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 it looks like Sarah Palin will be sticking around, Booker T failed his referee test, and the old Abyss is back. But what else is there to notice? Let's see what we can spot. Cue the opening pyro.

Looks like it's storyline right from the get-go, as Sting and Angle face off against Team 3D. The dissension is obvious between Sting and Angle after building for the past few weeks. After a tag, Angle and Sting drop down the floor for a bout of heated words and shoving. This continues as the rest of the MEM heads down to the ring and we go to commercial. One flaw, however. This should have led to a count-out as Sting was the legal man in the match. Maybe Sting darted back in after the break, but at what count we'll never know as ref Slick Johnson was not even administering the ten count. There needs to be consistency between matches for this stuff to be more logical.

We've reached a boiling point, as Angle is demanding that Sting lay down for him in the main event and lose the World Title in the process. If Sting goes through with it, it will be a disgrace to the title and prove it is pointless in the grand scheme of things. A title change in this fashion reeks of WCW, as we've actually seen it there before.

The most famous has to be the "finger poke of doom." In 1999, Kevin Nash won his first world title in WCW, only to hand the title over to Hollywood Hogan one week later. Hogan "poked" Nash with one finger, leading to the three count and title switch. Thus began WCW's history of devaluing belts. The second instance technically didn't happen. Jeff Jarrett went down for Hogan, which would have been Hogan's seventh WCW World Title. Vince Russo came out and cut a shoot promo on Hogan about his backstage politics and nullified the outcome, keeping the belt on Jarrett and stunning Hogan. A second match was made, with Booker T beating Jarrett for his first world title reign. Surely we won't see something like this tonight. Back then it was Nash, Jarrett, Russo, and Booker. Tonight we have...oh crap.

The surprise of the wrestling world this week was no doubt Christian (Christian Cage to us TNA fans) showing up on ECW this past Tuesday to interrupt a promo by champ Jack Swagger. Christian was quick to return to the ring, as he defeated Swagger in the main event of that show. With all the firings and cross-overs we've seen between the two companies, I can only think of four wrestlers to compete in a match for both WWE and TNA since the beginning of 2008 - Christian, Mick Foley, Goldust/Black Reign, and Chris Harris/Braden Walker.

The Scott Steiner-Petey Williams storyline is not quite over. Tonight TNA delivers a "headdress on a pole" match, thus signifying that the writers are out of ideas. Throughout the years TNA has given us plenty of "object on a pole" matches. I think I speak for everyone when I say "TNA, why do you continue to torment us?"

What exactly has been hanging from a pole in some these matches? Where to start. An axe handle, a guitar and bat, a chair, a night stick, a guitar, a trash can lid, a kendo stick, and a beer bottle. I'm sure the writers need some more ideas on what to hang from a pole next. How about an envelope containing a new idea? If not, I may have to compete in a TV remote on a pole match.

Patriotism is no stranger to the wrestling world. Jim Duggan loves his country and shows it by waving around the American flag on Raw. Despite his heel nature, Kurt Angle bleeds red, white and blue with his Olympic gold medal and flag-inspired ring attire. Consequences Creed loves America's colors too, as evident by his ring gear. At first glance, some may add Taylor Wilde to that list as well.

I'm not questioning whether Taylor loves this country or not, but she's one of the last people I would expect that type of patriotism from. Taylor was born and raised in Toronto. For those of you failed geography, Toronto is in Canada and not in the U.S. Even stranger is the fact that being from the U.S. is not part of her gimmick, as she is still billed as being from Toronto, Canada.

Shimmer's Madison Rayne is back on TV as she is now under contract to TNA. Rayne jobbed to Kong last month on Impact, but obviously showed enough to gain a roster spot from TNA. Rayne is currently one-half of the Shimmer tag team champions and has competed in other independent promotions throughout the U.S. For more on the story on her TNA signing, go to the Torch main page to read the article from Thursday afternoon.

Quick question, are Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin faces or heels? You'd have a hard time debating the heel argument, as their actions as of late have echoed heel personas. They are cocky and arrogant, and have been facing only babyface teams as of late. They turned their backs on the Front Line last week as they stood idly by as Lethal and Creed we're attacked by Beer Money. Despite all this, the Guns are still coming to the ring from the left entrance tunnel - the babyface side.

There seems to be a reoccurring theme of stables when it comes to all of TNA's titles. Of course, the tag titles belong to the team of Beer Money. But the three singles titles could split factions as well. Kurt Angle and Sting are breaking apart the MEM with their World Title feud. You know that Shelley and Sabin can't stay friends forever if Shelley continues to hold the X Title. And now the Knockouts Title is in the same boat. Sojourner Bolt is now a challenger for the Knockout title, currently held by the leader of the Kongtourage, Awesome Kong.

Kevin Nash likens the MEM to the real life mafia during his interview with Lauren. As Nash departs at the end of the promo, he says he has to go see Johnny Sacks. This leaves Lauren confused, as she along with much of the audience do not know who this person is. So, who is Johnny Sacks? Nash is keeping in line with the mafia theme, as he is referring to Johnny "Sack" Sacramoni, a character from the HBO show The Sopranos. Sack was portrayed by Vince Curatola and was killed off in the sixth and final season of the show. No word yet on whether or not Johnny Sack is auditioning for a role in the MEM to replace Sting.

Although I was holding out hope that it was Jim Mitchell, we get a video of Abyss with his therapist "Dr. Stevie" tonight. We don't see Dr. Stevie's face, but I think I know who it is. Stevie is probably former WWE wrestler Stevie Richards, who recently signed with TNA. Aside from the ponytail, there's the quick instance we hear his voice. All we hear is the Shawn Michaels-like raspiness that is familiar to those who've seen Stevie Richards before.

Mike Tenay points out that Earl Hebner is no stranger to controversy in tonight's main event, as he lists the Montreal screwjob as well as the Andre the Giant instance. Every wrestling fan has some knowledge of the screwjob (thanks for not letting it go Vince), but not everyone is familiar with the Andre reference that Tenay was referring to.

Early in 1988 on an episode of the Main Event, Hulk Hogan faced off against Andre for the WWF title with Dave Hebner as referee. Ted DiBiase, Andre's manager, had actually locked Dave in a closet as the ref in the ring was his twin brother, Earl. He made a fast count resulting in Andre winning the title from Hogan. He immediately handed the belt over to DiBiase, with WWF president Jack Tunney declaring the title vacant as a result of the controversy.

Numbers crunched harder than an unprotected chair shot to the head: as I pointed out last week, A.J. Styles's amazing streak of 51 consecutive PPVs came to an end last week as he was not in a match at Against All Odds. While Styles is clearly TNA's "iron man," there are plenty of other talents who frequent PPVs. So what do the numbers say about wrestlers and PPV appearances?

Only two men in WWE or TNA have had a match on every PPV since the start of 2008. Triple H has competed on all 15 WWE shows, while every other roster member has missed at least two. Robert Roode is the lone TNA talent to appear on all 14 of their PPVs during that stretch, as he is currently amidst a 23-month streak. In TNA there are seven wrestlers who only missed one - Angle, Booker, Lethal, Storm, Kong, Devon, and Styles.

Since the start of 2008, there have been 61 wrestlers who were on the TNA roster at some point, with 57 getting at least one PPV match in that time frame. The four to miss out were Chris Harris, Raven, Senshi, and Elix Skipper - departures from early '08 who only appeared on PPVs before 2008. So technically, you could say TNA is 100 percent effective at getting their talents some PPV time.

WWE has featured 113 wrestlers on their roster in that same time span, but only 71 (63 percent) were given a shot to compete in front of a PPV crowd. Even more amazing is that 18 of those WWE talents had only one PPV match. While getting on to a PPV in WWE can be difficult, staying power is an even bigger accomplishment. Only 22 of the 113 talents had more than six PPV matches in that time frame. And how does TNA fare? Almost half (30 of 61) wrestled on seven or more PPVs since the beginning of 2008.

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, and stimulus package proposals can be sent to Curtis at curtisshanks.torch@gmail.com or in the comments section below.

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