By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

IMPACT HITS

Feast or Fired Revealed: At this point in Impact, there had yet to be a two segment match, but the in ring reveal of the contents of the Feast or Fired briefcases went two segments? That was ridiculous, as was most of the scene. However, after last year when TNA seemed to draw out the reveal forever (seriously, it had to take at least a month), it was very nice to see TNA reveal the contents on the first Impact after the PPV. It was so tedious watching it last year and I am glad that TNA learned from that mistake and got right to the point. Also, the right guys got the right cases.

Curry Man Fired: Speaking of getting the right cases, I was very glad to see Curry Man get the pink slip. I have been giving him Misses all year long it seems. I felt that the character was horrible and that it was a waste of Christopher Daniels' talents to be playing a wrestler who wears a plate of food on his head. With AJ Styles' references to Daniels lately, it seems like a return of the Fallen Angel is in the works, which would be fine with me. However, I also like Wade Keller's idea that Suicide should be played by Daniels and that after a year he gets the Fired briefcase, only to have Daniels show up the next month as another masked wrestler. I suppose it is still possible that Suicide will be Daniels and not Kaz. That would be hilarious, but still not as good as just having Daniels (with an actual character and mic skills) back.

IMPACT MISSES

Opening Segment: This wasn't a terrible opening, but it had enough bad to call it a Miss. For one thing, Kurt Angle's opening promo was just boring. TNA needs to decide whether or not they are going to name WWE and Vince McMahon. Angle usually has no problem naming his former employer, but this week he just had a reference to him (as did Brother Ray later in the show). If this is the start of them no longer using the actual names then o.k., but if they are right back to it next week it will be odd that they didn't do it this week. Enough of that tangent. As I said, Angle was boring. It got a bit better with AJ Styles' appearance, but not much. His confrontation with Sting worked well as it fit into Sting's doubting character. Also, Kevin Nash's facial reactions to Styles' words were great. But, it was too little too late after Angle's boring talk and his (once again) offensive references to Jeff Jarrett's daughters.

Short Tournament Matches: I had high hopes for some good in ring action with two X-Division Title Tournament matches. I know I shouldn't have, but I did. Instead of good lengthy matches, TNA decided to put on very short matches. Sheik Abdual Bashir, in addition to feuding with a referee, has been feuding with Eric Young over the Championship. They even faced at the PPV on Sunday. So, what do we get in their opening match which was thankfully not refereed by Shane Sewell? We get a 3 minute match that ended with Bashir fighting with another referee. Later, we got to see an even shorter match, when Alex Shelley defeated Jay Lethal in 2 minutes. At that point, the show was about 50 minutes over and we had only 5 minutes of wrestling action. It didn't get much better with the other matches either.

Suicide: Alex Shelley said it best when he called this guy a video game character. It is so cheesy that TNA has taken a character made up for their video game and actually introduced him as a real wrestler. How am I supposed to take him seriously? Mike Tenay even mentioned having seen him do his finishing move on the video game! You have to be kidding me. It is even harder to take him seriously with the ridiculous outfit and entrance.

Rough Cut: I like the concept of these video packages, and for the most part they are well done. There was nothing intrinsically wrong with how this video on James Storm was produced. It was interesting to see a little on his background and to learn how he got involved in wrestling. So, why am I giving it a Miss? Because, Storm is a heel. This humanizes him. It makes the audience connect with him when we see his humble roots. He gave up his dream to help his mother when his father died. He pushed through adversity with a major injury early in life. He fought back to train and reach his dream. Then after the video aired, he acted like an ass, drank, and hit Matt Morgan with a beer bottle. There was a major disconnect between the man in the video and the man in the ring. Keep the rough cuts for the babyfaces.

Brother Ray's Challenge: Was something supposed to be on the line in the main event? Brother Ray cut a solid promo about the Main Event Mafia and the TNA Frontline destroying each other. I felt it was a bit odd, as it seemed like a promo setting up the end of the storyline, which I wouldn't expect to come for quite some time. Instead, Ray just challenged Angle to a match where both teams have already left the building. That was it? That was the great offer that Angle couldn't refuse? Of course he couldn't refuse the offer. It was just to a one on one match with Ray, and Angle is Angle. Why would he say no? Later, in the locker room Ray said that if he wins the Mafia has to disband, but if he loses, the Frontline has to disband. Where did that come from? That wasn't part of his challenge to Angle. That was the only reference to any type of match stipulation. Obviously, the match was thrown out, so any stipulation wouldn't count. But, I was very confused. In the end, it didn't even lead to a satisfying conclusion with the no contest, and the very predictable attack on Brother Ray by the rest of the Mafia. Who didn't see that coming? I could have also done without the cheesy acting as Ray threatened Angle. I almost could give the entire ending a Miss in and of itself, but I am feeling too lazy (as lazy as the TNA writers I guess).

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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