My Weekly TNA Catch-up, Impact 16th Jul 09 reviewed

Hopefully normal service is being resumed this week.
Mick Foley comes out to air a few opinions, Kurt Angle joins him & Sting upsets things.

Samoa Joe vs The Amazing Red - This one started in the backstage area with Joe jumping Red and they fought down the ramp into the ring. Sadly this was yet another c***py finish with Amazing Red taking the win after Joe manhandled the ref and got himself DQ'd. Red needs to be asking questions about s**t finishes like this because he took an AWESOME double bump down the entry ramp and allowed Joe to kick the s**t out of him and didn't even get to properly finish the match. This whole "angry" Joe storyline needs to get over and done as its just getting him S**T non-matches that aren't helping get him over at all.

Various backstage s**t.

Chris Sabin vs Suicide - This isn't an X Division Title match & Kaz is still avoiding the zipline entry so he is STILL worried about his bad knee not having healed fully? Not a great match and it appears the idea about unmasking Suicide has suddenly been remembered again now another PPV is coming around (shame they completely forgot it at the last PPV eh?), Suicide took the eventual win off The Suicide Solution. Shelley & Sabin beat Suicide down and Homicide came down with the Feast Or Fired case and made the save on Suicide then Homicide cashed in his title shot.

X Division Championship, Homicide vs Suicide - Suicide had absolutely zero chance here having taken a chair to the head literally less than 60 seconds before this match started, Suicide kicked out of 1 pin attempt but Homicide took the win off The Gringo Killer to become new X Division Champion. I assume because Kaz is unsure about the zipline entry of Suicide they decided to give the title to someone else so I can only guess they are going to "reveal" who Suicide is very soon?

Angelina Love comes out dressed in a Beekeepers costume to berate Tara having taken her title and claims its a fluke.

Alissa Flash vs Sarita - Flash is none other than Raisha Saeed aka Cheerleader Melissa getting a chance to be out of her burkha for a change, Sarita is Sarah Stock from the CMLL promotion now working for TNA. Flash was all power & Sarita was all speed and high flying, this was actually a nice match. The suicide dive from Sarita was good and they both worked outside the ring with Sarita bumping on the floor mats & guard rail.

Sarita made a lovely springboard crossbody block but didn't have the weight to get the pin however her flying armbar was outstanding! Flash in her mannerisms and costume and moves really reminds me of Mschif (from SHIMMER & ROH) which makes sense because the 2 have worked together before now. Sarita took the eventual win off a VERY scrappy roll-through that didn't look like it'd been practiced at all and Sarita definately hurt herself when she took the backdrop onto the turnbuckle that hit her in the neck and back of the head as she was holding her neck after the match.

6 Man Elimination Tag Match, Kevin Nash, Scott Steiner & Booker T vs Beer Money & AJ Styles - If any rules or stipulations were explained then I fast forwarded through them. Basically they were doing it like WWF used to do Survivor Series, if your pinned your eliminated and last team with people still on it wins. Nash eliminated Styles off a f**king AWFUL powerbomb (not even AJ could fix that god awful throw Kev made), Steiner eliminated Storm (no clue what move that was supposed to be, half DDT & half drop toehold).

Roode eliminated Nash after hitting a lowblow and the main problem with this match was it kept concentrating on Sharmell & Jenna in an attempt to build some heat for their PPV match this weekend (that no-one cares about or wants to see either) as well as Matt Morgan jumping Storm outside the ring it seemed TNA totally didn't care about this match itself it was far too busy laying storyline ground work and setting up heat for matches no-one wants to see.

Considering this was a tag match not once did the ref make any counts when the MEM were triple and double teaming Roode, Roode had Booker pinned but Sharmell distracted the ref which allowed Booker to take the pin off a kick to the head. P**s poor match and they really didn't care at all what was happening in the ring. The fact that Sharmell & Jenna had a s**tty & very short post match cat-fight was even more evidence of that.

6 Sides Of Steel Non-Title Grudge Match, Kurt Angle vs Sting - Ok well this was just above average but dropped into the realms of utter shit when Samoa Joe rather predictably ran down and tried to interfere but luckily Sting was waiting for him and hit the Scorpion Leg Lock then the lights went down, they ran a "FTW" graphic in orange and Joe suddenly had Sting in the Tazzmission so it looks like Tazz's debut can't be that far away but they sure hell have dragged it out. Keep em peeled for this weekends PPV I guess.

TNA also announced they are hiring a new Japanese girl Ayako Hamada who looks cute and works hardcore so I am happy as long as she debuts real soon. I am also wondering if we will see the end to the Raisha Saeed gimmick soon allowing the full time work of Cheerleader Melissa or Alissa Flash either I'd be happy to watch. I have my doubts about Sarita (who quite frankly looks like she'd break if you DDT'd her), she is just too slim and petite to be taken seriously.