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Mike Roe, Torch Specialist

TNA Impact Hits:

Team Cage not wearing stupid Team Cage t-shirts: Hey, these guys actually looked like wrestling stars this week instead of goofballs in poorly made, poorly sized t-shirts! It was a solid opening segment, particularly Christian's promo, and they built the storyline effectively throughout the show. Nothing that blew me away, but solid stuff throughout. Although, my favorite part was the...

Presidential jokes: As a political geek, I'm biased, but thumbs up to Christian and... dare I say it... Mike Tenay for some humor that actually seemed culturally relevant for once.

Sonjay Dutt foiling Black Machismo once again: Like any great comedy routine, this is, in fact, about the routine of it all; you watch each one of these segments just waiting for Sonjay to come in and spoil the moment. The tambourine is a little much on the cheap heat side for me, but overall, it's a fun dynamic between these three. And So cal Val can feel free to spin and show off anytime she wants.

Petey Williams and Scott Steiner video package: This initiation thing has been so absurd, but when you brought in the over the top TNA announcer, it finally made it comically absurd, and thus, great. Xenophobia, water torture, and nipple electrocution! Apparently Scott Steiner worked in one of the CIA's secret prisons. Or at least watches 24.

Angle/Joe video package going back to the beginning: This was so great. I would have liked perhaps some more voiceovers to give this some more context, and it went way too fast, but at least it gave fans a taste of what made Joe/Angle so tremendous in their previous encounters. Their confrontation was also solid, and they showed amazing restraint. In almost all of these contract signing segments, someone gets put through the table, or the table at least gets flipped over, but no, these men actually shook hands! Not the Angle slam through the table I was expecting, and they're actually making us wait until the pay-per-view they want us to pay for! Genius!

More video packages: So, I realized I had listed about five different video packages as hits, so I'm doing some consolidating, but seriously, the video packages on this show were awesome. They showed the highlights of what had come before, and set things up for the pay-per-view, as well as including lots of new material. The women's match, the final B.G. James vs. Kip James Rough Cut, and Roode/Booker packages were among the great videos. They'd even spiffed up the end of show video and put together a really high quality show closing music video that got across the various matches and storylines quite well. Which brings me to...

Actually selling a pay-per-view: All these great video packages, along with solid matches and promo work, actually made me want to pay to buy a pay-per-view. TNA apparently knows how to do this when they want to. Why have they not done this before?! Was this show written by a different writing team? Just a tremendous sell job, so thumbs up for that.

TNA Impact Misses:

Consequences Creed's haircut: It's impossible to take this man seriously. He looks like the black Sideshow Bob. He trains in striped tights and comes out wearing a poncho. Then he wrestles a match that's perfectly fine, but he's not exactly jumping off the screen with charisma. The video packages were good, but I thought his debut was a letdown.

Matt Morgan promo: So, after his big turn last week, he comes out in the opening segment and is just one of the guys in the back. He finally gets to cut a promo backstage, I'm guessing so he can be pre-produced, and it's just kind of eh. His voice seems a little too high for his body, and his demeanor is a little too twitchy and spazzy. Unlike someone like Tomko, he's not a guy who radiates any semblance of "cool."

Cuffed in the Cage: Why?! OK, so they did their most to sell this match, but when there's no reason for a match to happen and it's a match that probably shouldn't exist in the first place, there's only so much you can do with it. Hopefully this abomination of a stipulation happens and then goes away forever.

Solo Roxxi: Having her still in the voodoo queen gimmick now that she's gone solo seems like a poor decision. She's in need of a repackaging. I thought that's where they were going when the porn star team was going to make her over, but instead, she's just off doing a watered down version of what was already a lame gimmick when she was doing it with the Voodoo Kin Mafia.

Super Eric vs. Black Reign: So, is this singles match supposed to be building up some sort of future tag with Super Eric and Kaz versus Black Reign and Rellik? Isn't it supposed to go the other way around? But wait, first they're going to be in a cage, with handcuffs somehow involved? My head hurts. Miss!

ODB's xenophobia: On what was a very strong show, a real low point. Her comments about the "sheet" over Raisha Saeed's face were pretty insulting to an entire culture. With moments like this and their exploitation of Robbie McAllister, they make it harder to get behind them when they actually do things right for once.

Mike Roe is PWTorch.com's fill-in guy, providing his point of view on Raw, Smackdown, ECW, and TNA Impact until Hits & Misses Specialist Jon Mezzera gets home and kicks him to the curb for the inevitable walk of shame. He loves to hear from the readers, so e-mail him with your feedback at mikeroe@gmail.com!

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