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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tonight it’s another Jarrett MMA invitational thing.

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

X-Division Title: Jay Lethal vs. Robbie E

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Generation Me vs. Eric Young/Orlando Jordan

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Brother Ray vs. Amazing Red

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

Jarrett talks about his MMA thing some more.

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

Rob Van Dam vs. Rob Terry

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Theme song hits fifteen minutes into the broadcast.

Tara is going to perform tonight, as in singing.

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

Abyss vs. Williams for the TV Title tonight.

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

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

Team 3D vs. Ink Inc

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Gunner/Murphy vs. Motor City Machineguns

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A casket is being brought to the ring.

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

Recap of the casket match from the PPV.

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

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

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

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

TV Title: Abyss vs. Douglas Williams

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tara vs. Mickie James

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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