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 Bobby Lashley is the greatest fighter in the world, Awesome Kong has a new beau, and Jesse Neal is not a teacher's pet. But what else is there to notice? Let's see what we can spot. Cue the opening pyro.

I hate to add to the stereotype that TNA always copies WWE, but I've realized the WWE Microscope segments by Lee Stevens are a lot easier on the eyes than my TNA versions. We'll try a reader-friendly approach this week and use some topic headings to better break apart our look at Impact. Please don't sue me, Lee.

Night of Cham...I mean Hard Justice

Hard Justice is in the books, and some history was made with the PPV. Last Sunday was the first TNA PPV card to feature six different title matches on one show. We've seen six titles defended once before, Lockdown 2009, but two of those titles (TNA Tag and IWGP Tag) were defended in one match. Of course, one of the titles defended belongs to NJPW, as TNA only has five titles in their company. The five titles owned by TNA had all been defended on the same card twice before Hard Justice - Against All Odds (February) and Destination X (March) earlier this year.

I'm afraid it was too little, too late

The man who many people once considered the worst wrestling commentator on TV, Don West, has been pushed aside for the announcing skills of Taz. Unfortunately, this comes after a heel turn by West that energized his character and has recently made him one of the highlights of Impact each week. It's not all bad for West, as he has taken a "promotion" and is now the head of merchandising in TNA. Mike Tenay reiterates this, saying "nobody knows sports merchandising like Don West." West does have plenty of merchandising and marketing on his resume. He previously worked as a television pitchman for over a decade before TNA came calling, including a national spot on the Home Shopping Network.

According to a recommended interview with Slam Sports, West actually could have joined the wrestling world earlier than his TNA debut. He was contacted by Vince Russo and Jeremy Borash to join WCW a few months before that compan's demise. Russo was quoted as saying "if he could sell a Jose Cardenal baseball card at three o'clock in the morning, then he could definitely sell wrestling." West was forced by HSN to choose between the two, and opted to say no to the wrestling world at the time.

The TNA announcing shake-up is rare for TNA, as we've seen only one other combination than Tenay and West. When TNA first began, they used a three man announce team of West, Tenay, and former WCW creative member (and Ultimate Insiders interview subject) Ed Ferrara. The third time may be the charm as you'll hear no complaints from me about the job Taz did while he was a member of the Smackdown announce team.

Tazzzz

With Taz joining the team, we also get more opportunities to see his nameplate graphic at the bottom of the screen. Until this week, I had not noticed that he has reverted back to the ECW spelling of Taz, rather than the two-z WWE spelling. This is probably due to copyright issues just like we've seen with Rhyno/Rhino. If misspelling is all it takes to defeat a copyright issue, we may be seeing the debut of Mr. Kenedy sometime soon.

Tonight's episode: Bl..bl..bl..blueprint for Dis..dis..disaster

As Matt Morgan is yelling and screaming at Kurt Angle to open the show, Angle is having a hard time understanding him, prompting Morgan to ask "Did I stutter?" Yes, you did Mr. Morgan. After a run on Smackdown in 2003 where he was aligned with Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman, Morgan re-debuted on the show in April 2005. Morgan's character was that of a bad-ass heel, but who unfortunately suffered from a stuttering problem. Morgan stuttered his way through that run, even aligning himself with Carlito, before being released a few months later.

Leave! Or else...we'll, I'm not sure what

The TNA officials have been given a new edict and are allowed to remove non-competitors from the ring area, much like we saw with Kiyoshi, Bashir, and Rob Terry tonight. One problem. This was before the start of a no-DQ street fight. TNA never really explained what would have happened had the trio came back and interfered. There couldn't have been a DQ finish. I'm all for lessening the run-ins and DQ finishes, but this was not the match to first announce the new policy.

A man in a woman's world

Could Cody Deaner actually become the Knockout champion? We've seen stranger things before. Some of you may remember the hiccup in the WWE Women's title lineage that is Hervina. Hervina was actually manager Harvey Whippleman, a male competitor. Whippleman was aligned with the likes of Psycho Sid, Giant Gonzalez, and Kamala, but is still most notable as the only man to hold the WWE Women's title. I can think of only one other male to hold a women's title, Chuck Taylor. Taylor, a regular in CHIKARA and PWG, at one time held the IWA-Mid South Women's championship. As long as Deaner doesn't give us another Santina, I won't complain if he's the champ in a women's division.

Once in a million years

TNA is title happy, as they announce the formation of the Knockout Tag Team titles this week. Tara is overjoyed, saying "WWE would have never thought in a million years to do that." Actually, they did think of it once. The WWF Women's Tag Team titles were created in 1983, with the team of Velvet McIntyre and Princess Victoria acknowledged as the first champs as they were the reigning NWA champs. The titles were used sparingly over the next five years before they were eventually abandoned and forgotten. The abandonment of titles may be what TNA needs, as half of the roster could hold some type of gold soon.

I could never quit you A.J.

Sadly, it appears as though A.J. Styles is ready to make a retirement speech this week. Fortunately, Sting doesn't agree and tries to talk A.J. into thinking it over and continuing with TNA. Sting attempts to convince him by saying "Do you think that I haven't suffered hardships A.J.? Both professional and personal A.J. Well I have, but I didn't quit A.J." Excuse me Sting, but I do remember you quitting.

After a brief run with TNA in 2003, Sting returned to the company in early 2006 to team with Christian Cage at the Final Resolution PPV. Two weeks later, Impact hyped a major announcement by Sting (seems like we get one of those every month in pro wrestling). Sting announced that that match was his way to say "goodbye" to the fans, and gave what was considered a retirement speech. Quitter. It was all storyline though, as Sting later returned to seek revenge on Jeff Jarrett, Alex Shelley, and his spy-cam for invading his privacy.

If you look closely at the Sting quote above, you see that each sentence ends with A.J. That's right, the Sting name-drop counter returns. During his speech to Styles, Sting manages to fit in "A.J." an amazing 15 times. The crowd chants "A.J.! A.J.! A.J.! ...." for a chunk of this segment. It may not have been because of their love for Style's character, but rather just an effort to remind Sting of his lines during the promo.

The new Neon Deon

Bobby Lashley is out for a quick (and quiet) comment before the main event this week. As he makes his entrance, Mike Tenay hypes the fact that Bobby Lashley is making history with his two-sport status. He talked about most two-sport stars participating in sports with two seasons, but what Lashley is doing is unprecedented. Only if you've never heard the name Dan Severn.

While Ken Shamrock and Brock Lesnar are two names that come to mind, neither was active in both wrestling and MMA for long at the same time. Severn had a run with the WWF that lasted for just under a year - March 1998 until January 1999. During that time Severn competed in eight (and won seven) different MMA bouts.

Been there, done that

At one point during our main event, Kurt Angle and Brother Ray are facing off in-ring during the tag team tables match. Taz puts over the skills of both wrestlers, mentioning that he's faced both of them in his career. Taz faced Angle right from the get-go, as his debut match in the WWE was at the 2000 Royal Rumble in a victory over Angle. The most notable Taz / Ray match-up could actually be a tag team match. The unlikely team of Taz and Spike Dudley defeated Ray and Devon in January 2002 to win the WWE Tag Team titles on an episode of Raw.

Numbers crunch

We've spent the last couple of weeks analyzing the old "Less Talk, More Action" slogan in TNA by breaking apart match times for Impact as well as all the WWE shows so far this year. While we're looking at match time, I felt the need analyze one more TNA aspect that seems to have gone by the wayside - the X Division.

The X Division used to be what set TNA apart from other wrestling on TV, but with more interviews and backstage segments on TV, now they have unfortunately been the casualty. For our numbers, we'll look at an X Division roster of Homicide, Daniels, Suicide, Red, The Guns, Lethal, Creed, and Dinero. Guys like Bashir, Eric Young, and Kiyoshi could still be considered X Division, but they have been involved more with the World Elite faction rather than the X Division lately. Samoa Joe, the current X title holder, is also less of an X Division guy than he is a Mafia member.

After the X Division was left off the Victory Road PPV, we saw 134.5 minutes of match time (rounding each match to the nearest half-minute) across four Impact episodes before this week. Only 17.5 minutes of that time involved at least one member of the nine previously mentioned guys who make up the X Division roster. On the other hand, 42.5 minutes of match time included at least one Mafia member (Angle, Booker, Nash, Steiner, and Joe).

Looking solely at match times doesn't give us a complete picture of Impact, as evident by the numbers we crunched the last two weeks. If we break the shows apart by segments (from one commercial break to the next), there were 44 segments across those four episodes. At least one of the five Mafia members was featured in some form during 23 of those segments. And how about the X Division guys? Only nine segments during those four weeks gave us a glimpse of even one X Division wrestler.

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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