By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

IMPACT HITS

Team 3D: Brother Ray and Brother Devon had good nights on Impact this week. Ray vs. Homicide was a decent short opening match, but the post match beating on Homicide and Hernandez with a little help from Booker T was well done. This sets up LAX as a team on a mission to get revenge for what Team 3D has done the last two weeks. Their promo with Booker T later in the show was also strong. I particularly liked when Booker complained about someone hanging a shirt on his locker, only to have Ray say that it was his. All in all, it was a good week for Team 3D.

Roode’s Interview: Robert Roode had a string of good interviews during his recent feud with Booker T, and he delivered another one this week. He did a good job of bringing up that feud with Booker, while at the same time focusing on his own frustrations over a lack of opportunities. The smile bit worked well. This was an effective way to get over how important King of the Mountain is to him, as a way for him to finally get the opportunity that he feels he deserves.

AJ Styles: TNA seems to have decided to push AJ Styles as a serious babyface, and that is a good thing. He is so good in the ring, and has been so good playing the goofy side kick character for Christian Cage, Kurt Angle and Tomko, that he deserves this chance. I liked his interview with Lauren and his confrontation with Tomko. I like that he is finally going to be on his own. I particularly like how he threw the crown away, ridding himself of the Prince gimmick. I was disappointed in the short length of his Main Event match with Booker T, but it was good while it lasted. It was also good that he held his own during the post-match attack for as long as he did. He looked strong. I don’t understand why Team 3D got involved. I know they have Booker T’s back, but Booker had already won the match and was outside of the ring. He had nothing to do with the fight between Styles and Tomko. But, at least their involvement gave Styles a chance to look strong for awhile. The bloody beat down will give the fans a reason to cheer for Styles, which they have already been doing. I look forward to seeing his development.

IMPACT MISSES

Kong Challenges Fans: TNA seems to have run out of ideas for Awesome Kong. The top Knockout was needlessly pushed into the Egotistical Eight for the Deuces Wild tag team tournament, and instead of building up a feud for her with one of the other Knockouts, they are going with the $25,000 challenge. Jeremy Borash was right in not wanting any part of it, and it would have been easy for him to walk away from Kong, but he stuck around and participated anyway. I didn’t understand why he was needed in the first place. Couldn’t Raisha Saeed have done the challenge without him? Is this the best use of Kong? TNA did a great job establishing her dominance when she first debuted and eventually won the Women’s Championship. I don’t see how this helps her out, and I don’t see why TNA isn’t building up a challenge for her title.

The Angles: Way too much time was spent on the Angles this week. First we got Borash attempting to interview Karen when she arrived. Then we got Borash interviewing Kurt with Frank Trigg in the bathroom (an amusing scene). Then we got the video history of their relationship in TNA. Then we got the in ring scene where Karen asked for a divorce. The scene went on too long. And, it wasn’t particularly good. Karen isn’t good. Really, she never has been. I am tired of this storyline which seems to have gone on forever. It was interesting at the end of the show when the focus seemed to have shifted away from Kurt and Karen, and onto Tomko vs. Styles. But, instead, it was Karen and Kurt at the center of the final moments of the show, as Karen tried to rescue Styles, and Kurt gave him the chair shot to the head (another unnecessary clean chair shot I might add). I understand if the original plan was Styles vs. Angle at Slammiversary, and if that is still the plan and Kurt will be healthy for that match, then o.k. But, shifting to Tomko would have made perfect sense, given closure to the team of Styles & Tomko, and saved Kurt from having to wrestle when he should have more time to rest his neck. Instead, the focus is right back on the Angle family drama which is unfortunate.

Multipart Videos: Last week I failed to mention how repetitive it is for TNA to have three multipart videos going at the same time. This week, we got part two of Abyss’ video from an insane asylum (this is stupid, unrealistic, and a bad Mankind rip-off), Eric Young’s video trying to find Elvis (I gave it a Miss last week), and Mike Tenay’s interview with Sting. I should have given that a Miss last week, because of the talk about The Ultimate Warrior, but it made sense in terms of Sting recapping his early career. I am worried since he brought him up again this week. I don’t look forward to part three of any of these videos. Did anyone in TNA think that maybe they shouldn’t do the same exact thing three times on each show between PPVs?

History Videos: TNA went heavy on history videos this week. Too heavy. Before we could hear from ODB, we had to see a video on The Beautiful People. Before we could hear who Samoa Joe had picked to be King of the Mountain qualifiers, we had to see a video on the history (and rules) of King of the Mountain. I’m all for explaining the rules of the ridiculously over complicated gimmick match, but Jeremy Borash did that later, so the video wasn’t needed here. Before we could hear from Kurt Angle, we had to see a video of the history between Kurt and Karen. Then we got a video recapping Petey Williams’ storyline becoming Little Petey Pump. That is four history videos on a show that also featured the multipart videos listed above.

Match Quality: There was no quality wrestling on Impact. There were five matches, none of them were very good, or very long. Ray vs. Homicide was a decent 4 minute match. Angelina Love vs. ODB was also a decent (at best) 4 minute match. Roode vs. Morgan was a bad 4 minute match (can someone explain what makes Morgan a babyface? Please!). Kong vs. fan in the crowd was a squash that accomplished nothing. I was expecting to give the Main Event a Hit and was happy that it started with about 15 minutes left in the show. Instead, it went 5 minutes which brought the total wrestling action up to about 18 minutes in a two hour show. That was disappointing, especially considering how much crap filler and stupid videos TNA used for Impact. We deserve more and better wrestling action from TNA.

Too Much Happening: Part of the problem was that there was too much content on this show. This had to be the most crammed two hour Impact yet. My notes for this Impact were far longer than my notes have ever been. There were only five matches, but so many back stage segments, interviews and video packages. Nothing could sink in, as there was just going to be a cut to another part of the building for whatever was coming up next. It was too hectic. It was too frenetic. There were very long periods without a match which were filled with too many short bits. After Roode vs. Morgan, there was a commercial. After that commercial, there was the Eric Young video, the Angles video, the scene with Kurt and Karen, then a commercial, then a scene in the back with Borash, Kong and Saeed, the Petey Williams video, Lauren’s interview with Styles which was interrupted by Tomko, then another commercial, then Tenay’s interview with Sting, then Borash talking about King of the Mountain which was interrupted by Kong and Saeed, then Borash found a fan to wrestle Kong, then another commercial, before we finally got the short squash match. That sequence is indicative as to how Impact went.

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.

For another view from the original Hitlist author, compare Jason Powell's views to mine by visiting prowrestling.NET's "Hitlist" section here.

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