TNA Impact Report on Spike TV
March 8, 2010
Live in Orlando, Fla.
Report by James Caldwell, Torch assistant editor

Opening Segment: - Hogan & Abyss vs. Flair & Styles. The opening segment was a classic mixture of good and bad from TNA. The good was getting heat on the heels - Styles and Flair - to set up the No DQ re-match later in the show. Also, Sting's turn was well down, complete with Sting having great facial expressions after turning on Abyss and Hogan.

The bad was more of the geek show stuff from Hogan and Abyss bleeding and taking chair shots to the head. Just a poor precedent from a company that still doesn't get it with the chair shots. Hogan also looked barely mobile to the point of clutching the ropes to move around. He needs to be kept out of the ring after this March 8 show. I don't think that will happen, but it was a sad spectacle.

Dixie-Sting backstage: Dixie Carter isn't the best actor in the world, but this was good "realism," including the camera staying with Carter after Sting shoved her against a wall to enter this "voyeuristic" area of how Carter was reacting after being embarrassed. Nice, under-rated touch here.

Styles-Flair backstage: Styles continues to be miscast as Ric Flair, Jr. He's trying to be over-the-top simply for the sake of being over-the-top. It's a bad fit. On WCW Nitro a decade ago, Ric Flair portrayed a crazed old man and it was marketable because he could still beat people up in the ring. They're getting close to it not being marketable and just a sad spectacle, but they're not there yet.

Brooke & Jennifer backstage: I wonder if Hogan gets confused on which blonde he's rubbing suntan lotion on. It's kind of creepy he's dating someone who looks just like his daughter.

X Division promo in-ring: Kazarian, Daniels, and Doug Williams talked about carrying the torch of the X Division, but, as Wade Keller pointed out in his real-time report, the X Division still lacks definition and an identity. No one's really fighting for supremacy, just talking about building up a "division," whatever that means. Eric Bischoff then tried to save the segment by building up a pumped-up Cruiserweight division.

Williams vs. Kazarian vs. Daniels - X Title match: Nice start to the PWG-style match with multiple combination highspots early on, a double pin attempt, and three-man combination moves building to a highspot on the floor. The match then resumed in the ring with one of those overly-choreographed spots where two guys in the ring suddenly turn their attention to the other guy coming off the top to absorb a blow. A mild complaint before a very nice finishing sequence completing the PWG-style multiple-man spots. Excellent overall match. (***) Nice showcase for the X Division even though the division still lacks an identity. This of course led to Shannon Moore returning and setting up the X Title match at the PPV. I don't feel strongly one way or another on Moore being brought back. He's simply part of the Jeff Hardy package.

Knockouts tag title match: One thing worth noting is that TNA presented a very focused, very "live" show where there was a fluid progression from segment to segment without much filler, such as long intros. They got in and here with this match, although women screaming ala Melina 2005 made for horrible TV. Daffney helping the Beautiful People win the tag titles (or helping cost Tara the match) sets up two potential very intriguing scenarios: Tara vs. Daffney feuding for the KO Title or Daffney joining the BP. There's so much they could do with that. Thumbs up overall.

Pope promo/Sting backstage: We got a little taste of Pope's Dusty Rhodes/Ric Flair promo style before Desmond Wolfe interrupted with a not-designed-for-HD chain. Good continuation of their feud here. ... Sting heelishly walking down from the rafters was great, but Taz blowing the RVD surprise with the "4:20 reference" was pretty lame, especially when he was shown on-camera post-commercial acting dumb about Sting's potential opponent. Really inconsistent and poorly-produced commentary.

RVD-Sting: RVD's theme music was a really strong intro to bring out RVD for his TNA debut with the quick Rolling Thunder splash for the win. Putting my booking hat on, I would have left it at RVD celebrating The Moment in Week One, then had RVD reflect on The Moment in Week Two with a subtle threat from Sting, then book the beat down to create sympathy and more heel heat on Sting in Week Three. As it was booked here with all three weeks in about five minutes, the crowd was still hot rallying behind RVD during the beat-down from Sting. Sting, who was the star of the first hour of the show, was also able to build up this really effective Batista-like heel persona in a matter of one show. Adding Hulk Hogan to the mix to shove RVD into the background and focus on Sting-Hogan yet again was where it went wrong booking RVD. I had the entire package as a mild thumbs up pre-Hogan's involvement. Post-Hogan's involvement, it's a mild thumbs down. I'm not as strong as Chris Jericho saying it was bumbled by idiots, but there were some definite flaws not allowing RVD to get The Moment with The Debut before being big-footed.

The Band Talking Hour: Eric Young just seems to be happy to be along for the ride with Kevin Nash in the whole Band feud. Nash cleaned up nice for the talk here, but this whole bit is boring and has been dragged out forever. Thankfully, no dumpster-diving backstage on the show. The "Hall is wasted" chant before Hall and Pac came out was pretty sad. I might have to come up with a Top Five Most Sad moments on this show. Hall on the mic was pretty good, though. Eric Bischoff, who they mistakenly showed sitting backstage earlier, then booked a match for the PPV before it broke down. Overall, thumbs up segment. Some bad TV here, but Hall was solid on the mic.

Waltman vs. Young: Two dudes in jeans and black t-shirts having a fight was one of the better TV wrestling matches TNA has presented in a while. It was a good, solid fight based on a built-in storyline from weeks building up to this. Those horrible segments the past few weeks actually paid off here. Nice victory for Young with the piledriver.

Anderson-Angle segment: The show could have used a breather here - perhaps a fake news report on Samoa Joe's fake whereabouts - but TNA went to another heated angle with the U.S. Army showing up as part of Kurt Angle and Mr. Anderson setting up their match at the PPV. Angle standing in the ring surrounded by members of the Army was eye-catching and a good piece of TV. Someone holding up a "Bubba Army" sign was pretty sad, though. Angle then needing the Army to step in and held him get Anderson cornered could have put inadvertently put sympathy on Anderson, but the audience sure wasn't going to focus on feeling sympathetic for Anderson, especially with the Army's involvement. Angle then raising the American flag and being hoisted in the air by the Army was a bit over-the-top and felt like cheap heat. I'm not sure why anyone would buy a PPV to see Angle vs. Anderson now.

Bubba-Hogan backstage: Last week, Bubba called Hogan by his real name. Now, he's fake acting calling him his ring handle. "Come on Hogan!" he pleaded with him to not wrestle again. Lame. Meanwhile, Bubba pleaded with Hogan for a second chance after Earl Hebner asked for a second chance. Sorry, Bubba doesn't deserve a second chance in TNA.

Beer Money-Jarrett backstage: Jeff Jarrett was typically yelling and screaming and over-acting with James Storm when Storm said Beer Money was taking the handicap match against Jarrett tonight. Jarrett then attacked Storm and Mick Foley randomly inserted himself into this bit. Sorry, no sympathy on over-acting Jarrett here.

Beer Money vs. Jarrett in the ring: This was the come-down segment on the show with Foley in a suit, over-acting Jarrett, and two dudes who drink and invest. Just a hodge-podge of silliness. Beer Money tried to "dial things in" by beating down Jarrett until Jarrett made a sympathetic comeback and cleared the heels from the ring. Suddenly, a barbed wire baseball bat was re-introduced, Slick Johnson showed up, the heels low-blowed Jarrett, and Slick counted a three count for Beer Money. Thumbs down match with the classic referee incompetence and non-clean finish. Beer Money gets a thumbs up for getting some focus in a halfway-meaningful segment.

Brooke-Hulk backstage: Brooke crying and trying to act like an actor was pretty laughable. Hogan being presented as a crippled old man in a shell of his former self was also pretty sad. Where's that Most Sad list again? Hogan telling Brooke that Abyss has his back would be a really good set up for an Abyss heel turn after the Big Tears in this segment. We'll see. That's probably the best way to salvage this silliness.

Hogan & Abyss vs. Flair & Styles - No DQ: Hogan looked awful moving in slow motion starting off against Flair. Just awful. They worked in and out of the ring with Flair bleeding, of course, to distract from the "wrestling" occurring here. Hogan gave the audience some signature spots to draw cheers, then Styles and Abyss became involved in the No DQ style match to limit the exposure of Hogan and Flair. Hogan had a clean blade mark across his forehead, which wasn't "Oh wow, this is awesome - TNA has blood! but oh gosh, that looks nasty and unsettling." Hogan then back-body dropped Flair to pop the crowd and bring in Abyss. Meanwhile, Hebner kept adjusting his earpiece and shouted instructions to the wrestlers on their time cues. Abyss did a Hulk Up the crowd didn't pop for, then Hogan did a Hulk Up and the crowd popped. Hogan proceeded to do a weak big boot. Poor guy. Abyss then hit the Black Hole Slam on Styles for the pin just as Raw went off the air. Overall, Hogan looked serviceable but at the same time horrible in the ring. He was able to get in the bag of tricks to at least not be so "Legends of Wrestling PPV" bad that people would turn the channel.

Post-match: They did the big schmoz with Desmond Wolfe siding with Flair and Styles and The Pope siding with Hogan and Abyss leading to Jeff Hardy saving the babyfaces. As one reader pointed out, TNA saved the Swanton Bomb and the Five Star Frogsplash on tonight's show. The tease of Hardy up top was a good way to close the show, although I don't get a sense Hardy has anything going on.

Overall Thoughts: There are a lot of stories involving a lot of characters. I get the feeling TNA would be best served splitting the roster in half and putting another show on Thursday nights to allow these stories to be fleshed out and breathe. The individual segments were overall good on the show, but I don't get the sense anyone is chasing for titles, championship gold, prestige, or main event opportunities. There isn't an over-arching story all of these individual stories are feeding into. That's the key problem with TNA not being able to see the forest from the trees.

Impact was easily the more exciting show compared to Raw, however, Raw was building to a PPV that will draw over $5.0 million and TNA is building to...um...well, we'll see. They threw out a lot of hot angles, there was an unmistakable energy in the crowd, and TNA had plenty of stars - probably more stars than WWE Raw had. But, the key is Week 2 and 3 and 4 and 5, etc. Where's the long-term direction vs. trying to pop interesting peaking Week 1? TNA has plenty of road ahead of them, but they haven't shown the ability to consistently move the vehicle down the road without veering off into the proverbial ditch.

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