Impact – December 30, 2010

Impact
Date: December 30, 2010
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Taz
Episode Title: The Con Game

It’s the final Impact of the year and we have two more shows to go before Genesis.  Nothing has been announced that I’m aware of so everything tonight is going to be new to a degree.  Hopefully they can continue having good stuff like they did last week.  Let’s get to it.

We open with clips from last week of Foley talking to Bischoff and Flair about how everything is screwed up because of Foley and the hardcore stuff he’s done.  Foley wants to be part of the solution now instead of part of the problem.

Foley is in the Impact Zone.  He wants to talk to Anderson face to face.  Foley talks about how they met at a military hospital along with Miss America.  He mentioned this in his fourth book.  There was an odd bit of wording from her as she said, “You do me first then I’ll do both of you.”  I’ll let you figure out what they were talking about.

Mick says that he’s going to say something that he wished someone had said to him.  In essence he asks Anderson to make sure he’s ok because the repercussions of a concussion (say that three times fast) are life long.  Anderson takes offense to it because he’s said he’s fine and has been tested and all that jazz.  Basically he says to Foley either drop it or fight.

Morgan comes out and says that at the PPV he’s going to go full speed ahead no matter how Anderson is.  Anderson says we don’t have to wait for Sunday (it’s next Sunday but whatever) and we can fight right now.  Hardy comes out and says tonight Anderson and Morgan are going to be on opposite sides in a tag match with Hardy picking their partners.

Eric Young is dressed as Moses and talks about donuts and booze.  He’s getting ready for a party when Jordan comes up dressed up as a baby, complete with a bib and a diaper.  Young might be under some mistletoe.  I don’t like where this might be going.

Robert Roode vs. Chris Sabin

 

Apparently last week’s tag title match was only the first tag title shot for Beer Money and they get another one at Genesis.  Makes little sense as to why they should get multiple ones but whatever.  Sabin does an acrobatic routine to get out of a wristlock.  After a shoulder block Roode stops to pose and walks into an armdrag for his troubles.

Sabin sends Roode to the floor and gets a Christian-esque springboard cross body to the floor.  Back in the ring it gets two.  Roode uses his power to take over and hooks a chinlock to slow things down which would definitely be to his benefit.  Sabin fights him off pretty easily and gets a rana and springboard clothesline for two.

I didn’t realize Sabin wears shorts.  O’Connor Roll gets two for Roode but Sabin counters into a nice cradle for two as well.  Enziguri gets two.  Sabin’s big boot in the corner has Roode in trouble.  Springboard tornado DDT is blocked and Roode gets the spinebuster for the clean pin at 6:08.  Good match.

Rating: B. These two have great chemistry together as do all members of these teams.  This was a good power vs. speed match and the only dead spot was the chinlock which wasn’t anything all that bad at all.  They have great matches together, but dang I’m not really looking forward to the next match between these teams as we see it so often anymore than it’s rather uninteresting.  It’ll be good though.

Back with Young sitting on Jordan’s lap as they’re playing some kind of a game that’ll make them a better tag team which Young would like to have explained better to him.  Shark Boy of all people comes up and says he’d like to be on TV some more.  He sits on Jordan’s lap too but says he needs more beer to do that.  Let the bad comedy reign!

Van Dam comes out and says that it’s clear that Bischoff is in charge and he’s here waiting on his mystery opponent.  He’s not afraid of mind games so there’s nothing he can’t handle here.  Van Dam says he won’t be stopped until he’s facing Jeff Hardy.  Here’s his opponent.

Rob Van Dam vs. Robbie E

 

This is the best they can get for Van Dam?  They try to push the idea that Van Dam is going to have no time to prep here as Robbie was a surprise, but if that’s what they’re going for why not go with someone a bit more deadly?  They do their signature poses which ends with Van Dam kicking Robbie in the face.  Mike: “We finally got Cookie out of the situation.”  Cute Mike.  Cute.

Van Dam beats on Robbie to start until Cookie hooks Rob’s foot so that Robbie can stomp on him a bit and hooks a chinlock.  Van Dam is having none of that and kicks Robbie in the face.  Rolling Thunder sets up the Five Star to end this clean in 2:11.  More or less a squash and no rating.

Hardy pops up on the screen to talk to RVD and says that he’ll get revenge in due time.  Van Dam has a test at the PPV but he has to survive to get a shot at Jeff at a later date.  It’s another mystery opponent.

Sarita says she’s going to whip Skye later.  MORE LESBIAN KNOCKOUT S&M!  OH YES!!!

Here’s Kaz with some random girls.  He talks about how there’s a bounty on all titles so he’s going to claim the TNA Title from the current champion, Jay Lethal.  We see some clips of Lethal’s home and his family including his mother.  Kaz makes some really weak jokes about them until Lethal charges down to ringside.  Kaz pulls out a baton and hits Lethal with it to stop him deal.  He puts a watch on Lethal’s chest and says your time is almost up.  That was quick.

Foley is up next.

Foley comes into Flair and Bischoff’s office.  Flair wants Foley to knock for some reason.  Foley makes another plea for Anderson and Morgan’s health because they need to know who they’re facing.  Flair says go away and Foley says he’ll be at ringside for it.

Velvet Skye vs. Sarita

 

This is a strap match.  Velvet has the strap with her and slaps it on the mat a lot before Sarita comes out.  Sarita has on the Mexican/Christmas colors here.  It’s the touch all four corners to win variety.  We hit the floor almost immediately and Velvet is sent into the apron.  Back in the ring Sarita ties the arms of Velvet up and drags her around.  She gets two corners but Velvet fights back to break the streak.

Velvet pulls the strap so hard that it comes off Sarita’s wrist.  We have to stop for a bit as it’s put back on her.  Some weak shots to the back of Sarita until Velvet ties it around her Sarita’s neck.  And then we get the incredibly stupid ending that nearly all of these matches have with Velvet dragging Sarita around as both girls touch all three corners until Sarita gets the fourth at the very end off a counter to win at 3:00.  No rating again due to this being short and pretty stupid.

Sarita beats up Velvet some more until Angelina makes the save.

Back to the “party” with Shark Boy talking to Jordan.  Kendrick is here now too.  Let the gay jokes abound.

During the break we see the Beautiful People arguing which turns out to be more Velvet being mad than a fight.  Love goes looking for Sarita and beats her up a bit.  Sarita fights back until Winter makes the save.

We get a look back at TNA in 2010, which I’m pretty sure is what ReAction was supposed to be tonight.  Various people say they’ll become legends and we talk about dreams, nightmares and the unknown.  This is about the future apparently.

Williams says he has a match tonight but no partner.  Magnus comes in and says he’ll do it.

Time for another Jarrett MMA thing.  Jarrett talks about Red getting beaten up last week and how Red mentioned having a brother.  The challenger tonight is said brother.  Jarrett is going to let the brother have the first shot.  The brother is of course, a monster.  It’s that Tommy Mercer dude.  This is MMA rules I think but they’re setting it up as a wrestling match.

Whatever we’ll call it MMA instead since they talk about the MMA and the 100k being on the line.  Heel hook by Mercer (not named that but it’s easier to call him that than Red’s brother) but Jarrett gets the ropes.  Jarrett pounds away which gets him nowhere.  Ankle lock by Mercer but the security dudes pull him to the ropes.  Jarrett grabs the guitar but Red makes the save.  There’s a bell as I guess this is thrown out.

Back from a break Jarrett wants to tweak the MMA challenge thing.  For one thing the guys have to be Jarrett’s height or shorter.  They’re also exhibitions now.  There’s a waiver they have to sign now also.

AJ Styles/Rob Terry vs. Douglas Williams/Magnus

AJ vs. Magnus starts us off.  AJ wants Williams and the champion is happy to oblige.  We talk about the TV Title match which has no gimmick after the gimmick match they already had.  AJ immediately tags out to Terry and the beating is on.  Terry uses his basic power stuff as always which again does not mean that he’s bad, contrary to popular opinion.

Williams takes a beating as AJ comes in.  A suplex gets the champion out of trouble and it’s off to Magnus.  Everything breaks down and AJ gets Rolling Chaos on Magnus to steal the pin at 5:00.

Rating: C-. I wasn’t feeling this at all.  It made perfect sense to have the tag match thing going on as we’ve seen the two guys in the title match fight recently, but for some reason this never got going.  It’s not bad at all, but there was something missing from it and I’m not sure what that was.

Tara and Gen Me show up at the party and Jordan says the shirts have to come off to be here.  Gen Me disrobes but Jordan was surprisingly talking about Tara.  The young jerks start fighting with Moses and the diapered adult but Kendrick tries to stop them.  Never mind actually as he says have at it.

Madison brings out four guys in tuxedoes along with her in a very pretty black dress.  After the guys leave, So Cal Val hands her a mic.  She tries to be all nice and then screeches at everyone to be quiet.  Madison talks about how she’s the champion and is very beautiful and classy and all that jazz.  She makes fun of Mickie and according to wrestling laws, here she is.  There’s the beatdown and Madison of course gets stripped.

Back from a break with Pope talking to someone about getting some kids some puppies for Christmas.  Pope wants pitbulls.  For the love of all that is good and holy, please do not try to turn this into something related to Michael Vick.  Please, I’m still trying to get over the Jersey Shore characters.

Foley comes out for commentary on the main event.

Mr. Anderson/??? Vs. Matt Morgan/???

And the partners are the Dudleys.  It was a rather good show up to this point so you knew they were going to screw it up somehow.

Mr. Anderson/Brother Ray vs. Matt Morgan/Brother D-Von

 

Ray is now BULLY Ray.  Oh dear.  Can we get Big Bully Bushwick instead?  Ray runs away when Anderson wants to tag him.  Gunner and Murphy come out to get Foley away.  This is what we see instead of the match because I guess that’s more interesting.  Back to the match, Ray gets a blind tag.  Not that we get to see this as Foley is putting Socko in the mouth of a security guard.
We go to ReAction for the last time (thank goodness) with Foley beaten down, handcuffed and carried out.  Back to the ring (finally) with Ray beating down D-Von.  Anderson comes in and D-Von fights him off to bring in Morgan.  Anderson gets a DDT for two but jumps into a chokeslam for two as Ray saves.  The Dudleys hit the floor but Bubba slides back in.  Morgan misses a discus clothesline and it hits Anderson in the back of the head for the pin at approximately 5:35.

Rating: C. Very hard to grade this as the majority of it was the Foley thing so we’ll say it’s right in the middle.  The ending fit perfectly with the whole head injury deal as it furthers that angle.  Ray and D-Von still are about as uninteresting as you could possibly ask an angle to be but I guess they had to plug it somehow.  Decent main event but there was no one else they could have put in there as the partners?

Post match Anderson goes after Morgan but he can’t stand up straight.  He stumbles to the floor to end this part of ReAction/Impact.

Overall Rating: B-. I liked this a lot actually.  The wrestling was pretty subpar after the great opener, but other than that the show worked pretty well.  Feuds were pushed for the PPV and there wasn’t anything that really made me want to change the channel.  Five matches is a good total for TNA and overall this worked pretty well.  Good show, but again the weak wrestling after the opener hurt it.  See what happens when you have less Bischoff and Flair or less of any one given thing for that matter?  You get a better show.

Results

Robert Roode b. Chris Sabin – Spinebuster

Rob Van Dam b. Robbie E – Five Star Frog Splash

Sarita b. Velvet Skye – Sarita touched the fourth corner

AJ Styles/Rob Terry b. Magnus/Douglas Williams – Rolling Chaos Theory to Magnus

Matt Morgan/Brother D-Von b. Brother Ray/Mr. Anderson – Discus Lariat to Anderson