Christian Coalition: This is starting to get redundant, but as long as Christian Cage and company continue to perform well each week, they will continue to get Hits. Their backstage scene worked so well on multiple levels. On one level, it was funny to see AJ Styles planning a luau. He continues to be very entertaining. It was also good to see Tomko finally say what you know he’s wanted to say for a long time, and get AJ Styles to be more serious and focus on his match against Ron Killings, and their Bound For Glory Tag Team Championship match. Then Christian finished up the scene with a very good promo on Jr. Fatu and Samoa Joe.
Styles vs. Killings: This was the best match of the night. It was nice to see AJ Styles reminding the fans that he is more than just a goofy character. He can really work, and so can Ron Killings when he wants to. They worked well together and put on a good match. One of the reasons that this match worked is that it served two purposes. First of all, it was enjoyable to watch just as a match. Second of all, it helped hype a big match at the next PPV. This match planted some seeds for that match and should make fans want to see it (unfortunately as long as Pacman Jones is Killings’ partner there won’t be much anticipation for the match). It was interesting to see both of the team mates at ringside cheat during the match which gives the feud a different dynamic than we often get.
Main Event: While not a great match, Jr. Fatu vs. Christian Cage was a pretty good Main Event. It would have been smarter to establish Fatu before going to this match as newer fans don’t know anything about him, but there are enough long time fans who remember him and his big ass from his WWE Rikishi days. The match had some solid action. Fatu does work well for a bigger man and Christian usually puts on a good show. The ending with the cheating and roll up was predictable and a bit sloppy, which took away from the rest of the match. So, while it wasn’t great, it was good and continued the nice build towards Christian Cage vs. Samoa Joe.
IMPACT MISSES
The Angles and Sting: The show got off to a decent start as Kurt Angle apologized to Kevin Nash, but things went downhill quickly as Nash once again recalled the past (10 + years ago), talking about Sting vs. the nWo. TNA is still living in the ‘90s. The bickering between Karen and Kurt was tedious. The idea of them acknowledging the presence of the camera and then hatching a secret plan to pretend to apologize to Sting was laughable. At least Sting didn’t fall for it, which gave him some credibility. The idea behind a restraining order was fine, but then the follow up was ridiculous. It made sense that Sting would come closer and closer to Karen and that she would panic and run away in order to not violate the restraining order. But in reality, you can’t just run up to her and have her arrested for violating the restraining order. That’s not how it works. Sting caused her to come within 50 feet of her, so she shouldn’t have been in any trouble. And the fake police were cheesier than the ultra cheesy fake police WWE uses in these situations. The whole plot didn’t make sense, and didn’t make me want to see Angle vs. Sting.
Use of Judas Mecias: It was a good idea to have Judas Mecias in a squash match the week after his debut in order to establish his moves. Unfortunately, that was the last good idea that TNA had for him this week. It is a waste of Eric Young’s talent and the fans feelings for him to have him be the one to get squashed. I guess after saving Shark Boy from a squash last week, they felt that Shark Boy should return the favor this week. I was really surprised to see Rhino come out to make the save in the end. I guess his feud with James Storm is over, which is fine, but why move right to Mecias vs. Rhino? Why not take a few more weeks to build Mecias and establish him before hinting at his first big opponent? And to have him attack Sting at the end was terrible. They claimed it was orchestrated by James Mitchell who wasn’t even there. So how did they know that he orchestrated the plan? And is it really a good idea to have someone get choked out with a noose at this point? And who is Mecias feuding with? Abyss? Rhino? Sting? This is not the way to build a new star. TNA should rethink their new closing song of “Biggest Letdown” as that is what Mecias has been since finally debuting after months of hype.
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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