This past Thursday night, TNA Wrestling presented yet another addition of IMPACT leading into their huge anniversary show in less than a month, Slammiversary! What new matches have been announced for this historic event? What happened next in the RVD/Sting world title saga? Let’s get to what went down and find out!
To start the show off, Mr. Anderson came to the ring and cut a face promo claiming that he has changed his ways. By the way, he must have said asshole at least 15 times, and no, it wasn’t censored. He even sang “I’m an asshole, he’s an asshole, she’s an asshole, we’re all assholes… wouldn’t you love to be an asshole too!” This stuff was funny as hell! Nice gimmick to separate themselves from WWE’s PG rating. He called Jeff Hardy out and hinted that he may just be playing mind games with him. Then he told Jeff he was truly changing his ways, when he was interrupted by AJ Styles who began to complain about the fact that he had to face Anderson in the main event because Anderson requested it. Anderson did his patented “Mrrrrrrrrrrrr Anderson…Anderson catch phrase on the mic which descended from the ceiling to end the segment. Decent segment here to continue the storyline between Hardy and Anderson with Anderson’s face turn as well as set the stage for the main event.
Non-Title Match: Inc. Inc Defeated Team 3D And The Band
Nice booking here with a few exceptions. First, Brother Ray bumped fists with Neal before the match. [adinserter block=”1″]Apparently they talked things over as of last week, but two minutes into the match Ray was beating the holy hell out of Neal once again to Brother Devon’s dismay. Second, why was The Band in this? Why not just do 3D vs. Inc. Inc? Young didn’t have much offense at all and The Band played the match like a game of watch 3D and Inc. Inc. The celebrated after the match because they didn’t have to do much. With Hall or Nash, that’s probably a good thing though. Not sure though why they were used here besides to just get their faces on television. Putting that minor flaw aside, this was a very solid T.V. match which was given about 5 minutes or so. Inc. Inc shined here for about half of the match, whereas the other half was basically a beat down from Brother Ray onto Jesse Neal. Devon stepped into the ring in the end to attempt to stop Ray’s beatdown of the man they trained, but this distraction was enough for Neal to spear Ray for the three count. After the match, Ray cut a promo on how Neal’s ego is getting huge and challenged him to a teacher vs. student matchup at Slammiversary. Should be a good match built with a good feud. I was hoping for just Inc. Inc vs. 3D in a tag match but this works too. Hopefully some sort of hardcore stipulation is added. We are still seeing hints to a future Brother Ray vs. Brother Devon feud which I hope is not going to happen. I don’t need to explain why because it obvious as to why.
Kaz Defeated Jay Lethal
Earlier in the evening, Kaz was shown in the back with Flair. Still am very glad Kaz is finally getting the major push he deserves. AJ tried to ask Flair a question but Flair seemed to shrug him off, paying his attention to Kaz. AJ was none too happy about this. Like the friction. Anyway, this was a very fun match, but only went for about 5 minutes. Nice action, however I could have gone for a 7-10 minute match here. Typical great, fast paced action from both men. Both were very impressive as always. One notable spot was Lethal bouncing Kaz off the ropes and hitting him with a running enzuigiri literally turning him inside out! In the end, Flair got on the apron and distracted Lethal. Lethal knocked Flair off the apron but was consequently rolled up by Kaz for a quick pin. After the match, Flair and and Lethal fought for a few minutes, mainly exchanging right hands and chops. AJ came out but Lethal soon cleaned house. Great to see him in this position! We could clearly see Kaz and AJ arguing over Flair up the ramp to the back. Looks like we have an AJ/Kaz feud now! Can’t wait to see how this one plays out! I predict an AJ/Kaz matchup at TNA Slammiversary and think it will be a great match! I also predict Flair and Lethal will face one another as well. Looking forward to that too. The storyline should do wonders for Lethal’s development.
Abyss Defeated Orlando Jordan Via DQ
[adinserter block=”2″]What the hell is wrong with Jordan?! The guy is now coming to the ring with purple, glittery eye shadow and decals on his nipples! Glad I ate dinner well before the show… The match itself was given about 5 minutes. Probably a bit too long because these two just didn’t mesh to well. Jordan worked Abyss’ arm where he was stitched up last week. In the end, Abyss was shoved into Chelsea, who was forced to accompany him to the ring, and she hit the floor hard. Abyss acted very worried, not sure why after the way he has acted toward her previously, and then Wolfe came out and clubbed Abyss over the back with a steel pipe. He and Jordan beat him down until Rob Terry came out and cleaned house. Abyss then carried Chelsea worriedly to the back. Nice way to further both the Jordan/Terry feud and the Wolfe/Abyss/Chelsea storyline as well. Knocked two birds out with one stone here. Everything made sense.
Next RVD came out to the ring and officially called out Sting, who he will defend the TNA World Heavyweight Championship against at Slammiversary. A video package aired of Sting’s past beat down on RVD with the bat from January 4. We heard laughing and Sting was up in the rafters on the mic. He said that’s just a taste of what’s to come at Slammiversary and that it will be show time. Segment ended there. Seriously? Segment was becoming slightly interesting and it just ended literally out of nowhere. Why would you have a 3 minute segment between the two who will be main eventing your upcoming PPV? You have at least a 10 minute segment. This was just worthless and meant nothing more than toget both men on the show in some fashion. Still can’t believe this may be replacing the King Of The Mountain match. Way to take everything that makes TNA unique and flush it down the toilet!
TNA Knockout Tag Team Championships: The Beautiful People Defeated Taylor Wilde And Sarita
Decent 5 minute matchup here. Still not as much as I expect from the Knockout division but still better than the WWE Divas. The Beautiful People went over after Lacey hit a claw chokeslam. Sarita and Taylor deserve better. During the match, a little person from the new midget wrestling show on Spike commentated. After the match, he spanked Velvet Sky as she exited the ring and got a DDT for his efforts. Lacey helped him up and he locked lips with her! She broke free but then locked lips with him and they rolled around the ring! As Taz mentioned, if it moves it’s for Lacey! Funny stuff, I will admit! An interview after announced that Roxxi will in fact face Rayne for the title at Slammiversary.
Jeff Hardy Defeated Desmond Wolfe
Kurt Angle joined us on commentary for this one, commenting on potential future opponents for his Top 10 Challenge as I’ll call it. About what you would expect here. Decent stuff and a clash of styles but nothing out of the ordinary. Both men worked a logical match with Wolfe picking apart the limbs of Hardy and Hardy coming back with his fast paced, high flying flurries of offense. After about 6-7 minutes, Wolfe used some sort of flapjack on Hardy for the win. Match didn’t accomplish much besides putting Wolfe over as a heel. Nice competition witin the Top 10 though.
AJ Styles Defeated Mr. Anderson
Main event time now. This was the first time ever these two have faced one another so I was really looking forward to it. A lot of matt wrestling early on but things soon sped up when AJ hit his patented sports as well as some decent counters from Anderson. Match was what you’d expect, but only went 5 minutes. Pretty dissapointing. They should have at least been given 10 or more. In the end, Anderson hit a cross body block but AJ rolled through and used the ropes for the win. Why would AJ go over even if it was by using cheap tactics? Seems TNA is really giving Anderson a push now so why not put him over? Doesn’t make much logical sense. After the match, Anderson attacked AJ our of anger to the delight of the fans. Beer Money came and beat him down until Jeff Hardy came out and made the save. Anderson and Hardy finally shook hands to end the show. Decent angle here and I predict a Beer Money/Hardy and Anderson match at Slammiversary, which I would love to see.
Overall, I felt this was a very solid episode of IMPACT, however the Sting/RVD angle was next to nothing and was not highlighted here. The Anderson/Hardy angle is being featured. In my opinion, the world title should be the major focus on the televesion shows if it’s going to serve as the main event at your next PPV, which I’m assuming it is. Alright action too, but still not enough. Overall, I give this show a B+.
Mayhem Sports returns to Blog Talk Radio this Monday morning and Tuesday evening for two HUGE interviews! Monday morning at 10AM/EST we will be interviewing a true legend in this business, Terry Funk! Tuesday evening at 8PM/EST we will be interviewing Al Snow! Both shows will run for two hours with the first hour being the interview and the second being pro wrestling discussion with Jay Staal and Todd Frizzell! Don’t miss out! We’d love to see you there!
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