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 Samoa Joe likes to paint, Dave Penzer has some competition, and Booker had a sore throat last Friday morning. But what else is there to notice? Let's see what we can spot. Cue the opening pyro.

I like the route TNA is taking with their next round of Rough Cuts segments. With segments on Kiyoshi, we will get a look at one of the faces in the crowd on TNA's roster. This is a nice way to build up a guy that 99 percent of fans don't know anything about. With Kiyoshi speaking only Japanese, we get some comments from Chris Sabin, Alex Shelley, and Sting. Sabin and Shelley are a given, as they have plenty of experience wrestling in Japan, but there is significance behind Sting's comments as well.

Sting and Muta (Kiyoshi's mentor) have a long history between them, dating all the way back to the late '80s when they feuded over the NWA Television Title. During the dying days of WCW, Muta and Sting reignited the feud. The two feuded throughout 2000 until Muta lost to Sting at Fall Brawl and left to return to Japan soon after.

Black Machismo, as usual, threw out a few '80s references during his promo this evening. Most of the names were well-known, as he referenced The Rockers (Marty Jannetty & Shawn Michaels), Funk, and DiBiase. Lethal also mentioned Virgil, probably the lesser known of the five.

Virgil wrestled in the WWF during the late '80s and early '90s. His first television exposure was as the bodyguard of "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase. He later turned on DiBiase, even defeating him for the Million Dollar Championship at Summerslam '91. Virgil is not the only one Machismo listed who has a tie to DiBiase. He mentioned Funk, which could refer to Terry Funk or Dory Funk, Jr. - the two men who trained Ted DiBiase.

A referee's license? That's exactly what Jim Cornett told Booker T he didn't have tonight, thus why he couldn't be the guest referee in a match. It is not smart booking to just make up excuses to satisfy a storyline for one show, in turn destroying all credibility for past and future shows. Did Mick Foley get a license to referee the Angle vs. Styles match last month? Was Steve McMichael carrying the proper paperwork when he officiated the Monster's Ball Match last year at Bound for Glory?

He's not Black Snow tonight, nor is he using his over-the-top African accent, but Booker T is still having troubles with his oratory skills tonight. The name Sewell is now a hindrance for Booker's new voice, as he pronounces it "Stool." While you may think of a comfortable seat, I have a vulgar mind and am thinking of "stool" as "feces." That is why I laughed out loud when Booker told Cornette, "somethin's gonna happen tonight with 'Stool'...it's gonna be all over your head!"

Sure, WWE has the Mickey Rourke celebrity cross-over, but TNA has the Sara Palin celebrity cross-over. Okay, it's just a mediocre impersonation, but the fake Palin has plenty of wrestling experience in her past. Some WCW fans may recognize her as she wrestled as Daffney during the companies last two years. Daffney started out as the valet/girlfriend of David Flair, and was well-known for her piercing scream as he watched on. She was one of only two women to hold the Cruiserweight Title (Jacqueline in WWE being the other) as she was a co-champ with Devon Storm.

This is technically Daffney's third go-round with TNA. She started with the company in 2002 as Shannon and also appeared as Shark Girl (a character used in SHIMMER as well), the valet of Shark Boy. Daffney's second run was a short one, as she was squashed in the Awesome Kong $25,000 challenge last June.

Speaking of Shark Boy, we get a rare appearance tonight as it looks likes he'll do a job to the debuting Brutus Magnus. We haven't seen Shark Boy since he competed in the Feast or Fired match last December at Final Resolution. It's been even longer since we've seen him on free TV, as his last Impact match was a six-man tag victory last September 18.

Tonight we see the debut of Brutus Magnus, the TNA name of British wrestler Nick Aldis. The Brutus character is described as that of a modern day gladiator. There is a bit of truth to that statement, as Aldis currently competes under the name Oblivion on the UK version of "American" Gladiators.

Rhino makes his return to TV tonight after recovering from his beating at the hands of the MEM. Samoa Joe should return soon, but Jeff Jarrett and A.J. Styles are apparently still out with injuries. Lost in all the hype for the Against All Odds PPV is Styles's absence. Barring a last minute match addition, this will be the first TNA monthly PPV that will not feature a match with Styles. That's 51 consecutive months, more than four years. It's a shame that such an amazing streak will come to an end for nothing more than a TV storyline.

There are a few intriguing matches on this Sunday's Against All Odds PPV, but there are a couple of matches that invoke feelings of deja vu. Last year's PPV featured not only a match up of Scott Steiner vs. Petey Williams, but a Knockouts title match of Awesome Kong defending against ODB. If history repeats itself, it will be Steiner and Kong adding one more notch in the win column.

Numbers crunched harder than an unprotected chair shot to the head: we've spent two weeks now looking at TNA's Ultimate Matches from last fall's DVD release. We've looked at King of the Mountain, Ultimate X, and ladder matches, which leaves the cage match. So what do the numbers say about TNA and cage matches?

The cage match, or Six Sides of Steel as it is known in TNA, is the most frequent of their Ultimate Matches. There have been 50 cage matches in TNA's history, although the first one was not presented until June 25, 2003 (one year after TNA's inception). Monthly PPVs have given us 35, with seven on the old weekly PPVs and eight on free TV.

The majority of cage matches occur on TNA's yearly Lockdown PPV, a card consisting entirely of cage matches. Only 18 TNA cage matches have taken place somewhere other than a Lockdown PPV. The wrestler with the most cage match appearances in TNA is A.J. Styles with ten (boy, we sure see his name quite often in the "number crunch" leader boards). Trailing Styles are James Storm with nine and Christopher Daniels with eight.

Storm, Styles, and Samoa Joe (5-0) lead the way in cage match victories with five, while Christopher Daniels heads up the loss column with six. There have been 15 title matches in TNA that have taken place inside a cage - six world, five tag, and four X.

Which champions have the best chance of retaining in a cage? The world champ is 4-2, the tag champs 3-2, and the X champ has never lost at 4-0. We all know TNA loves their multi-person matches, and the cage match is no exception. While the storyline purpose of a cage match is usually to let two competitors hash out their differences without any outside interference, TNA's 50 cage matches have only featured 22 one-on-one match-ups.

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 Employee Performance Appraisals can be sent to Curtis at curtisshanks.torch@gmail.com or in the comments section below.

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