK!

3. Mexican America and MCMG are the ONLY other tag teams in TNA besides the champs; that's why they're contenders. And Saben DID get injured during a match with Mexican America; they showed the clip right before the match.

4. How is the Abyss angle getting old? It's only been a few weeks? You don't wanna give it a little time? The one thing TNA at least tries to do that WWE almost never does is work an angle for several months, on the lowdown so ppl don't get too tired of it AND so there are things to reference when the angle comes to a head.

I'd say in the ring the show was good; the Hogan stuff was the bad parts of the show. Roode and Storm were good; I still love EY and ODB.

2. I am a fan of EY, but his schtick has just gotten so damn old, and I absolutely hate this damn angle with him and ODB.
And if I remember correctly Steph's bachelorette party had a storyline purpose (what was when she got roofied by her friend so Hunter could take her to Vegas). Compare that to this, which had bearing on the angle whatsoever.

3. Sabin got injured during a match with Mexican America. He wasn't injured by them. Not even in a way they can kayfabe it. If you only have two tag teams, and one of your teams is returning from a long hiatus... give them a squash match against some actual jobbers.

4. It has been a lot more than that. And while yes, TNA has been working this angle for a while, it hasn't progressed at all since day one.
"Hello. My name is Joseph Parks. Have you seen my brother, Chris?"
"Who?"
"Abyss"
"No. Sorry. Haven't seen him"

Every damn week.

Big Red Machine wrote:

badnewzxl wrote:1. KISS is a more recognizable group than any current Country Music stars; I'm guessing TNA noticed this and just used that footage so as not to make it look like Hardy and Storm were just hanging out with random ppl.

2. You're just not a fan of Eric Young it seems; I thought the segment was funny. WWE showed Steph's bachlorette party, so I had not problem with this. Esp considering the fact that THEY ARE GETTING MARRIED IN THE RING NEXT WEEK!

3. Mexican America and MCMG are the ONLY other tag teams in TNA besides the champs; that's why they're contenders. And Saben DID get injured during a match with Mexican America; they showed the clip right before the match.

4. How is the Abyss angle getting old? It's only been a few weeks? You don't wanna give it a little time? The one thing TNA at least tries to do that WWE almost never does is work an angle for several months, on the lowdown so ppl don't get too tired of it AND so there are things to reference when the angle comes to a head.

I'd say in the ring the show was good; the Hogan stuff was the bad parts of the show. Roode and Storm were good; I still love EY and ODB.

2. I am a fan of EY, but his schtick has just gotten so damn old, and I absolutely hate this damn angle with him and ODB.
And if I remember correctly Steph's bachelorette party had a storyline purpose (what was when she got roofied by her friend so Hunter could take her to Vegas). Compare that to this, which had bearing on the angle whatsoever.

3. Sabin got injured during a match with Mexican America. He wasn't injured by them. Not even in a way they can kayfabe it. If you only have two tag teams, and one of your teams is returning from a long hiatus... give them a squash match against some actual jobbers.

4. It has been a lot more than that. And while yes, TNA has been working this angle for a while, it hasn't progressed at all since day one.
"Hello. My name is Joseph Parks. Have you seen my brother, Chris?"
"Who?"
"Abyss"
"No. Sorry. Haven't seen him"

Every damn week.

2. They still showed the parts with Mae Young and Fabulous Moolah; those had NO purpose...besides being funny. I LOVE the ODB/EY stuff.

3. I kinda see what you're saying, but obviously TNA wants to put them in a title match at Lockdown; so having them beat the "#1 Contenders" justifies their title shot.

4. It hasn't; look it up. It started on the 8th of March. Give it some time.

badnewzxl wrote:

Big Red Machine wrote:

badnewzxl wrote:1. KISS is a more recognizable group than any current Country Music stars; I'm guessing TNA noticed this and just used that footage so as not to make it look like Hardy and Storm were just hanging out with random ppl.

2. You're just not a fan of Eric Young it seems; I thought the segment was funny. WWE showed Steph's bachlorette party, so I had not problem with this. Esp considering the fact that THEY ARE GETTING MARRIED IN THE RING NEXT WEEK!

3. Mexican America and MCMG are the ONLY other tag teams in TNA besides the champs; that's why they're contenders. And Saben DID get injured during a match with Mexican America; they showed the clip right before the match.

4. How is the Abyss angle getting old? It's only been a few weeks? You don't wanna give it a little time? The one thing TNA at least tries to do that WWE almost never does is work an angle for several months, on the lowdown so ppl don't get too tired of it AND so there are things to reference when the angle comes to a head.

I'd say in the ring the show was good; the Hogan stuff was the bad parts of the show. Roode and Storm were good; I still love EY and ODB.

2. I am a fan of EY, but his schtick has just gotten so damn old, and I absolutely hate this damn angle with him and ODB.
And if I remember correctly Steph's bachelorette party had a storyline purpose (what was when she got roofied by her friend so Hunter could take her to Vegas). Compare that to this, which had bearing on the angle whatsoever.

3. Sabin got injured during a match with Mexican America. He wasn't injured by them. Not even in a way they can kayfabe it. If you only have two tag teams, and one of your teams is returning from a long hiatus... give them a squash match against some actual jobbers.

4. It has been a lot more than that. And while yes, TNA has been working this angle for a while, it hasn't progressed at all since day one.
"Hello. My name is Joseph Parks. Have you seen my brother, Chris?"
"Who?"
"Abyss"
"No. Sorry. Haven't seen him"

Every damn week.

2. They still showed the parts with Mae Young and Fabulous Moolah; those had NO purpose...besides being funny. I LOVE the ODB/EY stuff.

3. I kinda see what you're saying, but obviously TNA wants to put them in a title match at Lockdown; so having them beat the "#1 Contenders" justifies their title shot.

4. It hasn't; look it up. It started on the 8th of March. Give it some time.

2. Yes, the stuff with Mae and Moolah was unnecessary/painful to watch, but at least there was a storyline-relevant payoff. Kind of like all of those video packages with the Jarretts. They were annoying as hell and unnecessary, but at least they built to something that mattered (I didn't like what it built to, but a least it mattered).

3. How are Mexican America the #1 contenders? They just lost to the champs two weeks ago. And they didn't have to face anyone to get a title shot when they came back a few weeks ago. I think that the Guns are at that level where just the fact that they are coming back is enough to justify a title shot.

4. You are correct about the start take, but I feel that the fact that it hasn't progressed in any way at all since then has made the segments seem extremely dull and repetitive.

2. I see what you're saying; I just enjoy the both of them so much I LOVE their segments.

3. Bc THERE ARE NO OTHER TAG TEAMS! LOL, these are the only three. Since Mexican America were the only team around after Crimson and Morgan split, they're automatically the number one contenders. Since the Machine Guns are coming back, let the ONLY TWO OTHER TEAMS fight one another. It's pretty simple. Who else is there to face? Who else could be contenders? Of course they SHOULD have plenty of teams in contention, but they don't. What they did makes more sense than anything else they could have done. Throwing a random team together and just putting them on the same level as two teams that are former tag champs wouldn't make much sense, and besides that what options do you have besides what they actually did?

4. I can understand that you're getting tired of it; but it hasn't really been given the chance to go anywhere yet. Just bc it hasn't gone anywhere in a month doesn't mean it won't go anywhere. Look at how long it took them to make the Pope/Devon/Devon's kids angle to start it's rising action. If ppl REALLY liked Devon, that angle would have been huge bc it was a pretty good one. The problem was that nobody really gives a crap about Devon; but I liked what the angle did for Pope. They could have turned him into a major heel after that; TNA dropped the ball there. But without those weeks of gaining Devon's trust, Pope's eventual "turn" (which was more like him showing his true intentions) the angle would have been absolute crap. I like the ground work they're laying with the Chris Parks thing. I'm interested to see where it goes. The guy is obviously Abyss (and not just the same guy; I think he's spose to really be abyss, sneaking around backstage to test everyone and see who even remembered he was gone. Then he's going to reemerge and slaughter everyone for not caring about him)

badnewzxl wrote:2. I see what you're saying; I just enjoy the both of them so much I LOVE their segments.

3. Bc THERE ARE NO OTHER TAG TEAMS! LOL, these are the only three. Since Mexican America were the only team around after Crimson and Morgan split, they're automatically the number one contenders. Since the Machine Guns are coming back, let the ONLY TWO OTHER TEAMS fight one another. It's pretty simple. Who else is there to face? Who else could be contenders? Of course they SHOULD have plenty of teams in contention, but they don't. What they did makes more sense than anything else they could have done. Throwing a random team together and just putting them on the same level as two teams that are former tag champs wouldn't make much sense, and besides that what options do you have besides what they actually did?

4. I can understand that you're getting tired of it; but it hasn't really been given the chance to go anywhere yet. Just bc it hasn't gone anywhere in a month doesn't mean it won't go anywhere. Look at how long it took them to make the Pope/Devon/Devon's kids angle to start it's rising action. If ppl REALLY liked Devon, that angle would have been huge bc it was a pretty good one. The problem was that nobody really gives a crap about Devon; but I liked what the angle did for Pope. They could have turned him into a major heel after that; TNA dropped the ball there. But without those weeks of gaining Devon's trust, Pope's eventual "turn" (which was more like him showing his true intentions) the angle would have been absolute crap. I like the ground work they're laying with the Chris Parks thing. I'm interested to see where it goes. The guy is obviously Abyss (and not just the same guy; I think he's spose to really be abyss, sneaking around backstage to test everyone and see who even remembered he was gone. Then he's going to reemerge and slaughter everyone for not caring about him)

3. I don't think they are then, by default, the #1 contenders. We get random, thrown together teams tons of times. And Kaz and Daniels are a two person stable, so it shouldn't take much thinking to have them compete in the tag team division.

4. Pope & Devon's kids is another example of something that failed because it went nowhere. They didn't do anything with it for months, and didn't explain why Devon doesn't want his kids hanging around The Pope until the very end. Once they explained that and actually showed the Pope doing disreputable things, I LOVED the angle and actually thought that they blew it off too quickly.

Pope never really gained Devon's trust because Devon still didn't want the kids near him. It started in the summer, around the same time as the beginning of the BFG Series, and from that point all the way until mid-December, nothing happened. The kids thought Pope was cool, Devon didn't want them hanging out with Pope, and Pope tired to gain Devon's trust, but couldn't (on a personal level, at least- I think he trusted him professionally, as a tag team partner, but only because he knew that Pope wouldn't double-cross him because doing so might endanger Pope's influence over the kids). Then in mid-December we finally get some sort of reasoning for why Devon doesn't want the kids hanging around Pope. Then, within two weeks, the kids turn on Devon, then, two weeks after that, they blow the feud off and Devon's family is one big happy family again.
They could have run the same angle in the same length of time but paced it out much better. Have the differences between the two show over time until a match at BFG where the kids turn on Devon, costing him the match. Then have Pope treat the kids like lackeys and ocassiaonally smack them around when they screw up, with Devon trying to make the save until December when the kids turn babyface again by saving Devon from a beatdown, then blow it off in January.

Big Red Machine wrote:

badnewzxl wrote:2. I see what you're saying; I just enjoy the both of them so much I LOVE their segments.

3. Bc THERE ARE NO OTHER TAG TEAMS! LOL, these are the only three. Since Mexican America were the only team around after Crimson and Morgan split, they're automatically the number one contenders. Since the Machine Guns are coming back, let the ONLY TWO OTHER TEAMS fight one another. It's pretty simple. Who else is there to face? Who else could be contenders? Of course they SHOULD have plenty of teams in contention, but they don't. What they did makes more sense than anything else they could have done. Throwing a random team together and just putting them on the same level as two teams that are former tag champs wouldn't make much sense, and besides that what options do you have besides what they actually did?

4. I can understand that you're getting tired of it; but it hasn't really been given the chance to go anywhere yet. Just bc it hasn't gone anywhere in a month doesn't mean it won't go anywhere. Look at how long it took them to make the Pope/Devon/Devon's kids angle to start it's rising action. If ppl REALLY liked Devon, that angle would have been huge bc it was a pretty good one. The problem was that nobody really gives a crap about Devon; but I liked what the angle did for Pope. They could have turned him into a major heel after that; TNA dropped the ball there. But without those weeks of gaining Devon's trust, Pope's eventual "turn" (which was more like him showing his true intentions) the angle would have been absolute crap. I like the ground work they're laying with the Chris Parks thing. I'm interested to see where it goes. The guy is obviously Abyss (and not just the same guy; I think he's spose to really be abyss, sneaking around backstage to test everyone and see who even remembered he was gone. Then he's going to reemerge and slaughter everyone for not caring about him)

3. I don't think they are then, by default, the #1 contenders. We get random, thrown together teams tons of times. And Kaz and Daniels are a two person stable, so it shouldn't take much thinking to have them compete in the tag team division.

4. Pope & Devon's kids is another example of something that failed because it went nowhere. They didn't do anything with it for months, and didn't explain why Devon doesn't want his kids hanging around The Pope until the very end. Once they explained that and actually showed the Pope doing disreputable things, I LOVED the angle and actually thought that they blew it off too quickly.

Pope never really gained Devon's trust because Devon still didn't want the kids near him. It started in the summer, around the same time as the beginning of the BFG Series, and from that point all the way until mid-December, nothing happened. The kids thought Pope was cool, Devon didn't want them hanging out with Pope, and Pope tired to gain Devon's trust, but couldn't (on a personal level, at least- I think he trusted him professionally, as a tag team partner, but only because he knew that Pope wouldn't double-cross him because doing so might endanger Pope's influence over the kids). Then in mid-December we finally get some sort of reasoning for why Devon doesn't want the kids hanging around Pope. Then, within two weeks, the kids turn on Devon, then, two weeks after that, they blow the feud off and Devon's family is one big happy family again.
They could have run the same angle in the same length of time but paced it out much better. Have the differences between the two show over time until a match at BFG where the kids turn on Devon, costing him the match. Then have Pope treat the kids like lackeys and ocassiaonally smack them around when they screw up, with Devon trying to make the save until December when the kids turn babyface again by saving Devon from a beatdown, then blow it off in January.

3. I like that idea; I honestly forgot about the two of them. THEY could be contenders as well. But still, they aren't former champs, nor have they ever been contenders. Former champs should get the shot first, esp since Kaz and Daniles had just lost at Victory Road.

4. It was obvious why Devon didn't want his kids hanging out with the Pope; Devon thought Pope was a bad guy. All those months of "nothing happening" was Pope proving Devon wrong; showing that he wasn't up to anything sneaky. As time progressed, he started to show his sneaky side more and more (e.g. cheating to help Devon win points in the BFG series). He was being "good" so as to make Devon look like he was overreacting; but as it turns out, Devon was right not to trust Pope. TNA made us second guess Devon for months (btw, it went on for months bc the BFG series went on for months. Their entire angle started from there) just to send the simple msg of "father knows best." I don't see anything wrong with that.

I like simple angles a lot of times; super dramatic, over involved angles become too much too quickly (e.g. Punk/Jericho family angle; they should have just saved those parts for the lead up to Extreme Rulez, imo). One like Pope v. Devon or the Chris Parks thing are cool bc he don't have to really be on the edge of your seat to enjoy it.

badnewzxl wrote:

Big Red Machine wrote:

badnewzxl wrote:2. I see what you're saying; I just enjoy the both of them so much I LOVE their segments.

3. Bc THERE ARE NO OTHER TAG TEAMS! LOL, these are the only three. Since Mexican America were the only team around after Crimson and Morgan split, they're automatically the number one contenders. Since the Machine Guns are coming back, let the ONLY TWO OTHER TEAMS fight one another. It's pretty simple. Who else is there to face? Who else could be contenders? Of course they SHOULD have plenty of teams in contention, but they don't. What they did makes more sense than anything else they could have done. Throwing a random team together and just putting them on the same level as two teams that are former tag champs wouldn't make much sense, and besides that what options do you have besides what they actually did?

4. I can understand that you're getting tired of it; but it hasn't really been given the chance to go anywhere yet. Just bc it hasn't gone anywhere in a month doesn't mean it won't go anywhere. Look at how long it took them to make the Pope/Devon/Devon's kids angle to start it's rising action. If ppl REALLY liked Devon, that angle would have been huge bc it was a pretty good one. The problem was that nobody really gives a crap about Devon; but I liked what the angle did for Pope. They could have turned him into a major heel after that; TNA dropped the ball there. But without those weeks of gaining Devon's trust, Pope's eventual "turn" (which was more like him showing his true intentions) the angle would have been absolute crap. I like the ground work they're laying with the Chris Parks thing. I'm interested to see where it goes. The guy is obviously Abyss (and not just the same guy; I think he's spose to really be abyss, sneaking around backstage to test everyone and see who even remembered he was gone. Then he's going to reemerge and slaughter everyone for not caring about him)

3. I don't think they are then, by default, the #1 contenders. We get random, thrown together teams tons of times. And Kaz and Daniels are a two person stable, so it shouldn't take much thinking to have them compete in the tag team division.

4. Pope & Devon's kids is another example of something that failed because it went nowhere. They didn't do anything with it for months, and didn't explain why Devon doesn't want his kids hanging around The Pope until the very end. Once they explained that and actually showed the Pope doing disreputable things, I LOVED the angle and actually thought that they blew it off too quickly.

Pope never really gained Devon's trust because Devon still didn't want the kids near him. It started in the summer, around the same time as the beginning of the BFG Series, and from that point all the way until mid-December, nothing happened. The kids thought Pope was cool, Devon didn't want them hanging out with Pope, and Pope tired to gain Devon's trust, but couldn't (on a personal level, at least- I think he trusted him professionally, as a tag team partner, but only because he knew that Pope wouldn't double-cross him because doing so might endanger Pope's influence over the kids). Then in mid-December we finally get some sort of reasoning for why Devon doesn't want the kids hanging around Pope. Then, within two weeks, the kids turn on Devon, then, two weeks after that, they blow the feud off and Devon's family is one big happy family again.
They could have run the same angle in the same length of time but paced it out much better. Have the differences between the two show over time until a match at BFG where the kids turn on Devon, costing him the match. Then have Pope treat the kids like lackeys and ocassiaonally smack them around when they screw up, with Devon trying to make the save until December when the kids turn babyface again by saving Devon from a beatdown, then blow it off in January.

3. I like that idea; I honestly forgot about the two of them. THEY could be contenders as well. But still, they aren't former champs, nor have they ever been contenders. Former champs should get the shot first, esp since Kaz and Daniles had just lost at Victory Road.

4. It was obvious why Devon didn't want his kids hanging out with the Pope; Devon thought Pope was a bad guy. All those months of "nothing happening" was Pope proving Devon wrong; showing that he wasn't up to anything sneaky. As time progressed, he started to show his sneaky side more and more (e.g. cheating to help Devon win points in the BFG series). He was being "good" so as to make Devon look like he was overreacting; but as it turns out, Devon was right not to trust Pope. TNA made us second guess Devon for months (btw, it went on for months bc the BFG series went on for months. Their entire angle started from there) just to send the simple msg of "father knows best." I don't see anything wrong with that.

I like simple angles a lot of times; super dramatic, over involved angles become too much too quickly (e.g. Punk/Jericho family angle; they should have just saved those parts for the lead up to Extreme Rulez, imo). One like Pope v. Devon or the Chris Parks thing are cool bc he don't have to really be on the edge of your seat to enjoy it.

3. But the former champs (Mexican America) already got a shot ( a few weeks ago on Impact). Why should the gun have to go through them? The Guns are former champs, too.

4. This angle shouldn't have even been involved in the BFG Series in the first place, but even so, that doesn't mean that it can't progress in some way while the BFG series is still going on. As for why Devon didn't want his kids hanging around with Pope, the major problem is that they never said anything on the air. At all. If you were a new fan, or were turning in for the first time in a while, you would have no idea why Devon didn't want his kids hanging around with this guy (especially because Pope is over with the crowd, who are, theoretically, in favor of babayfaces). Doesn't it seem logical that if Devon didn't want his kids hanging around with The Pope, he would tell them why? It's not like they are little children. They would understand that Pope is a bad person (especially with all of Joe's evidence of Pope stealing money from charity and stealing that guy's laptop available from TNA) if only Devon would have said something.

I'm not saying that an angle has to constantly keep you on the edge of your seat to enjoy it. I'm saying that, if you are trying to tell a story, it has to go somewhere, or else people will get bored with it. And you can't keep doing the same exact thing every week. Look at Dragon & AJ: Every week, Dragon would manage to do something that got him heat because of the way he was treating AJ, but he almost never did the same thing more than once. With Pope-Devon, we got two straight months of Pope cheating to help Devon win the BFG series and Devon telling his kids not to hang out with Pope. With the Joseph Park thing, we have now had five straight weeks of

"Hello. My name is Joseph Parks. Have you seen my brother, Chris?"
"Who?"
"Abyss"
"No. Sorry. Haven't seen him"