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LOOKING AT THE "TIME TO HARD SELL BOUND FOR GLORY" EDITION OF IMPACT

As I am heading to Atlanta shortly, here are some quick rapid-fire thoughts on last night's TNA Impact::

*Jay Lethal vs. Havoc was a solid bout building Lethal for Bound for Glory.  I liked Christopher Daniels trying to get inside Lethal's head by tossing the X-Division title at him after the bout.  

*The Angles-Sting segment finally explained that Kurt Angle made Karen Angle act like Sting slapped her, although you had to really pay attention to get that.  So now it's Kurt made Karen pretend Sting slapped her, but, uh, why?  Sting didn't have a title shot at that point, he was Kurt's partner!  The idea was that Karen thought Kurt went too far when he attacked Sting's son.  Karen is either great or really bad on the mic; there's no in between.  This was closer to the latter.  She's great at playing a b**ch but seemed out of her element here.  Sting gave a pretty good, fired up promo promising he would get Kurt.  They did a Nitro-esque deal where a Sting dummy dropped from the ceiling as part of "mind games" being played.  That was OK but it's been done so often, I think TNA needs to back away from such ideas.

*The bit with Sting and Kevin Nash in the "rafters" and the backstage bit with Nash and Angle were obviously building to Nash getting involved in a physical role at the PPV.  I cracked up at Nash asking Karen, "Is Kurt like this at home?"

*Adam Jones showed more promise in his promo last night than he has his entire run here.  I thought Ron Killings did a great job too.

*Team Pacman vs. Senshi & Elix Skipper - Raise your hands if you'd like to have seen Senshi kick Jones upside the head just once?  Yeah, me too.  What can one say about Jones "making it rain?"  Ugh.  I can't believe someone thought that was a good idea. 

*The Steiner's in-ring promo and Team 3D's backstage promo were both really good interviews leading to the Tables bout. The end was a let down, as the second the Steiners stormed 3D looking to get at them and were held back, TNA plugged the Knockouts and went to commercial.  UGH!  Let the moment breathe.  They had some momentum going and undercut it.

*Amazing Kong vs. Gail Kim - It was really cool to see Kong on my TV.  Hell, it was good to see ODB.  Kong made a great impression since visually and from a physically aggressive standpoint, there is no one else like her in the American women's wrestling scene.  She should be booked like a female Bruiser Brody and she was.  While I usually hate TNA's cast of thousands at ringside, it made sense to show the other Knockouts as a way to get some reactions to Kong vs. Kim.  I popped for Kim using the Octopus.   It was smart to have Kong go over to give Kim some sympathy going into the Gauntlet on Sunday.

*Don West's backstage interview with Sonay Dutt - I wanted to hate this as soon as it started but West dressed in that outfit cracked me up.  At least now we know that Dutt is a takeoff on Benny Hinn and other similar "prophets" trying to get someone's money.  That added something of a dimension to the character, although I'm still not sure this is the right role for Dutt.

*Christian Cage's Talk Show - The talk show announcer for Cage and Styles' entrance was funny.  I get the entire idea that Cage is trying to get under Joe's skin, but that said, I don't get the entire making fun of Samoa Joe's heritage at all.  It would be one thing if it was Junior Fatu in the segment but Joe is about being an asskicker, not about being Samoan.  His ethnicity doesn't really have anything to do with his persona.  That was, until Joe started talking, because he's one of the best promos anywhere right now.  His line about AJ being Woody from Cheers made me laugh, although it's a dated reference. Cage laying out Joe at the end was what you could see coming a mile away, but like Kong beating Kim, it makes sense to give Joe an additional reason for wanting vengeance on Sunday.

*The LAX promo was too quick for my tastes.  I'd love to see them given time to explain who they are what makes them tick.  There is a wealth of depth to those characters.

*Petey Williams vs. Robert Roode was fine for what it was, but at three minutes, way too short.  Roode models himself after Curt Hennig but has to try and emulate him with 1/3rd of the time Hennig used to get.  TNA needs to let these guys go longer.  That was the idea of a longer timeslot, right?  Still, it was good bell to bell.

*The bit where Angle mocked Sting by saying "you go look for a piece of crap in the bathroom" was just a setup to find Junior Fatu on the toilet.  Not funny.

*Raven & Black Reign vs. Abyss & Rhino was fine for some hardcore plunder but why are Raven and Reign flipping on each other just a week after they united?  I know they went into Plan B due to Judas Mesias injury, but like Karen Angle debuting and doing a teased split with Kurt the same night, this felt like we were watching in fast forward.

*Junior Fatu's promo was exactly what it needed to be.  Crystal is good as an interviewer.

*Matt Morgan's promo was really, really good, to the point that I can't believe WWE blew it with this guy by giving him the stuttering gimmick. It's not like he wasn't cutting good promos in OVW, either.  Good promo that explained why he was involved and got him over as a tough guy.

*The six man tag main event was another good main event.  I hope the company realizes that it's two weeks in a row that LAX are in the main event and deliver.  Good stuff from bell to bell.  I actually liked the twist of Sting dressed as the "Latino Member Nation" sneaking up on Angle, although the second you put any logic into this, you wonder how Sting knew to pre-tape a promo that responded to Kurt Angle challenging him....but I digress.  They really needed to end with a pull apart, but instead TNA went to a promo video on the PPV.

*The promo video was AWESOME but should have opened Impact in my opinion.  They could have had it open the show to set the stage for the final push and closed with a huge pull apart with the entire roster holding Sting and Angle back as they tried to kill each other.

Well, week two was solid but not amazing.  I thought the first hour wasn't as frenzied as last week's first hour and there were some (now usual) logic gaps the second you put any deep thought into the product, but there was some good solid wrestling.  An OK sophomore effort.

Mike Johnson can be reached at Mike@PWInsider.com.

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