By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

IMPACT HITS

Kaz vs. Joe: I would not have started Impact with the World Championship match, but I am happy that they started with a match period. And, this was a good match. It had very good back and forth action. It only went 7 minutes, but it was an action packed 7 minutes. It is a bit unbelievable that Kaz couldn’t defeat the X-Division Champ, but was able to take Samoa Joe to the limit, but that is a problem with TNA’s bookers not knowing what they are doing. That does not take away from the effort that these two put into having a very good match.

Yoshino & Doi vs. Machine Guns: I am not a fan of the World X Cup (more later), but this was a good preview. This was another 7 minute match with nonstop action. Masato Yoshino and Naruki Doi had an impressive TNA debut. They showed off a high energy style that was fun to watch. I don’t know if I could have taken more than 7 minutes at that pace. It was very hectic, but they did many memorable moves. It certainly was never boring. The Motor City Machine Guns looked good as usual. Yoshino & Doi spent much of the match in the ring together, which the referee didn’t try very hard to stop. That took away from the quality of the match a little. But, that is a relatively minor complaint about such a fun match.

Beautiful People: After last week, I’m glad that I can put Angelina Love and Velvet Sky back in the Hit column. I’ll have more to say about Sky’s match vs. Gail Kim later, but for now I will focus on the good of this duo. Both were good on the mic. In fact, this was probably Sky’s best performance to date. She sounded much better than usual, particularly in her mocking of Prince AJ. The Brown Bag treatment has been fun. They play their parts well, and have done a good job of getting over as heels in the Knockout division.

Keys to the Locker Room: I was intrigued by the locker room scene between Booker T and Samoa Joe. It started out cheesy as Booker was hanging out in the locker room as Jeremy Borash attempted to interview Sanjay Dutt. But, it got interesting with the exchange between Champion and challenger. Joe was acting very strangely here. He had already been in a match, heard Booker’s challenge, and had a verbal confrontation with Kevin Nash. He had been worked up at that point, but was calm with Booker. It was strange, but in a good way, in a way that makes me want to know what is going on inside Joe’s head. The end was the same, as Joe gave Booker the keys to his locker room, saying that he won’t be needing them. What does that mean? I am curious to find out.

IMPACT MISSES

“I Put a Hit on My Wife”: I hate these stupid titles. How did the person who comes up with the titles know that Kurt Angle was going to put a hit out on his wife? I wish that was my only complaint about this, but it isn’t. Why is Karen Angle getting a contract with TNA? And, why is it going through Spike TV? None of that made sense. The Beautiful People made perfect sense in complaining about Karen not deserving a contract, and more money that they get, yet they are the heels. I know I gave them a Hit, but instead of going after the bounty from Kurt, they just tried to put a bag on Karen’s head. That was lame. Karen looked like a total idiot for not leaving the ring when Awesome Kong came out to destroy her. She had plenty of time to leave, but she didn’t. I have no sympathy for idiots. Plus, when Kong destroyed her, all she did was punch her. She will do anything to destroy fans who accept her challenge, but when paid to take out Karen, all she did was punch her. If I’m Kurt, I want my money back. Although he was probably just too busy stealing Batista’s gimmick to notice. The real problem here is that the show was focused on the Angles once again, and not on the World Title.

World X Cup: I’m not a fan of the World X Cup. Every year TNA takes a bunch of random guys from around the world, puts them in a series of matches, which can be fun to watch, but are meaningless, and expects everyone to care. It is good to see more X-Divsion action, but why should I care about Team TNA when they aren’t treated with respect the rest of the year? The Team Japan representatives were impressive, but hearing Mike Tenay yap about them wasn’t a great way to introduce them to America. TNA made such a big deal about working with New Japan earlier this year, but these guys are from Dragon Gate (I think that’s what they said). Most American fans don’t follow wrestling outside of America. We have to be given a reason to care about these guys. It is ridiculous that Curry Man is on Team TNA. In fact, the four teams are a bit ridiculous, as only two of them represent a nation. I am happy to see Daivari and I am glad that Tyson Dux is on his Team International, but it is silly that they can’t get four guys to represent a country and have to throw four guys together who all come from different countries.

Tag Title Debacle: James Storm & Robert Roode vs. LAX was a total debacle. The first part of the match was bad. LAX needs to break up the routine and have Hernandez get the beat down at some point. It is always Homicide. Change the formula every once in a while. The constant cheating and referee distraction was terrible. It took away from anything positive about the match. The fact that the referee appeared to take Hector Guerrero’s word that Storm cheated to restart the match is stupid. There is cheating in most TNA Title matches, yet most don’t get restarted. So why did this one? Consistency please. The match wasn’t very good. Then, Homicide and Hernandez take clean unprotected chair shots to the head. It is unbelievable. The post-match beating was memorable, but LAX gets beat on like this every other week, so why should I think TNA will do a better job following up on this than they did the previous times?

Sky vs. Kim: This was not a good match. As much as I liked hearing Sky improve on the mic this week, I would have liked to see her improve in the ring as well. My first problem with the match was that Gail Kim was brawling with Sky before the match. She then jumped her on the way to the ring. Clearly she has a major issue with Sky and wants revenge. So, what does she do twice in the first minute of the actual match? She tries to win on a roll up! How is a quick roll up win getting revenge? Kim should have brawled the entire time, but that terrible decision early in the match took me out of the rest of it. There were also some other sloppy moments. Sky looked like she had no clue how to use the Figure Four. Then, she looked like she turned it over on herself, as opposed to Kim reversing the hold. It just wasn’t a good match.

Lumberjack Match: I have many problems with this. For one, TNA did a terrible job hyping Angle vs. Styles throughout the show. One of the few times it was mentioned was in the context of plugging the PPV replay in order to see Angle vs. Styles. But, why should I pay to see the replay if I can see that match for free? The Lumberjack stipulation was stupid. Frank Trigg has in the past added to the commentary, but his rooting for Angle took away this time. I guess I understand Styles being buddies with Christian and Rhino, but what was Matt Morgan doing there? I hope nobody from Fox News was watching Styles giving his team fist bumps or they might think he is a terrorist (sorry, Fox News’ ridiculous coverage of the Obamas’ fist bump sprang to mind when I saw it, and I just had to say it). I was also bothered by Kurt Angle’s own idiotic treatment of himself. He has a neck injury. He needs to be taking time off. I can’t enjoy a match when I know he is putting himself at great risk. He took multiple bumps on the neck, like when he missed a dropkick and landed on his back and neck, which I believe is how Edge hurt his neck when he missed over a year a few years back. The lumberjacks were too involved in the match to get the real quality that you’d expect from these two. The lack of hype, the fact that this was a slap in the face to the fans who paid to see it on Sunday, the distraction of Trigg and the lumberjacks, the needless peril that Angle is putting himself under, and the fact that the match wasn’t anything special in and of itself, all add up to a big Miss for the Impact Main Event.

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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