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By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

IMPACT HITS

James Mitchell: Impact got off to a good start this week with the promo from James Mitchell as he walked with Judas Mecias and Jeremy Borash. It was nice to see Mitchell back after being absent from Impact the last few weeks. In addition to being the strong promo that we’ve come to expect from Mitchell, the opening segment also nicely set up the focus of the show, as he challenged Sting to confront Mecias. That led to Borash’s various failed attempts during the show to find Sting, all leading up to the ultimate confrontation when Sting attacked Mecias and they brawled to the ring. It was a nice set up to start the show.

Rave & Hoyt vs. Motor City Machine Guns: This was the match of the night. I was surprised by two things. One, Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin actually got the win. Two, the match went about a minute longer than the comedy tag match from earlier in the show. Those were nice surprises. There was more athleticism in this one match than anything we see from Impact most weeks, and certainly the rest of this week. I was sitting there thinking that it would be nice to have some explanation as to who Jimmy Rave is and why he is teaming with Lance Hoyt? Then, the announcers actually talked about Rave’s background, listing his age, number of years as a professional wrestler, his previous stint in TNA, and his recent work in Japan. That was a nice way to introduce him to the fans. They didn’t address why he is teaming with Hoyt, but you can’t ask for too much. All in all, it was a good tag match, with a lot of energy. Having dissension between Hoyt & Rave and their manager Christy Hemme on their first Impact match is too much too soon, but I guess I have come to expect that from TNA.

IMPACT MISSES

Team 3D vs. Dutt & Shark Boy: My first problem with this match is that at least in the last few weeks, Shark Boy has been teaming with Eric Young. That was random enough, but at least starting to become established. So now why is he randomly teaming with Sanjay Dutt? There were some nice moments in the match, but it was mostly a comedy match that wasn’t very funny. Once again, TNA has Heavyweight wrestlers destroying two X-Division wrestlers. I don’t mind them going for a different style of match than the faster paced more athletic tag match discussed above. The problem was that it just wasn’t funny and ultimately was a waste of time.

TNA Text Question: The TNA text poll questions are bad enough when they give the fans a vote of who they think is going to be doing whatever, and they include huge non-TNA stars on the list like Goldberg or Brock Lesnar. Now they had this lame question about whether there should be an automatic rematch clause in the Sting vs. Kurt Angle World Title Match at Bound For Glory. It seemed like the vote would be binding, but that wasn’t clear. Is this something that fans really care enough about to text a vote? Maybe so, but it would surprise me.

VKM: Right after Borash announced the TNA text question, the segment got worse when he was joined by the Voodoo Kin Mafia. These guys keep changing their character. They go from heel to face to heel to face and now back to heel so quickly that it would be hard to care about them even if I wanted to. They complained about getting looked over, but they should be looked over considering the other talent on the roster. Although considering teams like Team 3D are not looked over, maybe they have a point. They talked about no more fun and games, but then they are still involved with their voodoo princess Roxxi Leveaux, which is not they way to go if they want to be taken seriously. I don’t mind the new attitude and talking bad about the fans, but bringing up terms like marks just doesn’t mean anything to most casual fans.

5-Way Knockout Match: This match actually had some decent in ring action. But I was very confused by the stipulation that only the winner would get to be in the 10 Knockout match at Bound For Glory to crown the first ever TNA Women’s Champion. That means that TNA has 9 other Knockouts without these 5? That is hard to believe. Shouldn’t 4 of these women be in that match? And the one who shouldn’t is the one who won! That means that Gail Kim won’t be in the match. Neither will Jackie Moore. I feel really bad for Christy Hemme as the Women’s Division was her idea several months ago, and because she wanted to be treated as more than eye candy, she became a heel, and now won’t even be in the match to crown the first Champion. The match itself was not enough to make me look forward to the Women’s Division.

NOTE: I have received multiple emails pointing out that my interpretation of this stipulation for this match is incorrect. The stipulation was actually to determine which woman would get to enter the match 10th after the other 9 have already entered. I have rewatched it and see my mistake. But they did keep saying that this was to determine the 10th entrant in the match, which I took to mean the 10th participant. I stand by the fact that it was still very confusing. They have not done a good job of explaining the rules of the Gauntlet match. In fact, one of my emailers thought that the Gauntlet match was like a WWE style Gauntlet match where two women start and have a 1 on 1 match and then after a fall another comes out, and then another. In other words, he thought that it was a series of 1 on 1 matches. Instead, I am pretty sure that a TNA Gauntlet is the equivalent of a WWE Royal Rumble where it is elimination by being thrown over the top rope. Clearly there is confusion here. Clearly TNA has not done a good job of explaining the rules to the match. They have never announced the women who would be involved (at least never on Impact) and they never said this week that all of these women are in the match. TNA created this confusion. I was wrong in my interpretation, and am glad because it makes more sense to have all these women at Bound For Glory. But they need to do a better job of not confusing the audience.

End of the Show: Impact had too much going on at the end of show. Before the final commercial, Sting jumped Mecias. Then it cut to break. After the break, the brawl continued as they fought to the ring. Predictably, Kurt Angle got involved as Karen stood by watching (no mention of her going to jail). Predictably, Rhino came out next to even the odds, still with no explanation as to why he is involved with Mecias. And we get the customary Don West silly statement that Judas Mecias brings out the best in Rhino. I don’t even know what he is talking about. Then, after missing one whole week after the terrible beat down he received, out walks Abyss. I hope TNA remembers the next time that Impact ends with a very bloody Abyss that it makes more sense to keep him away for more than just one week in order to sell the beat down. There was just too much going on, and Mecias is involved with too many other wrestlers to have any one of his feuds mean anything.

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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