by; Charlie Groenewegen wrestleenigma.com


Each week I will take a major component from the weekly episodic IMPACT Wrestling broadcasts and analyze it in an article here on WrestleEnigma. Said events or components will be chosen based on their overall impact on the product. It’s generally the biggest part of the show, it’s what has the fans talking, it’s the lasting impact.

Some major things went down this past Thursday, as TNA presented Turning Point live and free on SPIKE TV. There was not one, but two advancements in the World Title Tournament, another step in the Joe Park/Abyss story, and the long awaited death of the Aces and 8s in TNA.

However, the events that influenced this week’s Lasting IMPACT didn’t take place in a wrestling match, and one was even a segment pre-taped far away from TNA’s new IMPACT Zone and inside a wrestler’s home. When combined, both events didn’t even take up more than five minutes on last night’s show.

My first lasting impact from last night involves former TNA Tag Team Champions, Gunner and James Storm.

James Storm and Bobby Roode, storied rivals in TNA, met in a Florida Death Match last night with the winner advancing in the World title tournament. Much the theme of their long running rivalry, neither guy was going to go down without a fight.

Trash cans, trash can lids, kendo sticks, chairs, stairs, and beer bottles were just a few of the weapons that appeared in their death match. None of those weapons could keep either man down for the 10-count. The stakes were too high, and both men had too much pride to be labeled as the loser of the contest.

In a last ditch effort to keep the cowboy down, Bobby Roode introduced a board of barbed wire into the match. Just seconds before Roode would drop Storm into the barbed wire, the cowboy’s tag team partner arrived and threw in the towel, thus ending the match. Storm “forfeited” on Gunner’s behalf.

Storm was clearly pissed off with Gunner’s decision afterward, which spells trouble for their future as a tag team.



Since joining forces, Storm and Gunner have been seen more as a part-time tag team – something for Storm to fallback on before reentering the main event scene. A split between the two is in the works, and it looks like the beer drinking cowboy might be the one to turn heel.

A heated feud would do both wonders, as their tag team is seemingly without direction, and fans have been clamoring for Storm to return to the main event scene within TNA. Not only that, but this would also provide Gunner with his first major singles feud since joining the ranks of TNA Wrestling.

Both guys have something to gain from a feud with one another, and the Cowboy vs. the Modern Day Viking just sounds like a brutal, very physical rivalry.

****



In two minutes, Sam Shaw had more fans talking now than when he was introduced through TNA’s Gut Check concept.



In May of last year, Shaw was introduced as a board shorts-wearing adrenaline junkie who got his fix from pro wrestling, skating, surfing, and any other extreme sport. Unfortunately, Shaw suffered the same fate as most Gut Check winners and was sent straight to TNA’s developmental territory of OVW.

Widely forgotten by TNA fans, Shaw made a brief return to IMPACT last night. His spiked hair and board shorts are no more, but instead a slicked comb over and more cold demeanor have taken place.

As part of the new #IMPACT365 concept, Christy Hemme sat down with Sam Shaw – who insisted on being called ‘Samuel’ from now on – and they put Samuel’s artistic ability on display. Having drawn caricatures of TNA wrestlers and more, Shaw’s art display came to a somewhat abrupt halt as he closed the book before the grotesque, violent, bloody drawings surfaced.

When Samuel closed the book on his display, the #IMPACT365 taping came to a close. All but one of the TNA cameras were turned off, and what happened afterward was even weirder than Shaw ending his art display prematurely.

Christy Hemme left Shaw with her phone number before leaving, and an uncomfortable, eerie feeling just radiated from the TV screen as Sam Shaw, emotionless, re-arranged his belongings to the way they were before Hemme’s involvement and stared blankly for a period of time at the note pad in which her phone number was written.

In those moments, Samuel Shaw went from relatively unknown to perhaps the most interesting character in TNA right now. Since his Gut Check, some fans have said that Shaw has the in-ring skill to flourish in TNA’s X-Division, it was just a matter of character – the bland, generic board shorts adrenaline junkie didn’t cut it. Now, Samuel Shaw, under this new character, is definitely ready to make an impact in TNA.

Samuel Shaw will be one of those characters to watch out for in the new year.