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 Matt Morgan broke up with "Abby," Sting finally took a stand, and the Frontline was M.I.A. But what else is there to notice? Let's see what we can spot. Cue the opening pyro.

With the MEM taking over the show, our backstage interviewer tonight is Sharmell. Sharmell is not alone however, as she has a bodyguard close, allowing her to dish out verbal abuse without repercussions. During ODB's interview, Sharmell addresses the bodyguard as "Tilly." Longtime fans of TNA may remember the name and face. In 2005 the team of Phi Delta Slam debuted on Impact. The team consisted of Bruno Sassi and Big Tilly playing "frat house" characters. The team was short lived, however. After a feud with a second debuting team, Ron & Don Harris, the two quietly disappeared from TNA.

One of tonight's announcers, Booker T, references Thunderbolt Patterson during the ring intro of Sojourner Bolt. Patterson wrestled throughout the South during the '60s, '70s, and '80s. Patterson held numerous NWA titles across the country. His main title success came in the form of tag team titles, as he held various belts with wrestlers such as Wahoo McDaniel, Jerry Brisco, Tony Atlas, and Ole Anderson.

Kudos to Scott Steiner tonight for looking over things with his own Microscope. As Steiner gives us ring introductions for the Booker vs. referees match, he makes the astute observation that both refs have two first names. Rudy Charles and Andrew Thomas aren't the only two in TNA who fall in that category, however. Alex Shelley and Matt Morgan are two others who fit that criteria.

If we were to include WWE, we have characters such as Mickie James, Shelton Benjamin, Mark Henry, and Michael Cole. WWE's past has also given us Gunner Scott, Molly Holly, Dave Taylor, Shane Douglas, Orlando Jordan, and James Curtis. Kelly Kelly could also be added to that list, although I believe she is just suffering from Kennedy...Kennedy syndrome.

I'm not a huge fan of the way tonight's show was presented, but I think Kevin Nash is a great addition to the commentary team. Whether he's a heel or a face, Nash has always done well at adding humor to his characters. The line of the night came from Nash during his commentary while Matt Morgan made his ring intro. After Booker asked, "What do you think of Matt Morgan?" Nash simply responded "Way too much oil."

Two hours is a good length for a wrestling TV show. Not too short, but not too long. However, with Booker T on commentary tonight, the two hour mark couldn't have come soon enough. If it wasn't my task to listen closely and pick up on the small things, I would have muted this episode a long time ago. I thought the over-the-top African accent by Booker was as bad as it gets, but his Scott Ferrall/Harvey Fierstein hybrid voice was just head splitting.

Officially we didn't get Booker T and Kevin Nash on commentary tonight, as they were using the pseudonyms Black Snow and Chet Lemon. Being a baseball nerd along with a wrestling nerd, the name Chet Lemon is familiar to me. Lemon was an outfielder who played for the Chicago White Sox and Detroit Tigers from the late '70s until the late '80s. While not a household name, Lemon was a solid player hitting over 200 home runs and playing in three All-Star games.

With Kevin Nash being from Detroit, it seems like there is a reason behind why Chet Lemon was the choice for him, as Lemon was on the 1984 Detroit Tigers championship team. If we are using childhood baseball idols as aliases tonight, then this column will be written by Gary Gaetti. In the coming weeks we may see columns from Greg Gagne (no relation to Vern), Tom Brunansky, Brian Harper, Shane Mack, Frank Viola, and Kent Hrbek.

I still don't know whether I enjoyed the first hour or hated it. Parts of it were just bad, but other parts were a nice change. While Kevin Nash was good on commentary, Booker was horrible. Booker has plenty of guest commentating experience in his WWE past, but should have stuck with that formula as he was down-right annoying tonight. Who knew Don West would be sorely missed. Sharmell was also a downgrade in her backstage role as Lauren has filled that role nicely.

I have no problem with ring announcer Dave Penzer, but Scott Steiner was brilliant with his ring intros tonight. He was almost Santinoesque in the way he messed up his words. While tonight's miscues were obviously staged, Steiner has resembled Santino in the past. If you listen to his promos there are simple words and phrases that Steiner fumbles up routinely, including when to pluralize and not to pluralize words.

Tonight we get the re-re-debut of Christopher Daniels. For those of you who are unaware, Daniels is now the man under the Suicide mask as Kaz is out with an injury. Kaz's injury is not quick-healing, so it seems as though Daniels will be in this role for the next few months. When Kaz returns, let's hope we see yet another debut by Daniels, this time under his old Fallen Angel gimmick.

TNA is a growing company, as we get a promo video of a round of house shows performed in Europe last week. It was a nice video to put over TNA as a big company, but I noticed one small flaw in the video. A list of wrestlers were shown, including Samoa Joe. By what we've seen the last couple weeks on Impact, Samoa Joe is still out with the injury suffered at the hands of the MEM. With Joe shown overseas last week, why is he not by his Frontline mates sides tonight?

We get a first in the bleep counter, with Scott Steiner's three. I don't think I've ever heard a bleep during a ring introduction for a match. Only in TNA.

Numbers crunched harder than an unprotected chair shot to the head: two weeks ago I mentioned the TNA Ultimate Matches DVD and looked at the history of the main two gimmick matches - King of the Mountain and Ultimate X. While we switched gears for some Royal Rumble numbers last week, we'll continue with our numbers on Ultimate Matches this week. So what else do the numbers say about TNA's Ultimate matches?

The four other matches featured on the DVD are Full Metal Mayhem, Monster's Ball, ladder matches, and cage matches. There have been three FMM matches and five MB matches in TNA's history, although they are just fancy names for a no-DQ/hardcore match. Abyss has competed in all five MB matches and two of the three FMM matches. The four-way tag title match last October was the first time a title has ever been on the line in a MB match. There has only been one title match in FMM as well - Christian Cage's victory over Abyss at Sacrifice 2006.

There have been 23 ladder matches in TNA history. Four on monthly PPVs, eleven on the weekly PPVs, and eight on free TV. A.J. Styles has nine ladder matches on his TNA resume, way ahead Jerry Lynn's four. Surprisingly, Abyss leads the way in ladder match victories as he is 3-0 in TNA, although two of them were tag matches. James Storm, Jerry Lynn, Styles and Kaz round out the list as the only other TNA wrestlers with two ladder match wins.

The World Title has been at stake three times, with the champion retaining each time. On the flip side, three ladder matches have been for the X Title, with the challenger winning each time. The main goal of a ladder match is to climb the ladder to retrieve and object, but it's not always a title at stake.

Here's a rundown of what's been at stake in TNA's ladder matches - three World Titles, three X Titles, one drinking title, seven #1 contenders, three for "possession" of a belt, a red x, ring gear, a contract, a stuffed reindeer, a gold medal, and a wedding ring. Quite the eclectic mix.

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 W2s can be sent to Curtis at curtisshanks.torch@gmail.com.

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