4 Ups And Downs From This Week's TNA Impact Wrestling (Jan 25)

1. Feast Or Fired Concept

Impact has had a LOT of gimmicks over the years, and some of these have been great fun (King of the Mountain) while some have become infamous for their stupidity (Reverse Battle Royale anyone?). There are plenty of original ideas that they can abandon, and plenty that they can keep to help enhance their product. Feast or Fired is one of those concepts that should be put in the latter category. The whole concept of the match is clearly a rip off of WWE€™s far superior Money in the Bank Ladder match, but also somehow manages to bring in the €˜pole€™ element that Vince Russo beat to death in the late 1990s and early 2000s. It seems like an idea that might not be too bad on paper as it plays up the idea that the Impact title means so much to these guys, and they desire that belt so much they will risk everything for it. But then on the flipside of this the ultimate implication is that Impact rewards one of its enthusiastic and determined employees by€firing them? Doesn€™t that seem a little bit counterproductive to the long term viability of the company? If you think about it for five seconds, it is a match concept that seems to very much favour those that are happy just hanging around in the mid card. Kayfabe stupidity aside though, there is also the groan inducing fact that anyone who has watched wrestling a few dozen times can see wrestling €˜firings€™ for exactly what they are - meaningless. We€™ve seen them for countless years now, and much like wrestling retirements, we know that they are never going to stick or be enforced in a million years. This means that for the audience the stakes are completely irrelevant and we are taken out of the show. Oh€and let€™s not even get started on the horrendous reveal segment that Impact subjected us to. It€™s too painful to recap, because it really was just complete and utter garbage.