TNA Impact TV Report
April 19, 2010
"What We All Fight For"
Live from Orlando, Fla.
Report by Nick D'Achino, Torch Impact specialist

PRE-SHOW THOUGHTS

-I thought Lockdown was a very good Pay-Per-View. Pay-Per-Views can often determine the kind of momentum a promotion has heading into its next show. The effort put forth by all of the wrestlers really stood out to me. On one hand, you have to admire TNA and its wrestlers for clearly going all out for its fans. On the other hand, it does make you question what kind of leadership they have around there when guys with the kind of history Anderson and Angle have are put in such dangerous matches in back-to-back weeks. Angle’s moonsault off the top of the cage, at his health and his age? Insane, although I’m not shocked by him going all out in his last match before his hiatus.
　
-One of TNA’s best acts as of late, Douglas Williams, was stripped of the X Division Title at Lockdown. This is because he was unable to make the show due to being stranded in the U.K. due to the Volcano. So TNA decided the best solution would be to have the honorable Hogan regime strip the stranded man of his title and crown a new champion then and there. Are they trying to turn the guy babyface? I don’t know who signed off on that idea, or worse yet who came up with it, but it’s really some low IQ booking, as they say.

-Depending on what WWE’s solution is for much of their roster being absent, TNA may have a pretty big opportunity on their hands tonight with Raw being so weakened.

-I thought it was pretty telling that TNA ended the Lockdown pay-per-view with the focus being on Hogan, Bischoff, and Flair. Hopefully, it's not a sign of things to come.

DETAILED RECAP
　
[Q1]

-Impact began with highlights from TNA Lockdown the night prior. Eric Bischoff's turn against Ric Flair and to help Hogan was focused on at the end.

-The usual pyro went off. Vince Russo, who seemed to have taken the night off from writing television, appeared to be in charge of the production truck, because they kept showing these long signs, which they didn’t keep the camera on any of for long enough to be read. That, or it was the same awful production director they have employed for years now.

-Mike Tenay and Taz introduced the show, but didn’t get to say much before A.J. Styles came out alone for an interview. He was wearing his Sunday best. He said because of the big celebration last night, which the new Nature Boy apparently didn‘t partake in, Ric Flair would not be at the Impact Zone until later. Styles bragged about being "pound for pound” the best despite being the WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION. Someone apparently doesn’t know what pound-for- pound means, but heard it and thought it sounded good. He ran down the list of guys he’s beaten and added Pope to the list. He finished by saying said the title isn't going anywhere. You can’t really say he was interrupted, because like always in TNA, the music only plays on the dot at the very conclusion of a promo.

-Rob Van Dam made his entrance. RVD walked out to his music. The crowd chanted "RVD!" Before beginning his promo, Van Dam ad-libbed and said, "That might confuse you, A.J., but that's called a crowd reaction. Crowd again chanted “RVD!” Finally he began, saying he was in the back and heard what Styles said, including saying he's the best wrestler in TNA. The crowd chanted, "A.J. sucks! A.J. sucks!" Do any of them actually believe that? Anyway, Van Dam paused again for this chant. I guess it’s going to take Van Dam a few more weeks to adjust to the fact that if you pause during every chant in the Impact Zone, you're going to be out there much longer than expected. He continued by saying maybe Styles was the best in TNA at one time, but that times have changed and the roster has become much more stacked. He talked about how Styles is probably upset that he isn’t getting as much attention as he used to. That’s a better explanation for Styles heel turn than they have given yet.

-Jeff Hardy’s music played and he made his entrance. Hardy said physically Styles had a little head, but figuratively he had a huge head. Then he said that the “movement” has begun. Thankfully he kept this brief. He added that he has his sights set on becoming TNA World Champion to complete his collection of world title reigns.

-That led to Hulk Hogan making his entrance. Hogan was all revved up that the guys were talking about the championship belt. He put over the importance of the World Title. He said when you're the World champion, it means you're “the best at what you do.” He talked about how becoming the World champion changed his life.

[Q2]

-The crowd briefly chanted “Hogan” and “one more match.” Hogan didn’t pause and remained focused on the task at hand. He said that every night there's a target on the champion's back. He said every night when you leave another guy lying in the middle of the ring, that ups your lifestyle and your paycheck. He asked RVD and Hardy how badly they want it. He said he wants to know if they want it bad enough to put their friendship aside and battle each other to earn a title shot. RVD and Hardy nodded and the crowd cheered. They went to duel corners and celebrated, both getting cheers. Styles was upset. He told Hogan that he should have consulted with him first. He said he won't be ready to defend his title again at Sacrifice. Hogan said he made the match already, "but who said anything about Sacrifice, brother?" He said he's talking about is that the man who wins between RVD and Hardy will get a title shot at Styles right there on Impact. The announcers were all excited and thanking Hogan. This was a very good opening segment. They definitely put their best foot forward to start things off. Depending on how they schedule it, they should have two huge matches for the end of each hour. I had no problem with how long this went either, as finding time to have some three minute X-Division match, or an endless amount of 30-second backstage interviews conducted by Hemme and Borash, wouldn’t have made this show one iota better.

-Flair arrived at the Impact Zone. The cameraman told Flair that Hogan just booked Styles for a title match tonight, and that Flair was banned from ringside. Flair stormed off. This was the first of several interesting twists they added to shooting backstage stuff on this Impact.

1 -- Knockouts tag champions THE BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE (Madison Rayne & Velvet Sky w/Lacey Von Erich) vs. ODB & DAFFNEY

ODB and Daffney were teaming here because Love and Tara weren’t on the show, and the division lacks any sort of depth at this point. What a mess the Knockouts division has become. Beautiful People came out with all of the women’s titles in the promotion. At least that makes it easier to track. Taz went out of his way before the match started to note that last night when Waltman no-showed, it wasn’t a case of “Waltman being Waltman” like he said, but rather something that was approved by President Dixie Carter. You just knew ODB and Daffney weren’t winning here. The crowd treated them as the fan favorites. Not much to this. ODB fired up and did her thing. When she rolled up Sky for a pin, Rayne distracted the ref. Lacey sprayed a hair spray can at ODB, allowing Sky to get the pinfall

WINNERS: The Beautiful People at 3:00.

[Q3]

-Backstage, Styles and Flair were getting all upset in their dressing room. The camera filmed this from outside the room through the crack of the door. Flair told Styles he was going to fix everything. He told Styles that he doesn't give a damn who wins between RVD and Hardy because Styles can beat either of them without him. Flair said he wants Team Flair to have a rematch with Team Hogan tonight, and that is something he is going to take care of without Styles. Borash then finally picked his spot and walked into the room and asked Flair if he is calling for a rematch. Flair said he wants it and he'll be ready in five minutes or they'll declare victory over Team Hogan by forfeit.

-Jeff Jarrett and Abyss came down to the ring. Abyss got on the microphone said the war between Team Flair and Team Hogan ended at Lockdown "when we did exactly what we said we were going to do and beat your ass!" Despite this, he was still yelling and sounded angry. Abyss either huffs and puffs very low, or he yells. Thank god for remote control volume. Abyss said they would accept Flair’s challenge if RVD and Hardy weren’t already busy later on. They shot Abyss from a distance early on, but once they went to the camera in the ring, he was yelling and spitting all over it again. Flair's music played and he walked out with Beer Money and Sting.

-Flair said told Team Hogan to kiss his ass. "Screw you, screw Hogan, screw the whole building,” said Flair. Beer Money and Desmond Wolfe charged at Abyss and Jarrett. Abyss and Jarrett did okay for a few seconds, but then Sting entered with the baseball bat. Team Flair had the advantage. Freak Rob Terry ran out to make the save for the good guys. Tenay went, “Rob Terry?!” which is exactly what I said. I guess he isn’t such a bad guy after-all. He got off some power moves and looked like a beast. However, he then went for a press slam on Wolfe, but his knees buckled and he had to put him down. He picked him back up again and after quite a struggle, threw Wolfe onto Sting. He then threw a big boot at Sting, and fell over in the process. Poor guy gets the big spotlight shined on him and he drops a guy, then trips over after doing a big boot. I was expecting him to slip over Sting’s prone bat afterward, which he came a step within doing.

-Flair asked Terry who he was, which he may in fact be totally unaware of. Bischoff came out on the stage smiling. Flair then looked at Bischoff and asked what his problem was. Bischoff said if Flair wants a rematch, he can have it. It'll be Terry & Abyss & Jarrett and a mystery partner that he has arranged for.

[Q4]

-Tenay and Taz discussed what had transpired for a bit, and then talked about what was to come.

-Matt Morgan was backstage chatting with Shannon Moore. Well, Morgan was chatting, Moore was reading “the book of DILLIGAF.” Apparently Morgan was talking to Moore because TNA was forcing him to find another partner after attacking Red last week. Morgan was referring to himself as “we” again. Moore said he was busy preparing for his X Title shot next week. In closing he told Morgan and his ego to kiss his “tattooed ass.”


-Hogan was backstage with Bischoff. He thanked him for coming through at Lockdown "I'll never doubt you again," Hogan said. Bischoff then said, "They say the easiest man to con is a con man." I still sense a split between these two eventually. Hogan asked Bischoff about the “revolutionary new ranking system” that Bischoff has in mind for the World Title. Bischoff flat out said that he dropped the ball with it, and it has been on the backburner, but that he will unveil next week. Bischoff called in his assistant, “Miss Tessmacher," who is the former Brooke Adams from Extreme Expose on ECW on Sci-Fi. Bischoff asked for the rankings file, and she acted like she didn’t know what he was talking about. Hell of an assistant. Bischoff said she “takes great dictation." Hogan and Bischoff shared a laugh together.

-They shot RVD with the “TNA Reaction” style camera on his way to the ring for his match with Jeff Hardy, as Impact went to a commercial break. This was very cool.
　
2 -- ROB VAN DAM vs. JEFF HARDY -- No. 1 Contender's Match

The Impact Zone pops loud for just about every top baby face, but Van Dam got the loudest and most passionate reaction of all tonight, including Hogan. Taz and Tenay did a good job putting over the World title. They were talking about the rankings system early on. Since they knew it wasn’t going to end within the first few minutes, they went to a commercial break. Major pet peeve of mine.

After a lengthily commercial break, RVD and Hardy were brawling outside the ring. RVD put Hardy over the guardrails and jumped off the apron with a leg drop. RVD’s cut from Lockdown reopened. Back in the ring, RVD connected with a top rope body block on Hardy for a near fall.

[Q5]

Crowd was pretty split. RVD side kicked Hardy off the top rope to the floor at 8:00 as the crowd chanted, "This is awesome!" RVD continued on a flurry of offense in the ring for near falls. Hardy made a comeback at 11:00, but RVD nailed Hardy on the top rope with a spinning wheel kick to the head. RVD climbed up and went for a superplex. Hardy pushed him off onto the mat, and went for a quick Swanton Bomb. RVD moved just in time, and then quickly hit the Five-Star Frog Splash for the clean pinfall.

WINNER: Rob Van Dam at 12:00.

STAR RATING: *** -- A really good match that was thankfully void of any of that “reluctant friends forced to fight” nonsense. The crowd was really into both guys, and the match.
　
-Christy Hemme was backstage with Van Dam and Hardy. Hemme interviewed RVD while he and watched clips of their matches. They popped for all their big moves. The showed a monitor over their shoulders and got their reactions to what happened in the match. Hardy put RVD over. RVD said he knows he has Hardy's support, so now there is no way he is losing to Styles. Hardy said RVD will have an easy time if he s as good as he was against him. In a previously booked era of Impact (as in, last week), this would have meant Hardy was turning on RVD later on for sure.

-Backstage Abyss was giving a pep talk to Jarrett and Rob Terry. Terry spoke briefly. He said Team Flair is going to “know him” and “feel him” and “be destroyed by him.” He made some faces and flexed his arms. None of them knew who their mystery partner would be.

3 -- TEAM FLAIR vs. TEAM HOGAN

Sting and Jarrett made their entrances, then it was commercial break time. I’d rather them take the commercial breaks during the entrances frankly.

When Impact returned, Jarrett and Sting did some lame stand up brawling outside of the ring, near the crowd, etc. We obviously didn’t miss much. As Jarrett all this is going on, Jarrett is going “I want answers, Stang!” Sting instead hit Jarrett across the back with a chair. Tenay complained about Sting still not giving an explanation for his turn against Dixie Carter. Taz again stated he doesn’t think Sting owes the fans an explanation, but still couldn’t give a reason why. Frankly, the longer this goes on the more annoyed I get at the people asking for explanation.

Their brawl led them to the ring, just like the week prior. Sting missed a Stinger Splash. Both Jarrett and Sting were down when the next guy came out, Desmond Wolfe. Tenay said it will become tag team rules once others get to the ring. Sting tagged him in, and he went after Jarrett.

Rob Terry was out next, and he tagged Jarrett to enter the match. He ran wild with clotheslines. He hit a powerslam, and then Tenay wondered what Orlando Jordan was doing out there, but if you blinked, you totally missed seeing him whatsoever. He was apparently on the stage “watching” Terry. Terry stayed focused on the match, hit some power moves, and Impact went to a commercial. Jordan was never mentioned again.

[Q7]

After the commercial, Robert Roode and Abyss were in the match. Abyss chokeslammed Roode. As he waited for Roode to get up, the final Team Flair member entered. It was James Storm. He helped Roode for a while as fans were preoccupied with who would be out next. Fans were all looking toward the entryway to see who the mystery guy was. It wouldn’t be pro wrestling if the mystery man didn’t happen to get the last entry. Turns out it was none other than the returning Samoa Joe. He had the towel and wasn’t wearing any of that stupid paint on his face. He was not with any “nation of violence.” The fans did however give him a superstar reaction. Tenay put over Bischoff for delivering a great surprise. Joe immediately tagged in and destroyed Team Flair in his usual fashion. He did the running kick to Sting in the corner, caught a running Robert Roode in the air and slammed him. Team Hogan was just staring in amazement. Taz said he wants to see more of “THIS Samoa Joe”. I will be completely fine with it if this is was TNA pushing the reset button with Samoa Joe, and dropping the gimmicky stuff Russo came up with for him. Joe hit the Muscle Buster on Roode for the pinfall.

WINNER: Team Hogan at 10:30 when Joe pinned Roode.

STAR RATING: **1/2 -- Pretty convoluted match with the way it was set up. The ending made it worthwhile. Surprise, surprise, Joe went in there, kicked ass, and immediately got over. Believe it or not, writers are not needed for some things.

-Afterward, Flair walked down the ramp and addressed Team Hogan. As he began to speak, they cut to another untimely commercial.

-Impact returned with highlights of what had happened. Flair telling Abyss that he wants to face him in a Hall of Fame Ring vs. Hall of Fame Ring match. Abyss agreed.

[Q8]

4 -- A.J. STYLES vs. ROB VAN DAM -- TNA World Hvt. Title Match

Styles went after Van Dam early on and got the advantage. He put the boots to RVD in the corner. RVD was bleeding again. Tenay and Taz, who were stellar all night long, talked about how Van Dam was wrestling on very short rest, and Styles was wrestling on very short preparation. Just as Styles did a dive onto RVD at ringside, they went to commercial early into the match.

RVD was then on the offensive after the commercial break. This is why it’s hard to rate television matches. He hit a Rolling Thunder at for the near fall. Styles came back and went for the figure-four leg-lock mid-ring. Much like with Flair, it didn’t work for him. Styles flipped onto RVD, but he turned it into a power bomb. Van Dam went to the top and hit the 5 Star Frog Splash for the pinfall to become new TNA World Heavyweight Champion.

WINNER: Rob Van Dam at 8:30.

STAR RATING: *** -- Good match with a huge reaction at the end obviously. Van Dam more than deserves some time off in the ring after two matches Sunday, followed by these two matches on Impact.

-Big celebration ensued. Yellow and Black confetti fell, matching Van Dam’s ring gear. That’s convenient. Hardy joined RVD to congratulate him as Styles took in the events at ringside, frowning in disappointment. Then everyone started coming in, similar to when Bret Hart won the title at WrestleMania 10. Hogan led Dixie Carter to the ring and she took several attempts before getting through the ropes successfully. Jarrett, Abyss, Team 3D, Rob Terry, and Eric Bischoff all joined the celebration. Team 3D held ECW alum RVD on their shoulders as he celebrated with the title belt. Styles was upset at ringside. Taz reminded everyone that Flair vs. Abyss was next week. As the show came to a close, Tenay said that earlier in the show, Hogan challenged the locker room to step up and RVD did just that, and closed Impact by saying "RVD has joined the elite of our profession."

POST-SHOW THOUGHTS

-This Impact deserves high praise, the highest of any this year. The wrestling told the story tonight, and there wasn’t a scent of overbooking on the entire show. I thought another plus was trimming down to having four matches rather than seven or eight. There’s nothing to gain from excessively blowing through potential matches that should be saved for pay-per-views.
　
-I’m as big a stickler as anyone as far as storyline consistency goes, but if the nature of Joe’s appearance was any indication that they have dropped whatever goofy idea they had for him coming out of being “kidnapped," I’m all for it.

-Did someone really reign in Vince Russo, or did his ideas just happen to get back loaded for the next taping that would air next Monday? You never know with TNA. After all, this is a promotion that tried something new with Joe Vs. Angle at Lockdown several years ago, it WORKED both critically and financially, and they dropped it completely, never looking back to it. So this Impact was either a real sign of progress, or next week we can expect to have in store for us everything that we missed this week. The Band, Orlando Jordan, convoluted stipulation matches, etc.

-Lastly, after watching all the fallout from the Volcano eruption cancelling flights, and stranding wrestlers from both promotions, then watching this edition of Impact, I have to ask: was Vince Russo stranded in the U.K. as well?

-As much as I’m personally often entertained by the Band, I think that their absence from the show, as well as Team 3D, Orlando Jordan and the like, really added to the positive, fresh feel that this show had from top to bottom.
　
WHAT WORKED

- World Title change - Apart from the match itself, and the #1 contenders match leading up to it being very good, I especially like the title change itself. I don’t think Styles worked as world champion any more than I think he works as the new Nature Boy. In fact, I think the “pound-for-pound” title is something that fits him quite nicely.

- Samoa Joe’s in-ring return - There was a lot of speculation that the fourth man would be another one of those “shock signings” from TNA. TNA was smart to realize that they had a guy on their roster who fit just fine, comes at no extra charge, and truly does deserve the emphasis.
　
- Just about everything else - This really was one of those shows where even the very little things worked well. The announcers seemed on point, I liked how they shot several backstage segments, talk of a rankings system, etc.

WHAT DIDN'T WORK

-No Anderson, Angle, Pope - This was the only thing I really found disappointing about this edition of Impact. After stealing the show at Lockdown, I really didn’t feel there was enough focus put on Anderson, Angle, or their match. Even if they were planning on not having either appear live on the show, a little video package would have been nice, especially to again remind fans that Angle will be taking time off.

Thanks to everyone who has given me feedback on my Impact reports. As always, let me know what you thought with an email to nick.dachino@yahoo.com. Thanks for reading.

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