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 Kip James is no longer over, Abyss loves his groceries, and Alex Shelley is a great camera man. But what else is there to notice? Let's see what we can spot. Cue the opening pyro.

The Secret Santa approach

This week's show focused on the tournament to name the final two competitors in the World Title match at the No Surrender PPV. We see all sorts of tournaments (brackets!) on wrestling TV, but there was a nice little explanation this week on how these match-ups were made. Every body's name is thrown into a drawing, with eight names chosen at random.

It was refreshing not to have a tournament dominated by the usual offenders. It was nice to see guys like Doug Williams and Suicide get a shot without us questioning why they were there in the first place. I appreciate the explanation of the selection process, but I'm glad we didn't see it. Something tells me we would have been treated to the WWE Draft graphics (along with the annoying noises) we get every time one of those rolls around.

With the "names in a hat" approach, it was also nice to hear a quick explanation as to why Rhino was in the tournament. Rhino has already been booked for a match at the PPV, so it was easy to guess that he wouldn't win a shot in the main event as well. But a quick explanation that Rhino had threatened legal action if he wasn't entered into the drawing helped us to understand why he was there.

After learning he has to face Lashley, being left out of the World Title running, pleading his case, threatening legal action, winning that battle, getting his name entered in and then being one of the lucky eight to be selected, only to lose to Sting may explain why Rhino was so upset after the match. I'd want to take out my frustrations too if I did all that hard work for nothing.

The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire

Along with being quite entertaining on commentary this week, Alex Shelley is remembering his TNA history as well. As A.J. Styles makes his entrance to face Shelley's heterosexual companion (hey, that's Shelley's quote, not mine), Shelley comments on the pyro going off. "Remember that time the building caught on fire, Mike!" he asks. How could we forget?

Hard Justice in August 2006 created more than just wrestling news. A fire broke out in the rafters of the Impact Zone, apparently from pyro shot off earlier in the show. Johnny Devine was facing Eric Young in the opening contest of the card when the fire broke out. The building had to be evacuated for twenty minutes, with no pyro being used for the rest of the show as a precautionary measure.

Due to time constraints, a number one contenders match for the Tag Team titles between AMW, Matt Bentley & Kaz, The James Gang, and The Naturals was booted off the card. The Guns should remember the hectic night well. The first match to take place after the fire was a match for an X Division title shot. The competitors in that match? Alex Shelley vs. Chris Sabin.

Jesse Neal is no Chris Hendricks

A.J. Styles will be appearing on an episode of MTV's "Made," as the announcers hype the appearance this week. With Shelley still at the announce desk, he makes the observation that he and Sabin appeared on the show long before Styles. The Guns appeared on the show in March 2008. They trained a high school student named Chris Hendricks to toughen up, take a hit, and learn to become a professional wrestler.

Appears like a simple enough premise, except Hendricks was not your stereotypical jock type. Hendricks, openly gay, was described as a "choir queer" in a show promo, and wanted to toughen up to reduce ridicule at his school. He did very well in his training, which culminated with competing in an actual wrestling match. In interviews following the episode, The Guns remarked at how well Hendricks did in his training, and that he could pursue a career in pro wrestling if he so desired.

The episode A.J. Styles will be appearing on has the same basic background. A female high school student has aspirations of becoming a pro wrestler and A.J. Styles will attempt to train her and help her realize her dream. The Beautiful People and Taylor Wilde are also scheduled to appear on the episode, so that's enough reason to watch right there.

How many people actually work here?

In a quick interview before his first round match vs. Homicide, Hernandez talks about the long shot odds of being picked to face his former tag team partner. "There's a roster of over fifty guys here..." Hernandez is heard saying in the middle of his promo. Actually, there weren't quite as many names as that in the drawing. Taking a look at TNA's roster page, if we exclude Knockouts and non-competitors we only get 39 guys total on our TNA roster.

The only time...well, except for those other times

Friendship, integrity, family...they've all been thrown aside by Samoa Joe with his heel turn - at least according to Daniels. Daniels tries to reason with Joe and brings up the times when TNA revolved around the X Division - namely Joe, Daniels, and Styles. Daniels references their triple threat match at Unbreakable 2005. Daniels talks about how great the match was (only one week after I mentioned that exact match right here), saying that it was "the first and only time that title (X Division) was defended in the main event of a TNA PPV."

There's actually been two other instances, although those weren't X Division style matches. Victory Road 2007 saw Angle (World champ) and Joe (X champ) face off against 3D (Tag champs). All three titles were defended, with the stipulation that the winner of the pinfall would gain the title of the man he pinned. The next month, at Hard Justice, it was Angle vs. Joe. At the time, Angle held all of the TNA titles, and every single one of them was on the line in that match.

The main event slot is nice, but the semi-main event slot is quite nice as well. Eleven times the title has been defended in that spot on a TNA PPV. There is some truth to Daniels claim that the X title "used" to be important in TNA. The title was in the semi-main event slot nine times during the first 17 PPVs, but only twice since.

The Queen of Queens

When Victoria joined TNA, she was given the new ring name of Tara. After a few weeks, we learned that this was a play on words about her love for tarantulas. Tara-ntula...oh, I get it! But as we saw this week, there are other ways the Tara name can be used creatively. As Tara and Christy Hemme are being introduced for their match in the Knockout tag tournament, Tara sports a shirt with the phrase Tara - Rizing. Most would make the connection to the word terrorizing and move on, but we've seen that likeness before in wrestling.

Before Triple H, before Hunter Hearst Helmsley, and even before Jean-Paul Levesque, Trips was known by a different name. When young Paul Levesque first burst onto the national wrestling scene, he joined WCW under the ring name Terra Ryzing. The gimmick did not last long, as he wrestled only a few television matches under the name. There is a YouTube clip out there of a Rhyzing vs. Zbyszko match from back in the day, but the main attraction isn't the corny ring name - it's the Flair-esque blond hair Trips was sporting at the time. Minus the blood-stained red of course.

F#@& tables

While we're on the subject of garb, I was a bit puzzled by Brother Ray's shirt this week. 3D is in the back with castoff Jesse Neal, as they will be taking him to their wrestling school to finish the job Rhino started. Devon is wearing a Team 3D shirt, Neal is wearing a generic TNA shirt (that's what you're supposed to wear when the company hasn't made one of you yet), and Ray is wearing...a FTW shirt? Ray is wearing a shirt bearing the FTW slogan by Tazz, despite the fact that the two haven't interacted at all in TNA. Seems a bit odd for one wrestler to wear another wrestler's shirt without explanation.

Numbers crunch - Total Nonstop WCW

WWE just released their latest DVD, "The Rise and Fall of WCW." With the DX skits and shameless plugs this past Monday, WCW was summed up as more of a joke than a legitimate #2 (and for a while, #1) wrestling promotion. While WCW is dead and gone, those in TNA should take a bit of offense to the comical nature that is WWE's view of WCW history. WCW's legacy will live on...but only because it is alive and well in TNA.

There are some TNA storylines and factions that are reminiscent of WCW, but looking solely at the roster members in WWE and TNA helps us to understand why. Looking at every on-air personality (wrestlers, announcers, valets, refs, etc.) in WWE, 18.3 percent can put at least one stint in WCW on their resume. In TNA, that number jumps to 26.3 percent.

While the overall roster numbers with WCW experience aren't drastically different, TNA does employ a lot more of the "big names" from WCW's past. WWE has only one former WCW World champion (Big Show), while TNA's roster members have a combined 2,303 days holding some type of title in WCW. TNA has five former WCW World champs (Steiner, Booker, Nash, Jarrett, and Sting), with their roster combining for 3,980 days of WCW title reigns.

Of course, TNA's current roster doesn't tell the whole story. Plenty of names from WCW's past have come and gone in TNA. If we look at the last five years of WCW's history, 82 different individuals held some sort of title with the company. Of those 82 people, 37 (45.1 percent) have had at least one appearance in TNA in some form.

Curtis Shanks is a self-described wrestling nerd who, contrary to popular belief, does have a social life. Feedback is welcome as comments, suggestions and questions can be sent to Curtis at curtisshanks.torch@gmail.com.

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