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 Don West is a disgruntled employee, Kurt Angle needed some new suits, and the Ultimate X match gets more hype than the actual X Division. But what else is there to notice? Let's see what we can spot. Cue the opening pyro.

Instead of Don West walking off in the middle of the show, tonight he doesn't even show. At my workplace, he'd be gone since it's three strikes (no matter what offense) and you're out, but I'm sure he'll still have a job in the coming weeks. I understand Mike Tenay flying solo at the announce table furthers the storyline and can seem somewhat logical, but it is not a good decision for the at-home viewer. Let's hope Don West is just truant, rather than a no-show for Impact.

Every wrestling show today has two announcers to play off of each other. When the action in the ring fizzles out, the announcers are there to banter and keep the viewer tuned in to bridge to the next segment. Maybe TNA realized they have so many promos and backstage segments, but not much in the way of actual wrestling anymore. I guess the demand of the job only calls for one announcer as the backstage segments have taken over much of TNA's two hours.

Often throughout the course of Impact we jump backstage to see Jim Cornette, Jeff Jarrett, or Mick Foley in a segment. Each time we cut away, we go to the "offices of TNA management." With so many locker rooms in the Impact Zone, it appears Foley, Jarrett and Cornette are forced to share a workspace as we always cut away to the same office, no matter which of the three is present. That's got to be awkward when two of them are off camera working in the office sharing the one desk we see.

TNA is jumping into the "Survivor" pool yet again, as they have brought in Jenna Morasca - seen in a backstage segment tonight with Mick Foley. Morasca was the winner of the sixth season of the reality show, known that year as Survivor: The Amazon. Jenna also appeared on Survivor All-Stars as well as an issue of Playboy with fellow Survivor contestant Heidi Strobel.

Immediately after the Booker T-Jim Cornette segment where Booker's match this Sunday was finalized, we go to Tenay and West for a hard-sell of the PPV. They run through the lineup, with graphics on the screen for each match. When the Booker vs. Styles match is mentioned there's no graphic, just stock film of the two wrestlers entrances. This was a nice little touch by TNA in the logic department. If the match was just made, it would seem illogical to have a graphic up promoting the match within seconds of it being made official.

Jay Lethal gets some promo time, which means we get our usual bout of old-school references. Tonight's references are Pedro Morales and Bruno Samartino, two well-known wrestlers from WWF in the '60s and '70s. Pedro and Bruno were top draws for the WWF as they, along with Bob Backlund and Hulk Hogan, are the only wrestlers to hold the WWE title for longer than 1,000 days in a single reign.

Consequences Creed joins in with his own references tonight. Seems fitting since his character is also based on an '80s character - Apollo Creed from the Rocky movies. Creed's references stray from the wrestling realm, as he references Milli Vanilli and Rick Astley. While Milli Vanilli are well known, Rick Astley is a little more obscure. Astley made it big with his song "Never Gonna Give You Up," but later faded away from the limelight. Never gonna give you up. Never gonna let you down. Never gonna run around and desert you. Great. I know what I'll be singing for the rest of the evening.

Add me to the list of the surprised when Mick Foley came out to finish the second half of the show in place of Don West. In fact, the main reason Foley is in TNA right now is because of his hatred for his former announcing position on Smackdown. This was a well known fact, as Foley even aluded to it when he first arrived in TNA. Foley may not be the long-term option, but he could stick for a bit since there is not a Vince McMahon yelling in his ear in TNA. Scratch that. As I finished my last sentence Foley is brutally attacked by Scott Steiner with a pipe. The search for an announcer continues.

I praised TNA when they addressed Shane Sewell's wrestling past when he moved into the active wrestler role. It gave us an explanation as to how he could compete with the guys currently in TNA. But they should have taken the same approach during tonight's main event. Eric Young faces Kurt Angle's bodyguard "Rocco," someone who has been nothing more than security in the background. Rocco was able to perform and take moves like a trained wrestler, but no mention was made of any wrestling background. Give us something to explain how he can hold his own in a wrestling match. It wouldn't take much to mention that he's wrestled some independent matches, or is training to be a wrestler.

Tonight's bleep counter picked up 16, most in the first half of the show. Four from Angle and one from Foley in the opening segment, one by Velvet Sky, three in the recap video of the Styles-Booker feud, two by Angle in the closing segment, and five by Booker in Cornette's office. The number could have been 17, but one slipped through. When Mike Tenay was addressing Don West on commentary, he said West was making an ass of himself. I guess the word is appropriate to air, but only in the right context.

It wasn't announced tonight on Impact, but TNA Mobile has just informed us that the Booker-Styles match this Sunday is now for the Legend's Championship. I know it's just a fake title, but are there qualifications for it like the Cruiserweight belts had? Do you have to be a legend to challenge for it? What makes someone a legend? Could a wrestler making his debut challenge Booker for the title? Or, do we really care since it is just a prop for storyline purposes?

Numbers crunched harder than an unprotected chair shot to the head: last week we looked at WWE and TNA PPVs over the last few years to find out just how many matches reach the 10, 20, and 30-minute milestones. While it may be easy to approximate how long some matches will last, you never really know which match will take top billing as the longest match of a show. So where exactly on the card are you most likely to see the longest match?

You would assume the main event would be the longest on each PPV, as those are your top names and what brought people to buy (or illegally download) the show in the first place. But that is not always the case. Since TNA's PPV debut in November of 2004, they have presented 52 PPV shows, but only 22 where the main event was the longest match on the show. By comparison, WWE has given us 64 PPVs in that time frame with 36 main events outlasting all the undercard matches. Five times in TNA the opening match has lasted the longest. The next two slots are throw-aways, as only one match in the #2 slot and zero in the #3 slot have outlasted the others.

In WWE, only two matches each from the first and second slots have led in duration. Aside from the main event, the semi-main event is the best place to see the longest match, as that has been the case 13 times in TNA. In WWE, seven PPVs have given us the longest match in the semi-main event slot.

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 nutritional information can be sent to Curtis at curtisshanks.torch@gmail.com or in the comments section below.

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