By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

IMPACT HITS

Daivari & Dux vs. MMG: This was a fun tag team match. It had a few sloppy spots and a few over choreographed spots (as often happens in X-Division action), but it was enjoyable. It definitely had plenty of nonstop action and never got boring. It went a good length and even given a commercial break, we got to see plenty of the match. If Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin can deliver a quality match like this with no real build, with nothing really on the line, against two men who are new to TNA with no gimmick other than being foreign, just imagine what they could do in a PPV match against another well established team for the Tag Team Championships after a long and well written program.

Gail Kim Video: I tend to get sick and tired of TNA’s video packages, but this one was well done. It gave Gail Kim a chance to share her background and how she got into wrestling and how her career path has ultimately brought her to TNA. This is a case where bringing up her WWE past actually worked as it is much more recent than say Kyp James talking about DX. I enjoyed this video, but I have to ask, where has it been? Why are they using it now, with Kim firmly established as one of the top Knockouts in TNA and a huge fan favorite? Why does TNA wait to do one of these videos so long? Isn't this how you introduce a new wrestler to the fans?

Main Event: Christian Cage & AJ Styles vs. Team 3D was a good t.v. Main Event. It wasn’t a great match, as Brother Ray and Brother Devon are too slow and plodding at this point to have a great match, but it was a good match. It had solid action throughout. After a minute of brawling on the outside before the match, the match itself went 14 minutes which was good to see. So often, TNA teases us with the possibility of a long Main Event, only to have it go several minutes shorter than expected because of all the crap that happens after the match. This week had a much better balance between giving the match the time it deserves, while still having a plot development afterwards. Kurt Angle jumping Styles with the help of Frank Trigg was just as effective (if not more so) as the long drawn out beatings that we’ve seen Styles take as of late. Angle continued his dominance, and sent a message that he is smarter than Styles, in a short amount of time, which is more efficient and allowed for a longer Main Event.

IMPACT MISSES

Use of Samoa Joe: The TNA World Heavyweight Champion was barely on Impact this week, only in the opening segment. Samoa Joe should be the center piece of the show, not just barely featured early on then forgotten about the rest of the show. Plus, I was intrigued by why he gave up his locker room to Booker T last week, but this week we find out that it is just because he is a man of the people. That was lame. His backstage confrontation with Kevin Nash was ok, but nothing great. It set up next week’s presumptive Main Event, Nash vs. Booker, which I am not looking forward to. And that was it. No more Joe the rest of the show.

World X Cup Rules: I just don’t get these rules. There are four rounds of matches in which guys from the four teams compete to win points and the team with the most points at the end wins. The first round is tag matches. Was the entire first round this week’s Impact? If so, then Team Japan and Team Mexico are at a disadvantage for not having a match. If not, then the announcers have to make it clear that Round 1 continues next week. You get a point for Round 1, then two for Round 2 which will be singles matches. How many? How are the competitors for each match chosen? Is it random? Do the team captains pick their representatives? What is going on? It culminates in Ultimate X, but is it possible to end before then? Can a team win that for four points, but still lose the trophy? Don’t we all know that all of the first three rounds will be meaningless because the team that wins Ultimate X will win? Why should I care about these matches if the points don’t matter, because it is all leading up to a PPV match where any team can still win regardless of how many points they have won throughout the first three rounds?

Karen Angle Interview: This was just terrible. I am giving the interview the Miss, because Don West and Mike Tenay were just as bad as Karen Angle. Their questions were poorly asked. Tenay in particular is so bad. His acting is so over the top, especially when he accused Karen of having an affair with AJ Styles. Isn’t he the one who has defended her to Kurt Angle in the past? Karen is a bad actress. We have no idea why she is now under contract with TNA. Is she going to wrestle? If not, then what is her job? I could go on, but what’s the point?

Fans’ Revenge Strap Match: There are so many problems with this. First of all, awhile back Jim Cornette chewed out Jeremy Borash about Awesome Kong wrestling fans, but he is fine with putting 12 fans in harms way. Makes no sense. This is the first match between LAX and James Storm & Robert Roode, so of course it has to have a gimmick attached to it. What ever happened to building a feud to the point where a gimmick match is needed to settle the matter? They just started feuding and are already having one. Makes no sense. Jim Cornette can usually order wrestlers to have matches, even against their will. But this time, he has to get them to agree to it. Why can he usually order wrestlers to have whatever type of match he wants (like where a Knockout will get her head shaved), but this time he has to get Storm & Roode to agree? Makes no sense. That is what I have to say about this whole ordeal. Makes no sense.

Alex Koslov: Koslov vs. Kaz was indicative of much that is wrong with the World X Cup. We saw Koslov last week, but still don’t know much about him, other than the fact that he came to America as a child, trained in Los Angeles, and has wrestled in Mexico. He is doing his gimmick as if the fans are already familiar with it. He has not been introduced (like in a series of matches against jobbers) and he is already facing a star like Kaz. His Russian dance while kicking Kaz was one of the stupidest wrestling moves I have ever witnessed in over 20 years. Am I supposed to take this guy seriously? His surfboard in the ropes was stupid as well. It doesn’t look any more painful with the ropes than a typical surfboard. Plus, he can’t get a submission victory in the ropes, so it is pointless to do it that way. It is a clear case of a wrestler doing something different just for the sake of doing it different without really thinking about the ramifications of the move in the context of trying to win a wrestling match. Plus, chances are he will be gone in a month, so why should I care about his mannerisms?

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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