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TNA Impact last night saw them add Kurt Angle and Mr. Anderson to the Against All Odds tournament, and set up Samoa Joe vs. AJ Styles as the main event of the PPV. In fact, the highlight of the show was the re-establishing of Joe as a monster, then the big angle following Pope D'Angelo Dinero's upset win over Styles (which also serves to make Pope a future title challenger) to create the PPV main. We also had the continuation of the Beautiful People storyline, with another great tease of a Velvet Sky-Angelina Love battle. Throw in the cliffhanger ending of Scott Hall & Sean Waltman turning on Kevin Nash, who has been trying to get them jobs with TNA (cliffhanger as is "Why?"), and you have the highlights of the show.
On the downside, there was no follow-up on the great Jeff Jarrett stuff from last week, and the Foley-Bischoff storyline continues to be a bit weak. I'm still waiting for the explanation as to why "bloody Eric" trying to frame Foley for an attack hasn't resulted in the Hulkster doing, well, anything. They did tie the Foley-Bischoff feud into the Nash-Foley storyline from the pre-Hogan era, which is good ... except it led to a really weak "main event" at the end of the show. Abyss continues to be a sniveling baby, and I really hope they have something big planned for him, because at this point his character has no juice at all.
In the "middle of the road" category, we have the Team 3D-Nasty Boys feud. They're doing all the right things to set up the Against All Odds match between the duos, I just still have seen nothing to make me think Knobbs and Sags belong in the ring, in 2010, with Team 3D. Kurt Angle's paranoia that Hulk Hogan is behind everything is also a bit silly, but at the same time, if it ends up being the groundwork for a bigger angle, then that's fine.
Next week's show should be really interesting, as they will have to set up the final four names for the tournament, as well as the rest of the Against All Odds PPV.
Here's my thoughts on the show, as it happened:
They kicked things off with a recap of the top three storylines from last week, which are: Mick Foley-Eric Bischoff, Kurt Angle-Hulk Hogan, and Jeff Jarrett-Hulk Hogan & Eric Bischoff. Of the three, I thought the Jarrett storyline really worked well, with Jeff being positioned as a totally sympathetic babyface hero. Unfortunately, there would be no progress with that storyline this week, as Jarrett wasn't even a part of the show.
The opening match was a tournament qualifier for Against All Odds, with Mr. Anderson vs. Brutus Magnus. Anderson's opening mic work seemed to be focused on rubbing it in the faces of the fans that there is now a four-sided ring in TNA. I thought TNA wanted the fans to accept the new (old) ring, not turn on it as a heel device? I also thought it was strange that, in discussing Anderson's win over Jeff Jarrett last week, no mention was made that Anderson used a low blow to win the bout. Instead, the focus was on Jeff not being in shape for the bout. As for this match, Anderson dominated early, then Magnus got in a slight bit of offense before Anderson raked the eyes and hit a Mic Check for the win. Okay, short bout, but did anyone expect Anderson to lose here? Anderson is in the tournament at the PPV. Oh, one more note. "Winner, winner, chicken dinner?" Really? A Food Network quote? I expect better from Anderson, who is usually great on the mic. (A gambling friend says it is also a term used when someone wins at Blackjack. So, in that case, he used a Blackjack reference for a tournament named after a poker game!)
Kurt Angle is once again questioning Hulk Hogan, thinking he was behind Scott Hall & Sean Waltman attacking him... even though Hogan is the one who had them tossed out of the building, and has said there is no place for their games in TNA. Apparently, TNA is trying to establish that Angle is quick to blame Hogan for anything that happens.
We then had another Mick Foley-Eric Bischoff confrontation. Foley keeps making this point about being financially secure, and how he can walk away from TNA, but doesn't want to because he "helped build it" while Eric Bischoff wants Foley gone, but apparently also wants to force him to stay so he can mess with him. Thus, we end up with Bischoff putting Mick Foley in a match with Kevin Nash, holding the future of Abyss and Jeremy Borash "in his hands" so Foley will agree to the bout. At least, I think that is where we stand now. I was too busy trying to remember when Mick Foley and Jim Hellwig were in a company together.
Backstage, Abyss is being a sniveling, nervous baby, while Jeremy Borash has apparently accepted that with Bischoff around, there is no place for him, as he is "picking up his last check" and leaving. So, I guess if Borash is done, then Bischoff really can't be holding him over Foley anymore. As for Abyss, well, they better have one hell of an angle coming up with him, because at this point, he is about as monstrous as Kermit The Frog.
Christy and Tara have an interview, and Christy is wearing a different outfit. I don't know if this is a continuity issue with the way TNA is taping, but unless she's going to change for every interview (which would be fine), she should probably have one outfit per broadcast. Tara cut a solid promo of why she is wary of Angelina Love and set up their match for later.
Team 3D takes on TNA World Tag Team Champions Hernandez & Matt Morgan with surprisingly little fanfare. The face vs. face match was okay, but it is very obvious that Brother Ray & Devon are more of a unit than Hernandez & Morgan from the way they work. The Nasty Boys interfere, costing Team 3D the match, then attack them, leading to Hernandez & Morgan making the save for the guys they just beat. Really just a little more build for the Nasties-Team 3D match at Against All Odds, and I guess the tag belts will go in limbo for a few weeks, since Hernandez is in the tournament at the PPV.
Samoa Joe gets "comeback of the month" for TNA. After having a poor match with Abyss, then losing to Desmond Wolfe, then disappearing off TV, Joe returns, decimates Jesse Neal, and gets back a big hunk of momentum, along with the announcers pointing out Joe had a World Title shot to be cashed in at some point. Great job getting Joe back on track after some wishy-washy handling of him in recent weeks.
Christy Hemme informs Hulk Hogan of what Kurt Angle said, because Hogan doesn't watch his own show. Okay, for the record, I HATE that. I hate when WWE does it. I hate when TNA does it. The whole "guy who runs the place doesn't pay attention to the show some times, but other times he is glued to a monitor" act is just lame. Anyway, Hogan said he would be waiting for Kurt, which was the point they were getting across.
AJ Styles vs. Pope D'Angelo Dinero is up, in a non-title bout. I thought AJ and Ric were going on vacation? I guess this match is part of Bischoff telling AJ he needed to be ready for action, but I thought that was for the PPV? A quick promo here, showing AJ annoyed about his vacation plans being ruined might have been nice. This was a fun match, that I just wish was longer. Those "commercial, quick return, commercial" bits drive me nuts, but that is a SpikeTV thing, so TNA just has to deal with it. Dinero gets the clean pin on Styles, and we've got an instant contender for the belt. Flair and Styles beat down Dinero, and Samoa Joe makes the save, leading to a really heated brawl, with security coming in to break things up.
After the break, we get a powerful promo from Samoa Joe, ripping on Styles for what he has become. Joe says he is cashing in his title shot at Against All Odds, so we've got a PPV main event now. He and Pope then go to get another piece of Styles and Flair. Good angle, and I like that they didn't have Dinero "fade into the scenery" in favor of Joe's promo. TNA has now set up Styles has having Joe, Dinero and whoever wins the tournament as challengers to the title going forward. Good angle.
Angelina Love cut a promo, and it is ridiculous how much better she is on the mic than any other female in wrestling right now. She just comes off more relaxed and less rigid than anyone else. It's wild how her visa issues resulting in TNA having to come up with what is one of their better storylines right now, with Love vs. the Beautiful People.
Backstage, Eric Bischoff approaches Kevin Nash and Eric Young, who introduces himself as the Global Champion (which, according to TNA's website he isn't) and leader of the World Elite (The what? Do they still exist?). Bischoff pretty much blows him off (and I hope that this leads somewhere), and wants Nash to take out Mick Foley. Nash is fine with it, in exchange with getting his buddies Hall & Waltman another chance with the company. Bischoff blows off that request, and instead insinuates that Nash can join them on the outside if he doesn't do what Bischoff wants. Of course, Nash already wanted to beat up Foley, so I don't see why the heavy handed approach was neccesary.
Mick Foley is interviewed, and now says his choices are to "fall in line" or fight. I thought his choices were fall in line or leave? Anyway, Abyss shows up, and Mick relaxes him with some Heat Miser lines. Um, it's February. Maybe the Christmas characters should be put away. Foley makes Abyss promise to stay in the back, and I REALLY hope there is a major Abyss heel turn and character makeover in the future.
Kurt Angle vs. Tomko in an Against All Odds tournament qualifier. If Angle is so paranoid about Hogan screwing with him, wouldn't he want to confront him before getting back in the ring, where he might be attacked again? The match itself was good, with some stiff shots and slams. I hope TNA has some plans for Tomko, as he still has never really gotten the chance to live up to his potential. Angle hits the German suplexes and makes Tomko tap clean to the ankle lock with leg lace. I like it when Angle uses the leg lace with the ankle lock, I hope he continues to insert that into his matches. So, we now have four out of eight names for the tournament: Angle, Anderson, Hernandez and Wolfe. Apparently the other four names will be determined next week, which should mean a loaded "go-home" show before the PPV.
We then had the "good news, bad news" portion of the show. The good was two excellent video packages, one on the Foley-Nash feud (and how it played into the Bischoff feud) and one on the Beautiful People storyline. These were really well done, and I'd like to see TNA do more of them for their storylines. The bad news was, but putting them almost back to back, with just the Hogan-Nash brief meeting between them, seemed to bring the flow of the show to a halt. Spreading them apart would have been nice.
As for the Hogan-Nash meeting, all I seemed to get out of it was, Hogan doesn't want Hall & Waltman back, and he seems to have no problem with Nash "handling Foley" for Bischoff. Maybe Hogan does know what Eric is doing after all, and he is just fine with it.
Tara vs. Angelina was up next, and while also suffering from the commercial break problem that cut up Styles-Dinero, was still a fun match, with some nice chain wrestling. I guess Tara had some "slippage" with her top, or a copyrighted logo TNA wasn't able to show (you know, like in a rap video), since they kept blurring her upper half. While a tad distracting, it was better than them chopping up the match for broadcast. The roll through finish wasn't perfectly crisp, but it worked as an ending. The Beautiful People then attack, and after thinking about it, Tara decides to help Angelina. Velvet Sky gets cornered between the faces, but manages to escape again. I've written this for a few weeks now, but I really enjoy how they have teased the Sky-Love faceoff, but haven't given it to us yet. When they finally square off, it should be a lot of fun.
Kurt Angle finally confronts Hulk Hogan, and the Hulkster pulls out the logic card of "why would guys I kicked out be working for me" to defuse the situation. Really, they've now firmly established that Angle has zero trust in Hogan, and will apparently blame him for anything. Hogan sternly tells Angle to leave, but he does say please. Obviously, we're building to where Hogan really does mess with Angle, or Angle snaps due to his own paranoia. If Hogan was going to be wrestling, I'd say we are setting up for a Hogan-Angle match. But Hogan isn't wrestling, right?
Mick Foley vs. Kevin Nash in a No DQ match was our main event, and in all honesty, was a total disappointment. We had some good matches and angles on this show, so to end it with this was really a letdown. Basically, Nash uses a garbage can and chair to block barbed wire baseball bat shots, except Foley was just swinging the bat in the direction that Nash was blocking, so it looked really weak. They do a bit of brawling, then Foley is somehow distracted by a picture of him and Abyss, and Nash hits a single big boot for a pin. Really? One kick beats Foley? Lame. Hall and Waltman show up... and attack Nash. They beat down the guy who has been trying to help them out for weeks. Why? Tune in next week to find out.
What To Make Sure And Watch If You DVR'd The Show: Joe-Neal, Dinero-Styles (and the aftermath) and the Tara-Angelina-Beautiful People stuff tops the list, and I would check out Angle-Tomko as well.
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