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By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

IMPACT HITS

Against All Odds Follow-up: TNA did a very good job of following up on the PPV. They made the event seem like a bid deal. Impact started with a good video package of the PPV highlights, recapping the angles from the show. Tomko addressed why he attacked Christian Cage (it didn’t make sense, and his being back in the Angle Alliance is a disappointment, but it was an explanation). Team 3D actually had to weigh in before their match, making that the first stipulation to actually be followed up on in TNA history (o.k., that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but not by much). Booker T was waiting to get his hands on Robert Roode after Roode ran away from their PPV match. They had a video on Barbed Wire Massacre 2 and focused on the change in Abyss after the brutal match. Scott Steiner introduced his new freak, and cut a promo about winning both Feast or Fired briefcases. Rhino followed through on his promise to speak on Impact. And in the end, we had the Vow Renewal Ceremony promised by Kurt Angle. I can’t remember the last time Impact reinforced the PPV this well.

Laughs: I have to admit to laughing multiple times throughout the show. I laughed the first time Karen Angle called Jeremy Borash her Maid of Honor (but I laughed less each subsequent time the same joke was made). I laughed at Jim Cornette’s over the top acting at being upset with Christian came out to interrupt the Samoa Joe contract signing. AJ Styles was pretty amusing at times. Brother Ray was funny when trying to get under the weight limit by removing some of his clothes. Even though the segment as a whole is a Miss, I laughed during the Vow Ceremony at Angle’s whispering to the minister to call him a 12 time World Champion. Not all of the jokes worked, but there were plenty of them that did.

Joe’s Promo: Samoa Joe gave a good promo against the Angle Alliance after his tag team loss to Styles & Tomko. I was confused. Is he facing Angle for the TNA Championship at Destination X? Or, is it going to be a six man tag? That was my only complaint about the well written and well delivered promo. He showed great intensity and really drove home the point about getting revenge on the Angle Alliance.

IMPACT MISSES

Tomko in Angle Alliance: It is so disappointing that TNA has decided to go the lazy route with Tomko joining the Angle Alliance. His character has been one of the best things going in TNA lately, and seeing him join Angle ruins all of that. Yes, it seems like he is going to still be playing a similar character, and yes he won’t blindly follow Angle’s lead. That makes it better, but not good. TNA had a babyface that they could push. Now he is part of a group where he will be overshadowed by Kurt Angle.

Return of Rellik: Did anyone miss this guy? I was disappointed that he was back. There was no explanation as to why he hasn’t been on t.v. for awhile. Maybe someone should have pointed out his win/loss record to Eric Young so that he wouldn’t be that concerned facing him. In the end, Rellik won by scaring Young with his mask. Yeah, that’s a great gimmick.

Nascar Mess: TNA put together two of their worst segments in company history, back to back on one Impact. The first was the total mess of an interview with Nascar drivers and LAX and the Motor City Machine Guns. None of these guys looked happy to be involved or comfortable at all with the situation. It was a terrible segment with no heat, no real explanation as to why the drivers were there, and no reason for me to care. They followed that up nicely with the horrible match, Rave vs. Sabin vs. Homicide. The Nascar announcer made Don West look like the greatest color commentator in wrestling history. He was really bad. The match was too short to be good, but was sloppy and suffered from the drivers’ involvement. The chair shot was stupid, as Lance Hoyt had to sell it like it was devastating even though the fans could see how slowly the chair was swung. There was nothing good about the interview or the match.

Rhino’s Promo: Rhino is back, but where has he been? Could he address that at all? I guess not. I consider my memory to be better that 99% of people out there, and I find that I remember past wrestling angles better than most, but I honestly couldn’t remember why Rhino was feuding with James Storm. Once Rhino mentioned the alcohol, I remembered, but until that point I was trying to think why Rhino had attacked Storm at the PPV. I understand TNA’s desire to pick up where this feud left off when Rhino got hurt, but with such a long break in the story, shouldn’t they rebuild the feud before jumping right into the most dangerous match in wrestling? And wasn’t Barbed Wire Massacre billed as the most dangerous match in wrestling? Seriously, they can’t all be (same goes for WWE, with Hell in a Cell and Elimination Chamber, etc.). Plus, Elevation X was not well received the first time around, so why do it again?

Where was Lethal: With all the great follow up to Against All Odds, there was one glaring omission. Where was Jay Lethal after winning such a huge match in such an impressive manner? His victory was highlighted, but he should have been on to continue his momentum. Come to think of it, after helping to save the X-Division, his tag team partners were involved in that terrible Nascar mess, which was hardly a great follow up on their win as well.

In Ring Action: This was a poor week for in ring action on Impact. There wasn’t a single good match on the show. TNA promised three matches that didn’t take place the way they were advertised, and the matches that did happen were no good. I could go through each match and pick them apart, but that would take way too long. Suffice it to say there were six matches, the longest two each went only 7 minutes and were interrupted by a commercial. That means we saw very little wrestling, and maybe that’s good, as what we saw failed to deliver.

Vow Ceremony: Although there were some laughs during the ceremony, on the whole I have to give it a Miss. There was way too much focus on the build up to the event as often happens with these backstage non-wrestling related segments on Impact. The segment was very predictable with Joe and Kevin Nash coming out to interrupt. The whole thing was too silly with Angle getting his clothes ripped off. The ending was totally ridiculous as the minister pronounced Styles and Karen as husband and wife. If TNA even tries to pass this off as a legal marriage I will cry. I fear for where this is going, totally outside of the realm of reason or logic. It was a really bad way to end a pretty bad show.

Jon Mezzera is PWTorch.com's Hits & Misses Specialist, providing his point of view for Raw, Smackdown, ECW, and TNA Impact each week. Email him at jmezz-torch@sbcglobal.net.

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