By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

IMPACT HITS

Post-Match of Dutt vs. Homicide: This was one of the worst recent Impacts, but in the mindset of trying to be fair, I am trying my best to find a few Hits in a bad show. I have to admit to laughing at Sanjay Dutt’s dance after tricking Homicide and picking up a cheap win. His dance to show that his leg wasn’t really hurt was very amusing. I liked that he hugged LAX, as it fit in with his Guru persona. And I liked that LAX destroyed him. It was fairly amusing that they stole his tambourine money, but they could be so much more than just jokes on this show.

Angle’s Promo: Kurt Angle showed the character that he should have been showing for the last, oh I don’t know, year or so. The problem is that it is hard to take him seriously as a badass when we’ve seen him as a goof for the majority of his time in TNA. Even last week he was acting goofy when Karen told him she wanted a separation. It is good that TNA is focusing on his match vs. Samoa Joe. He cut a good and intense promo about that match. But, it seemed very schizophrenic in light of how he has been portrayed for months and months.

IMPACT MISSES

What Was Planned for Impact?: What matches were originally planned for this show? During the course of the show, Jim Cornette made three matches on the spot. So what would have happened to fill the time if he hadn’t come up with those matches? If TNA is going to emulate WWE, they shouldn’t emulate one of WWE’s bad traits, like when there isn’t a planned Main Event until something on Raw or (more often) Smackdown happens to trigger the General Manager to make a Main Event. It is so annoying when WWE does it, but when they do, it is usually just one match. On Impact, it was three matches, half of the card.

Rhino and Christian: This storyline is not going well. It had an intriguing start last week when Christian Cage tried to recruit Rhino to be his partner. This week, instead of having the storyline progress, TNA jumped at least three steps in one night. First came the sit down interview with Mike Tenay. TNA should have done a better job explaining the history between these guys. It has been a long time since their feud, so a reminder would have been nice. The interview itself was o.k. It was good to hear Rhino talk and not yell, but the thing about his daughter and Uncle Christian was lame. That was step 1, while skipping a step. Later, Christian saved Rhino. That was step 2. Then, Rhino shook Christian’s hand. That was step 3 and happened too quickly. After the interview, it is surprising that Rhino would forgive Christian so soon. Later, we got the video of their relationship that should have happened already, and it included the handshake from earlier in the show. That video should have been saved for the week before Lockdown, with the other steps filling in the weeks, not just being jammed into one show.

Rhino vs. Tomko: This was a short match, interrupted by a commercial, meaning that an incredibly short amount of wrestling was actually viewed by the audience. And, since it is an Impact match, there was interference. Even given that, Rhino looked weak for losing after a clothesline. Earl Hebner looked like a chump for considering reversing the decision, based on the testimony of some ring side fans. The announcers sounded stupid in their over the top biased opinion that the decision had to be reversed. Tomko looked stupid for giving Rhino a reason to join Christian’s team. So, you have a bad match that made everyone involved look stupid.

Dutt vs. Homicide: As much as I enjoyed what happened after the match, I certainly didn’t enjoy the match itself. When the bell rang, I was thinking that on a poor Impact to that point, we were at least going to get to see a fast paced fun match. Instead, we saw a tease of a match, Dutt faking an injury, and a quick pin on a roll up. The wrestling action on this show was a joke. There was not a single good match, and most of the matches were disappointing like this. I can’t be the only one disappointed that we didn’t get to see what these two can do in the ring.

Angle’s Sparing Session: This bored me. I don’t watch MMA. I watch wrestling. If I wanted to watch MMA, I would. I read the interview that Kurt Angle gave earlier this week talking about TNA going to a more MMA style, which made some fans happy, but not me. To me, this makes professional wrestling look fake. If wrestling MMA style is a better way to win matches, why hasn’t Angle done it before? TNA is pointing out the differences between MMA and their own product, which is not a good idea. We’ve seen way too many wrestlers take way more punishment than those guys did during the sparing session without tapping out. So what does this prove? If Angle can make these guys tap out so quickly, then why hasn’t he been doing that to TNA wrestlers? I know that some MMA fights go a considerable length. But many others end right away like these ones. MMA is real and wrestling is fake. Wrestling is a scripted version of MMA where wrestlers look like they try to hurt each other enough to win a match. In MMA, fighters try to really hurt each other enough to win a match. Correct me if I’m wrong, but my guess is that much of the excitement in MMA is knowing that it is real, so I don’t see much value in worked MMA matches. I am all for incorporating some MMA elements into pro wrestling. But ultimately, I feel that MMA and wrestling are two different worlds, and bringing them together makes little sense. Plus as I said at the beginning, it bored me.

End of the Show: The end of Impact was a mess. We got the predictable four on two beating, then the predictable walk-in from Kevin Nash. Why did he bring a chair with him earlier in the show, but not at the end? Is it because he was supposed to clear the ring early on, but not at the end? Didn’t that make him look stupid? Once the heels got the upper hand, we got to see the thrilling run-in of Curry Man & Sharkboy. I was thinking of giving “No Sharkboy” a Hit until he showed up. Then the Motor City Machine Guns came out. What a waste of their talent. Then we get Sting’s music, and somehow the announcers knew that that could only mean that he would be on next week. How did they know that? It was a bad ending to a bad show.

Biggest Impact Ever Hype: Don West and Mike Tenay said multiple times that next week’s live Impact is going to be the biggest Impact ever. Let’s look at what makes it so big. There will be a Knockout Championship match. That is good. There will be another boring sparing session for Kurt Angle. That is less good. There will be a sit down interview with Karen Angle. That is not good at all. So much for putting the focus on Angle vs. Joe. Karen should be kept off t.v. until after the PPV. And we get the vague promise that Sting will be there. None of that adds up to the biggest Impact ever. That hype sucked. The only reason that it is the biggest Impact ever is that it is going to be live, and that is a mistake. Hyping one live Impact among months and months of taped Impacts, only serves to underscore that Impact isn’t usually live. Next week’s Impact is the biggest just because it is live, so what does that make the following week’s Impact when it isn’t live? It certainly won’t be the biggest ever, nor the week after.

Jon Mezzera is PWTorch.com's Hits & Misses Specialist, providing his point of view for Raw, Smackdown, ECW, and TNA Impact each week. Email him at jmezz-torch@sbcglobal.net.

For another view from the original Hitlist author, compare Jason Powell's views to mine by visiting prowrestling.NET's "Hitlist" section here.

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