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

Counting tonight there are four shows left before Bound For Glory. Last night the rest of the shows leading up to the PPV were taped in Nashville so the entire thing has been set. I’ve never been a fan of that but that’s just me. Anyway, tonight we continue with Roode facing Fourtune in his gauntlet style thing as well as continue having Hogan and Sting set up since now that match is official for BFG. Let’s get to it.

Here’s Sting in a Hogan shirt and jeans to open the show with a contract in his hand. He talks about how things are great right now and he wants Hogan here right now. Hogan comes out and says he’s not medically cleared to wrestle. Sting FREAKS (in his insane way) and says he has some footage. It’s of Hogan killing Sting with a chair and beating him up from a few weeks ago. Hogan says he’s not going to fight at BFG even if he’s in shape as Sting has been chasing him for years but never caught up to him.

Sting says ok then. Screw BFG and let’s do it right now. Cue Bischoff for the interruption. He goes off on Sting and Sting doesn’t seem that interested. Eric tells Sting to look at him and Sting does as he clocks Bischoff with a right hand. Eric looks a bit dead now. Sting gets in Hogan’s face and says the match will happen.

Karen talks to Mickie and Tessmacher and says get ready for their match. Mickie leaves and Tessie says none of that erotic stripping stuff. She also tells Traci to cover those things up. She yells at Karen again and Kaz comes up to her to call Karen a madam. He and Traci leave and Karen immediately calls Jeff to yell.

Jeff Hardy arrives and is looking for someone to talk to.

Brooke Tessmacher vs. Mickie James

This is part of the qualifying series for the title match at BFG. The crowd goes almost silent once the bell rings. They fight over a wristlock (the girls, not the crowd, although that would be interesting to see) and we’re in the always awkward face vs. face match here. Tessmacher gets a rana for two and a dropkick to take over.

She grinds onto Mickie’s face in the corner and Mickie is ticked off. I guess she’s changed teams since her infatuation with Trish. She beats up tessmacher with a bad flapjack and the jumping DDT gets the pin at 2:55. Tessmacher looked MUCH better here than she usually does and is downright watchable.

Mexican America is off to get some new tattoos in a truck.

Al Snow talks to Jeff hardy who says Jeff made a mistake. He shakes Jeff’s hand and says to not make that mistake again and start at the top. Al also says he’s here if Jeff needs him.

X-Division Title: Jesse Sorensen vs. Austin Aries

No entrance for Sorensen. Aries asks for silence before the match which is an old school heel tactic and it works. He takes Jesse to the mat and tries to tick him off. Jesse is all annoyed and Austin steals Jesse’s football. Sorensen adds a third sport to things with a baseball slide and then a HUGE dive over the top to take Aries out. Kid Kash comes out to distract Sorensen which only works for a bit as Sorensen gets a big old Kingstonesque top rope cross body for two.

Aries goes up and jumps into a dropkick for two. Sorensets for something but Austni counters by ramming him into the corner. We get a Let’s Go Jesse/Austin Aries dueling chant. Kash is still there and distracts Jesse again, shoving the football into his chest. That isn’t a DQ for some reason and Jesse throws the ball into Kash’s chest. Aries hits a dropkick to the back of the head and a rollup for the pin at 4:27.

Rating: C. Not bad but Kash vs. Sorensen is something that should be over already. They had a three match series and Sorensen won the thing. What’s the point in continuing it now? Aries probably needed to get a clean win here but I see the idea of having him win with some shenanigans. Not bad but nothing great. Sorensen can jump though.

Anderson and RVD talk about their tag match tonight with Ray and Lynn, their respective opponents at BFG.

Anarquia has a new tattoo on his chest and says we need some tequila. The chicks go off to get it and the tattoo artist has to switch with someone else. Anarquia says he’s afraid of needles so they pray for him to not be scared. As they open their eyes, Ink Inc pops in and beats them up. They fight into the lobby of the place and the tattoo lady pops Anarquia with an elbow. This beating is going on for awhile. Hernandez was put through a table. They beat Anarquia onto a table and tattoo him but we’re not allowed to watch.

Jeff Hardy is looking for Kurt but finds Matt Morgan. Matt says hang for a bit. He rants about what Jeff did from a professional standpoint. Personally though he says he used to be a painkiller addict and he’d be a hypocrite to not give Jeff one last chance. Matt says if Jeff screws up one more time, Morgan will be the first person on him.

In the back, RVD has been put through a table. No idea who did it.

Hardy is talking to Kurt and Kurt doesn’t want him here. Angle says no one wants him here now and Kurt tries to throw him out. Jeff wants to know who Kurt is to judge him. Kurt goes on his rant about how great he is and tells Jeff to get out again. He goes to leave and Jeff stops him, saying it’s because Kurt knows he’s the biggest threat to the title. Kurt says don’t ever say that again and leaves.

Here’s Kurt and he calls out Robert Roode. Here’s Bobby still with the Beer Money theme. We take a break before Roode gets in the ring. Back and Angle says that Roode has passed the first test against Kaz in a great match. Tonight however he has Christopher Daniels. Kurt isn’t sure if Daniels will play by the rules tonight. Roode says this isn’t going to work. For 13 years now he’s given everything to the business and he knows Kurt is the best in the world. However at BFG he’s going to become world champion.

Angle implies he’s gotten to someone that Roode is close to and implies it’s Storm. Here’s the Beer in Beer Money. Roode looks confused and Kurt gives Storm a thumbs up on the way to the ring. He says to Roode that he makes his own rules. However he’s not here to get into it with Roode but rather Angle. Oral sex is implied but Storm wants a match with him instead. Kurt doesn’t turn it down or accept it but Storm seems confident it’s happening. I guess it is happening.

Bully Ray/Jerry Lynn vs. Mr. Anderson/Rob Van Dam

There’s no RVD due to the attack earlier. Ray starts us off but tags in Lynn almost immediately. Anderson is crotched on the top and it’s off to Ray. A splash gets a fast two and we’re in a chinlock about two minutes into this. Lynn gets a rolling…eye poke and Anderson is down. He sets for the Rolling Thunder but stomps on Anderson instead. He’s making fun of Van Dam if that wasn’t clear.

Some double teaming fails and Anderson takes them both down. A neckbreaker gets two on Ray and Anderson takes them both down again, including with an Amazing Red double spin kick to Ray for two. Lynn is sent to the floor and the Bubba Bomb is countered into the Mic Check for two. Lynn made the save but Anderson is able to hit the swanton for two. Lynn comes off the top for a save but hits Ray by mistake….for two. Ok then. Lynn distracts Anderson and a shot with the chain is enough for Ray to pin Anderson at 6:23.

Rating: C. I kind of liked the idea of this match as Anderson couldn’t get the win against the numbers game. The attacker of Rob isn’t a huge issue as it’s pretty clear it was Lynn and Ray, which is fine as it makes sense. Not bad here but it was a bit of a stretch to have Ray kick out of the swanton and the shot off the top from Lynn, although that’s a minor complaint.

Storm says he’s happy about Roode getting the title shot and says he’ll make some trouble with Angle even if he didn’t win the Series.

Christopher Daniels vs. Bobby Roode

Daniels comes out in street clothes. He talks about how he won’t wrestle Roode tonight because it would be a great match, but he has nothing left to prove. Three weeks ago he beat AJ in this ring which means a lot more. Cue AJ who wants to know what the deal is with Daniels. Daniels says there’s nothing to get over because Daniels is the better man. AJ is glad he has his confidence back but if Daniels keeps bringing up AJ’s name, there’s going to be another match. Daniels declines but AJ slaps him. AJ goes to leave but Daniels talks some trash and the fight is on.

After a break they’re STILL fighting. They fight to the back and into the Direct Auto Insurance offices. Why would you have an office in the back of a wrestling arena? They go back to the ring and Kaz comes out to break it up. They get calmed down and Daniels kicks AJ in the balls before bailing.

Angle is with Steiner and says he’ll beat Storm tonight because of the training he’s been doing. Steiner has been training him. Steiner says Angle is the best ever and says Kurt will beat Storm.

Back from a break Kaz and Daniels are still arguing. This makes about 20 minutes on the three parts of this segment. Kaz says they’re not his enemies and to calm down.

Kaz goes to AJ and AJ says that was Daniels showing his true colors. He says Daniels lost his mind after getting a little something going. Kaz says that’s Chris being Chris and says the whole thing is BS. AJ throws up in a trashcan due to the pain in his balls. Kaz talks about how this is about the difference between wrestling and life.

Bischoff tells Hogan he’ll find a loophole. Hogan says he’s got it and has a bombshell waiting for next week.

Kurt Angle vs. James Storm

Storm tries to take it to the mat, probably due to a lack of sobriety. Angle for some reason doesn’t want to do that and Storm pops him with a right hand. We go to the mat again with Storm in control but then Kurt is launched over the top and gets to do his front flip and lands on his feet spot. Angle suplexes him on the floor and takes over back in the ring. After a rest hold they both try cross bodies to send both guys down. Angle might be bleeding from somewhere on his arm.

Storm starts his comeback with some clotheslines and Kurt is in trouble. Backstabber gets two. Angle snaps off a belly to belly for two. Angle Slam is countered into what looked to be the Eye of the Storm but Kurt reverses into the ankle lock which Storm can’t break. Yeah Kurt’s forearm/elbow is bleeding but it’s nothing too serious. Storm finally rolls through for two and sends Kurt’s shoulder into the post for two more. Superkick is countered into rolling Germans for two more. You would think all those twos would get three eventually but they never do.

Moonsault misses (duh) and Storm heads to the apron. Kurt, looking like he could use a cheeseburger, tries to run the ropes but gets his head bitten instead. A top rope elbow gets a VERY close two as this has gotten good. They slug it out and the Eye of the Storm is broken up again. And here’s Gunner for interference to set up the Slam for two.

Angle slaps him around and Storm superkicks the referee. Naturally the kick hits Angle the second time and here’s Earl for two as Gunner pulls him out. Gunner clocks Storm with the belt and I guess the match is thrown out at about 11:30. Roode comes in to take out Gunner. He picks up the belt

Rating: B. This was getting good until the end which is probably the best way they could have gone. I still think Storm costs Roode the title at the PPV which is both good and bad as their feud is pretty much guaranteed at some point but they need to let Roode win the title and have a moment first to set up a slow burn heel turn for Storm. Good TV match here until the pretty obvious ending.

Roode holds up the title to end the show.

Overall Rating: C-. Well the pacing problems are back. There were two stretches tonight with over half an hour between matches. In short, that is not something that should happen. With TNA’s roster as big as it is, that should never be a problem. You could throw anything out there to bridge one of those gaps. The TV Title was won in late May and has been defended twice since, once in June and once in August. You could throw that out there. Maybe the Pope or someone like that.

But no, instead we need to spend THREE segments on AJ vs. Daniels to set up their 900th match on PPV and have a long segment with Ink Inc beating up the tag champs. The wrestling, what little there was, was just ok and the talking was nothing special other than to show that it should be Storm challenging for the title and not Roode. Not their best effort here but they added to BFG so points for that.

Results
Mickie James b. Brooke Tessmacher – Jumping DDT
Austin Aries b. Jesse Sorensen – Rollup
Bully Ray/Jerry Lynn b. Mr. Anderson – Chain to the throat
Kurt Angle vs. James Storm went to a no contest

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

We’re back home in Florida now and we’re on the way to Bound For Glory. The BFG Series is over as well and we’re in the Robert Roode Era as the main event (in name only) of BFG is him challenging Angle for the title. The main part of the show tonight though is Sting vs. Flair with Sting’s career being on the line and Flair trying to prevent Sting vs. Hogan from happening. Let’s get to it.

We open with a recap of the BFG Series matches resulting in Roode winning the tournament. Also Hogan helping Angle keep the title.

Here’s Flair to open the show in robe and presumably ring gear underneath it. He wants to talk to Sting and here’s the crazy man. Flair says tonight it’s Icon vs. God. Sting has an old school colorful robe on. The only way Sting can get to Hogan is over Flair’s dead body. Sting says Flair is going to die tonight then. He’s the Stinger and he’s going to do a lot of evil things to Flair. He’s right in Flair’s face and Sting wants it right now. Security comes in to break it up and Flair says Sting got lucky.

Jeff Hardy is here again.

Jeff says he’s taking another step tonight as far as his recovery goes.

Mexican America vs. D-Von/D’Angelo Dinero/Tara/Miss Tessmacher

It’s an 8 person mixed tag. Hernandez vs. D-Von gets us going with Hernandez asking D-Von to come at him. He does just that and down goes SuperMex. Off to Anarquia who gets beaten up by Pope a little bit. Despite having black hair, being a black man, being about 20 years younger and sounding nothing like him, Pope winds up playing Ricky Morton. Maybe he’s a method actor or something.

That doesn’t last long as he takes Hernandez down with a clothesline and a double tag brings in the other guys. The girls haven’t been in legally at all yet. Clothesline/shoulder puts Anarquia down and a neckbreaker gets two. The fans chant USA as the good guys avoid stereo low blows. The chicks chase each other on the floor and the Mexican chicks hit on D-Von’s kids. Instead of cheering them on like a normal dad would, D-Von and Pope aren’t happy. The girls get in a big catfight and the male champs are sent to the floor. Despite being illegal, Tara and Tessmacher hit stereo moves (couldn’t see Tessmacher but Tara hit a chokebomb on Rosita) for the pins at 5:04.

Rating: D+. What a mess this was. The girls never were legal and the second half of the match was a big mess with everyone running around in a big brawl. That’s Russo 101: when all else fails, throw the wrestling out the window and have people do so much at once that you can’t tell what’s really going on. It works on occasion but it didn’t here, not with that many people at once.

Karen yells at Traci about being late and says to cover up her chest. Traci’s jobs tonight is to bring the Knockouts to Karen’s office.

Karen is yelling at the Knockouts and tells Mickie she gets no rematch. I don’t see Winter. There will be three matches over the next three weeks to determine who qualifies for a fatal fourway at BFG for the title. Mickie fights Tessmacher, Tara vs. Madison and tonight Velvet vs. Angelina. They’re called Queen’s Qualifiers because if there’s one thing you know about Russo, it’s that he has a name for EVERYTHING.

Fourtune is in the ring and AJ brings out Roode for his big entrance. AJ sings his praises and Daniels does as well. Him beating AJ on a fluke a few weeks ago is mentioned a few times as Daniels brings it up at every possible chance. He brings it up a third time and everyone laughs it off. Kaz says they’re a family and they’ll have each others’ backs. They all have goals and Kaz is lucky to be able to call Roode his brother and his friend. Time for the big one in Storm. After all the time he’s missed with his family and everything he’s sacrificed, this is the payoff. Storm sounds legit here.

Storm says he’s sorry about Kurt’s luck and here’s the champ. He tries to convince the rest of Fourtune that they’re jealous but no one seems to buy it. Angle calls the title the Impact World Heavyweight Championship. Angle has the ability to make matches now (what is he the fourth person in this company that can do that?) and Roode has to fight the members of Fourtune and tonight it’s Kaz.

Back and Eric is proud of Kurt’s decision.

Velvet Sky vs. Angelina Love

Angelina jumps her during the entrance (the camera was on the wrong end anyway) but Velvet gets something resembling a bulldog to send Angelina to the floor. Back with Angelina getting two off something we don’t see. Sky’s tights now say Let the Pigeons Loose. Oh great. Just what Tazz needs: a thought that it’s catching on. Sunset flip out of the corner gets two for Velvet. Velvet starts her comeback and tells Winter to get up on the apron. Winter clocks Angelina on the head with the belt (Hebner is cool with it) and a DDT (called a BeauDT but screw that) gives Velvet the win at 9:05 counting commercial.

Rating: D. Your usual Knockout mess here and the ending was really stupid. Why wasn’t that a DQ? Because the script didn’t call for it I suppose. Also, why would Angelina want to go fight Winter? Don’t they love each other or something? Also, seriously, the Beau-DT? I hated the Mick-DT but this is even worse.

Hardy comes up to AJ in the back and AJ doesn’t want to hear it. He calls Jeff selfish and says he almost brought down the whole company. Jeff is selfish and people talk bad about TNA because of him. He’s not out there drinking and doing drugs. AJ says there’s never going to be a time or a place for Jeff to be around AJ. Good stuff from Styles here.

Hogan talks to Flair about the match and says he has a Plan B. Sting pops up and wants to hear Plan A.

Crimson is via satellite and talks about how he’s going to make Joe pay. He’s back in two weeks.

Samoa Joe vs. Matt Morgan

This is a submission match because…..because we needed a gimmick match. Joe jumps him in the corner which gives him an advantage for what must have been a good three seconds. Morgan beats him down but has no idea what to do as far as submissions go. He puts on a triangle armbar but Joe escapes. He gets up and pounds Morgan down then throws on kind of an inverted figure four for the tap at 4:30. I know that’s a short recap but there’s nothing else to say at all.

Rating: D. Again, WHAT IS THE POINT OF IT BEING A SUBMISSION MATCH??? Joe can beat Morgan at something that is Joe’s specially. Is this a stunning revelation and a great achievement for him? I don’t get it but Russo is obsessed with throwing gimmick matches out there so we’ll chalk it up to one of his quirks.

Kurt comes in to talk to Kaz again, offering him the next title shot after Roode. Kaz throws him out.

D-Von talks to Hardy and the truth is that Jeff is a Little Jimmy. Oh wait wrong show. The truth is that Jeff is trying to throw everything away. D-Von says get it through his head and be the Jeff Hardy he can be. At the end if Jeff fails again it’s over. Jeff turns to leave and D-Von says he’ll have Jeff’s back if he needs it.

Kazarian vs. Robert Roode

Roode has some new tights which is a good thing as he needs something to set him apart as a singles guy now. They still have the dollar signs on them which doesn’t make much sense as the money hasn’t meant anything in a long time. They start technically and Roode grabs a front facelock. Kaz breaks out of it and tries his spinning legdrop but Roode moves.

Tornado DDT is countered into a northern lights suplex for two by Rob. Roode goes a bit harder now and Kaz is sent to the floor. Back inside he grabs a front facelock of his own but they speed it up a bit moer and Kaz tries the Fade to Black. Roode counters into the Crossface and Kaz hangs on for a bit but has to tap at 6:07.

Rating: C+. Fun little match here and Roode getting clean wins over his stable mates is a good idea to give him some main event credential. A clean win like that over AJ, especially one where he catches him in the crossface in a counter, would do very well for his career. Good stuff here and a nice surprise.

Angle is watching in the back.

During the replay Taz calls the Fade to Black the Kryptonite Krunch. There’s already a move called that and it’s nowhere near the reverse piledriver.

Video about the premiere of Angle’s new movie Warrior which has gotten really good reviews.

Roode and Kaz had a small argument during the break because Kaz wants to be in that position but he says Roode proved he was the right man for the spot and they shake hands. Roode says he wasn’t expecting this match but they respect each other.

Austin Aries says he backs up his talk. It’s now the A Double Division because he’s a level above the A Level. Next week he makes his first defense.

Roode vs. Daniels next week and Mickie vs. Tessmacher.

Also Ray/Lynn vs. Anderson/RVD. Lynn says RVD is gullible and if RVD hadn’t been high he would have caught on. Ray says he’s been beating up RVD for 15 years but now he’s tired of Anderson sticking his nose in other people’s business.

Sting vs. Ric Flair

They start off with their usual Sting vs. Flair stuff with Flair getting frustrated because Sting keeps escaping his stuff. It’s not exactly crisp but they’re an average age of 57. We take a break and come back with Sting hitting a clothesline to send Flair to the floor. Back in Flair gets a low blow and after about two shots to the leg it’s Figure Four time. Sting gets out of it and Flair works on the knee ever more.

Sting makes the superhero comeback and hits a superplex for two. It looked more like 3 but Immortal ran in late so the referee had to stop. Hogan and Abyss come out but Anderson runs out for the save. Hogan slips something to Flair and he KOs Sting for two. Flair throws a weak chop and Sting Hulks Up. Stinger Splash sets up the Scorpion and Flair taps at 15:06. Yes, fifteen minutes.

Rating: D. Well it was bad but the initial reports of this being unwatchable are a stretch to put it mildly. They were out there WAY too long and I’d love to see the raw footage of this to see how bad it was minus editing and the commercial. Flair shouldn’t be taking those kind of bumps, but who said he made sense?

Hogan and Sting stare each other down to end the show.

Overall Rating: C-. Sting vs. Flair was pretty bad as most of it was chop/punch/no sell for fifteen minutes but the rest of the show wasn’t horrible. The first hour was pretty weak but the rest of it worked well enough I guess. We have most of the pieces set for BFG and I hope we get more of a concrete card set before the show unlike No Surrender. Not a great show but it’s better than most of their recent stuff.

Results
D-Von/D’Angelo Dinero/Tara/Miss Tessmacher b. Mexican America – Chokebomb to Rosita
Velvet Sky b. Angelina Love – DDT
Samoa Joe b. Matt Morgan – Inverted Figure Four
Robert Roode b. Kazarian – Crossface
Sting b. Ric Flair – Scorpion Deathlock

Impact Wrestling
Date: September 8, 2011
Location: Von Braun Center, Huntsville, Alabama
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Tazz

It’s week two in Alabama and it’s also the go home show for No Surrender. That being said, we only have most of the card so far and the world title match has only been announced on Facebook instead of, you know, on the TV show which the majority of the audience actually sees. The big thing tonight is the return of Jeff Hardy on the day that he was sentenced to ten days in jail on drug charges. The return speech could be very interesting. Let’s get to it.

We open with a video about Jeff Hardy and the mess that was Victory Road. He’s back tonight you know.

We also get a clip of last week where Hogan beat Sting up with a chair and cost him the world title. Anderson gets his rematch tonight.

Here’s Anderson to open the show. He talks about how he hasn’t had much to say the last few weeks because he’s been a man of action recently. He signed a deal with the devil though, and that was his own fault. Anderson welcomes the boos for it. The wide shots are really good to see here as there are actual people there instead of it looking like they’re in a lunchbox.

He turns his attention to Bully Ray for keeping him on the outside looking in. Anderson promises to be more annoying than ever before and tonight it starts with him going after Angle. Anderson brings up the dreaded rematch clause and he’s cashing in tonight. He knows it won’t be one on one and he points to the ramp. Here’s Sting to be Anderson’s backup. Sting says he’s like a fungus that won’t go away. This week he’s got the power of the Network and he’ll be the enforcer in the main event.

D-Von/D’Angelo Dinero vs. British Invasion

Winners get Mexican America on Sunday. No intro for the Brits. Magnus vs. D-Von to start. Off to Pope quickly who hammers away with elbows to the head. Williams comes in and slows things down a bit as you would expect from him. A clothesline gets two for Magnus. Mexican America are on commentatry. A middle rope elbow by Magnus gets two for Williams.

Pope fires off a DDT to Magnus and both guys are down. There’s the hot tag to D-Von who cleans house with right hands and power moves. Powerslam gets two on Williams. A Cactus Clothesline by Pope puts Williams on the floor and a release spinebuster by D-Von ends Magnus at 3:56. They seem fine despite almost always having problems.

Rating: C-. Just a quick match here but it wasn’t that bad. Didn’t D-Von not particularly like Pope last week though? Also this is the best they can do for #1 contenders? They’ve won a total of one tag match (this one) and now they get a title shot. That’s wrestling for you I suppose.

An MMA fighter comes in to see Angle.

The Final Four in the BFG Series are Gunner, Roode, Storm and Ray. The matches Sunday are Roode vs. Gunner and Storm vs. Ray. The guy with the most points after those matches go to the PPV. It’s not a tournament, it’s really a points system to go to the biggest show of the year.

All four finalists are in the ring and Ray gets JB out of there. He respects Beer Money but neither of them is going to Bound For Glory. Ray talks about how tag teams want to become great individual wrestlers and every team has done it. Gunner is a guy that is willing to put his personal desires aside and will make sure Ray goes to BFG to win the title. Wrestlers are selfish so Beer Money won’t lay down for each other.

Roode says he doesn’t buy any of what Ray said but they have their eyes set on the world title. They want to be world champion and Sunday only one can walk out #1 contender. Roode asks Ray who is going to be the better man. It’s going to be Roode or Storm because it’s not going to be Gunner or Ray. Roode promises the Beer Money fans that no one will ever split them and no one will ever kill Beer Money. There’s a fatal fourway later on.

We get a recap of Eric’s Hollywood Adventures.

TV Title: Robbie E vs. Eric Young

That MMA guy is on commentary again. What he has to do with this is beyond me but who cares. Robbie keeps trying to put his feet on the ropes for covers and the referee stops counting. And there go Eric’s pants and he’s wearing Jersey Shore style trunks. He hits the top rope elbow for two. A piledriver ends this at 2:51. I’m fine with these antics if the title is defended.

Rob Terry beats up Young post match with a Last Ride.

RVD is looking for Jerry Lynn and hey there he is. Rob gets in his face and Jerry asks what about him. He complains about having to get a real job instead of getting contracts like Rob did. Eric and Hulk called him and asked him about showing up and he said he’s better than Rob. He admits to screwing him and Rob beats him down.

Velvet talks to Mickie who has a dog with her. She mentions wanting to be champion someday. Karen comes in and complains about life in general, saying get rid of the dog. Winter gets her rematch at No Surrender.

Jeff Hardy is here.

TNA World Title: Mr. Anderson vs. Kurt Angle

Sting is guest enforcer. They exchange headlocks to start and it’s a tossup. Angle takes Anderson down with a clothesline and we hit the chinlock. They collide in the middle of the ring and both guys are down. They’re mirroring each other so far. Anderson tries to speed it up but gets caught in a belly to belly for two. Angle Slam is countered and Anderson hits the rolling fireman’s carry drop for two.

Kurt counters the Mic Check and hits the Rolling Germans for two. There go the straps and the ankle lock goes on. Anderson manages to roll through and get two before the Mic Check gets the same. The referee takes a thumb to the eye so Kurt kicks him low and hits the Slam but Sting pulls the referee out. Anderson hits another Mic Check but here’s Gunner for the DQ at 7:12.

Rating: C-. I wasn’t into this as it felt like they were just going through the motions to get to the DQ ending. I can’t stand matches like that because they’re boring and don’t show anything that these guys are capable of. Not a good match for the most part but when you handcuff them like this there’s only so much they can do.

Immortal beats down both guys post match. The fans chant for Hardy but that gets them nowhere.

Immortal is celebrating while Eric is on the phone and doesn’t look happy. He tells them to go outside and isn’t happy with what he hears. He’s almost freaking out about it, asking if it’s a prank call. No idea what it is.

Mickie James/Velvet Sky vs. Angelina Love/Winter

Winter vs. Velvet to start but it’s off to Mickie vs. Angelina before there’s any contact at all. Mickie snaps off a rana out of the corner but a Winter distraction results in a kick to the ribs. Velvet gets a blind tag to come in and a low dropkick gets two. There’s a weak monkey flip and she takes both Winter and Angelina down with a headlock/headscissors combo. Love cheats again and Velvet gets beaten down for awhile. After a long beatdown she makes the hot tag to Mickie and we get the title match preview. With the big hulabaloo going on, Winter sprays blood into Mickie’s face at 5:10 for the pin.

Rating: D+. Love is so skinny it’s getting scary. Other than that, this was your typical Knockout tag: it’s not bad but it’s better than the Divas which is the entire point. I’m still not sure why they gave Mickie the title back already and I hope they don’t give it to Winter again on Sunday because it would be pretty stupid to have the change that fast. This wasn’t terrible though.

Here’s Austin Aries to say he’s going to win the title Sunday. He tells the fans to shut up a lot so clearly he’s not a nice person. Aries calls Kendrick a hypocrite and calls out Kendrick here and now. Here’s the champ in a suit with a briefacse. He talks about being tired of being a social outcast and wants to be a success, like Aries. “I’m even wearing shoes!” And yeah he hates them. He goes into a bit rant about how he needs to be free to reach his mother earth and quotes Buddha a bit. Kendrick calls the title materialistic and Aries insults him a lot. The brawl is on and Aries runs.

Hogan is freaking in a good way and Eric is still upset. He talks about going to the beach and Eric says we’re not done yet. The Network isn’t happy. Because of the beating that Hogan is so happy about there’s a three way for the title at No Surrender with Angle vs. Sting vs. Anderson.

James Storm vs. Robert Roode vs. Gunner vs. Bully Ray

One fall to a finish here. It’s tornado rules too. Here’s Joe almost immediately and here’s Morgan just as fast to stop him. Morgan vs. Joe on Sunday also. Ray and Storm stand tall for a bit until Ray runs Storm over. Beer Money cleans house and teases going at it until Ray breaks that up. Gunner goes for a cover and Ray isn’t happy with it. A big clothesline gets two on Roode.

Storm comes back in with a top rope cross body and beats up Gunner a bit. Roode hammers on Gunner and hits the spinebuster for two. Beer Money teases it again but instead they suplex Gunner and SHOUT THEIR NAMES. Ray runs them both over and takes them both out with power stuff. Gunner hits a running knee to Ray’s head for the pin at 5:00. That was nice as he was left in the background and then stole the pin.

Rating: C. This was ok but it was nothing great. I wish this had been the way the BFG Final went at the PPV because it would make more sense but I guess they need to flesh out the card more and have some overly complicated rules. Not bad here and Gunner winning was a nice surprise also. Nothing great but not bad.

Here’s Jeff with like two minutes left. He talks about how he was messed up last time and he’s sorry about it. He had a problem and hit rock bottom there. Everyone is mad at him and he can’t blame them. His eyes look decent at least. He wants one more shot. The fans chant one more shot. He says all he can do is ask and that’s it.

Overall Rating: B-. Pretty good show this week but you can see a lot of problems. For one thing we got three title matches added with three days left before the PPV, one of which is the main event. That’s a match that could draw in some people and they’re adding it in at the last minute. The Hardy thing is too early to tell but my initial instinct is not to trust him, which is partially the point and all of the problem. Good show this week but No Surrender feels thrown together and that’s not good.

Results

D-Von/D’Angelo Dinero b. British Invasion – Spinebuster to Williams

Eric Young b. Robbie E – Piledriver

Mr. Anderson b. Kurt Angle via DQ when Gunner interfered

Winter/Angelina Love b. Mickie James/Velvet Sky – Winter spit blood in James’ face

Gunner b. James Storm, Robert Roode and Bully Ray – Running knee to Ray

Impact Wrestling
Date: September 1, 2011
Location: Von Braun Center, Huntsville, Alabama
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Tazz

No we’re NOT IN ORLANDO TONIGHT! This should be a nice change of pace and it’s always interesting to see the difference between a burned out crowd as the Orlando fans are as opposed to see a fresh group of people seeing it. We get some more building towards No Surrender and it might be the last night of the BFG Series. Let’s get to it.

Here’s Hogan to open the show and threaten to get in a fight with a fan in the front row. He talks about how the Network has approved Sting’s request for a match with Flair which will be in two weeks on the 15^th. If Sting wins, it’s Hogan vs. Sting (no date mentioned but Sting said BFG and I can’t imagine it would be any other date) but if Flair wins Sting has to retire. He says it’s time for the Network to start bowing to Hogan instead of the other way.

Here’s Kurt and Hogan apologizes for Dixie screwing him over. Carter can never run things again so tonight it’s Angle vs. Sting so that Angle can cut the cancer out of TNA once and for all. Angle says all of Hogan’s enemies are now his enemies. He promised to take out all of the young guys and would be glad to add a veteran to it.

This brings out Sting who does his usual insane stuff. He’s willing to fight Angle tonight because he wants to I guess. Sting is happy to face Angle so he can move onto Flair and then the big prize of Hogan. Once he beats Hogan, the evil will leave Hogan. Sting goes to leave but Hogan says cut the music. Hogan thinks there’s something going on so Hogan is the guest enforcer.

We get a clip of Crimson being beaten down by Joe and having his leg broken last week. He’s officially out of the BFG Series.

Ray talks about being in the Final Four of the BFG Series and says the title is next.

Roode talks about working his entire career to gethere.

Storm talks about wanting it more than anyone else.

Bound For Glory Series: Gunner vs. Rob Van Dam

For all intents and purposes, the winner is the fourth man. Everyone else is mathematically eliminated and I’m not going to bother listing off the points tonight. It almost has to be Rob going but that would make too much sense so I’m not sure. Joe comes out almost immediately and Morgan jumps up to stop him. Joe kicks him in the balls but security sends him out.

After that we’re back to the match at hand and there’s not much going on. Gunner gets a slingshot suplex but Rob almost rolls out of it. Rob fires off some kicks and hits the Rolling Thunder. Here’s Jerry Lynn but Rob sends him to the back which is probably smart. Rob actually shows some intelligence and doesn’t try to go for the Five Star after being on the floor for a bit.

They trade rollups and Rob falls off the top trying to hit the one footed kick. Rob goes up again but Lynn comes back and shoves him off the top, allowing Gunner to hit a running knee for the pin at 4:57. Lynn’s smile is pretty awesome. This also puts Gunner into the four way at No Surrender as the fourth man.

Rating: C. The match was so-so but the point of this is it sets up a few stories and potential matches. I’m hoping they save RVD vs. Lynn for Philadelphia because it’ll guarantee a huge response no matter what the match looks like. I’m not sure I get why Gunner is going to be in the four way but it’s better than some other choices. At least they seem to have a plan here, which is a big upgrade for them.

Angle vs. Sting is for the world title. I didn’t realize that.

All of the Knockouts are coming to the ring for the announcement about Knockout Law.

After a break here are Eric and Traci for the announcement. Eric praises the Knockouts but then says at the end of the day, they’re still women, meaning they can’t stay focused and are always whining. Traci came to him and offered to lead the Knockouts and more sex is implied. However, Traci isn’t in charge. Karen is and Traci is MAD. Karen has her own music which is an upbeat version of Jeff’s without lyrics.

Karen says the difference between her and the rest of them is she’s a lady. They have to respect her as well. First of all, ODB and Jackie have contracts. Dang it dang it DANG IT. Traci will still have a job, beneath Karen. You can form your own visuals on that one. She’ll be Karen’s assistant, meaning servant for the most part. Tessmacher looks at her bad and is threatened with being fired and sent back to the cabaret.

During the break Winter and Mickie had a staredown and Mickie shoved her, resulting in a catfight.

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

Aries vs. Kendrick at the PPV. Kendrick vs. Kash to start with Kendrick moving way faster than Kash. Arm drag brings in Sorensen who hits a nice dropkick and grabs an armbar. Aries comes in for a bit and is out just as fast. The heels don’t seem to get along but they manage to keep Sorensen in trouble for a bit. He hits a foot to each of their chests and there’s the moderately hot tag to Kendrick.

He kicks both of them and it’s off to Sorensen who gets crotched and almost superplexed. Tower of Doom hits as we go old school X-Division. Sorensen looks dead but manages to send Kash to the floor. Aries hits a suicide dive on Jesse and celebrates a lot. Kendrick is like the chipmunk has pneumonia and takes Aries out. Back inside Kash hits a top rope clothesline and a release suplex to set up a powerbomb but Sorensen rolls him up for the pin at 5:10.

Rating: C+. They packed a lot of stuff in here but it was cool to see an old Cruiserweight style match. It advances both feuds but it’s still nothing I’m dying to see either way. It’s not great but for what it was supposed to be, which was just a five minute match to have Aries vs. Kendrick for a bit, this was fine.

We get a video on Winter and Angelina which was thankfully changed around a lot to keep it from getting way too creepy. Now they’re just vampires which is a lot better than what it could have been.

Winter talks to Angelina about having other lives again. Winter promises to suck the life out of Mickie and the two of them will feast on her bones.

Mickie is tired of the voodoo nonsense. She’s going to wrestle tonight, so Winter needs to bring her A-game.

Video on Jeff Hardy and we actually have the Victory Road incident referenced.

Angle is having coffee and Hogan comes in to yell. He wants Angle to come to New York and take care of the Network, specifically saying kill them. Angle isn’t happy. Hardy gets to have a live mic next week. Oh dear.

Knockouts Title: Winter vs. Mickie James

Mickie goes nuts on her to start and grabs a rollup for two. Angelina tries to throw the belt in and gets ejected. Mickie grabs a half crab and Tazz says it’s very hard to get out of. Less than 3 seconds later Winter grabs the rope and is out of it. Great analysis there Brooklyn dude. Mickie has dominated most of this. The jumping DDT is avoided and both grab the other by the hair and slam them into the mat.

Winter tries that spinning slam but Mickie gets some elbows in and a rollup gets two for each chick. A slow jumping DDT hits for Mickie but Winter gets her foot under the ropes. I’m really glad that wasn’t the ending as it would have looked bad. Enziguri puts Mickie down for two. Winter tries to choke Mickie with something but Hebner makes the save. Mickie kicks Winter upside her head and gets the title back at 6:00.

Rating: D+. This got sloppy in some places like Mickie intentionally having to cover Winter weird so she could get the foot on the ropes. I cannot stand stuff like that because it looks so fake and totally takes the drama out of a near fall. I also don’t get the point in putting the title right back on Mickie after Winter had it for just a few weeks but since this is TNA, I’m sure the answer is “GIVE IT MORE TIME.”

Video on Styles vs. Daniels which is basically Daniels wondering if it’s worth it anymore and wanting one more match to prove it to himself and the fans.

Here’s Morgan to rant about Joe. He says it’s one thing to go after everyone else but now he went suicidal by attacking the Blueprint. He wants a referee too. Joe comes out and beats up the referee and the fight is on. Morgan slugs away and Joe goes for his eyes. Morgan escapes that arm drop move Joe has been using and hammers away.

There are the elbows in the corner and a running Umaga shot in the corner. Joe bails to the floor but pulls the tall guy with him. Morgan loads up the Carbon Footprint but steps on the steps too much, letting Joe know he’s coming. Joe kicks him in the little blueprints and cracks Morgan with a chair to leave him laying. Morgan tries to get up and Joe cracks the arm with a chair against the post, trying to reinjure the torn pec.

Robbie E talks to Rob Terry again and is interrupted by Eric Young. They talk about working out and THE TV TITLE WILL BE DEFENDED NEXT WEEK!!!!! I need my medicine!

Styles and Daniels say it’s time for the last match. They talk about someone coming back again but don’t say who.

Hogan is mad about Hardy coming back and tells Immortal about it. Abyss is standing off in the back and isn’t happy it seems. Hogan talks about how the deck is stacked against Sting tonight and implies that he’ll be calling the rest of Immortal out to help Angle in the main event.

AJ Styles vs. Christopher Daniels

Back and forth stuff to start as they know each other so well. Daniels works a headlock which gets him nowhere. A big knee drop gets one for AJ. They go to the floor for a bit and AJ gets a bridging inverted chinlock (that Benoit submission that needs a name) and a gutbuster/backbreaker combo for two. Running STO gets two for Daniels but AJ hits the springboard forearm for two.

This has been very back and forth which makes sense given their history. They strike it out and AJ hits a Pele to send Daniels flying. The backflip into the reverse DDT is blocked and Daniels tries a moonsault (not the BME) which gets knees. AJ tries a springboard something and falls, letting Daniels grab the pin at 7:20.

Rating: B-. The match was good but the ending was designed to look like a botch and Daniels stole the pin. That’s perfectly fine if it leads to Daniels turning which he needs to do badly. It came off like he won on a fluke, which is he celebrates as a legit win will be perfect. It kind of cut the match off out of nowhere, but that’s what needed to happen. This was pretty good overall and the psychology was on.

Post match Daniels won’t shake his hand and is all happy that he finally won. It’s about time he turned.

TNA World Title: Kurt Angle vs. Sting

Hogan is guest enforcer on the outside. Sting has blue on his singlet tonight. They speed things up to start and Sting controls, sending Angle to the floor for a breather. Back in Kurt takes over and grabs a sleeper which doesn’t last long as Sting gets a belly to back. Angle snaps off a German for two but Sting grabs the Death Drop for the same.

Kurt grabs the ankle lock but Sting is able to escape. Angle gets all ticked off but charges into a big boot. There’s the Scorpion with Kurt tapping and Hogan calls out the troops, distracting the referee. Gunner runs down with a chair but the referee takes it from him. Hogan uses the distraction to pop Sting in the chest with a chair and that does nothing. Sting Hulks Up but gets caught in an Angle Slam onto the chair for the pin at 6:35.

Rating: C. This was their usual stuff played at fast forward. The problem of the time not being there for the main event comes into play again as this main evented a PPV a few weeks ago and now there isn’t even seven minutes to give to them. Not anything of note here but I guess it advances Sting vs. Hogan a bit.

Post match Sting gets up again but all of Immortal comes out for the beatdown. Anderson runs out with a bat and cleans house.

Overall Rating: C-. It really is amazing how the crowd being fresh can make a difference. They felt alive tonight and the look of the arena was much better. It felt more professional rather than second rate like they usually do in Orlando. Not a horrible show but the wrestling left a bit to be desired, namely due to nothing having a chance to get going.

For regular TV matches that’s fine but for stuff like the main event which is a big match, it needs time to develop which it didn’t get, due to having to cram everything into the show and have segments that just didn’t need to be there, like Hogan being mad at Hardy and the Knockouts coming out for the Knockout Law thing. This wasn’t as bad as some of their shows but it still wasn’t anything excellent.

Results

Gunner b. Rob Van Dam – Running knee to the head

Brian Kendrick/Jesse Sorensen b. Kid Kash/Austin Aries – Sorensen pinned Kash with a sunset flip

Mickie James b. Winter – High kick

Christopher Daniels b. AJ Styles – Pin after Styles slipped off the top rope

Kurt Angle b. Sting – Angle Slam onto a chair

Impact Wrestling
Date: August 25, 2011
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Tazz

It’s another week closer to No Surrender, meaning the BFG Series is getting close to a finish. Tonight we have Angle vs. Crimson in what is almost guaranteed to have a screwy finish due to them both being big deals at the moment. Also I’m sure we’ll get more from the Hogan/Sting/Flair saga. Anyway let’s get to it.

Also I’m not watching live so the timing may be a bit off.

We open with a recap of the two major storylines in the form of Sting/Hogan/Flair plus Angle/Crimson.

Speaking of Angle, the champion opens us up and is in ring gear. He wants to talk to Crimson and here’s the big man. Angle says Crimson wants to be the big star and wants to be famous. Tonight he’ll face the consequences. Crimson talks about respect and Angle says Crimson has to earn it. Crimson says bring it and he’ll still be standing at the end of the match.

Cue Immortal with Ray saying that Crimson needs to respect Angle. Ray asks Kurt if he’s a part of them and Angle says he can handle this himself. He tells Immortal and especially Jeff to stay out of the match. It’s time to make Crimson famous.

ODB and Jackie talk to Velvet and are partners for some reason tonight. Velvet agrees to have their backs and the other chicks say they could take Velvet out and only the cameraman could see it. ODB just walks off.

The 8/16 episode of Impact was the highest rated ever in England and Ireland. That’s a perk.

Eric and Hogan yell at Flair, telling him to make Sting go away because Hogan isn’t getting in the ring with him, period. Flair says he’ll make it up to Hogan tonight. Hogan says he needs one thing from Ric and that is for Flair to keep his mouth shut. Nothing could possibly go wrong with this plan right?

Jackie/ODB/Velvet Sky vs. Angelina Love/Sarita/Rosita

Jackie and ODB are still trying to be all nice to get their contracts. Jackie rolls up Sarita for two quickly as I’m really trying to care about them. Off to Velvet and Rosita and it’s face miscommunication time! After a lot of tagging it’s off to Sarita vs. Velvet in an old feud rekindled. As almost always it goes badly for Sky and the triple team begins in the corner. It’s saying a lot that Velvet Sky being triple teamed by three hot chicks is so uninteresting.

Angelina hasn’t been in yet and is complaining that the team is only working between the two of them. She tags herself in to beat on Velvet a bit more and is promptly kicked off. Since Velvet is there for her looks though she doesn’t take the wide open tag. I guess she isn’t a fan of ODB/Jackie either. Everything breaks down and the unlikely partners tease beating up Velvet in a triple team but save her instead, giving Angelina a double suplex and putting Velvet on top for the pin at 4:07.

Rating: C-. I know I use this term a lot but this was just a six person tag. It’s nothing great but this advances the whole ODB/Jackie thing and possibly starts something with the Mexican chicks against Angelina. If we can get some fresh feuds in there I’m all for it. This wasn’t nearly as bad as some of them have been lately.

Jesse Sorensen vs. Kid Kash

This is #2 vs. #3 respectively but I doubt those numbers are going to mean much for awhile. Kash looks old and Sorensen is a face, carrying a football with him because he’s from Texas. Well I guess a weak gimmick is better than no gimmick. Kash dominates early, hitting a suplex into a release slam.

Moneymaker is blocked and Sorensen starts his comeback with a HHH leaping knee and a pretty sweet dropkick for two. Something resembling the McGillicutter gets two and Jesse goes up. Top rope cross body gets a very close two and I’m liking this Sorensen a bit. And never mind as Kash reverses a rollup and uses the tights for the pin at 3:01.

Rating: C. I liked Sorensen a lot more than I thought I would. The guy can jump pretty well and was trying to play to the crowd a bit also. The football thing doesn’t mean much but it needs time to develop obviously. Kash I don’t see the appeal to as he just looks old. He’s not bad or anything but he’s about as the same as you can be after many years.

Post match Kash yells at Sorensen, calling him a boy. Jesse is all bring it on but he gets pie faced and security breaks it up.

BFG Series stuff with Gunner saying he wants to win it. Roode and RVD say the same thing.

BFG Series Standings:

Crimson 50

Bully Ray 42

Bobby Roode 42

James Storm 40

Gunner 35

Devon 30 (Injured)

Rob Van Dam 25

AJ Styles 24

Matt Morgan 24 (Injured)

Scott Steiner 21

D’Angelo Dinero 17

Samoa Joe -10

Does Joe ever get any matches anymore?

Bound For Glory Series: Rob Van Dam vs. D’Angelo Dinero

Morgan is on commentary because it’s a BFG Series match. Face vs. face here I think and there’s no Jerry Lynn. They’re going fast out there and Rolling Thunder hits knees. Thankfully Pope got his knees up above his chest instead of Rob just missing it which I can’t stand. Forearm gets two for Dinero.

Rob takes over again and gets a reverse bridging chinlock (Benoit used it a lot and their backs are to each other. You know the move) and then an abdominal stretch as he’s looking for the submission. They’re using the psychology here which is good to see. DDT gets two for Pope. Top rope fist drop gets two for Pope but he gets his head kicked off, resulting in a surfboard getting the submission (REALLY???) at 5:00. Rob won if that wasn’t clear.

Rating: D+. I wasn’t feeling this and while the psychology makes sense, I’m not wild on it at all as Rob using a submission just looks weird. Why wouldn’t he use the move like that the rest of the time if he can get a clean submission that fast? Not a horrible match or anything but it really could have been better given more time.

Back from a replay and Joe is here attacking Pope’s knee. He puts on a leg bar until D-Von hobbles out (he’s injured and out of the Series) and stops in front of his kids. The kids go make the save but he yells at them and eventually asks for a chair. Joe bails but D-Von did make the save.

Robbie E asks Rob Terry to be his partner/bodyguard. Terry says he’ll think about it and leaves.

Immortal has a meeting about their match and Steiner is mad.

Angelina is on the phone and the Mexican chicks come in and beat her down. Winter makes the save and FREAKS, choking I think Rosita with a curtain cord. The male Mexicans make the save.

For about the third time tonight we see some boots in the back.

Bischoff hits on Traci as she might be doing the Knockout Law thing again. Something important here: all that is mentioned here is Eric is thinking about Knockout Law. There’s no explanation about that or what Traci’s name is, so to someone new to the show, this is kind of confusing no? Eric wants to get together and sex is implied.

Here are Hogan and Flair to end the Sting situation. Hogan says the main problem right now is there’s a problem. He calls out Sting and the crazy dude is here. Hogan says this needs to end tonight because it’s gone way too far. Sting has no fries left in his Happy Meal now. Hulk says we can’t have all this craziness going on and even says he might be partially to blame. From this point forward the company will be run perfectly.

Sting says deal on one condition. Hogan says deal as he’ll do anything. Sting wants….milk and cookies for everyone. Maybe some balloons and a unicorn as well. What about puppies for all the people and some flowers (including a stereotypical gay voice for that one). This prompts some Mr. Nanny level acting from Hogan as he’s stunned. Sting kisses him on the cheek a few times and heeeeeeeeeeeeeere’s Ric!

Flair goes into one of his usual insane moments, shoving Hogan and talking about how he’s the real insane one and he’ll beat Sting up when they fight because Sting respects him too much for the kill. An F Bomb is dropped in there also. Hogan is freaking Sting makes fun of Flair anyway. Sting doesn’t mind going through Flair to get to Hogan because he’s crazy like Flair. Sting wants Hogan at Bound For Glory, which I think we’ve all known was the ultimate end game for the last few months.

There’s supposed to be a hardcore BFG Series six man here but AJ comes out instead. He calls out Daniels who isn’t in the match tonight. AJ wants to talk about the rematch that Daniels wants. He doesn’t get why Chris wants the rematch and wants to know why right here. Daniels isn’t sure if he has it anymore and if he can do it at the top level anymore. He isn’t sure if he wants to be a wrestler anymore. AJ says one more time and it’s a big emotional moment. Daniels wants it at No Surrender but AJ says he’ll be in the BFG Series Final there so how about next week. Daniels says cool.

AJ Styles/Beer Money vs. Immortal

Ray/Gunner/Steiner here. This is Hardcore remember. Big brawl to start and Storm spits beer at someone, just like Steiner does at Roode. No one has been in the ring yet but they don’t have to be here. I think whoever gets the fall here gets the points. Gunner vs. AJ in the ring now and Abyss is watching from the ramp. Dang AJ has a great dropkick. It only gets one and here’s Steiner with a belly to belly.

Roode comes in and gets the Blockbuster for two. Ray kicks his head off for two and there have been no tags at all so far. Now it’s Storm with a kick to the head and a cross body for two on Ray. The former champs hit a double suplex on Ray and SHOUT THOSE NAMES. Roode looks jacked here. AJ wakes up and hits a HUGE dive to the floor to take out Ray. He’s holding his knee though.

Gunner sends Storm into the set for two and Steiner misses a chair shot. Abyss is still lookint down at them. We go split screen which for once is a good idea. The fans boo because as usual, THEY CAN’T SEE ANYTHING. Beer Money is getting beaten down and Storm has a locker dropped on his knees. Gunner, ever the smart dude, walks away as AJ hits the springboard clothesline for two on Ray back in the ring. Gunner comes back and AJ is distracted, letting Ray hit the Bubba Bomb for the pin on AJ at 6:00.

Rating: C. Meh just another six man hardcore match. It’s not bad or anything but it wasn’t great. Right in the middle works pretty well I think. It’s good to see someone move up in the ranks in the form of Ray but I’d like to see someone with an actual chance of going to BFG get the points instead. At the moment it’s looking like Beer Money, Ray and Crimson. For some reason, that doesn’t blow my skirt up.

Immortal sets for a beatdown but Anderson comes into the back in a Hummer for the save. He gets the chain from Ray and leaves Gunner gushing blood. I guess Anderson vs. Gunner or Ray can be penciled in for BFG. Granted it’s Anderson so who knows with him. Abyss walks away. I forgot he was even there.

Mickie rants about Winter/Angelina (not by name for awhile because that could tell people what they’re talking about) cheating and how she’s getting the title back next week.

Now it’s time for some Eric Young shenanigans as he finally finds Scott Baio. It actually turns into a chase scene and Young, in his underwear, jumps out of a tree onto Baio and counts the pin himself. Ladies and gentlemen, the TELEVISION CHAMPION!!! (for those counting, this would be the 12^th Impact in a row where the TV Title hasn’t been defended).

Crimson vs. Kurt Angle

There are some big match intros for you. This is non-title. The fans are split here and Crimson shoves him around to start. It’s almost all red man so far. There’s the cravate which have some knees and a neckbreaker added in for two. Angle finally gets in a shot to the bad knee and it’s time for a break.

Back with Angle holding a weird kind of arm/chinlock on Crimson. Double shoulder block puts both guys down and there’s a suplex for two. The German is no sold and the spear from Crimson gets two. There’s the ankle lock with the grapevine and Crimson actually manages to escape. The leg is no sold again and the Red Sky hits. Joe comes in for the DQ at 10:45 total as you would expect.

Rating: C+. Not horrible but the ending was all they could do. The problem here was that they had nothing else to do. With Crimson possibly looking to be in the main event of BFG and being undefeated, we can’t have him lose here. At the same time Angle can’t lose clean to him so the DQ ending was all they could do.

Joe and Angle have a brief staredown but Angle leaves so Joe can beat on him even more. Crimson no sells THAT and Joe runs.

Mike and Taz run down the card for next week.

Crimson says he wants Joe next week. Joe jumps him and beats him down (with ease) and breaks his leg using a cinder block, the steps and the power of fat.

Overall Rating: C. We’ll go with right in the middle here as there’s nothing too horrible on it but there’s nothing all that great either. Joe was the main focus of this show as it seems like he might be trying to take out everyone else and get in the back door of the tournament, which isn’t a horrible idea actually. I’m hoping they don’t do that as I wouldn’t want the whole thing to be wasted, but I’ve heard of worse ideas. Anyway not bad here but nothing great.

Impact Wrestling
Date: August 18, 2011
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Tazz

Tonight we’re likely to get the fallout of Angle attacking Crimson last week as well as Sting vs. Hogan/Angle. I’m not wild on either story but that’s what we have to go with leading up to No Surrender. Also we should get an answer from AJ about Daniels challenging him for another match at the same PPV. Also there are Bound (get it?) to be be more Series matches. Let’s get to it.

We open with a recap of last week’s Angle segment with Sting and Hogan. The idea is Angle is mad at Dixie for lying about Karen and Jeff. Now he’s going after all of the young talent one by one, starting with Crimson.

Here’s Sting to open the show, chair and bat in hands. Sting stops to roll down the ramp. Uh…sure. He says it was a redoing of last week where he got beaten up. He doesn’t remember what happened but he does remember that he was nervous, as his shirt says. It was however awesome to be beaten up by Hogan, who still has the (cue singing) Eye of the Tiger.

Sting says the fans and he both want to see the Hulkster back in the ring right? He starts a Hogan chant because he wants Hogan in the ring tonight. Instead he gets…Ric Flair. He asks if Sting just called Hogan the greatest ever. Sting is in fact an icon and people ask Flair when they’ll wrestle again. The fans want one more Flair vs. Sting match. There goes the jacket and Flair says in order to get back to where he uses to be, he has to wrestle Sting again. He doesn’t have to win, but just wrestle him. If he beats Sting, Sting retires. If Sting wins, Flair will deliver Hogan to Sting.

Sting asks the people and they seem into it. Flair smells like garlic and Sting accepts the match.

Post break Flair goes into Hogan’s office and Hogan is FREAKING. Hogan wants to know if Flair is on goofball pills. He thinks Sting should be dead and Flair says it’s not a big problem. Flair says he’ll get the troops together tonight. Hogan swears he’ll never wrestle Sting so Flair hugs Hogan and kisses him on the cheek. Ok then.

Bound For Glory Series standings:

Crimson 50

Bully Ray 42

Bobby Roode 35

James Storm 33

Devon 30

Gunner 28

Rob Van Dam 25

Matt Morgan 24 (out)

AJ Styles 21

D’Angelo Dinero 17

Scott Steiner 14

Samoa Joe -10

There are three weeks left and the final four advance to BFG.

D-Von says he’ll beat Scott Steiner and is going to BFG.

Bound For Glory Series: Scott Steiner vs. Devon

D-Von’s kids are there of course. He takes over to start and gets a pair of two counts quickly. And never mind as Steiner gets a rollup and puts his feet on the ropes for the pin at 1:10. What the heck was that?

Post match Joe sneaks in on Joe and beats him up, putting a leg hold on him. D-Von’s kids want Pope to come help him but they jump the railing (security around here sucks) to stop it and Pope comes in late for the save.

There’s an X-Division gauntlet which determines the rankings of the division and #1 contender next.

Post break Joe says don’t act surprised because this is how he does things. He’s taking everyone down with him. He’s going to take out the entire Series.

Alex Shelley vs. Tony Nese vs. Kid Kash vs. Robbie E vs. Zema Ion vs. Jesse Sorensen vs. Mark Haskins vs. Austin Aries

This is a gauntlet match. Shelley vs. Haskins (who looks like Morrison but less tanned and built) with Shelley beating the tar out of him. The first person out is #8 in the rankings, making the whole rankings stupid because whoever got the first two spots have a 50/50 chance of being last. Shelley keeps trying Sliced Bread but Haskins keeps blocking it. They trade pinning combination attempts and Haskins gets something resembling the inbred cousin of the GTS for the pin at 1:56.

Robbie gets pinned at 2:20 (total time on each, meaning there were about 24 seconds between pins).

Ion comes in third and hits a missile dropkick and some nice stuff including throwing Haskins’ face into Ion’s feet (yes that’s what happened) for two. A 450 gets the pin at 3:30.

Off to Sorensen who starts fast but gets taken down just as quickly. 450 hits knees and Ion is gone thanks to something like a spinning DDT at 4:20. This is why I hate gauntlet matches: the pins come WAY too fast.

Nese is in next and likes to attack by running. The rankings are in reverse order, meaning that Shelley is #8, Robbie is #7 etc. German gets two on Sorensen. That same spinning DDT ends Nese at 5:50.

Kash comes in and we take a break. Back with Kash hitting a moonsault for two on Sorensen. Only Aries is left. Moneymaker, the double underhook piledriver is countered into a rollup for the pin at 10:50.

Aries is in last but Kash comes in and hits the Moneymaker to kill Sorensen. Aries comes in and puts his foot on the chest for two. Brainbuster is countered into a small package for two. There’s a running dropkick in the corner and now the brainbuster ends this at 12:20 total.

Rating: D. I cannot stand these kind of matches. Why in the world should I believe that a regular match should take longer than a minute and a half now when something like this had seven pins in less than 13 minutes (with who knows how much it was shortened during the break)? I wasn’t a fan of this, namely due to the speed of the pinfalls which is a problem with these matches in general.

Aries talks about Kendrick post match and the champ comes out to offer a handshake which Aries declines. Kendrick jumps him and beats the tar out of the #1 contender.

Flair is getting ready for a fight. Don’t tell me Sting vs. Flair is tonight.

Sting is pacing in the back.

Anderson is out with two ruptured eardrums.

BFG ad.

ODB and Jackie are excited for a match later where they’re going to get a roster spot. Oh freaking joy.

Traci comes in to see Eric and he hits on her. She has an idea for Eric and wants to be Knockout Law again. In essence she’s in charge of them and Eric makes her lean over so he can look down her shirt. She was in Playboy dude.

ODB vs. Mickie James

Mickie gets her rematch on September 1. Mickie hammers away but gets caught in a fallaway slam. I think Mickie’s hair is blonder now. It’s power vs. speed here and Mickie gets a neckbreaker to put both of them down. They nip up at the same time and slug it out. Some clotheslines put ODB down and a rana is blocked. James is sent to the floor and Jackie wants to jump her but can’t. Mickie gets back in but the DDT is blocked. Bronco Buster misses for ODB and the DDT hits this time, ending things at 5:47.

Rating: D+. Wasn’t feeling this one at all but I think that’s more for my utter disdain for Jackie. I’ve never been able to stand her, namely due to her being so freaking LOUD all the time. Her voice is annoying and I have no idea what people keep hiring her for. Her matches aren’t anything of note and she’s not interesting at all. Either way, the match was dull, namely due to ODB focusing on rubbing her body too much.

Winter and Angelina have a weird moment over the title. Just get them to a lesbian scene already. She says she can beat Mickie. They’re having wine and it looks like it’s got blood in it. Winter calls it orgasmic.

Bound For Glory Series: Rob Van Dam vs. AJ Styles

Lynn is outside again. Technical stuff as usual to start as they feel each other out a lot. AJ gets a backbreaker for two. Knee drop gets the same. BIG monkey flip sends Styles down though and it even gets a replay. Rolling Thunder hits for two. Lynn gets annoyed and Rob isn’t pleased with Jerry getting up.

RVD gets crotched and AJ looks to take over again with a superplex but Rob counters. Five Star hits knees and Styles gets two. They slug it out and an attempt at the Clash is broken up. AJ hits the Pele and Lynn pulls the referee out for the DQ at 5:22, costing RVD another ten points.

Rating: C+. Not a bad match but with only five minutes these two aren’t capable of getting anything going. That isn’t their fault but it’s really just kind of reality. Either way this wasn’t anything special. It felt like a collection of spots as a means to the end of the match, which was Lynn interfering. It’s pretty clear they’re going for RVD vs. Lynn at BFG, which isn’t a bad move. The match wasn’t bad or anything but it didn’t have time to go anywhere.

Rob yells at Lynn post break.

Flair is talking to no one it seems and things start moving around. He says Sting isn’t the Joker and we hear a pipe fall. Flair keeps looking for him and more stuff moves/falls. He calls out Sting but all he hears are more noises. Something big falls and Flair says he’s counting to five and is starting at four. He doesn’t have time for this as he has to go to a bar later. Sting finally appears but someone jumps him. It’s Gunner and Sting rams him into some boxes. Flair fires Gunner and leaves while Sting keeps beating on him. Sting tells Gunner he’ll go somewhere someday.

Time for more Eric Young hijinks. He tries to wrestle some woman and wants to find Scott Baio, again. He’s told Baio is in the Valley and the showdown is next week. Good for it.

Crimson is here and is limping.

Here’s Crimson in the arena and he’s limping badly. He says he used to respect Angle and calls him out because they have some issues now. Angle doesn’t respect him because he’s a nobody. The young talent, built around Angle, has meant nothing. Without Angle, Crimson is uncoordinated and green. Angle says Crimson needs him (Angle) to get anywhere. Crimson says no one in the back disrespects Angle and Angle calls Crimson nothing.

He goes to leave and Crimson stops him. Crimson challenges Angle for next week where he’ll show him why he’s the future and and the here and now. He’s REAL. He’s DANG REAL.

Mexican America says they’ll win the titles next.

Tag Titles: Beer Money vs. Mexican America

The Jarretts are on commentary here. This is billed as the final showdown. The champs take over to start as Jeff talks about Mexico and is way funnier than he should be, especially given what he’s talking about. Hernandez gets a shot in on Storm and takes over, also getting two. Off to Anarquia who gets two off a double shoulder block.

Jeff and Karen are shocked that Tenay speaks so highly of the Guerreros. He accuses Hector of having some cerveza as Storm gets a shot in on Anarquia but Hernandez breaks up the tag. Border Toss is countered into a Codebreaker and here’s Roode off the hot tag. Blockbuster gets two. Angle has accepted Crimson’s challenge. Beer Money hits a slingshot into a DDT on Anarquia.

Double suplex puts Hernandez down and LET’S SHOUT OUR NAMES! Rosita comes in and spits beer in Storm’s face which doesn’t work for some reason here. They go after her and Karen bounces down to ringside. Jeff comes down as well and the distraction lets Hernandez get a shot to the head of Roode with the AAA belt and the Mexicans win the titles at 7:25.

Rating: C. Match wasn’t bad and they really needed to dot he title switch here. Beer Money had held the titles forever and the switch is the right thing here, especially with the Jarrett Mexican Champion thing going on. Not a great match or anything but it accomplished the goal that it needed to, which is really all you can ask for here.

Overall Rating: D+. This show wasn’t without merit but it felt like it was boring for the most part. It’s very hit or miss and the misses caught up with it at the end. Sting and Flair were on screen WAY too much tonight. The problem with that is it takes up from other stuff you can do, like have a match for example. Winter and Angelina are vampires or something (totally more serious than leprechauns right?) and Eric Young is still in Hollywood because COMEDY IS GREAT, especially when it keeps the champion from defending his title in two and a half months right?

On the other hand the Crimson thing was good and you can see the shapings of the next two PPVs really coming into focus. Having Joe do the run-in post match was interesting and it would make me think he’s going to No Surrender, but if he can never get a match how is that supposed to happen? I guess that’s what house shows are for but they’re rapidly running out of time. Anyway, hit and miss show tonight and it certainly wasn’t horrible, but it missed for the most part I thought.

Results

Scott Steiner b. Devon – Rollup with feet on the ropes

Austin Aries won a gauntlet match last eliminating Jesse Sorensen

Mickie James b. ODB – Jumping DDT

AJ Styles b. Rob Van Dam via DQ when Jerry Lynn interfered

Mexican America b. Beer Money – Hernandez pinned Roode after a belt shot

Impact Wrestling
Date: August 11, 2011
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Tazz

It’s the show after Hardcore Justice which last year was the Whole F’N Show but this year is more of an explanation show. Angle turned heel (it seems) on Sunday by hitting Sting with a chair to win the title. Hogan was there also but there was no evidence that he was combined with Angle. It should be interesting as we’re getting close to BFG time which could be rather shaky indeed. Let’s get to it.

We open with a clip from after the PPV ended and Angle says he took an opportunity which is something Sting would have done as well. We also get some stills from the match which shows Angle using the chair but Hogan not being involved. Kurt is champion now and he’ll take it like he did.

Here’s Immortal including Abyss to open the show. Anderson stays a few feet behind Ray and is the last in line. Ray is the mouthpiece as usual and says that Abyss is becoming a huge disappointment. He wants to know if Abyss seriously lost to AJ at the PPV. Abyss is on thin ice with Bischoff. Tonight there’s a fatal fourway in the BFG Series with three Immortal members and Crimson. Ray says he’s winning the series and winning the title.

On to Anderson now and Ray doesn’t like him. However he was impressed by the beating Anderson took on Sunday. Anderson belongs in Immortal and Immortal can benefit from having him. They need to put their problems aside though because it’s about Ray being world champion and Immortal taking over TNA and all that jazz.

He sticks his hand out to Anderson but Anderson laughs and doesn’t shake it. Ray yells at Anderson for not taking him seriously and the fight is on. Steiner tries to break it up so Anderson beats him up too. Gunner and Abyss get in a shot and a kind of weak beatdown is on. Ray loads up the chain and blasts Anderson with it to leave him laying. Anderson is bleeding and Ray says get him up again. Security comes down and gets beaten up to. The TNA agents come out and Immortal leaves. Didn’t see that coming. He’s taken out on a stretcher as we go to a break.

Back and Anderson doesn’t want to be on the stretcher but he’s taken to the hospital.

Bischoff apologizes to the team for bringing Anderson in. Ray says it’s ok. Eric says Hogan is coming here as is Angle. He doesn’t know what’s going on with Kurt though. Abyss says we’ll be ready. Eric doesn’t like the term we.

Madison Rayne vs. Mickie James

Winner is #1 contender to Winter. The mist from Sunday is now called blood. Oh and Mickie is fine. She tries to grab a rollup like she did at Lockdown. Madison gets on the mat and kind of kicks at Mickie who is just standing there. Now she throws what looked like a bracelet to James and while the referee isn’t looking goes for the eyes. Madison tries the hump the mat thing but Mickie counters into a rollup with a nice view. Spinning seated dropkick gets two. Mickie nips up and the Thesz Press off the top. With Madison’s tiara on the jumping DDT ends this at 3:00.

Rating: C. More or less a squash here for Mickie but when the girls look like this I can live with it a bit more. Mickie getting her rematch is a good thing because she got cheated out of the title in the first place. This was fine I guess and Mickie looked good both from a wrestling standpoint and a looks perspective so I’m fine all around here.

Angle is here.

Robbie E vs. Brian Kendrick

Austin Aries is on commentary. Non-title here I think. Robbie jumps Kendrick while the music is still playing. We’re on a chinlock less than a minute in. Kendrick gets sent to the floor and Cookie steps on his head a bit. Robbie yells at her for some reason. Back inside now and they slug it out with Kendrick winning. He fires off a bunch of forearms but Sliced Bread is broken up. Cookie sprays the hairspray into Robbie’s eyes (referee is like cool, whatever) and Sliced Bread ends this at 2:43. This was fine.

D-Von and Pope are talking and Pope gets a text from someone congratulating them on their match. D-Von congratulates Pope on the win but says if he cheats him tonight it’ll be a beating. Pope says let’s go win but D-Von doesn’t trust him still.

The Jarretts are here with Mexican clothing on.

Robbie yells at Cookie post break and there’s a lot of cursing. Cookie blames him, Robbie blames her, they say it’s over.

Bound For Glory Standings

Crimson 43

James Storm 33

Devon 30

Gunner 28

Bully Ray 28

Bobby Roode 28

Rob van Dam 25

Matt Morgan 24 (injured)

AJ Styles 21

D’Angelo Dinero 17

Scott Steiner 14

Samoa Joe -10

Bound For Glory Series: Beer Money vs. AJ Styles/Rob Van Dam vs. D-Von/D’Angelo Dinero

Rob’s left hand is taped. Christopher Daniels pops up on commentary and the match starts after a break. After the break (complete with the mini screen of Daniels talking) he challenges AJ to a rematch from Destination X. After issuing the challenge he leaves. D-Von starts with RVD and it’s off to Pope quickly. AJ comes in in a Lockdown 2010 rematch. Storm is tagged in and tried to steal a pin but AJ breaks it up.

D-Von and Pope work well together, resulting in a two count for D-Von on Storm. Storm goes up to the middle rope and hits an elbow, allowing Roode to get the tag. Spinebuster gets two on Pope but Van Dam saves. Beer Money, being the only real team in this, double teams the best as things quickly break down. AJ comes in with the forearm but D-Von takes him down with a spinebuster/chokeslam. Pope and D-Von clear the ring and set for something on AJ but D-Von takes Pope out by mistake. Roode comes in and a fisherman’s suplex pins Pope at 5:00.

Rating: C+. Pretty decent three way tag here and we get more of D-Von vs. Pope. It’s the same stuff we’ve been getting for the most part but at least it’s something. I think at least. Anyway, the Daniels vs. AJ 9 or whatever should be good if not a bit pointless. Beer Money winning shouldn’t shock anyone since they’re the champions and all.

Angle is up next.

Angle thanks the fans for their caring about the PPV. This isn’t about him joining the dark side or anything like that. He thanks Sting also. This is about Karen and Jeff and the marriage stuff. Someone that isn’t a wrestler called him and told him not to blame Karen or Jeff. There was a third party that caused the divorce, and that was Dixie Carter.

He went to Carter three years ago and was told that she knew nothing of the affair. The third party (the person that called him) told Kurt about this. Carter lied to prevent a media disaster and Kurt didn’t kill Jeff to prevent one also. This is the beginning of him keeping Carter from coming back and he’s going to stop all of the young talent to keep her away.

Angle goes to leave but Sting pops up on Kurt’s riser in the stage. Kurt holds up the chair for defense but Sting knocks it away with the bat. Angle drops down to his knees and Hogan comes out and cracks Sting with the chair. Angle says Hogan was the informant that told him about all of the affair and Carter’s lies. Hogan wears him out with the chair. He throws Sting in the ring (Sting in jeans is a weird sight) and beats him down with fists. Kurt comes in and Hogan raises Kurt’s arm.

Video on BFG being in Philadelphia and how this is the most important show of the year.

ODB/Jackie vs. Tara/Miss Tessmacher

There’s a Tessmacher chant as she and Jackie start us off. Tessmacher takes her down with a dropkick and it’s off to Tara who gets a sunset flip for two. Off to Tessmacher who does her stupid thing in the corner. Tara vs. Jackie now and a side blockbuster gets two for Tara. We get about the fourth headlock of the match and Tara avoids some cheating. Off to ODB now and Jackie won’t let her throw a punch. Tara gets a superplex to slow ODB down and everything breaks down. Jackie and ODB set for a stomping but Jackie says no. Brooke (her official first name now) takes the heels down and rolls up Jackie for the pin at 5:20.

Rating: D. This was either weird or stupid. The evil ones now have to play nice to impress Bischoff or something after being all evil for like two months. Why we’re supposed to care about them is beyond me but whatever. The match sucked, namely due to the girls not being sure what they were doing. Brooke is improving though.

A bunch of guys are outside Bischoff’s office.

The X-Division is in Eric’s office. Abyss is there and is scolded for messing things up. There’s now a 225lb weight limit on the division. There’s going to be a #1 contender gauntlet match next week. Aries sucks up to Eric a bit and gets to stay while everyone else leaves.

Here are the Jarretts in Mexican clothing. We get some clips of Triplemania where Jeff won the AAA Title (which is censored from the show). Jeff says this is all an act or something but it’s real. Jeff needs to learn the nuances of Mexico and needs the endorsement of the Mexican people and for the Immortal Title. He’s gone all over the Mexican cities (his words) and has gotten endorsed. He has the Lopez Brothers in the back to endorse him. They’ve done the landscaping for TNA since 2007.

It’s implied that they’re illegal aliens and their names are Jose and Jos-B. Say it out loud and you’ll get the joke. They’re both kind of short but it may be Jeff’s sombrero. Jeff wants an endorsement but they don’t speak English. They see Hector Guerrero in the Spanish announce table and FREAK, wanting him to come to the ring. Now they only know how to talk about Guerreros. Jeff beats them up but Hector comes out for the save. This was hilarious and one of the funniest things TNA has done in a LONG time.

Eric Young is still in Hollywood and is looking for Scott Baio. I give up.

Anderson, looking like a zombie with blood on his head still, is here again and comes into Immortal’s locker room (complete with lockers) and gets jumped by Gunner. There’s what sound like a beating with a chain that we don’t see.

Matt Morgan comes out for commentary, now out of his sling.

Bound For Glory Series: Crimson vs. Bully Ray vs. Gunner vs. Scott Steiner

This gets big match intros because it’s the last match. You have to tag in this. Ray starts it off but it’s off to Gunner very quickly. Crimson takes over quickly and grabs the cravate for some knees to the head. Gunner takes him down and Ray wants in. Crimson gets up so Ray tags in Steiner. Scott beats him down and there are the push-ups. Gunner uses the numbers but Crimson gets things going and sends Gunner into Ray and rolls up Gunner for the pin at 5:07.

Rating: C-. Nothing here really but the idea of Ray being scared to fight Crimson and the lack of Anderson running in was fine. It was good to make Crimson look good but at the same time it was pretty dull. What does it say that Immortal can’t beat one guy in five minutes though?

Post match Angle comes down and beats up Crimson, mainly going after the leg.

Overall Rating: B-. While there were some bad parts to this, the show overall worked pretty well. They’re setting up BFG now with some big matches it seems. I’m not thinking I’ll like most of them but they’re certainly setting them up which is the most important part right now. Either way, this was one of the better shows they’ve put on in awhile and much better than last week. I’ll even ignore the lack of ANY match reaching 6:00.

Results

Mickie James b. Madison Rayne – Jumping DDT

Brian Kendrick b. Robbie E – Sliced Bread #2

Beer Money b. AJ Styles/Rob Van Dam and D-Von/D’Angelo Dinero – Fisherman’s suplex to Dinero

Miss Tessmacher/Tara b. ODB/Jackie – Rollup to Jackie

Crimson b. Scott Steiner, Bully Ray and Gunner – Rollup to Gunner

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

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

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

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

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

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

Madison Rayne vs. Miss Tessmacher

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

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

Bound For Glory Standings

Crimson 40

James Storm 33

Rob Van Dam 28

Gunner 28

Bully Ray 28

Bobby Roode 28

Matt Morgan 24 (eliminated due to injury)

Devon 23

AJ Styles 21

Scott Steiner 14

Pope 7

Samoa Joe 0

Bound For Glory Series: AJ Styles vs. Devon

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hernandez vs. Bobby Roode

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

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

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

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

Austin Aries vs. Alex Shelley

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sting is here now.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Results

Miss Tessmacher b. Madison Rayne – Small Package

Devon b. AJ Styles – Rollup

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

Hernandez b. Bobby Roode – Rollup

Austin Aries b. Alex Shelley – Brainbuster

Crimson/Rob Van Dam b. Gunner/Scott Steiner

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