TNA Impact review and wrestling news - 2/4/10

This may be a long post. Just warning you.

First off, Impact. This was a pretty good Impact, for the the most part. Our first match of the night, at the top of the show no less, was Brutus Magnus and Ken Anderson in an Eight Card Stud tournament qualifier. Anderson won this pretty easily. His push in TNA appears to continue. After that we had Hernandez and Matt Morgan defending the Tag Titles against Team 3D. This was a good match. Team 3D lost due to interference from the Nasty Boys, but after the match Morgan and Hernandez helped 3D fight the Nasties off, and the two teams exchanged fist bumps. Good to see.

Our next match saw Samoa Joe basically squash Jesse Neal. I was glad to see Joe get a strong victory, as he hasn't had one lately, but I didn't like seeing Neal get squashed. I think he could have potential.

Match number four was AJ Styles vs. the Pope, D'Angelo Dinero in a non-title match. This was easily the match of the night. Lots of great action from two crazy guys willing to put it all on the line for the fans. I remember when pretty much every match was like that in TNA. But I digress. Dinero actually managed to steal a win here after countering an attempted suplex with an inside cradle. As soon as the bell rang, Ric Flair dived into the ring and he and a shocked AJ proceeded to beat the pulp out of the Pope. This prompted Samoa Joe to run back out. He came to Pope's defense and eventually the two of them tossed AJ and Flair out of the ring. Joe then got on the mic and called AJ out. He accused AJ of going soft and forgetting what it means to be a warrior. This set up what will hopefully be a great program between these two yet again.

Next we had another Eight Card Stud qualifier, between Kurt Angle and Tomko. Angle won this after multiple German suplexes and application of the ankle lock. This match was not what it could have been. Maybe it was just because I'd just watched the AJ/Pope match, but this seemed slow. Angle looked good, but Tomko needs to tighten his game up. I've been a fan of his ever since he started in TNA, but he seems to have lost a step, and gained a few pounds. A little time in the gym and some extra time in the ring would do him good.

Next we had Tara defending the Knockout Championship against Angelina Love. The match was solid, but I couldn't help but be distracted by the big blur over Tara's chest. Apparently she had a bit of nipple pop out during the match. It was like that for a good half the match and all of the aftermath. Why didn't anyone say something to her? Anyway, Tara won the match, and afterward the Beautiful People came out to attack Angelina. I'm glad they let this match end clean. I expected Angelina to lose because of the Beautiful People. Tara helped Angelina fight the Beautiful People off, and that was pretty much that.

Finally came the main event, our seventh match of the night! I hope the powers that be in TNA decide to give us this many matches on a more regular basis. My only problem is the ridiculous policy of going to commercial during the matches! But anyway, our main event, Kevin Nash vs. Mick Foley. This match came about after a segment earlier in the night where Foley and Bischoff had another argument in the ring. Fighting Nash was basically Foley's punishment. I really hate the wrestler vs. boss angle. I didn't like it when it was Austin vs. McMahon and I still don't like it now, but I suppose it's going to continue as long as Bischoff is holding Abyss's job over Foley's head.

The match, which was no disqualification, was pretty terrible. Now, I'm a huge fan of both Mick Foley and Kevin Nash. Always have been, always will be. I even got to meet Nash once, and he was pretty cool. But these two guys are so broken down that putting them in a match against each other was just a bad idea. There was no one to carry the match. All we got was some sloppy shots with chairs and a barbed wire bat, some minor offense by Foley, and then an out-of-nowhere big boot from Nash. Nash won the match. Afterwards, Hall and Waltman showed up again, but this time they jumped Nash. Not really sure where that's going, since Nash has been the one guy in the company that keeps going to bat for them, but whatever.

Non-match segments included more development of the issues between Angle and Hogan. Apparently Angle believes Hogan asked Hall and Waltman to attack him last week. Of course, Hogan denies this. I wonder if this is leading to an actual program between Angle and Hogan. So far it hasn't looked like Hulk has any interest in getting into the ring in TNA. I'd like to see him wrestle again, but the problem is that ever since he's been in the company, he really hasn't acted at all like Hulk Hogan, or even Hollywood Hogan. He's pretty much just acted like Terry Bollea, and Terry Bollea is kind of an ass.

Overall this was a really good Impact. Lots of quality matches, even though the main event was weak. I'm still very worried about the direction Hogan is taking TNA, though.

Now for some quick tidbits going on in the world of wrestling.

I read a bit of news concerning Hogan's frustration with TNA. Well guess what, Hulk? The fans aren't all dancing in the aisles right now either. Apparently Hogan is upset because he's not being allowed to push everyone he wants to. Dixie Carter has said that she doesn't want any/all of the TNA originals being buried, but Hulk just isn't high on all of them. He said he liked Tomko, because at least Tomko looked like a wrestler. This is not something I like hearing. This makes me think that Hogan feels the same way Vince McMahon does, that all wrestlers should be big men. I don't have a problem with big men, if they can move well, but you have to have smaller guys as well! Look at the success of the X Division. They're mostly all smaller guys, and they're also pretty much what put TNA on the map. Look at how successful the Knockouts have been. With the exception of Awesome Kong and maybe ODB, you couldn't call any of them big men. Big women? Either way, they're all smaller technical or high flying wrestlers, and they often have the highest rated segments of the night. And you can't say that's because they're hot, because if that were all it was then WWE's Divas would be just as highly rated.

And hey, look back further. Look at the success of WCW's Cruiserweight Division! That was so over they made them their own tag division, much like TNA's Knockouts now. I just don't want to see Hogan throwing his weight around and turning TNA into a WWE clone. They're successful because they're different. Big men are fine, but don't hold back smaller guys just because the big men can't keep up.

One last bit, it seems WWE is getting rid of their version of ECW, and I say good riddance. It was actually a good show, the few times I watched it, but I always hated that they had the nerve to call a show ECW. ECW, the real ECW back in the day, was something special. This show that WWE ran on Tuesday nights was decent, but it was not ECW. Apparently WWE plans on replacing the show with a new thing called NXT, for the next generation of wrestlers.

Only one problem with that. There's already a company called NXT Wrestling. They're based out of Scotland, and have been around since 2007, I believe. And NXT out of Scotland uses the next generation gimmick as well. Of course, this won't stop WWE from just doing whatever they want anyway. But when WWE NXT starts airing, just remember that the entire concept of the show is ripped off from another company.