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IMPACT HITS

James Storm vs. Eric Young: This was a good 5 minute match. It wasn’t without problems as the outcome was predictable and there was interference. But the action itself was good. Young actually got to showcase the fact that he is a good wrestler. He held his own with Storm as it was not one sided. Storm seemed legitimately concerned about Jackie Moore’s health before realizing that he could use her injury to his advantage. It was more organic than what we usually see in these situations where it is a plot by the heel to pretend to be concerned. He played his part well. It did have problems, but was the best match of the night, which is sad.

Robert Roode Promo: It was good to see somebody in TNA show that he can cut a promo. Roode’s promo accomplished multiple tasks. For one, it gave him a chance to talk, and continued his tension with Ms. Brooks. For another, Roode followed up on a statement from a few weeks back when he talked about being tired of the same guys featured week in and week out. He gave a logical (repeat logical) explanation as to why he attacked Samoa Joe last week, as he felt that Joe was the biggest competition in the tournament, and he wanted to eliminate him. He also addressed the terrible promo from Junior Fatu last week, and said what a lot of fans were thinking about how bad it was that Fatu didn’t know his name. It was a very good promo.

Christian on Commentary: After Mike Tenay left the announce table, Don West was left to call the action by himself, and I can’t think of too much that makes me cringe more than having to hear Don West calling a match by himself. So, I was relieved when Christian Cage came out to do guest commentary for Robert Roode vs. Junior Fatu. Christian made some good points about how bad West and Tenay are, and he helped make a bad match watchable. He was very entertaining as expected. I enjoyed his comments towards Samoa Joe before being chased away.

IMPACT MISSES

“No Hype”: I guess this is a minor point, but at the very beginning of the show, Mike Tenay said that Kurt Angle vs. Sting for the TNA World Championship needed “no hype.” And then the announcers proceeded to hype the match for the first hour of the show. Now, hype is good. And, a match that big should be hyped. But then, don’t say that the match doesn’t need any hype. Obviously it did, otherwise you wouldn’t be hyping it so much.

Beer Celebration: As much as I liked Storm vs. Young, I was upset at what happened after the match. Due to TNA’s policy that all women managers have to have tension with their men wrestlers (Roode and Brooks, Christy Hemme and Lance Hoyt), there is tension between James Storm and Jackie Moore. And why? Because Moore had the audacity to offer a beer to Eric Young because he had shown concern for her health. Ultimately, Storm gave in and gave Young the beer. And being the greatest thing in the world (I believe Tenay called it the drink of the gods), the beer magically made Young forget that he lost his match and his chance at a World Title shot. The beer was all he really wanted. It was a ridiculous way to follow up on the match.

Fatal 4-Way X-Division Match: This match represents everything that is wrong with the X-Division. First of all, it was a Fatal 4-Way instead of a singles match. Almost 100% of X-Division matches have more than two wrestlers in them. It was four random guys, who have no character or storylines (other than the Guru), wrestling for no reason. Then, they start doing double team moves which were way too scripted. How did Shark Boy and Petey Williams know what each other was going to do in order to double team Sanjay Dutt? The focus of the wrestlers was doing cool spots, not actually trying to win the match. Instead of being smart and letting Dutt take himself and an opponent out with a high-risk move, Williams interrupted it in order to do his own high-risk move. X-Division matches are often spot fests, with no selling, no ring psychology, and no story telling. That was all this was. And it ended very quickly when two larger wrestlers destroyed all the little boys. TNA might have a long term plan (I stress “might”) for having an X-Division team ultimately defeat Team 3D to get revenge down the line. But even if that is the case, the damage to the division will be done. Who cares if the Motor City Machine Guns return in a month to get an upset win at a PPV, if Team 3D has already destroyed the entire X-Division. Then again, if matches like this are all that TNA plans to do with their X-Division wrestlers, they might as well kill the division like WWE has with the Cruiserweights.

Robert Roode vs. Junior Fatu: Christian’s presence on commentary made this match watchable, but the match itself was not very good. As you would expect with Fatu, it was slow and sloppy. Nothing exciting happened. There was a ref bump for the second time in the night. Seriously, not only can TNA not go an entire week without a ref bump, but some weeks they have two in one show! Samoa Joe’s interference worked well but was very predictable. Is anyone looking forward to seeing Fatu vs. Christian? Didn’t think so.

Angle, Sting, Nash, Cornette, Tenay: Impact was a mess from top to bottom because of the overuse of the Angles, Kevin Nash, and Mike Tenay. There was too much Kurt and Karen. Their constant bickering is so tiresome. Nash’s presence during Angle vs. Sting took away from the match. The match started out slowly with the headlocks, so I thought they were pacing themselves for a 20-25 minute match. Instead it went 15, which is good, but not as long as I was hoping. The match never picked up. It got a little quicker at the end, but that was after multiple moments involving Nash on the outside which was a distraction. There was a ref bump (big surprise). Despite wanting to hurt Angle, it turns out Nash was trying to help him, but Angle still pissed him off instead of thanking him for doing what he begged him to do all night long. This makes no sense. Tenay and West were way over the top in their anger over the outcome of the match. Nash didn’t really interfere. There was a legit three count. But things got out of hand with the arguing referees, and Jim Cornette trying to sort things out. Did I miss something? What was there to sort out? The ending wasn’t close to being as controversial as 90% of TNA’s World Title matches in general, which don’t ever get reviewed. Cornette was going to do his best to review it, but that wasn’t good enough for Tenay who thought he should just hand Sting the title! This was terrible. Now Nash wants to get his hands on Angle again, like earlier in the night accept for a brief moment after the match where he tried to shake Angle’s hand. Whaaaaa? Cornette’s ultimate decision is to keep Angle the Champion (right decision) and make him defend the belt in a tag match at the next PPV (wrong decision). His partner will be Nash, and he will face Sting and a partner of his choosing. Singles titles should never be defended in a tag match. It is so WCW, and is becoming so TNA. And what about the Fight for the Right tournament? Isn’t that to determine the #1 contender? But instead, Nash, Sting and a mystery partner will all be getting the title shot, but not the winner of the tournament? I have a headache!

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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