By Curtis Shanks, PWTorch specialist

Welcome to the TNA Impact edition of Under the Microscope. We're here to review all those little observations and tidbits you may have missed. This is not a detailed recap of the show, but a review for those of you that saw the show but didn't actually "watch" it.

After last week, we know that the ODB is auditioning for a role on The View, referee Shane Sewell > the entire X Division, and James Storm wastes a lot of beer. But what else is there to notice? Let's see what we can spot. Cue the opening pyro.

We start off tonight's show with the Main Event Mafia, only to be interrupted by Rhino. I am not a fan of Rhino's intro music in TNA. It is important, in my opinion, for a wrestler to have a good intro and intro music. It's a first impression and describes the wrestler's personality in a way other than words or actions. Rhino's music is basically the same ten notes played over and over and over again. His music also raises an interesting question. Did Animal from the Muppet Show play the hectic-sounding cymbals for Rhino's intro music?

On the topic of Rhino, it appears that the War Machine does not play well with others, despite his history with Christian. Despite being a nine-year veteran of ECW, WWE, and TNA, Rhino has never won a major tag team title. If you want to find a tag title reign in his history, you have to go way back to his days in Germany in the old CWA. There are some other names that come to mind when discussing the lack of a tag title run. Finlay, Sid Vicious, and Randy Savage are a few other veterans to never taste tag team gold at a high level.

After the beat down of Christian to close the show last week, we see Rhino beaten and put into a casket to start tonight's show. Could Rhino be getting the same treatment as Christian for behind the scenes actions as well? Rhino is one of the names who is rumored to have a contract running out in the coming months. When WWE reformed their version of ECW, Rhino was offered a contract to return to WWE, but promptly turned it down. Rhino may be thinking of his bank account this time around, or it could simply be a meaningless storyline forgotten in a few weeks.

We know that Jeff Jarrett is siding with the young guns in their feud with the MEM. Jarrett's office shows this allegiance, as the bookshelf in the background had two pictures displayed on the top shelf, A.J. Styles and Samoa Joe, the two leaders of the youngsters faction. Other items of note on his bookshelf are a picture of the recently departed Christian Cage and a roll of police caution tape. Not sure about the purpose of that tape. With all the blatant attacks that happen backstage in wrestling today, they may need to be roped off as crime scenes, as logically some of the attacks we see would be considered crimes in the real world.

After interference from referee Shane Sewell last week, Eric Young pinned Sheik Abdul Bashir to win the X Division title. The reign does not last long however, as Jim Cornette forced Young to turn the title over to Bashir tonight due to the Sewell interference. For those of you who are title history buffs, a quick toggle over to the TNA web site shows that it was officially a reversed decision, not an instance of a title being stripped. There is no reference in their title history section referring to Young as an X Division champion, just one continuous reign by Bashir.

It was a quick little quote, but it was nice to hear Jim Cornette reference Shane Sewell's in-ring past on tonight's show. It gives us some type of back story as to how a referee could be in such good shape and perform moves as good as any wrestler currently on the roster. This was of course a few months after I had talked about Sewell's wrestling career in Puerto Rico (which I pointed out before the storyline even started), but it was nice of Cornette to remind us anyway.

We go backstage tonight to a Beautiful People promo that takes place in an over-the-top set. I'm sure there was some small tidbit or reference the microscope could have picked up during this segment, but the Microscope was unfortunately turned off during this time. The last thing I want to do when I see Kip James laying like that on my TV is to watch a show more intently.

TNA's newest Knockout is Sojourner Bolt, who has wrestled on the indies as Josie. Josie is an OVW regular (post-WWE affiliation) and has held their women's title on a few occasions. We've seen her in TNA before, as she answered the $25,000 challenge by Awesome Kong (as Josie Robinson) at Slammiversary this summer. A few months later she was once again squashed in a match by Kong, this time on Impact as Sojourner Bolt.

After the MCMG vs. Joe/Styles match we see the MEM sneak into the ring for a beatdown of the winners. Booker, Nash, and Angle were in their wrestling gear as they had matches later in the show, while Sting and Steiner, who were not scheduled to wrestle, were still dressed in their suits. Tenay and West pointed this out, as it is a nice little touch to add a sense of realism to the product. Too often in wrestling we see wrestlers suddenly run out from the back in their ring gear who are not scheduled to be on the show. Creed and Lethal ran out later in the segment, and both were not dressed to wrestle, but in casual street clothes. This makes sense since Lethal was not due to compete and Creed had completed his match earlier in the show.

Winter is fast approaching and the temperature is dropping, even in Orlando, Fla. For the second consecutive week we see Slick Johnson calling matches in normal referee dress pants rather than his usual shorts.

Sting is in the midst of his third world title reign with TNA, although the first two were relatively short reigns. When Sting defeated A.J. Styles at the last PPV and Jay Lethal last week on Impact those were actually the first two times Sting had successfully defended the world title in TNA. Sting's first and second runs were halted when he dropped the title in his very first defense after winning. The first, a loss to Abyss at the first PPV after winning the title from Jeff Jarrett. The second a loss to Kurt Angle at an Impact taping two days after defeating him on a PPV.

To close the show, we see an in-ring confrontation between Kurt Angle and Mick Foley. Angle tells Foley that he is a "twelve time World Heavyweight Champion." Not by my count. Angle has held the WWF/E title four times, the World Heavyweight Championship once, the WCW title once, and TNA's world title twice. Even including his IWGP title reign in Japan, that only gives us nine world title runs. I guess if "five-time world champ" Chris Jericho can do it on Monday night's, there's no reason Angle can't exaggerate on Thursday's as well.

Numbers crunched harder than an unprotected chair shot to the head: In three weeks TNA will be presenting Final Resolution, their last PPV of 2008. To some it may seem like just another ordinary PPV on the schedule, but it is actually a milestone PPV of sorts for TNA. Final Resolution will be the 50th three hour monthly PPV produced by TNA. We've seen the good, the bad and the ugly over the course of their PPVs, but let's look at a few numbers about those first 49.

One man, A.J. Styles, has wrestled in a match on every single one of those PPVs. This streak A.J. has going is, well, simply phenomenal. With Styles's high-risk style and the handful of sick-looking bumps we've seen him take over the course of the first 49, it's amazing that Styles has avoided major injury and is the one with the Cal Ripkenesque streak of longevity. Over the first 49, he has competed in 51 total matches and the results are right down the middle. Styles has been on the winning side 25 times and the losing side 25 times, with one no-contest in his MMA fight with Frank Trigg.

After Styles, there are a small handful of guys who have come close to that streak. Chris Sabin and James Storm are tied for second on that list, as both have competed on 45 of the first 49. Other TNA originals such as Abyss, Christopher Daniels, and Robert Roode are in the 40-plus club as well. The case could also be made for Samoa Joe and his PPV consistency. Joe joined TNA for monthly PPV number eight, and since then has competed on 40 out of 42 TNA PPVs.

Curtis Shanks is a self-described wrestling nerd. Who else understands what Matt Striker is talking about all the time. Feedback is welcome, as comments, suggestions, questions and love letters can be sent to Curtis at curtisshanks.torch@gmail.com.

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