Impact
Date: February 3, 2011
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Tazz
Episode Title: Expect the Unexpected

THEY arrive tonight.  After so much speculation, we finally find out who THEY are.  Also we see Mr. Anderson vs. Jeff Hardy vs. Kurt Angle for the world title.  It’s good to finally have a champion since RVD was attacked.  This should be….oh wait hang on I put in the wrong review.  Be right back.

Ah here we are.

THEY arrive tonight.  After so much speculation, we finally find out who THEY are.  Also we see Mr. Anderson vs. Jeff Hardy for the world title.  Yes, TNA is more or less running the same story three months later which isn’t as bad as it sounds, but it doesn’t bode well.  Allegedly THEY were the returning Main Event Mafia but that doesn’t seem to be the case now, due to the departures of Booker T and Kevin Nash.  Anyway, let’s get to it.

We open with a recap of Steiner coming back last week and what probably was the Mafia angle, despite what Bischoff wants you to believe apparently.  We get a ton of quick interviews ala ReAction saying nothing of note.

In the arena we open up properly with Bischoff and Immortal in the ring.  The fans chant we want Flair.  I hear he’s too busy to be here but he’ll show up for an advance in pay.  Bischoff calls out Steiner who he isn’t happy with.  First things first: Hogan isn’t here tonight.  Yes, the guy they’ve hyped for weeks on this show, the biggest draw in the company (allegedly), STILL isn’t here.  He was last seen on a TNA show on Thanksgiving.

According to Eric, there is no THEY.  Bischoff tells Steiner that he told Nash to leave and take the money.  Sting isn’t coming back and no one cares about Booker.  Yeah nonsenseon it never being the Mafia until right now.  Eric offers Steiner a spot on the team and says his options are join or get beaten up.  Steiner takes option 3: he beats up Bischoff instead.

Scott says Bischoff is making the same mistake everyone does and assumes he knows Steiner when he doesn’t.  He says call him sir or he’ll snap Bischoff’s neck.  This brings out Crimson and Angle.  All three are in suits mind you.  Angle says THEY are indeed here and it’s real.  Bischoff looks a bit nervous as we take a break.

Back with Jeff Hardy being worried about tonight but Bischoff says it’s ok.  He wants Flair though and Angle/Crimson/Steiner pop up to say THEY’RE HERE!

Ink Inc vs. Gunner/Murphy

Big brawl to start us off with the security guys in control.  We get down to business with Neal vs. Murphy.  Off to Gunner quickly though as the security guys are moving quickly.  Ink Inc has had nothing yet.  Off to a chinlock by Gunner.  Moore finally gets the tag and fights them both off for a bit.  Heel miscommunication sets up the Mooregasm to Murphy to end it.

Rating: C-. This was really short at just barely over three minutes.  That being said they still managed to keep things fast paced.  I think they were trying to play up the idea of Immortal being shaken up, but I’m not sure this was an actual upset like the announcers would like you to believe.

Angle, Steiner and Crimson are in the back.  Crimson says THEY haven’t touched base yet.  He also calls Angle boss which means he’s the leader I guess.  Kurt gets a phone call and is told we’re still on.  They leave to go over the plan.

Christy Hemme is in Dallas apparently where she says that the judge issued a continuance until March 3, which is when we’ll hear the ruling.  Great way to earn that paycheck and trip to Dallas Christy!  Also nice job of hyping Hogan for a month and then not delivering him.

In the same shot Eric Young pops up and says Angle is a cyborg and he knows who THEY are.  This is another one of those insane bits that makes no difference at all for the most part.  Apparently he thinks they’re off air.

We get a video of the Jarretts’ house including the kids.  This is about what you would expect.

Anderson wants to talk to Hardy before the match, out in the ring.

Back with Bubba Ray (I will not refer to him as Bully Ray unless I have to) in the ring with Pope who is apparently his partner.  Ray talks about how he beat up D-Von last week and was the real star of the team.  The fans want D-Von.  Pope says that it’s Joe vs. Pope at the PPV.

This is one of the three storylines going on in TNA at the moment and it’s probably the best one.  The reason for that: it’s basic.  This isn’t something that is supposed to be huge.  It’s been built up over a few weeks and months and they haven’t gotten in the ring yet.  That’s how you build a feud.  I’d like to see them fight actually.

D’Angelo Dinero/Bully Ray vs. Samoa Joe/Brother D-Von

I didn’t hear a bell so I’m assuming this was an official match.  The respective feuds break off with the Dudleys in the ring and the other two in the aisle.  Pope tries to run but Okada stops him in the aisle.  Who is Okada you ask?  Well he’s the guy that Joe had filming Pope.  Well ok, that’s fine and good.  However, this is a great example of TNA asking the fans to do too much.

Okada has never appeared on Impact until he popped up in this.  He’s been on Xplosion, but since that show is referenced maybe once every six months on Impact, unless you pay really close attention to TNA or know him from his Japan days, this guy is a totally random addition that you’ve never seen before but apparently you’re supposed to be familiar with.

It confuses the viewer because the viewer is guided by the announcers.  The announcers treat Okada like someone they’re completely familiar with rather than someone that has never been seen on Impact before.  This makes fans think they’ve forgotten someone or even confuses them because they try to figure out why they don’t know who he is.

What that does is distract them from what’s going on in the story.  This is another shining example of a very easily solved problem that TNA just lets happen.  Here’s how you fix it.  Tenay: “Ladies and gentlemen that man’s name is Okada.  He’s been a member of TNA’s roster for a few months now and has been appearing on our syndicated program Xplosion.”

Bam ten seconds and you accomplish two things.  You establish this guy isn’t a stranger to TNA and does have a connection to the company.  You also let people know there is more TNA wrestling out there if they’re interested.  See?  Instead, we got this.  Tenay: “It’s Okada.”

Ok, who’s Okada?  Why should I care that he’s here?  Should I be surprised?  Is this a twist?  Is this expected?  Does he have a history with Pope?  With Joe?  Is he a wrestler?  A businessman?  A mercenary?  All we know about him is that his name is Okada and he’s done some work for Joe and he dresses like Kato from Green Hornet.  It’s confusing and it doesn’t have to be.  That’s not good and it happens way too much in TNA.

Back in the ring, Ray has a chain but gets dropped with a clothesline.  If there was a bell I missed it completely.  There’s a referee in there so I’m assuming this is a match.  D-Von hammers away and we hit the floor.  They’re having a street fight at the PPV.  D-Von drills him with a chair and Ray is in trouble.  Tenay says it was a scheduled match but security is pulling D-Von off Bubba so I guess it was thrown out.  Bubba spits on D-Von’s kids as D-Von is being held back.

Mickie vs. Sarita in a taped fist match later.

Jay Lethal vs. Jeremy Buck vs. Douglas Williams

This is another of those X-Division qualifying things.  Max Buck, the one that has already qualified, is at the announce table.  Great to see guys like Williams and Lethal staying in the upper midcard like they got pushes to isn’t it?  Buck gets on both other guys and manages to get out of the way before they massacre him, resulting in Lethal nailing Williams.

Jeremy sends Williams to the floor and lands a sweet Asai Moonsault.  He gets taken out by a suicide dive by Lethal though as they’re moving out there.  Jeremy gets a DDT on Lethal but at the same time Williams gets a Russian Leg Sweep on Jeremy.  With everyone in trouble, Max determines that Jeremy’s shoe is untied so he heads to the ring.  Tower of Doom has Buck in trouble.

Williams gets a small package for two.  Next week it’s Robbie E vs. Suicide vs. Kendrick for the last spot in the #1 contenders match.  Buck is on the floor for a long while Lethal and Williams do the work.  Williams hits Rolling Chaos but gets kicked low by Jeremy who steals the pin on Lethal to advance.

Rating: D+. I wasn’t impressed here at all.  The spots were nice so points for that but this went by really quickly.  Somehow this was four and a half minutes long which blows my mind.  Either way this wasn’t much as this flew by.  These matches are getting more spottish every week, which isn’t a good thing at all.

Bischoff is talking to Flair’s attorney and doesn’t know where Flair is.  Beer Money says it’s ok.  Fourtune leaves but AJ says not to worry about anything.  AJ says WE are in the driver’s seat.

Sarita says she doesn’t have a strategy for her match with Mickie because she doesn’t need one.  Her cousin Rosita is here next week.

We get some quick promos from Anderson and Hardy about their match tonight.  This is some of Jeff’s best talking in a long time as you can understand him perfectly well.

Anderson calls out Hardy and here he comes.  Hardy looks exactly like he did “last week in Germany” as the promos were from.  There is literally water/sweat dripping from Jeff’s hair.  You can see it and it looks like a leaky faucet.  Anderson asks how many jerks  there are here and gets a nice reaction.  He asks the same about the Creatures of the Night.  Not so good of a reaction, which translates to me that there aren’t many Taker fans tonight.

Anderson makes fun of the title belt but says that he’s worked for 11 years to win what it represents.  Both guys don’t respect authority and he talks about the gum chewing thing again.  Anderson can’t seem to decide if this is a serious promo or a comedy one.  Ken wants a fair match tonight.  Hardy talks about how he doesn’t need Immortal to win here so the fans of course keep talking and ranting about things that don’t need to be chanted about.

Mickie is taping up her fist.

Back to the Jarretts and in this case it’s about their kids and family life.  Apparently they’re going to have a talent show.

Mickie James vs. Sarita

This is the taped fist match which means you can tape your fists.  Shouldn’t this be Velvet instead of Mickie though?  Apparently Mickie’s title shot is in a Last Knockout Standing match.  Seated dropkick puts down Sarita and Mickie adds in some splits.  You have to win by knockout apparently.  We head to the floor and Mickie might have punches the post.  Sarita works on the hand, because that’s clearly the easiest way to knock someone out right?

Hand goes into the steps and it’s all Sarita.  This is rather boring indeed.  Sarita keeps dancing and locks in an armbar, in a match where you have to win by knockout.  Are they even trying here?  In the cheapest of cheap endings, Mickie dodges some shots and gets a single left hand in to end it.  So let me get this straight.  A single shot with one of those fists can end it?  THEN WHY DID WE NEED TO SPEND SIX MINUTES GETTING HERE???  Whatever just end this.

Rating: F. Can someone, anyone, tell me what the freaking point to the tape was?  It’s a classic example of a gimmick match not being needed and being there for the sake of a gimmick.  This was boring as heck and I absolutely hate the lazy booking of one person is beaten down the whole time and then a single shot ends it.  Bad booking and I hate it.

Madison blasts Mickie with the cast and stands over her all evil and such.

Bischoff tells Hardy that he’s a bit worried while Jeff says he’s ready.  Hardy says no one from Immortal can be out there.

The Jarretts are going to renew their wedding vows.  This of course is absolutely sickening.  Oh and it’ll be on Impact of course.

TNA World Title: Mr. Anderson vs. Jeff Hardy

Hey look it’s the match that they should have built up for weeks but instead hot shotted it on a PPV for shock value!  Hardy jumps Anderson during his intro and the fight is on as we’re still on the ramp.  Since this is a title match that is scheduled, a bunch of referees pull them apart and we get swearing.  Anderson had some kind of arm hold on Hardy that apparently worked a bit.

The match hasn’t started yet either.  We take a break before we start which is a bit stupid but not bad.  Here’s the bell.  Let me clarify that: I have no problem with a break before the bell which is probably the best idea.  I don’t get the point in having a big brawl instead of just starting the match.  Anderson controls to start and gets some elbow drops for two.

Hardy fights back and takes over.  This is the complete opposite of epic as we knew that Anderson would win the first time but it still felt big.  We talk about THEY because the world title match isn’t interesting enough I guess.  Off to a choke/chinlock by Jeff.  Hardy gets a leg drop as this is needing to pick up a lot.  Now Hardy wants to work on the leg for no apparent reason.

Anderson’s balls go into the post and Hardy works on the head.  Wow that sounded very bad indeed.  Back to the chinlock now.  Whisper in the Wind takes Anderson down but of course here comes Anderson.  They slug it out from their knees and are now back up with some nice sequences still of punches.  Anderson gets a spinning neckbreaker for two.

Mic Check can’t hit but Anderson gets a double spin kick (not joking) much like the one Red hits on Lethal in the package from the New York house show that they air every week.  That was kind of awesome.  Front suplex by Hardy gets two.  Dueling chants here.  Great job of getting Hardy over as a heel there Hogan/Bischoff.  Twist of Hate is reversed and down goes the referee of course.

Here’s the Twist of Hate and here comes Immortal.  Terry kills Anderson with a clothesline and the beatdown is imminent.  AJ hands Anderson to Hardy and throws up the Fourtune sign.  And then Fourtune beats up Immortal and it’s a Styles Clash for Hardy.  The fans are liking this a lot as Anderson gets the pin on Hardy to retain.

Rating: D+. This just did not ever get off the ground.  We knew that something was coming and while the ending is good, there’s no big pop here.  THIS should have been Hardy dropping the title to Anderson rather than at the PPV, but since that would be logical booking and TNA doesn’t want that at all, this was what we got and it was just ok.  It’s pretty clear this was supposed to be epic and that the company thinks this is their big feud, it’s never clicked for me.  Match wasn’t terrible to be sure, but it was nothing great at all.

After a break, AJ says look what we have here.  Fourtune isn’t taking a back seat to anyone and this is on Eric’s head.  Fourtune is THEY of course.  Eric comes out to call AJ an ungrateful son of a gun.  Fourtne was nothing without Hogan and Bischoff and all that jazz.  Angle, Crimson and Steiner are in there now too but this is AJ vs. Bischoff.

AJ yells about how Eric and Hogan changed everything and how they messed up a ton of stuff.  The fans of course decide that they need to speak up and let us know they want six sides.  Hogan is back on March 3^rd.  Really.  We mean it this time.  Hogan WILL be here this time unlike tonight when we promised he would be here.  He hasn’t been seen since Thanksgiving and is somehow the #2 or #3 heel in the company.  The big staredown ends the show.

Overall Rating: D-. There’s a lot to get to here so let’s get started.  First the good: Fourtune.  This is exactly what TNA needs at this point: TNA originals (kind of) vs. the outsiders.  That’s the perfect story given how they’ve set all this up.  I’m very happy with that.  Now for the bad.

Number one: This should have happened FOUR MONTHS AGO!  Fourtune has been the popular faction in TNA for MONTHS.  There was never any need at all for them to join up with Immortal and again, IT MADE NO SENSE!  Flair wanted to tick off Dixie and did that and then his boys were far more powerful than Immortal but kept the alliance anyway to be lackies.  THAT MAKES NO SENSE!

So now it’s Fourtune/Angle/Steiner/Crimson/Anderson/probably Morgan vs. Gunner/Murphy/Hardys/Jarrett.  That doesn’t exactly sound riveting as you have the titles and the power with Fourtune who are supposed to be the underdogs as the, you know, good guys.  Here’s where you see the criticisms of Bischoff and Russo shining through.

This is, once again, the NWO vs. WCW and the Millionaires Club vs. New Blood.  It’s a faction war with the heels being led by the corrupt leader and the good guys being all about keeping things like they were before.  Like I said, this is the right choice but it’s not like this is something we’re going to be riveted by as we’ve seen it before.  That’s not good but it’s what Russo and Bischoff do: they have one idea and that’s all you see out of them.

One last good thing I forgot to mention: AJ.  This is what TNA needed to have months ago (notice that I’m kind of harping on that).  AJ Styles is the golden boy in TNA and represents everything that the company is about.  FINALLY he’s standing up to fight off these guys that have wanted to change everything about the company and while it’s not exactly interesting, AJ belongs as a face in this company and that’s all there is to it.

Other than this, the show is worthless.  There isn’t a good match to be seen, the whole thing is thrown together around the basic premise of THEY coming back.  The BFG show did such an incredible job of building up the tension and atmosphere before the reveal that even I, one of TNA’s harshest critics on here, was dying to know who THEY were.  This time though, there was nothing.  It happened and that was it.

The show was just bad overall with only AJ and the reveal being the good parts.  I’m curious as to where this will go but only to an extent.  Hogan coming back on March 3^rd does nothing for me.  He can’t wrestle, he can barely walk, but he’s supposed to be a big deal?  Just get to the destruction of Immortal and let it go.  Bad show this week but there was a somewhat redeeming quality to it.oganglaksj

Results

Ink Inc b. Gunner/Murphy – Mooregasm to Murphy

Samoa Joe/D-Von vs. Bully Ray/D’Angelo Dinero went to a no contest

Jeremy Buck b. Jay Lethal and Douglas Williams – Buck pinned Lethal after Rolling Chaos Theory

Mickie James b. Sarita by knockout

Mr. Anderson b. Jeff Hardy – Pin after a Styles Clash from AJ Styles

Impact
Date: January 27, 2011
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Tazz
Episode Title: Crimson Sees Red

It’s almost a go home show tonight as they’ve spent more time building up to February 3^rd than Against All Odds which is perfectly fine as 2/3 is a huge show.  Also, it’s nice to see TNA building up to a major event for weeks rather than hours.  When you do that, more people might actually watch.  Anyway, tonight we’ll likely be focusing on the new THEY and hopefully finding out some more about how Crimson is connected to this.  Also expect more about Angle vs. Jarrett.  Let’s get to it.

As usual we open with a recap of last week, mainly focusing on Jarrett/Angle and then Crimson.

Angle opens the show properly without music for some reason this week.  He talks about last week and everything that happened before moving on to how he made a promise not to wrestle again.  But sometimes there are things you have to deal with, and in this case it’s Jarrett.  He’s the best in the world and he does it for the people.  Would the people want to see Kurt in the ring one more time?  Based on the cheers it seems that they would.

Bischoff and Immortal come out and Bischoff says that there’s no way he’s wrestling again because he’s retired.  Kurt apparently needs to find a new hobby.  Eric sends Immortal down and they beat the heck out of Kurt.  Taz mentions that Eric took away the pyro and music so that’s covered.  Crimson runs in with a bat for the save and clears the ring.

Flair goes on a classic rant, saying that THEY is him, Bischoff and Hogan and are already here.  Hogan hasn’t been seen in two months but he’s still here I guess.  Flair, as Kurt’s god, lifts the ban on Angle wrestling and makes Angle vs. Jarrett tonight.  Jeff loses it but Flair finishes his statement and makes it Angle/Crimson vs. all of Immortal.  Flair’s face is beet red.  He screams more as we go to a break.

Back with Eric taking credit for making Angle says he’d retire if he lost.  “Ric, have you lost your mind?”  Flair of course responds with taking off his jacket, shouting at the top of his lungs and talking about Kool-Aid.  This is absolutely hilarious and I really don’t know if that’s intentional or not.

Dixie speaks tonight.

Sarita/Tara/Madison Rayne vs. Velvet Skye/Mickie James/Angelina Love

We see the Beautiful People in the back but Winter grabs Angelina and asks why are you doing this to us?  Love says chill because Velvet is my BFF.  Winter is crushed and screams, beating the tar out of a wall or something.  Dang it quit having the camera on anything other than Velvet during her entrance?  This is under elimination rules because a gimmick is needed in at least half the matches on a Russo show.

They brawl before the match starts and then we get a bell.  Tara vs. Angelina to start but it’s off to Sarita and Mickie soon.  Dixie is the topic of course and we get the legal ruling on Immortal and TNA next week.  Also she’s still President.  I’m assuming that means a figurehead spot at the moment?  Off to Velvet and Sarita now as Velvet is still obsessed with beating her.

Madison tries to come in but Mickie counters her.  Madison tries to load up the glove but is thrown out by Velvet.  The distraction allows Sarita to roll her up to make it 3-2.  Mickie gets in but is sent to the apron soon.  She gets rammed by Tara’s elbow pad and Madison comes in.  Madison is knocked down and falls on her own glove to knock herself out and Mickie gets the pin.  A second later Sarita rolls up Mickie to get us down to Angelina vs. Sarita/Tara.

Angelina gets a small package on Sarita for two as we take a break.  Back with Anelina vs. Sarita still.  Angelina reverses a belly to back and gets a spin kick for two.  They show a reply of the Madison elimination and see that she completely missed the glove that knocked her out but that’s an understandable error as fast as she was falling.  We cut to the back with Velvet on the ground holding her head.  Winter vs. Velvet for Angelina’s affections works for me.

Over to Tara now after a long body scissors by Angelina.  Tara lasts just a few seconds as it’s back to Sarita.  Sarita gets something close to a snap suplex for two.  We’re over 12 minutes into this match now with a lot of it being this handicap match.  I don’t remember a Knockouts match this long in awhile other than maybe the cage match.  The heels double team Angelina a bit but Love fights them off and hits the Botox Injection to Tara to make it 1-1.  Sarita gets a rollup reversed and Angelina gets the win at 13:35.

Rating: C-. The match got a lot better once we got down to 2-1.  The first half was incredibly sloppy and they were going too fast with the eliminations.  I’m not sure what the point was to it going so long but it wasn’t a bad match.  I like them having an angle in the division if not multiple angles too.  Nice to see that for a change.

Angle is on the phone with someone and says they have to accelerate their plans.  Kurt wants the person here tonight.

Back with Matt making fun of Anderson’s saying things twice deal.  Matt says Anderson won’t make it to February 3.  He also mentions having Cold Blood which gets some emphasis.

Kaz is at the announce table.  We’re going to have three triple threats over the next three weeks.  The winners will meet at Against All Odds for a final triple threat for the #1 contender spot.  Wow think they’re taking enough time getting to that?

Max Buck vs. Amazing Red vs. Chris Sabin

We get comments from everyone with Red saying he’s the original face of the X Division, Max saying it’s either his or his brother’s time and Sabin says destiny is knocking at his door (Kaz: wouldn’t that upset Velvet Sky?  Sabin and her date if that makes no sense).  It’s a wild match as you would expect to start with Max being sent to the floor a few times.

Big dive by Sabin takes out Red and it’s Max vs. Sabin in the ring.  A low dropkick gets two.  Surprisingly enough Kaz is the most entertaining part of this match.  Jeremy chokes Red on the floor for a bit.  That apparently doesn’t work as he gets a dropkick off the top to take out both guys.  Red gets his speed going to take down Max with a spinning DDT.  Red dives at Sabin who catches him in a suplex position and slams him down into a neckbreaker for two.

Max vs. Sabin now with a nice gymnastics routine resulting in a faceplant by Max which gets two for him.  Nice kind of sunset bomb by Red for two as Jeremy pops up so his brother can still win.  Red goes up but gets crotched by Jeremy.  Elevated DDT out of the corner by Max is enough to pin Red at 5:10.  Fun match.

Rating: B. Fun match indeed here in the vein of the old school Cruiserweight matches in WCW.  This was a spot fest and that’s exactly what the X Division should be.  These matches are great ways to get a crowd going and it was short enough to not get dull.  Fun match and exactly what it needed to be.

Karen is paranoid about Kurt being on the phone.  Jeff says to calm down but Karen is still worried.

Jeff Hardy is up next.

Back with Velvet saying she’s fed up with Winter who attacked her.  She tells Angelina to deal with Winter or she will.

We recap Jeff vs. Anderson and their feud to hype up next week.

Here’s Jeff.  I still don’t see him as a big star when I look at him.  I didn’t in WWE and I don’t here.  He yells at the fans and says that they’re all a bunch of smarks and internet junkies.  At BFG he took the title and the money because he is TNA.  Half the fans chant for him and half of them chant where’s your title.  Now let’s talk about the jerk.  Jeff says he’s going to win the title back next week and shove it in all the fans’ faces.  This was just…bad.  He sounded like a guy in OVW that has been around for three months.

Anderson comes down to the ring and holds up the title.  He says Jeff complains and moans a lot, sounding like Charlie Brown’s mom.  Everything in wrestling is about wins and losses apparently and right now Anderson has the big win.  Anderson says that even after what Hardy has put the fans through, they still like him.  Next week it’s all about the title and when the match is over, Anderson will still be the Total Nonstop Action Total Nonstop Anderson.  I’m not a fan of Anderson but he destroyed Hardy here.

Eliminate the Hate PSA.

Crimson says a few weeks ago he was here for his brother Red.  Recently though he was given an offer he couldn’t refuse.  Next week we’ll find out who that offer came from.  Could they make this any more obvious?

We get a recap of what Crimson has done.  Abyss is hurt badly apparently and is out indefinitely.  No word on the TV Title.

Here’s Velvet with no music.  She calls out Winter with a ton of profanity.  Winter comes out and Velvet drills her before she can get in.  This goes on for awhile until Winter beats her down with some shots.  Angelina finally comes out to break it up.  The fans chant She’s a Screamer.  I want to end the Impact Zone audience.

Pope is on his way to the ring as we take a break.

Here’s Pope who says that maybe he said some things that shouldn’t have been said but he said some things that should have been said.  Pope is pure which is why he always wears white.  Tonight he’s going to confess to something.  Pope talks about how so many people aren’t honest with themselves and don’t like the people they’re around.

He’s better than all of us apparently, so he’s going to kneel down and confess.  He gets about one knee down but pulls up saying that he doesn’t like Joe.  Pope goes on a rant saying he is going to fix things like he always has.  Next week someone is going to confess just like he did.

Flair is giving Fourtune a pep talk and for no apparent reason Eric Young is there.  Fourtune leaves and Eric stays.  Flair goes off on him and says the title Eric has means nothing.  Eric leaves saying good talk Ric.  This was kind of pointless.  The Eric aspect I mean.

Back with a recap of Hogan’s arrival in TNA and how it led to the whole THEY story.  When you condense it really well like this the angle actually looks and sounds pretty awesome.

Dixie is on the phone and says that the day in court will be next Thursday and we’ll hear the decision that night.  This phone call lasted all of 30 seconds.  So in other words control of a major company and a fraudulent contract signing can be settled in court in a single day along with the action of that day in court being enacted on the same day?

Eric offers a rebuttal, saying next week Immortal will get the gold back and Hogan is back too.

Matt Hardy vs. Mr. Anderson

Matt hammers Anderson down a bit but can’t get a move off the top.  He does manage to drape Anderson’s arm over the top though and gets a one arm DDT for two.  Anderson’s arm goes into the post while the announcers plug next week’s major show.  The top of Anderson’s calves near his legs are really pale.  Lots of arm work here but Anderson gets a spinning neckbreaker for two.

Anderson’s rolling fireman’s carry slam is reversed and Matt uses an FU for two.  Twist of Hate is countered into the rolling fireman’s carry slam for two.  Mic Check is blocked and there’s the Side Effect for two but Anderson rolls him up for the pin at 4:12.  That came out of nowhere.

Rating: C+. Quick match but pretty good here.  They used a lot of counters and it was pretty fast paced.  They kept this short which is probably a good thing at this point.  It gave Anderson a slight injury going into the title defense next week, so I have very few complaints here for once.

Post match Jeff comes out for the beatdown.  RVD runs out for the save but the Hardys get away.  You know maybe RVD would be able to sneak up on them better if he didn’t have loud music saying ROB VAN DAM as soon as he came out.

Angle and Crimson are coming to the ring.  Angle says they’re not alone out there.

Kurt Angle/Crimson vs. Immortal

Immortal here is represented by Beer Money/Kaz/Rob Terry and Gunner/Murphy.  AJ is in street clothes as is Flair.  They’re staying on the floor it seems.  No Jarrett?  AJ is on the apron now and you have to tag here.  The referee makes them switch corners for some reason.  It seems like they’re wasting time.  Crimson vs. Roode to start with Roode hammering him back in the corner.  Is this Crimson’s official debut?

He takes over on Roode very quickly with a shoulder block and a Falcon Arrow for two.  Off to Angle who gets only a moderate pop for his first official match in months.  Kaz comes in and Angle takes over.  Off to Storm now who takes a suplex.  Angle knocks all of Immortal off the apron but Storm is able to hit a Backstabber.  Superkick misses and down goes the referee.

Angle Slam to Storm and it breaks down rather quickly.  With Angle in trouble we get Jarrett’s music.  He and Karen come out and Jeff wants Kurt on his own.  Kurt easily grabs a German but Immortal beats him down.  I’m assuming the match was thrown out at some point earlier.  Stroke to Angle and Jackson James runs out for the pin at 3:35.  No rating as the vast majority was a big beatdown.

Morgan runs out as apparently the call recipient.  I was wondering where he was tonight.  The numbers catch up with him though…and there go the lights.  A siren goes off and SCOTT STEINER is back, pipe in hand.  He clears the ring to end the show.

Overall Rating: C+. This was very similar to Raw in that the only point of it was to build up to the big show.  In that sends it certainly worked, but at the same time the lack of wrestling hurts it a bit.  This was good for a go home show but as a regular show it wasn’t that great overall.  I want to see the show next week though, so that’s definitely a win for them.

Also I won’t be here for the review next week so I’ll see you in two weeks.

Results

Angelina Love/Velvet Sky/Mickie James b. Tara/Madison Rayne/Sarita – Angelina last eliminated Sarita to win
Max Buck b. Amazing Red and Chris Sabin – Elevated DDT to Red
Mr. Anderson b. Matt Hardy – Cradle
Immortal b. Kurt Angle/Crimson – Stroke to Angle

Impact
Date: January 20, 2011
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Taz
Episode Title: Dirty Laundry

We’re now two weeks away from February 3 which is of course a big deal because I turn 23!  Clearly that’s why the show is a big deal right?  Oh and Hogan and THEY will be there.  There’s talk of a title match there too.  Maybe it’s not because of my birthday after all.  Anyway now that I’ve filled in the intro space, I’m rather excited about tonight’s show as I found last week’s good as I’ve found the last few weeks.  Let’s get to it.

We open with a recap of Angle/the Jarretts from last week.  I still don’t get why Karen wanted to wait until this week instead of just saying what she has to say last week.

Angle gets here and walks past the production area, demanding his music be played right now.  If I’m not mistaken, Jimmy Hart was there working on the production team.  Awesome indeed.  Angle hits the arena and says that this is about him and Jeff, not him and Karen.  He talks about how Karen was always around Jarrett and she said it was always business.

Then a few months ago Jeff started talking about it all the time and rubbing it in Kurt’s face.  Big old nastycut on Kurt’s head.  The salt and pepper beard works on him.  He starts crying as he talks about how he was a good husband and father.  Kurt talks about how the only thing he’s guilty of is not being around enough but that was because he wanted his family to have everything they deserved.

Kurt says he and Karen can either bury the hatchet for the sake of their kids or on the other hand if she doesn’t let it go, he’ll pull out every skeleton in her closet.  Jarrett’s music hits and here comes Team Jarrett.  You know, because they’ve had SO much success against him before.  None of them can even get in the ring as Kurt knocks them all down while they’re on the apron.

Here are Bischoff and Flair, the real stars of the show.  They bring out five or six cops to arrest Kurt.  For once this makes sense as he’s not an active wrestler so why should he be in there?  Jeff and Karen aren’t here yet as we take a break.

The Jarretts get here and are sad about Kurt being gone.

Sarita vs. Velvet Sky vs. Mickie James vs. Madison Rayne

This is non-title I guess.  Madison has the left hand gloved again.  Velvet and Mickie argue over what pairing to start with so they start instead.  Wait you have to tag?  Mickie and Madison start for a bit but Sarita replaces Madison very quickly.  Nice nip-up by Mickie but Velvet tags herself in.  This tagging thing is kind of awkward as it looks like a tag match.

Velvet gets a nice headscissors on Sarita but Madison comes in to beat her down.  It turns into a de facto tag match as Mickie and Madison work together.  Nice arm drag out of a wheelbarrow by Velvet to Sarita.  Mickie and Sarita are left in the ring and mickie goes up.  Tara pops up to blast Mickie with the arm brace.  Sarita and Velvet smack heads and Madison loads up the glove.  She hits Velvet and Mickie rolls up Madison for the pin at 4:30.

Rating: D+. For a fatal fourway, this was awful.  For a tag match, this was ok.  I have no idea what the fourway aspect of this was there for as a tag match would have made perfect sense and probably more sense actually.  The match was ok and it sets up another Madison vs. Mickie match so I guess that was ok.

Beer Money says they’re ready for Anderson and RVD tonight.

Angle is still walking around in the back like nothing ever happened to him.

Back and Joe is sending Okada (guy that signed from I think NJPW a good while ago and has only been on Xplosion to this point I think) out as his spy on Pope.  If I’m not mistaken (and I very well may be) he was dressed like Kato from Green Hornet.  I wouldn’t have known who he was if not for Taz.

Matt Morgan vs. Rob Terry

Before this starts Flair says there isn’t a woman in the place that could last with Terry, not even all three of the good looking women in the front row.  Carbon Footprint ends this in 7 seconds.  Was there ANY point to this?  Flair goes after Morgan post match and can’t hurt him at all.  Abyss comes out and beats down Morgan a bit but Morgan fights off all three guys with ease.

Morgan yells at Flair and gets beaten….never mind as he beats down the enforcer and the TV Champion on his own.  They try to take him down a third time and FINALLY they get him down with a chop block.  A double chokeslam ends Morgan and Immortal stands tall.

Mike and Taz welcome us to the show, 35 minutes in.  They talk about the January 4th Tokyo Dome show and we get some clips of it.

Hardy vs. Dreamer later.  Wow he still has a job?  You pick which I mean by that.

Kaz and AJ talk about Bischoff and praise Fourtune.  Kaz leaves and Crimson chokes down AJ and says that THEY are coming again.

Back and Angle is still wandering around.  Does no one watch these feeds?

X-Division Title: Jay Lethal vs. Kazarian

So on Lethal’s business card does it say X-Division challenger?  Lethal jumps him and it’s on early.  Lethal gets his cartwheel into seated dropkick spot and Kaz tries to leave.  Jay will have none of that though and the fight is on the floor.  The Jarrett segment will be next.  Kaz is thrown back in the ring and Lethal takes him down with a springboard missile dropkick for two.

Lethal Injection is blocked and Kaz fires off a nice three-kick combination.  Handspring elbow takes down Kaz and the Lethal Combination does the same.  Another nip-up tonight as Lethal pulls one off.  He points to the wrong corner and then goes up for the elbow.  After taking long enough to write a short novel he connects anyway.

Kaz rolls out to the floor and appears to be out cold.  Jay gets him back in but Kaz rakes his eyes.  It doesn’t seem to do much as Lethal gets a sunset flip but Kaz grabs the ropes for leverage to get the pin at 4:35.  The idea here again is that Jackson James, the referee, missed it again.  This is despite the fact that you can see he couldn’t see it from the perfect angle he was in.

Rating: C. Totally average match here that was nothing special.  The X-Division is painfully uninteresting at this point as it’s more or less just Lethal challenging whatever heel has the title at this point.  At least they seem to have dropped Robbie though.  Anyway this was seemingly just there to fill in time and had next to nothing special going on with it, although it wasn’t bad.  Call it acceptable if nothing else.

RVD, Anderson and Dreamer talk about how they all want Hardy but only Dreamer got him.  They exchange each others’ nicknames and that’s pretty much it.

The Jarretts are up next.

Kurt sneaks back into the arena.  Good thing there was a camera right there to catch it.

Here are Karen and Jeff.  Jeff talks about how awesome she is and she does look great tonight.  The fans chant sloppy seconds.  Karen is a victim here, a victim of Kurt Angle.  She points out that since Jeff is part owner of the company, she is too (not said but heavily implied).  Her voice is somehow more annoying than Vickie’s.  She says let’s go back to 1997 when Kurt was a lost little puppy.

Kurt pops up behind then and hits Jeff with a German.  Karen tries to take her shoe off but Kurt stops her.  They have a staredown and she slaps him.  Jeff gets a low blow to Kurt and the fans finally wake up a bit.  He hammers Kurt and tries to open up that cut on his head.  No such luck it seems but Kurt is left almost in the fetal position on the mat as the Jarretts leave and we take a break.

Eliminate the hate, as told to you by a group of men and women that solve their problems with their fists and say mean things about how they’re going to hurt each other.

In the back Angle destroys a bunch of stuff.  Again, if the police took him out earlier, why in the world aren’t they doing so now?

Tommy Dreamer vs. Jeff Hardy

I have a great new drinking game for you: every time TNA cuts to a different camera angle, take a shot.  I’ve counted eleven in the first 40 seconds of this match.  Dreamer takes it to the floor early and controls.  We get an ad for the world title match on February 3^rd.  Gee wouldn’t it be great if that had been the first title match instead of throwing it on the end of a PPV completely unadvertised?  Hardy whips Dreamer off the apron and takes over.

Dreamer’s wrist may not be at 100% still.  Jeff hammers away for a bit but here comes Tommy.  It’s a good thing I didn’t play my own drinking game or I’d be dead from alcohol poisoning already.  Dreamer goes to the middle rope but jumps into the Twist.  Dreamer reverses into the Dreamer Driver (thank goodness it’s not that stupid Spicolli name) which gets two.  And there’s the Twist of Hate to end it at 4:18.  It’s as abrupt as it sounds.  Oh apparently Tommy got low blowed.

Rating: C+. Are we just not allowed to go past four and a half minutes tonight?  I had this rated lower earlier but the point here was to reestablish Jeff’s dominance heading into the world title match and on that front it was a success.  Nothing special again but it was fine for what it was: a quick match to make Jeff look good.

Angle now has a baseball bat.  What is this, his 6^th time on camera tonight?

Back and Pope is talking to someone about just getting back.  He goes into an office and talks to a guy on a computer about some overseas transactions.  Apparently he doesn’t notice the camera guy looking into the room with a camera despite looking at the door.  He calls the guy’s phone which the camera picks up and steals the laptop.  So Pope is like a crime boss now or something?

AJ is talking to Flair about how THEY are coming and Flair says THEY are here and he is God.  Flair ices AJ and he’s ticked as goodness about it.  The alcohol burns his throat and he has to stop.  Kurt drills him with the bat and comes after Flair with it.  He chokes Flair down and says have Jarrett in the Impact Zone or he’s coming after Flair next.

So Kurt opened the show, was shown in the back three times, had an in ring segment, had another two backstage moments, jumped Flair and is going to close the show.  You think that’s enough for a guy that isn’t a wrestler?

Beer Money vs. Rob Van Dam/Mr. Anderson

Non-Title here again.  Anderson does his thing pre-match. Beer Money hits the floor and we take a break before the bell.  Roode and Van Dam start us off.  Standing moonsault gets two.  Off to Storm and Anderson with the champion dominating.  We get the fake tag with Storm slapping his hands together so Roode can come in and the referee is fine with it.  If this referee is supposed to be awful, why would he keep getting main event refereeing assignments?

Back over to Storm who works Anderson over a bit.  Hey we broke four and a half minutes for the first time tonight!  On the crawl for house shows, they’re holding a show on the night of their big show, February 3^rd.  Doesn’t that seem a little counteractive?  Anderson can’t get the Mic Check but can get a DDT to bring in Van Dam.  Storm is tagged in as well.

RVD takes out both champions with ease and it’s not quite Rolling Thunder as Roode makes the save.  Storm gets a Backstabber for two.  Anderson comes in and everyone is in at once.  Scratch that as Anderson and Roode go outside.  RVD heads up and it’s a Five Star for Storm.  Jeff hardy comes out to distract the referee though and there’s no cover.  Matt Hardy, looking like a homeless man, comes in with a Twist of Hate so that Storm can get the pin at 8:10.

Rating: C. This was your run of the mill main event tag match here.  It’s not bad but it’s nothing we haven’t see a dozen times?  Thankfully we didn’t have Anderson get pinned a second time.  This was probably the best possible outcome and it worked pretty well for the most part.  Decent main event.

Kendrick tries to calm down Ray (after almost getting killed for calling him Brother instead of Bully) with some breathing techniques.  He slams Kendrick into a locker in the textbook definition of a pointless segment.

Flair and Bischoff send Jarrett to the ring with Eric saying he’s got this.

Here’s D-Von.  Yes, this is the second to last segment on the show: D-Von Dudley yelling at Bubba.  Ray comes out and stands on the ramp.  Kendrick runs down the ramp and sends Bubba into the ring.  Bubba pulls out a chain but D-Von beats him to the punch.  D-Von gets the chain and security stops him.  Bubba beats up security after knocking down D-Von.  He puts a chair around the head of D-Von and swings the chain down onto it to leave D-Von laying.

Kurt is up next.

Back with Angle in the ring for the third time tonight.  Here comes Jeff in his gear along with Gunner and Murphy.  Wow he got changed quickly.  The goons hit the ring and Kurt beats on them for the 9000^th time.  Why can’t a body guard ever be successful in their defense of someone?  They slow him down a bit so I guess they did their job.  Jarrett comes in and it’s a 3-1 beatdown.

And so much for that as Angle takes down both guards and Jeff.  Kurt slaps on a choke and Karen runs out.  Kaz and Fourtune/Immortal come in for the save.  No Abyss for some reason.  AJ throws a single punch and that’s about all he’s able to do on his bad leg.  Here’s Abyss coming down the ramp with his arms open.  He hits his knees and Janice is stuck in his back!  Crimson comes out and stands over him, saying THEY are coming.  Angle clears the ring and grabs a quick ankle lock on Flair to end the show.

Overall Rating: C-. Well the wrestling was uh…short tonight.  The stories were advanced though, which is kind of the important part I suppose.  The main thing holding this show back though is Angle vs. Jarrett.  That is probably 20-30% of this entire show, and that’s WAY too much.  They had probably 15 combined appearances tonight and two showdowns.  This was all about them.  If you’re not a fan of that story, you hated this show.  That’s a dangerous style to use as it’s hit or miss.  The show wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t as good as the previous two weeks.

Results

Mickie James b. Sarita, Madison Rayne and Velvet Sky – Rollup to Rayne

Matt Morgan b. Rob Terry – Carbon Footprint

Kazarian b. Jay Lethal – Cradle

Jeff Hardy b. Tommy Dreamer – Twist of Hate

Beer Money b. Rob Van Dam/Mr. Anderson – Storm pinned Van Dam after a Twist of Hate from Matt Hardy

1.3.  That’s their best in awhile.

For a little bit at least.  It’s been confirmed that in February at least some shows will be taped in North Carolina.  I have no idea if this is going to be a regular occurrence or if it’s a one off thing but either way it’s a good idea.  They need to get away from the Impact Zone crowd for a change to see what works and what doesn’t.  Even for a week or two it’s a good thing for them.

Thoughts?

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

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

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

Jarrett and Karen got here earlier today.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tag Titles: Beer Money vs. Motor City Machineguns

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

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

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

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

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

Kurt gets here.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Holy crap it’s a wrestling match!

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

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

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

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

Matt Morgan vs. Abyss

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hardys vs. Rob Van Dam/Mr. Anderson

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Results

Beer Money b. Motor City Machineguns – DWI to Shelley

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

Matt Morgan b. Abyss – Carbon Footprint

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Robert Roode vs. Chris Sabin

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rob Van Dam vs. Robbie E

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

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

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

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

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

Foley is up next.

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

Velvet Skye vs. Sarita

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

AJ Styles/Rob Terry vs. Douglas Williams/Magnus

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

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

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

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

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

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

Foley comes out for commentary on the main event.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Results

Robert Roode b. Chris Sabin – Spinebuster

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

Sarita b. Velvet Skye – Sarita touched the fourth corner

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cue theme song.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

TV Title: AJ Styles vs. Doug Williams

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Anderson will be on the phone next.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tonight it’s another Jarrett MMA invitational thing.

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

X-Division Title: Jay Lethal vs. Robbie E

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Generation Me vs. Eric Young/Orlando Jordan

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Brother Ray vs. Amazing Red

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

Jarrett talks about his MMA thing some more.

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

Rob Van Dam vs. Rob Terry

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Theme song hits fifteen minutes into the broadcast.

Tara is going to perform tonight, as in singing.

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

Abyss vs. Williams for the TV Title tonight.

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

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

Team 3D vs. Ink Inc

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Gunner/Murphy vs. Motor City Machineguns

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A casket is being brought to the ring.

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

Recap of the casket match from the PPV.

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

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

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

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

TV Title: Abyss vs. Douglas Williams

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tara vs. Mickie James

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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