By Curtis Shanks, PWTorch Specialist

Welcome to TNA Impact 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. Were 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. Cue the opening pyro.

Brother's don't shake hands, brother's gotta hug

Dinner during family gatherings might be awkward now that Jeff Hardy has signed with TNA and his brother Matt is still a WWE employee. Despite most wrestling brothers forming tag teams throughout their careers, it is actually not a rare occurrence for brothers to appear in different rivaling promotions. The Hardys have done it before, as Matt was with WWE during the first part of Jeff's other TNA run. The Hart family will also come to mind for many, as Bret was with WCW and Owen WWF from the Montreal incident in 1997 until Owen's tragic death in 1999. Going down the list, there are plenty of others.

Cody Rhodes and Dustin Rhodes were on opposite sides during Dustin's run as Black Reign in TNA. Rick Steiner briefly appeared for TNA during late 2003 while brother Scott was a member of the Raw roster. Road Warrior Animal had a TNA run in late 2002 and a one-time appearance in 2007, all while his brother Johnny Ace was behind the scenes as a member of WWE. The Rougeau family is even worth a mention, as Jacques had a run in WCW while Raymond was a member of the French broadcast team for the WWF.

The Armstrong (James) family also saw opposing brothers during the attitude era - Scott and Brad Armstrong spent time in WCW while B.G. James was with the WWF as Jesse James. That family split happened recently as well, with Scott currently a referee in WWE (hired in 2006) and B.G. a member of the TNA payroll until September of last year.

Could we see more sibling splits in the future? The Colons and the Bella Twins currently occupy Raw's roster. Ted DiBiase has brother Mike in developmental, who is joined by two Rotundo brothers. TNA has the recently signed brotherly duo of Matt and Nick Jackson as well. Then there's the obvious choice for next on the list - Eric Angle making his much anticipated return to the ring and claiming his top spot in WWE opposite Kurt in TNA. Hey, it's still more likely than TNA and WWE each signing a member of the long-forgotten Gymini tag team.

New kids on the block

Right out of the gate, we get the debut of Nick and Matt Jackson, better known to ROH, PWG, and Dragon Gate fans as the Young Bucks. TNA wants to give them a name they are able to copyright, so Generation Me is formed with Max and Jeremy, not Nick and Matt. Despite the new team name, plenty of Young Bucks references could be spotted throughout the match.

The Impact Zone crowd seems to consist mainly of smart fans, as plenty of "Lets go Young Bucks" chants were audible during the match. There was even a sign spotted in the crowd that read "The Bucks stop here." Taz and Tenay played it off like they didn't know who the team was, but Taz managed to throw in a quick reference when he asked, "Who are these young bucks?"

No man...it's me Dave

Impact has always been full of little insider and cultural references, but who would have thought we would get one from Brian Knobbs this week? In the cheesy segment where 3D was trying to get into their locker room, Knobbs managed to throw out a "Dave's not here" reference right before we cut to commercial. The line is a well-known phrase from the debut album of Cheech and Chong, with one basically saying "Let me in, it's me Dave" and the other saying "Dave's not here." It may not sound funny in print, but I used to think it was fairly comical as a young teenage kid listening to Cheech and Chong on my parents's old record playerback in the day.

Third time's a charm

Lost amongst all the news of the big show last Monday was the fact that Tara once again lost the Knockouts title after a short, not-so-memorable reign. ODB reclaimed her title, and made history in the process. She became the first person to hold the title three times, as she technically had two prior due to a vacancy and defeat of Cody Deaner after her first win. Awesome Kong dominated the division for months, but still only had two runs with the title. It is a fairly new title, but it took forever (two years and three months) to crown a three-time champ compared to TNA's other titles.

It took just under two years for Jeff Jarrett to win his third TNA World Title and for Triple X to become three-time tag team champs. A.J. Styles won his third X Title after the belt had been in existence for only ten months. If TNA's other titles are any indication, there should be plenty of three time Knockout champs in the future. Four have done it with the TNA World title and six with the X Title, while there have been 14 individuals to win more than three tag team titles in TNA.

Where have you been?

I can't believe were still talking about the Nasty Boys in 2010 (twice in this column). Team 3D feels the same way, as Brother Ray asked, "Where have the Nasty Boys been the last ten years?" during a promo. Not much has been heard from them. Brian Knobbs made appearances on "Hogan Knows Best" and as a trainer on Hogan's "Celebrity Championship Wrestling." Aside from that, the in-ring world has not been so kind. Knobbs and Sags wrestled one dark match at a Smackdown taping in 2007 but were never brought back. The match has become infamous on the Internet, as it was described as a disaster due to the Nasty Boys ring rust and purposely stiff style of wrestling in the match.

View upon reveal of mystery assailant

Tomko was finally revealed as the masked attacker of A.J. Styles this week, but not a half-hour later, we got a series of hype videos on why Tomko turned on his former friend. Eric Bischoff has really improved the production capabilities of TNA, as it took less than 30 minutes after the big reveal for them to set up a backdrop, bring in the sound and lighting guys, sit Tomko down, get some quotes, splice it with stock film of matches, overdub it with background music, and fit it into the already crowded show.

Well, we are in Universal Studios

In the eye-rolling segment of the night, Sean Morley promised to bring a new film division to TNA, playing off of his previous Val Venis character. He copied almost everything from WWE for this segment, but please don't replicate their film division. Pro wrestling and films do not mix, especially in TNA. TNA has never made a movie, but Morley's promo made me think of the all-time cheesiest TNA segments ever with Ron Killings.

When Killings was sidelined with an injury, creative decided to keep him relevant by giving him a storyline that he was trying out for movies. With campy backdrops, he read for movies like "A Few Good Men" and "Rocky," but quit the company soon after. He later returned to form a tag team with Pacman Jones, as talent agents never returned his calls.

Staying with movies, after Daniels interrupted Morely, he mentioned, "I've got a little Hollywood experience." More like minuscule. Aside from wrestling (which is technically a TV show with actors), Daniels appeared in the TV show "Numb3rs" alongside Tito Ortiz. Daniels was the fighter due to face him, but never had much of a speaking part. Throw in a very small role in "Beyond the Mat" and a couple of game shows, and you've summed up the movie career of Christopher Daniels.

Only three easy payments

TNA wants to take the next step and seriously compete with WWE. They want to be mainstream - the number one promotion. But looking at some of the advertisers on this week's show, they're not quite there. Commercials can vary by market, even on nation-wide channels, but here's a look at what I got. Monday's Raw was filled with commercials for Subway, KFC, and tons of teen-oriented video games.

Impact has their share of big sponsors, but I also got an ad for the Ab Circle, some weird exercise machine that might make you looe weight, but makes you look ridiculous in the process. I also viewed a commercial for the Emery Cat Board (with free de-shedder!!), which was some sort of cat scratching post being sold to eliminate your little kitties desire to tear up your precious furniture. C'mon TNA, that's still bush league.

Muscles of epic proportions

As Impact faded to black and the Microscope was powering down, I kept it on Spike just long enough to see the first few minutes of the new TNA show, Epics. It's an interesting concept for a show of second-run material (much better than A.M. Raw) that I will view at a later date, but I noticed one thing as the show began.

The first highlight of Kurt Angle's career was spotlighted - his debut match vs. Samoa Joe three years ago. The 2006 Kurt Angle was dramatically bigger and more muscularly defined than the 2010 version. We can all draw our own conclusions from that, but I hope that it simply means Angle is in better shape, cleaner, and all-around healthier now than he was a few years back. I enjoy watching Kurt wrestle and I hope to continue watching for many years to come.

Numbers crunch - Who's got more?

A number of months ago, we looked at a numbers crunch comparing the TNA and WWE rosters and the number of titles they have held in their wrestling careers. While I hate the idea of a repeat numbers crunch, I felt this one deserved another look due to all the roster changes (especially in TNA) over the past few months. So which roster, TNA or WWE, has more major title runs during their careers?

If we add in all the wrestlers who showed up on TNA for the live January 4 show as part of the TNA roster (still hard to tell who will stay and who will never be seen again), TNA has a total title margin over WWE's roster by a count of 361 to 348. TNA has the slight lead in reigns, but not in duration. If we average out all those title runs for both rosters, WWE's current talent have averaged just under 73 days per title run, while TNA roster members have averaged 71 days.

This is, of course, counting all the different titles in the big four promotions (aside from Hardcore titles) with current champions included. But what if we look at each roster by the type of titles?

World titles:
TNA roster - 89 reigns
WWE roster - 89 reigns

Tag team titles:
TNA roster - 164 individual reigns
WWE roster - 129 individual reigns

Despite losses of Booker T, B.G. James, and Kip James last year, TNA has a resounding lead in employing former tag team champions. There's a tie between the rosters when looking at total World Title runs, but TNA still wins there via tiebreaker. TNA's World Titleholders have over 3,000 more days as top dog than the WWE World Titleholders.

Curtis Shanks is a self-described wrestling nerd who, contrary to popular belief, does have a social life. Feedback is welcome! Send comments to curtisshanks.torch@gmail.com.

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

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