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Greg Parks, PWTorch.com Contributor (5.5)

First of all, Joe demanding the ref keep Lashley at ringside and allow him to interfere pretty much throws the "refs have a ton of power" issue out the window. Secondly, putting the X-Division Title on a guy like Amazing Red, who has been treated as a jobber, does nothing for Joe (regardless of who interfered) or the belt. Other than those gripes, the show was mostly acceptable. The only other thing dumb I could think of was Angle putting the bounty on Eric Young right after the Abyss bounty angle.

I think the contract signing set a record for quickest to devolved into a brawl. Aside from Christy and Traci's segment in the ring, the tag team Knockout elimination match was acceptable. Sting continued his streak of awesome promos. As bad as Joe got hosed earlier, at least they had him get his revenge on Lashley within the show. The main event was fine, but ultimately meaningless.

Curtis Shanks, PWTorch.com Contributor (7.5)

This week's Impact did what it was supposed to - built hype and intrigue for Bound For Glory. Say what you want about some of the feuds going right now, but I can't think of one match where I'm certain I know the outcome. But that's what I want and why I watch. Sting and Styles doesn't seem as monumental as it should be. They were barely on the show next week, but still have some time with next week's three hour show. We've all heard rumors of Sting's retirement, but a swerve and a Sting win should not be counted out.

I like the intrigue of two different title belts being up for grabs in a ladder match. I did not like how the contract signing was just thrown into the middle of the show and resulted in nothing more than a quick brawl. We've seen plenty of brawls on Impact lately between these individuals and this one was nothing special.

Joe vs. Lashley will not be anything special, but they are trying hard. The elbow drop through the Spanish announce table was one of those "holy crap" moments you wanted to see a replay of. Nice spot there to show that they may have some other things planned for their PPV match. I really like the Kevin Nash situation. Great storyline hook with Nash debating between the money from EY or the allegiance to Angle.

My only major BFG hype complaint would be the X Division. They seem to be taking a backseat once again, this time on the biggest show of the year. Red has zero possibilities for a feud to get onto the card right now. The Ultimate X match should be hyped as a major event, but only got a brief mention during the show this week. More than likely, that will be our opening ten-minute spot fest that is all but forgotten half-way through the show.

Daniel Wilkenfeld, PWTorch.com Contributor (6.5)

I thought this was a basically decent show. It decently advanced Sting-AJ and EY-Hernadez, while coming up with a reasonable way to involve Nash in the latter. Abyss-Foley moved forward as well, though why TNA seems committed to Mick being the heel in this is anyone's guess. I'm all for portraying the mentally handicapped wrestler in a sympathetic (a la Eugene) rather than a mocking light (a la, well, most of Abyss's career), but this feud isn't about Abyss's craziness. In fact, I thought we had successfully gotten past that, but the reintroduction of Dr. Stevie just confuses the whole mess.

Morgan-Angle seemed to be on a bit of a back burner as Angle challenged for the World Title and dealt with Eric Young. This lack of focus has its obvious downsides, but creates the capacity for all sorts of neat interacting storylines, so I'm cool with it. The X Division is still a joke, but made two positive strides today by getting the belt on Amazing Red and demonstrating that Homicide won't be demoted to just being Eric Young's lackey. This show was mostly plagued by time management issues. I didn't actually do the math, but my guess is that the hype to match ration for the main event was something on the order of 3:1, which isn't good.

[Sting art credit Grant Gould (c) PWTorch]

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