TNA tapes the next two weeks of Impact tonight and tomorrow in Orlando, Florida at Universal Studios. Announced thus far is that Jim Cornette will have "an offer" for Samoa Joe to try and appease him after Joe's disqualification last week. My guess is they will add Joe to the main event of Against All Odds and have him in a three-way against TNA champion Kurt Angle and Christian Cage. Cornette, in a "letter to the fans" on the official TNA website also promised two title matches for this Thursday.
There will also be a segment on Brock Lesnar's 2/2 UFC debut featuring comments from Angle, a segment SpikeTV filmed and edited, which will be inserted into the show as part of their partnership with UFC. It makes a lot of sense to use Lesnar's past with Angle to promote the Brock fight and TNA would be smart to have Angle in attendance at the PPV to be interviewed to help plug their product as well.
New Japan Pro Wrestling's Tiger Mask and IWGP champion Shinsuke Nakamura are slated to appear at the Impact tapings this week.
TNA has already moved about half of their tickets for the New York City debut on 2/21 at Webster Hall, so if you are intending to go, don't wait for the last minute. It looks like the tickets will top out at about 900. Awesome Kong vs. Gail Kim for the Knockouts title has been added as Kim will be physically cleared to return to the ring by that event. Team 3D and Homicide, all originally hailing from NYC (Homicide still lives there), are also scheduled for the show, which I think has a really strong lineup overall.
Alex Shane sent out an advisory yesterday promising an announcement for Great Britain this Friday pertaining to TNA, which I would assume has to be some sort of live tour information.
Global Impact, which was the best TNA television product since, well, as long as I can think back, will replay tonight at midnight. If you absolutely hate Impact's current presentation and prefer a more serious approach to your pro wrestling, tape this hour. Kurt Angle vs. Yuji Nagata is a ton of fun and the documentary style show treats the performers as serious fighters. There are still some little flaws, like never mentioning who Tomko's partner is despite he and Giant Bernard being the IWGP Tag champions, but whoever put that show together really did a bang up job.
Scheduled for the 2/17 New Japan event is Kurt Angle vs.Shinsuke Nakamura to unify the IWGP belts, AJ Styles vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi and IWGP Tag Team champions Giant Bernard & Tomko vs. Makabe & Yano.
Christy Hemme ended up winning the online poll for Best WWE Playboy cover model. You know that's got to irk WWE management.
SpikeTV's latest season of Pros vs. Joes will debut this Thursday after Impact and will feature current TNA champion Kurt Angle as one of the "Pros." I was told by one TNA source that Angle really knocked around a few contestants during an in-ring segment, so we'll see how that ends up edited when it airs. MMA fighter Bob Sapp is also slated to appear.
I would expect the Lockdown PPV to be on the road.
Team 3D's Brother Devon appeared for Booker T's PWA in Texas this past Friday night. Brother Ray was also slated to appear but was announced as missing the event due to a family situation.
For you ODB fans, you might be interested in this ebay auction.
TNA is running house shows this weekend on 1/25 in Troy, Ohio and 1/26 in Youngstown, Ohio featuring:
*TNA champ Kurt Angle vs. Booker T
*Samoa Joe vs. Robert Roode
*TNA Tag Team champs AJ Styles & Tomko vs. LAX
*TNA X-Division champ Jay Lethal vs. Petey Williams
*The Motor City Machineguns vs. Elix Skipper and Johnny Devine
*James Storm vs. Shark Boy
*TNA Knockouts champion Awesome Kong vs. Ms. Brooks
If anyone is attending the house shows this weekend, we are seeking live reports. Thank you!
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