Impact Wrestling
Date: June 2, 2011
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Tazz
It’s Thursday, which means it’s time for Impact. After last week’s less than inspired effort, hopefully tonight there are no 40 minute rests between matches. We have two weeks left before Slammiversary and most of the card seems to be all set up. I’d expect more shenanigans from Anderson tonight as far as Sting and more build between Jarrett and Angle because we haven’t seen enough of that yet right? Let’s get to it.
Bischoff arrives and is served legal papers by the Network. Because when you think of wrestling, you think of old men with gray hair, network dealings and legal paperwork right?
We open with a big brawl between Velvet and ODB in the back. Velvet fights back and hits a spear through….a big piece of paper. ODB shouts about Velvet being the reason why ODB doesn’t have a job. ODB beats her up and carries her into the Impact Zone, shouting about how Velvet slept her way to her job and all that jazz.
The producers FINALLY come out to break this up and that goes nowhere so ODB rips off the shirt Velvet is wearing so we at least get to see Sky in a bikini which is never a bad thing. After Velvet is left laying and ODB leaves Tessmacher finally comes out to help her. Some friend. This ate up like five minutes total.
AJ and Bully Ray have a confrontation later. Not a match mind you, a confrontation.
Also Jarrett/Steiner vs. Angle/Morgan.
Here’s Sting and never mind as it’s really Anderson again in old school Sting clothes. He’s going to face someone from Sting’s past tonight and that’s about it.
Bischoff is on the phone and Kendrick comes up, saying he wants another shot at Abyss. Kaz has the shot at the PPV apparently but tonight instead it’s Kaz vs. Kendrick and the winner gets Abyss at Slammiversary.
Bischoff is still on the phone, apparently to Hogan. He actually says SpikeTV instead of The Network for once. He comes into the arena and apparently that was during the break. Hogan will be here later it seems. Bischoff calls down Beer Money and apparently Roode isn’t cleared to wrestle at the PPV. They’re facing the British Invasion apparently. Uh….why? Roode says he’ll be at the PPV so here comes Alex Shelley.
Apparently Sabin as torn ligaments in his knee and won’t be back until 2012. Shelley talks about the best of 5 series that the Guns had last year with Beer Money and how he wants to defend the titles in Roode’s place. Bischoff says no way but Shelley has Network authority. They team is now Gun Money apparently. Shouldn’t it be Beer Guns or Motor Beer or something?
Matt Hardy vs. Crimson
Crimson is introduced as the undefeated Crimson. It’s Crimson vs. Joe at the PPV apparently. Matt gets taken down by a clothesline quickly and sent to the floor for a breather. Very basic match so far as Crimson uses his power and Matt uses his basic offense. A middle rope clothesline puts Crimson down and an elbow gets two. Matt works on the neck which makes sense for a guy whose finisher is the Twist of Hate. Crimson tries to go up but Matt knocks him off and hits a middle rope legdrop for two.
Crimson starts his comeback and hits a double arm DDT for two. His offense is kind of limited for the most part and he doesn’t wrestle like the power guy you would think he is based on his looks. Twist of Fate doesn’t hit but the Sky High (wasn’t that called Red Sky or something last week?) ends this out of nowhere at 6:05.
Rating: C. Pretty boring here as Crimson didn’t look so much like a monster here but rather someone that escaped with a victory. That’s ok because Matt is probably the biggest one on one match he’s had off the top of my head other than Joe, but this wasn’t anything all that great. Not bad either though. Just kind of there if that makes sense.
Joe comes out post match and is speared out of the ring before he can even throw a punch.
Anderson comes up to Young in the back and wants to talk to him. Young has both titles on him still. Apparently the world is clamoring for Young to have seminars to show how to have matches like Young and Gunner had last week. Anderson wants Young to pretend to be Great Muta tonight for the match. This is about respect though, not disrespect, so Young agrees.
Winter tells Angelina that tonight the respect begins again with Tessmacher. Angelina actually talks, saying she remembers a better time when they were loved and alone and they need to go back to that time, which starts tonight. Winter seems thrilled.
Eric gives an emotional speech to Immortal (including the Jarretts for once), saying that he didn’t think it would end like this. Hogan will be here later and will explain things. Immortal wants to know what happens to them as Bischoff leaves.
Miss Tessmacher vs. Angelina Love
Love vs. James at the PPV. Tessmacher gets a pair of rollups within the first ten seconds for two each. Angelina starts no selling stuff and hammers away on Tessmacher. Cross body gets two for Tessmacher but Love knocks her to the floor. Side slam is kind of dropped and Angelina rams her into the corner a few times. Tessmacher fires back but takes forever setting up a victory roll and gets countered. A reverse DDT into a backbreaker ends this at 3:35.
Rating: D+. Tessmacher isn’t much in the ring but thankfully they’ve figured that out, letting her more or less being a stripper and only be out there for her looks. Not the worst match ever but really just par for the course with a weak Knockout against a decent one. At least Tessmacher looked hot.
Post match Angelina chokes Tessmacher until Winter pulls her off.
Mr. Anderson vs. Eric Young
This is billed as Sting vs. the Not-So-Great Muta. This feud was what, 22 years ago? I know TNA is supposed to be an alternative to the kids show, but anyone under about 25 isn’t going to remember the original feud. And yet it’s somehow better than Disco Inferno last week. Anderson does slow motion Stinger Splashes in the corner while Young stands around. Young goes to leave but Anderson stops him and overacts on everything. Young’s face paint looks like Darth Maul. Splash misses in the corner and Young fights back with a forearm for two.
Belly to belly gets two as does a crucifix. Anderson tries to fight back and hits a reverse neckbreaker for two. Young actually hits the moonsault for two and here’s Gunner. The referee makes the stop and it allows Young to spit green mist at Anderson and a small package gets the pin at 3:58. That’s an upset I guess, but not as big a one as they’re making it out to be. The winner is announced as the Not-So-Great Muta.
Rating: C. For a comedy match, this wasn’t all that bad. Young’s impression was pretty much dead on Muta, but I don’t really get the point in having the midcard champion be an impersonator like this. It was entertaining, but I’m also not sure what the point of this is from Anderson’s perspective. Is this supposed to tick Sting off or be rude to him? By saying you had some great feuds in the past? I don’t really get how that’s insulting.
Gunner and Anderson beat down Young post match until Sting makes the save.
Brian Kendrick vs. Kazarian
Winner gets Abyss for the X-Title at the PPV. They shake hands pre-match to establish that they’re both good guys. Very technical back and forth stuff to start us off here as neither guy can get an extended advantage. Release gutwrench suplex puts Kendrick down and we head to the floor. Brian misses a dive and Kaz takes over. Back in the ring a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker gets two for Kaz.
Kaz takes over completely, hitting a leg lariat for two. Off to a cross arm pulling hold by Kazarian to give them a quick breather. Kendrick gets a kick to the face to switch momentum and a missile dropkick gets two. Moonsault misses for Kendrick but an enziguri puts Kaz down. Sliced Bread #2 is countered into a neckbreaker for two for Kaz. Good match so far.
Fade to Black doesn’t work so Kendrick kicks his head off with a superkick. Frog splash gets knees though and a Shining Wizard puts Kendrick on the floor. They trade two counts back in the ring as neither guy can take advantage again. With a rollup the bell rings for a time limit draw at 7:57. Dude, seriously? You can’t give them an extra two minutes and three seconds for the sake of people who, I don’t know, might have looked at a clock before the match?
Thankfully they’re given five more minutes. They both hit cross bodies at the same time and both guys are down. And never mind as here comes Abyss to beat them both up for the DQ at a minute into the overtime so the total time is approximately 9:00.
Rating: B. Ok even though TNA can’t tell time apparently, this was one of the best TV matches I’ve seen in a long time. This is what you can get with two young and talented guys that are out there working hard and giving you a good match. I enjoyed this, even though the ending was rather stupid. Very good match.
Here’s AJ to call out Ray. He calls the Impact Zone his house so here’s Ray to rebut. Ray says Daniels and AJ didn’t beat him last week. They beat Dreamer, who was another weak partner apparently. Ray says that AJ is everything he hates in a modern pro wrestler. Instead of playing on a laptop, AJ needs to be in a strip club, getting a lap dance.
AJ says Ray is rather, ahem, small, which freaks Ray out. Styles says that a bully is like a bully: you only have to pop it once to get rid of it. A last man standing match is made for Slammiversary. That could be good. Ray asks if AJ knows what he’s getting himself into. AJ asks if Ray knows what he’s getting into. Not bad here.
Jeff Jarrett/Scott Steiner vs. Matt Morgan/Kurt Angle
They do the Karen in a chair thing to kill some time before the match starts. Actually they completely throw her out. Angle vs. Steiner start but Morgan and Jarrett are tagged in less than five seconds after the bell. Jeff has black in his tights now. Ok let’s tag it out again and have Steiner vs. Angle. There’s a minute down in this match. Angle gets a belly to belly and it’s off to Jarrett again rather quickly.
There’s the ankle lock but Jeff kicks off and Angle tags out also. Headbutt takes Jarrett down and it’s off to Kurt again. Oh never mind as we need to cut to the back to see Hogan being handed papers by Bischoff. Back and Jeff hits an enziguri on Angle and brings in Steiner. At this point, Impact officially has had more wrestling than NXT had this past week and it only took them an extra hour.
Steiner gets a belly to belly on Angle for two and it’s off to Jeff again. Lots of tagging in this match. It’s Sting/Young vs. Gunner/Anderson next week. Stroke attempt is countered into an ankle lock but Jeff reverses again and both guys are down. Off to Morgan and Steiner with Morgan claiming the advantage in the battle of alliteration.
Michinoku Driver gets two for Morgan as Jarrett saves. Kurt and Jeff fight up the ramp and it’s an ankle lock on the stage, broken up by Karen. We don’t bother watching the ring at this point but Jeff knocks Kurt into Karen and apparently she fell down a flight of stairs. In the ring Steiner pins Morgan at 6:34 with a move we didn’t see at all.
Rating: C. Just a main event tag match here that was about a minute of nothing but tagging to start. The ending…well….we have no idea what it was so it might have been good I guess. Steiner hit Morgan low but there was a long delay between that and the pin so that probably wasn’t the pin. Either way, just a main event tag here but nothing too bad.
Angle yells down at Jeff, saying it’s Jeff’s fault and we need paramedics.
Back and Karen is put in an ambulance as the announcers are all serious.
Here are Bischoff and Hogan. Bischoff talks about Foley and how he’s known him for 19 years. Foley could always talk but in the ring he couldn’t do much. Foley is a puppet master because he’s made a career out of having a sock on his hand. Hogan starts talking now, saying that Eric is his partner and that’s all that matters. Hogan opens the paper which he looked at earlier, apparently reading it the first time. He reads the legal issues out loud and Foley is fired apparently. So Bischoff read those papers ALL FREAKING NIGHT and he never saw that part? Hogan and Bischoff hug to end the show.
Overall Rating: C. Well it wasn’t great, but this was miles ahead of what they had last week. First and foremost the pacing was MUCH better. There were no long breaks between matches and while there wasn’t much more wrestling, it was spaced out better which can make a huge difference. Stuff was advanced this week and it was overall a much more entertaining show. Better, but still not a great show or anything.
Results
Crimson b. Matt Hardy – Sky High
Angelina Love b. Miss Tessmacher – Reverse DDT into a backbreaker
Eric Young b. Mr. Anderson – Small Package
Brian Kendrick vs. Kazarian went to a no contest when Abyss interfered
Scott Steiner/Jeff Jarrett b. Kurt Angle/Matt Morgan – Steiner pinned Morgan