Impact
Date: January 13, 2011
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Tazz
Episode Title: The One That Got Away

It’s the first Impact after Genesis and things are looking a bit different. Mr. Anderson is the new world champion following an unannounced title match and title switch at Genesis which I’ll spare you my thoughts on because I’ll yet again be told I don’t get it or I’m an idiot or I don’t like the company or some other short sighted answer like that. Anyway, also at Genesis we saw the debut of Matt Hardy which already is forming our main event tonight. It should be interesting to see where TNA goes from here so let’s get to it.

The opening video is of Genesis from Sunday.  Featured are Angle vs. Jarrett and the announcement of the retirement party plus the whole world title scenario.  Anderson is considering giving Morgan the first title shot but isn’t sure.  Also he hates the look of the belt.

Jarrett and Karen got here earlier today.

Here’s Anderson who says that he’s worked forever to attain his dream.  He was hired over there and was the next world champion.  Anderson beat ten world champions but a little birdy (said in a HHH voice) got into the boss’ (Vince) head and said that he isn’t ready for it.  After being told everything he couldn’t do over there, he got a call from Eric Bischoff.

Eric, Hogan, Dixie and Russo told him he could be himself and now he’s the jerk that he is today.  This jerk just became the TNA World Heavyweight Champion.  He could have done it without the fans but he’ll thank them anyway.  The other jerk that he has to thank is Matt Morgan so could he please come out here.

Morgan comes out and Anderson thanks him.  Morgan says that the only reason Anderson has that title around his waist (Anderson: “It’s not around my waist.”) is because Morgan let himself down.  All Matt is thinking about is how to get the title and his next shot.  2011 is the year of the Blueprint and he’s coming for the title.  He’s being serious but civil/respectful here.  Anderson earned it and Morgan’s hat is off to him.  Morgan shakes his head and leaves.

Before we can go to a break here’s Bischoff.  He wants to know who Anderson thinks he is.  The only thing he accomplished is putting a bull’s-eye on his back.  Eric says mark his calendar for February 3^rd, 2011 (my birthday) that on Impact Hardy is getting his rematch and Hogan will be back.

Anderson gets in Eric’s face and Hardy pops up on the screen and says that in three weeks he gets his title back.  RVD jumps Hardy but the other Hardy makes the save.  Anderson runs off to make the save for RVD and luckily the interview area is right behind the curtain.  The rest of Immortal comes in to beat down Anderson and RVD.  The guys being laid out takes us to our first break.

Back and the main event is announced of Hardys vs. Anderson/RVD.  Can’t argue with the logic there.

We see Karen and Jeff Jarrett going into Immortal’s locker room and closing the door.

Tag Titles: Beer Money vs. Motor City Machineguns

Oh look: it’s this match again.  I get that it’s a good pairing, but can we PLEASE get a fresh team in there?  This TNA’s tag division is awesome theory is bogus.  Before they go to the Guns say to expect a good match.  The Guns hit the ring and it’s on early.  Tonight is the first of four weeks of Genesis rematches.  Well of course.  I mean it’s not like it’s supposed to mean anything to buy the PPV right?  Why buy it when you can just see the big matches over the next month?  What a great way to get fans to buy future shows!

After a big beatdown by the Guns a trip up of Shelley gives Beer Money control and we get down to a traditional match.  It’s my first night watching the show in HD and it makes the ring look much smaller.  Off to a chinlock by Storm on Sabin.  Double tag brings in Shelley and a double stomp gets two on Roode who Tazz thinks is Storm for some reason.

Here comes the double teaming by the Guns which is fun to watch as usual.  Skull and Bones hit Roode.  Storm is busted open.  Elevated DDT a la Orton takes down Sabin.  Shelley sets for a superplex but Storm pulls him down into the Eye of the Storm.  Shelley counters but gets caught in what looked like a TKO and a splash from Roode for two.  DWI can’t hit and here comes Sabin.  The Guns hit a combination downward spiral/missile dropkick but Shelly accidentally kicks Sabin on the ASCS Rush and DWI ends Shelley at 7:50.

Rating: B. Usual good match from these teams but the division is dying for new teams.  These two teams have had so many matches that while good are getting a bit monotonous.  If they’re planning a split between the Guns I question their sanity as they’re more or less the only serious face team the company has.  This was one of their weaker matches but certainly still good.

Jarrett is nervous about something after coming out of Immortal’s locker room.

Kurt gets here.

Back and RVD and Anderson aren’t happy about getting beaten down and say they need to take the fight to them.  Anderson has the same blood on his head that he had in the promo from after the PPV.  Did he not take a shower since then?  They grab some weapons which are a chair for RVD and what looked like a big board for Anderson.

Pope is here and the money is able to rain down from the ceiling again.  His hair looks kind of different and I think it’s braided now or something.  He talks about how Joe has been following him around and he hasn’t done anything wrong.  Pope says he’s a Pope that the people can look up to.  He forgives Joe but wants to know what would happen if the roles were reversed and Pope was following Joe.  Well apparently he did just that and we’re going to look at the Dixietron to see what Joe and his wife look like.

And it’s a picture of two pigs mating.  Next up is a picture of Joe’s wife giving birth and it’s a video of a pig nursing it’s babies.  Here comes Joe and Pope bails.  Uh, what’s stopping Joe from going after him?  Joe grabs the mic and says that for a man that is always pimping, he always runs like a little whiny an.  At some point in the future, Joe is coming after him and Joe’s Gonna Kill You.

RVD and Anderson storm the Immortal locker room and find Beer Money.  I didn’t see the previously mentioned weapons with them but whatever.  The door closes and sound effects imply a big old beatdown.  Anderson and RVD walk out and say that’s two down and now they’re looking for the Hardys.  Van Dam does have his chair with him as they leave so I’d assume he had it when he goes in.

Back with Eric, Flair and AJ talking about how to get the title off Anderson.  AJ wants to be able to soften him up but Flair says no because he needs to heal.  They walk into the locker room and find Beer Money down and Flair says Jesus a lot.  If they want a war they’ve got one.

We recap Jarrett vs. Angle which is one of the longest running feuds in company history.  And it’s still just a tease as Jarrett and Karen talk about how on Sunday Angle took it too far so tonight Jarrett is going to hang up his MMA boots.

Angle says that he and his ex have some catching up to do.

Here comes Jeff for his retirement party.  If nothing else we can look at Karen.  Maybe we can’t actually as Jarrett comes out with the security dudes.  Has he always had that mustache?  A guy in an Elmo shirt yells at Jarrett.  No idea why but that made me laugh.  He says that no one has come close to defeating him in an MMA fight and he’s certainly never lost.

At Genesis he could have injured Kurt but he didn’t.  He has nothing left to prove in MMA so he’s done.  Behind every great warrior there’s a great woman so here’s Karen.  Instead we get Kurt so Jarrett sends out the security dudes again.  They work about as well as an umbrella in a hurricane so Angle storms the ring.  After hitting Germans on Gunner and Murphy he corners Jarrett but here’s Karen with a mic of her own.

The distraction lets Jarrett get away.  In a voice that could make Vickie Guerrero jealous, she talks about how Kurt has played games with their personal lives and he’s not going to steal their happiness anymore.  Next week she’s going to tell her side of the story.  Uh, why not say it now?  You have a mic, you have him in front of you and your husband right next to you.  What’s stopping you honey?  Whatever as we go to another break.

Back with Angle cursing up a storm and breaking a lot of stuff.

Holy crap it’s a wrestling match!

Knockouts Tag Titles: Tara/Madison Rayne vs. Winter/Angelina Love

Is there any reason to have these belts anymore?  We barely have enough girls for a singles title let alone tag belts.  Before the champions come to the ring Velvet rants about Winter and for some reason is surprised that she’s here for the title defense.  After the referee holds up the titles for a very long time we’re ready to go.  Angelina vs. Madison to start.  Angelina gets two rollups to start and dominates this part of the match.

Madison has that glove on her hand which is apparently loaded.  Off to Tara for some double teaming.  After about a minute and a half here’s Mickie to pull Madison out and drill Tara as well.  Mickie tries to get the glove off Madison and chases her out of the arena.  Bicycle Kick to Tara takes her down and Winter adds a double axe from the top.  She snaps and gets a choke on Tara for the submission/pass out at 3:00.  No rating as probably half of this was Mickie’s involvement.

The Hardys, from behind a cage no less, say that the business is all about making money and they’re blood, rather than a thief and a wrestler paired together.

Matt Morgan vs. Abyss

Non-title of course because you don’t want to have the TV Title defended on TV right?  Morgan charges right ahead and beats on Abyss for about a minute but can’t hit the Carbon Footprint due to a distraction for Flair.  A corner charge by the champion eats elbow but he gets a clothesline to Morgan to keep control.  He takes too long on another charge though and gets caught by a Discus Lariat.  Chokeslam by Abyss is blocked and the Carbon Footprint hits.  Flair tries to save but can’t stop the count and Morgan gets the pin at 3:20.

Post match Flair goes after Morgan but gets caught.  Terry comes down and it’s a 3-1 beatdown.

Rating: D+. This was watchable but not much more.  Great to see a new champion get pinned in less than 4 minutes despite attempted interference.  I get that they need to keep Morgan strong, so maybe they shouldn’t have booked him against a champion?  Just a thought.  Anyway this was nothing special at all and was just to set up the beatdown post match.

After a break Abyss is in the back and someone (might have been Tommy Mercer/Red’s brother) jumps Abyss and says that on February 3^rd they’re coming for every member of Immortal.  He chokes Abyss out and leaves him laying.

Tenay and Tazz confirm that it was him and his name is apparently Crimson.

Abyss goes into the locker room to talk to Eric but he’s talking to the Hardys so it has to be later.  Eric says that everything goes down on February 3^rd.  After the Hardys leave Abyss tells them what happed.  Eric and Flair say he’s having a flashback because Immortal is already here.

Hardys vs. Rob Van Dam/Mr. Anderson

It’s 10:38 when the entrances start so there’s a lot of time for this.  Back and the non-brothers go straight for the Hardys in the aisle.  Oddly enough RVD goes after Matt.  We get the bell and it’s on with a big brawl.  We get it down to an actual match with RVD vs. Matt.  I can’t say Hardy anymore which is taking some getting used to.  Matt hammers away in the corner as the bare arms look isn’t working for him at all.

Tenay tells us that Matt is officially in Immortal which I think was pretty clear but it’s nice to have it be made official.  Jeff and Anderson in now and Jeff reopens the wound on Anderson’s head.  Tenay suggest that if the Hardys had stayed together they might be recognized as the best tag team ever.  They weren’t even the best team in the company back in the day.

Matt goes up and misses a moonsault.  In a related story, Florida’s ground has been pushed into the ground by 9 feet.  We take a break after RVD dives on the Hardys on the floor.  Back with RVD hammering on Matt.  After some Jeff interference a Side Effect gets two.  Off to Anderson vs. Jeff again and there’s the Mic Check with ease.  Matt saves but it was kind of odd to see him hit it that easily.

Matt sets for the Twist but Anderson fights out of it.  Down goes the referee and Matt gets a Mic Check of his own.  Instead they just beat down the Hardys but Beer Money comes out to uneven the odds.  After the big beating from Beer Money the Twist and Swanton pin Anderson at 13:50.  Great way to treat your world champion in his first match as champion.

Rating: C. This was your basic main event tag match with a screwy finish.  I really don’t like Anderson getting pinned and Immortal standing tall again but they’re setting up for three weeks from now which should be a good thing at least.  The match wasn’t anything great at all but it certainly worked for a main event and thankfully got some time.  Right in the middle here.

Immortal hits the ring to beat the guys down and stand tall as the show ends.

Overall Rating: B. The lack of wrestling is really the only thing holding this back.  Well that and the champions getting pinned twice.  I quite liked this show overall as it seems we’re away from the whole Immortal dominance thing and are shifting over to the THEY are coming again.  I like this for once as it’s a nice bit of continuity to the big storyline.  I’m interested in seeing where this is going, which is exactly the point of what they’re trying to do.  Good show and a good sign of things to come hopefully.

Results

Beer Money b. Motor City Machineguns – DWI to Shelley

Angelina Love/Winter b. Tara/Madison Rayne – Winter choked Tara out

Matt Morgan b. Abyss – Carbon Footprint

The Hardys b. Rob Van Dam/Mr. Anderson – Swanton Bomb to Anderson

Impact
Date: January 6, 2011
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Tazz
Episode Title: Genesis….the Beginning…or the End?

It’s the go home show for Genesis where the card is more or less complete I think barring maybe a match or two being added tonight. Hopefully Impact can keep up what it’s been doing recently of having good television. Let’s get to it.
We open with a recap of the whole Morgan vs. Anderson issue with Foley being worried about Anderson and how bad his head might be. This is mainly focused on Morgan hitting Anderson and getting the pin after the shot to his head.

Immortal opens the show in the arena with Bischoff talking about how Genesis is the beginning. He promises nothing underhanded in the title matches on Sunday where he’s put a bounty on all the titles. Tonight is a night of champions apparently. Bischoff wants to talk to some champions, starting with Lethal.

The X-Division Champion comes out looking rather cocky. Bischoff says that with that attitude he can’t guarantee that Immortal will be good to him. Jay gets in rather hesitantly. Here come the Guns by invitation also. Finally it’s Williams who is very skeptical as well. Bischoff talks about how these people are going to steal the show on Sunday because that’s what champions do.

He makes matches for later: Lethal vs. Abyss, Guns vs. AJ/Kaz and Williams Rob Terry. The Guns have an issue with shaking AJ’s hand. There’s no handshake as it breaks down into a brawl. Bischoff acting all calm with the mic is funny for some reason. Van Dam comes in for the save and Immortal scatters.

Van Dam demands Jeff Hardy again to Bischoff and also wants to know who the opponent is. Bischoff says he’ll say when he’s good and ready. Van Dam says he’ll find out tonight.

Ray talks about how he’s been using D-Von for 15 years and challenges D-Von to a fight in the parking lot right now as we go to a break.

Back with a quick recap of last week’s Tommy Mercer vs. Jarrett in the MMA challenger. Here’s Jarrett with Angle’s entrance still. He announces the tweeks that were made to the competition last week and are official tonight. First up, they have to be his size or shorter. Also it’s an exhibition, so I’m not sure if the money is still going or not. Apparently it isn’t.

Someone from the Twilight Saga is here. Egads you can’t escape the freaking things. The guy is something called a junior black belt. It’s not happening though because his dad is taller than Jeff so the other guy isn’t eligible. Jarrett sees a fan in the back that works here. Naturally it’s a massacre with Jarrett beating the tar out of him and ending him with the ankle lock.

He won’t let go of the hold though and here’s Kurt Angle! He’s back and gets after Jarrett to break up the hold. Why is it that wrestling security will let people jump the guard rail so often? As Punk says, security here sucks. Angle says he’s about the same height as Jarrett and since it’s an exhibition he’s not breaking his promise of not wrestling. The showdown is made for Genesis as we take a break.

Back with a brief recap of what we just saw.

Motor City Machineguns vs. AJ Styles/Kazarian

The Guns jump them to start as they’re such nice guys. After a skirmish on the floor we start with Sabin vs. AJ in the ring. Double teaming and chops have Sabin in big trouble. Kaz has a thing for slingshot legdrops as two of them both get two. The announcers would rather talk about the PPV than the match which is something I’ve never been a fan of at all.

Sabin finally gets loose and we get double tags to bring in AJ and Shelley. Shelley gets rid of Kaz to get us down to Shelley s. AJ. This works for me. Rolling Chaos doesn’t work for AJ but he manages to counter Sliced Bread. The moonsault into a reverse DDT by AJ can’t hit either. A belt shot misses and Sliced Bread #2 finishes AJ at 4:50.

Back with a brief recap of what we just saw.

Rating: B-. This was very short for who you had in ther ebut it was certainly fun. I think they’re trying to push the idea of AJ being on the verge of getting thrown out of the group which is fine. The Guns getting a clean win like that over a big name is a great thing to see. Fun little match.

Post match Beer Money beats down the Guns.

Pope is going to call out whomever is following him around.

After another break AJ is getting chewed out by Bischoff saying it’s not as simple as it sounds. Flair says that they just want AJ to be the best he can be. AJ asks if Flair won every match he was in and Flair says no. Eric says it’s not about Flair and more or less says again that if AJ doesn’t get the TV Title on Sunday he’s gone.

Pope is in the ring to address being followed everywhere. He yells about the invasion of privacy and wants the guy to come out here right now. And it’s….Joe? Joe talks about how we’ve seen Pope in the back of the strip club and how no one has gotten their stuff at orphanages and shelters and how there are no puppies there.

Pope goes on a rant talking about how he’s been judged all his life and how he doesn’t need a Samoan in his way now. He has reasons for everything going on, including that he’s just talking to the strippers and telling them that they don’t have to do this to make a buck. His answer for the dog thing is more or less that he loves pit bulls and kids would too. That doesn’t really address Joe saying the kids don’t have them. Pope has spoken though so that’s that.

Sarita/Madison Rayne vs. Velvet Sky/Mickie James

Velvet and Sarita start us off. Always a fan of these tags that get both feuds into a single match as they’re as good of a way to save time as I can think of. Madison breaks up the momentum as we get a great back shot of Sarita. Rayne chokes away at Velvet while Tenay teases Tazz about a slip of the tongue that wasn’t funny.

Rayne keeps making sure Mickie can’t get in because she knows Mickie would destroy her. She does her mat humping move which rams Velvet’s head into the mat. Off to Sarita again with Velvet getting a jumping DDT to counter. Mickie comes in illegally and beats up the champion for awhile. While the referee tries to get her out, Tara pops Velvet with the elbow brace and a punch from Madison lets Sarita get the pin in 4:45.

Rating: C+. This was better than I expected actually. They played up both angles here and did it rather efficiently indeed. The girls looked good, the wrestling wasn’t bad and the angles were given a bit of time. I think I’ve talked myself into giving it a slightly higher grade. Not bad at all.

RVD is talking to Bischoff and he still wants Hardy. Eric gives him a match tonight but won’t say against who. RVD says ok and Hardy is next.

Rob Terry vs. Douglas Williams

Tazz touches on the former alliance here in some nice continuity. Shame that’s such a rarity in wrestling anymore. Doug tries to use some speed moves to start us off. Cravate sets up some knees to the head which Terry simply shrugs off. And here’s AJ to destroy Williams in maybe a minute. He slams Doug’s hand into the steps and post to destroy it before the PPV.

Bubba is heading to the parking lot.

Back with Bubba in the parking lot and D-Von is ready to go. Security holds them back while Bubba runs his mouth. They stay separated until Bubba gets a cheap shot. He says D-Von should think of himself and not show up Sunday for the sake of his kids.

Jarrett says he has a plan for Sunday and an insurance policy. Eric wants to have RVD taken care of tonight and makes a No DQ match which Jarrett seems happy with.

Abyss vs. Jay Lethal

We take a break before the match starts. This is non-title of course because you wouldn’t have a big guy like Abyss go after a title that has no weight limit right? Why would you want your monster to try to claim a title in a match that on paper shouldn’t be a challenge for him? Lethal uses lots of hit and run offense and gets a missile dropkick for two.

Abyss takes over with power but misses a quick splash in the corner. And never mind as the Black Hole Slam kills Lethal. Abyss pauses before covering though and pulls Lethal up at two. Apparently Immortal wants Abyss to soften up Lethal so that Kaz can take the title. Why not have Abyss take the title if he can destroy Lethal that easily? Anyway he chokes in the corner a bit too long and it’s a DQ at 3:40.

Rating: D+. Let’s see. Lethal more or less got destroyed, the lack of this being a title match makes little sense given that Bischoff said get all titles no matter what so there’s no reason to insist on having Kaz get it when Abyss easily could have apparently, and the match was way too short. Weak match.

Kaz comes out and has Abyss hold up Lethal so he can look him in the eye, even though he’s more or less dead.

We get a music video hyping up the PPV and running down the card.

There’s a sitdown interview with Morgan and Anderson which is almost all about the head injury. Morgan says Anderson should be careful while Anderson says wrestlers get injured. Morgan asks who has seen the paperwork saying Anderson is ok and Anderson says it’s none of his business. Tenay wants to know if Anderson is working everyone. Anderson says you’ll find out at Genesis. They stare each other down to end this.

Jeff Jarrett vs. Rob Van Dam

Remember this is No DQ. Jarrett tries to kick with RVD for no apparent reason. He hits what looked a bit like a Superman punch which is about all of his offense for the opening part of this match. Rolling Thunder is aborted as Jarrett hits the floor for a bit. He takes a few laps around the ring and comes back in to get knocked down again.

Murphy trips Van Dam up and Jarrett takes over. If it’s No DQ, why don’t they just come in and pummel him? After some more basic offense they do just that. RVD gets a chair but the numbers are too much for him. RVD fights them off for a bit but Hardy runs in for his cameo and the Twist of Hate ends this at about 5:30.

Rating: C. We’ll say this is right in the middle as they got the psychology correct by having Jarrett’s goons run in for the help somewhat shortly into this. Not a great match at all but the thinking worked and it was kind of entertaining. This was ok and it set up the ending stuff well enough.

Morgan comes out to save RVD as Hardy gets the chair. Anderson comes out and swings the chair, naturally hitting Morgan. He gets all ticked off to end the show.

Overall Rating: B-. The lack of wrestling hurt this a lot. This was a very good go home show that I would have put up probably a full letter higher if the in ring stuff had been more prolific and a bit better. Everything on the PPV got at least some time tonight and I’m kind of interested in what looks like a pretty weak PPV on paper. Not a great show in general, but a very good go home show.

Results
Motor City Machineguns b. Kazarian/AJ Styles – Sliced Bread #2 to Styles
Sarita/Madison Rayne b. Velvet Sky/Mickie James – Punch to Sky
Douglas Williams b. Rob Terry via DQ when AJ Styles interfered
Jay Lethal b. Abyss via DQ when Abyss refused to break a choke hold
Jeff Jarrett b. Rob Van Dam – Twist of Hate from Jeff Hardy

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Robert Roode vs. Chris Sabin

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rob Van Dam vs. Robbie E

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

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

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

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

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

Foley is up next.

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

Velvet Skye vs. Sarita

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

AJ Styles/Rob Terry vs. Douglas Williams/Magnus

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

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

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

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

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

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

Foley comes out for commentary on the main event.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Results

Robert Roode b. Chris Sabin – Spinebuster

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

Sarita b. Velvet Skye – Sarita touched the fourth corner

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

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

Impact
Date: December 23, 2010
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Taz, Mike Tenay
Episode Title: All the Gold is Worth a Fourtune

It’s Christmas time around the Impact Zone so expect a theme to tonight’s show. Tonight we have AJ vs. Williams in an Iron Man Match which most of you likely haven’t heard about prior to this as it was announced on ReAction instead of when the vast audience was, you know, watching. Other than that there hasn’t been anything major announced. Oh and the tag title tournament ends tonight. Let’s get to it.

We open with a recap of the tag match main event from last week where Anderson’s head was all messed up and Rob Terry cost Morgan/Anderson the match.

In the arena here’s Fourtune/Immortal. They really need a name for that whole team. Ok apparently their full name is Immortal and Fourtune is just a part of that. Terry is with them too. This is for the weigh-in for the #1 contenders match. Flair talks about their greatness as is his custom but shifts his attention to Terry.

He’s being offered a job as a bodyguard according to Flair but we hand the mic to Bischoff. Eric talks about how there are doctors here to check both guys and make sure they’re ok for Genesis. Morgan comes out and blows the crowd so far away that they can’t even move. Morgan says this is all a sham and that Bischoff is hitting new lows by having Anderson fight hurt because that’s beyond wrestling.

Eric disagrees and the doctors he has here are going to check Anderson and Morgan tonight. Flair tries to tell Morgan that it’s ok and here comes Mick Foley of all people. He says his career is probably over due to the amount of concussions he’s had. Foley says that if he has anything to say about it, the match doesn’t happen.

Flair says that Foley is a whiny, pathetic human being. He blames Foley for the rise in kids hurting themselves for the sake of violence. They get into their usual wrestler vs. non-wrestler thing. Foley wants to be part of the solution, which Flair says is to kiss up to him. Foley knocks the mic out of Flair’s hand and talks about coming into a morgue to check their brains when they’re dead. Flair says he’ll die in a ring or on top of a wild woman. Ok then.

Bischoff says Foley is here to try to be the hero now that his books and comedy career are failures. Apparently Foley is riding the coattails of people that have to follow Foley now because he set the bar too high with violence.

Cue theme song.

Mike and Taz run down the card which is the stuff I told you about already, plus the tag titles on the line in an 8 man tag with Beer Money/Abyss/Jeff Hardy vs. The Guns/RVD/Morgan. Whichever team wins, their tag team gets the belts.

Back from a break with Jeff Hardy coming to talk to Morgan. This isn’t about either of them but rather about professional wrestling. Basically Jeff asks who are Anderson and Flair to tell Morgan what to do. Jeff tries to get Morgan back to the Dark Side.

It’s time for another Jarrett MMA thing. We do get a Gracie Train here which is sort of funny. Jarrett says he’s tired of all the people in the Impact Zone losing so he’s going to open it up to the professionals. Amazing Red impressed him last week so he’s going to get another shot tonight.

Red comes out and is checked but gets Vaseline or something similar to it in his eyes which screws him up. Jarrett gets an ankle lock on for a long time but Red taps in less than a minute. Red has a brother so next week it’s Jarrett vs. the brother apparently. The fans chant for Angle and Jeff gets scared.

Tara and Rayne talk about the match later on and Tara’s arm is still messed up. Tara wants to make this go by fast to get to a party with Generation Me.

RVD is really excited about getting his hands on Hardy later.

Jeremy Buck vs. Max Buck vs. Kazarian vs. Robbie E

Winner gets Lethal at some point which is probably at Genesis. I’m kind of surprised we’re getting a match this early. We’re only 35 minutes into the show. They had that two week stretch where they got stuff in earlier. Yeah the match is at Genesis. You have to tag in and out here and we start with Gen Me facing off.

Robbie fist pumps on the apron so Gen Me double teams him for awhile. Kaz breaks up a pin attempt on Max which gets two for Robbie. He’s playing spoiler tonight apparently as he keeps breaking up covers. Basically this is Gen Me in a semi tag match where the partners don’t work together.

They dominate for the most part as Kaz hasn’t been in yet, pretty clearly forecasting his victory. They set for More Bang For Your Buck but here comes Kaz. He destroys everyone and hits his reverse Piledriver on Max for the win at 3:30. He and Kaz have a staredown for awhile.

Rating: C. Nothing special here aside from the usual Gen Me spots which are always pretty cool. Kaz was always going to win this and it was about as obvious as you could ask for. It wasn’t bad or anything but for three and a half minutes it’s not like they could really get anything going.

Sarita goes into Velvet’s locker room with a belt and closes the door. SWEET! KNOCKOUT BONDAGE ACTION!

During the break we missed Sarita destroying Velvet with the belt and choking her. Nice job of the cameraman to sit back and watch an assault and attempted strangulation. Sarita keeps yelling about how Angelina won’t always be there to save her, prompting Angelina to bounce in after Sarita left.

Eric and Flair talk about how Immortal is in checkmate because of Dixie and her attorneys and the judge so they need all the belts they can get. They need to live up to Hardy and Flair’s standards.

Kendrick talks to some chick about being lied to and gets a cookie. It looks like a cafeteria or something. Does TNA have any idea where they’re going with all these things or do they just throw random things out there and hope we make sense out of them?

Knockouts Tag Titles: Madison Rayne/Tara vs. Angelina Love

I forgot Madison was champion. That’s just not good at all. Angelina is introduced as being on her own due to Velvet being beaten down. It’s more or less Angelina vs. Madison as Tara can’t go because of her arm. Tara comes in for a few seconds but can’t do much at all due to the injury. She comes in, gets three stomps and a left handed choke and leaves. Not her fault of course but it makes the whole tag title thing a bit of a stretch.

Madison does her head scissors stomp thing and even her shapely form can’t even get the crowd into this. Winter comes down and cleans house as Angelina tags her in. Apparently she’s taking over. A really bad Catatonic (spinning Rock Bottom from a slam position) ends Madison at 4:50.

Rating: D. The crowd was dead for this. For a tag match having a total of three tags is a bit of a stretch. These belts don’t need to exist at all and you can see that more and more often every week. This wasn’t interesting at all and with the roster getting slimmer and slimmer, they need to do something with it soon. Winter will help, but they need more girls and fast.

Back from a break Pope is on the phone and says things need to go down the way he wants it to or things will be bad. Jordan and Young, in a freaking reindeer costume, presents Pope with a donation to the Congregation which is apparently raising money for kids. Pope talks to the person on the phone and says make the deal because he has some more funds.

TV Title: AJ Styles vs. Doug Williams

15 minute Iron Man match here. It’s a technical match to start us off here. They go to the mat with some very nice stuff. In a slick counter, AJ tries to nip up off the mat and Williams just dives on him and grabs a headlock. Williams gets a knee in the corner and we take a break to make sure we don’t see 15 minutes of good wrestling in one sitting.

Back with AJ holding a chinlock on Williams. During the break AJ got the first fall with a Styles Clash. Well of course he did. Not like anyone would want to see a champion get pinned as it happens right? AJ goes into a clock freeze which is smart and puts Williams down on the floor. Would it be too hard to give us a clock?

Ok apparently we have 4 minutes left. With maybe two and a half left they crank it way up and things get good. The springboard forearm is caught in a suplex. AJ’s eyes are awesome as he lays on the mat. Under two minutes now. One minute left as Williams is still down one. Rolling Chaos Theory kills AJ with under thirty seconds left. Both guys are down as the clock runs out.

Rating: B-. Solid stuff here with some psychology thrown in on the side. That’s not something you often get on TV matches today so that’s a definite perk. Seeing about 66% of the match isn’t a good thing really though but it could have been a lot worse. Good match as both guys can work a lot of styles (no pun intended) and it makes for good TV.

We’re going to get a five minute overtime, so of course we take a break.

Back with the overtime having already started. Tornado DDT gets two for Williams almost immediately. Springboard forearm gets two as well. There isn’t much other than laying around in between if you were wondering. Styles Clash is reversed into an Alabama Alsm for two. After some blocked suplexes from both guys the Pele gets two. Over three minutes are done already.

And now we have one minute left, meaning we missed about a minute during a commercial. Still no clock as I guess all the technology resources went to Dixie’s Twitter even though she has no affiliation to the company in storyline terms but still announces all the official business. We get a clock with 30 seconds left and Douglas gets a belly to back off the top but can’t get a cover before the bell rings. I won’t give a rating to the overtime but it was about on the same level as the earlier part if not a bit better.

AJ grabs a mic and says the people want a winner. He wants one more time at Genesis but Doug says no. Who’s the face here again? AJ runs down Williams a bit and Doug gives in and agrees to a match. If Williams wins, AJ has to leave Fourtune. AJ says no but Bischoff comes out and says do it or leave Fourtune, Immortal and TNA.

Team Beer Money has a powwow and Hardy says RVD can come get him.

Anderson will be on the phone next.

Apparently on the phone means a satellite interview. Anderson is cleared to return to the ring at Genesis. This would apparently be his return after the long time since his match last week. Taz and Anderson have a bit of an incident about Anderson not being totally back to full health. Anderson walks off after Tenay asks about proper paperwork.

Team MCMG is ready but Morgan isn’t happy about what Anderson said.

Tag Titles: Beer Money/Jeff Hardy/Abyss vs. Motor City Machine Guns/Matt Morgan/Rob Van Dam

Surprised there wasn’t a commercial before the entrances here. The champions’ team clears the ring and we take a break before the bell. Naturally they lied to us and the bell rang during the break. RVD vs. Storm is the first thing we see when we get back. Morgan comes in to beat on people for awhile. Is there a reason this isn’t a straight up tag title match?

The Guns do their awesome stuff to Roode as their team has controlled throughout so far. Sliced Bread is blocked though and Storm crotched Shelley to take over. Abyss comes in and Shelly, his former tag partner of all things, takes a beating. A few people boo when Hardy comes in. I’d like to see them take the show on the road to see if that would be the case elsewhere.

Hardy spits at RVD and Rob’s attempts to get at him only cause more pain for Shelley. Where’s Hardy to write bad songs about it when you need him? BEER! MONEY! Is that in case they get lost or something? Eye of the Storm is reversed but Hardy stops the tag. We go to ReAction (meaning I should cut off the review right now but whatever) as RVD gets the hot tag and Hardy runs.

Rolling Thunder gets two on Roode. Morgan comes in and hits the footprint on Abyss but goes down to a Twist of Hate. Hardy gets away from RVD again and they go to the floor. Sabin gets a tornado DDT out of nowhere to Roode for the pin to retain at approximately 8:50. JB sounds about as bored and uninterested as you could ask for him to be.

Rating: C+. Pretty fun match but it kind of begs the question of does Beer Money get another title shot at Genesis and if so, why? They just got a shot and they lost it. Why would they receive another one? This was pretty fast paced and formula based but good speed and pacing pulled it through to be pretty solid.

Overall Rating: C-. Not a horrible show at all although nothing really great. The Iron Man match is rather good, annoying times for commercials aside. This was really just a show to build up Genesis and there’s nothing wrong with that. Aside from the Iron Man match though, there were some problems here. The opening match was about as worthless as you could ask for and the women’s match was rather bad. The main event was ok but the booking is kind of a head scratcher. Not a bad show at all, but nothing great either.

Impact
Date: December 16, 2010
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Tazz
Episode Title: Head Games?

Tonight it’s another episode of Impact with three announced matches. First off we have the X Division Title on the line as Robbie E defends against Jay Lethal. We also have Mickie James and a partner to be named facing Madison Rayne and Tara in the tag title tournament. Finally, Rob Terry is back and facing Rob Van Dam. Kind of random but ok. Let’s get to it.

We open with a recap of the events last week that set up Anderson vs. Morgan at Genesis. Anderson talks about having a lot of concussions including the one from Hardy on Impact a few months ago. Is Hardy wrestling at the PPV? It doesn’t look like it.

Anyway Anderson gets here and kicks what looks like a time card display but it’s the match listing for tonight. Anderson is in a tag match against Hardy but it all ticked off about it. Morgan comes up to ask him what’s wrong but Anderson won’t say. It might be something about him not being cleared tonight. Morgan is his partner to little surprise.

Morgan comes into the arena and talks about how he made a choice to turn his back on Immortal and stand up for the injured Anderson. It was the right choice according to him. Tonight it’s Morgan/Anderson vs. Hardy/Kazarian and once the bell rings he can’t help Anderson anymore. If Anderson gets hurt tonight it’s not on him.

Here’s Anderson who talks about cheese and rice. Oh I get it. He says that he appreciates what Morgan has done for him but he is a man and a wrestler, so that’s what he’s going to do. Anderson offers a note from mommy or his doctor but Morgan says that’s not what matters. He says do what’s right by his fans. Morgan talks about Christopher Nowitski’s Sports Legacy Institute and about how they’ve been told to stand up to promoters if they’re injured.

Anderson can’t respond as Jeff comes out and says they should just get married. There’s so much smoke you can only see the outline of Jeff and barely anything behind him at all. Jeff asks how Anderson knows Morgan isn’t still working for Immortal. He goes on to say that Morgan needs to worry about himself, not Anderson. Hardy rambles about marks and how it’s all about the belt and the match tonight.

Tonight it’s another Jarrett MMA invitational thing.

Mickie/??? Vs. Rayne/Tara and the aforementioned main event tag match.

X-Division Title: Jay Lethal vs. Robbie E

At least Cookie looks good. Lethal jumps him for a fast start. Cookie trips Lethal seconds into it and his nose slams into the mat. Here comes Christy bouncing down the ramp with a pair of handcuffs to hook herself to Cookie. It’s a new zany comedy coming this Fall! We take a break with Robbie hammering on Lethal in the corner.

Back with Lethal getting a small package for two. Robbie gets a nice Russian leg sweep for two. The girls start fighting at ringside which means Christy beats on her. ReAction starts at 11:30 tonight only. Hopefully that’s a permanent thing. Lethal gets a suplex to take over again. We cut to Christy jumping in excitement. I regain consciousness as Lethal gets a nice top rope elbow for two.

Robbie gets a rollup with the ropes for two but gets caught as he goes up top. Superplex by Lethal has Robbie and the title in big trouble. Cookie tries to slip the spray in to Robbie get it winds up in her own eyes. Lethal Injection gives Jay his 6th title reign at 7:00 shown out of 10:30 total. Jay kisses Christy post match.

Rating: C+. Pretty good match here but all the interference and focus on the girls hurt a bit. This wasn’t terrible and Lethal should have the title again. At least we don’t have to see Robbie on TV as much anymore. Pretty good match and the longest Impact match I can remember in awhile.

AJ makes fun of Robbie until Eric calls him out for losing the TV Title. Anyone can imitate Flair apparently and he needs to be a leader. Possible seeds of a face turn?

Douglas Williams says that he thinks beating AJ with his own finisher was entertaining. He calls over Magnus who for some reason still has a job. Chelsea is gone and Wolfe is coming back soon. We follow Williams into his dressing room as he answers some questions about AJ but is jumped by AJ himself who beats the tar out of him.

Actually this looks like an apartment or a really nice trailer. The girls are getting dressed in there and freak about the guys being there. Williams takes a big beating as I still have no idea where we are. The girls are getting annoying, throwing shoes at AJ to get him out. This goes on for a good while as Williams gets destroyed.

And from that to this. Jordan is trying to find Eric Young who has his own Hooters girls and a title belt that he found in a garbage can and claimed for himself. Jordan isn’t sure about the girls and walks off. His outfit makes him look like a peacock exploded on him. We follow Eric who goes to find his sensei. It’s Brian Kendrick who says a lot of philosophical stuff including “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” Uh…..yeah.

Hardy talks about the tag match tonight and about how he’s glad to be in the tag match tonight.

Generation Me vs. Eric Young/Orlando Jordan

We hear about a Hooters special of Hooters girls in bikinis while skiing. And I was right about what I was expecting: Orlando Jordan comes out in a Hooters outfit. I knew I recognized that title belt: it’s the old TNA World Title belt, as in the one that Hardy threw in a trashcan. Young says this is a battle royal for the title. He dumps out the referee but Brian Hebner slides back in.

Ok so it’s a tag match. Eric throws out everyone anyway including his partner and declares himself the winner. Gen Me jumps Young and hit on the Hooters girls before Jordan comes in to clean house. Young gets a nice dive to take out Gen Me. Jordan gets a modified cobra clutch to end this comedy match at roughly 3:00.

Rating: C-. From a quality standpoint it was pretty bad but from a comedy standpoint which was the point of the match it was ok. Nothing all that great but it filled in some time I guess. I hope they can stick to Eric’s comedy thing of the month for awhile for a change though.

Mickie comes up to Eric and wants to know who her partner is. It’s Miss Tessmacher and I don’t think Mickie is thrilled.

Knockouts Tag Title Semi-Finals: Mickie James/Miss Tessmacher vs. Tara/Madison Rayne

Sweet GOODNESS Tessmacher is gorgeous. Mickie and Rayne start us off but Tessmacher comes in instead. Rayne vs. Mickie for the title at Genesis. Madison beats Tessmacher down for awhile and chokes away. She misses a shoulder off the middle rope though and here’s Mickie. Neckbreaker takes down Madison as Tara hasn’t been in yet. Tara gets in a shot with her brace on her arm and a punch from Madison is enough to pin Mickie at 4:30.

Rating: D. This was pretty bad indeed but the girls looked great so I’ll give them that. With the recent cuts to the division having Tessmacher out there could help a bit. Tara must be hurt from the cage match as she was never in the match. Mickie getting the title shot is also a good thing as she’s the best they have in the division at the moment.

Beautiful People vs. Madison/Tara for the titles next week.

Kaz insults Rob Terry a bit and might have been recruiting him for Fourtune/Immortal. We also hear that Rhyno is officially gone.

Pope is in the back and gets a donation from some guy. That’s worthy of an amen. It’s nice to actually see them going somewhere religious with this street preacher thing.

Brother Ray comes out with a name patch that says hardcore. He wants the toughest guy in the locker room.

Brother Ray vs. Amazing Red

This is another bully themed angle it seems. It’s a total squash for a few minutes until Ray runs his mouth off to Red. The announcers push the whole bullying aspect to no end. Red gets in a few shots but Ray kicks his head off and the Bubba Bomb ends it at 3:00. No rating for it being just a squash. D-Von runs out to stop a Conchairto and it’s the Dudley Explosion at Genesis.

Jarrett talks about his MMA thing some more.

Someone that might be Pope gets into a car and drives off.

Rob Van Dam vs. Rob Terry

RVD says that he doesn’t care who Bischoff puts in front of him because he’ll get by them. Van Dam hammers away to start but falls victim to the power game soon. Terry gets some shoulder blocks in the corner to RVD then changes gears by going to the front. Terry takes him down as we take a break.

Back with Rob Terry sending RVD into the railing ribs first. More power moves have Van Dam in trouble until Van Dam unleashes the kicks. Rolling Thunder hits for no cover but the Five Star ends it at 6:00 shown of 9:30.

Rating: C. Pretty one sided match for the vast majority of it but wasn’t that bad. I do kind of wonder why they brought back in Terry to have Van Dam no sell most of his offense and then win with a few kicks and the splash, but there may be something coming in the future so it’s too early to tell. Decent match but nothing great or anything.

We get a quick recap of Jarrett’s MMA career and the MMA challenge is up next.

Pope gets out of his car with the donation in hand and goes into a strip club. Cue evil, ominous music!

Jarrett comes out to Kurt’s riser entrance. His students help him get fired up along with Gunner and Murphy. Some guy in a green hat is picked after various people are insulted. A rear naked choke ends it in about a minute or so of course.

Mr. Anderson/Matt Morgan vs. Jeff Hardy/Kazarian

Anderson starts with Hardy but Jeff flips him off and it’s off to Kaz. Anderson is actually wrestling so I guess he really is back. Enziguri to the back of the head by Kaz gets two. Kazarian is whipped into the corner and falls down and his head rams into Anderson’s for a scary shot. Here comes Morgan who drills Kaz with a big right hand.

Hardy’s cheating allows Immourtune to take over with more shots to the back of Anderson’s head. He looks a bit deceased but gets back in to break up a double suplex. Down goes the referee and Anderson goes up. Rob Terry comes out and shoves him off to allow Jeff to hit the Twist of Hate on Morgan for the pin at 6:40. Anderson and Morgan had a mini-staredown to end the show.

Rating: C+. Well they did something with Terry so points for that. This was your run of the mill main event tag match and while it was pretty decent it wasn’t anything great. Furthering the wedge between the two good guys is a smart idea as it builds up their PPV match and we also add in something with Terry, which is a bit of overkill but nothing too bad. Decent main event to a pretty bad show.

Overall Rating: D+. Where did this show go? What actually happened here? The matches were ok but this was one of the most lackluster shows I’ve seen in a very long time. It felt like it was barely half an hour in when we were on the verge of being done.

Ok so Pope uses his donation money at strip clubs, Anderson can wrestle again and some matches were announced for the show. Some minor things happened but this show flew by and it felt like nothing of note happened (the X Title change wouldn’t be classified as something of note if you’re wondering). Not a terrible show by any stretch but rather lackluster.

Impact
Date: December 9, 2010
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Taz
Episode Title: Immortal Ups the Ante

Tonight is the fallout show from Final Resolution where for the most part Immortal reigned on high. Jeff Hardy retained his world title, Jeff Jarrett made Samoa Joe tap and Abyss put the Pope in a casket, which to any non wrestling fan would certainly raise an eyebrow or two. Tonight we see where things go from here as we head towards Genesis. Let’s get to it.

We open with a recap of Morgan vs. Hardy at the PPV and the rather odd moment at the PPV of Bischoff throwing in a referee when Hardy was covered. I didn’t really understand that at the time but it could have been out of fear of Morgan I suppose.

The first shot on the actual show is Bischoff lecturing Immortal and Fourtune in his office. Apparently they may be in a lot of trouble due to Dixie’s lawsuit against Hogan. Bischoff says that they need all the titles and gold they can get in case things go bad in court. He calls out AJ for losing to Williams at the PPV but tells him to sit down.

Rhyno comes in and asks for the contract that Eric promised him. Eric writes NO in green marker on a piece of paper and gets on him for losing to RVD. Eric more or less says go away and Rhyno lunges at him, only to have the troops make the save.

Out to the arena with Immortal, complete with a new name graphic. If my math is right they have 10 guys here, not including Hogan and Hardy who aren’t here. Eric brings out Hardy because ten guys in the ring at once isn’t enough I suppose. After some destruction, Bischoff asks Morgan to come down. The Blueprint comes down with a pipe. At least he’s smart about it.

Bischoff says everything is about fair play now. As long as it’s not Johnny I can live with that. Bischoff says he watched the Morgan/Hardy match 25 times today. It was 12 minutes long so he really spent 5 hours watching the same match? Is he turning into Howard Hughes? Bischoff says Morgan could have beaten Hardy but the referee messed things up.

Morgan vs. Anderson for the next shot at Hardy is made for tonight. Anderson isn’t cleared to wrestle though so Morgan says no match. Bischoff doesn’t seem to care and says that if Anderson doesn’t wrestle tonight he’s gone. Immortal has new music here which is a really scratchy sounding version of Hogan’s TNA theme.

Theme song hits fifteen minutes into the broadcast.

Tara is going to perform tonight, as in singing.

Another MMA contest tonight. I’m still not sure what I think of this gimmick for Jarrett.

Abyss vs. Williams for the TV Title tonight.

Brother Ray says that tonight he proves that he was the star and that anyone could have been D-Von. He says come on D-Von and we see a fake D-Von. Can they just have their bad and uninteresting matches and get them over with?

Back and we’re told that Hamada has passport issues and the Knockout Tag Titles are vacant. We’re going to have a tag team title tournament with four teams to determine the new Knockout Tag Champions. This is what, the second time the belts have been vacated due to lack of defenses? Why are they keeping these things around?

Team 3D vs. Ink Inc

Remember it’s a fake D-Von. It’s a student from the wrestling school according to Taz. Bubba has to keep giving D-Von tips and instructions as they do some Dudley signature moves. Moore goes for a sunset flip and Bubba misses as he tries to drop down onto his chest. D-Von is rather green and misses a middle rope headbutt.

Neal, who is also a student of Team 3D, comes in to clean a few rooms. He isn’t doing enough to qualify for cleaning house. Jesse gets a nice move on D-Von where he sets for a belly to back suplex but slams forward instead to drive D-Von’s face into the mat. Bubba fights the heroes off and we get What’s Up and GET THE TABLES to a limited reaction. Ink Inc gets back up as the table is set up and the Mooregasm takes out D-Von to end this at 4:45.

Rating: C. Not bad here as it was there to further the Dudley Boy Explosion which could manage to set new lows in lack of people wanting to see a feud. The idea was fairly creative here or at least it hasn’t been used in a very long time which is fine. Nothing special but it wasn’t here for the wrestling anyway so I can’t complain much.

Bubba beats up D-Von post match but D-Von makes the save to save….himself I guess. The real D-Von ran in if that didn’t make sense. The match is announced for Genesis.

Tara is warming up and hits on Gen Me who are going to be her backup dancers. She makes them take off their shirts before they go out as her cougar character continues. Can’t complain about a sexed up Tara.

Back and Morgan is looking for Anderson who Christy hasn’t seen. He was shown earlier in the opening segment.

Tara sings her theme song which is pretty clearly lip-synched. A little bit of trivia for you very old school TNA fans: Goldilocks sings Tara’s theme song. This is basically just an excuse for Tara to be in loose clothing and to gyrate a lot. And of course here’s Mickie to drill her after about a minute to the surprise of no one.

Eric Young of all people comes out to save Mickie when Gen Me holds her arms. I’m not sure why they’re connected all of a sudden but apparently they are. The song playing throughout the majority of this brawl is good for a nice chuckle. Mickie says she’s sick of this so they need to have a cage match. This is happening tonight apparently. Great to see them giving a blowoff to a long running angle the proper build it deserves of a full hour.

Beer Money wants Gunner and Murphy to rough up the Guns before the title match at Genesis. Roode gives Storm more money for beer, which is I think his first money related action in many months.

Jarrett says that his fans have poured out a ton of support after his victory Sunday. He’s starting an MMA Challenge series for his money tonight.

Gunner/Murphy vs. Motor City Machineguns

I have a feeling the Guns drop the belts at Genesis. Beer Money comes out to do commentary and their entrance allows the security guys to take over early. Only Storm has a headset. Shelly starts for the champions and I have no idea which security guy is which so barring the announcers telling us I’m not sure who is who.

Storm says the Guns remind him of a six pack of Zima. That’s certainly a unique analogy to make. The Guns finally take over and set for Skull and Bones but Murphy brings in a nightstick to drill Shelly with to draw the DQ at about 3:45. The Guns beat down the security guys post match.

Rating: D+. Nothing special here at all with this being here to set up the Guns vs. Beer Money at the PPV. It’s kind of telling that the tag titles have had three teams fighting for them since the Guns won them: the champions, the team the champions used to be feuding with and the former champions. This depth to the division is kind of a stretch to put it mildly.

The Beautiful People are getting ready and Winter comes in, freaking out Velvet. She asks Angelina what’s going on and they leave.

Anderson tells Morgan he’s wrestling tonight which Morgan isn’t happy with at all. He yells about turning his back on Immortal to stand up for the wrestlers after Anderson got hurt. This goes on for a very long time but it’s interesting.

Knockouts Tag Titles Semi-Finals: Daffney/Sarita vs. Beautiful People

Daffney stays on the roster and Hamada is fired? Really? Sarita says that whenever Velvet gets in trouble she goes running back to Angelina and asks when she’s going to grow a set so Velvet spears her. Velvet destroys her for the most part including a nice Fujiwara Armbar.

After a save by Daffney she comes in to a nice cheer. Angelina finally comes in and cleans house. She completely dominates both girls and hits Lights Out (Downward Spiral) to end it at 3:30. Sarita says that Velvet still can’t beat her because she’s a loser. This is the bullying angle that was rumored to be coming.

Rating: D+. Another fairly weak match here but as there’s a theme tonight this was more building for the future. That’s certainly a good thing as it sets up the PPV which TNA has been having some issues doing lately. I’m curious as to who the other girls are. I’d think Madison and Tara are one and the other would be Mickie and….who else?

A casket is being brought to the ring.

We recap Mickie and Tara which is summed up as they used to have issues so they’re fighting. We see part of the finale at the PPV which sets up the post finale match tonight. The cage match is billed as the main event. That’s considered the main event over Anderson vs. Morgan?

Recap of the casket match from the PPV.

Here’s the casket and as it opens….a gospel choir in red robes come out singing This Little Light of Mine. Pope’s voice comes over the loudspeaker and says this is a new beginning. He compares himself to Moses and tonight he’s going to help those in need. The choir is dancing the whole time. He talks about a little girl that needs help or something and asks for a donation from the audience.

AJ yells at Abyss to get it done. I’m not going where that line should lead so don’t wait on me to.

We get some clips of TNA in Abu Dhabi which is rather cool.

Mickie talks about doing things for the first time, as in having a cage match.

TV Title: Abyss vs. Douglas Williams

Abyss uses power so Williams tries whatever he can to get out of trouble. Taz tries to convince us this has been all Abyss once he gets a chinlock/neck crank for about 4 seconds. Williams makes a comeback despite not really being on defense that long including a jumping back elbow from the top which is one of my favorite moves. Abyss blocks Rolling Chaos and rips off the turnbuckle. Naturally he goes into it seconds later and a rollup ends it at 3:40.

Rating: C-. This was just a step above a squash for Williams as Abyss had maybe 30 seconds of offense in the whole thing and Williams was never in any real danger. It was more like he was trying to find a way to beat Abyss rather than survive. I’m not sure I get the concept of having the soldier of Immortal get treated like this but then again, I’m no professional.

AJ comes out and hits a Styles Clash on Williams on the stage.

Tara accepts Mickie’s challenge. Is there a reason that Tara vs. Mickie James is getting as much if not more camera time than Morgan vs. Anderson? Gen Me is there and it’s them vs. Young/Jordan next week.

It’s time for Jarrett’s MMA open challenge. Simple deal: if any fan can make Jarrett submit they get $100k. The fan is naturally a plant and his name is Mike. Naturally Jarrett destroys him and a rear naked choke ends this non-match. I’m still not sure if I like this character or not but it’s certainly different.

There are 15 minutes left in the show and the cage match and Morgan vs. Anderson are left.

We come back to see the cage ready and then see a package on RVD.

Tara vs. Mickie James

It never ceases to amaze me that Vince let Mickie go because she didn’t look right and that Hugh Hefner turned down Tara for Playboy back in the day. Men have odd choices at times. They brawl outside the cage to start for a bit before actually going into it. Mike says we’ve got to take a break. The bell rings between “take” and “a”. Talk about cutting things close.

Back and apparently Morgan vs. Anderson is at Genesis. That makes a lot more sense from a time perspective but it’s kind of confusing as I could have sworn they said it was happening tonight. Tara is thinking about leaving but goes back for some more violence. Mickie gets a reversal and an Edge-O-Matic to take over. Seated dropkick gets two. Tara takes over again and gets a snap suplex before rolling through into a guillotine choke.

The dueling chants are REALLY loud here. They go up to the corner and Mickie grabs the cage and lifts her legs up. She goes for a rana off the top but is caught in a semi-powerbomb that looked really bad. Until then for two girls that hate each other this much they’re being pretty tame in there. Mickie is thrown into the cage door.

ReAction starts (as my blood pressure rises in anger over it) and Mickie can’t get a comeback going. Mickie more or less Hulks Up and throws Tara all over the place. One of the time sends her into the cage which gave her a serious injury that is going to keep her out for a few weeks apparently.

They go up to the same corner as before and Mickie kicks Tara down before heading up the cage. We get the huge spot as she hits a Thesz Press off the top of the cage for the win at 13:15. Mickie apparently messed up her knee legitimately so both girls are hurt now. Solid match.

Rating: B. I liked this quite a bit. Solid stuff and they took a chance on it. You certainly can’t say they didn’t try something new here so big points for them on that front. The match worked, but please, NO MORE BETWEEN THESE TWO. For one thing, this is the definitive blowoff to the two of them. Good stuff and I liked it rather well.

Overall Rating: B-. WOW. I actually liked the show this week. It’s not a perfect show or anything like that as there were problems with it, but for the vast majority this worked. The most important thing is that they set up a lot for Genesis which is what a show like this is supposed to be.

The main event was good and it was set up mostly well. The main criticism I’d have for this show is that the main event was a big deal and good but it got a single hour of buildup. If you weren’t watching tonight, you simply miss the match. That’s not smart business at all. All that being said though, this was a rather solid show and the best since Bound For Glory. Not perfect, but certainly acceptable if not rather good at times.