-- 6/17 TNA Impact Reax

Brett Shaff of Eagan, Minn. (6.5): Seeing Jay Lethal get a real push was interesting, but you just have to look at Desmond Wolfe and Abyss to see how well those things work out in the end. The Dueling Flairs got old fast and went on far too long, I thought. I guess WWE isn't the only company that clogs the air with bits only the people backstage want to see. Speaking of Desmond Wolfe, it was painfully obvious from the moment you saw five guys walking down waving around four fingers that one of them was gone. As much as they might have teased that this would be A.J. Styles, Desmond has sunk too low as the resident jobber to consider it would be anyone but him. ... One thing that really bugs the crap out of me about TNA Impact and makes them seem low rent are the screamers - the young women who screech at the top of their lungs constantly during the entire program. The Hogan-Sting confrontation was a good example of this. There have been times when I have been so irritated by it that I've changed the channel and not gone back. Shut it down. Please. ... Then, there's the whole Sting thing. I've never been the least bit impressed by the whole Veteran Who Carries A Weapon thing, whether it's Triple H with his sledgehammer, Scott Steiner with his pipe, or Sting with his bat. It just pushes the suspension of disbelief too far. After all, if they can carry around a weapon and lay everyone out with it, why aren't all the other wrestlers carrying similar weapons in self-defense or just because they can? Why would whatever authority figure there is NOT tell this person that if they ever showed up with the weapon again, they'd be fired? It makes no sense; it's just someone's idea of "badass."

TJ of Pittsburgh, Pa. (4.0): Best Match: None. Worst: Love vs. Von Erich. The show was one absurdity after another. I, for the life of me, can't understand the hype around Jay Lethal. I don't think he's shown his own charisma other than from what he steals from somebody else. And, while he's a decent enough in-ring performer, he's hardly anything special that can't be duplicated or eclipsed by half of the roster. It was bad enough to waste Wolfe on what we now see was a senseless push of Abyss, but to bury him even further beneath Lethal seems like a waste of talent. While I don't mind Ink, Inc., the notion of Jesse Neal knocking somebody like Kevin Nash practically out with the only spear in wrestling that may be worse than Edge's (and that's saying something) was unbelievable, to say the least. We really didn't even get a good reason as to why Nash and Young were stripped of the titles since Hall hadn't been wrestling anyways. And then we have Mike Tenay repeatedly saying that Jeff Jarrett jumping Sting creating a two-on-one somehow "leveled the playing field" so their champion could retain the title. Jarrett's endorsement of Hogan and Bischoff would probably have more sincere if Jarrett, himself, didn't spend a good two or three years hogging the spotlight because his ego wouldn't let him come to the realization that he was holding TNA back. About the only thing that actually made sense from a booking standpoint was the match between Hernandez and Samoa Joe, allowing Joe to go over without hurting Hernandez. Until Hogan and Jarrett can accept that people don't tune into TNA to see them and they stay off camera, TNA will never turn the corner.

Richard H. of Wilmington, Ohio: Very entertaining show, especially for TNA lately. Best: Flair's shadow boxing match with the talented Mr. Lethal. Worst: Well, there was a lot of average stuff on this show. It wasn't enough to drag it down after the Flair face-off, but not enough to elevate it either. The Hall "dismissal" was handled with compassion and fairness, yet I can't help but wonder if it had been some one other than a Hogan crony whether they would have came down harder story-wise. Abyss has always worked better as a psycho heel than as a "Eugene" character. He fits Hogan's pattern of broadening a character by turning him heel (A.J., Sting, Kazarian, etc.). It was nice of Abyss to warn Chelsea, though, wasn't it? Flair's comparisons of Fortune to Horsemen from the past was almost perfect. Desmond, unlike Luger, can actually wrestle. Last, though, what has happened to the Knockouts division? It used to be a strength of TNA and now they don't have enough performers to field a basketball team.

We welcome your 0-10 score and comments on this show for a "TNA TV Reax" feature in the Torch Feedback section of PWTorch.com. Just to add a twist to this feature, include not just your hometown, but also your occupation (mechanic, lawyer, stay-at-home-dad, college student, etc.) so readers get a flavor for what everyone does as "day jobs." To contribute your thoughts on Impact, click here.

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