TNA Impact TV taping report
August 9, 2010
Orlando, Fla. at the Impact Zone
Report by Kevin Tomich of State College, Pa.

Dark Match: Jesse Neal beat Sam Shaw (Lupus from Hardcore Justice) at 4:49 after a spear.

TV taping for Aug. 12 "Whole F'n Show" for Thursday

(1) Kurt Angle beat A.J. Styles via submission at 8:20. Surprisingly, Angle did not retire this week. Good, but rushed.

(2) Angelina Love beat Knockouts champion Madison Rayne at 3:45 to capture the Knockouts Title. This was a backdrop to an angle where the "biker girl" came out (showing cleavage) and Velvet Sky removed her helmet. She had a black mask on and left before her identity could be revealed. Angelina seemed genuinely pleased to win the title.

Jeremy Borash introduced Pepa (of Salt-n-Pepa) in the front row.

(3) Matt Morgan beat Mr. Anderson and "The Pope" D'Angelo Dinero in 4:58. Anderson had Pope covered, but Morgan broke it up and "stole" the pin from Anderson. I put stole in quotes because it was all legal in my book.

(4) Jeff Hardy beat Shannon Moore at 6:45 in the Open Challenge. Hardy won with a Swanton bomb. Hardy came out first and then Moore came out on the ramp and said this was his night to show what he can do. Fans were expecting Hurricane or Shelton Benjamin. Moore was a big disappointment to the live crowd.

(5) TNA tag champions Motor City Machineguns (Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley) beat Beer Money (Robert Roode & James Storm) at 16:20 in a two out of three falls match completing the Best of Five match series.

Fall 1: Roode pinned Shelley at 8:03 with the DWI. Really good action.

Fall 2: Shelley pinned Roode at 1:25 of the second fall after the Guns hit a combination neckbreaker and top rope splash.

Fall 3: Sabin pinned Storm at 6:52 of the third fall after two more of the neckbreaker/splash combinations. The crowd chanted, "Match of the Year" and "Thank you, Dixie." Why would you thank Dixie? Thank the wrestlers!

(6) TNA World Hvt. champion Rob Van Dam beat Abyss at 17:12 in a "Janice on a Pole" ladder match to retain the TNA World Hvt. Title with Eric Bischoff as special referee. RVD won with a five-star frog splash. The match had thumbtacks, glass, tables, ladders, chairs, and barbed wire. Abyss got Janice around the 14-minute mark. He climbed down the ladder with "her" and then set her down to go after RVD. Very dumb. Abyss put RVD in the corner and swung overhead with Janice, but RVD ducked and Janice was supposed to stick in the corner turnbuckle. It didn't, so Abyss had to hold the board in place and fake it. Janice was never used again. Abyss pulled out a legless table with barbed wire. Eventually, RVD hit Abyss with the Van Terminator while Abyss was behind the barbed wire table in a corner.

RVD celebrated his win, then Hulk Hogan came out. He called RVD the "hood ornament" of TNA and put over how EV2.0 "raised the bar" on Sunday night. (Editor's Note: The bar must be in another galaxy since Hogan uses the same line in every promo. Hogan said he had a "surprise" for RVD and invited EV2.0 backstage to watch his match with Abyss. Hogan invited EV2.0 out. Hogan left.

EV2.0 was RVD, Dreamer, Team 3D, Mick Foley, Sabu, Fonzie, Rhino, Stevie Richards, and The FBI (Guido & Tony Luke). They started a celebration (like the end of the PPV) and the lights went out. People chanted "Sandman." Nope.

It was Fortune consisting of A.J. Styles, Kaz, Beer Money, Matt Morgan, and X Division champion Doug Williams. They had Singapore canes and beat the piss out of EV2.0. After a long time, Raven tried to run down for the save, but he was cut off and beaten up. The crowd chanted for Taz, who was announcing, but he never left the booth. Sandman appeared in the crowd and headed to the ring only to be cut off and beaten up. Morgan choked Stevie with (what appeared to be) some type of necktie. How original.

Tommy was sporting a black eye from last night. Many of the guys wore white to accentuate the crimson. Ric Flair came out smiling and clapping. He went over to Dixie Carter (seated in the front row) and told her that this was on her. She left. Flair started ranting and raving about Fortune setting the bar (not EV2.0) and how this (Impact Zone) was Fortune's house. He accidentally slipped and dropped an ECW bomb.

The beating went on forever and ever. Eventually, Fortune posed and left. Pepa also left due to the violence (according to Borash).

That's it for Impact.

Xplosion TV taping

(1) Eric Young beat Max Buck at 6:38. Orlando Jordan came out with the mannequin and made out with it. The distraction allowed EY to win.

(2) Amazing Red beat X Division champion Doug Williams in a non-title match at 8:32 when Jay Lethal distracted Williams.

Dark Match: Okada beat Kid Kash at 6:00.

That was it for the TV tapings.

TV taping notes

-- The tag title match was spectacular.

-- Shannon Moore was a disappointment.

-- RVD-Abyss was a disappointment to me. No use of the board. And why was Bischoff ref?

-- The EV2.0 beating was LONG. Hopefully, the editing shaves and saves it. But, remember how they butchered the original TNA vs. EV2.0 angle?

-- I'm glad that Hogan gave his blessing to EV2.0. That's what the fans of ECW were waiting for.

-- The rumor all afternoon (outside in line) was that TNA would reform the New Breed of The Pope, Kevin Thorne (w/Martinez), and Monty Brown as EV3.0 to feud with EV2.0. Luckily, that didn’t happen.

[Torch art credit Joe Borzotta (c) PWTorch.com]

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