By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

IMPACT HITS

Jeff Jarrett: Jarrett gave a good performance on the mic this week, in multiple segments. His confrontation with the Main Event Mafia was strong. It was interesting to see Kevin Nash trying to play the peacemaker between Kurt Angle and Sting, and to get them to not face each other at the PPV. They had to do something to add some suspense to the situation. The Mafia looked strong for trying to stand together and defy Jarrett, but he looked better. He was very good in manipulating Angle and Sting to the point where they wanted to go ahead with the match. I even liked his sly smile at the end after getting Angle to sign the contract.

West Meltdown: I have never been a fan of Don West, but I liked seeing him bad mouth Mike Tenay (who I have disliked longer than West). A few possible outcomes of this situation include West leaving the announce team which I would be fine with, or West getting more of an edge and being more of a heel color commentator which I would also be fine with. I don't necessarily want to see a 100% heel commentator as that is played out, but he and Tenay have been too much of babyfaces over the years. There has been no balance when both of them always side with the babyface wrestler or cause. I thought it was interesting earlier in the show when West had more positives to say about Angelina Love and Velvet Sky. That is better than cheer leading for the good guys all the time. If he tones down his act, stops calling the three counts (that is the play by play man's job), and gets an edge, he can be a much better announcer.

IMPACT MISSES

Rain Turns on Wilde: Much like my Miss last week for the tension in Kongtourage, this is a case where TNA has introduced tension between two knockouts way to soon. Who is Madison Rain? We have only seen her a handful of times when she played a babyface role. We know nothing about her. They are going to wait until she is fully established as a heel and then portray her in a favorable light with a series of Rough Cuts. Why wait? And, why rush into a heel turn? It can't be shocking to anyone. It had no impact. Their tag match with The Beautiful People was going well, but I don't care about the quality of the match with the lame ending. TNA bookers have no patience. It is like they need to have another heel since Soujourner Bolt and possibly Rhaka Khan are turning face, so they quickly turned Rain heel. But, that situation was their own fault for turning Bolt face to quickly in the first place.

Beer Money Has To Cheat to Win: Bear Money Inc. are the Tag Team Champions. I know they are heels and that heels usually cheat to win. But, they shouldn't have to cheat in every single match. Who are you trying to protect? Lance Rock with one name or another has been around since the beginning of TNA, so I understand wanting to make him look good in his final match for the company. But, protecting a team that hasn't been on tv in months, one of whom is leaving the company, came at the expense of making the Tag Champs look strong. Cheating is part of their gimmick. And, it makes sense much of the time. But, every match? Shouldn't they have at least some credibility that they can win clean every once in awhile?

All the Killing: Last week the multiple threats to kill other wrestlers bothered me, but I didn't bring it up. This week, I have to bring up the fact that a babyface, Samoa Joe, held a knife up to the neck of another wrestler, Scott Steiner. This just seems a little too over the top to me. Joe can't really make good on his claim to kill Steiner, can he? What happens when he just beats him in a wrestling match? Isn't he going to look like a wimp for not actually killing him? Steiner's performance and reading on the line "that was a knife" was great though.

Foley Praises Top WWE Star: I'm not sure what the point of Mick Foley's Hardcore History 101 segment is supposed to be. If it is to remind the audience of better times in his career, mission accomplished. If it is to put over a top star who can be seen every Monday night in a rival organization, mission accomplished (really, two top stars if you count his praise for Shawn Michaels in addition to Randy Orton). If it is to set up those guys as good, but some future opponent as better (as in that was his best hardcore match, but one in the future will be), then time will tell if the mission will be accomplished. For now, he looks like a chump for touting the competition.

Kong & Saeed vs. Bolt & Khan: That was an ugly ugly match. Awesome Kong is a good wrestler. Rayeesha Saeed hasn't had a lot of chances to show her talents in TNA, but she has a great reputation for being a good worker as Cheerleader Melissa. Soujourner Bolt has shown that she has a lot of potential. Rhaka Khan is bad. Unfortunately, the three talents in the ring didn't elevate Khan at all. They seemed to wrestle down to her level. The match was sloppy. They seemed to have no communication with each other. They didn't seem to be working together at all. It was one of the worst tv matches I recall seeing in a long time.

Four Way Ladder Match: I have mixed feelings about this match. I can say with certainty that a Four Way Ladder match for the X-Division Title should be treated as a bigger deal than this. It should have been hyped ahead of time, not just announced on this show. I don't understand at all. I can also say with certainty that I expected to give the match a Hit, based on the skills of Alex Shelley, Chris Sabin, Jay Lethal and Consequences Creed. However, I didn't enjoy the match. It wasn't particularly exciting or memorable. There were a few cool ladder spots, but not many. It was only 8 minutes and we only saw 5 after the commercial. This hardly highlighted what the X-Division can do, which should be important in trying to get people to buy Destination X to see Ultimate X. My mixed feelings come from the fact that this was a free match and the wrestlers probably shouldn't have done anything more than they did. They shouldn't have taken any more risks than they did, or tried anything new and innovative with the ladders on an non-hyped match on Impact. Save it for a PPV. The problem there is that the match itself under those conditions should have been saved too.

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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