Impact Wrestling
Date: January 12, 2012
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Tazz

It’s after Genesis now so it basically means a new day for TNA. Roode is still champion, Angle tied up the series with Storm, no titles changed, and basically the whole show didn’t change anything. Against All Odds is next and we have probably even more rematches to look forward to. Anyway, hopefully things are a little more interesting in the next few weeks. Let’s get to it.

We open with a recap of Genesis where Roode kept the title via getting himself disqualified.

Here’s Roode who says he’s the most dominant champion ever and that he’s beaten everyone put in front of him. He wants Hardy to come out and shake his hand but gets Sting instead. Sting talks to Roode like he’s an idiot and says he wants to beat him up. It results in Hardy vs. Roode tonight.

Earlier today, Morgan got here and ran into Crimson. Crimson says he got a Direct Auto Insurance policy. Are you kidding me? They have a match tonight too against the Robs.

Robbie E/Robbie T vs. Crimson/Matt Morgan

Non-title here. Crimson starts off with E so it’s off to T quickly. And then T runs him over and it’s back to E. Crimson and Morgan take turns destroying him. Carbon Footprint takes down T and a double spinebuster ends this in 1:58. Total squash.

Joe and Magnus run out and jump the champs post match.

Eric is here.

We recap Garrett vs. his pappy and Gunner.

Cue Eric to the arena. Eric talks about how it’s not that easy to be a wrestler. You have to have talent to go with the chance. Eric may have made everything he’s done look easy, but it doesn’t work that way. Garrett comes out and says he’s not quitting because his dad says so. He lists off the top guys that he’s learning from and says he’s going to stick with this. Garrett says he isn’t going to quit and that he has a new trainer who is going to shock Eric. Garrett goes to leave but Eric stops him. The sonny grabs him by the neck and says never touch him again.

Angelina and Winter say they need to remind people who they are.

We recap ODB and Eric. Oh joy. They’re in the back and she says it was a one time thing.

Winter vs. ODB

Eric is doing his usual insane stuff. ODB chest bumps Winter and sends her flying but a Bronco Buster doesn’t hit. Winter puts her in a Tree of Woe. Off to a quick chinlock but ODB comes back with a fallaway slam and nip up….and here’s Eric to give Angelina an airplane spin. TKO beats Winter at 3:32. It’s called the Bam apparently.

Rating: D. Whatever as usual with the girl matches in whatever company they’re in. Eric is so much more bearable when he’s not TV Champion. Or stripping. Not a terrible match but it was there for Eric and that’s about it. Either way, you know the wacky romance is going to continue, but that’s ok I guess.

Here’s AJ who wants to talk to Kaz. It doesn’t take long for him to get here and AJ is mad. He wants to know why Kaz turned on him. Kaz was supposed to be the level headed one and the calm one. This happened last year with Daniels, so why is it happening here? AJ keeps yelling and Kaz says he can’t tell him. Daniels pops up and says he can. He says he’s tired of Kaz carrying AJ and that AJ is a lost cause. Daniels tells Kaz to leave which he does, so AJ CHUCKS the mic (from like two and a half feet) at Daniels and the beatdown is on. Kaz pulls him to safety but doesn’t look happy that he did so.

Ray and Roode are in the back and Ray points out that he was trending on Twitter. Roode gives me the high point of his career: saying there are more important things than Twitter. Ray won’t shut up about it while Roode freaks out about the title match later. He says he’ll have Roode’s back in exchange for a shot. Roode agrees, but doesn’t seem sincere.

Here’s Storm and he demands Angle come out, so here’s baldie himself. Storm slaps the mic out of his hand and says Angle cheated, because he’s beaten Angle twice but Kurt had to cheat to beat him. Angle says he’s done with Storm and wants the title. Sting comes out and quickly says in the title match, if Roode gets disqualified he loses the title. Also tonight, it’s the rubber match and the winner gets a title shot in the future.

Kurt Angle vs. James Storm

Angle had only until we came back from a break to get his gear, which he says he doesn’t have. After the break there’s no Kurt. Earl starts the count and Angle makes it in at 9, putting the singlet on as he runs. Storm pounds him down quickly and Angle goes shoulder first into the post. A DDT on the arm gets two. Storm goes after the hand because we’ve always heard about Angle’s grip. Angle tries to roll away and hits the floor where he finally gets in some shots to break the momentum.

Still outside, Angle pops off a belly to belly and we take a break. Back with Angle getting two off something we didn’t see. Snap suplex gets two for Kurt. After more beatings, they both try a cross body to knock them both down. Storm hammers away and hits a Backstabber. A backbreaker sets up the fabled jump into the boot but Storm grabs the foot and puts on the ankle lock. Kurt kicks him off and the Slam gets two. Angle pounds away on Storm and goes outside.

He picks up the beer bottle and brings it in, but Hebner takes it. The distraction lets Kurt spit beer in Storm’s face and the kick to the head, which isn’t super at all, for two. Storm grabs a Codebreaker out of nowhere and the Last Call ends this at 15:57. The ending came out of nowhere. Storm is #1 contender.

Rating: B-. Not as good as their other matches but it picked up a lot after the break. Another clean win over Storm isn’t going to hurt Storm at all though so no complaints there at all. Hopefully this sets up Storm vs. Roode in a big long match, but I have a feeling that’ll be saved for a major show. At least I hope it will.

Tessmacher is in some Hooters pageant.

Sting is at a photo shoot when Madison comes up. She says he can officially make her VP of the Knockouts but he says no. Instead he makes her vs. Mickie next week in a cage.

TNA World Title: Jeff Hardy vs. Bobby Roode

Roode chills on the floor before the match so Hardy dives on him to take over. Dixie is at ringside. They haven’t both been in the ring yet. Hardy dominates to start but Roode gets in a shot, only to have his piledriver attempt blocked and a slingshot sends him into the post. Twist of Fate is countered but Jeff hits a clothesline and they go in. And there’s the bell? I thought I missed it. Ok so we got three minutes of brawling beforehand. Got it.

Clothesline gets two for Hardy. Roode gets knocked outside again and we take a break. Back with them still on the floor and Hardy trying Poetry in Motion into the railing. He totally crashes and burns, which makes me shake my head when people are surprised that he has a drug problem. Jeff makes it back in at nine so Roode pounds on him even more. Blockbuster gets two. Jeff hits a jawbreaker and Russian legsweep for two. Whisper in the Wind gets two.

Twist is countered into the spinebuster and Roode tries the fisherman’s suplex but Jeff counters into another Twist. Swanton misses and Roode grabs a cover for two. This is getting really good. Twisting Stunner and Twist of Fate set up the Swanton and Roode is in BIG trouble. Hardy covers….and here’s Bully Ray to beat up the referee. The match is thrown out at let’s say 13:00.

Rating: B. Really good TV match here but again, it’s the same match that was at the PPV but better. Why would I want to buy a PPV when I could see this four days later for free? Why couldn’t this match happen at Genesis? I’ll never get parts of this company. Anyway, really good TV match here and I was getting into it before the bad ending.

Overall Rating: B. Good show tonight, but I seriously worry about this company’s long term planning abilities. Storm vs. Angle and Hardy vs. Roode were PPV matches 4 days ago and now they’re given away for free (one of which with a better ending) later in the week? At some point, you’re going to have a problem convincing fans to buy your shows when they could see the same matches with more stipulations later that week.

It’s like they’re trying to pop the TV ratings (which would make more sense if they advertised these matches and waited until next week but whatever) instead of running a regular show. Whatever though, as I’m sure some TNA superfan will explain why I’m crazy. Good show this week, but it was totally lopsided as the first hour was worthless while the second was great.

Results
Crimson/Matt Morgan b. Robbie E/Robbie T – Double spinebuster to Robbie E
ODB b. Winter – The Bam
James Storm b. Kurt Angle – Last Call
Jeff Hardy b. Bobby Roode via DQ when Bully Ray interfered

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Impact Wrestling
Date: January 5, 2012
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Tazz

We’re in a new year for TNA and we have Genesis this coming Sunday. I won’t say it comes off as a throwaway show, but it feels almost like a given that Hardy is going to win the title. It almost feels like it’s too much of a given actually. Anyway, tonight we have the finals of the Wild Card Tournament to determine who faces Morgan/Crimson on Sunday. Other than that there isn’t much that I know of. Let’s get to it.

Here’s Sting to open the show. He requests Jeff come down here so here he comes too. Sting talks about Jeff rebuilding trust back one step at a time. He was dealing with some demons of his own recently but he got a second chance, just like Jeff has. Here come Angle, Ray and Roode to interrupt. Roode wants to know why Sting is endorsing Hardy instead of Roode or Angle or Ray. Roode says that Sting picks his favorites and it looks like we’re going to have a fight.

Cue Storm and Abyss and I think you know where this is going. Storm gets in the faces of Roode and Angle, talking about how the Last Call put Kurt down. Abyss is his friend and he likes to drink beer too. Kurt starts to say something but Abyss shouts him down. Abyss promises to make Ray pay for the sins of Immortal. Ray starts to respond but Sting makes the required six man for later tonight.

Madison Rayne is in a bikini. No particular reason but we cut over to Traci in the other end of the pool. Gail, the camerawoman, jumps in and it’s a big brawl. Mickie does the same. I’m not complaining about the four of them in swimsuits.

Knockout Tag Titles: Mickie James/Traci Brooks vs. Gail Kim/Madison Rayne

Big brawl to start and the challengers dominate to start. They beat Gail up with ease and send the champs to the floor as we take a break. Back with Mickie firing away on Madison in the corner. Traci and Gail get into it on the floor as Madison holds a Cravate on Mickie. Mickie hits a dropkick and everything breaks down again. Bridging rollup gets two for Mickie. Another gets the same result but Madison gets in a shot to take over again. Off to Gail and Traci as things speed up a bit. Everything breaks down as Mickie hits Madison with the top rope Thesz Press but Eat Defeat pins Traci soon thereafter at 10:30.

Rating: D. This was kind of all over the place. The whole pool thing before the match didn’t really add anything but I’m hardly complaining about looking at Mickie and Madison in swimsuits. Gail really needs a new finisher though. The whole holding Traci there until she could call back to drive the foot into her jaw didn’t work at all.

Flair hypes up Gunner in the back. They’re going to put someone else in the hospital again but Sting pops up and says that since RVD has no partner later, Gunner won’t have a manager either. Sting and Flair will be sitting in the back watching the match.

Eric is still in love with ODB and thinks they’re still in the tournament.

Recap of the Wild Card Tag Tournament.

Magnus is fired up but Joe says nothing.

Not-Fourtune says they have chemistry and they trust each other.

Garrett Bischoff is back as a referee. Sting says he’s a wrestler, not a referee and gives him some boots.

Eric goes into the Knockouts’ locker room looking for ODB and gets yelled at. He tries to lock up with them and gets choked by Madison. Madison gets shoved into a locker and this isn’t funny.

Gunner vs. Rob Van Dam

The fans get on Gunner to start but van Dam grabs a quick rollup for two. Van Dam slides to the floor and we take another break. Back and Gunner is in control with nothing of note. F5 is countered into a spinwheel kick to put both guys down. Rolling Thunder gets no cover. They go to the floor and RVD gets his leg caught in the ring skirt. Gunner pulls back the mats….which draws the DQ at 9:50. So you can get disqualified for threatening people?

Rating: D+. This was better than the Knockouts but not by much. RVD has a style which really doesn’t mesh that well with others and it didn’t here. Gunner has been a lot better recently but this wasn’t anything of note. To be fair though, he can only beat up jobbers for so long. Not bad here.

Van Dam escapes the piledriver but his spin kick to the railing hits the railing. The agents run down to break up the piledriver.

Abyss, Storm and Hardy are ready for the main event.

So are their opponents.

Kid Kash/Austin Aries vs. Jesse Sorensen/Zema Ion

This is your fourway X-Division Title match on Sunday. Sorensen and Kash start us off with Kash taking a nice dropkick. Ion tags himself in, gets struck down for a few seconds and then it’s off to Aries. MY GOODNESS that was a hard chop. He hits the suicide dive to Ion and then a spinebuster kind of move sets up the pendulum elbow for two. That one was much faster so it was much better and more believable. Sorensen comes back in and hits those jumping shots of his.

Kash and Aries have some heel (?) miscommunication and everyone is down. Ion comes in and hits a spinning cross body for two on Aries. Aries and Kash try a double suplex but Ion escapes and brings Sorensen in to speed things up. McGillicutter takes Aries down and a plancha puts Kash down as well. Brainbuster is countered and Sorensen goes up, but he and Ion argue over who gets to finish Aries. The distraction allows Aries to recover but Sorensen makes a blind tag and hits a Test Drive for the pin on Aries at 7:10.

Rating: C-. This is the same issue I had last week with this sort of match. These guys are fine at what they do, but there’s really no reason to care about them. Guys like Ion and Sorensen have next to no character and that’s really hurting them. Now they could get better later on but they need to do something with them before they can move on.

AJ and Kaz are ready. Kaz was sitting in a locker and Daniels walks out of it after AJ and Kaz leave. Interesting.

ODB is taking pictures of a photographer when Eric comes up and says they have a match. They roll around on the floor and ODB kisses him. Oh geez.

Wildcard Tag Team Tournament Finals: Samoa Joe/Magnus vs. AJ Styles/Kazarian

Winners get Morgan/Crimson on Sunday. AJ vs. Joe to start and that works for me. Joe takes him down to start and hooks an abdominal stretch to control. Off to Magnus vs. Kaz as the British guy gets his head kicked off. Back to AJ who drops a knee and brings Kaz back in. Joe comes back in with a senton backsplash for two. Taz is talking about bathtubs for some reason.

Kaz is playing Ricky Morton and gets beaten down by Magnus, but by the time I’ve typed that Kaz has rolled to the corner and brought in AJ. Springboard forearm looks to set up the Clash but Magnus escapes. Pele puts Magnus down and Daniels is in the aisle. AJ goes for a tag but Kaz drops to the floor. Joe runs over AJ and beats him down so a top rope elbow from Magnus sends he and Joe to the finals at 6:18.

Rating: C-. Not bad here and I can live with Joe and Magnus going to the title match I guess. It could have been FAR worse if nothing else. I’m really not looking forward to AJ vs. Daniels again so hopefully this is AJ vs. Kaz instead of Daniels again. Not a horrible match but it was more about the angle at the end than the match, which is ok I guess.

Morgan and Crimson are cool with facing Magnus and Joe. The challengers pop up and brag and a brawl almost breaks out but D’Lo pops up and I think they better recognize his authority.

We run down the Genesis card.

Jeff Hardy/Abyss/James Storm vs. Robert Roode/Bully Ray/Kurt Angle

Storm vs. Ray gets us going and the referee has to throw the chain….into Ray’s corner. Why not like, a neutral corner to to someone not in the ring? Ray tries to get a cheap shot in the corner but gets chopped instead. Off to Abyss and Ray tries to hide. Off to the champ instead and to his credit he goes after Abyss. The heels manage some double teaming on Abyss and we take a break.

Back with Angle hammering on Abyss but it’s off to Storm vs. Roode quickly. Ray clotheslines Storm down quickly and we have Beer Money and Angle in there at the same time. Ok now it’s just Beer Money but Ray tags in quickly. After a quick bow and arrow hold it’s back to Angle. Storm hits a Russian legsweep to put Angle down and it’s hot tag to Hardy to meet Roode. Twisting Stunner gets two and everything breaks down. Everybody pairs off….and it’s thrown out 12:07. LAME.

Rating: C-. Pretty decent six man main event until the weak ending. Just have someone take a quick finisher into a rollup for the pin. It’s not like it’s going to cripple them before Sunday. Not a fan of endings like these but it could have been worse again. Still would have liked to see Hardy get a pin on Roode though.

Twist to Roode post match but Ray breaks up the Swanton. Codebreaker to Roode but Angle breaks up the kick, hitting one of his own to Storm. Abyss cleans house now and tries Chock Treatment to Angle but Ray gets his chain and hits Abyss with it a few times. The bad guys rule the ring and Abyss is hung a bit. I mean a chain is put around his neck and pulled on you sick freaks. Hardy is tapping to a Crossface and we go off the air.

Overall Rating: C. This wasn’t that bad and for a go home show it was really pretty good. I think all of the feuds other than Pope vs. D-Von were addressed and that’s a pretty good ratio overall. The wrestling wasn’t all that good but it set up stuff for Sunday as well as for the future. Also, it was way better than Raw which really isn’t saying much but it’s true. Not bad and Genesis is pretty well set up, which is the whole point.

Results
Gail Kim/Madison Rayne b. Mickie James/Traci Brooks – Eat Defeat to Brooker
Rob Van Dam b. Gunner via DQ when Gunner pulled the ring mats back
Jesse Sorensen/Zema Ion b. Austin Aries/Kid Kash – Rolling DDT to Aries
Samoa Joe/Magnus b. AJ Styles/Kazarian – Top rope elbow to Styles
Abyss/Jeff Hardy/James Storm vs. Robert Roode/Kurt Angle/Bully Ray went to a double disqualification

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Impact Wrestling
Date: December 29, 2011
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Tazz

It’s the last show of the year and we have one more Impact after this before we get to Genesis. Unless my memory is off (and it very well may be), there are only two matches set: D-Von vs. Pope and the title match. There are a lot of other matches which you can pretty much assume but I don’t think they’ve been named yet. I’d expect a lot of that tonight. Let’s get to it.

We open with a video about the Knockouts situation.

Gail and Madison come to the ring with the latter demanding Tara and Tessmacher get out here now. She says that she needs to get rid of the diseases that Tara and Tessmacher carry around with them. And they’re both fired. Cue Sting and Madison kind of panics. She says she has this under control but Sting says it’s not over until he says it’s over. Madison doesn’t have a legally binding contract like Karen had so she has no power. They get into a funny shouting contest and Gail has to defend against Mickie tonight.

Steiner tells Abyss that they’re the best team out there. Abyss agrees that they’re a team. Ok then.

Wildcard Tag Title Tournament Semi-Finals: Abyss/Scott Steiner vs. AJ Styles/Kazarian

Kaz vs. Steiner start us off but Scott yells at AJ before the match gets going. Nothing happens there so it’s off to the Grand Slam winners. AJ uses strikes and avoids the power. Steiner cheats a bit and Shock Treatment gets no cover on AJ. Steiner comes in and beats on AJ some more but AJ hits a Pele to counter.

Double tag brings in Kaz vs. Abyss in I guess a rematch from the X Title match earlier this year. Man that sounds like forever again. Kaz fires off whatever he can including a springboard tornado DDT for two. Chokeslam is countered into a victory roll for two. The second attempt at a chokeslam puts Kaz down and Abyss knocks AJ into the barricade. He brings in Steiner…and hits him with the Black Hole Slam to send the former Fourtune guys to the finals at 7:50.

Rating: C-. Not a bad tag match but I couldn’t get into it for the most part. Abyss turning on Steiner isn’t really all that shocking and it’s good to see a team that makes sense going to the finals of this thing, although I have a feeling the wacky team is going to wind up winning the thing, because that’s what TNA thinks is the right idea.

Ray comes out to yell at Abyss post match and we take a break.

Post break Ray yells at him and says he’s tired of Abyss being a bully to him and Steiner. Abyss grabs him by the throat and Ray asks him what it’ll take to get him back into Immortal. Abyss wants Ray one on one at Genesis. If Abyss loses, he’s back into Immortal. Ray goes to leave but Abyss stops him. The match is Monster’s Ball.

Sting is with Kurt in the back and they talk about the incident last week in Tennessee. It’s Angle vs. Storm at the PPV and Kurt is getting a tuneup match tonight. It’s with RVD.

Flair and Gunner say Gunner will be great. Gunner is in action later tonight. Flair looks really old. Gunner is looking to put someone in an ambulance tonight.

Anthony Nese vs. Zema Ion

It’s the final match in the series and it’s contract on a pole. Well what else would it be? Aries is in on commentary here. The winner of this joins Aries, Kash and Sorensen. According to Aries, Ion has pole experience while being an exotic dancer. Both guys tease going for the pole but it turns into your regular “I go for the pole, you stop me then you go for the pole and I stop you.”

They go to the floor where Nese takes over. Nese goes for the contract but Ion saves. Ion goes for the contract but Nese saves. Nese hits a German off the top but hangs himself in the Tree of Woe. He goes for the contract again but gets shoved into the barricade. And then Ion gets the contract at 4:33.

Rating: D+. Ok then. I mean really, ok then, let’s go to the next match. There’s nothing interesting here at all and now we have a new challenger. There’s nothing different about these two other than Ion has messier hair. The matches were ok and that’s about it. I don’t know what the point of this being a series but whatever.

Gunner vs. Douglas Williams

Total dominance for awhile by Gunner and then they go to the floor. Gunner shoves the referee and it’s a DQ at 1:38.

Williams takes the DDT on the concrete post match.

Roode’s family still doesn’t like him.

Here’s Roode who says it’s no shock that he’s selfish. His friends and family have all turned their backs on him, but tonight he’s brought one of his friends here. This name is Tracy and they’ve been friends for over twenty years. Tracy stands up and gets an ovation for some reason. Roode apologizes for not answering his calls and texts lately. Tracy has been brought here tonight to say whatever he wants.

He talks about how everyone is missing him and wondering where Roode has been. His wife wants to know where he is and his kids want to know why Tracy is driving them to hockey practice. Bobby can still come home. Roode says that back in high school, Tracy was his lackey. Roode says his family’s fifteen minutes of fame are up and goes to leave, then he beats Tracy up. Jeff runs out for the save.

Eric and ODB have more “comedy”.

Angle rants about facing RVD later tonight.

Wildcard Tag Team Tournament Semi-Finals: Magnus/Samoa Joe vs. ODB/Eric Young

Eric locks up with Tenay on the way to the ring. See it’s funny. Eric and Magnus start but ODB comes in before there’s any contact. There’s no contact as both circle the other in a flirty manner. Tag off to Eric who strips and comes in. Remember when Joe says Eric was all awesome at Turning Point 07? I don’t think this is what he intended. Joe comes in and has a decent mini-match with Eric. ODB gets launched to the floor and the MuscleBuster sends Joe and Magnus to the finals at 5:14.

Rating: D+. The comedy here wasn’t funny, but it’s Eric Young who does the same nonsense every week. To be fair though, the guy can’t get over without a CRAZY comedy gimmick so he has to do this. Not much here and I have a feeling the random pairing will beat the normal team to get the shot because that’s how TNA works. Nowhere near as bad as it could be though so it’s not much of a complaint.

Mickie says the title match will be interesting.

Kurt Angle vs. Rob Van Dam

So the girls are main eventing? Ok then. Basic stuff to start as neither guy has much of an advantage so far. Rob kicks a lot and hits Rolling Thunder for two. Kurt snaps off a belly to belly for the same and a regular suplex gets two also. After a quick chinlock Van Dam takes over again with some clotheslines. Kurt gets in a shot and tries a superkick but Van Dam takes him down. Five Star misses and there’s the ankle lock. And here’s Storm to superkick Angle for the DQ at 5:17.

Rating: C-. Nothing special at all here but the ending was something that needed to happen. That’s going to be a great match once it happens at Genesis and I can live with Storm losing if they have a third match. Not bad here but they needed a few more minutes to get something special going, which to be fair wasn’t the idea here.

RVD isn’t thrilled with Storm coming out there.

Angle isn’t either.

Storm says he’s coming for Angle.

Knockouts Title: Mickie James vs. Gail Kim

Mickie grabs a rollup for two almost immediately. Thesz Press hits and Mickie takes over. Mickie sends her to the floor but misses a baseball slide. A neckbreaker hits though and we take a break. Back with a slugout on the floor won by Gail as they go back into the ring. Gail grabs the arm for some cranking.

Mickie fights back but Gail hooks Inoki’s Octopus Hold. I can’t say I’m complaining about the visual. Mickie rolls into the ropes so Gail tries it again but it doesn’t work as well this time. Ok so maybe it does. After she gets done with that, a missile dropkick gets two for the champ. Eat Defeat is countered and Mickie hits a kick of her own to put both chicks down. Mickie makes her comeback and goes up but Gail heads to the floor. Mickie tries a Thesz Press to the floor but leaves it short so it doesn’t look that great. Her knee is hurt so a masked chick runs in, hits the Rayne Drop on Mickie and Gail get the pin at 14:17.

Rating: C. FAR better Knockout match than the Knockouts or Divas have done lately but still nothing all that great. I’ll give them points for having something else in the main event but the ending kind of sucked, especially given what’s shown post match. Not sure why they went with this to end the year but whatever.

Post match, yep that’s Madison with facepaint.

Overall Rating: C-. I won’t say the show was bad tonight, but it didn’t click for me. Things ran well and the storylines are pretty logical, but for the most part they’re not grabbing me which is probably more preference than anything else. The problem is mainly on top as Roode still comes off as a midcard guy in the main event. Not bad, but not something I was able to get into.

Results
Kazarian/AJ Styles b. Abyss/Scott Steiner – Kazarian b. Steiner after a Black Hole Slam from Abyss
Zema Ion b. Anthony Nese – Ion grabbed the contract
Douglas Williams b. Gunner via DQ when Gunner shoved the referee
Samoa Joe/Magnus b. ODB/Eric Young – MuscleBuster to Young
Gail Kim b. Mickie James – Pin after a Rayne Drop from Madison Rayne

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Impact Wrestling
Date: December 22, 2011
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Tazz

We’re back with week #2 of the wild card tournament but at least now we know who almost all of the wacky partners are. The show last week was pretty ok so hopefully they crank it up a bit more this week as the year comes to a close. We’ve got I think three more Impacts before the PPV where it’s pretty likely that Jeff gets the title back. Oh and the Jarretts are gone at the moment. Let’s get to it.

The opening video recaps last week which is the norm now.

Here are Roode and Ray to open the show. Roode is in a suit and to be fair, he’s rocking that thing. He says he loves Christmas and the fans can all thank him for the gifts they got last week. Sting and Hardy getting beaten up was great and all they needed were bows on them. Ray talks about how giving he is: he gives chicken bones to the homeless, he gives dollars to strippers and he gives whiskey to his cat.

Roode talks about learning that every action has a consequence. Lately he’s learned that he’s probably on the naughty lists of both Sting and Santa. He asks Sting to come out here and get his suspension over with because he needs time off for Christmas. Instead he gets Hardy. Don’t worry about the suspension because in three weeks, Hardy is taking the title. Tonight it’s the two of them against Hardy and a partner of his choice. This would be a little more suspenseful if they hadn’t mentioned this in the preview before the show. Of course it’s Sting. Here he is and he has the insane face paint on again.

The main event tag is officially a street fight.

Wildcard Tag Tournament First Round: AJ Styles/Kazarian vs. Rob Van Dam/Christopher Daniels

And remember, the teams are RANDOM! I mean, no one would take rivals and put them against stable mates. That would be STUPID! Tenay says Fourtune is officially defunct. Kaz vs. Van Dam to start us off. They hit the mat quickly and it’s off to AJ. Daniels wants him but Van Dam says he’s mine.

After some basic stuff it’s back to Kaz who seems to have better chemistry with RVD. Monkey flip by Rob sets up a headlock by Kaz. Back to AJ and Van Dam goes to the corner. He rams into Daniels and that counts as a tag. Daniels comes in and misses AJ, allowing the tag to Kaz. Van Dam slaps Daniels into the Fade To Black for the pin at 5:18.

Rating: D+. Basic but fine here and that’s all it needed to be. Thankfully they didn’t push Van Dam and Daniels as a team that lucks its way into the second round. Either way, this was ok but it wasn’t anything special. That goes for a lot of first round tournament matches most of the time though so there isn’t much to complain about there.

Anthony Nese says he’s awesome and can hang with anyone.

Zema Ion says he’s pretty.

Zema Ion vs. Anthony Nese

This is the second match in the best of three series with Ion up 1-0. Ion has hairspray so you know he’s a heel. The winner of this is in a four way against Aries, Kash and Sorensen. Ion dives through the ropes to take Nese out with a dropkick before the bell. Back in Nese snaps off a rana for two. Cross body gets the same. Ion gets in a shot but Nese fights back and hits a Lionsault for two.

The American hits a German on the Filipino for two. Nese misses a springboard body block for two and Ion takes over again. Nese jumps from the mat to the top for a super rana for two. Ion hits a spinning facebuster but pulls Nese up like he did last week. Naturally it allows Nese to nip up into a rollup for the pin at 4:00.

Rating: C+. Not bad but the problem is the lack of any reason to care about these guys or the match they had. Nese is a generic face and Ion is a generic heel. The match was fine and they did some good stuff, but I’ve seen a match like this a thousand times and I’ve seen it better a few hundred times. That’s the problem with these cruiserweight matches: it’s REALLY hard to top them and when they’re average, they look weak.

Madison Rayne is in a referee dress and says Karen put her in charge of the Knockouts.

Pope says he’s there for people when they need him. What D-Von didn’t get is that Pope is a better trainer than he is so let him train. He’ll always be pimping too. D-Von vs. Pope at Genesis again. D-Von comes in and grabs him but one of his kids hits him in the back. Pope calls them his boys.

Eric Young and D-Von are on a date because they’re in the wild card tournament together. One of their opponents is Shannon Moore and Eric locks up with a referee.

Here’s Madison and she calls out Tara and Tessmacher. She shouts a lot and the fans chant what sounds like USA. Madison repeats that she’s the head of the Knockouts which surprises Mike and Taz, even though she said it earlier. Her job is to destroy the Knockouts and she’s starting with the two of them. Their closeness makes her sick so they’re fighting each other tonight and she’s the referee.

Brooke Tessmacher vs. Tara

And it’s a comedy match. They do the slowest wristlock this side of Delirious and Tara shouts ouchie. They trade some very weak covers and this is kind of amusing. The limited wrestling turns into talking and even the Impact Zone is silent. They finally get into a fight and Madison won’t count due to reasons of waving. Madison shouts at them to hit someone so they hit her. And then the Tebow it. Ok then. It ran about 6 minutes but there wasn’t exactly an ending point.

Rating: N/A. This wasn’t exactly a wrestling match. I’m not sure what it was but the girls were hot so I’ll let it go.

Sting and Hardy say they’ll win.

Eric looks for a gift to give ODB and looks through the kitchen of the restaurant.

Here’s Storm to FINALLY give us something interesting. He says that Angle is looking for him but Storm will either be in the bar or in the ring. Angle gave him a beating but Storm won in the end. He makes football references and drops Tebow’s name. Angle pops up on the screen and is in Storm’s hometown. He insults a woman and that’s about it.

Ray says he and Roode will win.

Wildcard Tag Tournament First Round: Eric Young/ODB vs. Anarquia/Shannon Moore

Young vs. Anarquia to start us up and Eric dances a lot. Young locks up with the Mexican America chicks outside and then disrobes. Anarquia comes in and slams Eric. It’s off to ODB and Moore bails. ODB kind of slams him and Eric hits a top rope elbow. A low blow by ODB gets the pin at 4:36.

Rating: F. What. Ever. Man. I’m so over Eric and his unfunny comedy but TNA insists we need to see it time after time on every show.

Matt Morgan and Crimson recap the tag tournament. They don’t take it seriously it seems.

Angle beats up people in Tennessee. He pulls out a freaking cap gun and hits someone in the head with it. He superkicks a lot of them after standing them up in a line. Angle even throws the Christmas tree at someone. He challenges Storm for Genesis.

Bully Ray/Bobby Roode vs. Sting/Jeff Hardy

This is a street fight and they have a ton of time. I wonder if Sting vs. Ray is going to happen at Genesis. Probably not. Those two head to the floor and Roode takes over in the ring on Hardy. They go split screen for a bit but the painted guys clear the ring. STEREO DIVES take the heels out. Sting diving like that was pretty awesome. That takes us to a break.

Back with more violence and the bad guys in trouble. Ray hits Hardy with a kendo stick to the back and does the same to Sting. We get the dreaded cookie sheet and Ray takes over on Sting. Sting fights back and hits a superplex to take Ray down. He’s showing off tonight. Roode comes in to beat down the guy with the full facepaint (Sting) but Sting comes back again. He loads up the splash but Ray hits him with part of a wooden sign to break it up.

Ray drops an elbow for two. Hardy hasn’t been focused on in this match very much. Ray and Roode set for something but Sting ducks so Ray clotheslines Roode. Death Drop to Ray but Sting walks into a spinebuster. Hardy comes in and takes out Roode but Ray kicks his head off. Ray gets the table but Sting moves it before Hardy can go through it. He cleans house and hooks the Scorpion on Ray (who taps but it doesn’t count) and puts Roode down with a Death Drop. Another table is set up and Hardy splashes Roode through it for the pin at 18:20.

Rating: B. This knew that it was supposed to be an over the top and fun brawl and that’s what it was. There wasn’t really anything all that significant going on here but it did the job in giving Hardy the pin over Roode. Also it gave Sting a chance to look awesome as he’s limited in the ring anymore and that’s fine. Fun match and a good way to close the show.

Overall Rating: C-. I don’t want to say this show was bad, because it really wasn’t. It was however pretty meh. It came off a lot like Raw on Monday as a throwaway show, and for the most part I’m ok with that. However, stuff like the Knockouts and Eric Young got really old really fast. The main event was fun and there was kind of an energy to the show that helped it, but not one of their better episodes. Still though, it’s a holiday kind of show so taking things less seriously might be a good idea.

Results
Kazarian/AJ Styles b. Rob Van Dam/Christopher Daniels – Fade To Black to Daniels
Anthony Nese b. Zema Ion – Rollup
Tara vs. Brooke Tessmacher went to a no contest
Eric Young/ODB b. Anarquia/Shannon Moore – Low blow to Anarquia
Jeff Hardy/Sting b. Robert Roode/Bully Ray – Splash through a table to Roode

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Impact Wrestling
Date: December 15, 2011
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Tazz

So we’re done with the Final show and we’re off to the Genesis, or beginning, show. There’s a Doc Brown joke in there somewhere. Anyway, Hardy vs. Roode is set as the main event and I can’t help but think Roode is in severe danger of being a transitional champion. From what I’ve heard, tonight we begin a wild card (as in “random” draw) tag team tournament to find new #1 contenders, because the tag division is somehow worse than WWE’s at the moment. Let’s get to it.

We open with a recap of the main event of the PPV Sunday here Roode ran around at the end to run out the clock. The video has a soundbyte from Sting, saying we’re going to open the show with a five minute overtime. Ok then.

TNA World Title: AJ Styles Robert Robert Roode

AJ speeds things up immediately and tries to get a fast pin. They hit the mat and it’s still pretty fast paced. Rollup gets two and we have three minutes left. All AJ so far. Roode gets in a shot to the knee but can’t wrap it around the post. Two minutes left. AJ keeps trying for pins but the champ keeps running. He hits the moonsault into the reverse DDT with a minute to go. Roode pokes him in the eye and hits the floor, where he’s able to run around well enough so that the Pele that AJ hits isn’t enough for the pin so the time runs out at 5:00.

Rating: C. That’s a really subjective grade as I’m not sure what you can really say about this. It’s not particularly good or bad so I put it right in the middle. Both guys had the psychology but there’s only so much you can do with five minutes and a story already built in. Not bad, but they were in a big box here.

Sting comes out and says we’re going until there’s a winner. Roode hits AJ in the knee and puts on a one legged Liontamer to end this in less than 30 seconds.

Roode says he’s awesome and bring on Jeff Hardy.

Wild Card Tag Tournament First Round: Robbie T/Hernandez vs. Abyss/Scott Steiner

And remember: these teams are RANDOM. Pay no attention to the rivals being partners. Hernandez vs. Papa Pump starts us off. Steiner takes over and hits the suplexes into the push-ups. Rob comes in and throws Steiner around for a few seconds but that’s about all he’s trusted with so it’s off to Hernandez and Abyss. Abyss cleans house and hits the Black Hole Slam on Robbie but slowly tags in Steiner for the pin at 4:10.

Rating: D+. I really don’t like these random tag partner tournaments. The winners aren’t going to win the titles and it’s just filling in time until the division can get itself back together. They’re waiting on the Guns, but they’re going to need more than two teams, because that isn’t a division.

Angle says he’s going to take care of Sting.

Here’s Kurt who demands Sting come out here. Angle talks about Storm and demands a rematch, threatening Sting with violence if he doesn’t get it. Sting says no because Angle has had two chances and it’s time for Storm to go after Roode. Angle threatens to go to Storm’s hometown

and beat up the whole city. That’s a new one.

Anthony Nees vs. Zema Ion

There’s going to be a best of three series between these two for a shot at Aries at Genesis. I barely remember this Nees guy but I guess that’s enough for him to be up for the #1 contender spot. They speed things up to start and I have no idea who is supposed to be the heel here or if there is one. Nees sends him to the floor and comes back in with a springboard Lionsault for two.

Flip dive to the floor and a springboard forearm gets two. Back in and Ion can’t get anything going at all. This is really just an exhibition by Nees. Ion hits a missile dropkick and a nipup dropkick for two as he pulls Needs up. Ok so Ion is the heel I guess. A modified facebuster gets two but he pulls Nees up again. A 450 ends this at 4:00.

Rating: C. It was high flying and fun, but I’m going to need more than a 4 minute Cruiserweight spot fest to really get into two guys that are barely ever on TV. Has Nees been in more then five matches ever in TNA? If he has I certainly don’t remember them. Fun stuff but the lack of connection to either guy hurts it.

The Jarretts get here and argue over who is going to retire.

Zema says he’s pretty and he took the chances tonight. It’s all about me, himself, and Ion now. Oh for corn’s sake.

Gunner gets fired up by Flair.

Jesse Neal vs. Gunner

Gunner beats him down to start and I don’t think this is going to last long. They go to the floor and Gunner shoves Hebner for the DQ at 1:40. Neal takes a DDT on the exposed concrete. I think he’s done with the company and this is writing him off TV.

Karen flirts with Sting to try to keep her job. Sting implies everything is cool and Karen leaves happy. Sting says poor Jeff.

Here’s Hardy who says he’s hurt but he’s going to Genesis as the #1 contender. Cue Ray who says Hardy is the kind of guy who sit around and Tweets to his fans. They’re fighting tonight and Ray says he knows Hardy almost as well as anyone. Ray talks about Hardy no showing a PPV which let Ray take Hardy’s spot in Immortal.

Joe tells Magnus to stay out of his way tonight. They’re partners in the tournament. Magnus tells Joe to get out of his face.

Wild Cart Tag Tournament First Round: Samoa Joe/Magnus vs. Douglas Williams/Robbie E

The Brits, still called a team here, explode for a bit until Douglas takes over. The idea here is they’re trying to keep Joe out because they can’t stop him. Robbie comes in with a middle rope fist drop. Magnus takes over on him and it’s back to Magnus. Rolling Chaos fails and here’s Joe. He cleans house and has some decent team work with Magnus as Robbie appears to leave after taking a middle rope elbow. Williams goes up and gets crotched, allowing the MuscleBuster to end this at 3:50.

Rating: D+. Joe and Magnus had some decent chemistry, but I highly doubt they’re going to mean anything long term even if they win the tournament. Magnus is brought back like once every six months and then dropped again. Not much to see, but the winners were at least gelling out there, which is more than more teams can say.

Jeff Jarrett basically says fire Karen to Sting, which is the opposite of what Karen said earlier. Interesting.

Eric Young talks about how he’s been told to find his partner here in the back. It’s ODB.

Here’s D-Von and he calls out Pope. Cue Pope with D-Von’s kids. D-Von says those are his boys and he’s been there for them since they were born. He put food on their table and clothes on their backs. He’s going to train them the way he’s going to train them and that’s that. Pope talks about how the boys want someone cool to train them, not a boring guy like D-Von. D-Von goes to leave and Pope says that’s what your wife did. He implies sex with D-Von’s ex and D-Von half kills him. Pope gets in a low blow and D-Von’s kids help in with the beatdown, putting on Pope glasses. Pope shouts that they’re his now.

Jeff lies to Karen about who he said should be fired. Sting wants to see them both at once.

Traci Brooks vs. Madison Rayne

Traci charges at Madison on the top of the ramp and beats her down to start. There’s the bell. Madison takes over once we get back in the ring and the announcers talk about Traci’s double D’s. Madison screams a lot and does nothing really worth talking about. Traci fights back and the crowd politely applauds. Rayne Drop gets two. A hard kick to the side of the head is enough for the pin at 3:51.

Rating: D. Madison is hot and that’s about the whole aspect that was good here. If this was supposed to be the big revenge match for Traci….it didn’t really work. To be fair though, Traci is really only good for wearing low cut tops. The match was bad, which is probably due to only one being anything decent in the ring, and even then she’s not enough to carry a match.

The Jarretts have their meeting with Sting and their stories seem to not line up that well. They both deny it and Sting has footage. The Jarretts argue a lot and it’s like 10:54 and the main event entrances haven’t even started yet. Sting’s look standing in the back at this is hilarious. He fires them both.

Roode comes out for commentary.

Jeff Hardy vs. Bully Ray

After the big match intros, the bell rings at 10:59. Ray jumps him during the shirt toss and works on the ribs that are still hurt from the cage match. Tree of Woe doesn’t go well for Jeff. Off to a bearhug and he even gets a few two counts off of it. A Vader Bomb misses and Jeff gets in his first offense. Bubba Bomb is countered into the Twist of Fate for two. Side slam gets two for Ray. A second Twist ends this at 4:44.

Rating: D+. This was really just a formality for Jeff but the win was a good thing for him as it gives him some momentum. Also, how nice was it to see a CLEAN win in the main event of Impact? Not a classic or anything, but for what it was, this was certainly fine. I don’t like the finisher hitting until it gets the pin though. That gets old.

Roode jumps Hardy post match and Ray helps put him through a table.  Sting comes out for the save and is beaten down too.

Overall Rating: C-. There was some good stuff on here but the tag tournament does absolutely nothing for me. I can’t complain at all about getting rid of the Jarretts. Jeff is going to India for whatever they’re doing over there. TNA still feels like they’re in a really low level string of shows lately and Genesis isn’t looking like it’s going to fix that. Not a bad show, but it’s nothing that really blew me away at all.

Results
Bobby Roode vs. AJ Styles went to a time limit draw
Bobby Roode b. AJ Styles – Single Leg Half Crab
Scott Steiner/Abyss b. Robbie T/Hernandez – Black Hole Slam to Robbie T
Zema Ion b. Anthony Nees – 450 Splash
Jesse Neal b. Gunner via DQ when Gunner shoved the referee
Samoa Joe/Magnus b. Douglas Williams/Robbie E – MuscleBuster to Williams
Madison Rayne b. Traci Brooks – Kick to the head
Jeff Hardy b. Bully Ray – Twist of Fate

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Impact Wrestling
Date: December 8, 2011
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Tazz

This is the go home show for Final Resolution and I think most of the card is set. The show has been built up pretty well, but it still feels like a B-show to me. AJ vs. Roode should be good and they’ve kept the older guys out of the spotlight lately, but I still feel like this isn’t the most exciting show in the world. I think it’s due to Roode not really feeling like a top level guy to me yet. Let’s get to it.

The opening video is a recap of last week with Roode being in the three way match and stealing the win via Jarrett. Also Storm confronts Angle tonight.

Here’s Sting to open things up. Tonight it’s AJ/Hardy vs. Roode/Jarrett. He calls Roode to the ring and says there are some things we need to deal with, so could Dixie please come out here as well. Sting says if you put your hands on Dixie, you might as well put your hands on him. A few weeks ago Roode used Dixie as a human shield and now, he needs to make things right.

Roode asks for some space to do this right so Sting steps back a bit. Roode apologizes for not being completely honest with her. However he doesn’t have to be because he’s the champ. That means Dixie needs her because business is better with him as champion. Everyone wants to jump on board the Roode show but he wouldn’t even sell Dixie a ticket. Dixie is a fake because she’s daddy’s little rich girl. He walks away, turns around and spits at Dixie, then runs. Sting chases him and then stops for some reason. Roode poses as we go to a break.

In the back, AJ shoves Roode against a fence and says Roode has no idea what he’s doing. Tonight, he’s going to take out Roode for everyone to see. Sting comes up freaking out and AJ says someone has to be levelheaded.

Samoa Joe vs. Abyss

Joe hammers him down into the corner but Abyss pounds him down as well. After that brilliant display, we take another break. Back with Joe taking over, hitting a backsplash for two. He goes up and jumps into a chokeslam attempt which doesn’t work. Some clotheslines set up attempt number two but Joe counters again. An enziguri puts Abyss in the corner and he calls for the MuscleBuster. Here’s Scott Steiner for a distraction and Ray hits Joe with a chain. Chokeslam ends Joe at 7:29.

Rating: D. The match was awful, which I think is due to Abyss more than anything else. Joe is a full fledged jobber to the stars at this point and I don’t see that changing anytime soon. The Immortal stuff was pretty obvious and I guess we’re back where we used to be in this story, which is, in two words, the beginning.

Abyss poses with Immortal but hits Steiner with the Black Hole Slam. Ray runs from a showdown.

Karen gives Madison marching orders of take care of Mickie. Gail has to fight Traci too which ticks her off. The door is shut while Karen explains her plan.

Gunner wants a match with Garrett, swearing no Flair and no Bischoff, which is good enough for Sting.

Here are D-Von and Pope for a little chat with the champs. D-Von does the talking, saying how he’s a legendary tag wrestler and that the Dudleys beat a bunch of great champions. Crimson and Morgan are great, but remember that after the match there will be new champions. This is the whole “I respect you” promo that happens WAY too much in TNA. And that’s it. Oh wait Pope wants to talk.

Pope calls them honkies and says that this is all about the money. He doesn’t care how low he has to go and he’ll steal, take and/or garnish the titles. The champs never talked so Morgan drills Morgan and a brawl breaks out. Pope hits Morgan low as the other two have fought up the ramp. He waves D-Von’s kids in to help with the beatdown. Morgan gets up and all three of them run.

Storm is here.

Madison Rayne vs. Mickie James

Madison breaks up the intro of Mickie. She throws on a chinlock for a few minutes until Mickie fights back but misses something off the top. Something like a bulldog doesn’t really work for Madison so she poses instead before getting two. Madison beats on her some more until Mickie hits the jumping DDT for the pin at 4:05. It was as weak as it sounds.

Rating: D. It wasn’t that it was bad, it was just kind of there. Madison looked like she was just wasting Mickie’s time until the DDT ended it. To be fair though it was light years ahead of anything the Divas have done lately, but that’s because I hate the Divas very, very much. This was pretty bad though.

Ray and Steiner say they need a new plan for Abyss. Steiner says he’ll go talk to Bischoff about it.

Recap of Gunner vs. Bischoff. It’s about respect don’t you know.

Gunner vs. Garrett Bischoff

Eric and Flair come out with Gunner and we’re waiting on Sting to send them away. Instead Gunner sends them to the back, saying he’s got this. Gunner takes over early but Bischoff hits a bulldog. A clothesline is no sold and Gunner beats him down again. Garrett goes shoulder first into the post a few times and Gunner takes over. This is total domination with Gunner yelling a lot. And then Garrett grabs a single leg takedown and cradles him for the pin at 3:19. Yeah who didn’t see that coming? Honestly.

Rating: F. It’s still a referee getting beaten up and scoring a quick win because of the person whose genitals he came out of. Nothing to see here at all.

Gunner freaks post match and beats him down again, trying a piledriver on the floor. Eric makes the stop, wanting the mats pulled back first. Now the piledriver hits. Please let him be out for months. It would make my Christmas all the more magical.

Garrett is taken out on a stretcher while Eric applauds. Flair says send the nurse back to the hotel.

Here’s Storm for his standoff with Angle. He says he never backs down from a challenge so Angle needs to get down here. Here’s the bald man who says Storm is either an idiot or the toughest man he’s ever seen. The concussion should have put him out for six months but it was only three weeks. Angle says he thinks about Storm every night before he goes to sleep. Storm: “That kind of creeps me out a little bit.” Funny line. Storm gets in his face and talks about all the hardships he’s gone through and how that means Angle isn’t going to scare him.

Storm says the last time he hit the Last Call, it won him the world title. Next time, it’s going to crush Angle’s head like a beer can. Do you really want to get into an alcohol contest with Angle? Storm turns his back on Angle, saying if he feels like it, jump him. Angle does nothing and Storm says he’ll see him on Sunday. No word on if he’s legit cleared or not for Sunday.

Karen tells Traci she’s going to lay down for Gail.

D-Von goes off on his kids in the back when Pope comes in. D-Von LAUNCHES him against a wall but one of the boys stops him before he punches Pope. Paternal violence is implied. Pope comes back in to check on them. After six months of this, we FINALLY get a line about what’s going on here: Pope is willing to help train them and has promised to get them to the main event if they stick with him. WHY HAVE WE NOT HEARD THIS SINCE JUNE???

AJ and Hardy say they’re going to figure out a way to work together.

Traci Brooks vs. Gail Kim

The bell rings and Gail says lay down. Traci kicks out and hammers away (kind of) on Gail to a big reaction. She beats on Kim for awhile and gets a rollup for two. There’s a spear and Karen comes down to say get out of the ring NOW. Traci grabs Karen but the referee makes the save. Madison runs in with a belt shot and it’s over at 2:16. Just a brawl really.

Roode and Jarrett say they’ll win.

Daniels challenges RVD to a technical match on Sunday.

We run down the Final Resolution card.

Jeff Hardy/AJ Styles vs. Robert Roode/Jeff Jarrett

It’s a big brawl and they even break up the big match intros. After they fight on the floor we start with AJ vs. Jarrett in the ring. AJ hits his leapfrog into a dropkick sequence which is always good. Jarrett sends him to the apron but avoids the springboard forearm. AJ tweeks the knee and brings in Hardy. Jarrett runs so we get a previous of the Genesis main event as we take a break.

Back with Hardy hitting a headscissors on Roode and then the double legdrop between the legs. Seated dropkick gets two. Back to AJ but the knee isn’t working well still. The heels work the knee over and Jarrett does the Tim Tebow pose. Hardy finally snaps (not because of Tebow) and the Jeffs brawl to the back.

We keep the camera on them because who needs to see that wrestling match stuff? Roode hooks on a half crab and back to the brawl again. AJ finally grabs a rope and gets a boot up to a charging Roode. He can’t do much though because of the knee. A spinebuster puts Styles down but the fisherman’s suplex is countered into a small package for the pin at 13:38.

Rating: C. Just a main event tag match here which was about setting up both main events on Sunday. There’s nothing wrong with that and the knee injury aspect adds a little something to the match. It gives Roode a way out or a way to a draw on Sunday, which he really didn’t have before. Pretty decent match though and fine for a TV main event.

AJ dives on Roode like an idiot and stands tall to almost end the show. Roode hits a running chop block to take the knee out again and rams it against the stage to really mess it up.  He yells at AJ a lot to end the show.

Overall Rating: C+. Better show than the last few weeks and a pretty solid go home show. I’m still seeing Final Resolution as a B-show which I don’t think they’re really trying to disagree with. A lot of stuff got pushed here which is the idea and they did a pertty good job of it. Good stuff, but certainly not without flaws, such as D-Von/Pope and the Bischoff drama.

Results
Abyss b. Samoa Joe – Chokeslam
Mickie James b. Madison Rayne – Jumping DDT
Garrett Bischoff b. Gunner – Single Leg Rollup
Gail Kim b. Traci Brooks – Pin after a belt shot
AJ Styles/Jeff Hardy b. Robert Roode/Jeff Jarrett – Small Package to Roode

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Impact Wrestling
Date: December 1, 2011
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Tazz

We’ve got two more shows before Final Resolution and the card is starting to come together. It feels like a filler PPV until we get to something a lot bigger. The interesting thing will be if Storm is allowed to wrestle again as he’s really getting hurt by being injured as the mini-feud with Roode he had made him the real star out of the whole thing. But it’s a concussion so it’s hard to say when he’ll be better. Let’s get to it.

We open with a video of Roode’s family talking about how he’s pretty much abandoned them and it’s all about him anymore. Cool idea given how he was pushed as this family man when he was going for the title.

Sting opens the show and says everyone is trying to run this place. Right now, he’s going to deal with Bobby Roode, so get on out here. Roode says let’s get this over with. Sting talks about how Roode has done all this stuff and jumped Styles and Hardy to end the show. Roode calls it great TV and says Sting is welcome for what he’s done recently. Sting says he runs the place and it’s run his way. For every bad thing Roode does, there’s a consequence, which starts right now.

Cue AJ and Roode says Sting is fighting AJ’s battles now. Sting also brings out Hardy who asks why Roode doesn’t respect Sting’s authority. Sting says screw you Bobby and makes it a three way match for the main event tonight.

The Knockouts are in robes while Karen yells. She gets in Velvet’s face and yells about disrespect and all that jazz. Tonight they’re going to wash six cars and then the rest of them. Oh and they’ll be in swimsuits. Madison gladly disrobes and looks pretty good underneath it.

Jeff Hardy says he and AJ are about to go talk strategy. Jarrett comes up and takes his jacket off. He wants to know why Hardy thinks he belongs here. Hardy says this is his last shot. Jarrett throws his jacket in Hardy’s face and beats him down. Here’s your backstage brawl of the week.

Bischoff meets with Ray in the back because they don’t have an office anymore. Eric wants Ray to wait before killing his kid. Yeah brilliant there dude. Instead, let’s get rid of Abyss. Ray put him through a table and it did nothing so Eric suggests talking to him. Ray thinks he’s nuts (both Eric and Abyss) so he’ll get Scott Steiner to help talk. Oh geez.

The Knockouts are in bikinis and washing cars and Tara is forced to disrobe. ODB gets a street fight with Mickie James for some reason. If she hurts Mickie she’s the new #1 contender.

Mexican America vs. Ink Inc vs. D-Von/D’Angelo Dinero

Winners are #1 contenders. D-Von and Pope clear the ring until we get down to Pope vs. Anarquia with the street preacher taking over. The Mexicans finally take over until it’s a hot tag to D-Von. There’s nothing interesting going on here. I still want to know why they think pushing D-Von is a good thing. Neal tags himself in, spears Hernandez but walks into a spinebuster from D-Von for the pin at 5:06.

Rating: D+. Whatever man. The tag division is such a joke anymore without any solid teams in there. It’s like the tag champions and the #1 contenders are just slapped together with no real rhyme or reason. This isn’t going to be much of a match and does anyone buy that these guys are going to get the titles?

Here’s Austin Aries to talk a bit. He says he has a problem as the greatest man that ever lived. His plan was to revitalize the division and bring in some greatness, but his greatness is so far ahead of everyone else. It’s time to call this the A Double division. No one can hold a candle to him so….oh dang it here’s Kid Kash.

He talks about Turning Point and how Aries screwed him over after Kash took out Sorensen for him. It’s an old vs. new argument and Aries says he’s champion. Kash says he held it before. Aries says shake my hand and you have a shot. They shake hands and punch each other at the same time. I think that’s supposed to be a face turn for Kash.

Gunner goes to find Garrett Bischoff at a gym.

AJ says he’ll win tonight.

Gunner tries to find Garrett Bischoff but finds someone else who he beats up. No one else seems to care. He keeps looking and annoys someone else. Gunner beats up two more people and then the original guy comes back. There’s a clothesline for him and then he chokes the guy down. He hurts a guy’s arm and tried to be menacing, saying he’s coming for Garrett.

Sting yells at Jarrett, telling him to stay out of the main event tonight. Jarrett says Sting has no room to talk because he was in the match with Hardy at Victory Road. Sting says there will be consequences if Jarrett interferes. Jarrett says he might be willing to pay that consequence.

More parenting stuff from Roode’s “wife”.

The Knockouts are still washing cars. Taz’s car is in line for later and a bus or something like that comes up.

Steiner is lifting weights when Ray comes up to talk about Abyss. CAN WE HAVE A WRESTLING MATCH ALREADY??? Steiner suggests offering a freak to Abyss to get him to join their team again.

Mickie James vs. ODB

Street fight. It’s a brawl on the ramp to start and they roll towards the ring. Street fights mean falls count anywhere here I guess. Mickie’s rana is countered into a powerbomb. They go into the crowd and Mickie fights back in front of a handicap ramp. ODB hits her with a lot of metal stuff and Mickie looks a bit dead. We do the odd hardcore match thing where people insist on walking around.

She walks around even more until Mickie gets in a chop. Gee, I wonder if the minute long walk had anything to do with her getting a second wind. Back to the ring and Mickie starts her comeback. ODB breaks up the jumping DDT and gets a chair. Like any idiot, she holds it in front of her face to allow Mickie to kick the chair into her face for the pin at 7:00.

Rating: D+. Well that was pretty dull. I have no idea why they went walking around like that but I never get that in any wrestling match with hardcore rules. ODB continues to look like an idiot and the girls are still better than the Divas, but they’re still nothing to blow my skirt up. The weak show continues.

Storm (at home) says he’s still out with a concussion. Angle interrupts and asks Storm how it felt to have his head bashed in and how his daughter reacted to it. Angle blames Storm for losing the title so Angle says be here next week to confirm a match at Final Resolution. Storm says it’ll be a beating, not a match.

Some chicks are in the back and looking for Abyss.

We see the long version of Roode’s family complaining. Roode says he got them a bunch of stuff with the money so if he’s a user, so are they.

TV Title: Rob Van Dam vs. Robbie E

Why do I have a feeling the obvious ending isn’t the one that is going to happen? RVD dominates to start and sends Robbie to the floor quickly. Big Rob gets in a shot to take over and Robbie pounds away a bit. Back to the floor and here’s Eric Young in underwear with a fire extinguisher. RVD gets a kick to the face and hits the Five Star but Eric has the referee. Daniels runs in and hits Angel’s Wings on RVD so Robbie can get the pin at 4:02.

Rating: Rob. What else do you want me to call it? This was about as predictable as you could want it to be, which isn’t saying much. The match wasn’t the point here obviously and the idea was to have Daniels run in and Young to be all wacky because that’s all he knows how to do.

Steiner’s girls are all messed up after meeting Abyss.

The Knockouts get in a fight with the water and soap. Karen comes in with garden hoses and sprays them all down.

Robert Roode vs. AJ Styles vs. Jeff Hardy

This has over twenty minutes to go so maybe it’ll be good. This is non-title of course. Roode immediately hits the floor and we get our first contact about a minute in with both guys beating on Roode. He gets ping-ponged between the two of them and then clotheslined to the floor. Time for the face showdown….or not. Instead they get in a mini argument over who gets to dive to the floor. Hardy hits a baseball slide as we take a break.

Back with Roode hitting a belly to back suplex for one as Hardy makes the save. AJ gets his eyes raked and accidentally hits Hardy, giving us the showdown we’ve been waiting for. AJ hits his drop down into a dropkick sequence but Hardy takes over and gets two of his own. Roode comes back in and beats both guys down before focusing on Hardy. Spinebuster gets two.

AJ pops back up with the springboard forearm and backflip into the reverse DDT on Roode. Roode takes over again and hits a fisherman’s suplex on AJ which Hardy breaks up. Twist of Fate to Roode and he loads up the Swanton, but here’s Jarrett to crotch him. Roode covers Hardy for the easy pin at 14:30.

Rating: C. Pretty ok match here but at the end of the day, so what? This is more about pushing Jeff vs. Jeff again and that’s not exactly something interesting. Not a bad match at all but I’ve never been a fan of three ways, which isn’t helping things here. At least it sets up a match at Final Resolution, which we’ll get to now.

Sting comes out and makes Jeff vs. Jeff in a cage at the PPV. If Jarrett escapes first, Hardy is gone. If Hardy escapes first, he gets the title shot at Genesis. Karen comes out to yell so she’ll be handcuffed to Sting during the match.

Overall Rating: D+. The biggest problem with this show is that the pacing problems were back. There were five minutes of wrestling in the first hour and for what? So we could have segments about Gunner, Garrett Bischoff, and the Knockouts in swimsuits? That’s what we’re focusing on now? This was a backstage heavy show and that’s really not all that interesting. Also, you don’t need to have Roode’s family pop in all through the show if you’re going to show a full version of it later on. Not a bad show, but pretty boring overall.

Results
D-Von/D’Angelo Dinero b. Mexican America and Ink Inc – Spinebuster to Neal
Mickie James b. ODB – Spinning kick to the face
Robbie E b. Rob Van Dam – Pin after Angel’s Wings
Bobby Roode b. AJ Styles and Jeff Hardy – Pinned Hardy after Jeff Jarrett interfered

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Impact Wrestling
Date: November 24, 2011
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Taz

It’s Turkey Day here in the Impact Zone and that usually means a pretty fun show from these guys. There’s always the chance of the return of the turkey suit which thankfully isn’t coming out of a huge egg and dancing with a bald interviewer. Expect a bit more build towards Final Resolution but the majority of things should be a bit lighter tonight, which is fine. Let’s get to it.

We open with a video of last week with Storm looking for his attacker with Angle being the reveal at the end of the show. There’s still tension between Storm and AJ.

Here’s Angle, who along with Storm will captain teams for an elimination tag later. On Thanksgiving? You don’t say! Kurt says it wasn’t an attack from behind. James just didn’t see him coming. Cue Storm who says this is beyond personal. It’s business now and if Angle says he won’t jump someone from behind, here’s his chance to fight face to face. Angle says this is about Storm stealing the title from Angle so Angle cost him the title in Georgia. Immortal plus Daniels comes out so Storm SHOWS HE HAS A BRAIN by hitting Angle once and running. Anderson, AJ and RVD come out for the big brawl.

Eric Young brings an old referee back on a homemade bicycle. Rudy Charles brings out the turkey suit.

We recap Mexican America losing the tag titles last week to Morgan/Crimson.

Tag Titles: Mexican America vs. Crimson/Matt Morgan

A big brawl to start is won by the champions and it’s down to Anarquia vs. Morgan. The beating begins as the champions pound him down. A double chokeslam ends this in 1:57. Total squash.

Eric Young says Sting has said there’s officially a turkey suit challenge later on. It’s a regular match and the loser has to wear the suit. Rob Terry gives him a pat down and says he’s not on the list. If Robbie doesn’t do it, he’s stripped of the title. The Robs go to find Sting and Young admits Sting didn’t say any of that.

Here are Karen and her associates. She calls out five of the Knockouts (Tara, Tessmacher, Winter, Angelina and Velvet) and gets them very quickly. The fans want a rematch but the fans (according to Karen) want more skin. Tonight it’s the first lingerie ball.

The face Knockouts whine about the match. Yeah…..I’d buy that if the pigeons weren’t always being let loose.

The heel Knockouts are happy when Mickie comes in to yell at Gail in private. They leave the door open and Mickie yells at Gail for going against whatever she said when she wasn’t in there. Mickie gets beaten down.

Angelina Love/Winter/Madison Rayne vs. Tara/Velvet Sky/Brooke Tessmacher

They’re all in lingerie/thongs. The anger over it isn’t working at all but they look good. Scratch the thongs actually. It’s a regular six person tag. Winter shows off and looks good like that. Tessmacher rips her shirt off and is in the exact same thing she wrestles in. For chicks that are ticked off, they don’t seem to mind posing on the ropes. Velvet is in less clothing than usual. They have a pose off until FINALLY the evil ones jump them. There’s a quick commercial as Tara and Winter get us going.

Back with the good chicks in control and Tessmacher gives Winter a Stink Face. Yeah we get it: it’s embarrassing or whatever. Do an actual move please. Tessmacher gets beaten down as Taz is talking about Helen Keller. Madison is far more covered than she usually is. Hot tag finally brings in Velvet and house is cleaned. Madison grabs a belt but Mickie comes out for the save. Velvet’s bad facebuster ends this at 13:18.

Rating: F. Dumb premise, dumb anger, no thongs, dumb match.

Here’s Hardy in a mask but it’s actually Jeff Jarrett. He wants to know why the fans love Hardy. Is it because he looks like a clown? Perhaps the bizarre promos or the stupid chances he takes for the fans. Jarrett wants Hardy’s fans to grow up and embarrass the company they work for. Here’s Hardy at a full sprint to beat down Jarrett. Immortal plus Daniels makes the save. Immortal comes out (plus Daniels and Roode….oh no) and here’s Team Storm for the save. Jarrett sends Hardy into the steps and then does it again. Immortal stands tall.

We get a history of the turkey suit match which is one of those funny things that you can get in wrestling.

Robbie E vs. Eric Young

Robbie jumps him on the floor and beats up the turkey suit also. This is non title. Rudy counts really slowly. He won’t drop the suit for the count and we’re in a total comedy match here. Robbie gets what was presumably loaded punch for the pin at 2:14. The referee sees it and reverses the decision. Oh wait he restarts the match. Robbie shoves the referee and a piledriver ends this clean. Total comedy match and there isn’t a thing wrong with that.

Big Rob has to put on the suit because Robbie is out cold.

Rudy and Eric train for next year on a bike but Rudy crashes.

Team Angle vs. Team Storm

AJ Styles, Mr. Anderson, Rob Van Dam, Jeff Hardy
Jeff Jarrett, Bully Ray, Christopher Daniels, Bobby Roode

There’s been talk all night about Hardy being on the team but he’s not mentioned here. Storm is in street clothes. Oh wait Angle and Storm aren’t wrestling. Ok then. So it’s 4-3? This is an elimination style match so it’s Survivor Series rules. Roode sits in on commentary because he’s not loose yet. AJ vs. Daniels gets us off because we need something new. After nothing of note happens there it’s off to Jarrett vs. Anderson.

Van Dam comes in and this is starting pretty slowly. Rob gets caught in the corner and Ray takes over on him with a splash. Not hot tag to Anderson who takes over with some elbows and a neckbreaker for two. Ray hits a Rock Bottom and Roode heads to the ring. He steals a tag and gets the pin on Anderson to make it 4-3 or 4-2 depending on how you look at it.

Here’s AJ to speed things way up with a backdrop. I think the ankle is ok now. Roode hits him low right in front of the referee for….not a DQ. Ok yeah it was but there was no bell. Ah there’s the announcement. We take a break as Daniels pounds on AJ. Back with Ray coming in to beat down AJ even more. AJ counters Angel’s Wings into a rana and then the Pele puts Daniels down.

Hot tag brings in RVD who cleans house with various kicks. Rolling Thunder puts Daniels down but Angle breaks up the Five Star. He and Storm fight up the ramp but RVD gets rolled up and pinned to make it 3-1. Daniels is bleeding from the mouth. It’s a 3-1 beatdown and Ray tells Daniels to give him the moonsault. It eats knees/feet because Ray shouted GIVE HIM THE MOONSAULT. Ray accidentally takes out Jarrett and a Pele puts Ray down.

Cue Hardy as all four are down. He’s pulling his pants up as he comes out. What was he doing before that??? Hardy slips on the apron as he comes out but there’s the hot tag anyway. He cleans house and the Twist takes out Daniels to tie things up. Twist to Jarrett is countered so Hardy gets a small package to take him out instead. A HUGE boot takes Hardy down for two and Jarrett hammers on Hardy a bit more. AJ makes a blind tag and hits the forearm on Ray to win it at 18:45.

Rating: C-. Not bad here and it makes Hardy look like a star which is the right idea. It’s nothing we haven’t seen a bunch before but it didn’t need to be. Hardy stands tall and we’ll get to some post match stuff here in a few seconds. For a Thanksgiving show main event, this was certainly fine.

Roode lays out both winners with the belt post match.

Overall Rating: C. I’m going with right in the middle here. On a normal week this would have been around an F, but the thing you have to remember here is that it’s Thanksgiving. There’s no reason to assume this show was going to be anything of note and it wasn’t supposed to be. No one is going to watch the show, so why waste anything big on it? You see Raw do this a lot and there’s nothing wrong with that. Not an interesting show, but all things considered this was fine. Well ok it was bad but there are a lot of things to consider on it.

Results
Matt Morgan/Crimson b. Mexican America – Double chokeslam to Anarquia
Brooke Tessmacher/Tara/Velvet Sky b. Winter/Angelina Love/Madison Rayne – BeauDT to Rayne
Eric Young b. Robbie E – Piledriver
Team Storm b. Team Angle last eliminating Bully Ray

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Impact Wrestling
Date: November 16, 2011
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Tazz

Well we’re after the Turning Point PPV now and head towards Final Resolution which is likely going to see AJ vs. Roode II because AJ was injured in the previous match. Also because there really isn’t anyone else to face Roode at the moment. Other than that, expect more Bischoff vs. Bischoff stuff to bore the fans out of their minds. Impact has been good lately though so let’s get to it.

We open with a recap of the main event of Turning Point where Roode cheated to keep the title.

Here’s Roode to open the show. He says it’s a shame to think he was part of Fourtune. He was the star, he was the leader and he was the future of the company. Roode says he got rid of the two of them and here’s Storm. They’ve made him the real star of the company in this. Storm wants to know why Roode jumped him, which Roode denies. Storm doesn’t care so he charges but security stops him. He turns around to have AJ behind him and the beating is on. Security pulls them apart and are about as successful as they usually are.

Post break AJ rants some more and Roode says no rematch. The brawl starts up again and cue Sting. He makes a 30 minute iron man match for Final Resolution for the title.

After we hear Taz and Mike talk a bit, Roode goes after Dixie in the front row. AJ makes the save but Roode hits him in the back to knock Dixie down as well.

Joe comes up to Storm in the back and says it wasn’t Roode as he saw him the whole time. Joe says it wasn’t him either. They fight anyway since this is TNA where backstage brawls are required by law.

Sting goes after Roode post break, saying that was like putting Roode’s hands on Sting.

TV Title: Robbie E vs. D-Von

Pope is hitting on some blonde outside. D-Von takes over to start and runs him over with a clothesline. Some shoulders and a side slam put him down as well. D-Von throws him to the floor right in front of Pope. Pope slaps Robbie and is drilled by Terry for his efforts. D-Von’s kids go after Terry for no apparent reason and Eric Young comes down to pop Terry with a chair which does nothing. D-Von’s distraction lets Robbie roll him up at 2:00 to retain.

D-Von yells at his kids post match and they stay with Pope.

Sting talks to Garrett, praising him for his match last week. Garrett wants more of Gunner and Sting isn’t sure. Garrett leaves when Morgan and Crimson come up. They wind up with a tag title shot later in the show. Sting is worried about the lack of a tag division or something.

Eric and Flair rant about Garret when Sting comes up to them talk about the rewriting of Bischoff’s contract. However Eric doesn’t have a signed contract so it doesn’t mean jack. Sting makes Garrett vs. Gunner for later.

Kid Kash/Austin Aries vs. Jesse Sorensen/Brian Kendrick

Kendrick has dark hair now. Jesse vs. Kash to start because we haven’t seen that enough yet. Cross body off the top gets two for Jesse. Aries won’t tag in and Kash gets rolled up for two by Kendrick. Aries comes in for about a second, ducks an enziguri and here’s Kash again. Hot tag to Jesse and he gets a northern lights for two. Aries walks out to make this a handicap match. Kash misses a moonsault and Sorensen hits a reverse Cross Rhodes (it ends in a DDT) for the pin at 5:02.

Rating: C-. I’m so over Kid Kash at this point that it’s not even funny. The guy is old, he’s fat, he can’t talk, and he’s not interesting. He’s never meant anything but he’s running his mouth about being a legend which no one even remembers. Nothing to see here as it’s the same stuff they’ve been doing for awhile.

Karen is her usual self and gives Gail the night off.

Anderson is playing a football game in the back when Storm comes up, wanting to know if Anderson had anything to do with it.

Gauntlet Match

There are ten chicks in it and the winner is #1 contender. Velvet vs. Rosita starts us off. I’ll only be giving the total time for this. Velvet is in blue which I highly approve of. Velvet hits a facebuster to end Rosita in about 4 seconds. Tessmacher is next and we have some good looking women in TNA. Brooke takes over and hits her Stinkface thing and takes her top off. A bulldog ends her a second later.

Fourth is Angelina who counters the facebuster into a rollup with tights to end it. I hate gauntlet matches because most of them are quick wins that are totally unrealistic by comparison to regular matches. Velvet kicks Mickie in the face on her way to the ring and we take a break. Back with Love hammering on Mickie which doesn’t last long as Mickie kicks her head off for a quick pin.

Off to Sarita in 6th and this is UGLY. Sarita botches a springboard move, landing on Mickie’s head despite Mickie ducking. A sloppy jumping DDT (head didn’t hit) ends this a bit later. Tara is 7th and they hit the match. Tara throws on a heel hook and then the standing moonsault for two. Another somewhat bad jumping DDT gets us to Winter who is still gorgeous. A bridging suplex gets two as Mickie is getting tired.

Mickie escapes a fireman’s carry and hits a SICK kick to Winter’s head for the elimination. ODB is in at 9 and is A LOT slimmer. She even had abs. A fallaway slam sets up a nipup and a Bronco Buster. She’s in camo pants now which works a lot better for her than the long shirt she usually wears. Top rope Thesz Press gets rid of ODB and Madison is last. ODB drills Mickie before leaving and hits a TKO (love that move). Madison walks around forever and Mickie rolls her up for a surprise pin at 15:02.

Rating: D. I hate these matches. The 9 eliminations took WAY too short an amount of time and it’s unrealistic even from a wrestling perspective. Nothing to see here although the girls looked hot and it’s amazing how much better/in depth the Knockouts are than the Divas at this point.

Ray is talking to some ugly chick (joke from Turning Point I think) when Storm comes up. He says take a free shot because he thinks Ray was involved. Ray says no but he knows who it was and that person is here. He offers Storm a spot in Immortal and Storm turns him down flat.

Garrett says he hopes Gunner underestimates him again tonight.

Here’s Hardy and we get a quick shot from Turning Point where he beat Jarrett three times in a row. He says thanks to the fans and promises to always be there for them. His sights are shifting to the world title and that brings out Karen. She says someone with some balls needs to put Hardy in his place. She has the biggest set here and says Hardy needs to do more than just have sad eyes.

What he did at Turning Point wasn’t being a man and Hardy needs to be one. She calls Hardy disrespectful and talks about Hardy’s wife Beth. Karen pretended to be Beth’s friend and performance problems are implied. She tries to get Jeff to hit her and says he didn’t beat Jarrett fairly. Karen goes to slap him but Jeff blocks it. Here’s Jeff Jarrett with the AAA belt but Hardy sees it coming. Karen tries a low blow but Hardy grabs it and the brawl is on.

Flair and Bischoff give Gunner a pep talk, saying destroy Garrett tonight.

Tag Titles: Mexican America vs. Crimson/Matt Morgan

Crimson vs. Anarquia starts us off and the chicks distract Red Boy so Hernandez can clothesline him down. LAX beats on Crimson who can’t get anything going in the first three minutes or so. A shoulder/spear takes down SuperMex and it’s a double tag for Morgan and Anarquia. Morgan throws everyone around and chokeslams Anarquia for two. Exploder suplex and the Carbon Footprint give us new champions at 5:21.

Rating: C-. Not much to see here but the titles need a shot in the arm at this point. Maybe this is it and that’s perfectly fine. I hope this goes somewhere different than Morgan and Hernandez went to as that did no one any favors. Too short to mean much but this could have been a lot worse. At least Mexican America and their dead end gimmick is over.

Storm thinks he knows who the attacker is.

Garrett Bischoff vs. Gunner

Sting, Eric and Flair are in corners. Garrett has his own song now. He uses basic stuff to start and it’s off to Gunner in control because he’s, you know, not a referee. A charge of his hits the post but Eric grabs Garrett’s foot and Gunner takes over again. A spear in the corner has Garrett in trouble but you know the fluke pin is coming. And there it is as Garrett counters a suplex into a DDT for the clean pin at 3:56.

Rating: F. The match sucked, but maybe that’s because HE IS A REFEREE. I know he’s Bischoff’s son, and that’s what’s wrong with this story: the guy has no reason to be in the ring but he’s there anyway because he’s Eric Bischoff’s son and is getting 3-4 segments a show and going over people like Gunner instead of people like Alex Shelley or someone else going over him. That’s why this angle doesn’t work.

Here’s Storm for the big finish. He says he’s being passed over because he’s too southern and that’s not right. Storm calls out AJ of all people and Styles is a little banged up still. AJ: “Are you kidding me?” AJ doesn’t think that makes sense because he’s been the one behind Storm the entire time. Storm points out that ever since Storm has been on the shelf, AJ has gotten two shots at Roode. Styles says Sting made those decisions and denies being the attacker.

They’re about to fight when Kaz comes out to break them up. Kaz gets AJ out of the ring and Angle comes in from under the ring for the beatdown. We have an attacker.

Overall Rating: C+. Pretty decent show tonight where the wrestling matches don’t add up to the final grade of the show. A good amount of stuff happened here with new champions and a new main event level feud starting up. I’m ok with Angle being the guy but it can’t end with Angle going over Storm. They’ve made a new star in the Cowboy and they need to keep him strong. Beating Angle in a feud would be a great way to do that, but Angle going over would completely miss the point. Decent show tonight though.

Results
Robbie E b. D-Von – Rollup
Jesse Sorensen/Brian Kendrick b. Kid Kash/Austin Aries – Spinning DDT to Kash
Mickie James won a gauntlet match last eliminating Madison Rayne
Crimson/Matt Morgan b. Mexican America – Carbon Footprint to Anarquia
Garrett Bischoff b. Gunner – DDT

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Impact Wrestling
Date: November 10, 2011
Location: Macon Coliseum, Macon, Georgia
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Tazz

We’re still in Macon and it’s time for the go home show before Turning Point. At this moment, we have no main event as the world title has changed twice in three weeks so we haven’t had much of an opportunity to set anything up. I’d expect a tacked on main event which is TNA’s custom far too often. This show has been better than Raw (arguably) recently. Let’s get to it.

We open up with a video of Roode turning heel last week to win the title.

Here’s Roode to open the show with the belt. He doesn’t know why the people are booing him. Wait, are they booing him or are they chanting Roode, because that’s what they were doing last week when they were cheering him on. Is it because he killed Beer Money? Or is it because he did everything that they all would have done in the same situation? This is a new generation and he’s the leader of that generation.

You can do everything right and it means nothing. We see an inset of Storm wanting to come to the ring but the agents hold him back. Roode talks about how after BFG, he learned you have to take your opportunities and that’s what he did. Here comes Storm and the fans are happy to see him. Storm beats them down and charges the ring but Roode bails.

As security holds Storm back, here’s Sting. He makes the rematch for tonight and that’s it.

Tonight it’s AJ vs. Daniels. AGAIN.

Here’s a video on Crimson vs. Morgan. This isn’t a dream match no matter how much they want it to be.

D’Angelo Dinero vs. Crimson

After having to watch Elijah Burke and Matt Morgan reach levels of uninteresting that I honestly didn’t think existed in their feud in OVW in I think 03 or 04, THANK GOODNESS this is Crimson. They exchange headlocks to start us off and I don’t think anyone knows who Pope is. A DDT gets two as does a middle rope fist drop. Crimson grabs a Cravate but gets punched back again. Pope goes up again but jumps into the Red Sky for the pin at 2:38. As almost usual with Crimson, he got beaten down but hit one move for the win.

Gunner says he’ll destroy Garrett Bischoff and something about a code in the military.

Gunner vs. Garrett Bischoff

Gunner is really lous and talks trash to Garrett. He turns to talk to Eric (he and Flair are on the floor) and walks into a pretty decent armdrag and make it two of them. Garrett takes over with some basic stuff and isn’t half bad at it. And then Flair and Eric come in, I think for a DQ, as Garrett runs. It ran about 1:45. Based on this, Eric can have his contract rewritten.

Robbie E and Big Rob try to get to Ronnie from Jersey Shore. This goes nowhere.

After a break we see Storm out cold and covered in blood.

Zema Ion vs. Jesse Sorensen

Basic stuff to start and Ion goes up. The 450 misses a reverse Cross Rhodes ends this at 1:57. There’s nothing else to say here.

Kid Kash comes out to run his mouth and be annoying and southern. Kash says Sorensen gets the title shot at Turning Point but it’s in a three way dance. Sorensen signs the contract and Kash implies he slept with Sorensen’s mother.

Karen tells Gail and Madison that they look pretty.

Knockout Tag Titles: Mickie James/Velvet Sky vs. Gail Kim/Madison Rayne

Velvet spears Madison down to start and hammers away. Madison gets beaten down quickly and it’s off to Mickie who looks great tonight. Gail shoves her off the top and then comes in to beat on her a bit. The match means nothing at all as it’s all to set up Gail pinning Velvet to set up the PPV match for the singles title. Velvet comes in and takes over, hitting an awful looking spinning bulldog or something. Mickie goes up and something is clipped as Mickie hits the Thesz Press. A sitout Pedigree ends Madison but Velvet walks into Eat Defeat for the pin at 4:00. See? Told you so.

Rating: D. Whatever man. That’s what I’m going to start every Knockouts rating with. The problem at the end of the day is that these stories don’t mean anything and the feuds usually have zero heat on them at all. Nothing to see here and like I said, the ending was about as obvious as any I’ve ever seen in my life.

James is awake and Sting comes to see him. The trainer is trying to sew him up and he can’t stand.

We recap the Robs vs. Ronnie/Eric Young. Let’s get this over with.

Ronnie/Eric Young vs. Robbie E/Rob Terry

Ronnie and Robbie start us off but they tag out before there’s any contact. Eric locks up with the referee. Oh that wacky comedy! Eric gets beaten down as we await the “reality” TV star to make the save. A belly to belly suplex puts Robbie down and there’s the hot tag to Ronnie. To the shock of no one, he does some basic stuff not that horrible and we’re supposed to care for some reason. Eric drops a top rope elbow…and he’s in leopard print underwear now. A splash from Ronnie gets the pin at 4:15.

Rating: F. I hate the Jersey Shore and I review wrestlers having matches. That is all.

Immortal says they’ll win tonight.

Mexican America gets in a fight with Ink Inc in catering. There’s a tag title match Sunday.

Here’s an MMA guy on commentary for the next match.

AJ Styles vs. Christopher Daniels

This is match #eleventy billion between them. The MMA guy gets a closeup as we miss part of the match. The match is a backdrop as we praise Bellator and how great it is. They’re debuting on Spike soon after UFC leaves. AJ flips over in the corner and Daniels takes over. This is just their usual match with Daniels controlling for the most part and then AJ starts his comeback. He hits his usual stuff and we talk about MMA. Here’s the screwdriver after we go to the floor. RVD comes out to take it away and AJ uses the distraction to hit the Clash for the pin at 7:27.

Rating: C. This is a good example of a match that’s fine but I just don’t care. The problem again is that we’ve seen this so many times that there’s nothing to see in it anymore. We’ve seen AJ Styles vs. Christopher Daniels so many times that there’s nothing left to watch them do. Daniels vs. anyone else would be interesting.

Here’s the card for Turning Point. The tag title match is in a six person match.

Immortal vs. Jeff Hardy/Mr. Anderson/???

The mystery partner is Abyss. Well that was shocking. Scott beats on Hardy a bit as Hardy sells like only he can. He really is good at that. Jeff hits the mule kick and it’s off to Anderson. The heels beat on him a bit with a bunch of elbows from Ray. Off to Hardy as we’re waiting for Abyss to come in and dominate.

The Matt Hardy leg drop hits Bubba but Jarrett breaks up the Swanton. Hardy gets beaten down for a bit and it’s off to Abyss for the real hot tag. The Stroke is countered into Shock Treatment and Ray walks into the Twist and Swanton. Stroke to Hardy, Mic Check to Jarrett, suplex to Anderson, Black Hole Slam and pin to Steiner at 8:15.

Rating: C-. Basic match here but the ending was pretty good. Abyss as a mystery partner was kind of odd as it’s not like there’s anyone else they would have put in there that would have made sense. Him as an official face isn’t bad and it’s good to see Immortal pretty firmly in the midcard where they belong.

TNA World Title: Bobby Roode vs. James Storm

The match is set to start after a break and there’s no Storm. The music plays twice and he finally comes out. He’s COVERED in blood. Storm goes off to start but then collapses. Storm is out cold. The referee throws up the X and the trainer is here. Roode acts all concerned and says he wants to check on Storm. He asks if the amtch is over and then rolls Storm up for the pin at 2:40.

AJ and Kaz come out and it’s AJ vs. Roode on Sunday.

Overall Rating: C+. The wrestling wasn’t great here but the big thing is we had 8 matches. That’s a HUGE improvement as that means 8 different stories or angles were addressed, plus the tag title match was actually mentioned on TV. This was a well put together show which is what they’ve been lacking for a long time. Good stuff here, although not great. Major improvement in some areas though.

Results
Crimson b. D’Angelo Dinero – Red Sky
Garrett Bischoff b. Gunner via DQ when Ric Flair interfered
Jesse Sorensen b. Zema Ion – Reverse Spinning DDT
Gail Kim/Madison Rayne b. Velvet Sky/Mickie James – Eat Defeat
Ronnie/Eric Young b. Robbie E/Rob Terry – Ronnie pinned Robbie E after a splash
AJ Styles b. Christopher Daniels – Styles Clash
Abyss/Jeff Hardy/Mr. Anderson b. Jeff Jarrett/Scott Steiner/Bully Ray – Black Hole Slam to Steiner
Robert Roode b. James Storm – Pin after Storm collapsed

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