By Chris Reed, Torch Specialist

-- 7/16 TNA IMPACT HITS & MISSES

(For an alternate Hits & Misses perspective, read Hubert O'Hearn's TNA Impact H&M column)

IMPACT HITS

Mick Foley, Kurt Angle, and Sting: Seeing how Victory Road is only a few days away, it makes perfect sense for the two people in the main event to open up the show. Mick Foley cut an excellent promo with his reasons to get the TNA World Title back, and Kurt Angle was as intense as ever by strangely accepting the challenge of Sting and upping the ante into a Six Sides of Steel match. I'm still not fond of a cage match with no hype, but I can accept the circumstances of the lead-in to the PPV this Sunday.

Homicide Cashes In On X-Division Title: The lead-in match between Chris Sabin and Suicide was pretty decent to watch for a TV match, but the headline hit after the Motor City Machine Guns took out Suicide, and then Homicide came in for the save. I absolutely loved the look on his face when he realized that he had his title shot in his hand and the champ was lying out cold. You could almost see the wheels spinning as he finally accepted the chants of "Cash it in" from the crowd and delivered the Gringo Killah to become the new champ. I'm not fond of TNA stealing WWE's idea of cashing in the briefcase at any time, but the gimmick worked here and got the crowd excited about another title change, the second one on free TV in two straight weeks.

Alissa Flash vs. Sarita: I'll admit to not knowing much about Sarita before seeing her in action this week, but man, what a debut for both of these ladies. WWE can take lessons here on how to get two different wrestlers over at the same time. Both ladies used their respective strong points to deliver a match that the live crowd obviously got into very quickly. Sarita may have come out with the win, but the exclamation point given by Alissa Flash put her onto the TNA Knockouts map just as quickly as Sarita. I had to agree wholeheartedly with Don West's comment: "I mean whose debut is this here? Alissa Flash or Sarita?" My answer -- both ladies are now on my radar, and that's just the way it should be.

Main Event Mafia vs. A.J. Styles & Beer Money, Inc.: Again, it makes sense to highlight the wrestlers going into big matches on the PPV in matches, and this elimination tag match hit a lot of good points. My biggest problem with it was seeing Kevin Nash pin A.J. Styles without much effort. Styles should have been the one to have the Robert Roode spot of taking the final beat down from the MEM, but at the same time, Roode got a nice boost for lasting so long in the three-on-one situation. And in the end, the MEM continued the dominance they have shown on recent weeks, which fit the storyline nicely.

Kurt Angle vs. Sting - Six Sides of Steel: I loved how the commentary from Don West, Mike Tenay, and even Jeff Jarrett emphasized over and over how much impact the main event at Victory Road has to the future of TNA. I'll say it again, I'm still not a fan of giving away a PPV-style main event like this one on free TV, but the action was good to watch (I wouldn't expect anything else from Sting and Angle), and the no-finish both continued the MEM dominance and teased the debut of Taz at Victory Road (the "13" and "FTW" logos are now a dead giveaway, but I wish they had let this one slide until the PPV). And allow me to echo Jarrett's comment: "Shut up, West, I'm sick of your smart-ass!"

IMPACT MISSES

Sharmell and Jenna Morasca Interview: I understand that this match isn't going to be anywhere close to some kind of mat classic. I understand that it's more or less a hyped gimmick match. But please, let's not waste too much of my valuable TV time with this ridiculous catfight segment. Don West was actually the best thing to watch here, mostly because he kept getting run over by the two competing divas in the Main Event Mafia. Please let this angle end after Victory Road.

Chris Reed is one of two PWTorch Specialists covering TNA Impact with a weekly Hits & Misses column.

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