Impact Wrestling – July 7, 2011 – Sting is a Bit Nuts

Impact Wrestling
Date: July 7, 2011
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Tazz

It’s the last show before Destination X and we have a final push towards the PPV with another triple threat to determine who goes to the four way at the PPV.  There are only 5 matches by my math (Kaz vs. Joe, AJ vs. Daniels, RVD vs. Lynn, the four way and Abyss vs. Kendrick) and we’ve heard of an Ultimate X match but no one has been named.  Maybe that’ll be the contract match?  We should find out tonight so let’s get to it.

We open with a recap of the ending of last week’s show and Angle making the save for Sting, perhaps joining him in the war with Immortal.

Ray, Gunner and Steiner are in the ring to open the show and Ray calls out Anderson.  Here’s Anderson and he does his usual intro.  Ray makes fun of it and threatens Anderson with a Steiner beating if he doesn’t shut his mouth.  Ray says tonight Anderson is going to join Immortal for his own good because Sting has been nuts lately.  The Bully says they need each other and joining Immortal will make everyone happy.
Steiner says it’s time for him to screw some people and tells Anderson he’s either with them or against them.  He has to decide tonight or he’ll deal with Steiner.  Gunner says tonight it’s all of Immortal vs. Sting and Angle.  Anderson has until the end of the match to decide.  Gunner says hit their music but Sting’s comes on instead.  The lights go out but a spotlight shows Sting in the rafters.  They come back up and Angle is in the ring.  He clears out Immortal and tells Anderson not to make a decision that makes things hard on himself.

Storm asks Roode if his arm is ok.  Roode says not really but he needs to get the points in the Series.  He gets Crimson so things don’t look great for him.

Bound For Glory Standings:

Crimson 24

Gunner 21

Matt Morgan 14

AJ Styles 14

James Storm 14

Rob Van Dam 14

Bully Ray 14

D-Von 14

Scott Steiner 7

D’Angelo Dinero 0

Bobby Roode 0

Samoa Joe 0

Bound For Glory Series: Bobby Roode vs. Crimson

 

Roode hammers away to start with some shoulders in the corner and a Hennig neck snap for two.  Crimson takes over with his power stuff and grabs the cravate which he turns into a swinging neckbreaker for two.  Crimson starts snapping off some suplexes but Roode goes up and hits his Blockbuster.  The shoulder gives out though and he can’t capitalize.  Crimson shows some intelligence by kicking him in the arm.  He hits the ropes and walks into the Roode spinebuster for two.  Roode grabs a Fujiwara armbar but Crimson makes the rope.  Slingshot shoulder block takes Roode down and the Red Sky ends this at 4:50.

Rating: C. Not bad here as I’m kind of surprised Roode keeps falling like he does.  The shoulder injury is fine for a reason for him not being his usual self though.  Crimson stays undefeated which really makes me wonder where they’re going with this series, especially since the top four advance to No Surrender for the #1 contender match.  Should be interesting.  This was fine.

Tony Nees says he wants to compete against the best and will do so in the three way tonight.

Abyss is still looking for his mask.  We cut to Kendrick who is wearing it.

Jack Evans wants the contract.  He can do flips really well.

Here’s Kendrick in the ring with the mask in hand.  He says he’ll give it back and doesn’t want violence.  What he wants is a word and he’ll share his thoughts on those if Abyss will come out here.  Kendrick talks about various religions and philosophies and their takes on things.  He asks what that has to do with wrestling.  Apparently he’s trying to restore the X-Division and says Abyss can help him do that.

His ego is holding him back though and Abyss can give up his pain this Sunday.  Kendrick’s mission is to defeat him though and he gives Abyss his mask back.  Abyss drills him and beats the tar out of him on the floor.  Back in the ring Kendrick gets in some shots but Abyss shrugs them off.  Shock Treatment hits as does the Black Hole Slam.

Jesse Sorensen says it’s time for the new guys to rise up in the X-Division.  Guys like him of course.

Tony Nees vs. Jesse Sorensen vs. Jack Evans

 

Evans does a standing moonsault on the stage and break dances in the ring.  Big chant for Evans and we get a three way test of strength to start.  It follows the same formula as the other matches have so far, with two guys staying in the ring while a third is down on the floor.  Sorensen hits a big flip dive to the floor to take out Nees but Evans hits a bigger one off the top rope, hitting a 450 to take out both guys.

Nees gets a running knee to Evans for two as Jesse saves.  Sorensen gets a modified Overdrive to Evans for two so it’s Sorensen vs. Nees for a bit.  German gets two for Nees as Evans hits a standing moonsault to break it up.  Sorensen gets sent to the floor by Evans and Nees gets dropped off the top.  Evans hits a 630 to pin Nees at 5:37.

Rating: C. Just your usual match here with three guys flying everywhere.  It’s fun but we’re seen the same match most of the last four weeks.  That 630 was nice but Evans has a tendency to do a lot of flips when they’re really not necessary.  Take the standing moonsault to break up the pin for example.  From a psychology standpoint, why set for a big flip when the extra time could cost you the match?  Anyway, fun match but we’ve seen it a lot lately.

The Brits say Mexican America is doing what the Brits did a few years ago.  Douglas Williams issues an open challenge for Sunday.

Shannon Moore, Robbie E, Amazing Red and Alex Shelley are in Ultimate X.

Velvet says she’s going to get rid of Jackie and ODB.  We can only hope.

Angle is walking into a locker room and Sting is laying on top of the lockers, singing modified versions of Rocky songs.  Angle says we have to get through tonight and Sting goes a bit nuttier.  He says this is all to get to Hogan.

Velvet Sky vs. ODB/Jackie

 

If Velvet wins, the two annoying girls leave TNA, despite technically not being in it right now.  Velvet comes in through the crowd with a chair and takes out Jackie with a shot to the back.  She and ODB start us off and Velvet is dominating.  Jackie gets back in and the numbers start catching up with Velvet.  We finally get down to regular tagging and never mind that as we’re back to the two on one at once.  ODB tries to bring the chair back in but hits Jackie by mistake.  A DDT by Velvet pins Jackie at 5:00.

Rating: D. The only good thing here was that ODB and Jackie are allegedly out of TNA now.  The match wasn’t anything more than an ending to this story (I hope) and other than that it was just bad.  Velvet isn’t that great in the ring and on her own she’s not capable of much physically other than looking good.  Bad match.

ODB shouts that Velvet hasn’t gotten rid of her yet.

D-Von tells Pope not to screw him over tonight.

Daniels talks about how AJ has had a better career in TNA than he’s had and that he’s been lost in the shuffle since coming back.

AJ Styles vs. Christopher Daniels vs. Jerry Lynn vs. Rob Van Dam

 

They have to tag in and out here and it’s Lynn vs. Daniels to start us off.  Lynn speeds up a headscissors and AJ tags himself in.  They exchange arm drags and then both try it at the same time, resulting in a stalemate.  The fans can’t decide if they like RVD or Lynn.  Jerry wants RVD and here they are.  They exchange a lot of counters with very little contact being made.

Off to RVD vs. Daniels and RVD kind of messes up Rolling Thunder, landing on his neck instead of his back.  Daniels gets sent to the floor and it’s AJ vs. RVD for a bit.  A very short bit as AJ knocks RVD into the corner which is classified as a tag to Lynn.  Jerry hits an enziguri to put AJ in the corner, followed by a hurricanrana.  Daniels comes in off an iffy tag.

Boot to the chest of Lynn gets two and everything starts breaking down.  Springboard forearm by AJ sends Van Dam to the floor.  Lynn sends AJ to the floor and a releases Rock Bottom looks to set up the BME.  Rob tags himself in as Lynn hits something like an Celtic Cross (Finlay’s old move) on Daniels.  Rob fires off the Five Star on Daniels for the pin at 7:13.

Rating: B-. Good match but not the classic they were hyping it up to be.  Granted this Sunday is the main thing they were building to so this wasn’t supposed to be the big match.  Van Dam needed a win as he’s kind of fallen off the charts the last few months.  Nothing great here but fine for a mostly big TV match to hype a PPV.

Eric Young says to the victor go the spoils because he’s apparently gotten a trailer somehow.  He’s a TV star now and is going to Hollywood to defend the title.

Bound For Glory Series: Matt Morgan/James Storm vs. D-Von/D’Angelo Dinero

 

Only one person gets points, kind of defeating the point of the team aspect.  Pope gives his glasses to D-Von’s kid which D-Von isn’t thrilled with.  D-Von and Storm start us off.  That doesn’t go much of anywhere so it’s off to Morgan who runs over D-Von.  Pope plays cheerleader and shouts encouragement.  Morgan sets for the elbows but Storm tags himself in.

Pope finally gets in so he can hammer on Storm a bit.  Storm fires back and Pope falls out of the ring, tagging D-Von as he goes.  Back to Morgan who gets to hit his elbows now.  There’s a side slam for two.  Back to Storm as D-Von is in trouble.  Pope gets back in and has a bit better luck this time, taking Storm down and Morgan as well.

Storm gets a Backstabber for two as Morgan (Storm’s partner mind you) makes the save.  D-Von and Morgan go to the floor with Morgan possibly hurting his knee.  Storm and Pope ram heads and Pope is outside too.  He gets Storm’s title belt and clocks him with it…then tags D-Von in so he can get the points at 6:00.  The plot thickens I guess.

Rating: C-. The aspects of tagging and teaming more or less meant nothing here as the partners were fighting each other and only one person got points in the match.  As a match in the series, this was ok but as a tag match it was pretty weak.  The Pope/D-Von stuff is kind of interesting though.

Anderson is mad.

The Jarretts say Jeff is now King of Mexico and they’ll be back next week with a big fiesta.

We run down the card for the PPV.  The Ultimate X match is #1 contender for the X-Division Title.

Hogan is punching Sting out in the back and Sting says that’s the Eye of the Tiger.  Hogan picks up the bat and Sting says aw crap.  He hits Sting in the face with it and Sting is out.  Hogan says he told Sting he’d never embarrass Hogan again.

Kurt Angle/Sting vs. Immortal

 

It’s Abyss, Steiner, Ray and Gunner.  And there’s no Sting so this is a handicap match.

Kurt Angle vs. Immortal

 

Steiner starts with Kurt and doesn’t do that well, taking a belly to belly for two.  Off to Ray who talks trash about Mexico, hitting a neckbreaker for two.  Bubba Bomb doesn’t work so Kurt snaps off a German.  Here’s Gunner who Angle runs through as well.  Let’s try Abyss and Angle is 4-0 as he gets an ankle lock.  Ray breaks it up and here comes Abyss.  Scott comes in to beat Angle down as Immortal takes over.

Gunner in now for some basic stuff before bringing Abyss back in.  Back to Ray quickly and he has the chain.  Here comes Anderson though and the distraction lets Angle get an Angle Slam to Ray.  Anderson gets in the corner as Kurt’s partner and takes a tag.  Anderson beats on Immortal and basically cleans house.  Mic Cehck is loaded up on Ray but he hits Angle with it instead.  Anderson “tags” Kurt back in and Ray pins him at 6:00.

Rating: C. Hard to call this anything but in the middle.  Angle dominated for awhile and then the numbers caught up with him as you would expect them to.  Anderson at the end doesn’t make much sense but I think that was supposed to be the point, at least until the end.  It was more about the ending than anything else though, which is fine.

Anderson joins Immortal post match and Hogan comes out to cheer.

Overall Rating: C. Still good but a step behind what they did for the last two weeks.  Destination X is going to be their best built PPV in a very long time and will probably be quite good, but I’m very interested in what comes after that.  Something tells me it’ll be more Immortal vs. everyone and that hasn’t been incredibly interesting stuff.  The non X-Division stuff was pretty boring overall and the matches were ok but not blow away great.  Anyway, not bad at all but a step behind what they’ve been doing lately.

Results

Crimson b. Bobby Roode – Red Sky

Jack Evans b. Jesse Sorensen and Tony Nees – 630 Splash to Nees

Velvet Sky b. Jackie and ODB – DDT to Jackie

Rob Van Dam b. Christopher Daniels, AJ Styles and Jerry Lynn – Five Star Frog Splash to Daniels

D’Angelo Dinero/D-Von b. Matt Morgan/James Storm – D-Von pinned Storm after a shot with a title belt

Immortal b. Kurt Angle – Ray pinned Angle after a Mic Check from Mr. Anderson