TNA Impact review - 3/8/10

I just got done watching this, and I have to say wow. I was impressed. If you've been reading my blog, you know that TNA has been disappointing me for the most part since Hulk Hogan took over the show, but tonight was really good.

I hadn't planned on watching it live on Monday night, so I Tivoed it just in case I decided to watch it later. After hearing from my buddy Shin DT that it was a great show, I had to check it out. I was mostly impressed at the amount of matches. It seemed like they were non-stop. And in between the matches, there were actual old-school wrestling segments that consisted of guys talking in the ring to promote their feuds or backstage interviews. No more of this soap opera style garbage of guys having overly long, way too serious conversations in the back rooms. If it's not in the ring or in the interview studio then it shouldn't be on the air. There are exceptions to the rule, of course, but that's the way it should usually be.

Now, to the matches. First off we had the main event (yes, I know this is unusual, but they were calling it that) of Hogan and Abyss vs. AJ and Flair. This didn't last too long. After a few minutes the lights went out, Sting appeared, and he beat the crap out of Hogan and Abyss. So the match was ruled no contest and Hogan decided that they would finish it later that night with no disqualifications.

Next we have a great segment in the ring between X-Division Champ Doug Williams, #1 contender Kaz, and Christopher Daniels, all arguing about who best represents the X-Division. Eric Bischoff comes out and tells them if they want to argue about it that bad, they can have a match. The bell rings, and the three of them go at it. Williams wins to retain his title with one of the sickest finishers I've ever seen. I believe he called it the Chaos Theory something or another. I've only seen this move done in video games before, never real life. Williams, from behind, splashed Daniels into the corner, then pulled him backwards into a roll-up, but instead of just pinning him there he kept going, flipped Daniels all the way around and suplexed him! With a bridge! I had to replay it like a dozen times! Insane! It really upped my respect for Doug Williams.

After the match ended, Shannon Moore came running out and attacked Williams, and Bischoff announced that Williams would defend the title against Moore at the next pay-per-view, Destination X. Moore is a really talented guy, but that make-up he wears is just goofy.

Next we had a three way tag match for the held up Knockout Tag Team Championship. It appears Awesome Kong is done with the company, so her and Hamada no longer hold the titles. As a quick side note, I want to say that TNA is making a huge mistake letting Kong go just so they can keep Bubba the Love Sponge. That dude is a piece of human garbage that brings nothing whatsoever to the show. I have to force myself not to change the channel every time I see him. *Ahem!* But I digress.

The match consisted of Taylor and Sarita, Tara and Angelina Love, and the Beautiful People, represented by Velvet Skye and Madison Rayne. Lacey Von Erich was at ringside with them. It was a pretty decent match, but it ended a bit too quickly. Out of nowhere, Daffney slides into the ring with Tara's Knockout Championship belt and clocks Tara! The Beautiful People take advantage of the chaos and score the pin, becoming the new champs. So I suppose this means we'll see a feud now between Tara and Daffney. After the match, the Beautiful People celebrate backstage and declare that Lacey is a champion too, even though she wasn't a part of the match. Maybe TNA will let them decide which two members of the team will defend the belts in each title defense, similar to what the Fabulous Freebirds and Demolition used to do.

Next we were supposed to have a match between the Pope and Desmond Wolfe, but Wolfe attacked Pope during his backstage interview and messed up his ankle, so the match was called off. More on this later.

Now we get Sting vs. a mystery opponent. This match was made directly by Dixie Carter, who vowed to never get involved with match making, after Sting got in her face after the incident with Hogan and Abyss at the start of the show. So Sting goes down to the ring, some strange music starts playing, and the crowd goes nuts. But because the cameramen aren't shooting the entrance ramp, we can't see the video package that is airing and don't know right away who it is. Turns out to be Mr. Monday Night himself, Rob Van Dam! RVD comes rushing out of the crowd and stuns Sting, landing a few quick hits and then his Rolling Thunder finisher to score a really fast pin! After that, though, Sting gets up and whips the crap out of RVD with his bat. Not really the best debut ever for RVD. I mean, sure, he came out and scored a win on Sting, but then proceeds to get his butt kicked. Hard. Hogan even comes out to try and help and Stings whips Hogan as well. I don't like seeing Sting as a heel, but I have to say I do like seeing him beat Hogan down.

Next we get Kevin Nash and Eric Young in the ring calling out Scott Hall and Sean Waltman. Nash says he convinced Hogan to give them a contract, one night only, for a fight at Destination X. Hall and Waltman come out and suggest that if they win, they should be allowed to stay. Eric Bischoff appears on the screen at this point and agrees, but says if Hall and Waltman lose then they have to go away from TNA for good. Hall and Nash shake on this, and EY extends his hand to Waltman, but Waltman sucker punches him for his effort. Instead of the usual farce of security trying to hold everyone back, Bischoff declares that EY and Waltman should be allowed to go at it. Hall and Nash are escorted away, and EY proceeds to whip Waltman in another match that was good, but too short.

Next, a load of soldiers dressed in fatigues come down and line the ramp, followed by Kurt Angle. The soldiers then surround the ring, lumberjack style. Kurt's really going for this whole all-American soldier supporter gimmick, isn't he? Kurt starts cutting a promo on Mr. Anderson, same as we've seen in the previous weeks. This time, though, when Anderson appears on the big screen to fire back, Kurt wastes no time running backstage and attacking him. Angle pulls Anderson out to the ring, where he proceeds to beat him down and let all the soldiers have a turn as well. It was this lumberjack style atmosphere that made this an entertaining segment, to me. After the beatdown, all the soldiers hoisted Angle up on their shoulders and carried him away, while Angle proudly waved an American flag. By the way, I found it ironic that the whole time Anderson was ripping on the military he was wearing a Captain America t-shirt. Angle tried to rip it off of him at one point, but seemed to be having trouble. It being live TV, he abandoned the idea and instead just spit on Anderson.

Next, the low point of the show for me, was Bischoff's continued testing of Jeff Jarrett and Mick Foley. Jarrett had to wrestle a handicap match against Beer Money, and Foley had to referee. Foley tried to help by providing Jarrett with a barbed wire bat, but another ref ran in and stopped it from happening. Beer Money won, and this angle just keeps getting older and older. Enough already.

Lastly, the continuation of our main event, Hogan and Abyss vs. AJ and Flair, no DQ! I swear, Hogan and Flair will die in the ring one day. They're both showing their age a lot worse than ever, both very slow. It's obvious that the younger guys were trying to be careful with them. But, they both still bleed really well. Both of them were wearing the crimson mask by the end of the match. We got to see a cool spot where Hogan and Abyss both Hulked up at the same time, and the match ended with Hogan slinging AJ into a Black Hole Slam from Abyss. After the match, Desmond Wolfe comes running out for some reason to help Flair and AJ, and then the Pope comes limping out to stop him. All six men fight for a few minutes before Jeff Hardy appears! He comes running out to help Hogan as well. The show ended at that point, but I read online that Hogan and his boys chased Flair and the heels out of the ring.

So, we had seven matches if you count both of the Hogan/Abyss vs. Flair/AJ matches separately. Most of them were good matches, though many of them could have gone longer. We had some new feuds started, some good work advancing existing feuds, and a couple of new additions to the show. I just hope that TNA can keep this level of product up. They're going to need to in order to survive on Monday nights.