By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

IMPACT HITS

Christian Cage: I had heard that Booker T was going to introde a new Championship on TNA, so his announcement wasn't anything special (not that it would have been if I hadn't known already). But, I did enjoy the segment once Christian Cage made his interruption. Other than the Lil' John reference and imitation (Dave Chapelle did it several years ago), Christian was very good on the mic. He really spoke for the fans in calling into question Booker inventing a Title and naming himself Champion. He had some funny lines as well. I like that he referenced Booker's ridiculous accent. I also like how when he challenged Booker for the Legends Title, that he made it clear that he didn't really want the belt, but wanted to piss off Booker by taking it. I wasn't thrilled with Booker's counter challenge that if Christian loses he has to join the Main Event Mafia, but it was still a good segment, largely do to Christian's mic work.

Kong Wins Title: Awesome Kong vs. Taylor Wilde was ridiculously short for a Title match that has been fairly well built up. At least Kong and Wilde have been feuding for awhile. Then, the match was over in about 3 minutes. The match itself was fine for those three minutes, but it was too short. However, I have never been very impressed with Wilde and felt she didn't do anything deserving of the Knockout Championship. It was time that Kong got the Title back, so I am giving her win a Hit, despite the short match.

IMPACT MISSES

Lethal vs. Bashir: I was enjoying the first minute and half or so of this X-Division Championship match. Then it was over. It was way too short. I would be embarrassed and angry if I were Jay Lethal for Shawn Daivari and I was asked to be in that match. It made Sheik Abdual Bashir look strong for getting a clean win over someone like Lethal, but it made Lethal look incredibly weak. This was the guy who scored the biggest upset in TNA history last year when he defeated Kurt Angle. Now he is losing in under two minutes. It makes no sense. I figured there would be interference from Sonjay Dutt, but instead we got a clean pin (which is fine in and of itself) in under two minutes (which isn't). Really, most of the matches were short, but this one was particularly bothersome.

Tag Team Text Gauntlet Weapon Revenge Match Thing: This was a huge mess. For one thing, it was over complicated in terms of rules, as all of TNA's gauntlets are. I spent most of the match trying to figure out the rules. It was just too much of a hectic mess. I was very confused at the end. The weapon of the fans' choosing was supposed to be legal once the match turned into a regular tag team match. Instead, the announcement that tables had won was made when three of the four teams were still in the match. But, I wasn't sure if Abyss was in the match at that point or not. Devon had been eliminated, but he was still in the ring. Finally Abyss got officially eliminated, but the rules didn't really matter at that point. I find it hard to believe that Devon would be pinned after just having beer spit in his face. Team 3D are heels but they were treated as babyfaces throughout the match. It was terrible.

Angle's "Big" Announcement: I was underwhelmed by the two industry shattering announcements on Impact (in addition to the underwhelming announcement from Booker mentioned above). The first was Kurt Angle's announcement of the formation of the Main Event Mafia. For one thing, that is a terrible name. For another, it is hardly an announcement or a surprise in any way. Sting and Kevin Nash were already working together as were Angle and Booker T. Sting had verbally defended Angle and Booker in the past. It is just another heel faction. I have no problem with this team, but don't treat it like it is anything more that it is. The scene where the announcement was made wasn't very good. You still have Booker doing the ridiculous accent. You still have Nash talking about Scott Hall. You still have Sting showing up out of make up which diminishes his mystique. It was all very anticlimactic.

Foley's "Big" Announcement: I was similarly underwhelmed by Mick Foley's announcement as well. Foley is now a major stock holder in TNA. What a blockbuster! Now he is the boss. The problem is that TNA has always been way too ambiguous with who exactly is in charge of TNA (a problem that WWE has fallen into many times also - one of the poor WWE traits that TNA should not be emulating). Jim Cornette has been the Championship Committee representative (or something like that - I'm not sure what his title actually is). He has had many problems with the nameless higher ups in the past. Recently, it has been acknowledged that Jeff Jarrett founded TNA and still has major power. Has he been on the Championship Committee? Did he still own the company? How did his power compare to Cornette's? Now, we find out that Foley is a partial or majority owner in the company. Does he have power over Jarrett? Or Cornette? Is Cornette on any more? Jarrett won't wrestle any more so he can run the business, but doesn't he have a Championship Committee, a Jim Cornette, and now a new owner to do that for him? Unfortunately, I don't really care about the answers to those questions.

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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