I don’t always get to watch wrestling LIVE on Monday Nights, so I tend to TiVo both programs. Being that it was the night after Wrestlemania, I watched RAW first, and tonight I’m watching Impact.
The show starts off with some recaps of the Jeff Jarrett / Mick Foley stuff from the past few weeks, so I won’t talk about all that.
In a positive note, we see Jay Lethal for the first time since Hulk Hogan showed up, and opposite from what I was expecting, he was still doing the Macho Man impersonation he calls “Black Machismo”. Fun little segment, with Hogan playing it up as though Lethal actually WAS Randy Savage.
Bubba The Love Sponge comes to the ring with “The Band”, a.k.a. nWo 2010, a.k.a. Hall / Nash / Waltman, the group now known as Bubba Army. The name of the group kinda sucks, the group is getting old, but Bubba did a decent job on the mic, and these guys do bring some heat and make it seem real. An interesting part about this segment is that Kevin Nash said that he and Eric Young had become friends. I was expecting Nash to start off from the very beginning of the segment talking about how he didn’t really like Eric Young. Actually, Eric Young gets an invite into “The Band”. EY considers it, then DRILLS Nash in the head and almost gets taken out by Bubba Love Sponge. The 3-on-1 lasted a bit too long before Jeff Hardy and RVD showed up. By the way, Kevin Nash’s hair / goatee look rediculous. His hair is a weird blonde-ish color, his goatee is slightly died brownish.
A tag match that I’m excited for, Doug Williams is teaming up with THE Brian Kendrick, and they’re taking on Kazarian and Shannon Moore. Should be some fast paced action. (Side note: they showed some clips from the Destination X pay per view, and Fallen Angel Chris Daniels looked like he was set for some S&M) For a while in the match, Brian Kendrick got thrown around a bit, but when he did get 20 seconds of offense, I liked the angry / brutal style he was using. Kendrick gets pinned in a quality match, just as I expected, and after the match, Shannon Moore uses some sort of lipstick to draw all over Kendrick’s face. Weird gimmick.
Bischoff segment, he apparently has a personal assistant who he calls Miss Tessmacher, a a throwback to the first of the Christopher Reeve Superman films (the name was used for Lex Luthor’s assistant). Jay Lethal shows up, still doing the Black Machismo gimmick, and he apparently wanted to book a lot of 80’s matches for Impact with names of retired wrestlers. The funny thing is that the Nasty Boys have apparently just recently been released.
“The Pope” D’Angelo Dinero gets into the ring and talks about his upcoming pay per view title match at Lockdown against AJ Styles for the TNA World Championship. Decent promo by Pope, but it lasted a bit too long. Just when the match went a bit long and I was hoping it was over, Chelsea – the valet for Desmond Wolfe (Nigel McGuinness) comes out and flirts with Pope a little bit, even calling him a big “hunk of chocolate”. Desmond Wolfe shows up, his trap doesn’t work, and D’Angelo Dinero doesn’t fall for it, getting the upper hand.
We come back from commercial, and we get a taped promo from Samoa Joe, speaking very cryptically. He’s been gone for a while, and I’ll be interested to see what happens when he re-emerges. He promises that “the results will be different”.
Orlando Jordan was lowered from the ceiling of the arena, wearing only Caution Tape. Very bizarre. They’re going for the bi-sexual angle for him. His theme music alludes to it, and TNA gave him a special place inside the arena for him to sit – and based on how it’s decorated, it’s more proof that they’re doing a bi-sexual angle with him. There’s the symbol for “male”, and also touching that symbol is the “female” symbol and another “male” symbol. Sitting in the area is a young man with no shirt on, and a woman (who is obviously wearing a shirt).
Tara vs Daffney, 1st Blood Match for the Knockouts Championship. I’m really hoping that Daffney wins, but I’m not expecting it to happen. Decent hardcore action, then it gets to the ring and we get a little bit of regular wrestling, now it’s back to hardcore. Tara makes her forehead bleed, and that’s the end of it (though there’s not much blood. Daffney licks the blood off her hand, another interesting and creepy moment from her. If she’s supposed to be “Zombie Hot”, shouldn’t she have said something about “BRAINS!!!” ?
Right before the commercial, we see AJ Styles and Ric Flair, and I’m not sure that I’m used to seeing AJ wearing a Ric Flair robe yet…
AJ Styles taking on Jeff Jarrett, and if Jarrett can win, he gets to be the #1 Contender and get a shot at the World Title after Lockdown. Not one of the better AJ Styles matches I’ve ever seen. Out of anyone that TNA could’ve chosen to turn into a new version of Ri Flair, they should’ve chosen someone who wasn’t already an exciting in-ring performer, especially since Ric Flair never did anything from the top rope, and AJ’s great offense that he built his reputation on involves lots of springboard moves. Ric Flair gets escorted to the back after cheating, and at this point it’s fairly obvious that AJ Styles is losing this match, which is a shame unless they’re going to use Jeff Jarret to help extend AJ Styles’ title reign. Eric Bischoff shows up with a guitar, tries to hit Jeff Jarrett with it, AJ Styles with a low blow, then AJ hits the TRUE Styles Clash (not the lame one that Michelle McCool does) and AJ Styles gets the win.
Decent interview with Jeff Hardy, Eric Young and Rob Van Dam. It’s weird to think that Rob Van Dam is the least weird person in this trio of competitors.
Another Jay Lethal / Bischoff segment. Bischoff says he wants to book Jay Lethal, so Machismo heads towards the ring. His opponent? My guess, Abyss (because I’m guessing that Bischoff doesn’t like Lethal). Actually, it’s Beer Money Inc – handicap match. Yep, Bischoff “hates” Black Machismo. Apparently Consequences Creed got fired lately, so he won’t be coming to help. Lethal gets DOMINATED, but then when Storm has his back turned, Machismo rolls up Robert Roode, pinfall victory.
D’Angelo Dinero vs Desmond Wolfe (w/ Chelsea), and it’s a match we’ve seen a bunch of times the past couple months, but I enjoyed it anyway. While Chelsea causes a distraction, Desmond Wolfe pulls out a chain, DRILLS Dinero, gets a pinfall victory. I LIKE IT.
Decent promo with Kurt Angle and Ken Anderson. They’re going to have a Ladder Match next week on Impact, with the winner getting a key to the Lockdown steel cage.
Really good main event. The Band makes it a 3-on-2 handicap by keeping Eric Young outside the ring. Late in the match, Eric Young climbs the cage, knocks Sean Waltman down, then hits an awesome elbow drop from the top of the cage, and the team of EY / Jeff Hardy / RVD get the win.
Decent episode of Impact. Much better than the abysmal ratings they got (a drop of 50% since the previous week).
I don’t hear anything about Sting in there. Where was he at? Was he even at the pay per view?