Impact Review: Roode And Aries One Up Each Other, Aces And Eights Time Has Come, Sting Gets Revenge

This Thursday's edition of Impact Wrestling was a packed episode that saw Sting in action, marked the return of TNA Gut Check and saw huge tag action involving the World Heavyweight Champion Jeff Hardy. So, what was good, what was bad and what was just plain strange about Impact this week, in this writer's opinion?

The Good

1) The X Division Tournament showcased some great wrestling, as TNA fans have come to expect from the X Division. Kenny King and Zema Ion put on a great, fast paced match that was one of the better ones of the night. The spot where Kenny King tried to land a corkscrew on Ion over the top rope and missed, and Ion followed up with a super fast Somersault Plancha was awesome. TNA needs more matches like that.

2) The return of an overhauled TNA Gut Check with two wrestlers instead of one was a welcome change. It breathed a bit of fresh air into the segment in such a way that it made it interesting and fun to watch again.

3) Watching Sting get some revenge on Aces and Eights was very satisfying, even if Aces and Eights have gotten stale (more on that in a second). It was also pretty cool to see Sting use the hammer that injured Kurt Angle and use it on Knox. It felt like a victory.

The Bad

1) Robbie E. and Robbie T. have incredibly cheesy gimmicks and I can never take them serious, despite how they perform in the ring. Watching them complain about how Jersey Shore got canceled doesn't help things either.

Furthermore, the fist pumping dance segment with Miss Tessmacher after her and Robbie T.'s match was just ridiculous. Miss Tessmacher passing out after the kiss did evoke a slight laugh though.

2) Aces and Eight's time has come and gone. Every week they get worse and worse, and their believability as an unstoppable force gets further tainted. For instance, once again, all it took for Aces and Eights to clear out of the arena at the end of the show was Bully Ray running up to them. Granted, he did have a chain, but still. Ray didn't even attack all of them; he hit one other wrestler. They could have easily swarmed him, and then made off with Brooke Hogan and had a much more interesting story line.

This would even fix up the whole Hogan/Ray feud, as the two would be forced to band together to take on Aces and Eights and save Brooke. But no, instead Aces and Eights gets worse, and the fans are forced to endure the next thing on this list.

3) When was the last time a wedding in wrestling went well? Macho Man and Miss Elizabeth, terrible. Stephanie McMahon and Test, terrible. Billy and Chuck, terrible. AJ Lee and Daniel Bryan, terrible. Not only are wrestling weddings cheesy and drawn about, but also they are predictable as can be.

So, to see Bully Ray propose to Brooke Hogan had wrestling fans everywhere shaking their heads. Way to take a page out of WWE's book TNA.

The Strange

1) The entire Joseph Park storyline is just weird, and it's baffling how long and drawn out it has been. When Park first appeared, the story made a bit of sense. He was an attorney that was trying to solve his brother Abyss' disappearance. At this point though, the fact that he is Abyss' storyline brother has nothing to do with anything really.

Week in and week out we are forced to see this weird Joseph Park character fight desperately to gain Hulk Hogan's approval to fight Aces and Eights. It just makes me wonder where the story line is going, because it seems to be floundering.

2) The weird, sibling style rivalry between Bobby Roode and Austin Aries is just bizarre. The entire episode of Impact they were acting like a couple of 16 year olds trying to prove who is cooler.

Comparing ring gear to say whose is better, arguing back and forth, ripping the title belt out of each other's hand and posing with it. These are two wrestlers who supposedly pride themselves on how good they are in the ring. To see them blatantly ignore Jeff Hardy (who is quite obviously going to use Roode and Aries' one-upping to get the victory at Genesis) is just strange.