Impact Wrestling
Date: July 28, 2011
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Tazz

We’re still heading towards Hardcore Justice and Angle is now thrown into the main event mix as well as the Immortal storyline. It should get rather interesting rather soon, at least in theory. I still have a feeling that Hogan is going to get into the ring again and given who he has to work with, I’m not sure that’s going to end well at all. Let’s get to it.

We open with Angle wanting Hogan to come out immediately and end this once and for all. Hogan comes out and Tenay isn’t sure what Angle is talking about. Angle says that he’ll win at Hardcore Justice and wants Immortal out of it. He looks at Immortal and sees two guys running it that. Angle asks if Hogan knows what it’s like to be the best. Hogan goes on a huge rant about how he made wrestling and carried a bunch of territories and all that jazz. Apparently Angle was offered a spot in Immortal and Hogan is mad about Kurt turning it down.

Kurt says he isn’t Mr. Anderson and can’t be bought. Angle says that yes, he used to buy tickets to see Hogan when he was a kid but now it’s different. Hogan can’t go anymore and Hogan cuts him off right there. Hulk says he’s never going to wrestle again due to his injuries. However, he’ll fight Kurt if that’s what it comes to. Angle says Hogan can still go, so why does he have to call Kurt to take out Sting? Do it yourself, and stop calling.

Eric gets something from the Network.

Bound For Glory Standings

Crimson 31

Gunner 28

Matt Morgan 24

Devon 21

Rob Van Dam 21

James Storm 21

Bully Ray 21

Bobby Roode 21

AJ Styles 14

Scott Steiner 14

D’Angelo Dinero 0

Samoa Joe 0

Bound For Glory Series: Gunner vs. Rob Van Dam

Gunner jumps him as he comes in but RVD rolls him up quickly. The fans are behind him of course but Gunner reverses a kick into a powerslam into the corner. We hear that there’s breaking news about Morgan, which I think is a legit injury to his shoulder. Clothesline gets two for Gunner but he walks into a kick in the corner. Top rope kick puts Gunner down but Rob misses a dive over the top.

Springboard kick sets up Rolling Thunder but Gunner rolls outside to avoid a cover. Gunner slams him out there and goes up top. That gets him nowhere so he settles for a slingshot suplex for two. Rob blocks what might have been a piledriver but gets powerbombed out of the corner for two. Rob gets a reversal into a spinwheel kick in the corner but Gunner no sells it and this a running knee. F5 is countered and Rob hits a spinning kick to set up the Five Star for the pin at 5:55.

Rating: C+. I kind of liked it. Rob is really awkward in the ring and his matches are almost always just a collection of spots anymore. Gunner is ok but he needs character and he needs it badly. We know he’s former soldier and he’s intense. That’s it. What else do we know about him? That’s the problem with so many characters today: they have no definition at all. The match was pretty decent and back and forth for a 6 minute TV match.

Sting is in a red suit in the back. That’s it. Nothing else is said here and he’s just shown for about two seconds.

Eric reads the letter from the Network that he got earlier. It says that due to Destination X being successful, the X Division needs to be built up. Eric starts to yell at Abyss when Hogan comes in. He says nothing matters tonight other than cutting Angle’s throat tonight. Ray volunteers Anderson to do it and Anderson eventually disagrees.

Eric has more of the letter to read but Sting pops up with a cage with something over it. Sting hugs Karen and critiques the decorating. Sting sits down with his feet on the table. Immortal can’t pummel him because the script doesn’t say so I guess. Sting is the new Network executive apparently. Tonight: Anderson vs. Angle in a cage. Fourtune will be around the ring.

Kendrick and Shelley are in the ring in street clothes. Kendrick does his philosophical jazz and wants Aries out here. He gives Shelley something which is apparently a translation. Hey I speak Kendrick! Shelley lists off some X guys and says that the division is all about hybrid wrestling. Either play by the rules, or don’t play at all.

Aries says he’s played by the X-Division rules time after time and now it’s about his rules. He has a backlog of five star matches but he wants a five star bank account. He’s here to win matches and titles while making money. Kendrick says he’s champion and it’s about the title, not Aries. Shelley says that the Network wants to push the division to the moon. At Hardcore Justice it’s a three way match for the title.

Before they leave, here’s Abyss. He says Kendrick has forgotten about him because Kendrick is losing tonight. Tonight he’ll kill the X-Division. Sting pops up to say he’s got more stroke than Hogan and Bischoff combined. Therefore, tonight it’s the rematch but it’s Ultimate X.

Matt Morgan has a torn pectoral muscle and is out of the BFG Series. This is filmed earlier in the day because I guess we don’t have time to let this be live?

We recap Angle beating Jarrett to get the title shot at the PPV.

We get some BFG Series clips from this weekend which is Joe getting destroyed.

Ray says he’s not worried about Crimson tonight. He’s playing Angry Birds because he’s so unworried. He also calls out AJ for their match in Houston this weekend. Ray says okey dokey “because he can.” Uh…..ok?

Bound For Glory Series: Bully Ray vs. Crimson

Ray jumps him to start and chokes him out with his own shirt. He works on the knee which is braced up. The brace comes off and Ray pounds away on them. All Bully so far. Bubba Bomb is countered and the Red Sky ends this at 3:22. Crimson hit the elbow to reverse the Bubba Bomb and the powerbomb and that’s literally it.

Rating: D. This was kind of uh….there I guess. Crimson literally hitting one move on offense to win a match isn’t doing him any favors, but it keeps his streak alive and he moves on to probably at least make the No Surrender match. Nothing of note here and I have nothing to say about it for the most part.

Eric can’t get the Network on the phone and isn’t happy about it.

Madison is going to be front row for Tara’s match. Sting pops up with his cage and says whatever he has under it is worse than Tara’s spider.

Winter vs. Tara

Tessmacher is here with Tara. They kiss pre match and no one cares. Love and Tessmacher get thrown out before we get going. Tara jumps her to start and beats on her rather easily, throwing on the Tarantula because she’s into spiders I guess. Slingshot legdrop misses so Winter takes over a bit. Clothesline gets two for Winter. Tara fights back and does the standing moonsault for no cover. Widow’s Peak is reversed and Winter kicks her in the face. BAD REF BUMP gets rid of Earl so Winter can hit her low and hit a horrible spinning Rock Bottom into a backbreaker for the pin at 4:20.

Rating: D-. The only reason it isn’t a failure is Winter’s rack and Tara in those shorts. Match was HORRIBLE and sloppy beyond belief. No one cares about the Knockouts anymore and the matches are a big reason for that. Weak match here and they need to get somewhere with all these stories already.

X-Division Title: Abyss vs. Brian Kendrick

Ultimate X here remember. Kendrick kicks at the leg to start but can’t do anything because Abyss is just too big. Abyss drops him and tries to jump up and reach the belt (not a horrible idea) but can’t do it. He goes to the corner and realizes that’s a bad idea also. Tornado DDT doesn’t work for Kendrick as he gets shoved off and kicked in the face for his troubles.

Abyss goes outside and tries to break the whole structure by shaking it. This doesn’t work but it lets Kendrick dive on Abyss. Back in and Abyss goes down again and Kendrick goes for the title, only to leave his leg down for him to be pulled down. Abyss beats him down in the corner but misses a charge, letting Kendrick hit Sliced Bread. He gets about halfway to the belt as Abyss gets back up. He leaves the foot down again and Abyss makes the stop. The charge hits this time and a second does as well. In a cool ending, Abyss goes for a chokeslam but lifts him too high, letting Kendrick pull the title down at 6:00.

Rating: D+. So what was the point in this again other than to make sure Kendrick doesn’t look strong? They make such a huge deal about Ultimate X when they’re on PPV and then we get a free one for six minutes on TV. I don’t get what Russo’s obsession with gimmicks is but it gets old fast.

Traci has asked ODB and Jackie back tonight. Velvet isn’t happy but Traci says it’s cool.

Eric Young talks to some old guy about expanding his market. Something is said about the jewels in the belt so Young…strips. The old guy says if Young wants to be taken seriously as an actor, go find an acting coach. Give me a break.

Traci and Velvet are in the ring and call out ODB and Jackie. Traci says she used to be a Knockout and was shoved out to make room for fresh faces. She says the two of them should be happy they don’t have criminal charges. ODB yells about how Velvet started using sex appeal to get over and they’re going to fight or something.

Velvet says she was the runt when she was a kid and that she was bullied. So we’re supposed to believe that VELVET FREAKING SKY was the victim of bullying? I don’t know about your high school, but girls that looked anywhere close to Velvet (which none did) did NOT get picked on. Like, at all. Velvet keeps running her mouth about how tough she is and how she’s standing up for herself or something. She leaves and that’s it. This was HORRIBLE.

Fourtune is talking about something and Kaz says if they happen to hurt a member of Immortal before their six man at Hardcore Justice, so be it. Daniels pulls AJ aside and asks if he had a chance to think about what they talked about last week. AJ asks if Daniels is serious and can’t seem to believe he’s considering whatever it is. Sting pops up and asks if they’re ready. AJ wants to know what’s in the cage and Sting says he’ll go give Bischoff what’s in it right now.

Mr. Anderson vs. Kurt Angle

In a cage with Fourtune around the ring. We take a break before we get going because giving a match more than 10 minutes is a sin in TNA. We come back from the break in Bischoff’s office as he rants on the phone to the Network. He says how dare you make Sting the Network executive. Bischoff sounds confused because they say they haven’t talked to Sting in weeks. Sting pops up and Eric gets off the phone.

The cage (still covered) is put on a shelf and Sting says he’s going to confess something. He’s not the Network executive but the suit has made people listen to him. It gives you stroke and he pulls off the covering to reveal a crow or some kind of bird. It lands on Eric’s computer and looks at him. Sting locks him in the room from the outside and Eric FREAKS.

Oh and the cage match has been going on the whole time apparently. Since Sting doesn’t have authority, this isn’t an official match. Angle beats him down to start and Anderson gets a neckbreaker for two. The fans tell Anderson that he sold out. Suplex gets two for Anderson. Headlock by Anderson is reversed into a belly to back to put both guys down. They slug it out and Angle makes a comeback.

There’s a belly to belly for two but the Angle Slam doesn’t work. There are the rolling Germans but the ankle lock is reversed into a rollup for two. Kurt is sent into the cage and the Mic Check gets a close two. Ankle lock goes on but Anderson kicks him off. He tries to climb but Angle hits the running German for two.

Here comes Immortal and the fight is on. Even Bischoff is out there and gets beaten down as well. Mexican America comes out to fight Beer Money and everyone but a hiding Bully Ray is gone. Anderson says give me a chair so Ray opens the door. He won’t let go of it though and shoves Anderson with it, allowing the Slam to end this at 8:58.

Rating: C+. Match was ok but the shortness kind of hurt it. For the life of me I still don’t get the point in having a match that could be a draw being added on half an hour into the show but whatever. Not a bad match but at the same time it wasn’t really enough to mean anything. The ending was pretty stupid too but it furthers a story I suppose.

Post match Sting comes out and raises Angle’s hand. By comes out I mean the lights go out and he appears. Sting’s music plays us out as he says just ten days.

Overall Rating: D-. Anything they had going for the past few weeks was totally gone tonight. The lack of wrestling, the bad pacing, the stupid angles and the bad segments were all back tonight. Sting was built up as the new force all night and then “oh never mind.” Didn’t like this at all and at times it was just stupid. I’m supposed to believe that a chick that looks like Velvet Sky who was a jock in high school and was into wrestling in the mid 90s was bullied? REALLY? Anyway, bad show and I can’t say I’m surprised after weeks of good stuff.

Results

Rob Van Dam b. Gunner – Five Star Frog Splash

Crimson b. Bully Ray – Red Sky

Winter b. Tara – Spinning backbreaker

Brian Kendrick b. Abyss – Kendrick pulled the title down

Sting b. Mr. Anderson – Angle Slam

Impact Wrestling
Date: July 21, 2011
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Tazz

Sting is world champion again and it’s time to begin the road to Hardcore Justice and his match with Angle. It seems that they’re going to build towards the main event on the idea that Angle has never beaten Sting which isn’t true but it was long enough ago that I doubt many people remember it. Anyway, there’s also a BFG Series four way ladder match tonight so let’s get to it.

We open with a recap of last week with the clowns and Sting winning the title thanks to Angle.

Here’s the new champ to open the show. He says hi to his mom and says that he’s back on track now, much to the chagrin of Hogan and Bischoff. He’s still insane here. Game on apparently. Sting says this is supposed to be the part of the promo where he’s supposed to talk about how we can do this the easy way or the hard way but he stops and says it’ll just be his way.

Sting says he’s insane and there’s a good feeling about it. The insane asylum is open now. He wants Hogan and Bischoff to come out and here’s a clown instead. It’s Angle and he takes off the mask to prove it. He gets in the ring and says he respects Sting because Sting is the champion. Even though Sting is trying to get the company back in the hands of Dixie Carter, Sting has what Angle wants.

Angle says that both of them are legends but only one can be champion. It has to be him because he’s given himself no other choice. Sting says that they have a dilemma here but Immortal, in the form of Anderson and Ray, cut them off. Ray mentions the obvious tag match and talks about using a bat on the ribs of Angle, like Angle did last week. Ray works hard on his abs and didn’t like a bat going into them. Anderson says he didn’t work so hard to get it all taken away from him like that. Sting has to deal with him tonight.

Bound For Glory standings:

Crimson 31

Gunner 21

D-Von 21

Matt Morgan 14

AJ Styles 14

James Storm 14

Rob Van Dam 14

Bully Ray 14

Scott Steiner 7

Bobby Roode 7

The Pope 0

Samoa Joe 0

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

Steiner jumps him almost immediately and hits the overhead belly to belly to take over. Rob can’t get anything going and we hit a bow and arrow hold. Steiner looks like he has a new tattoo that looks like a chain around his neck. Rob gets out of the corner and this a nice superkick to put Scott down for a second. Out to the floor and RVD gets the spinning leg drop which needs a name.

Back inside and Steiner wants time out. Rob instead hits him in the face. Steiner gets a boot up in the corner and hits the spinning belly to belly. Now Rob gets a foot in Scott’s face to set up Rolling Thunder for two. Into the corner they go and Scott gets an elevated Downward Spiral for two as Rob gets his foot on the rope. Steiner Line sets up the pushups which the referee goes up and down with for some reason. Steiner yells at him for it and Rob rolls him up for the pin at 6:05.

Rating: C. Just a match here for the most part. Power vs. speed is my favorite match variety so this worked fine. Scott can be a decent bully when he wants to be. Van Dam does little more than signature moves anymore which is a bit of a problem but that comes with age I guess. Either way, nothing great but fine for what it was.

Mickie is here and wants to talk to Velvet. Here she is completely with the shaking entrance. Mickie talks about how she’s seen people going after Velvet and blame her for all kinds of stuff. That’s why Mickie is honored to give Velvet her first title shot tonight. They hug and here are Winter and Angelina. Love says that this is about competition so Velvet and Mickie should just go get a hotel room.

She finally has gotten what Winter has been trying to tell her: she’s a five time Women’s Champion and yet no one gives her the respect she deserves. This is old school Angelina here. She’ll get the title back no matter who wins tonight. Winter says she’ll win at Hardcore Justice and the title will be theirs. Night is about to fall according to the seasonal one.

Sarita and Rosita jump Tessmacher and Tara on their way to the ring. They have a tag match later.

Back and the beating is still going on. As least take the skirt off Tessmacher! Madison jumps in and it’s a big beatdown. Sarita has a face guard on which we’ll get the story on later.

We get comments from all four people in the ladder match tonight. Joe says he’s the best and he’s taking the opportunity he’s been given. Morgan says he doesn’t care who’s in there with him, he’s getting the ten points. Gunner says he’s destined to be a world champion. AJ says he’ll win because he’s Bound For Glory. Daniels comes in to talk to AJ and says not in front of the camera. The camera stays anyway and AJ isn’t happy with what Daniels says, then slams the door on the camera.

We get a video “shot on a cell phone” of a brawl last week between the same chicks where Sarita got her face hurt.

Knockouts Tag Titles: Sarita/Rosita vs. Miss Tessmacher/Tara

Tara and Tessmacher wait for the champs to come through the curtain to jump them. After a beating in the aisle there’s the bell. A double team sends Tara to the floor and Tessmacher hits a double clothesline. Hey, since there are four hot chicks in the ring, let’s show the old Spanish announce team! Tessmacher gets beaten down as we start the actual match here. There’s the required USA chant as Tessmacher takes Rosita down. Just not down enough for a tag.

Everything breaks down quickly as Hebner puts Tara out. More double teaming gets two on Tessmacher. Tara comes in again and throws Tessmacher to their own corner to guarantee a hot tag. Tara cleans house with some awkward looking punches. Widow’s Peak is set up forever but doesn’t hit Sarita because Madison runs in to break it up. Sarita rolls Tara up but only gets two. Tessmacher is thrown into Sarita and actually manages a Stratusfaction bulldog. Tara hits a chokebomb and Tessmacher gets a small package for stereo pins at 4:43 to give us new champs.

Rating: C-. Not like the title mean anything but having Tessmacher and Tara hug each other a lot is never a bad thing. Does anyone ever successfully defend the tag titles anymore? Either way, this was a bit better than most of their matches and it helps that Tessmacher has an actual finishing move now rather than the amplified Stinkface.

Bound For Glory Series: Samoa Joe vs. AJ Styles vs. Matt Morgan vs. Gunner

This is a ladder match and good for ten points. Gunner and AJ start on the floor. Morgan is in all white and here comes the ladder. Joe hits a baseball slide to take out Gunner and AJ. Now Morgan and Joe are fighting over the ladder so Gunner takes it in the face instead. AJ gets up to a huge pop and slams the ladder into I think Morgan’s hand. Morgan grabs a chokeslam but AJ backflips out of it.

Pele puts Morgan down in the corner but Gunner gets back in with a slingshot suplex to Styles. AJ sends him to the floor as the ladder hasn’t been unfolded yet. Morgan in control again and he throws AJ into the ladder. AJ walks up the ladder but jumps into a fallaway slam. Joe hits a senton backsplash and sets up the ladder. Gunner is back in to break it up though as the pacing in this is fast so far. Joe hits the ropes and dives onto Morgan.

Gunner goes up the ladder but AJ springboards onto said ladder and the slugout is on. Gunner goes down and Joe makes the save. Pele takes Joe down and AJ sets the ladder again. Gunner clears the ring again. Carbon Footprint kills Gunner dead though and Morgan wins at 5:00. Shortest ladder match ever perhaps?

Rating: B-. The length is what holds this back because the speed and pacing were great. Pretty fun little match overall but I hope it doesn’t turn into a bunch of gimmick matches added onto the Series to make it more exciting. It defeats the purpose of the gimmicks entirely, but having one every now and then is ok.

Eric Young is in some story trying to defend the TV Title. He wants to defend against C Lo Green but it’s D’Lo Brown. Brown says this is stupid and tries to leave. Young rolls him up and runs. Brown says Young better recognize.

X-Division Title: Brian Kendrick vs. Alex Shelley

They shake hands pre match. Kendrick misses a dropkick to start and Shelly rolls him up very quickly for two. Shelley keeps using weird rollup combinations which are kind of cool. They speed things up and Kendrick tries Sliced Bread #2 which they both use as their finisher. Neither can hit it so Shelley works on the ribs a bit. Surfboard goes on but it’s not the awesome lifting version.

Dive by Kendrick is blocked by a kick that might have connected but I’m not sure. Top rope cross body only gets two but he gets it three times. Only in wrestling is 2+2+2 not more than three. Shelley hammers off some forearms but Kendrick gets one of his own and a leg lariat to send Alex to the floor. The dive hits this time and Shelley is in trouble. Back in the ring a top rope splash misses and Shelley hits Sliced Bread on the apron. Both guys are down on the floor now. Shelley throws him back in but Austin Aries pops up and hits Shelley in the head with the X Title and Kendrick pins him at 5:30. Don’t think Kendrick saw it.

Rating: B-. Fun match while it lasted but again, GIVE A MATCH MORE THAN SIX MINUTES! These two were having a good match and I was getting into it but oh snap they’ve gone five whole minutes so it’s time to wrap things up! Unless your name is Sting, you’re not getting that much time and it’s getting old. Still though, fun while it lasted.

Kendrick isn’t happy with the interference by Aries.

Mexican America complains because that’s what they do. Here’s Beer Money for the staredown before Hardcore Justice. Storm says shut up and go cut his grass. Storm hypes up Roode as being awesome and says he (Storm) is a country boy (said in a bit more elaborate way). Beer Money is better and they’re going to beat the Mexicans for the people and for the Mexican legends. Storm says go mark your calendars because at the PPV, Beer Money is shutting them up. Roode says sorry about your luck to end this. Really liked this as it made me want to see them fight, which is the entire point of promos.

Knockouts Title: Mickie James vs. Velvet Sky

Winter and Angelina come out and jump Mickie before the match. Velvet comes out to help and it’s more like a tag match than a regular one. The nice girls beat down the evil ones but ODB and Jackie come through the crowd to beat down Mickie and Velvet. Dang it NO ONE CARES ABOUT YOU. Traci Brooks of all people comes out for the save. It’s a big brawl and no match actually happens. The fans say let them fight and ODB loses a shoe somehow. ODB and Jackie beat up various men and that’s about it. Oh and cops take them away in cuffs.

Traci doesn’t like Jackie and ODB.

Bully Ray/Mr. Anderson vs. Sting/Kurt Angle

Ray cuts off Anderson’s entrance because it’s what the fans want to hear. Anderson does it anyway. We get big match intros to make sure that they don’t have enough time for a lot of wrestling here. Ray jumps Sting from behind to start and knocks him into Angle who goes to the floor. Off to Anderson who hammers away on Clown Boy. Sting plays Ricky Morton for awhile with Anderson going after his knees. Ray misses the backsplash of course and Sting brings in Kurt as Anderson is tagged also. House is cleaned and a Stinger Splash and Angle Slam end Anderson at 4:00. Well that was quick.

Rating: C-. It’s a main event tag match and in that regard it was fine, but dude, FOUR MINUTES for the main event? Is this 1997 all of a sudden? I know it’s just a quick thing to advance Sting vs. Angle and give them time together out there, but maybe they should have cut some of the other repetitive stuff from earlier so this could have had more time. Nothing to see here for the most part.

Sting asks Angle if he’s gone too far and leaves Angle in the ring to end the show.

Overall Rating: B-. I liked this one far more than I’ve liked most shows they’ve put on recently. It’s not perfect and is pretty far from it, but there’s definitely a structure there that makes this work. No Hogan and Bischoff helped this I think as they should be more of a feature attraction. There are definite holes in the show (FOUR Knockout brawls for instance) but they’re miles ahead of what they were doing a few weeks and months ago.

Results

Rob Van Dam b. Scott Steiner – Rollup

Miss Tessmacher/Tara b. Sarita/Rosita – Chokebomb to Sarita

Matt Morgan b. AJ Styles, Samoa Joe and Gunner – Morgan grabbed the contract

Brian Kendrick b. Alex Shelley – Kendrick pinned Shelly after Austin Aries hit Shelley with the belt

Kurt Angle/Sting b. Mr. Anderson/Bully Ray – Angle Slam to Anderson

Impact Wrestling
Date: July 14, 2011
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Tazz

It’s the first show post Destination X and most importantly it’s the Midsummer Nightmare.  The main event is Sting vs. Anderson for the title in Anderson’s first match I believe.  He’s also in Immortal now and since they have all the power, I’d bet a lot on Sting getting the title back since that’s what almost always happens: one side gets all the power including the title and then they lose it on the next show.  Let’s get to it.

We open with a Bully Ray narrated video about the whole Sting vs. Anderson feud and title match tonight.  Hogan comes out in a tuxedo along with Immortal.  There are various women with them too.  Even Abyss is in most of a tuxedo.  Everyone is in a tux here.  No Anderson though.  There’s a card table in the ring and Bischoff sends the girls away.  Eric says they’re here to gamble with some people’s careers, because they can according to Hulk.

Bischoff talks about the party that Anderson threw for himself a few weeks back that no one came to.  Tonight Immortal is making up for it though because Anderson is part of the family now.  The party tonight is in celebration of Anderson as the world champion.  Here comes the champ in a camouflage tuxedo.  When I woke up today, I really didn’t think I’d see one of those but I guess you never know what you’re going to see.

Hogan says he and Anderson haven’t seen things eye to eye forever for the most part.  However there’s always been the constant of them both wanting to be the best they could possibly be.  Hulk calls him champ and formally welcomes him into Immortal.  Anderson says this is a gamble to join Immortal but as long as Bischoff and Hogan live up to their promise of him being the top card in the deck, it’s a gamble he’s willing to take.

The lights go out and Sting is at the card table.  He says he heard someone say gamble and wanted to join in.  Eric accused Sting of being the cancer and that tonight Anderson gets rid of it.  Sting asks if Eric wants to bet on that because they have a poker table here.  Sting sees himself becoming champion tonight and kicking off his crusade of bringing the company back to Dixie Carter.  Didn’t he start that months ago?

Hogan threatens Sting with attacking him and says that Sting is leaving on a stretcher.  Sting freaks out and says no a lot.  Even Sting is starting to worry about himself.  Sting says Hogan is wrong about that because he has a lot of aces in the whole, such as the Network Ace.  He recalls that the Network told Hogan and Bischoff that they’re on a short leash with little room for error.  Apparently any shenanigans will bring about someone with a bigger bite than Sting’s.

Sting says he has a lot of magic bullet aces.  They’re magic because they’ll just appear.  He points to the rafters and there are four clowns up there.  Eric: “You’re a freak!”  Sting: “Why thank you Eric!”  Sting says he’s all in tonight (hasn’t he said that before?) and turns over the poker table before leaving.  We go to a break with Immortal being confused.

Bound For Glory Series Standings with 8 weeks to go:

Crimson 31

Gunner 21

Devon 21

Matt Morgan 14

AJ Styles 14

James Storm 14

Rob Van Dam 14

Bully Ray 14

Scott Steiner 7

D’Angelo Dinero 0

Bobby Roode 0

Samoa Joe 0

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

No entrances other than the very ending of Joe’s music.  Joe jumps Roode to start us off and hammers him down in the corner.  Pope heads to the floor and Roode gets crushed in the corner.  Pope stays on the floor as Roode makes a comeback with the spinebuster.  His arm gives out though and Pope comes back in, hitting an STO for two.  With Joe down Pope takes over on Roode, working over the arm.

The fans are behind Bobby here.  Pope gets a DDT for two but Hebner looked like he counted REALLY slow on the three.  Middle rope fist gets two for Pope.  Joe finally starts getting back in but Pope knocks him right back.  DDE misses and Roode fires off some clotheslines.  Russian legsweep puts Pope down and Joe is knocked back to the floor again.  Blockbuster hits for a close two.

We finally get everyone in the ring at once and Roode gets a Perfectplex on Joe for two.  Joe gets the Clutch but we get the Austin vs. Hart at Survivor Series 96 ending as Roode climbs the ropes and goes backwards onto Joe for the pin at 5:55.  Roode was tapping just after the three.  Joe freaks out on the referee post match.

Rating: C+. Not bad here and the idea of keeping Joe out worked well enough I guess.  Not much of a match otherwise but for a six minute TV triple threat it was fine.  They didn’t go fully into the standard procedure for one of these matches which is a perk and it’s good to see one of them getting somewhere in this series.  Also you can probably expect Joe to just start ending people with submissions soon.

The Jarretts are here.

Hogan wants Sting eliminated tonight.  He’s talking to all of Immortal rather than just Anderson.  Eric implies staging an accident which Abyss kind of volunteers for.  Eric blasts Abyss for losing the X Title and says get this done someone.  Abyss leaves and the Jarretts are here.  They have presents for everyone but Hogan gets the AAA World Title.  No mention of the company name that I could hear.

Pope is with D-Von’s kids and D-Von says stay away from them.  The kids leave and D-Von yells at Pope.  Pope says they look up to him and D-Von calls him a con man.  D-Von calls Pope stupid for giving up the seven points.  Pope says if the kids turn their backs on D-Von, that’s not his fault and he leaves.

Highlight package from Destination X with highlights from every match.

Austin Aries vs. Shannon Moore

Shannon gets some arm drags very fast to start us off.  Apparently the X-Division has their own locker room.  Basic X-Division style match here which is fast paced with some nice speed stuff.  Aries can’t get control or deal with Moore’s speed but finally gets a forearm to the back.  Brainbuster is blocked and Aries mostly skins the cat back in through the top and middle ropes.

He gets dropkicked to the floor though and Moore hits a dive to take him down.  Something similar to a Whisper in the Wind gets two.  Aries grabs the Book of Dilligaf but gets it taken away.  He keeps the chain though and after knocking Moore out, a slingshot spinning splash ends this at 3:42.  Shelley runs out to yell at Aries post match.

Rating: C. Not bad and just a basic debut for Aries who needed a win to establish himself on the roster.  Things got a bit sloppy here but they fit in a lot of stuff in a short amount of time so it’s hard to complain.  Aries will likely get a lot more time soon and that’ll help him a lot, even though he’s rather skilled already.

Abyss wants his title back tonight.  He turns to leave and one of the clowns from earlier blasts him with a bat.

Shelley and Moore complain about Aries cheating.

Aries says he’s the best and that he doesn’t think he can be beaten.

Recap of Tara vs. Madison and their feud that has barely meant anything in like a month.  Both chicks talk about their match tonight and Tara has a gift for Madison but it’s for after the match.

The match is after a break.

Ad for Bound For Glory which will be in Philadelphia.

Steiner shows off for one of the girls from earlier and gets jumped by a clown as well.

Madison Rayne vs. Tara

Tara has the gift for Madison but it’s for after the match remember.  Madison wants Tara to lay down like before.  Tara takes over to start and hits her standing moonsault.  There’s the spinning side slam and this is looking like a squash.  No cover though and the Widow’s Peak is countered.  Tara gets sent to the apron and dropped face first onto it.  So much for the squash.  Tara is sent into the steps and Madison goes for the present.  And it’s a spider.  Madison screams at it and the distraction allows Tara to get up and hit the Widow’s Peak for the pin at 4:00.

Rating: D. Seriously, who cares?  This feud started what, last year?  Who in the world cares at this point about these two and whatever issue they have?  The Knockout Division is dying for capable wrestlers at this point and all we can get is Angelina Love being all creepy and these two talking about a spider?  Such a shame.  Nothing match here too which was all about setting up the spider thing.

Tara chases her off with the spider post match.

Angle is coming to the ring.

The Brits are mad at Mexican America.  Tonight they fight for the #1 contender spot.  About time Beer Money defended the belts.

Here’s Kurt, who says he has his title shot at Hardcore Justice.  He’d prefer to face Anderson due to their history together.  He remembers the cage match and thought there was some respect there, until Anderson joined Immortal.  Title match or not, Angle is coming for Anderson.  As for Sting, they have history also in the form of the Main Event Mafia and the empty arena match.  Angle has never beaten Sting before (yes he has) and that doesn’t sit well with him.  He’s leaving Hardcore Justice as the champion, and it’s real.

The Jarretts try to leave and a clown jumps Jeff in the car and takes him away with the bat to Jeff’s throat.

Mexican America vs. British Invasion

This is for the #1 contendership.  I wouldn’t have guessed this but Beer Money’s current reign is the longest reign in the history of the TNA tag titles.  The Mexicans say their usual stuff pre-match.  The Brits storm the ring and we’re ready to go.  Williams dives out of the ring onto Hernandez and it’s Magnus vs. Anarquia to start us off.  Off to Williams who gets caught by Hernandez off a blind tag.

Shoulder block sets up a backbreaker submission into a regular backbreaker for two.  Mexican America takes over as we talk about the clowns taking Immortal out.  More double teaming keeps Williams down but he manages to get a middle rope European uppercut to bring in Magnus.  Williams is bleeding a bit from his head.  Magnus takes over and beats up both guys.  Anarquia gets double teamed and a top rope elbow gets two for Magnus.  Their top rope European uppercut hits but Rosita comes out for the distraction, allowing Hernandez to drill Magnus and let Anarquia pin him at 6:43.

Rating: C. Just a tag match here and thankfully we finally have some challengers for Beer Money.  The girl coming out at the end worked fine as it was what the Brits were worried about in the first place.  Not bad, but just a tag match for the most part here.  Also it gives the Mexicans something to do.

Eric says it’s up to Gunner and Ray to take Sting down.  Gunner wants to go find the clowns and Sting instead of just waiting around.  Ray stays behind though.

Video of Kendrick winning the title on Sunday.

Kendrick defends next week.  Also Mickie defends against Velvet and there will be a four way ladder match in the BFG series.

Main event is next.

Gunner has a pipe and is looking for the clowns and here they come, pounding their bats on the ground like a revival of West Side Story.  They surround him and take him down with a shot to the knee.  The clowns beat him down and he’s outmatches.  They take their masks off band it’s Fourtune.  They say Ray is already taken care of.

TNA World Title: Mr. Anderson vs. Sting

Anderson has the mic in hand but doesn’t say anything this week.  Pretty slow start as they’re feeling each other out.  Sting gets a solid dropkick to send Anderson to the floor.  Back in Anderson can’t get a sunset flip so Sting punches him in the face.  Stinger Splash hits but a second one misses as Anderson dropkicks the knee.  Anderson works on the knee and tries the Scorpion on him.

That doesn’t last long and Anderson works on the leg a bit more.  There’s a half crab which is more like a half Liontamer.  Sting kicks him off and does a good job of selling the knee.  He manages to hit the Mic Check for a close two.  There’s your required ref bump and Sting gets the Scorpion which looks awful here.  Anderson taps but there’s no ref.  Here’s Bully Ray who Fourtune said was taken care of.

He hammers Sting and pulls out a chain.  The lights go out and there’s another clown in the ring.  He takes out Ray and looks at Anderson but the lights go out again.  When they come back Anderson is alone in the ring and the clown is on the ramp.  Sting pops up and the Death Drop gives Sting the title back at 9:11.

Rating: C+. I liked this actually.  It’s probably their best match ever which isn’t saying much given their pretty weak efforts a lot of the time.  The ending with the clown was kind of overbooked but they tried and made a decent effort out there.  Not sure what the point was in giving Anderson the title for a month but it’s whatever I guess.

Angle was the clown.  The reveal ends the show.

Overall Rating: C+. Well it was a bit down from previous weeks but this certainly was better than I was expecting.  I’m not a fan of a lot of the stories they have going on, but there was a nice pacing to the show and the stories make sense for the most part.  Nice to see Fourtune back into things as a unit again so it’s not Sting vs. the whole Immortal team.  Not a great show but it’s definitely not bad.  I’d call this a nice surprise.

Results

Bobby Roode b. Samoa Joe and D’Angelo Dinero – Roode pinned Joe while in the Koquina Clutch

Austin Aries b. Shannon Moore – Slingshot spinning splash

Tara b. Madison Rayne – Widow’s Peak

Mexican America b. British Invasion – Anarquia pinned Magnus after a forearm from Hernandez

Sting b. Mr. Anderson – Scorpion Death Drop

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

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

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

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

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

Bound For Glory Standings:

Crimson 24

Gunner 21

Matt Morgan 14

AJ Styles 14

James Storm 14

Rob Van Dam 14

Bully Ray 14

D-Von 14

Scott Steiner 7

D’Angelo Dinero 0

Bobby Roode 0

Samoa Joe 0

Bound For Glory Series: Bobby Roode vs. Crimson

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tony Nees vs. Jesse Sorensen vs. Jack Evans

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Velvet Sky vs. ODB/Jackie

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Anderson is mad.

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

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

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

Kurt Angle/Sting vs. Immortal

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

Kurt Angle vs. Immortal

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

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

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

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

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

Results

Crimson b. Bobby Roode – Red Sky

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

Velvet Sky b. Jackie and ODB – DDT to Jackie

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

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

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

Impact Wrestling
Date: June 30, 2011
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Tazz

We continue the build towards Destination X tonight with another triple threat qualifying match. Other than that we’ll likely see more of Sting being insane and staring at Anderson. The show was a lot better last week than it’s been in awhile so hopefully they can keep that streak going tonight. Let’s get to it.

We have limited commercial interruption tonight.

We open with a recap of Sting being insane last week and attacking Bischoff and Abyss.

Hogan welcomes Steiner to Immortal and says he’ll be taking care of business tonight. Steiner leaves and Sting’s voice is heard. Hogan walks over to a monitor and sees the back of Sting’s head. Sting talks about how the monster isn’t under Terry’s bed because he’s right here. Sting turns around and has the full on Joker face paint. Hogan walks into the arena and here we go.

He gets a huge face pop as almost always. He’ll take care of Sting on his own time but right now wants to talk to someone else: Mr. Anderson. Hogan says that when Anderson faces Sting, he has two choices: he can join Immortal and have an army of monsters with him or he can go alone and lose everything. Anderson mocks him of course and says he won at Slammiversary on his own.

Hogan says he sees dollar signs with Anderson and says Anderson owes him one. This doesn’t sit well with the champ but we cut to the back with Sting destroying Immortal with the bat, saying that he wants to talk to Hogan. He looks at the camera and says “The only thing for sure about Sting is…oh forget it.” Lights go out in the arena and Sting is in the ring with the bat. He hits Hogan in the knee as Anderson runs. Sting looks at Hogan and says hang on a second so he can yell at Anderson some more. He names the July 14th show Midsummer Nightmare and then hits Hogan again, this time in the ribs.

Sting talks about being a Hogan mark for his entire career and starting his career in the Sports Arena when he was breaking in. Sting is completely insane here. He talks about the vitamins that Hogan used to take and says the Pythons are down to 21 inches. He grabs a bottle of them in the corner and takes some with Hulk, pouring them down his throat. There’s a Scorpion as Hogan is defenseless.

Here’s Immortal for the save as we talks some more. Ray says that their paths have never crossed and that changes tonight. He can’t stand a bully because all the do is run their mouth. Therefore tonight, it’s Sting vs….Scott Steiner. They get Hulk up and he says cut the music. Tonight he’s going to wipe the smile off Sting’s face. Long segment but it kept my attention throughout, which is always a good sign. Good stuff.

There were some BFG Series matches over the weekend. Here are the updated standings.

Crimson 17
Gunner 14
Matt Morgan 14
AJ Styles 14
James Storm 14
Rob Van Dam 7
Scott Steiner 7
Bully Ray 7
D’Angelo Dinero 0
Robert Roode 0
Devon 0
Samoa Joe 0

Gunner vs. AJ and Joe vs. D-Von tonight.

Bound For Glory Series: D-Von vs. Samoa Joe

The bell is after the break. Joe vs. Kaz at Destination X is confirmed. Joe grabs the Clutch almost immediately but D-Von gets the rope. D-Von hammers away but Joe gets a kick to the chest to take over. Knee drop hits and D-Von is in trouble. Spear by D-Von takes Joe down and here coems the former Dudley. Spinning back elbow sets up a Rock Bottom and a flying headbutt. Clothesline gets two.

Joe gets some boots up in the corner to break the momentum and hits a leg lariat off the middle rope. He lets go of the pin and goes for a leg bar instead which makes sense from the points perspective. When that doesn’t work he throws on a key lock but D-Von makes the ropes again. D-Von gets some right hands in but gets caught in a powerslam to set up a cross armbreaker. The fans are way into D-Von here. He comes off the middle rope but Joe gets a boot up to keep him down. Clutch doesn’t work and Joe walks into a spinebuster for the big upset at 6:14.

Rating: C+. I liked this. The psychology was there as Joe wanted the submission so he could try to make a big jump in the points standings but now he gets nothing. I’m still a bit skeptical about the Series in general but it’s starting to take shape and I could see this working pretty well. Pretty good stuff here and it worked much better than what I was expecting.

Pope is with D-Von’s kids and is excited over the win for his new friend.

Steiner comes into Immortal’s locker room and yells at Ray about life in general. Ray gives him his chain for the match with Sting later.

Kaz tells Joe that he’s better than this. They yell at each other and it’s implied that we’ll get a brawl later tonight.

We recap the X-Division Showcase stuff. Low Ki is back tonight, as is Matt Bentley and Jimmy Yang. Low Ki is more famous as Kaval. He and Yang were in the first ever TNA match I believe. Bentley is famous for having a cousin that you may have heard of: Shawn Michaels.

Matt Bentley vs. Jimmy Yang vs. Low Ki

Yang thinks he’s Elvis. If I remember right his original gimmick was part of a three man team called the Flying Elvises so that’s some continuity. Low Ki sends Yang flying and gets a big chant to start. Handspring elbow into a cross body gets two as we start very fast. Yang hits a cross body of his own before we get down to Low Ki vs. Bentley. They trade chops before a clothesline puts Low Ki on the floor.

Yang is back in but he’s all alone. He fires off a huge dive to knock Low Ki down and it’s a good thing he was there because otherwise Yang would have faceplanted. Yang throws on an armlock but gets caught in a crucifix for two. Spinwheel kick that looked awesome puts Low Ki down. Low Ki unleashes the kicks and there the Warrior’s Way to Yang. Big springboard spin kick gets two on Bentley.

Bentley gets a Stunner to Low Ki and a DDT to Yang at the same time. Superkick puts Low Ki down for two. Top rope cross body lands in a gutbuster and it’s Yang Time. It’s a corkscrew moonsault but Bentley moves out of the way. Not that it matters because he would have missed by two feet but whatever. Warrior’s Way ends Yang clean at 6:40.

Rating: B-. Another fast paced and fun match here. Yang was really exciting with his dives and his kicks. I have a feeling this is going to all go away after Destination X but at least it’s fun to watch while it lasts. They were going very fast out there and it worked quite well for the most part. Fun stuff.

Video on Ultimate X which still doesn’t have any competitors listed yet.

Madison Rayne is freaking out over her lip gloss missing. Winter and Angelina Love come up and Angelina is all fine now. Madison yells a lot and leaves. Winter says she should be champion and she’ll get the title at Hardcore Justice. Angelina says she’s glad someone finally appreciates her, in the form of Winter. The other life and past stuff isn’t mentioned at all.

Back and we get some fan cam stuff of Joe beating up Kaz at a bar.

Hogan is taping his fist and says he’s going to get Sting tonight.

Winter/Angelina Love/Madison Rayne vs. Mickie James/Miss Tessmacher/Tara

Elimination rules here. Mickie and Winter start us off and Winter loses her belt quickly. Angelina comes in sans tag so I guess it’s lucha tagging rules, meaning you can come in whenever your partner hits the floor. Tessmacher hits what she calls the, and I’m not making this up, Asstastic on Winter. Basically it’s a Stinkface but much more fun to look at. She walks into a bridging suplex though and it’s 3-2. Madison and Love are in different corners for some reason.

Tara comes in and beats on Winter a bit, hitting the standing moonsault for two. Winter and Angelina hit a Botox Injection/Samoan Drop combo but Madison steals the pin. It’s 3-1 now but Mickie hits a spinning kick to Madison for the pin. Winter and Angelina don’t seem to mind it being 2-1. All those pins happened in less than 90 seconds or so. Angelina and Winter double team Mickey but mess up that same double team move as Angelina kicks Winter which gets two for Mickie.

Angelina tries that spinning backbreaker of hers but gets reversed into a jumping DDT attempt. Winter makes the save into a backbreaker of her own, allowing Angelina to hit the backbreaker on Mickie. Winter and Angelina argue over who gets the pin as Winter says it’s her turn now. Angelina isn’t thrilled with it and Mickie is back up and able to get a neckbreaker to end Angelina and get us down to one on one. Rollup with tights gets two for Winter. Jumping DDT ends Winter at 6:41 overall.

Rating: C. Well Mickie just pinned all three of them in a row in maybe three minutes with none of them ever leaving the ring. With that it’s kind of hard to think Winter has much of a chance at the PPV but I guess that’s the point of the match. Not a terrible match but I kind of don’t see the point in the eliminations or the total dominance by Mickie.

Gunner says he’ll take out AJ tonight.

Kendrick talks about his match with Abyss while Abyss reads from The Art Of War.

Time for the contract signing for the Destination X main event which is Styles vs. Daniels. AJ asks if Daniels is sure and Daniels signs up. Daniels says it won’t become personal and after the match he’ll shake his best friend’s hand. AJ signs and Taz says he doesn’t buy it. Everything looks to be ok but here’s Jerry Lynn of all people. He says he was part of the team that built the X-Division and the two guys seem to agree.

Here’s RVD who calls himself a pioneer and says he was X-Division before the X-Division. Lynn yells at him and Daniels says that if these are the two big matches, it could be the best PPV ever. They were all part of the X-Division movement apparently. I’d hardly call it a movement but whatever. Daniels proposes a match on Impact next week in the form of a four corners match which everyone agrees to.

AJ is leaving but Gunner jumps him. He sends AJ into the railing and we go into the ring. There goes the table for the contract signing and AJ hammers away. There’s a referee in ther ebut I don’t think this is a match. Certainly doesn’t appear to be. Apparently it is now though.

Bound For Glory Series: AJ Styles vs. Gunner

There’s a red carpet on the mat which is a rather weird look. AJ jumps him in the corner and hits a forearm. Gunner pounds away as this is more of a brawl. AJ takes over and gets a belly to back suplex to put Gunner down. Flying knee gets two. Pele sends Gunner to the apron and a dropkick puts him on the floor. There’s a big old dive over the top and everyone is down. Gunner gets a shot in and tries the F5 but AJ reverses and sets for the springboard forearm. Gunner gets a low blow in and the F5 ends this clean at 5:02.

Rating: C. Not too bad here but nothing all that great. Gunner is a guy that has stalled pretty badly recently and his matches aren’t helping him. The red mat took a bit of getting used to but it wasn’t all that bad of a thing eventually. Either way not bad here but it was pretty average overall.

Sting says it’s the wrong place and wrong time for Steiner.

Package on ODB vs. Velvet and all that jazz. Velvet says she’s used to being bullied so this is nothing new. She’s done being the runt of the litter and she’s not taking it anymore. How many hot chicks do you remember being bullied? Something doesn’t fit here.

Crimson vs. Roode next week.

Here’s Mexican America to complain. Hernandez is the president of the team apparently. Anarquia says that Hernandez is mad now and that’s not good. They should be in the BFG Series but Beer Money is in there instead. They’re the best tag team but they’re not in the series for some reason.

They’re interrupted by the British Invasion who say they’re foreigners also. We’ll ignore that only Sarita is a foreigner and she’s Canadian. The Brits are apparently faces now and want a match with Mexican America for the #1 contender spot. They want the girls, or “los prostitutos” left out of it though. Brawl starts and the Brits get beaten down. Rob Freaking Terry of all people comes out for the save.

Jeff Jarrett has a message from Mexico and is with Karen. They’re in the middle of Mexico City and Kren says they’ll have presents for everyone. They’ll be back in a few weeks apparently. So what was the point in sending him to Mexico if he can just come back?

Ray says that Steiner will take care of Sting tonight and tells Gunner they might as well hand him the world title. He has the rest of the night off apparently. Abyss is reading his book which Ray thinks is adult in nature. He can’t find his mask and freaks out.

Scott Steiner vs. Sting

We do big match intros but Steiner jumps Joker Sting in the corner before they get through either name. Belly to belly gets two. Sting starts a comeback but Scott counters the Splash in the corner and goes for the Recliner. That gets reversed into the Scoprion but Scott gets the ropes. T-bone suplex puts Sting down but another charge misses and the Death Drop ends this at 4:40.

Rating: C-. Pretty weak main event here as the new member of Immortal gets dominated for the most part here. He got in some stuff but Sting more or less brushed it off and didn’t even break a sweat in doing so. Not terrible or anything but really just kind of there, which isn’t a good thing for the main event.

Sting goes for the makeup/paint but Ray makes the save. Anderson comes out for an ugly Mic Check on Sting and then leaves. Immortal beats Sting down and they call in Hogan for some big right hands. Of all people Kurt Angle makes the save. Didn’t see that one coming. Angle stares Hulk down to end the show.

Overall Rating: B-. Another good show tonight as they’re on a hot streak at the moment. I’m really not sure what that says because this streak has been going on since they stopped the majority of their regular stuff and brought in a bunch of guys that haven’t been around in awhile. Definitely an entertaining show though with some decent matches and advancement of the angles. Not great but by Impact standards I was well pleased.

Impact Wrestling
Date: June 23, 2011
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Tazz

It’s likely another show building towards Destination X here which means we’ll probably get another triple threat with guys brought in.  That’s a cool idea as it lets you see guys you usually wouldn’t see having some pretty fun matches.  Other than that, probably some more stuff about the Bound For Glory Series, which is still a long way off from the final goal.  Anyway let’s get to it.

We open with clips of last week’s two big moments in the form of the Jarrett/Angle parking lot fight and Sting going all psycho on Hogan.

And here’s Jarrett again who wants to be part of the Bound For Glory Series (which he says hasn’t started yet for some reason).  Eric says no because of the Network and says Jarrett needs to go to Mexico.  Actually this past Saturday he won the AAA World Title so this fits rather well.  Eric says Jeff needs to lead the Immortal takeover of Mexico.  Wonder how long Jeff will be gone.

Here’s Eric in the arena and he wants to talk to Sting.  Here’s the Scorpion enthusiast himself.  Eric wants to know why Sting thought he could get away with what he tried to do to Hogan last week on Eric’s show.  Eric yells at Sting a lot and then Sting goes into an almost Doink voice, saying Eric hurt his feelings and cursed at him.  Sting is playing up the psycho side here, saying he’s going to snap Eric’s neck.  He calls Eric a con artist and says that Bischoff is a virus that has infected Hogan but that’s going to change.

Eric says that’ll never happen because it’ll always be Hogan and Bischoff.  Sting is going to have to change because of Bischoff though.  He may have a rematch on the 14^th but Eric can change that.  Tonight it’s Sting vs. Abyss and on the line is….nothing apparently.  Sting goes back into his Jim Carrey voice here and says that it’s Eric rather than Sting who has a price to pay.  Sting hits him in the corner and more or less struts around the ring.  Death Drop leaves Bischoff laying.  He gets the makeup treatment and the Scorpion as we go to a break with the hold still on.

Apparently there have been some BFG Series matches on house shows, including Gunner pinning AJ clean.  Morgan, AJ, RVD, Gunner and Scott Steiner all have seven points and everyone else has zero.

Bound For Glory Series: Scott Steiner vs. Bully Ray

This has the potential to be pretty cool or a trainwreck.  This is your big slugout that you would expect here.  Ray controls to start but misses a splash in the corner.  Steiner takes over with some solid shots and hits the pushups after the elbow.  Ray gets a boot up in the corner to shift the momentum again and three covers off a right hand.  Ray rams in the forearm smashes in a crossface style and loads up the Bubba Bomb.  Steiner escapes the full nelson though to a big face chant.

Steiner comes back with the suplexes and there goes the referee.  Overhead belly to belly puts Ray down and it’s time for the Recliner.  No referee though, even though it’s that horrid submission of his.  At least pull back on the thing Scott.  Ray taps but there’s no referee.  Scott goes to check on him instead of keeping the hold on until he gets back, allowing Ray to find a chain to hit Steiner in the throat with a chain for the pin at 5:55.

Rating: C. Not bad at all for a big man brawl here for the most part.  These two would be infinitely more entertaining in a promo than a match but this wasn’t that bad.  Scott was more or less the face by default here and the match wasn’t that bad at all.  Granted I had low expectations coming in for it but the match wasn’t bad at all.

Bischoff tells Gunner and Abyss to take care of Sting when Anderson comes in.  Anderson gets yelled at for not helping Bischoff and Eric says he won the title for Sting for him.  Anderson says he was having a burger during the attack.  Eric yells at Anderson and says come over to Immortal and Anderson stands there.  Eric says think about it and isn’t happy at all.

Steiner is looking for Ray in the back.

Zema Ion, more commonly known as Shiima Xion of various indy companies, is in an X Division Showcase match tonight.

Miss Tessmacher/Velvet Sky vs. Jackie Moore/ODB

Velvet says this was supposed to be no holds barred but they can’t do that because their opponents aren’t under contract or something.  Ok apparently it is no holds barred.  They start in the aisle and it’s a big brawl.  Apparently this is before the bell.  Velvet and ODB get in the ring as we go to a break before a bell rings.

Back and I guess the bell rang during the break.  Jackie is hammering on Tessmacher but Miss manages to break free, only for Velvet to not be there.  ODB hammers on her a bit but Tessmacher gets a spear of all things to break through and get the tag.  Velvet cleans house and everything breaks down.  The referee gets taken down again and Jackie kicks Velvet between the legs for the pin at 3:50 shown.

Rating: D. The Knockouts division is so horrible anymore and the talent just isn’t working most of the time.  Jackie is completely worthless and I’ve yet to see anyone that actually cares about her in the slightest.  ODB isn’t much better and while Velvet and Tessmacher look great, they’re better suited as being there looking hot rather than being in the ring.  Not much here at all in another sloppy mess of a match.

Federico Palacios is also in the X Division match tonight.  He’s more known as Azrieal.

Tara has Madison at the PPV and Madison comes up to yell at her.  Madison gets rammed into the wall and Tara tells her to never touch her again.

Roode still isn’t cleared to wrestle even though he’s in the BFG Series.

Steiner storms into the Immortal locker room and swings a chain around.  He’s freaking again.  Ray says Steiner would have done the same thing.  Ray offers Steiner a spot in Immortal.  Steiner throws the chain again and says he’ll think about it.

Bound For Glory Series: Crimson/Matt Morgan vs. Beer Money

Roode vs. Crimson start us off and I guess Roode’s arm is fine now.  He hits the Hennig neck snap but Crimson runs him down with ease.  Roode is holding his arm now and Storm tags himself in.  Off to Morgan who can’t hit the elbows in the corner.  Codebreaker and a neckbreaker combine for two for Storm.  Discus lariat gets two for Morgan, setting up the elbows in the corner and the tag off to Crimson.

Next week it’s AJ vs. Gunner.  Crimson beats on Storm for awhile until Storm hits a Backstabber to bring in Roode.  Morgan is in also and the shoulder looks better.  Carbon Footprint misses in the corner and Roode goes after the leg.  Forearm puts Morgan down but he jumps into a chokeslam attempt.  Roode goes for a Fujiwara Armbar out of a counter but it’s broken up by Crimson.

Double suplex puts the red guy down and there’s the shout.  For once though they get caught, in this instance by a double clothesline from Morgan.  Roode gets a Blockbuster but his arm is hurt again.  Storm gets tossed to the floor by Roode onto Crimson but walks into the Carbon Footprint for the pin at 6:15.  I think only Morgan gets the points but it’s not really clear.

Rating: B-. Pretty good tag match here with the champs being messed up because of Roode’s arm injury.  I’m curious as to where they’re going with the arm injury and if they’re going to drop the titles because of it.  I liked this though and I wish they’d get Beer Money out there more, but only once Roode is healthy.

Yeah only Morgan gets points.

Abyss says he follows Sun-Tzu and Bischoff.  Tonight Bischoff told him to take out Sting so that’s what he’ll do.

Eric Young is looking for another TV Star, apparently Popeye.

Here’s AJ to talk about Destination X.  He has an idea for a match at the X-Division PPV.  AJ says he’ll be at that show because the X-Division is his roots.  He lists off some of the great X guys over the years….and here’s Joe.  He says that AJ was the pioneer but it didn’t get taken seriously until Joe got here.  AJ is the heart of the division but Joe gave the division its balls.  Since there needs to be the third guy to make this complete, here’s Daniels to the Fourtune music.  Daniels suggests AJ vs. himself and it’s accepted.  No Joe?  Apparently not.

Kaz isn’t thrilled with what Daniels just did.  Daniels leaves and Joe pops up, making fun of Fourtune.  Kaz says stay out of it and gets beaten up.  Joe drilling him and walking away is great.

Dakota Darsow, the last guy in the X match, is the son of Barry Darsow, more commonly known as Smash or Repo Man.

Federico Palacios vs. Dakota Darsow vs. Zema Ion

Darsow is sent to the floor quickly as we actually get a graphic saying who is in what color.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen that in a wrestling match.  Ion gets a DDT on Palacios for two.  More fast paced stuff here but less high flying than last week.  Just as I say that Ion hits a missile dropkick to Darsow to send him to the floor.  Palacios is very fast.  Darsow pops back in and takes both guys down to take over again.

Palacios hits a huge suicide dive onto Darsow and Zema mosly misses a corkscrew plancha, mostly landing on the head of Palacios with his feet.  That looked sick.  Back in the ring Darsow hits a moonsault but Palacios hits a double stomp to the back of Darsow to break it up.  Superplex is broken up and Darsow kicks Ion on the top.  Zema knocks him off the top and a 450 ends this at 4:42.

Rating: C+. Not as good as last week as some of the botches hurt it, but still a pretty good match.  The 450 was pretty awesome to end it, but I’d like to know some more about these guys rather than just saying they’re awesome and X-Division guys.  Not bad and more or less what the X-Division is supposed to be: insane stuff with flips and dives to fire up the crowd.

RVD says he wants to be at the X-Division PPV and Jerry Lynn comes in.  Lynn says they were both X-Division before there was one and then leaves.

Winter vs. Mickie James

This is a street fight and it already was going on in the back when we came back from a break.  Winter is dominating and whips Mickie with a leather belt.  They head out to the stage where Mickie gets the belt away from her.  Thesz Press off part of the set takes over for Micke and they roll down the ramp.  Mickie hits a rana on the floor and Winter is in trouble.  Into the ring and Mickie hits a missile dropkick, but here’s Angelina to hit her backbreaker.  It’s behind the referee’s back but it’s a street fight so it’s not like it would have mattered anyway.  That gets the pin at 4:40 shown.  Angelina is smiling post match.

Rating: C-. Just another brawl with the Knockouts that is probably going to set up a title match later.  That’s fine and good, but what was the point in this being a street fight?  Shouldn’t the regular match set up the gimmick match?  Anyway, nothing of note here and two street fights with Knockouts in a night is too much for my taste.  Better than the first one by about a mile though.

Abyss vs. Sting

Non-title of course here.  This actually gets big match intros but Sting jumps Abyss before his intro.  Sting manages to run Abyss over with a shoulder block which is a rare sight.  They head to the floor off a Sting clothesline and Abyss takes over.  He throws on an armbar which is kind of a weird choice but it doesn’t last long enough to think about it.

Sting gets a running start but runs into the chokeslam for two.  Abyss picks up the Art of War book and hits Sting with it for a not DQ.  And there’s a barbed wire glove.  Sting avoids it for a bit and hits the Splash in the corner.  Death Drop hits for two.  Sting gets the glove and pops Abyss in the head with it to draw blood for the DQ at 5:30.

Rating: C. Fine for a quick main event here that tied into the opening of the show and played into Sting’s crazy stuff.  Not a horrible match or anything but just kind of there.  The ending is fine as Sting going insane is better than an actual ending in a match that Sting doesn’t really need to win.  This was fine.

Post match Sting hits Abyss like 5 times as Anderson comes out for a staredown to end the show.

Overall Rating: B-. Wow I must be running a fever.  First and foremost here: the pacing was the best it’s been here in forever.  There were no 20-30 minute stretches with nothing but talking.  It helps a lot to have a match to break the boredom, even if it’s just something quick and relatively pointless.  That’s one of Impact’s biggest issues and it’s very refreshing to see it not happen for once.  Destination X was built up pretty well and the show wasn’t boring for the most part.  I liked this quite well and dare I say it, best wrestling show so far this week.

Results

Bully Ray b. Scott Steiner – Ray pinned Steiner after a chain shot to the throat

Jackie/ODB b. Velvet Sky/Miss Tessmacher – Jackie pinned Sky after a low blow

Crimson/Matt Morgan b. Beer Money – Carbon Footprint to Roode

Zema Ion b. Dakota Darsow and Federico Palacios – 450 Splash to Darsow

Winter b. Mickie James – Pin after a backbreaker from Angelina Love

Abyss b. Sting via DQ when Sting hit Abyss with a barbed wire glove

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

We’re past Slammiversary now and on the way to Victory Road.  Tonight we apparently also begin the Bound For Glory Series which is a competition between 12 people that I guess we’ll hear the details of tonight.  Also we have a new world champion in the form of Mr. Anderson who has a #1 contender in the form of Kurt Angle.  Finally we also get to begin the build for the Victory Road PPV which is an X-Division themed show involving some people being brought in from the past and outside as well.  Let’s get to it.

We open with a highlight package of Slammiversary with post match soundbytes from a lot of the guys.  Jarrett says it’s over with Angle when he says it’s over.

Anderson is here with the title and what looks like a black eye.  There’s a bunch of stuff in the ring such as a basketball goal, a pinball machine, a stripper pole, some food and beer kegs.  This is his championship reception.  Anderson says he doesn’t need anyone in the back or the fans.  There are five people that are important to him: his niece, his wife, me, myself and I.

Here’s Gunner to crash the party.  He talks about how Anderson asked him for help last week and wants a title match as his reward.  Anderson thanks him but says Gunner’s services are no longer required and he wishes him the best in all of his future endeavors.  Gunner has a hick accent.  Anderson says no because there are more deserving people than Gunner.  He’s thirsty apparently and pours a beer for himself which of course goes into Gunner’s face.  Gunner puts him through the table of food to end the segment.

The Bound For Glory series is for the title shot at BFG.  That’s a nice prize.

Sting is here.

D-Von vs. Hernandez

This stems off a match on Xplosion where D-Von beat Anarquia and was beaten down post match, only for Pope to make the save.  Hernandez jumps him to start thanks to Sarita distracting the referee.  D-Von gets a clothesline for two and spears Hernandez coming out of the corner to keep his advantage.

D-Von has slimmed down a bit apparently.  Pope saunters out and sits next to D-Von’s family, allowing Hernandez to roll up D-Von for two.  Thesz Press by D-Von and here’s Mexican America to run in for the DQ at 1:52.  Well this was pointless.  Pope makes the save after D-Von’s sons insist he do so.  They have a weird staredown post match.

Anderson storms into Bischoff’s office and says Eric needs to control Gunner.  Eric says no because Anderson turned down Immortal awhile ago.  It’s Anderson vs. Gunner, presumably tonight.  Ah yes it’s tonight.

Kurt is here with his kids.

After the break here’s Kurt, minus his kids.  Did he leave them with Abyss in daycare or something?  Angle talks about how you don’t just put a gold medal on the line on a whim.  He says that in 1996 he trained very hard and managed to make the Olympic team and even won a gold medal to represent his country.  Angle says he wants to do it again and is trying out for the 2012 Olympic wrestling team at the age of 43.  That’s legit from what I understand.

Here’s Jarrett who says it’s not over yet.  He says this started with a handshake in Pittsburgh so let’s end this tonight.  Jeff says that the company can’t hold both of them.  He wants one more match and doesn’t care if it means leaving the country or moving to Mexico.  Well he is going to be at AAA’s biggest show of the year this weekend so there’s some truth to that.

Angle says Jeff should have more honor than this and needs to just leave.  Jeff apparently says that there was nothing going on with him and Karen and he lied so Jeff’s word means nothing.  If Jeff can get a document together by the end of the show saying he’ll go to Mexico if he loses, Kurt will see him in the parking lot tonight.  The FINAL BATTLE was four days ago right?

We’ll explain the BFG Series next.

Ok so here’s the deal.  There are 12 people in it and the winner is in the BFG Title Match.  Points can be won in any kind of match on any TNA show, including house shows.  Here’s how the scoring works:

Submission: 10 points

Pin: 7 points

Count Out: 5 points

DQ Win: 3 points

Draw: 2 points

DQ Loss: -10 points

The top four compete at an unspecified date and the winner gets the title shot at the biggest show of the year.  RVD vs. Samoa Joe is the first match tonight.

Eric Young is talking to Matt Morgan about how he needs to get ready for his TV Title match tonight.  Morgan says he needs to get ready for the BFG Series.  If any match counts for that, why not beat Young at the same time?  Anyway, Young says it has to be a TV star he faces for the TV Title.  Morgan says an executive producer here used to be on a sitcom so go find him.

Apparently there’s going to be a 12 man tournament with the winner getting a contract at the PPV.

Austin Aries vs. Kid Kash vs. Jimmy Rave

This is part of the aforementioned tournament apparently.  Rave has the way old Christian style see through shirt.  Aries wants a test of strength with either guy.  Next week there are going to be three new X guys apparently.  Aries is sent to the floor and Rave takes over on Kash.  Aries comes back in and that goes nowhere as Kash pulls him to the floor.  Kash tries a springboard but jumps into a spear by Rave for two.  Aries cleans house and sends them both to the floor to set up a suicide dive to take them both out.

BIG Austin Aries chant starts up as it’s pretty clear that he’s the biggest deal here.  Kash takes both guys out with a huge spinning dive.  Back in the ring Kash and Aries slug it out with Kash getting two.  Aries breaks up a Rave cover and plants him with a brainbuster to end this at 4:25.

Rating: B-. Very fast paced match here and it’s pretty clear that Aries is the best guy out there, but at the same time I’m not getting overly excited for this series.  Once a year they build up the X-Division and after that show the whole thing goes back into the regular flow of things.  The matches will certainly be fun though so there’s that to look forward to at least.

Knockout Tag Titles: Velvet Sky/Miss Tessmacher vs. Sarita/Rosita

Sarita and Velvet start us off.  Mexican America has been sent to the back apparently.  Velvet sends her flying and it’s off to Rosita and Tessmacher.  The challengers dominate for awhile so it’s off to Sarita again.  This is your standard Knockouts match, in that they’re nice to look at but at the same time it’s a lot of yelling and not much on the wrestling.  Tessmacher looks incredible in those little shorts but she can’t wrestle that well at all.  Everything breaks down but as the challengers want a double suplex, here’s ODB to distract Velvet.  The champs double team Tessmacher and a flip splash by Rosita gets the pin at 3:52.

Rating: D. Nothing of note at all here as the whole thing was just to set up more ODB vs. Velvet which is nothing interesting in the slightest.  The girls aren’t incredibly good in the ring but they’re trying at least.  They needed someone in there to anchor this match and it hurt things a lot.

Post match ODB and Velvet yell at each other a lot and here’s Jackie freaking Moore for the double beatdown on Velvet.  Oh joy.  The girls beat up security and Velvet for a long while until they get split up.

Jarrett signs the contract with Hogan for later and Hogan calls him the King of Kings.  Jeff leaves and Sting pops up.  On the 14^th of July it’s the rematch, the show after Destination X.  Sting believes him and Hogan says there’s a history between them that no one knows about.  Sting asks if there’s a shred of the old Hogan left.  Sting rants about Hogan’s legacy in WCW and the catchphrases and Hogan’s legacy that he’s leaving for Brooke and Nick (Hulk’s kids) which sets Hogan off.

Hogan throws him out and Sting freaks out, saying he’s not ready to leave.  He goes insane, yelling at “Terry”, asking if Terry wants to wear a mask.  Sting gets the paint from last week and paints on Hulk’s face while pushing him into the corner.  Sting shouts about making the choice and we finally see Hogan with paint all over his face.  WEIRD segment to say the least.

Jackie and ODB rant about cleaning up the division and Velvet jumps ODB.  This results in the heels yelling a lot and sounding very annoying.

Austin Aries says he’s going to make the X-Division matter again.  Eric Young pops up and tries to start a TV Title match with the interviewer.  He superkicks him and gets a pin with Aries counting.  Oh it was Jason Hervey from the Wonder Years.

Bound For Glory Series: Rob Van Dam vs. Samoa Joe

This is billed as a dream match.  Ok then.  The bell is after a break.  Joe takes over to start but RVD reverses into a body press for two and hits the floor.  Joe catches a slingshot dives into a belly to belly for two in a solid looking spot.  RVD avoids a shot in the corner and hits a spinwheel kick to the face of Joe in the corner.  Monkey flip out of the corner doesn’t work though as Rob lands on the apron, only to get clotheslined across the top to the floor.  Suicide elbow takes RVD out again and Joe is in full control.

They change some reversals in the ring and Joe crushes Rob into the corner.  Joe’s skin is blood red for some reason.  Kick to the back of the head gets two for the Samoan.  Joe fires some LOUD chops but runs into a boot in the corner.  Rob tries a spinning cross body but Joe goes old school and just moves out of the way of it, letting Rob crash.  I love it when he does that.

Knee drop gets two and we hit a modified chinlock.  RVD fights out of it and gets a Stunner to set up a superkick.  Rolling Thunder gets two.  Joe counters a leapfrog of all things but walks into the spin kick of Van Dam’s.  Release Rock Bottom out of the corner takes Rob down again and Joe loads up the Musclebuster.  Rob blocks it so Joe tries a superplex instead.  Van Dam breaks it up and the Five Star ends this at 9:10 to give Rob seven points.

Rating: C+. I liked this actually as both guys did a decent job out there.  Once they got past the first few minutes things got going a bit better and it became a big match showdown which is what these two should be having.  Also nice to see a match get some time tonight as that’s normally a perk and it was here.

Gunner is getting medical attention from earlier and says he doesn’t like anyone.

Gunner vs. Mr. Anderson

Gunner has Bischoff with him but Bischoff heads to the back rather quickly.  Non-title here.  Interesting note about Anderson here as his first title match is on July 14, meaning there won’t be a world title match at Destination X.  After a brief run around outside Anderson gets that neckbreaker of his for two.  Off to the chinlock about 90 seconds in with the champion in control.  Anderson has a bit of a gut on him.

More shots to the back of the head and then Anderson just hammers away.  He slams Gunner but misses a Swanton Bomb.  Gunner fights back and gets a belly to back suplex for two.  There’s a big bandage on Gunner’s nose so I guess he got cut from the cup earlier.  Rolling fireman’s carry slam gets two for Anderson so he hammers away a bit more.  And now Anderson calls down the mic.  He announces that he’s still world champion and walks into the F5 for the pin at 8:45.

Rating: C-. Didn’t really get into this and the ending really hurt it I think.  I get that Anderson is cocky but why would he be that arrogant?  Also really not a fan of having the world champion lose in his first match.  I will give them credit for pushing some new young guys though in the form of Crimson and Gunner, so there’s certainly that.

Steiner vs. Ray next week in a BFG match.  Steiner rants about not knowing how to do anything other than beat people up.  He has no sugar for Ray and can’t play the guitar either.  This is one of those so insane it’s funny promos from Steiner.

Ray says not to crack jokes.  This match has the potential to be either the biggest trainwreck of all time or a pretty awesome brawl.

Time for the parking lot brawl with the circle of cars and wrestlers out there.  Do you win by pin I guess?  Angle takes him down with relative ease and hammers him.  This is shot like a fight instead of a match and Angle grabs an armbreaker.  Jeff fights out of it and it’s almost all Kurt so far.  Jeff sends him into a car and Ray yells him on.

Jeff says he’ll never leave TNA (again) and tells Kurt to go to train for the Olympics before hitting the Stroke on the concrete.  Angle gets up as Jeff leaves and they go at it some more.  Angle Slam onto a car and Angle chokes him with his shirt.  “Say adios Jarrett!”  Jeff is done and Angle leaves.  Ray says Jeff enver gave up.  Jarrett wakes up and says adios to end the show.

Overall Rating: C-. Well you certainly can’t say that they didn’t throw a lot at us here.  I really didn’t like the middle section with the girls yelling and the Sting/Hogan thing.  Not that segment didn’t grab my attention and get incredibly intense because it did, but it probably leads to Hogan vs. Sting and there’s no way that’s going to be worth seeing.  Not a huge fan of this show, but they were certainly trying which I can definitely give them point for.  The two tournaments going on at once are a stretch, but it could be more of the same I guess, which means this is a better alternative.

Results

D-Von b. Hernandez via DQ when Mexican America interfered

Austin Aries b. Jimmy Rave and Kid Kash – Brainbuster to Rave

Rosita/Sarita b. Velvet Sky/Miss Tessmacher – Flip Splash to Tessmacher

Rob Van Dam b. Samoa Joe – Five Star Frog Splash

Gunner b. Mr. Anderson – F5

Impact Wrestling
Date: June 9, 2011
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Tazz

It’s the go home show for Slammiversary and we have most of the card set up already.  With Foley now fired and apparently legit gone from the company, it appears that Immortal is back in control again.  Also we’re likely to get the final push to Sting vs. Anderson which will see Sting/Young vs. Anderson/Gunner.  Anyway, let’s get to it.

We open with a recap of last week of Foley being fired and Immortal having full power again.  Hogan is looking extra orange here.

Hogan and Bischoff open the show.  Hulk says that the Network finally woke up and got rid of the selfish Foley.  Eric says that Foley did have a few good ideas such as the name of the show and that wrestling matters.  Eric assures us that the X Division is going to be presented in a fair and balanced manner.  First up though he wants the contenders in the world title match to come down here right now.

Here are Anderson and Sting.  Hogan talks about how awesome this company is now.  They’re not going to go through this with the Network again.  Hogan gave his word apparently and he meant it.  At Slammiversary there will be a winner and a loser with no gimmicks or agendas.  Also there will be no run-ins.  If either guy has a problem with that speak now.

Anderson raises his hand and says that he’s been making fun of Sting for weeks because everything Sting stands for is a joke.  Anderson is in this for Anderson and on Sunday, he’s getting the title back.  Sting says he’s got a lot he’s going to do about that.  There are a lot of things he wants to do around here and he’s going to do them because he’s champion.  One of two things has to happen: Hogan and Bischoff have to leave or the real Hogan has to come back.  He gets in Eric’s face and calls him an infection, blaming him for Hogan being the way he is.  Hogan needs to cut away the cancer, and he’s certainly capable of it.

Knockouts are up next.

Mickie James/Tara vs. Winter/Angelina Love

Can we just get to the lesbian stuff already?  Tara has the motorcycle back.  Tara and Winter start us off.  Angelina doesn’t seem interested in tagging in so Mickie and Tara work on the arm.  I guess Mickie is all cool about the whole Tara running her over a few months back thing.  Off to Angelina who wants Mickie.  Tara instead hits a spinning side slam and it’s off to Mickie.  They hit a wheelbarrow splash for one as Angelina does her zombie thing again.

With Tara accidentally distracting the referee, Winter is able to get a powerbomb in the corner on Mickie for two.  The zombie chicks take over on Mickie now as she plays Ricky Morton for a bit.  Mickie hammers back and that gets her nowhere.  Blind tag brings in Angelina but Mickie hits a dropkick to take her down.  Everything breaks down and Madison comes down to distract Tara, allowing Angelina to hit her backbreaker on Mickie for the pin at 4:45.

Rating: C. Not bad here but really just a standard tag match.  It sets up the Mickie vs. Angelina match on Sunday which is fine.  Nothing too bad but Madison might have been a bit too much out there.  Angelina’s chest looked great though so that balances out the questionable ending.

Beer Money and Shelley are ready for their match tonight and on Sunday.

Mexican America says they’re tired of getting less every time.

We get a video of Samoa Joe and Crimson fighting in a bar which is filmed via phone apparently.  Joe beats the tar out of him.

Jeff Jarrett gets here and doesn’t want to talk about Karen so he walks off.

The Brits are on commentary here.  Well at least Magnus is as Williams stands behind the desk.

Mexican America vs. Alex Shelley/James Storm

Anarquia and Shelley start us off.  The champions I guess do some of the Guns’ offense which Storm modifies for his own style.  I like that as it plays up the best of both world dynamics.  Shelley gets caught coming off the top and Hernandez hits his slingshot shoulder to take Shelley down.  We keep cutting to Magnus talking so it’s hard to see everything that’s going on.

Shelley tries to fight back but gets caught by the power of Hernandez.  Slam sets up a missed splash off the top by Supermex and there’s the tag to Storm and one to Anarquia also.  Everything breaks down and Hernandez is knocked to the floor.  Storm has Anarquia covered but the girls distract the referee.  Sarita gets beer to the face and Shelley kicks Storm in the face, allowing Anarquia to get the pin on Storm at 4:30.

Rating: C. Pretty decent tag match here as we can see the problems that the guys unfamiliar with being partners.  I liked how Shelley and Storm worked together out there but I’m not sure I get the point in having them lose.  Have miscommunication and let them win still to make it look like they’re having issues but can still win on Sunday.  Either way not bad here.

Gunner comes in to see Anderson and Anderson asks for help against Sting, implying he’ll repay the favor later.  They’re cool apparently.

Mexican America comes in to see Hogan and wants a title shot.  Hogan gets all ticked off and says quit telling me what to do or he’ll turn into the Terminator and play a game of Hulkster Says with the ladies.  Mexican America is going to do something when Hogan least expects it.  Ok then.

Preview of Angle/Jarrett with the main focus being on Angle.  He says he’s not worried about this Sunday and says that he can beat Jarrett this time because there will be no Karen to distract him.

We open the second hour with more talking of course, this time in the form of Jarrett and Angle.  Jeff says Kurt is going to listen tonight rather than it being them going back and forth.  Karen is gone apparently and won’t be at the PPV.  Jeff has had to think about that for seven days now and the first thing he did was panic.  He panicked over what Kurt will do to him when it’s one on one.  Jeff reminds everyone that he brought Kurt in and Kurt is the best in history.

However, Kurt never thanked Jeff for bringing him in.  Kurt wasn’t happy about being the best in the company and the real star.  It was always about making people forget about Jeff.  Then Jarrett wanted to take everything dear to Kurt, so he took his wife and kids.  Now he wants to take away Kurt’s place on top and he won’t sleep until he owns it.

Kurt finally gets to talk and thanks Jeff for taking Karen out of his life for good.  All he’s ever wanted was Jeff one on one but Jeff had to keep bringing Karen into it.  Kurt isn’t wasting any more words on him because on Sunday, his wrestling will do the talking.  Then Jeff will see how real this really is.

ODB doesn’t like how Velvet presents herself and ODB will how Velvet what wrestling is tonight.

Kaz and Kendrick have Janice and are looking for Abyss.  Kendrick says Abyss is his type of guy.  They say they’re going to go find him.

Bully Ray is here for an open challenge.  On Sunday he’ll be the last man standing because he’s a man.  I wonder if he’s 40.  The challenge is for everyone other than D-Von.  Here’s a surprising person to take it.

Rob Van Dam vs. Bully Ray

RVD does his poses and gets powerbombed out of the corner for two.  All Ray so far as he uses his basic brawling stuff.  RVD finally gets in a kick to send Ray into the corner.  Monkey flip doesn’t work and Ray hammers away again.  AJ is chilling in the stands watching this.  Ray hasn’t seen him yet but he does now.  The distraction lets RVD recover long enough to counter the Piledriver.  Springboard kick sets up the Five Star and we’re done at 3:30.

Rating: C. This is barely gradeable as the majority was Ray hammering on RVD and then the AJ distraction.  RVD had a total of about four moves in this.  Remember a few weeks ago when he and Angle had one of the “biggest matches in Impact history”?  And now he has a three and a half minute match with Bully Ray that he needs AJ to help him get through.  Things change so fast in wrestling it’s unreal.

We get a clip from English TV of Angle trying to get back on the Olympic team.

Kendrick and Kaz are still looking for Abyss and they actually find him reading The Art of War again.  Abyss talks about how he doesn’t need Janice anymore and calls the X Title the Extreme Title.  There can be a three way at the PPV.  Kendrick gets into a big philosophical rant and Kaz just leaves.

We run down the card for Slammiversary.

ODB vs. Velvet Sky

ODB isn’t under contract apparently so she comes out next to the broadcast table.  Sky jumps her before the bell and the brawl begins.  Velvet is sent into the steps and hurts her knee as we finally head into the ring and start the actual match.  ODB covers immediately but only gets two.  This is a sloppy brawl and barely even a match at all.

Velvet can’t get going due to the knee injury but has a chance to breathe due to ODB yelling at the referee.  She argues even more and Velvet can’t do anything.  The announcers make stupid jokes and we get more arguing with the referee.  Velvet finally wakes up and stomps away in the corner.  Out to the floor again and Velvet gets her back rammed into the post.  Fall away slam sets up more yelling and Velvet grabs a DDT for the surprise pin at 5:12.

Rating: D. Didn’t like this at all as it was about five minutes of stomping, choking and yelling.  I guess that’s the end of this feud and if so that’s not saying very much.  Pretty weak match here and the only real perk was Velvet looking good.  Any match where I have to watch ODB slap her vagina is a bad one.

Eric Young is all stupid again and talks about unifying the titles and Who’s The Boss before Sting yells at him again.  He wants him to drop the comedy for one night and let the competitor come out.

We get a clip from Xplosion where D-Von and Pope have been having issues.  Pope came out to save D-Von from Mexican America.  D-Von doesn’t like Pope being around his kids and wife.

And now let’s have our main event.

Gunner/Mr. Anderson vs. Sting/Eric Young

Big match intros kill some time.  The slow bell for this makes me chuckle for some reason.  Sting vs. Anderson to start but we get the traditional fast tag from Anderson to bring in Gunner.  Sting gets the splash in the corner very quickly and adds a second one, both of them to the back.  Apparently the second was because a spot was messed up as after the first Sting intentionally turned his back to Anderson.  He did it again the second time in the same spot and Anderson drilled him.

Anderson works over Sting in the corner now and it’s off to Gunner again.  He works on the ribs with an abdominal stretch and here’s Anderson again.  Sting gets a clothesline and it’s off to Eric who cleans a few rooms, adding a big top rope elbow to Gunner.  He fakes blowing mist at Anderson but celebrates too much and is rammed into Sting.  That counts as a tag somehow and Gunner hits the F5 on Sting for the pin at 6:00.  Oh and Young celebrates on the floor.

Rating: D+. What in the world was that?  Who in the world thought it was a good idea for Gunner of all people to get a pin on Sting to end the show?  I don’t get this at all and the main event is the longest match of the show at 6:00.  Not a fan of that at all and I don’t get what they’re going for here in the slightest.

Back and Young doesn’t get that they lost.  Sting is mad.

AJ says the plan is coming together.  Ray pops up and says he didn’t back away.  Agents break it up.

Sting gets something out of his bag and Anderson talks about how he didn’t break a sweat.  Sting comes up and Anderson runs.  They go into a trailer and Sting beats him down then puts paint all over Anderson’s face.  This is Sting snapping I guess.  He chokes Anderson out to end the show.

Overall Rating: C-. Not a bad show tonight but it was rather paint by numbers.  Nothing really happened here but it was a go home show for the PPV and they covered the big matches for it pretty well.  That being said it was another match where everything kind of dragged which is never a good thing.  Definitely not a bad show but really just kind of there at the end of the day.  That main event brought it down though.

Results

Angelina Love/Winter b. Mickie James/Tara – Backbreaker to James

Mexican America b. Alex Shelley/James Storm – Anarquia pinned Storm after a superkick from Shelley

Rob Van Dam b. Bully Ray – Five Star Frog Splash

Velvet Sky b. ODB – DDT

Gunner/Mr. Anderson b. Sting/Eric Young – F5 to Sting

Impact Wrestling
Date: June 2, 2011
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Tazz

It’s Thursday, which means it’s time for Impact.  After last week’s less than inspired effort, hopefully tonight there are no 40 minute rests between matches.  We have two weeks left before Slammiversary and most of the card seems to be all set up.  I’d expect more shenanigans from Anderson tonight as far as Sting and more build between Jarrett and Angle because we haven’t seen enough of that yet right?  Let’s get to it.

Bischoff arrives and is served legal papers by the Network.  Because when you think of wrestling, you think of old men with gray hair, network dealings and legal paperwork right?

We open with a big brawl between Velvet and ODB in the back.  Velvet fights back and hits a spear through….a big piece of paper.  ODB shouts about Velvet being the reason why ODB doesn’t have a job.  ODB beats her up and carries her into the Impact Zone, shouting about how Velvet slept her way to her job and all that jazz.

The producers FINALLY come out to break this up and that goes nowhere so ODB rips off the shirt Velvet is wearing so we at least get to see Sky in a bikini which is never a bad thing.  After Velvet is left laying and ODB leaves Tessmacher finally comes out to help her.  Some friend.  This ate up like five minutes total.

AJ and Bully Ray have a confrontation later.  Not a match mind you, a confrontation.

Also Jarrett/Steiner vs. Angle/Morgan.

Here’s Sting and never mind as it’s really Anderson again in old school Sting clothes.  He’s going to face someone from Sting’s past tonight and that’s about it.

Bischoff is on the phone and Kendrick comes up, saying he wants another shot at Abyss.  Kaz has the shot at the PPV apparently but tonight instead it’s Kaz vs. Kendrick and the winner gets Abyss at Slammiversary.

Bischoff is still on the phone, apparently to Hogan.  He actually says SpikeTV instead of The Network for once.  He comes into the arena and apparently that was during the break.  Hogan will be here later it seems.  Bischoff calls down Beer Money and apparently Roode isn’t cleared to wrestle at the PPV.  They’re facing the British Invasion apparently.  Uh….why?  Roode says he’ll be at the PPV so here comes Alex Shelley.

Apparently Sabin as torn ligaments in his knee and won’t be back until 2012.  Shelley talks about the best of 5 series that the Guns had last year with Beer Money and how he wants to defend the titles in Roode’s place.  Bischoff says no way but Shelley has Network authority.  They team is now Gun Money apparently.  Shouldn’t it be Beer Guns or Motor Beer or something?

Matt Hardy vs. Crimson

Crimson is introduced as the undefeated Crimson.  It’s Crimson vs. Joe at the PPV apparently.  Matt gets taken down by a clothesline quickly and sent to the floor for a breather.  Very basic match so far as Crimson uses his power and Matt uses his basic offense.  A middle rope clothesline puts Crimson down and an elbow gets two.  Matt works on the neck which makes sense for a guy whose finisher is the Twist of Hate.  Crimson tries to go up but Matt knocks him off and hits a middle rope legdrop for two.

Crimson starts his comeback and hits a double arm DDT for two.  His offense is kind of limited for the most part and he doesn’t wrestle like the power guy you would think he is based on his looks.  Twist of Fate doesn’t hit but the Sky High (wasn’t that called Red Sky or something last week?) ends this out of nowhere at 6:05.

Rating: C. Pretty boring here as Crimson didn’t look so much like a monster here but rather someone that escaped with a victory.  That’s ok because Matt is probably the biggest one on one match he’s had off the top of my head other than Joe, but this wasn’t anything all that great.  Not bad either though.  Just kind of there if that makes sense.

Joe comes out post match and is speared out of the ring before he can even throw a punch.

Anderson comes up to Young in the back and wants to talk to him.  Young has both titles on him still.  Apparently the world is clamoring for Young to have seminars to show how to have matches like Young and Gunner had last week.  Anderson wants Young to pretend to be Great Muta tonight for the match.  This is about respect though, not disrespect, so Young agrees.

Winter tells Angelina that tonight the respect begins again with Tessmacher.  Angelina actually talks, saying she remembers a better time when they were loved and alone and they need to go back to that time, which starts tonight.  Winter seems thrilled.

Eric gives an emotional speech to Immortal (including the Jarretts for once), saying that he didn’t think it would end like this.  Hogan will be here later and will explain things.  Immortal wants to know what happens to them as Bischoff leaves.

Miss Tessmacher vs. Angelina Love

Love vs. James at the PPV.  Tessmacher gets a pair of rollups within the first ten seconds for two each.  Angelina starts no selling stuff and hammers away on Tessmacher.  Cross body gets two for Tessmacher but Love knocks her to the floor.  Side slam is kind of dropped and Angelina rams her into the corner a few times.  Tessmacher fires back but takes forever setting up a victory roll and gets countered.  A reverse DDT into a backbreaker ends this at 3:35.

Rating: D+. Tessmacher isn’t much in the ring but thankfully they’ve figured that out, letting her more or less being a stripper and only be out there for her looks.  Not the worst match ever but really just par for the course with a weak Knockout against a decent one.  At least Tessmacher looked hot.

Post match Angelina chokes Tessmacher until Winter pulls her off.

Mr. Anderson vs. Eric Young

This is billed as Sting vs. the Not-So-Great Muta.  This feud was what, 22 years ago?  I know TNA is supposed to be an alternative to the kids show, but anyone under about 25 isn’t going to remember the original feud.  And yet it’s somehow better than Disco Inferno last week.  Anderson does slow motion Stinger Splashes in the corner while Young stands around.  Young goes to leave but Anderson stops him and overacts on everything.  Young’s face paint looks like Darth Maul.  Splash misses in the corner and Young fights back with a forearm for two.

Belly to belly gets two as does a crucifix.  Anderson tries to fight back and hits a reverse neckbreaker for two.  Young actually hits the moonsault for two and here’s Gunner.  The referee makes the stop and it allows Young to spit green mist at Anderson and a small package gets the pin at 3:58.  That’s an upset I guess, but not as big a one as they’re making it out to be.  The winner is announced as the Not-So-Great Muta.

Rating: C. For a comedy match, this wasn’t all that bad.  Young’s impression was pretty much dead on Muta, but I don’t really get the point in having the midcard champion be an impersonator like this.  It was entertaining, but I’m also not sure what the point of this is from Anderson’s perspective.  Is this supposed to tick Sting off or be rude to him?  By saying you had some great feuds in the past?  I don’t really get how that’s insulting.

Gunner and Anderson beat down Young post match until Sting makes the save.

Brian Kendrick vs. Kazarian

Winner gets Abyss for the X-Title at the PPV.  They shake hands pre-match to establish that they’re both good guys.  Very technical back and forth stuff to start us off here as neither guy can get an extended advantage.  Release gutwrench suplex puts Kendrick down and we head to the floor.  Brian misses a dive and Kaz takes over.  Back in the ring a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker gets two for Kaz.

Kaz takes over completely, hitting a leg lariat for two.  Off to a cross arm pulling hold by Kazarian to give them a quick breather.  Kendrick gets a kick to the face to switch momentum and a missile dropkick gets two.  Moonsault misses for Kendrick but an enziguri puts Kaz down.  Sliced Bread #2 is countered into a neckbreaker for two for Kaz.  Good match so far.

Fade to Black doesn’t work so Kendrick kicks his head off with a superkick.  Frog splash gets knees though and a Shining Wizard puts Kendrick on the floor.  They trade two counts back in the ring as neither guy can take advantage again.  With a rollup the bell rings for a time limit draw at 7:57.  Dude, seriously?  You can’t give them an extra two minutes and three seconds for the sake of people who, I don’t know, might have looked at a clock before the match?

Thankfully they’re given five more minutes.  They both hit cross bodies at the same time and both guys are down.  And never mind as here comes Abyss to beat them both up for the DQ at a minute into the overtime so the total time is approximately 9:00.

Rating: B. Ok even though TNA can’t tell time apparently, this was one of the best TV matches I’ve seen in a long time.  This is what you can get with two young and talented guys that are out there working hard and giving you a good match.  I enjoyed this, even though the ending was rather stupid.  Very good match.

Here’s AJ to call out Ray.  He calls the Impact Zone his house so here’s Ray to rebut.  Ray says Daniels and AJ didn’t beat him last week.  They beat Dreamer, who was another weak partner apparently.  Ray says that AJ is everything he hates in a modern pro wrestler.  Instead of playing on a laptop, AJ needs to be in a strip club, getting a lap dance.

AJ says Ray is rather, ahem, small, which freaks Ray out.  Styles says that a bully is like a bully: you only have to pop it once to get rid of it.  A last man standing match is made for Slammiversary.  That could be good.  Ray asks if AJ knows what he’s getting himself into.  AJ asks if Ray knows what he’s getting into.  Not bad here.

Jeff Jarrett/Scott Steiner vs. Matt Morgan/Kurt Angle

They do the Karen in a chair thing to kill some time before the match starts.  Actually they completely throw her out.  Angle vs. Steiner start but Morgan and Jarrett are tagged in less than five seconds after the bell.  Jeff has black in his tights now.  Ok let’s tag it out again and have Steiner vs. Angle.  There’s a minute down in this match.  Angle gets a belly to belly and it’s off to Jarrett again rather quickly.

There’s the ankle lock but Jeff kicks off and Angle tags out also.  Headbutt takes Jarrett down and it’s off to Kurt again.  Oh never mind as we need to cut to the back to see Hogan being handed papers by Bischoff.  Back and Jeff hits an enziguri on Angle and brings in Steiner.  At this point, Impact officially has had more wrestling than NXT had this past week and it only took them an extra hour.

Steiner gets a belly to belly on Angle for two and it’s off to Jeff again.  Lots of tagging in this match.  It’s Sting/Young vs. Gunner/Anderson next week.  Stroke attempt is countered into an ankle lock but Jeff reverses again and both guys are down.  Off to Morgan and Steiner with Morgan claiming the advantage in the battle of alliteration.

Michinoku Driver gets two for Morgan as Jarrett saves.  Kurt and Jeff fight up the ramp and it’s an ankle lock on the stage, broken up by Karen.  We don’t bother watching the ring at this point but Jeff knocks Kurt into Karen and apparently she fell down a flight of stairs.  In the ring Steiner pins Morgan at 6:34 with a move we didn’t see at all.

Rating: C. Just a main event tag match here that was about a minute of nothing but tagging to start.  The ending…well….we have no idea what it was so it might have been good I guess.  Steiner hit Morgan low but there was a long delay between that and the pin so that probably wasn’t the pin.  Either way, just a main event tag here but nothing too bad.

Angle yells down at Jeff, saying it’s Jeff’s fault and we need paramedics.

Back and Karen is put in an ambulance as the announcers are all serious.

Here are Bischoff and Hogan.  Bischoff talks about Foley and how he’s known him for 19 years.  Foley could always talk but in the ring he couldn’t do much.  Foley is a puppet master because he’s made a career out of having a sock on his hand.  Hogan starts talking now, saying that Eric is his partner and that’s all that matters.  Hogan opens the paper which he looked at earlier, apparently reading it the first time.  He reads the legal issues out loud and Foley is fired apparently.  So Bischoff read those papers ALL FREAKING NIGHT and he never saw that part?  Hogan and Bischoff hug to end the show.

Overall Rating: C. Well it wasn’t great, but this was miles ahead of what they had last week.  First and foremost the pacing was MUCH better.  There were no long breaks between matches and while there wasn’t much more wrestling, it was spaced out better which can make a huge difference.  Stuff was advanced this week and it was overall a much more entertaining show.  Better, but still not a great show or anything.

Results

Crimson b. Matt Hardy – Sky High

Angelina Love b. Miss Tessmacher – Reverse DDT into a backbreaker

Eric Young b. Mr. Anderson – Small Package

Brian Kendrick vs. Kazarian went to a no contest when Abyss interfered

Scott Steiner/Jeff Jarrett b. Kurt Angle/Matt Morgan – Steiner pinned Morgan

Impact Wrestling
Date: May 26, 2011
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Tazz

It’s the second week of Impact Wrestling and hopefully tonight we’ll have a bit more actual wrestling rather than last week when there was as much on a regular episode of Impact.  Anyway we’re also going to have some more advance in the Sting vs. Anderson feud as last week Anderson laid the champion out.  Also if I remember right we’re going to get Hogan and Foley again tonight which is rather fun.  Anyway, let’s get to it.

An opening graphic says in memory of Randy Savage.  Classy.

Sting talks about being champion and we get a clip of Anderson jumping him last week as the old Sting.

We actually start with a match, called a tag team competition by Christy.

Tommy Dreamer/Bully Ray vs. Christopher Daniels/AJ Styles

This is a street fight.  Tonight there’s going to be something called the Scorpion Sitdown which is Sting’s interview segment.  AJ is still in a neckbrace so he can barely move here.  This is a smaller one though and looks like a big pad.  We start on the floor in a big brawl.  Ray vs. Daniels is going on at ringside while Dreamer and AJ head into the crowd.  AJ manages to throw Dreamer off a small balcony and dives on him to take out both guys.  Daniels busts out some weapons in the ring and beats Ray down with them.

BME eats a boot as at least AJ is back at ringside.  Rock Bottom gets two for Ray but he walks into a Pele.  Dreamer is back in the ring also.  The neck brace comes off as Immortal takes over.  Neckbreaker hits for Ray and Dreamer adds one of his own.  Daniels is still down so this is more or less open season on AJ.  Daniels goes down again as they keep showing replays.  Daniels gets back in time to break up a spike Piledriver and kills Ray with a kendo stick.  Spike Piledriver with Daniels doing the spiking ends Dreamer at 5:00.

Rating: C. Not bad for a brawl here but how weak does Immortal look when they can’t even beat a guy with a bad neck after working on his neck?  Anyway not bad but I kind of wonder what the point is in having AJ doing an injury angle when he can wrestle through it without any real issues.  Either way, nice to start off with a match.

Hogan is here.

Time for the Scorpion Sitdown and it’s Anderson as Sting.  Nothing like a talking segment on a WRESTLING show right?  Anderson says that it’s a sitdown because he’s too old to wrestle.  Remember that he’s talking as Sting.  His guest: Disco Inferno.  He’s a guy that was with Sting throughout WCW despite them never interacting that I remember.  Disco doesn’t get why he’s here but he’ll tell Anderson the truth about Sting.

Anderson randomly shouts during Disco’s talk and Disco gets ticked off at him.  Disco says that whether you liked Sting or not, he commanded respect.  Everyone grew up loving him and that’s all there is to it.  Anderson gets all annoyed and says that Disco is here to bury Sting and that’s the entire point.  Disco wants to know why Anderson is a jerk.  He even says it into the mic and gets up.  And there’s a Mic to the head and a Mic Check to Disco.  The real Sting comes off to run Anderson off.

Eric Young, still with the TV Title, goes into a bathroom and Gunner jumps him but Young has an idea.  Young will lay down tonight and Gunner will get the TV Title belt back while Young will get his old world title back.  Young leaves and Gunner calls him an idiot.

Velvet calls out ODB, saying she’s got a little explaining to do.  Well she looks better than Desi Arnaz.  ODB comes out and says Velvet got her fired last year.  Velvet says she’s worked her way here and ODB says she’s gotten here on her back.  Since Velvet hasn’t ever even been Knockouts Champion she must not be that good in the sack.  ODB drills her and the beating is on.  Velvet more or less runs and Velvet still doesn’t get what’s going on.

Video on RVD vs. Angle tonight which they’re trying to make seem like a huge level match.

Back from a break and we recap the ending to last week’s show with Roode having his arm destroyed by Immortal.

Beer Money is in Bischoff’s office and the doctor says Roode is kind of iffy about being able to wrestle.  They have a tag title match at Slammiversary and it’s 30 days for a defense so if the titles aren’t defended the belts will be stripped.  Storm says it’s a torn pectoral so he won’t be cleared in three weeks.  Bischoff has to know by the end of next week and says he might appoint a replacement.  Bischoff suggests that the Hillbilly Jesus (Storm) go get some manure and put it on Roode’s arm to heal it.  Storm threatens Bischoff and Bischoff says do it and you’ll never work again.  The champs leave and that’s that.

We actually get a clip from Xplosion where Pope hit on D-Von’s wife and D-Von wasn’t happy with it.  Pope says D-Von needs to chill.

Angle is with Morgan in the back as I guess wrestling matters so much they’re afraid to have any of it in case it gets wasted.  Angle says watch out for Karen.

Jeff Jarrett vs. Matt Morgan

I guess the competition thing is going to be a regular thing.  Supposed to sound real perhaps?  Karen is on crutches and looks very good in blue.  Before the match Jeff grabs a chair to give Karen something to sit in.  Earl doesn’t like it and throws Karen out.  Oh wait he’s allowing Karen to sit but she has to sit at the end of the ramp.  Jeff gets a thumb to the eye very early and hits a top rope cross body for two.

That goes nowhere and it’s time for the elbows in the corner to give Morgan control.  Side slam gets two.  Carbon Footprint misses in the corner and Jeff works on the leg.  Fallaway Slam gets two as another cross body doesn’t work.  Karen comes down to ringside as Morgan gets a Michinoku Driver of all things for two.

And never mind as Karen gives him the crutch and a shot with that sets up the Stroke for only two.  Thought that was the ending.  Jeff jumps into a chokeslam but Morgan instead shifts into an atomic drop.  Carbon Footprint hits but Karen hits Hebner in the knee with the crutch.  Scott Steiner comes in and hits a Downward Spiral to Morgan and that’s good for the pin at 3:06.  Dang it I have to rate it.

Rating: D+. More or less nothing here but the nice little swerve there was pretty good as I thought the Stroke would end it.  Steiner vs. Morgan is nothing I’m fired up about seeing as it seems like a step down for Morgan as he was talking about wanting the world title.  Either way though, not a terrible match but WAY too short with way too much going on in just three minutes.

We recap Foley being revealed as Network Executive and Bischoff going after the X-Division last week.

Bischoff is in the ring and is all smiley.  Apparently Hogan had a great week with the network last week in New York as Bischoff predicted.  Here’s Hogan who is the leader of Impact Wrestling apparently.  Hogan says that the Network has given him authority to run this show.  Oh joy.  He pitched a bunch of ideas to the executives so now they think he’s a genius.  Hogan wants to talk about Bischoff for a minute because he’s proud of what Bischoff did to the X-Division.

Here’s Foley who doesn’t need an invitation apparently because he’s a network executive.  All Hogan did was tick the Network off apparently because after Hogan left, Foley explained that the X Division put it on the map and we’re going to expand it.  He’s going to go around the world finding new X-Division talent for an Ultimate X match.  Oh and Foley has power regarding PPV because they promote the PPVs.  Wouldn’t that give them control over all of the companies that advertise on Spike TV?

Hogan says Foley should do something for the X-Division tonight, like challenge for the X-Division Title.  Bischoff gets WAY too excited about that but before Foley can answer here’s Brian Kendrick and his X buddies.  He talks in his poetic speak and more or less asks for Foley’s title shot tonight.  They’re here to get rid of the reptilians that have acquired power apparently.  This was very tedious to say the least.

Winter is rubbing Angelina’s back and says that everything is about to change and they’re going to fulfill the promise they made to each other in another lifetime.  I shutter to think where this is going to go.

Winter vs. Mickie James

Non-Title here.  Tenay acknowledges that the Winter/Angelina thing goes back centuries, which makes me think this is going to get very stupid very fast.  Northern Lights Suplex gets two for Winter as she takes over.  Scratch that as Mickie gets a snapmare and a seated dropkick to set up a rana out of the corner.  Flapjack sets up a nipup and after countering the spin out Rock Bottom Mickie hits the jumping DDT for the pin at 2:18.  No rating due to shortness but this was just a step ahead of a squash.

Angelina destroys Mickie post match due to Winter having some blood on her chin.

Abyss says he’s going to destroy Kendrick tonight.  He’s reading Art of War again and has Janice with him.  Someone with long hair that we can’t see jump him.  Oh it’s Kaz and he takes Janice with him.

X-Division Title: Brian Kendrick vs. Abyss

Abyss is all banged up due to the attack by Kaz.  Kendrick dives through the ropes with a kick that kind of hits to get us going.  Abyss charges into the steps and we go into the ring.  Amazingly enough they actually reference Abyss being a former world champion and say he’s the second Grand Slam winner.  I haven’t heard them reference that reign in years.

Abyss takes over and crushes Kendrick in the corner with an avalanche.  The beatdown commences but Kendrick counters a gorilla press slam and fires off some dropkicks.  Missile dropkick puts him down for two.  Brian goes up again but gets knocked off as Abyss hits the ropes.  Black Hole Slam and we’re done at 4:13.

Rating: D+. Not much here at all as Kendrick looks like a jobber all over again.  I guess we’re waiting on some savior of the X-Division to pop up, which might be AJ or Kaz.  Either way, something tells me Abyss is going to be champion and destroy random people for a few weeks to come.  Not horrible, but really nothing here at all.

Abyss rants about the Art of War some more.

Same RVD vs. Angle video from earlier.

Angle says the main event is a big match.

TV Title: Eric Young vs. Gunner

Young has the title itself because Gunner stole back the wrong belt last week.  I guess the whole “one is black and one is red” thing is too hard to keep track of.  They reenact the Fingerpoke of Doom but Young rolls him up for the pin and the title at 32 seconds.  Whatever man, whatever.

The Jarretts come out for the main event on commentary.

Rob Van Dam vs. Kurt Angle

We also get big match intros to kill even more time.  Jeff talks about how RVD is his handpicked opponent as RVD kicks Angle to the floor.  RVD hammers away but walks into a suplex.  A snap variety gets two for Kurt and we hit a reverse grip to waste some time.  They majority of this match is spent on a split screen so we can see the Jarretts talk while the wrestlers lay around.  RVD gets his top rope kick for two.  Angle gets a slam and both guys go down.

There’s been more laying around in this match than actual wrestling.  Ankle lock goes on and RVD is thinking about tapping.  He kicks out of it but the Five Star misses.  Angle Slam actually gets the fall on the first attempt at 7:36.  Yes, this epic five star first time ever main event didn’t even make it 8 minutes and is the longest match of the night so far.  Give me a break.

Rating: C-. This was built up as being an epic match and it was about 8 minutes of them laying around pretending that this was a huge match.  The camera was on the Jarretts about half the match which isn’t helping anyone at all.  Weak main event and the proper ending to one of the worst shows I can remember in a very long time.

Overall Rating: F+. I absolutely could not stand this show.  The wrestling was bad, nothing really was advanced, and the whole wrestling matters concept was more or less thrown out completely.  This was a terribly dull show as they had forty minutes between the first two matches and twenty between the second and third.  There’s no reason to have them just talk that entire time.  The main event was just ok after all that buildup and that doesn’t make up for two hours of nonsense before it.  Terrible show with more or less nothing happening at all.  The longest match was 7:36.  Let that sink in for a bit.

Results

Christopher Daniels/AJ Styles b. Bully Ray/Tommy Dreamer – Spike Piledriver to Dreamer

Jeff Jarrett b. Matt Morgan – Pin after a Downward Spiral from Scott Steiner

Mickie James b. Winter – Jumping DDT

Abyss b. Brian Kendrick – Black Hole Slam

Eric Young b. Gunner – Small Package

Kurt Angle b. Rob Van Dam – Angle Slam