By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

IMPACT HITS

Team 3D Videos: I enjoyed the videos featuring Team 3D trying to lose weight. I liked the fact that their crony Johnny Devine was the one documenting the situation. That added some realism instead of having a TNA crew with them throughout the week. All three videos had funny moments. Team 3D has been entertaining lately. The videos were a nice way to advance their storyline as we got to see them trying to lose weight, as opposed to just seeing them show up each week for a weigh in. But, a little Team 3D goes along way, and this week TNA would have been better off to keep their involvement restricted to these amusing videos (more later).

Steiner & Williams vs. Dutt & Lethal: This was the highlight of the in ring action, which is sad for two reasons. One, it was the first match which meant that the in ring action went downhill from there. Second, the match wasn’t that good. I suppose I should say that it was good, but not great. It was nice to see a lower card match go longer than 4 minutes. With the commercial break we only saw about 5 minutes, but that’s a bit of an improvement. I enjoy the dynamic between Scott Steiner and Petey Williams. I liked how Steiner tried to coach Williams with his pre-match poses. Sanjay Dutt was the real star here. He was exciting to watch. His energy level helped elevate what was otherwise just a solid tag match to a Hit worthy tag match. Jay Lethal didn’t get to show much, which is disappointing. But, it still had good action.

IMPACT MISSES

Eric Young: Eric Young has been entertaining over the last few years, but this week I have to give him a Miss. This paranoid character is getting too ridiculous. He can be a goofy mid-card act without being this cartoonish. Everything he was involved in was a Miss. It seems TNA is building towards him overcoming his fear of monsters to actually stand up to Rellik and Black Reign. But, in the mean time he looks terrible. The fans who are usually 100% supportive of him booed him when he ran away. And they should have. Kaz better not be nice to him next week. He should kick his ass for running away like that.

Big Long Mess: I couldn’t think of anything better to call this Miss since it involves too many wrestlers to include them all in the title. The mess I’m referring to is everything from the moment Team 3D came out for their match to the moment Brother Ray drove Kaz through a table. First of all, the third Team 3D video should have been shown before they headed to the ring. TNA has to understand about pacing storylines. Those videos should have been Team 3D’s only appearance this week. The announcers could have said they were scheduled in a match next week and were dieting to make weight. Then you move forward with the weigh in next week. The three videos and all of the mess that followed was crammed not just into one Impact, but into one half of Impact. Seeing Brother Ray and Brother Devon try to make weight would have been funnier if we hadn’t already seen them in three humorous videos. It was too much. Regular readers know that I hate Curry Man and Shark Boy. Shark Boy was worse than usual. I’m glad that the sheep in the Impact Zone didn’t go for the “What?” chants this week. And just when you think things can’t get any worse, here comes Rellik and Black Reign. Oh boy! The match was terrible. There was too much going on so nothing seemed important. We got run ins during the match from Team 3D, Devine and Kaz. Eric Young made his boo inducing appearance afterwards. I guess TNA is building to Team 3D vs. Curry & Sharky and Young & Kaz vs. Rellik & Reign at Destination X, but those aren’t two matches I would pay to see.

Ladder Match: A few weeks before the Royal Rumble, I speculated that TNA was trying to kill the Rumble gimmick for WWE by having three Gauntlets in one night. Now I wonder with the Money in the Bank ladder match looming at WrestleMania, is TNA trying to kill ladder matches too? How do you expect fans to pay to see a ladder match when you book one this poorly? First off all, a ladder match should be special and actually announced ahead of time. Something important should be on the line, not the stupid drinking championship. And, the match should actually be exciting, not boring. There was one cool ladder spot in the match, on the outside when James Storm tried to throw Young into the ladder. Young slid underneath to avoid it, but when he popped up, Storm kicked the ladder into him. That was a nice spot. That was the only nice moment in this farce of a ladder match. When you book a gimmick match on free t.v. solely for the purpose of hyping a PPV gimmick match, you had better bring more than this. The purpose of this match was to show that James Storm is afraid of heights. TNA had a ladder match just to show that Storm is afraid of heights. That is unbelievable.

Talent Judgment: Here is a list of lame wrestlers (either in general or because of current gimmicks) who had significant air time on Impact this week: Eric Young, Curry Man, Shark Boy, Rellik, Black Reign, and the former VKM. Here is a list of TNA wrestlers who were either not on Impact at all, or who were on but in very limited roles: Alex Shelly, Chris Sabin, Christian Cage, LAX, Samoa Joe, and Tomko. Would you rather watch a show that heavily features the guys in the first list, or the second list? Christian and Joe are the two biggest babyfaces in the company (I think they are babyfaces) and they hardly appeared at all, just for a brief brawl before getting kicked out of the ring side area during the Main Event. And yet, Shark Boy appears in two segments and gets to cut a promo? Eric Young is in three segments, but we barely see Tomko? Tomko, who seemed like he was ready to be pushed as a major star in TNA before joining the Angle Alliance, has been barely featured since then. What a waste. The priorities of the TNA bookers are ridiculous, as is their assessment of talent.

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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