By Hubert O'Hearn, Torch specialist

-- 8/20 TNA IMPACT HITS & MISSES

IMPACT HITS

Changing of the Guard - Oh, it scared me to write that title. Ever since the Main Event Mafia was formed, I've been expecting/hoping that after the Over-the-Hill Gang had a decent run of it and attracted in a solid core of fans they would then be used to elevate a new core group of exciting, original wrestlers. You'll detect that theme running through most of these Hits as I think that just maybe the moment has arrived.

Sting and A.J. - Okay, so maybe Sting calling A.J. Styles the Chosen One made us all think of The Simpsons 'Stonecutters' episode and yeah, with that thought in mind Sting is no Patrick Stewart, but the Stinger talking A.J. out of retirement may be looked back on as one of the key moments in TNA history. Forgetting all about those half-baked accusations of a lack of honor and respect, Sting clearly stated what all non-comatose fans of TNA have known for a long time: A.J. Styles is potentially their greatest star. If this leads to Sting choosing A.J. as his final opponent ever at Bound for Glory (and it should) in one key way he would surpass Ric Flair's final match. Sting would actually pass the torch to someone with a future in the business.

You could argue -and some will - that A.J. might have looked weak as a result of this promo. Aging wrestler talks to him for three minutes and he flip-flops on a massive career decision. It's a fair criticism, but in re-watching the scene a couple of times I'm okay with it. It reads real. A.J.'s been portrayed over the last, oh, year maybe as frustrated and confused. Frustrated and confused people do make rash decisions that they then get talked out of by cooler heads. But - and a very big but - this had better not be the set-up for Vince Russo swerve Number 483. If next week Sting bashes A.J. over the head with his bat and starts screaming at him, I'm going Elvis on my TV and shooting out the screen.

Motor City Machine Guns - It's been a long long long LONG time since I've seen a comedy segment on a wrestling show that was honestly funny enough for me to forward to my non-wrestling fan friends. I laughed my head off at the Motor City Machineguns Website bit. "We'll even throw in a free Sham-Wow." Funny, funny stuff and Sabin and Shelley were Saturday Night Live worthy in their delivery. Watching them reminded me of DX in their prime except you know what? These guys are even better in playing the cynical fun-lovers. The only downside is that watching the Guns reminds me that the opening line of the bit is right. They haven't been on TV much lately - not wrestling at any rate. This is the team that Steiner and Booker need to elevate. Power vs. Speed. Youth vs. Experience. Angry vs. Cool. It's such a natural match-up that TNA would be crazy not to pick up on it.

Foley and Abyss - It was just a little moment in the show, but Foley giving Abyss a blue flannel shirt just fit perfectly with the whole changing guard/torch passing theme. Abyss has always been the product of the love scene between Mankind and Kane anyway, so it felt actually kind of touching for the original to give the blessing to his acolyte.

Knockout Tag Title - When that came up I thought, 'Hey, why HASN'T that been done before?' I mean, you see women's tag matches every week so why not establish who's the best at it? Also, seeing as how I'm doing a lot of booking predictions this week, I will bet you dollars to doughnuts that at least four out those ten TNA specials that Spike has signed off on are going to be all-Knockout shows. If they're one hour long, it would be a really interesting experiment to air one of them from 8:30-9:30 on Monday, just to see what if any damage it would do to Raw's ratings. Then again, I am a mad scientist in my spare time...

Taz - Another literal changing of the guard, as Taz replaced Don West on color. Granted, I was really enjoying West' swork over the last four months, but Taz is the best color guy in the business right now. It's like if LeBron James wants to play for your basketball team, you'd cut your own nephew to make roster room.

IMPACT MISSES


Don as in Gone West - That said, I wish there had been a better farewell for Don West than Mike Tenay wishing him well in his future endeavors - and could you possibly think of a worse phrase? Using the WWE version of 'here's your hat what's your hurry' was just wrong. I know Russo likes to do the 'I'm in with the in crowd' thing, but that was wrong. Also, maybe it was Don West's choice to not appear on camera or have a last call of a match. That would certainly be his right. And I'm certain we'll see him again - manager of the Beautiful People anybody? But after seven years of service it would have been correct and respectful to burn two minutes of the show and give Don a video package. It's never wrong to do the right thing.

Your Women's Champion: Cody Deaner - Don't like it. Stupid idea. Degrading to the whole Knockout division. The Deaner is a nice mid-show, between matches, comedy character who maybe could have some Eugene or Scotty 2 Hotty type run. But you don't put major belts on the comic relief.

Matt Morgan's Push...right off a cliff - I liked the way Impact started, with Matt Morgan steaming mad, swinging an axe handle and ready to rip someone's head off. Then, I guess the camera cut away while Kurt Angle was talking, because Morgan clearly clubbed himself into stupidity with the axe handle because he bought into Angle's guff about 'not knowing who he was pinning.' Or maybe Morgan was plotting a silky revenge by pretending to go along. Naw. Because he then looked like a tool in the match against Team 3D, being suckered into being a table victim. This just brought back too many bad memories of Samoa Joe being dumb as a squirrel around Kevin Nash. Ugh.

And...they should have put the belt on Morgan at Hard Justice. Kurt Angle is innocent until proven guilty. Absolutely. No argument. But when your wrestling company already has a name that's a code word for boobs n' bums, having your champ being a guy up on stalking charges is not - is not - the way to build a mass audience. I'm just sayin'.

Hubert O'Hearn is a new PWTorch Specialist covering TNA Impact with a weekly Hits & Misses column. You can read Hubert's Hits & Misses column and Chris Reed's new TNA Hits & Misses column weekly on PWTorch.com

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