TNA Impact TV taping report
March 23, 2010
Orlando, Fla.
Report by Justin Robertson, Torch reader

Matches taped for Xplosion

(a) Motor City Machineguns (Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin) vs. Team 3D (Brother Ray & Brother Devon) ended in a No Contest when one member of each team pinned a member of the opposing team simultaneously. The Guns's tag title shot at the Lockdown PPV was on the line in this match.

(b) Angelina Love beat Madison Rayne. An okay match while it lasted. If I remember correctly, it was just a clean finish with no outside interference from anyone. Rare for TNA these days.

Impact taping for the March 29 episode

The show opened with a video telling us that Hulk Hogan wouldn't be there and that he was leaving "Macho Man" Jay Lethal in charge of half of the show.

After the opening pyro, they went straight into a promo with the Wolfpac...er...The Band. Kevin Nash called out young and said he wanted to talk about what happened at the PPV man-to-man. Young came out and wound up brawling with all three men until Jeff Hardy and RVD made the save. They cut a promo saying they're ready to go and Young pointed out that Nash was stuck with the band while he "traded up." Hardy then sang along to his entrance music and then kept telling fans to cheer for people. I think he would have kept going forever had they not eventually shut his mic off.

(1) Kazarian & Shannon Moore beat X Division champion Doug Williams & Brian Kendrick. Acceptable X Division match where Moore got the pin on Kendrick and then used black lipstick on him like Williams did on Sunday at the PPV.

The Pope cut a pretty good promo stating that he'd take A.J. Styles to the outer limits at Lockdown and take his TNA World Title. Chelsea came out and came on to him and Wolfe tried to sneak in behind Pope, but was caught. Pope then kissed Chelsea and dropped her to the mat.

In the next segment, Orlando Jordan descended from the ceiling wrapped in yellow caution tape and then writhed around the ring. He slowly crawled up the entrance ramp (yes, crawled, while grinding to his music) and then over to some set (it looked like it would be used for a talk show segment) where a guy and a girl were waiting on a couch. They both touched him and then they all stood up and posed for a camera. This was met with complete and utter silence. So much so that after he was gone, there was an "awkward silence" chant.

(2) Knockouts champion Tara beat Daffney in a First Blood match. A sloppy brawl that ended when Tara broke (what I thought was) her spider's cage over Daffney's head, causing her to bleed.

(3) TNA World Hvt. champion A.J. Styles beat Jeff Jarrett in what was more or less a number #1 contender match for Jarrett. (Hogan gave Jarrett a completely fresh start in that opening video and said if he beat A.J. tonight, he'd be next in line after Pope.) Pretty good match that saw Flair ejected from ringside early on, only to return later. Eric Bischoff tried to sneak in and nail Jarrett, but he was caught. After a ref bump, Styles low-blowed Jarrett and hit the Styles Clash for the win.

(4) Jay Lethal beat Beer Money (James Storm & Robert Roode) in a handicap match. Short match that saw Lethal get the win with a roll-up while James Storm went to get his beer bottle.

(5) Desmond Wolfe (w/Chelsea) beat The Pope after a distraction from Chelsea and then use of brass knucks. At least Desmond got a win for once, even if it wasn't in convincing fashion.

They spent at least a half-hour setting up their new cage. They clearly had no idea how to set it up and spent a large amount of time working on it trying to get it to stay together. They wound up using around 15 or so of those ratchet down straps on all the corners to hold it all together. It all looked very amateurish to be quite honest. You could tell Nash was worried about it later when he came out for the main event as he went around checking it to see if it was sturdy...

Angle came out and had a promo exchange with Mr. Anderson. Good promos from both men setting up a ladder match between them for the next Impact taping. What's at the top of that ladder you might ask? A key. To a cage at Lockdown. Hopefully they explain it on Impact. Odd, but good segment.

(6) RVD & Jeff Hardy & Eric Young beat The Band (Kevin Nash & Scott Hall & Sean Waltman) in a steel cage match. This amounted mainly to just the Mafia...er...Band selling for the face team. (In that respect, it was a pleasant surprise as compared to what I was expecting.) Terrible actual match, though, with a lot of awkward spots and missed things that will have to be edited out. The finish came when "super" Eric Young elbow-dropped off the top of the cage and all three faces pinned a member of The Band.

[Torch art credit Grant Gould (c) PWTorch.com]

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