This week the MEM have taken over Impact so we'll see how differently they do things. On the colour desk are Chet Lemon (Kevin Nash) & Black Snow (Booker T) so it appears TNA read my post on how to improve things in TNA and gave West & Tenay the week off.
Non title Knockout Handicap Match - The Kongtourage vs ODB. Scott Steiner struggled to read the intro off the bit of paper but that could have been due to the fact he was still wearing his damn sunglasses indoors. Basically this was ODB taking on Raisha Saeed, Sojourner Bolt & Rhaka Khan all on her lonesome and Nash definately showed he's been reading my catch-ups by referring to Khan as a Giraffe. ODB put Khan, Bolt & Saeed out of the ring pretty quickly and ended up facing off against Awesome Kong (if this match was against the Kongtourage then she really shouldn't be taking part as you can't be a member of your own entourage), Kong took the win off the Implant Buster although ODB really should have taken the win off a DQ by count out as all the members of the Kongtourage were in the ring and the ref really should have counted them out. Match length 3:30.
Rough Cut on ODB.
Handicap Match - Referees Rudy Charles & Andrew Thomas vs Booker T. This was never going to be pretty or entertaining, both these refs can bump and have in the past but they would have been better off just lying down and letting Booker take the quick pin. Charles bumped and sold well as did Thomas but Booker took the predictable win off Thomas in just over 4 minutes. A post match beatdown on Booker by Shane Sewell (who looks more like Jeff Jarrett in his street clothes).
Matt Morgan vs Petey Williams - The MEM stipulation here was Williams had to fight with 1 hand behind his back and the ref even tied his arm to his torso. You have to give Williams props here as he stuck to the rules even though the rope was as loose as hell, As Steiner distracted Morgan the ref helped Williams get untied and he then played possum and got a short run of success before being distracted by Steiner then running into the Carbon Footprint which allowed Morgan to take the win in just over 4 minutes. Post match beatdown on Williams and Consequences Creed, Eric Young & Jay Lethal tried to make the save and failed badly.
Rough Cut on Matt Morgan followed by video package on Team 3D who come out to berate Sting. Rough Cut on Traci Brooks.
Handicap Match - Team 3D vs Sting. 3D came out carrying their newly won IWGP titles and Sting has a new jacket, its purple! Not a great match and not a proper handicap against Sting either as Steiner was ringside interfering for most of it and Angle ran out to lowblow Brother Ray to prevent a pin, 3D pretty much had the win after hitting the Doomsday Device but Angle ran in to break up the count and the ref threw it out as a DQ on outside interference with Team 3D taking the win but not the way they wanted to in about 5 and a half minutes. Post match beatdown from Steiner & Angle and Booker left the colour desk to get a table which got Abyss, Mick Foley & LAX to come out and make the save on Team 3D.
Video package on Sting, Foley tells Hernandez he'll get another title shot at some point in the future. Steiner is booked in a weapons match against Abyss & Angle is booked in a handicap match against LAX both later on tonight West & Tenay return to the colour desk & Cornette books Shane Sewell against Booker T at the next PPV.
Hardcore Match - Scott Steiner vs Abyss. Its actually a hardcore handicap match as Steiner isn't allowed to use ANY of the weapons at all. Highlights of this were Abyss going through the wall of the Spanish Announcers position (followed by a badly timed commercial break so they haven't fixed that yet), Steiner blading after a trashcan shot and taking an excellent chokeslam into the trashcan (that actually flattened it!). Abyss won after Steiner was DQ'd for using the lead pipe. This match lasted just over 5 minutes and "Suicide" made the save on Abyss but that certainly wasn't Frankie Kazarian in the costume as he was way too slim although the rumour mill said it was The Fallen Angel Christopher Daniels stepping in for the currently injured Kaz.
Advert for Brutus Magnus and a video package about the UK tour. Some backstage interview about a show happening after Impact.
Handicap Match - LAX vs Kurt Angle. Was Hernandez carrying some kind of head injury here with the blue bandage looking object above his right ear? LAX worked Angle well especially Kurt selling the nice headscissors off Homicide but Angle came back during another badly timed break and Homicide sold a great looking tilt a whirl backbreaker off Angle. It seems Angle is still over with some fans as some of the front row were chanting "tap" at Homicide during the Ankle Lock.
Angle didn't look 100% sure about selling the DDT off Homicide (he took far too long deciding whether he was going to go with the move or not and made them both look stupid), Angle eventually took the win off the Angle Slam in just under 10 minutes but LAX had the much better match here even though Angle worked well on his own showing he can sell when he really wants to.
Not a bad Impact at all this week, I wanted to be as even as I was in my WWE reviews so I noted number of matches and time durations - we got 6 matches but 2 didn't end in clean finishes. This equalled roughly 32 minutes worth of actual in-ring action that was wrestling and at least TNA's video packages for its various stars were actually related to the matches that were about to happen. I do quite like the Rough Cut segments as we get to find out more about the wrestlers as real people. I was interested to see TNA did actually steal some of my ideas from my " Ways to fix TNA" posting made on Jan 23rd (shall I assume my pay cheque is in the mail then Dixie Carter?).
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