By Chris Reed, Torch specialist

-- 1/4 TNA Impact Hits & Misses

Monday, January 4, 2010. It was circled on the calendar of wrestling fans across the country. It was the night that TNA Impact would go head-to-head against WWE Raw live on Monday night. It was the TNA debut of the man whose name pretty much equals pro wrestling, that being Hulk Hogan. TNA promised to also bring in some surprise names to keep the pop factor high. But was it a good show? The Hits and Misses will tell the tale.

IMPACT Hits

A.J. Styles vs. Kurt Angle: If we're going to discuss Hits, we might as well start with the home run of the night. This contest truly was, as Hogan himself stated, a match between the two best wrestlers in the business today. If matches like this are what we're going to be seeing from TNA in the forseeable future, you can bet that wrestling fans like myself will tune in. And they'll tell their friends. And the ratings will grow. And the peasants will rejoice.

Hamada & Awesome Kong vs. Sarita & Taylor Wilde: A few weeks back, I mentioned in one of my columns that since Hamada had defeated both of the tag champs in singles matches that she should go after the tag belts with a partner. What a partner she picked in the form of Awesome Kong. Kong has been eating through opponents like snack cakes lately, and the combination of Hamada's speed and Japanese-strong style combined with Kong's sheer brute force made for a formidable combination. It's too bad that the TNA Knockout Tag Belts have been so low on the importance scale lately. But this Knockouts match was a contest well worth watching, unlike a certain other Knockouts match which we will discuss later.

Jeff Hardy and Ric Flair On TNA Impact: The man who was pushed to the top of the WWE babyfaces to a level fairly equal to that of John Cena himself. The man who, bar none, IS pro wrestling class personified (sorry Hulkster). These phrases describe Jeff Hardy and Ric Flair, and both men were on TNA television on Monday night. Talk about delivering some big names to shake things up in wrestling. These two names by themselves would have been newsworthy, but add them in with Hulk Hogan in the mix and you have people starting to turn heads. The only thing that ticked me off to no end was that neither man got a single moment of mic time.

Bobby Lashley Leaving TNA Tease: He never got over with the crowd, he couldn't wrestle up to the caliber of what was asked out of him, and he was constantly split between his wrestling career and his MMA career. And now Kristal Lashley has asked for Bobby's release from TNA. Bobby, don't let the door hit you where the good Lord split you.

IMPACT Misses

Opening 15 Minutes: So here we have TNA presenting itself as the preferred choice for wrestling fans to tune in to. And what do we get in the first 15 minutes of the show? Bubba the Love Sponge hyping up fans of Hulk Hogan was okay, considering the circumstances. But after that we had the following: (a) a crap-tastic gimmick match that had no meaning to it (I mean, come on, it wasn't even for the X-Division Title for crying out loud!), (b) a crap-tastic lame-ass RIDICULOUS finish to said crap-tastic match, (c) the primary heel in the angle blowing the main spot of the segment (sorry Homicide, you still rock, but you hosed this one royal), and then (d) the worst sin of all, Jeff Hardy and Homicide participating in a Unprotected Head Shot With A Chair. Folks, I'm gonna get on my soapbox here. With all the deaths, concussions, injuries, and shortened life spans of wrestlers that we've seen in the past, there is absolutely NO PLACE WHATSOEVER anymore for head shots. ESPECIALLY unprotected head shots. In my opinion, Jeff Hardy and Homicide should both be suspended without pay for a few weeks to have it sink in that this has to come to a stop. And we, the wrestling fans, need to take a stand. No more head shots. Period.

TNA Hits Rewind Button To WCW Nitro 1997: I can understand bringing in big names like Jeff Hardy and Ric Flair to make TNA Impact seem more watch-worthy. But the rest of the names brought out on Monday sent shivers up and down my spine. Scott Hall. Sean Waltman. Val Venis. Orlando Jordan. The Nasty Boys. Not a single darned one of these names have been involved in a money wrestling angle for close to 10 years now. And yet it seems that all of these people could be involved in angles and, most likely, actual matches. So much for pushing the next generation of wrestlers in TNA.

Hogan's Theme Music: Speaking of rewinds to WCW Nitro 1997, it seems someone dug out the NWO theme music and re-mixed it for Hogan's entrance music. Excuse me, weren't we trying to change things around? The NWO died a horrible screaming death sometime around the creation of the NWO Black And White B-Team. Even WWE couldn't resurrect the glory that was the NWO during its primary years. And now, it seems like the NWO (or some variation of it, since Vince McMahon now owns the copyright name) will be back on our TV screens. Can't wait to miss that one.

Tara vs. ODB: For all the goodness that was in the Knockout Tag Title match, there was just as much fecal matter all over the Knockout Title match between ODB and Tara. There is absolutely no excuse for having a "major" title change hands in a match that lasted only two minutes. Add to that fact that during the entire match, the announcers seemed to talk about everything they could EXCEPT FOR THE MATCH! We had announcements of Hogan's merchandise, Dixie's Twitter account, the matches coming up later tonight, and oh yeah, Hogan was arriving later. In the meantime, the top title for the Knockouts was on the line, and the final roll-up even managed to somehow get botched with a camera shot of the Steel Asylum cage from earlier in the night. Nice cluster-mess, TNA.

[Torch art/photos (c) PWTorch.com]

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