My TNA Weekly Catch-up, Impact 26th Jun 08

Ok, catch-up time is here again. Usual caveats apply, I talk about what I feel furthers TNA as a brand and if it's c**p then I say so or just don't mention it if its THAT c**p. I might swear but that's how real people speak, if its likely to offend then either don't read the review or killfile me. ANY feedback on the review WILL be answered if your not in my killfile. Onto the review.

Consequences Creed vs AJ Styles. Clearly TNA management like Creed if their working him with AJ. If you can't get over working off Styles then you never will. This one started off on the mat with some technical wrestling, never a good idea if your trying to get over & in the 1st match of the show. Creed & Styles did then crank it up a few notches from that point. AJ was selling Creed's punches very convincingly. Best move of the match had to be AJ's Pele from out of no-where. AJ took the win off a Styles Clash that Creed sold really well. A good match for AJ & Creed got some good screen time too.

Brother Ray vs Christian Cage - This one was over quick as they had obviously no ideas how to work the match to its expected duration at all. It didn't start well & got thrown out as a DQ for using a foreign object after Johnny Devine tried to help Brother Ray by hitting Cage with a kendo stick & then Ray decided to use it on Cage & the ref called an end to it. As part of the postmatch beatdown Cage was powerbombed through a glass table. You'd never see THAT on a WWE show, that's for sure! Eric Young & Kaz came out to see if Cage was ok.

Once again Awesome Kong comes out with Raisha Saeed to make the $25,000 challenge to the female fans in the Impact Zone.

Awesome Kong vs Danielle (no surname?) from Buffalo, New York (aka Ferrari - manager of Marc Mandrake) - Danielle gave NO offense at all, she took hard bumps (especially against the ring steps). Kong struggled to lift & hold her but eventually Danielle took the Awesome Bomb (thanks mainly on the whole to Danielle's awesomely strong stomach muscles!) & Kong took yet another win against a jobber posing as a fan. During the match we'd seen Kong's competitor from last week Shantelle Taylor at the guard rail and Kong gave her the staredown after the match. Taylor jumped the guard rail and went at it again with Kong. Raisha Saeed tried to interfere and Taylor clocked her hard and continued to take it to Kong just like last week. Security had to separate them and Jim Cornette came out to intervene. Taylor asked to be given a chance saying 1stly she could beat Kong then asked to fight Saeed saying she could beat her. Cornette said they'd talk.

Angelina Love interview segment sticking very much IN character. Nice to see Simon Diamond & Scott D'Amore in yet another of these.

First Round World X Cup Match, The intro's are stopped by MMA star Frank Trigg coming out to the ring to bore us on the mic to sucker AJ Styles out of the locker room so Kurt could sic The Beautiful People onto Karen once he'd gone. Before the actual intro's to this match we get to meet the members of Team International (Daivari, Alex Kozlov, Tyson Dux & Doug Williams from the UK who is now under contract to TNA which hopefully means we'll see more of him in the X Division after this competition is over). We also get to meet all of Team TNA (Curry Man, Kaz & The Motorcity Machine Guns).

First Round World X Cup Match Team Japan (Naruki Doi & Masato Yoshino - thank f**k they gave their names 2 weeks ago) vs Team Mexico (Ultimo Guerrero - no relation to the famous family, apparently the name means "The Last Warrior" & Rey Bucanero aka Arturo Ortiz which means "Buccaneer King" as he used to run a pirate gimmick). This kicked off at a very fast pace & Team Japan were very fluid with their doubleteam on Bucanero but Team Mexico's doubleteam was just as fast & just as good. Yoshino pulled a wicked mad Hurricanrana & they both made an excellent double suicide dive onto Team Mexico outside the ring. Both these teams looked great & worked great (I really liked the reverse faceplant suplex off the top rope that Guerrero made on Doi). Team Mexico got a well deserved win off a wicked corkscrew senton earning 1 point in the World X Cup. The fans gave lots of deserved applause & both teams were excellent here in the kind of match that Rey Mysterio wishes he could get into in the WWE but never will.

Sonjay Dutt (with his 4 guru-ites which are little kids dressed in the guru gear) comes out to bore us on the mic only to get jumped by Jay Lethal. Followed by an overly long & crappy segment from Booker T's dressing room. Followed by a Matt Morgan interview segment.

Anything Goes Knockout Bimbo Brawl, Moose vs ODB. Basically this is a hardcore match between 2 women I've wanted to see fight each other since Moose came to TNA & boy did I get my wish! Moose appeared to be starting this match with a black eye already (look at her right eye, its VERY Bruised & swollen) & ODB gave her a face full of the liquid from the flask and jumped her. ODB was on top and stayed there giving Moose a real hard time, throwing her in the shopping cart & ramming it into the guard rail. ODB showed she could take it as well as dish it out by taking a hockey stick hard to the back. ODB was also convincingly selling being choked by the chain. Moose took 3 hard looking clotheslines and a very good looking fall-away slam as well. Moose really sold the shovel to the head & the kickout was a great touch too. Moose took the eventual win off a double underhook ddt into a chair. Awesome match, WWE Divas couldn't do this on their best day.

Clips from TNA's recent appearances in the UK & the news of more in 2009 as already announced by me, in case you missed it here it is again:-

MAXIMUM IMPACT 2009
Manchester MEN Arena - Tuesday 20th Jan
Birmingham NIA - Wednesday 21st Jan
Glasgow Braehead Arena - Thursday 22nd Jan
London Wembley Arena - Saturday 24th Jan

Tickets on sale from Friday June 27th

Names announced were:-
Kurt Angle, Jeff Jarrett, Samoa Joe, AJ Styles, Jay Lethal, Awesome Kong (all also feature on the advert), The Motor City Machineguns. Gail Kim, Abyss, James Storm, Sharkboy, Tomko, Curry Man, Sonjay Dutt "and many other superstars" (card subject to change).

No DQ Match, Booker T vs Kevin Nash. If it's no dq then we can be almost certain there will be interference from at least 1 person in this. I am predicting that right now! This one kicks off slow as to be expected from Nash & Samoa Joe walks down the ramp and takes a seat ringside to watch. Nash makes every move count, making no extras effort to exert himself here. Booker got in Joe's face, pushing him off the chair then smacking him in the head with it. Booker used the chair on Nash, hitting him in the head and knees. Joe eventually recovered enough to climb into the ring and take it to Booker while Nash was on the canvas. Joe "accidently" superkicked Nash when aiming at Booker, got thrown out of the ring by Booker & then Booker T took an easy win. Nash & Joe were squaring up & it took Security to break this one up. Not a good match at all really, more orientated towards a storyline to create a future match between Joe & Nash. The other matches on the card more than made up for the extremely sh**ty main event though.