By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

IMPACT HITS

Styles & Tomko vs. Motor City Machine Guns: Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin need a shorter name for their team. I have some complaints about this match like Eric Young’s random involvement, the announcers talking about a commotion in Jim Cornette’s office instead of calling the action, and the bizarre should-be-against-the-rules double team pinning move that ended it. That is a lot of complaints about a match in the Hit column. But, it was a good match. It got off to a very good start before the commercial. Sabin & Shelley did some nice innovative double team moves. AJ Styles played his part well in making a comeback amidst Young’s distraction. It could have been a better match without the distractions or the bad ending. But, it was good.

Knockout Tag Match: The sad thing about the Knockout Division is that they have a good number of women who can work matches as opposed to WWE, where there are only a few. That does not sound sad until you realize that instead of promoting the talent of the Knockouts, TNA has gone the WWE route in playing up their smuttiness. This match had solid to good action. There were no sloppy spots where you expect the women to hurt themselves like many WWE Divas matches. Gail Kim got to showcase her high flying moves which help her stand out among the women in TNA and WWE. The match was short, but good while it lasted. It is sad that what most fans will remember is the slutty ring entrance of Angelina Love and Velvet Sky.

Samoa Joe’s New Attitude: I am not happy that Samoa Joe is complaining about his contract and pay check, which is lame. I do like the attitude change. I like his complaints about TNA using air time for a party instead of wrestling. I liked his interaction with Cornette. If they kept the contract and money issues out of it, and made it about being over looked, it would be better. Keep the attitude. Keep beating up guys like Elix Skipper. Turn him into a heel, or have him be a badass heelish babyface that the fans love despite his actions. Put the focus on the World Title. Keep it away from the contract situation. Make it about respect, not money.

Main Event: I am being generous in giving this match a Hit, because it was far from great. It wasn’t even that good, but it was solid and gave more of a tease for Christian vs. Angle which is good. It lacked logic as two weeks ago Booker T refused to be Christian’s partner, yet this week he asked Christian to be his partner. Someone explain that to me. But, there was some solid action. Maybe I’m in the giving mood this holiday season. Or, maybe I’m thrilled that a silly costume wasn’t involved. Either way, I am generously giving this decent match a Hit.

IMPACT MISSES

Sex Joke: After a week of nonstop sexual innuendoes and jokes, it was good that that humor was kept to a smaller amount this week. But, TNA writers couldn’t help themselves and had to put in a visual joke of Jeremy Borash looking like he was servicing Kurt, while telling Karen than he wouldn’t have to if she paid more attention to her wifely duties. Maybe immature viewers got a good laugh, but I didn’t. Why does every Kurt Angle backstage moment involve sexual overtones? It is ridiculous. The rest of the scene was amusing, as Kurt tried to get Karen to help pick out an outfit, only to get Borash to do the same after she left. There was potential for a funny harmless scene, but it was ruined by the sex joke at the beginning.

Karen vs. Sharmell: Kurt is feuding with Christian. That is the focus of TNA right now. They are not only feuding over the TNA World Championship, which they will be fighting for at the next PPV, but also over the services of Tomko & Styles. They also hate each other and want to rid TNA of each other. That is enough of a plot for Angle. Instead of focusing on three reasons why he is fighting Christian, they are having him fight Booker T too, because Karen hates Sharmell. The Karen vs. Sharmell feud started based on a storyline from Smackdown a few years ago. It got off to a bad start, and it is serving as a distraction from the main issue in TNA. This should be saved for when we actually get an Angle vs. Booker feud. TNA needs to focus.

Cornette and Morgan: The illogical relationship between Cornette and Matt Morgan gets worse each week. Cornette has been angry at what has happened in the past when Morgan has made matches. Apparently not angry enough, because by his own admission, he left Morgan in charge last week. That makes no sense! If Cornette was angry at Morgan for his booking in the past, there is no way he would leave him in charge. And to make things worse, the episode that he booked was terrible, much worse than this week’s, yet based on the letter from TNA corporate, they are hinting at more matches like we got last week in the future, which is a shame.

Abyss Interview: This was just a waste of time. There was nothing new learned. In fact, we knew all of this stuff months ago, and nothing new has been added to the story since then. I just don’t care about the secret at all. I don’t need to hear Mike Tenay ask Abyss about the secret over and over again. As I said, it was a waste of time that accomplished nothing.

Year in Review: I have two problems with this. If you are going to do a year in review, why not go ahead and have a special, like Smackdown is doing tonight, and actually do a year in review episode? They could have made Impact a year in review, or had a special year in review episode Saturday night during the usual Impact replay. It was lame to put together a short video of the highlights of the year. It is sad that the best moments of 2007 could be boiled down into a 4 minute montage. My second problem is the video itself. The images that stand out are multiple bloody faces, Ms. Brooks being tarred and feathered, Pacman Jones, and a string of old past their prime wrestlers. There were legit great moments included in the video, but the bad moments from the year that were included are what stand out, and that is sad.

AJ’s Decision: After titling the episode “AJ’s Dilemma” (by the way, those titles have to go!), and promising multiple times that Styles would make a decision, the show ended without it. TNA is stringing the fans along. They never deliver on promises. Christian looks weak for making a demand and not getting what he demanded. Styles looks weak for not making a decision, and Don West challenging his manhood is a bad sign for his career. The scenes where he tried to get advice were bad, particularly the inane ramblings of Eric Young and the trip down memory lane of Kevin Nash talking about his WCW days. Unless Styles ultimately beats up Angle and Christian and he and Tomko become their own team, I am going to be disappointed in the outcome of this story. Even if that is the outcome, I am not going to care because of how long it has taken, and how often the promised resolution has not been delivered.

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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