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LOOKING AT 'WHAT A GREAT MAIN EVENT AND FOR THE MOST PART, A GREAT SECOND HOUR' EDITION OF TNA IMPACT

Coming out of the Genesis PPV, TNA had what looked to be some great momentum.  Booker T and Sharmell debuted.  Kaz had his best TNA bout to date in a great ladder match against Christian Cage to earn a TNA title shot.  Tomko and AJ Styles jumped to Kurt Angle's side, leaving us with the great cliffhanger of their old boss Christian Cage looking furious as he watched on.  Abyss was thrown off a stage in a box.  The Motor City Machineguns had their career TNA bout.  Ms. Brooks fainted, possibly at the hands of Robert Roode's number one fan.  Awesome Kong wanted a piece of Gail Kim.  It was on TNA's shoulders to follow that up.

Last night's Impact was really a tale of two shows.  The first hour it seemed like the usual TNA illogical silliness, especially what appeared to be the blundering of the obvious Christian Cage-Coalition split with Kurt Angle in the middle.  The lack of direction for LAX was also disheartening.  How hard is it to just let them keep having good matches with XXX, anyway?  

By the second hour of the show, we had some really good, serious promos, a good build throughout the show for Kaz vs. Angle (albeit a match rushed into happening too soon in my opinion), a great Booker T contract signing segment and a good main event.  

Segment by Segment Thoughts

TNA opened with Jim Cornette declaring to Mike Tenay and Don West that they aren't allowed to mention Booker T and Sharmell's names since they weren't technically allowed to compete on the PPV, but he hopes to solve that problem by signing them to a contract tonight.  Well, if that's the case, why was the TNA website promoting them all week for Impact and why wouldn't TNA be legally allowed to say their names, which are their real names, on television anyway?  I get the idea that TNA was hoping to increase the audience with the teases, but it comes off a little silly.

TNA champion Kurt Angle and his new cronies come to the ring.  Angle brags that his wife took care of business and welcomed AJ and Tomko into the fold.  Music hits and it's Christian Cage, out for blood, because his charges have jumped ship right?  Nope, it's Kevin Nash, angry he got double-crossed by Angle at the PPV.  Just like that, TNA had a potential feud and let it slip through their fingers.  Even if they go back to it, they've dropped the momentum from the end of the PPV and a moment that led everyone to believe that was the direction they were going in.  Nash gets called a has-been and is then invited to fight Angle.  He holds his own, then gets beat up, only to have every undercard babyface hit the ring to rescue Nash.

They show Christian Cage arriving at the building.  Well that explains why he didn't come out but it doesn't explain why TNA wouldn't go right with an angle that made the most logical sense.

Backstage, Nash, not really showing any effects of the beating at all, is telling someone who saw the beating on TV to get to the Impact Zone.

LAX vs. Jimmy Rave and Lance Hoyt - LAX get a huge reaction coming out.  Hey, whatever happened to the teased problems between Hemme. Hoyt and Rave?  The actual work here was fine, but having LAX, who the audience sees as stars, losing to a team that has just been put together, has had no time to garner momentum and are seen as low level heels, makes no sense whatsoever.  It looks doubly bad when the most memorable stuff in the bout was LAX's offense!  Unless TNA wants LAX to lose their effectiveness as characters, this made no sense at all.  There's been talk of giving LAX a makeover, which I think is just stupid.  They are over for their street credibility and hard work.  You don't want to change that.  The unnamed female Latino Nation member (Shelley Martinez) laid out Hemme with a slapjack.  I don't even know if that counts as getting their heat back.

Team 3D cut a good, funny with a list of demands regarding the X-Division.  They demanded the fans stop chanting "That was awesome" and claimed the X-Division wrestlers go online to put themselves over under fake screennames.  That was funny.  He demanded they turn over "their rats" to Team 3D.  It got a little silly when they demanded ding dongs and Yoo-Hoo, but that's TNA for you.  Oh, they also had a hostage, which was silly because they said if the demands weren't met, we'd never see him again, which I guess means he'd be sent to OVW with the Spirit Squad.

Backstage, Crystal finds Christian Cage.  Cage says he hasn't spoken to Styles or Tomko yet.  He cuts a good promo saying he gave everything he had to keep his undefeated streak alive.  Crystal smartly questioned the undefeated comment.  Cage said that when he gets to Tomko and Styles tonight, they are going to have to explain themselves.  Awesome, intense promo, but I still feel that TNA shoved what was a hot angle on paper aside for more NWO retread stuff.

Robert Roode & Ms. Brooks vs. Chris Harris & Gail Kim - No mention of Brooks fainting.  Good way to follow up, folks.  Roode made Brooks sit ringside most of the match, so it was more Roode vs. Harris than anything else.  Brooks finally lost it with Roode after the match shoving him away and attacking his "fan" at ringside.  That made no sense at all. If we are supposed to feel sympathy for Brooks, wouldn't it make more logical sense to have the obviously planted fan do something to her first?  Roode laughed at the catfight as security tried to break it up.  Match was nothing memorable; more of a backdrop to the soap opera, which in a way only adds to Harris' storyline complaints.

Outside, Crystal finds the arriving Scott Hall.  He was wearing a Juggalo jersey.  He said that if Angle and his guys want to play, they'll play.

Backstage, Crystal catches Jim Cornette giving Matt Morgan a piece of his mind.  Cornette blamed Morgan for Booker and Sharmell appearing on the PPV without a contract.  Morgan said he was only doing what Cornette would have done and Jim said that he had to explain to management why Morgan was doing his job.  He said Morgan was valuable but was on probation.  Jimmy Rave and Lance Hoyt showed up and were upset about Christy Hemme getting laid out.  Before they could deal with it, Team 3D headed to the ring.

Team 3D come to the ring.  The fans chanted "That was awesome" to mock them.  3D wanted to know if their demands were met.  The Motor City Machineguns came out with Jay Lethal.   It breaks down to mother jokes. 3D said they probably want to know which wrestler was being held hostage.  You mean they couldn't have just looked around the locker room?  They revealed Havoc.  3D warned them there was a traitor among them.  The X-Division all attacked 3D and they freed Havoc, who of course then turned on the other X workers.  They laid out the entire X-Division. 

Jeremy Borash catches AJ Styles and Tomko backstage.  Styles says the entire situation with Christian Cage is a misunderstanding.  Styles tried to talk to Cage via the captain and said he was under pressure of being "team captain" and made the deal because it would make the Coalition stronger.  Styles said that he'd never do anything to hurt Cage.  If Styles is being fake in the end of all this, it's a great storyline.  Styles asked Tomko if he thought Christian would understand.  Tomko said, "No he won't" and walked away.  Styles then went all goofy, wondering if he would be demoted.  It was great until the last line, but I get the feeling that this isn't going to be the big storyline tonight you would have thought while watching Genesis.

They ran a video promoting the return of Judas Mesias.

Kevin Nash and Scott Hall came to the ring and challenged for a six man tag match at Turning Point, teasing they would announce their partner before the end of the night.  Everyone who thought Sean Waltman, raise your hands.

Rellik vs. Black Reign vs. Abyss - Abyss comes out, with no signs of being shoved off the stage at the PPV at all.  Sigh.  If it means nothing, why do it?  The guy just took a hellacious bump that meant nothing.  Rellik and Reign worked over Abyss.   Abyss finally comes back to pin Rellik with the Black Hole Slam.  Nothing we haven't seen before.  Reign attacks Abyss with the spiked nightstick.  They destroy Abyss and Rhino hits the ring to make the save. 

Backstage, Kurt Angle said he didn't worry about Hall and Nash saying they were over the hill.  He said that if they brought in Sean Waltman, he doesn't have enough brain cells to get to the building.  Angle then praised Kaz's work in getting to the title shot, but said Kaz wouldn't make a name for himself at Angle's expense.  I was happy to see Angle at least build up Kaz before saying he'd win, as opposed to using the DX method of making someone look like crap before beating them, since that just means you can only beat a piece of crap.

Awesome Kong vs. Alexa Jade - It was the usual great job of Kong squashing her opponent.  As much as TNA rushed the Angle vs. Kaz match, they are taking their time with Kong vs. Gail Kim and in doing so, are building the question of whether anyone can handle Kong.  Kim came out to challenge Kong.  They did a nice pull apart brawl.Kim looked good as a scrapper before Kong laid her out with a clothesline.  Kong nailed Kim with a sitdown powerbomb.  Real good segment.  As long as they don't sign Joanie Laurer to suddenly overstep the rest of the women's division in a main event position, everything will be fine.

Booker T and Sharmell came out for their TNA contract signing after a big introduction by Jim Cornette.  Booker had what looked to be a legitimate smile on his face stemming from the crowd reaction.  Booker joked the fans would be calling him "Booker TNA".  After they signed, Cornette asked him what he plans were within TNA.    Christian Cage came out to the ring.  Cage said that since he can't find Styles and Tomko, he'd come out and take care of "this problem."  He said Booker came to TNA to be the World champion but this company is a different world.  He started tearing down the King Booker gimmick (not by name) and said that he, Christian Cage, was the king around here.  He said he was the real champion and the real top contender.  He told Booker to get in the back of the line and insulted Sharmell (they bleeped it), leading to Booker cracking Cage and sending him scampering.  Booker said he just took Cage's top contender slot.  Another good segment.  TNA did a good job of explaining why Cage would even come out when his issue was with Tomko and Styles - he couldn't find them and was taking his frustrations out on Booker, trying to ruin the party.

They did a Kaz video feature.  Jeremy Borash interviewed Kaz, saying it was the biggest match of his career.  Kaz cut a short but serious promo saying he was going to leave it all in the ring and whatever happens, happens.  I liked it.

TNA champion Kurt Angle vs. Kaz - A good match where even though Kaz lost, he lost none of his momentum.  This is worth watching.  I just hope TNA has plans for Kaz from here, or else all that momentum will be lost.  Kaz taking the match as standing tall against Angle and Angle getting frustrated by that was a nice touch.  Hall and Nash walked out to attack Angle.  Tomko and Styles hit the ring, which brought out Samoa Joe at the end, revealing him as their partner at the PPV.

If you DVR'd the show

If you taped the show, make sure you watch Christian Cage's promo early on in the show, then zip to the Awesome Kong vs. Alexa Jade match and let the rest of Impact run.  The last 40 minutes of the show were really good.

Rhetorical Questions

*Why did TNA have to rush to the Kaz vs. Kurt Angle match?

*I mean, wouldn't it have made sense to build it up for something like the Thanksgiving Impact?

*Why does everything in TNA have to be so rushed, anyway?

*Why wouldn't Christian Cage want to kill Angle, AJ and Tomko for screwing him over?

*Did you catch goofy AJ Styles wearing the Tomko shirt?

*Did anyone else crack up at Kurt Angle saying Kevin Nash was a has-been?

*If that's the case, did you notice the TNA champ and the TNA Tag champs had problems working him over, three to one?

*Did you notice Tenay and West talked about Chris Harris whining that they don't talk about him during his matches, and then go right into talking about Booker T?

*Wouldn't that make Harris justified?

*Didn't you just know Havoc would turn on the X-Division?

*Does that mean his new ring name is Benedict Arnold Dudley?

*Boy, that Crystal gets around backstage, doesn't she?

*Were fans really chanting "You still got it" because Scott Hall said, "Hey yo?"

*Didn't Hall at over 40 years old look silly in a Juggalo jersey?

*Did I really see Black Reign tongue kiss a rat?

*Why wasn't Abyss selling anything from his PPV match?

*For the hell of it, how was Black Reign chokeslammed off a stage at the PPV and able to continue?

*Should TNA really be showing chairshots to the head so soon after the CNN documentary?

*Where is Abyss' buddy Sting all these times Jim Mitchell's charges beat up Abyss, since it was Sting who got him into that mess in the first place?

*How funny was Kurt Angle dressing down Jeremy Borash backstage verbally?

*Who else thought Kong killed Alexa Jade?

*Boy, they sure are pushing a lot of blood for Turning Point, eh?

*Did Mike Tenay actually say Booker T was "officially" with TNA before he signed his contract?

*Did you notice how by the end of the Booker-Cage confrontation, TNA, for once, explained everything logically?

*Don't you want to see that EVERY week?

*Wasn't that Kaz video feature pretty good?

*Wow, wasn't Karen Angle hot coming down to the ring?

*Wasn't it nice to see some serious promos tonight?

*How much fun was Kaz vs. Angle?

*Didn't Hall and Nash's offense look weak after seeing Angle vs. Kaz?

*If Hall and Nash wanted someone who could had Angle's number, wouldn't it make sense to call Samoa Joe?

*Do you think they wanted him so he could do the lion's share of the ringwork, too?

*Does this mean the Robert Roode vs. Samoa Joe program is dead, already?

*OK, just WHO is excited for the Turkey Bowl next week?

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

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