TNA Impact TV taping report
June 6, 2013
Duluth, Ga.
Report by Todd Oblak, PWTorch correspondent

This is a first-person review from last Thursday's TV tapings from sitting on the front row behind the announce desk. The show was seen completely different from this viewpoint, as I got to see the angles taped backstage and not shown on the big "Impactron," as well as caught a glimpse of the booking sheet the announcers were working from (a picture is included below). The crowd was better than I expected, as I checked earlier in the day and tickets on the floor were still available. I'm not good at estimating crowds, but there were probably a good 2,000 plus.




- Xplosion taping: D.O.C. (w/Knox) beat Rob Terry with a chokeslam after Knox distracted Terry.

Impact 6/6

(Since it already aired on TV, I'll just hit the high points.)

- Hernandez beat Chavo in a BFG Series qualifier. Nothing stellar here, but the crowd was behind Super Mex.

- Samoa Joe beat Robbie E. in a BFG Series qualifier. The crowd was solidly behind Joe.

- Sabin & Storm & Gunner beat Aries & Roode & Kenny King when Sabin pinned King. Awesome match, and the crowd was totally behind the faces here. Storm & Gunner have good chemistry and Sabin has star written all over him. I was only okay on Kenny King before tonight, but he is a real talent. More on that later, when he really shined in his second match of the night.

- Before the Knockouts match, ODB came out to ref and during the "break" was standing in front of Taz. Let's just say she was waving her assets by bouncing up and down and side-to-side, which had Taz cracking up. She was really messing with him.

- Mickie James beat Taeler Hendrix. The crowd chanted, "Cena Sucks," "Yes Yes," "Si Si," and "boring" throughout this match. When Mickie got the pin, everyone was happy this was over.

- Knox & Devon finally found Abyss and got beat down by him backstage. It's time to choose a direction for Park/Abyss. Still acting like we don't know it's the same person and having him doing two separate programs is just odd.

- Hardy vs. Bully in the ladder match was great. Bully is the best heel in the business by far. Bully had the line of the night after he got hit below the belt by the ladder where he half stood up, looked over at Taz, and said, "TAZ! BALLS!" The look on Taz's face was priceless. He was cracking up and trying to act straight but it wasn't working. Hilarious. Another thing that probably didn't come across on TV was when Jeff hit the table, it broke the piece of wood that holds the monitors on the announce desk and almost crushed Taz's iPhone he had sitting on the desk. The monitors fell out and they fought the rest of the night to get them to stay in place so he could finish the show.

At one point during this match, they hit the table again and Taz spilled his Diet Pepsi all over himself so while he was trying to call the match they were trying to clean up the announce desk, too. The ending to this match was odd, as Bully ran off when Jeff chased him with the hammer, but something happened when Jeff exited the ring and landed awkwardly on his hip and had trouble getting up.

The crowd did not know how Impact ended, but since we were behind the desk, we got to see the Hogan/Brooke/Bully segment backstage without audio.

After taping a few matches for the 6/13 episode, TNA taped another Xplosion match.

- Xplosion taping: Chris Sabin beat Robbie E. in an X Division Title match. Sabin just looked good here.

Impact Tapings 6/13

In the order of things taped...

- Crimson is back. He said it's been a year, but he is going to win the BFG Series. He had a qualifying match with Joseph Park, which he lost via roll-up. So, Joseph Park is in the BFG Series now.

- Magnus won a fantastic four-way BFG qualifying match against Matt Morgan, Kenny King, and Rob Terry. Morgan is still coming out wearing Hulk Hogan's old Terry Golden/Boulder robe - not sure why. The premise of this match was the two big guys started off (Morgan and Terry) and Kenny King kept tagging himself in when Morgan had Terry beat down, then would tag Morgan back in when Terry began to come back on him. King was excellent here, and the crowd was really behind Magnus. Magnus got the hot tag in and cleaned house. The finish saw Magnus get the pin on King.

This is where they cut to an Xplosion match.

- Back to the Impact tapings, Velvet Sky came out and called out Mickie. Basically, Velvet presented Mickie with a letter from her doctor saying she was cleared to wrestle and wants her re-match. Mickie told her she could have gotten this off the Internet. Velvet demanded an answer and Mickie said, "Why is this letter dated yesterday when your knee is still hurt today?" Then, she turned full heel and took Velvet out by kicking her in the knee and put her in a reverse STF until the referees separated them. They had to help Velvet to the back.

- Bad Influence beat Storm & Gunner in a BFG Series qualifying match when Daniels blasted Storm with the tag belt and Kaz picked up the cheap win. The match was non-title.

- Hulk Hogan came out. I'm assuming this will be the start of Impact. He announced that three men have already qualified for the BFG Series (Jay Bradley at Slammiversary and Joe and Hernandez "last week"). He also announced that the previous two winners get a bye and don't have to qualify (Hardy and Roode, who both came out separately). He said by the end of tonight we will know all 12 BFG Series members.

Roode and Hardy jawed back and forth, then Hogan announced that next week is Open Fight Night and Hardy and Roode can settle any differences they have. Bully, Brisco, and Garett Bischoff then came out. Hogan announced that all members of Aces & Eights will be in a battle royal later against each other for a BFG spot. Bully says it doesn't matter about the BFG Series because they're all targets. He sent Brisco & Bischoff to get Hardy & Roode, who threw them out of the ring quickly. As Aces & Eights retreated, Roode blasted Hardy and bailed.

- Austin Aries beat Eric Young in one of the funniest matches I've seen in a long time. A couple of the better spots: Aries did his "spin around on his opponent's back and slap the back of his head" move, then laid across the top rope in the corner and put his feet up. This made EY get ODB in the ring and he put her on the ground and spun around on her back then played drums on her butt, then did his own lay on the top rope in the corner with his feet propped up. Another really funny spot was Aries doing Flair chops and the crowd "whooing" along, then whipping EY into the corner, where EY did the Flair Flop and he landed it. He was so happy that he started to do the Flair Strut on the apron, which popped the crowd huge. Both of these guys are so good. Aries eventually won to get the BFG spot.

- Sting came out. He basically said that no one had his back at Slammiversary and let him get beat down, but that's fine. He said he feels like Aces & Eights are a family, so maybe he needs a family, too. Not just like a family, more like...a mafia. He then said the new Main Event Mafia would come together soon and have his back and they would take Aces & Eights out for good. I'm assuming he means Angle and Joe, but I don't see Nash or Booker returning soon, so my guess is they will have to add new members? Storm & Gunner? Magnus? Rampage?

- Aces & Eights battle royal started off like it was going to be serious but turned into a "fingerpoke of doom" match. Anderson first made a gun with his hand and yelled "Bang" and Brisco acted like he was shot and fell over the top rope. Anderson then grabbed Bischoff and did a cartoonish walk around the ring before finally tossing him. Anderson acted like he was going to clothesline Knox over the top rope, but then just kinda pushed him and he did the Kane/Undertaker backwards rope flip to his feet on the outside. Anderson then told Devon to get the tables and Devon jumped over the top rope to the floor then went to go under the ring, but stopped and said "Man you got me! Ha ha." This just left Doc and Anderson. At this point, Devon walked over to Christy Hemme, stopped, and said something along the lines of "Damn girl, do you know what I'd do to you...and you got that big booty, too!"

So, they teased D.O.C. not going "along with the plan" and he actually turned on Anderson and beat him down for a few seconds until Anderson finally dumped him out of the ring. The rest of Aces & Eights yelled at D.O.C., asking what he was doing and he left back through the Aces & Eights entrance with the rest of the group following him asking what's wrong with him. This would have been fine if they followed it up properly, but the next time we saw them they were all on the same page again...weird.

- The main event was Angle vs. Styles in the final (?) BFG Series qualifier. Styles beat Angle in another great match from these two when Aces & Eights (Anderson, D.O.C., and Knox) interfered. D.O.C. and Knox tried to double-clothesline Styles, but he ducked and they blasted Angle. Styles fought them both off and when Angle came to help, Styles rolled up Angle for the pin. The three A&E members jumped back in the ring and Styles bailed with his win to leave Angle to be beaten down again. We all thought Sting and Joe would make the save, but it was Rampage Jackson with his chain chasing off the A&E members. Rampage and Angle stood tall to end the show.

Overall, a very fun show. Good stuff here from the TNA crew. Any comments can be sent to toddoblak@yahoo.com.

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