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With TNA's decision to make Hard(core) Justice an ECW nostalgia show, I wondered last week how TNA would handle Impact going forward. How would they balance hyping the PPV with continuing to build the storylines and talent that TNA was going to be centered around following August 8th? Well, last night's answer was pretty simple. The opening and closing segments were devoted to Hardcore Justice, while the rest of the two hours was given to the "regular" TNA talent. Next week may be different, but this week it came across that TNA is expecting the (unspoken) name value of ECW to carry the PPV, and is spending the rest of the time working on "their" talent.
Here's my thoughts on the show, as it happened:
The opening segment saw the former ECW guys come out, and as a long time ECW fan, I thought it was nice to see Raven do his trademark "sitting int he corner" while the others stood around. EV2.0? Sorry, sounds lame to me. Makes me think of the character Evie from that 80's show "Out Of This World" when the fans start chanting. Just call them the "Hardcore Legends" or "Extremists" or something. Devon, Foley and Dreamer try to convince Brother Ray to join in the fun, and finally Taz convinces him to drop his current TNA storyline to reunite with Devon. Ray mentioning "fire" I guess pretty much guarantees we're going to see a flaming table at the PPV.
Hulk Hogan enters, and I think Taz said it best when he used the word "weird" to describe having the Hulkster out in the ring, putting over the ECW crew. Of course, many of us saw ECW as a breath of fresh air because guys like Hulk Hogan were being rammed down our throats in the 90's. Abyss then enters, and apparently "they" aren't the ECW Originals, but some group that doesn't like them. Abyss is angry with Dixie Carter, wants a piece of Tommy Dreamer, and Dreamer is fine with it, setting up the main event for later. Good segment, even with the weirdness.
Backstage, we get a truce between the Beautiful People, despite Velvet Sky not being full committed or believing Madison Rayne's apology. We'll see where it goes, I guess.
Sarita vs. Angelina Love was, at best, an "eh" match. Some spots looked good, but a lot looked weak and awkward. I did like Sarita's back suplex, and Love's "Botox Injection" kick is fine as a finisher, but this match just didn't click for me. Angelina Love gets another title shot, and Sarita's heel turn really hasn't paid off for her yet.
Eric Young is now mess up on rum candy... or kicked in the head... whatever, all I know is that Young has changed personalities in TNA more often than most people change socks. Obviously, his new role is doing comedy with Orlando Jordan. Maybe Young was better off playing second fiddle to Kevin Nash after all.
Apparently So Cal Val's job description now includes taking gum from wrestlers. Poor girl. Anyway, Ink, Inc. vs. Jordan & Young was all about Young messing with a mannequin while the announcers were comparing Orlando Jordan and speculating that he is simply playing "mind games" with his persona, comparing him to Adrian Adonis and Adrian Street. Just a bit of silliness, and Ink Inc. get the win, followed by Eric checking his injured mannequin. I really hope they do something better with Young soon. He's worked really hard for TNA over the years and I'd like to see him get a chance to be a serious singles competitor.
Ric Flair is out with the confirmed Fortune group of Kazarian, Styles and Beer Money. This actually reminded me a bit of the old Horsemen promos on TBS, as each person took a moment to put over their individual storylines. Flair is going to have a rematch with Jay Lethal next week in a Streetfight, Beer Money is going to end their series with the Motor City Machineguns, and AJ Styles is renaming the Global Title, which used to be the Legend's Title, into the Television Title. Kazarian is going to face Rob Terry to soften him up for Styles, oh, and yes, Kazarian took a thinly veiled shot at Nexus. Kurt Angle then shows up, and informs AJ that he is next on his quest to climb up the rankings. Good segment, setting up different matches and storylines.
Being a five match series, and with Beer Money up 2-0, you knew the Motor City Machineguns had to win here to keep the series alive. Despite that, the steel cage match between them was excellent, with just a ton of great, great stuff. These two teams make the most of their TV time every week. I could write paragraphs about it, but really, you should go out of your way to check out these matches. The beer bottle got involved again, but this time it backfires (so maybe we can move away from using it in every match now, okay?) and Sabin & Shelley win. Great bout, and I'm looking forward to the next round.
Matt Morgan mocks Mr. Anderson, although he apparently gets little help from the guy in charge of lowering microphones. Anderson shows up, and Morgan, looking really dumb, begs Mr. Anderson to hit him ... and closes his eyes. Really? Anderson hits Morgan in the nads, which I thought was hilarious. We get a brawl, which Morgan gets the better of, then Jeff Hardy enters, only to have overzealous security getting involved. The agents come out, and suddenly, I'm wondering if we have heel security guards again, like back in the old days of "Red Shirt Security" when TNA was in Nashville.
Mr. Anderson then cuts a really good promo explaining why security attacked them (they are wrestlers looking to catch a break) and sets up the tag match later in the show. Nice follow-up to the angle.
Kazarian vs. Rob Terry barely gets started and Terry hits the Freakbuster for the pin? Geez, what was the point of that? Why not just give Terry the match with Styles next week and not bother with this? All this match did was make Kazarian, a member of Ric Flair's new stable, look weak. I don't think Terry came out of it looking any stronger than he has in the past.
Matt Morgan teams with the Security Guards against Hardy & Anderson, but walks out on them. While Hardy & Anderson getting the win wasn't a shock, they did allow the Guards to get in some offense. Given that TNA does have a strong tag division, maybe this new duo can be incorporated into the mix. If so, good way to introduce them. I just hope TNA doesn't go back to making them security guards next week.
The most unintentionally funny moment of the night was Christy Hemme trying to find out from Hulk Hogan what Eric Bischoff's big announcement would be... when Bischoff was in the ring about to make it. However, they did need to show Hogan leaving, so we would understand why he didn't come out to save his buddy, so I will give them a pass.
Eric Bischoff is "inspired" by Dixie Carter and now admits he was wrong to fire Mick Foley. I'm already starting to think another Bischoff heel turn is coming. He announces that the August 12th Impact will be loaded with PPV quality matches, and this brings out Abyss, who demands a match with RVD on the show. Bischoff makes the match, so we don't know who RVD will face on the PPV, but we do know who he will face on Impact after the PPV. That's different. RVD comes out to make the save before Abyss can use "Janice" on Bischoff, but he ends up making a mistake in his jump to the floor, giving Abyss the advantage. The agents come out to stop Abyss, and Tommy Dreamer enters for the main event ... with Al Snow handing Janice to Dreamer. That was a nice set up to keep you tuned in after the commercial.
Unfortunately, the match starts during the commercial break, so we don't get to see how Janice didn't get used when the bell rang. This was a weapons filled plunderfest you would expect given the participants. For someone with a bad wheel, Dreamer moved around a lot better than you would expect. They teased some spots with Janice and a barbed wire board, before Dreamer ended up being chokeslammed into a barbed wire board and pinned. Tommy Dreamer losing? That never happens! Seriously, Abyss is the pushed star in TNA, and he has a match with the World Champion coming up, so you couldn't realistically have him lose. Post-match, Raven comes in to protect Dreamer, only to turn on him. Ahh, the natural order of the ECW universe has been restored. I could have done without Raven licking Dreamer's face, but it was a good setup for what will become one of the matches on Hardcore Justice.
What To Make Sure And Watch If You DVR'd The Show: The cage match, for sure. That's hands down the highlight this week.
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