By Curtis Shanks, PWTorch 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 Eric Young failed barber school, The Guns are starved for some TV time, and Mick Foley proved he is a Legend. But what else is there to notice? Let's see what we can spot. Cue the opening pyro.

Along with the opening video recapping the events of last week, we get the music of Filthee played in the background. While I'm personally not a fan of rap music or the lack of spellcheck in artist and song title names (I'm thinking it's a play on "filty" rather than a guy named Phil Thee), someone in TNA is a big fan. Filthee was the featured guest at last years Hard Justice PPV, performing a song before the first match of the evening. A rapper I've actually heard of, Ice-T, was also scheduled to appear along with Mr. Thee in TNA, but cancelled at the last minute due to "travel problems."

Powers Unite is the title for this week's show, as evident by the agreement reached between Kurt Angle and Eric Young. The show opens with the obligatory Mafia show-opening promo, and they are later joined by the members of World Elite. As if the Mafia wasn't large enough, it now appears as though half the roster is aligned together in one huge stable. For those not keeping track, fifteen people were in the middle of the ring during that first segment. Hell, add five more guys to the group and we could have ourselves a good old-fashioned Battle Royal.

Microscope reader Jody Lewis was watching Impact close enough last week to point out that the new World Elite entrance video lists England, Iran, and Japan as countries for the group. Rob Terry, Doug Williams, and Brutus Magnus are billed as the British Invasion, but only England is listed, which is just one part of Great Britain. The reason this is of importance is Rob Terry. Terry is British, but is actually from Wales, one of the three other countries along with England to comprise Great Britain. Eric Young, the leader of the World Elite faction, also gets no love in the entrance graphics as Canada is not listed either. You'd think the leader of a heel faction would at least have a say in how the new graphics look for an introduction. Just another case of EY not getting any respect in TNA.

Speaking of Eric Young, I was reminded of a name from TNA's past when I saw the new shaved head look he sported this week. At times, I felt like I was seeing Crash Holly in the ring facing Daniels, as there was a striking resemblance in my opinion. Most of you remember Crash from his days with cousin Hardcore Holly in WWE, as well as joining Shannon Moore as an MF'er during Matt Hardy's Smackdown run. But Crash did appear in TNA after his WWE days, wrestling under the name Mad Mikey when he debuted in July 2003. Sadly, Crash "Mike Lockwood" Holly died six months later due to an apparent suicide.

One quote from Robert Roode caught my attention this week. In reference to Eric Young turning his back on the TNA originals, Roode states "We've traveled North America, up and down the roads, before TNA even existed." While the two debuted in TNA together as part of the Team Canada faction in 2004, they did have a history together before that. The August 23, 2003 episode of Velocity featured a tag match with The F.B.I. defeating the jobber team of Young and Roode. Partners became foes in that instance too, as Young defeated Roode in a dark match before the November 3, 2003 Raw tapings.

Being a title history buff, I'm curious as to what will happen with the IWGP Tag Team titles. To the casual viewer, The Brits defeated 3D last week to win the belts. End of story. But to those of us that follow titles closely, there is more to the story. The NJPW promotion has refused to recognize the title change, and still considers 3D the champs as they did not sanction the match. TNA will either have to put the belts back onto 3D to appease NJPW (will that be 23 reigns then?), or we may see a falling out between the two promotions due to the controversy. So who are the real IWGP tag champs? It's like the Lou Thesz-Edouard Carpentier dilemma all over again. Ten bonus points if you are familiar with that reference.

If you've read the Microscope before, you know that I am a fan of the dual entrance tunnel system used by TNA. Two feuding wrestlers shouldn't come out of the same entrance ten seconds apart. Along with the tunnels, I've always wondered if TNA had two locker rooms in the back, one for the heels and one for the faces, to further explain this system. Apparently, the answer is yes. As the 84-man brawl got under way mid-show, Mike Tenay explains to us that "both locker rooms are emptying" as more people joined the brawl. Thanks Tenay, as I have yet to get a backstage tour of the Impact studio in order to study and analyze the locker room setup of a professional wrestling promotion.

After the TNA PPV Slammiversary took place, I pointed out that the show opening music video by Goldylocks had TNA ties. Goldylocks the musician and Goldylocks the former TNA valet were one in the same. For those of you that didn't buy Slammiversary (and judging by PPV buy numbers, that's a majority of you), you still have a chance to listen to the song. The track is now being used as the entrance theme for Knockout newcomer (kind of) Alissa Flash.

To go along with the in-ring push of Hernandez, we get a sit-down interview conducted by Mike Tenay this week. Konnan and Homicide are referenced, as he talks about the early days of LAX. But those three are not the original members of the group. Hernandez was actually choice number three for the final member. The first incantation saw Apolo, a former tag champ with D'Lo Brown, in the group. After Apolo and TNA parted ways, choice number two was Machete, who is IWA Puerto Rico wrestler Ricky Vega. Hernandez was the final choice, as he had previously been in TNA as part of Jeff Jarrett's elite guard along with Chad Collyer and Onyx.

After returning from commercial following the Matt Morgan and A.J. Styles match, we get a quick vignette for a new TNA wrestler debuting at Hard Justice. Not much is shown, as we only get the graphics "The Pope" and "D'Angelo Dinero." Dinero is most-likely Elijah Burke, who uses "The Black Pope" as a nickname. The nickname was not used much during his WWE run, but Burke is a big fan of the moniker as the heading of his official website simply lists "the official website of the Black Pope." As long as Sylvester Terkay isn't along for the ride, Burke could add some interest to the TNA product.

Before we get to some numbers, I felt the need to comment on the "words that rhyme with orange" topic discussed by Lee Stevens in the Raw Microscope. Pretty damn impressive with the Blorenge find, but there could be a second place finisher - at least spelling-wise. Sporange is a biology term that I'm not going to even pretend I know the definition of. While the word looks like it rhymes on paper, the pronunciation is actually different than orange. And to add to the other non-rhyming words he listed such as kiln, how about adding words like month and nostril to the list? Okay, back to the wrestling.

Numbers crunched harder than an unprotected chair shot to the head: Remember the old TNA slogan from when they first debuted on Spike TV? The "Cross The Line" slogan seems fitting right now, but the old slogan would be far from accurate in today's TNA. "Less Talk, More Action" is what TNA used to use to entice us to become fans. Seriously. Now that you're done laughing, let's see what the numbers say about action (in-ring competition) on Impact so far this year.

Aside from the highlight show on New Years Day, 30 TNA Impacts have aired before tonight, with a total of 148 official matches taking place. Match lengths can be hard to pin-point to an exact time with commercial interruptions and those matches that don't really seem to have an ending. But if we round each match to the nearest half-minute, we see that 27 of those 148 matches lasted longer than ten minutes, with 23 not even sustaining three minutes. If we add up all the matches, the average bout in TNA this year lasts just under six minutes.

On a per show basis, Impact has given us an average of 29.4 minutes of actual match time per show. That means out of your two hours watching, just under one-fourth is spent watching an actual match. If we compare those thirty Impacts to the WWE shows aired during the same week, TNA is not delivering. TNA has finished first among the five shows only three times this year looking at total length of matches. To be fair to ECW and Superstars, we'll double their total times as they are one hour shows, along with adjusting the three hour Raws accordingly.

Looking at the 30 week totals, ECW leads the way with 13 first place finishes. Superstars is next at ten (out of only 16 weeks aired), Smackdown follows with three, and Raw is last with a measly one week leading the way in total match time. So what show has been the worst each week? TNA has finished last a disappointing 18 times, followed by Raw at seven times, ECW three times, and Smackdown twice. Superstars has yet to finish dead last in match time when compared to the other shows aired during the week. "Less Talk, More Action" in TNA is definitely not the case anymore.

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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