By Curtis Shanks, Torch specialist

Welcome to the TNA Impact edition of Under the Microscope. 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. We're here to point out those little tidbits you may have missed, make some random observations, or use a little research to dig deeper into what was on the show.

After last week's show, we know that title matches aren't competitive anymore, Homicide is not happy to see Hernandez return, and the Frontline reunion was cut short. But what else is there to notice? Let's see what we can spot. Cue the opening pyro.

Along with the 200 episode milestone this week comes some new opening videos. The show-opening stinger is our first change, as the images of TNA wrestlers in the rain have been removed. If we want to look at what talents TNA views as most important based on who we see in the opening, the names are the usual characters associated with the main storylines. A.J. Styles, Sting, Samoa Joe, Tazz, Matt Morgan, Jeff Jarrett, Mick Foley, Beer Money, Bobby Lashley, Hernandez, and Kurt Angle all get a spot in our new opening. Noticeably absent from the videos and even episodes of the show lately are the X Division guys. Not a good sign for the guys who are the type that put the company on the map in the first place.

The show-opening "highlight reel" also has changed. This may have been just for the 200th episode, as the video seemed a lot longer than it usually is. Maybe that's what the extra five minutes of show were for this evening. Many events from TNA's past are quickly displayed during the video, some we'd like to remember and some we would soon forget.

Highlights from the past include Styles's drop onto a table at the top of a cage, Jim Mitchell's fireball to the face of Sting, 3D in an electric cage match, clips from the Global Impact that aired, the Terrordome, the first live show last October, and the Frontline vs. Mafia feud. TNA has had many great moments on Impact over the years, and one can only hope that another 200 episodes from now we have even more great "highlight reel" material to be used in a show opening video.

With all the talk of the Mafia taking over Impact, we hear a lot about the TNA "board of directors" in episodes. Mick Foley does the honor of naming a few of them as he faces off against Kurt Angle in the show opening promo. Kevin Kay, Brian Diamond, Fish, and Dixie are the individuals listed. With a little bit of research, we find some of the individuals aren't in charge of TNA, but the Spike TV television network.

Kevin Kay is the president of the network, a position he has held for almost two years. Brian Diamond's title is a bit longer, as his job is officially listed as "senior vice president of sports and specials." We are all familiar with the name Dixie, as Dixie Carter is the president of TNA, although she has never really been seen in an on-screen roll unlike some other wrestling companies. The fourth name Foley listed is a mystery to me, as Fish sounds a bit more like a nickname that a birth-given name. Maybe this can explain Shark Boy's absence from TV, as he has opted to take a management job with a major cable television network after years of jobbing in the ring.

It's time to elevate some stars, as Styles and Matt Morgan have the first match in their best-of-three series tonight to see who will face Kurt Angle for the World Title at the PPV. The announcers hype the fact that Styles is the company's first and only Grand Slam Champion, having held the World, Tag, X, and Legends title belts. The list shouldn't be very long, as the Legends title has not been around long, but there are only two others who have even held three different titles in TNA. Kurt Angle and Samoa Joe are the only other men to hold the World, Tag, and X titles, as each needs a Legends title reign to join Styles in the Grand Slam club.

Our Knockout segment of the evening gives us a six-person tag match. The match breaks apart, as two of the babyfaces (Tara and Kong) brawl out of the arena before the conclusion of the match, leaving ODB to fend for herself. This was probably a good thing for ODB, as she needs a lot of ring-work to get back in the swing of things. We've seen plenty of ODB lately with the Cody Deaner storyline, but not in match competition. The last official match in TNA to include ODB was at Lockdown this past April, when she won a Queen of the Cage match. Three months without any in-ring competition may not seem like a long time to some, but I think Mr. Kennedy may beg to differ.

As if one huge stable trying to take over TNA wasn't enough, now we get World Elite, a stable of non-U.S. born wrestlers drawing heat from the crowd with their unpatriotic actions. There's been a lot of interest on Impact with other people trying to join the Mafia, but there aren't many others who would qualify to join the World Elite faction. The only other male wrestler I know of who would fit the qualifications would be Robert Roode, a Canadian. There is, however, a long list of Knockouts the group could choose from. Sarita, Angelina Love, Taylor Wilde, and Traci Brooks were all born in Canada, so the stable should be on the lookout for a female valet or two to join them.

In a bit of a shocking title change, the British Invasion are your new IWGP Tag team champions, defeating 3D in a tables match this week. While it is somewhat rare to feature another promotion's titles on your own show, it is even rarer to swap the titles. Of the four titles in the NJPW promotion, there has been only one other change that has taken place outside of Japan. The IWGP Junior Heavyweight title switched hands from Jushin Liger to Juventud, and then back to Liger again, on back-to-back episodes of Monday Nitro in 1999.

On the topic of title belts in NJPW, we haven't seen much of the Guns lately or their little tiny tag title belts. But it's not just because Impact has suddenly lost interest in the X Division. The Guns are actually no longer the IWGP JHW tag champs, as they lost the belts to the team of Prince Devitt and Ryusuke Taguchi at the beginning of July.

We got something that made the show seem realistic and something that made the show seem completely fake this week - all in one segment. We cut to a promo video of Jesse Neal and his training with Rhino. The video was going along smoothly, until the feed was interrupted and Tenay and West told us we had to cut to the back for something that was going down. While the beatdown we were watching was the same as any other one we've seen the past 200 weeks, it was a nice touch to let us know that the backstage attacks don't always wait for an opportune time to happen. TNA has done this before to add a sense of realism, and it's nice to see every few months or so.

The beatdown we saw, however, took all that realism away from the show. The attacks in Mick Foley's "office" got out of hand, with people being thrown against the walls. It looked less like a wrestling show and more like a Saturday Night Live skit as the walls moved from side-to-side like a quickly thrown together set. You got the feel that the walls could just fall down with the slightest touch. Not a good thing to have on a taped television show.

Numbers crunched harder than an unprotected chair shot to the head: the past couple of weeks we looked at all the various wrestling titles in the big promotions, and compared the amount of lengthy and short reigns. While the duration of a reign can be a good indication as to whether the run was successful or not, there is another aspect of a title reign that can vary - title defenses. So what do the numbers say if we look at title reigns without any successful title defenses?

We've seen quite a few reigns where the champion dropped the title without even having one successful title defense. Looking at all the reigns since June 2002 (the start of TNA), we see that this is an occurrence that happens more often in TNA. Excluding current title holders, 30.4 percent of all the title reigns in TNA's history ended on the champion's first title defense (not counting house shows, of course). That number is far less in WWE, as only 18.1 percent of their reigns ended without a successful defense.

With a 45.5 percent failure rate on the first defense, the tag titles lead in TNA for the highest frequency of zero successful defenses. The title in WWE with the highest rate of reigns without a defense is the World Tag Team titles (the old Raw version), at an even 30 percent. On the other end of the spectrum, the Knockout Title in TNA has the lowest rate of reigns without a successful defense (one of six), while the ECW Title takes that position in WWE (one of fourteen).

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

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