By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

IMPACT HITS

Scott Steiner Beat Down: While I am tired of the feud between the Steiner Brothers and Team 3D, the beat down that 3D gave to Scott Steiner was well done and should be very memorable. I wouldn’t mind both teams going away, but if they are going to be on, then it is good to see them doing it in an entertaining way. Part of why this worked, was that in focusing on Steiner’s throat, Team 3D actually used a new tactic. We had not seen them use the chair shot to the throat before. Obviously this grew out of Steiner’s real life injury, but I was happy to see 3D not go right to the tables. In fact, the segment would have been stronger if they hadn’t used the tables at all. They should use this chair to the throat move more often as a new viscous way to attack their opponents. The fans enjoy seeing someone go through a table. So as heels, Team 3D shouldn’t give the fans what they want. Instead, they should find a new tactic like they used this week to emphasize their brutality in a new way without relying on their old tables trick.

James Storm: The videos of James Storm looking for Rhino have been amusing so far. They aren’t great, but have enough humor to make them enjoyable. This week’s was better than last week’s if for no other reason than they kept it short. I laughed out loud when Storm told the bouncer at the bar that he would use some “num-chuck” action on him. The Have You Seen Rhino? with the 800 number at the end was amusing too.

Main Event: The 4 Way match to determine Kurt Angle’s partner was a good match. Clearly, one of the four doesn’t belong in the ring with the other three at this point. I won’t name names, but his name rhymes with “Bling”. Also, he won the match. The match went 20 minutes which was great, despite the fact that there were two commercial breaks. But those 20 minutes were action packed. They did a good job of having the wrestlers move in and out of the ring to keep up the pace. There were several great moves between Samoa Joe and AJ Styles. They had an opportunity to show what they can do in longer matches which should help sell their PPV matches in the future. Some of the teased tension between Christian Cage and Styles was good as well. All in all, it was one of the best Impact matches all year.

Show Focus: It was nice to see Impact have a focus this week. That focus was on the build up to, and execution of the Main Event. This was helped by the fact that the Main Event was announced last week, so the audience had something to look forward to. It also started with a nice scene between Kurt and Karen Angle and Kevin Nash, as Karen left on her mission to implement her plan. That mission gave the show focus, as all of the back stage segments from that point involved her talking to the participants in the Main Event. I have no idea what her plan actually was or what she was trying to accomplish with that mission (more later), but it did give the show focus and made it feel less rushed and random than usual. While focusing on the build to the Main Event, they were also able to hype the feud between Samoa Joe and Christian, set up Angle & Sting vs. Team Pacman, and remind the audience of Angle’s other matches at the next PPV. And, with just a few other segments, they continued the Steiners vs. Team 3D feud, and the Rhino vs. Storm feud. That shows that they don’t have to shove everything into Impact in order to build to a PPV. Here they did it without all the usual mess (o.k., there was some mess), while having a sharp focus, and delivering a good wrestling match.

IMPACT MISSES

Tag Team Mess: I mentioned above that there was still some mess on Impact, and that mess was the tag team division. TNA somehow found a way to have every single tag team in the company on the show without it meaning anything. First of all, they should be ashamed of themselves for burying Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin. When they came out to face Team 3D, I was thinking it was odd that both teams were heels, but figured it was an opportunity to plant the seeds of a face turn for the Motor City Machine Guns (who need a new name). Then the match didn’t happen. So after the commercial, when they made an open challenge, I figured LAX would answer and set up what could be a great series of matches. Instead it was VKM who went on to bury Sabin & Shelley in about a minute. That was a disgrace. Afterwards, VKM has an open challenge that was answered by LAX, and I was thinking that VKM was just going to bury them as well. But then Triple X came out, and then Shark Boy & Eric Young. At some point, Mike Tenay commented on the depth of the tag team division. Shark Boy & Eric Young were considered part of the depth of the tag team division, which is sad. I am a fan of Young, but Shark Boy needs to go far away. Clearly they need more face tag teams as only LAX and the Steiners are faces and neither of them should be. Sabin & Shelley could be but they aren’t. The tag team division is a mess right now and despite the supposed depth, the tag team Champions are Kurt Angle & Sting and they will be defending the Titles against Team Pacman. Ridiculous!

Karen Angle’s Plan: Exactly what was Karen trying to do? She was motivating all four men to win the match and become Kurt’s partner. Weren’t they already doing that? I guess she wanted the winner to work with Kurt and not against him, but that wasn’t clear. I didn’t understand why she was handing out possible Title matches. Haven’t we been over this? She doesn’t have that power. Why would she want Samoa Joe to team with Kurt? That made no sense. Why would she promise Title matches to Christian and Styles? I didn’t understand any of that. It may have given the show more focus, but it was still confusing.

Jon Mezzera is PWTorch.com's Hitlist Specialist, providing his point of view in the Torch's hitlist format for Raw, Smackdown, ECW, and TNA Impact each week. Email him at jmezz-torch@sbcglobal.net.

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