By Shane McKinley, PWTorch Specialist

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

Impact starts off with a shoddy computer-animated turkey jumping around. While seeing how TNA treats the loser is intriguing, the whole "winner gets $25,000" means nothing to me. TNA's "Turkey Bowl" obviously can't be on the same level of "King of the Ring," considering the absurd nature of it.

The name "Frontline" works. You could splash that across a t-shirt. Apparently Rhino is the new dominant leader of the group. The "Turkey Bowl" was a effective way to pump up Rhino. Better than last year's cheeseball bits.

From a fan's perspective, it is somewhat confusing and complex just how we got to the creation of Frontline. The Young Lions needed top name talent in order to be taken seriously. Thus, Rhino and Team 3D come into play. But now the problem is that except for Rhino, Joe, and Styles, everybody else in "Frontline" are castaways, throwaways, dead weight, take your pick. It is odd to have nearly ten wrestlers against five. Now with the inclusion of Team 3D into the fold, the question remains in how TNA will address these problems. Do they write in a storyline bit where the TNA Originals separate themselves from "The Frontline" (Joe, Styles, Rhino, Team 3D) and we have three factions going at it? That's probably not going to happen. Rhino calling the TNA originals "not ready" yet might hint of a separation.

So while I applaud "Frontline" (The Young Lions needed serious help), as a fan it's hard to get involved emotionally when the very next week "big things" may be drastically changed or completely forgotten.

I hated the announcement of Rhino facing Kurt at the PPV, but thanks to TNA going into "Rhino Hype" mode, it makes it easier to believe that someone who was involved in a nothing feud with Bashir suddenly becomes the leader of Frontline. Mick Foley as the special guest enforcer does spice things up, as their PPV match needed all of the wacky stipulations TNA could think up. I'm sort of curious now how this will turn out. Most likely than not, Angle will pick up a dirty win over Rhino to protect the man beast. PPV is looking somewhat good now.

"This is breaking news from tnawrestling.com the day of the PPV: Rhino was abuducted from aliens this morning. Some...guy...told us that. That's all we can tell you. We're on the case. How will this affect the PPV? Be sure to watch Impact next week to find out answers!" Crap.

It would be interesting for a wrestling company to do a "poor wrestler" storyline, where he lost most of his money on the housing market and has to bum off wrestlers for food and travel. The wrestlers chip in and buy him a Christmas dinner. A true hallmark moment. That won't happen. Except from some promos by JBL, Jericho, and Bashir, the struggling economy has not really been mentioned.

Alex Shelly has been portrayed as the TNA original who is a punk, but obviously he is not as over as MEM or Frontline. So we will see where it goes. Maybe Foley beats him up with "Barbie" on a PPV down the line.

Kudos to TNA for making backstage segments try to look different every time. I was used to staring at Booker's locker room (before they went into HD) every week. Only thing worth mentioning here is how TNA will try to lure fans into buying the PPV to see Palin, real or rip-off.

They are also pushing Christy Hemme again as one of the "serious" Knockouts.

And look, ref Shane is once again in a match with Bashir. Gee.

Looks like they are cramming the Beautiful People skit with the ODB vs. Sharmell match on the PPV. Phony Palin runs in and does a bronco buster on Sharmell. ODB wins and shares a drink with the governor. Fine by me.



"Hmm. You know, I will take you up on that offer." (credit to scrapetv.com for pic)

Decent subplot of "which team will Ray and Devon join?" I'm just thankful that these bits are leading to somewhere. Viewers could be stuck with a drunken promo by Rock and Rave Infection or an extremely stupid Super League of Idiots skit. That's how I view a good Impact: "Well, we already well know that they could have put out much worse stuff."

Perhaps Christy vs. Kong for the title? Would be nice if they had an actual plan for Rhaka Khan, Roxxi, and Taylor Wilde. They botched that bit up and are moving on into something new.

And hey, no trashy ODB's Angle.

A.J. Styles does a sit-down interview talking about how his father beat up his mother. Meanwhile, Joe has two things going for him: His shades and his always pent-up anger. That's it. Further development with Sting possibly jumping (Rhino joins MEM and Sting joins Frontline). That's all speculation, but good stuff in what they are doing with Sting's character.

Given the context of the situation, Mick Foley dressing up in suits would probably confuse a fan like TNA Ted. "Hey, why is Foley with MEM?" I like it that Shelley brought some effort into the promo, but there's a reason why people are falling in love with those Hollywood Hombres, JoMizzy. Because often they do great promos.

In general, TNA doesn't do money promos. What was the battle cry from Jeff Jarrett when he squared off against Angle this year? "I'll beat your ass so bad, not even papa Vince would take you back!" Ugh.

I don't know where they are going with Shelley. Previous examples have shown that TNA could drop MCMG at the slightest notice and they would become quickly forgotten. Also a nice way to show Foley as not taking crap from nobody. Nobody dares mocks the odd combo of leopard print shirts and leather.

The show started began with Frontline-MEM talking and it ends with Frontline-MEM talking. Yawn. Team 3D do a face turn in order to get the jump on MEM.

Frontline could be portrayed as "mid-card wrestlers who will claw and bite their way to victory. They may not have money or finesse, but they have hearts and balls." Meanwhile, MEM is portrayed as "elite, main event talent." Neither side is really face or heel, so this feud is walking down the middle path. So far, TNA has had MEM all but own Frontline, so the inclusion of Team 3D does give it credibility. It's not really "young homegrown dudes vs. outsider veterans." It's looking more to be "scrappy bingo hall wrestlers vs. the elite rich." But we will see where they go with this.

I don't know about staying power of this Frontline-MEM feud, but at least TNA fixed some glaring problems tonight. Fans had better matches tonight, a decent storyline with Team 3D choosing sides, and making the Frontline stronger. TNA doesn't watch their own shows, but they should look at last week's Impact and understand what made watching it so cruddy. Tonight was a much better effort, but can TNA do it next week? That's something Frontline should be fighting for: consistency in TNA's product.

POSTIVES

-- Rhino was pushed in a believable way with winning the tournament
-- Matches were largely better than the standard thing TNA does
-- Young Lions got some credibility with "Frontline," Team 3D joining
-- PPV doesn't look quite as bad as last week
-- Trying to recover the Knockout Division with Christy vs. Kong
-- No Kurt Angle dressing up as a pilgrim this year, less cheesy this time around
-- Working on defining the beliefs of Frontline and MEM
-- Eating thanksgiving leftovers

NEGATIVES

-- Was there really a plan in place for the TNA Originals? A lot of dead weight here
-- Hesitant in how TNA does this whole Sarah Palin thing
-- Last week's Impact really screwed the pooch, some things were just dropped (e.g. Knockouts)
-- Spider-man ("Suicide") still can't find his way out of the basement
-- Have no idea where Alex Shelley is going. Will he just be Foley's punching bag?
-- Eating too many thanksgiving leftovers

VERDICT: A Little Absurd

LEAVING YOU WITH MY ABSURD THOUGHT

Let's take a look at Turning Point, which aired December 2, 2007.

ODB and Roxxi vs. The Beautiful People

These wrestlers were probably doing the same thing that they are now, but Roxxi was still in her "voodoo queen" gimmick.

Eric Young vs. James Storm

From what I can recall, this feud started off because of drinking. There was even a "beer belt" created. In 2008 both men would sky rocket to the top. Or not. Young became a superhero and went to look for Elvis, while Storm would win the tag team title belts and sink into obscurity.

Booker & Kaz vs. Christian & Roode

That Booker vs. Roode feud was a thing of beauty. Nothing like bringing in a hot new WWE talent and saddling him up with a Ted DiBiase/Triple H rip-off.

Feast Or Fired Match

Almost poetic in way of the sheer stupidity of it all. BG James and Kip James got a title shot (and shockingly Kip James turned on BG and his father), Christopher Daniels was "ousted" from the company during next week's "Deal or No Deal" briefcase mania, and lastly Scott Steiner and Petey Williams begin to stink it up with briefcase switching madness. Perhaps the whole frustrating thing about this match is that fans who bought the PPV were told that the winners would be reveled on Impact, so be sure to watch! Well done, TNA. Well done.

Team 3D & Johnny Devine vs. MCMG & Jay Lethal in a Tables Match

This feud was pretty hot at the time. Team 3D wanted to destroy the X Division. Team 3D would in later months fight Shark Boy and Curryman in a "Fish Market" match, Devine would be gone, MCMG would all but virtually disappear from television, and Lethal won the painful SoCal Val-Sonjay Dutt love angle. But table goodness in this match.

Gail Kim vs. Awesome Kong

Hopefully TNA will get the Knockout division back on track with Christy vs. Kong.

Match of 10,000 Tacks: Rhino & Abyss vs. Rellik & Black Reign




Rhino would be injured, so Raven would replace him. Rellik was Killer spelled backwards (or, EMAL is LAME), Black Reign would become Golddust once again, and the only thing Abyss changed about his character is his clothes. This was another wild hardcore match (credit to xe1.xanga.com for pic).

6 Man Tag Team War: Joe & Kevin Nash & Scott Hall vs. The Angle Alliance (Angle & Styles & Tomko)

The no-show by Hall had Joe grabbing the mic and going on a rant about how the young guys busted their ass while veteran douche bags like Hall would not even show up. Frontline vs. MEM? Joe continues on and brings Eric Young to replace Hall. Leading up to the match they had all of the backstage skits of Joe confronting Nash about Hall. This match also started the ten-month plan of Nash to cleverly mentor Joe, all the while waiting for his chance to betray him. The Angle Alliance was broken up later by Styles having a crush on Angle's wife. Tomko had a brief face run before TNA decided that they didn't like him anymore.

Email is mckinley.torch@gmail.com.

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