Impact Wrestling – August 4, 2011 – Longest First Hour Ever

Impact Wrestling
Date: August 4, 2011
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Tazz

It’s the go home show for Hardcore Justice which is looking like a pretty well built card. Angle vs. Sting is a match I only kind of want to see so there isn’t much there. Other than that we have more of Immortal’s implosion tonight with Ray vs. Anderson in a feud that scares me to death. There are a lot of loose ends right now in TNA so I’m actually interested in seeing the show so far. Let’s get to it.

We open with a quick recap of the ending to last week’s show with Sting and the bird plus the issues with Anderson and Ray.

Here’s Immortal in the ring with Ray introducing all of them. Ray says Abyss is the only person he’s afraid of. After the introductions are done, Ray says that this town ain’t big enough for Immortal and Fourtune. Anderson says this ring ain’t big enough for him and Ray. Anderson isn’t happy with Ray volunteering him for the match last week and then screwing him over.

It may not be tonight or next week or next year, but one day Anderson will get him back. Ray wants to now who Anderson is again. Ray talks about how Anderson lost the title in one week. He says he’s Bully Ray, a 23 time world champion. When Hogan and Bischoff aren’t around, he’s in charge of Immortal. Anderson is just something on Ray’s shoe on his way to the title. Anderson wants a match at Hardcore Justice and Ray is all cool with that. Anderson….I think sings a song and they start brawling.

Immortal pulls them apart and here’s Fourtune. Kaz talks for a bit and here comes Fourtune for the brawl. Fourtune has a six man with Immortal on Sunday against I guess Gunner, Abyss and Steiner. Storm legit hurt his back in this but from what I understand it wasn’t anything serious.

Madison Rayne vs. Miss Tessmacher

Mickie is on commentary here. Tara comes out with her tag partner Tessmacher. And never mind as Tara is sent to the back just before we get started. Madison takes over quickly and does her hump the mat with the chick’s head move. Madison yells at Mickie and gets rolled up for the pin at 1:35.

Post match Madison chokes Tessmacher and Mickie goes to make the save, only to be blasted by Angelina. Mickie fights her off but Winter comes out and beats her down even more.

Bound For Glory Standings

Crimson 40

James Storm 33

Rob Van Dam 28

Gunner 28

Bully Ray 28

Bobby Roode 28

Matt Morgan 24 (eliminated due to injury)

Devon 23

AJ Styles 21

Scott Steiner 14

Pope 7

Samoa Joe 0

Bound For Glory Series: AJ Styles vs. Devon

Basic stuff to start with AJ avoiding various offense using speed. Pope is with D-Von’s kids again. D-Von gets a back elbow for two and spots Pope. AJ grabs a rolling cross armbreaker but D-Von makes the floor. Styles Clash is blocked as in D-Von’s reverse inverted DDT. Pele gets two as Daniels is seated at ringside cheering AJ on. AJ goes to yell at him and misses a springboard, letting Devon rolling him up for a pin at 3:35. Yes that really happened.

Rating: C. Nothing here at all as it’s almost too short to grade. D-Von is nothing of note at all as he’s just D-Von. The Pope and Daniels things could be interesting eventually but at the moment it doesn’t look like anything is coming from them. I wasn’t impressed here but the stuff that they did was ok I guess. Not a fan of the same ending to two matches in a row though.

Post match AJ blames Daniels for the loss. Daniels says he’s been waiting on AJ to talk to him about something but AJ is mad.

We recap Angle vs. Sting which is about how they’ve had a long history. It helps that they acknowledge Angle has beaten Sting before, just not cleanly. I can live with that.

Pope says he’ll beat D-Von at the PPV.

Bound For Glory Series: D’Angelo Dinero vs. Samoa Joe

Dinero uses his boxing background to make Joe back off and then locks on an armbar. They head to the floor and Dinero runs a bit. Dinero takes over and here comes Devon. I don’t think Pope sees him but he gets caught in a Koquina Clutch and we’re done at 2:45. And then Joe won’t let go so the decision is reversed. Dinero gets 3 points for the DQ win and Joe is now at -10.

In the back Joe snaps on management, saying they don’t want him near the top because he’s a threat. He’s coming strong later.

Storm says his back is too hurt to go in his street fight so Roode is taking his place in it.

Bully Ray is on the phone with Hulk and says Anderson started the fight. It sounds like a parent and their child. Ray is told to apologize and says he’ll do it out of respect for Hogan.

Hernandez vs. Bobby Roode

This is a street fight and Roode is subbing for Storm who is injured. Roode is in street clothes. He sends SuperMex to the floor and dives on him, only to get caught in the back with a chair shot. Back into the ring now and Hernandez is in total control and choking with his belt. Hernandez runs him over and smacks him in the head with a trashcan lid. It gets two because Roode is in the ropes. In a hardcore match. I’ll never get that rule.

Roode makes a comeback, including the Blockbuster and a bunch of cane shots. Border Toss is reversed into the armbar by Roode. SuperMex taps but the referee doesn’t see it. Everything breaks down and Hernandez gets a rollup with his feet on the ropes for the pin at 7:23.

Rating: B-. Pretty solid fight here as they beat each other up both ways. I wasn’t into the ending as it was really sloppy and the third time tonight that we’ve had that ending (distraction into a rollup). The tag title match is something I’m looking forward to Sunday though so that’s a good sign. At least this got some time.

Ray goes to apologize to Anderson and when he finally accepts it, Ray hits him in the balls.

Austin Aries vs. Alex Shelley

Aries jumps him in the corner but Shelly takes over quickly, hitting an enziguri for two. Aries tries one of his own which doesn’t work and La Magistral gets two. There are going to be new X-Division guys brought in next week. Shelley gets some kind of inverted reverse figure four but it doesn’t last long. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before. Aries sends him to the floor and hits a big dive which gets two in the ring.

Superplex is broken up and a flying superkick puts Aries on the floor. A suicide dive hits and we go back inside. Double stomp misses for Shelley and Aries tries Sliced Bread which fails as well. Aries sends him to the floor again (we get it already) and puts on Shelley’s vest/jacket. The referee protests and gets dropped by accident. Shelley gets sent into the post crotch first. Brainbuster ends this at 6:00.

Rating: C+. Eh not bad here but the going to the floor thing got a bit repetitive. Also, GIVE SOME PEOPLE MORE THAN SIX MINUTES. That’s become such a problem on Impact: nothing gets any significant time anymore. Is it that much to ask to give a match ten minutes? Oh wait we needed to reemphasize that Ray and Anderson don’t like each other two more times. See why the WRESTLING MATTERS stuff is hard to buy?

Post match Aries beats on him a bit until Kendrick makes the save.

Eric Young is getting acting lessons. It’s more “comedy”.

Now we get something different. Angle is in the production truck and is going to give commentary on the empty arena match from February of 2009 with him and Sting. I’m not sure if this is clipped or not but it’s eating up a lot of time and is just like a DVD commentary. Well that was rather pointless.

Sting is here now.

Bound For Glory Series: Scott Steiner/Gunner vs. Rob Van Dam/Crimson

Only the person that gets the fall gets points. Crimson is in white shorts now. We’re told that the points leader in the Series after No Surrender goes to BFG, not necessarily the winner. Rob and Scott start with the power game working well for Scott. Off to Gunner who hammers down RVD as well. Gunner vs. Crimson now with Crimson in control. Steiner comes in to suplex Red Boy a bit and drop the elbow for some pushups.

Belly to back gets two for Gunner but he jumps into the Red Alert (old finisher) to put him down. Double tag brings in Scott and Rob again with RVD taking over. Everything breaks down after Rolling Thunder hits Steiner. Crimson hits a big old spear to take Gunner down and Rob hits the Five Star. Steiner takes Rob down with a Downward Spiral for two. Steiner takes Rob to the corner for something but Crimson breaks it up and Rob hits the Five Star again for the pin on Steiner at 7:12.

Rating: B-. Pretty solid little tag match here with both teams moving out there. Rob winning works as it sets up the match on Sunday as #1 vs. #2 which makes sense for it. Two Five Stars was a nice touch too and the whole match was pretty good. Again though, GO LONGER THAN 8 FREAKING MINUTES!

RVD and Crimson both say they’ll win at the PPV.

Time for the contract signing. They’re kind of pushing it as the match is only in three days. Angle signs pretty quickly. Sting does as well and there are no issues it seems. Well that’s anti-climactic. Angle says Sting is an icon and it’ll be a great match Sunday. It’s going to end in a handshake.

Sting says he doesn’t feel like laughing. He feels like he’s accomplished something in his 25 years now but he’s just as big a fan as Angle. Sting praises Angle for being able to do anything in the ring.  Sting says he has to be champion to right the wrong that Bischoff and Hogan have done and get the company back to Dixie Carter.  That’s real and it will be on Sunday, end of show.

Overall Rating: C-. Well they built up the PPV well, but the first hour DRAGGED. It felt like the show should have been over at about 10:05. The second hour picked up a bit with some fun matches, but overall this didn’t work for the most part. There are some parts of the PPV I want to see but there are others that I really could not care less about. The second hour saves this one though as it wasn’t bad.

Results

Miss Tessmacher b. Madison Rayne – Small Package

Devon b. AJ Styles – Rollup

D’Angelo Dinero b. Samoa Joe via DQ when Samoa Joe wouldn’t let go of the Koquina Clutch

Hernandez b. Bobby Roode – Rollup

Austin Aries b. Alex Shelley – Brainbuster

Crimson/Rob Van Dam b. Gunner/Scott Steiner