Creed vs. Williams: You can see why TNA is interested in giving Consequences Creed a push. He does have a lot of charisma and athleticism. His non-title match vs. Petey Williams was short, but it was good while it lasted. They worked well together, and put on a good match. The length was o.k. in this instance, because Creed won with a roll up which underscores the idea that a pin fall can come out of nowhere. It also sets up their PPV match for the X-Division title. The fans have just seen it for free, but it was good. That means they should want to see more of it at the PPV. It was a nice tease of what they can do in a longer PPV match.
Rough Cut: TNA has done a good job with some of these Rough Cut segments (although certainly not all of them). This one worked to give Taylor Wilde some mic time. She is the Knockout Champion after all, and we really don’t know anything about her. This worked also because Wilde was introduced as a fan accepting Awesome Kong’s $25,000 challenge. That was a hot shot way to introduce her to the fans, but now TNA is giving her a more standard introduction. And, unlike say Matt Morgan or Gail Kim or Angelina Love, they aren’t waiting too long to do it after she’s been wrestling with the company for several months.
IMPACT MISSES
Beer Money vs. Rhino & Christian: After several minutes of good wrestling action, I was totally expecting to list this match as a Hit. I was a bit confused as to what Rhino and Christian Cage had done to earn this opportunity, but I was enjoying a good tag team match. Then, TNA went and TNA’d it up. We got a distraction from Brother Ray, then interference from Johnny Devine, then interference from Jackie, then the referee got pulled out of the ring before being able to count to three (shouldn’t that have been an automatic disqualification? I mean seriously!), then more interference from Brother Devon, then even more from Brother Ray. In the blink of an eye, TNA managed to turn what otherwise would have been a good #1 contenders match, into an embarrassing spectacle of interference and referee incompetence (apparently Earl Hebner doesn’t have peripheral vision, as any normal human being would have been able to see Team 3D deliver the 3D to Rhino).
Rock & Rave Infection: They have a stupid stupid gimmick, but at times I have admired the way that Jimmy Rave, Lance (Hoyt) Rock and Christy Hemme have thrown themselves into the stupid gimmick. But this week, they were just annoying. It was terrible. Their promo made me want to change the channel. They were far worse than usual.
Prince Justice Brotherhood: I really don’t want to give this trio a Miss every week, but I feel like I have no choice. If they had just been on once this week like the last two, I would have ignored them. However, they were in several segments throughout the show. The first was when Super Eric interrupted Jeremy Borash’s interview with some guy from CMT. That set up the Brotherhood’s quest to find So Cal Val’s missing engagement ring (does nobody watch the show?). I could say more about Val’s horribly written character, but I won’t. The Brotherhood then interrogated The Beautiful People. I am a fan of Angelina Love and Velvet Sky, but I had trouble watching them have to deal with Shark Boy and Curry Man’s antics. Then we had to see them in a yelling match with LAX. Seriously, yelling back and forth with Shark Boy and Curry Man was all that the Tag Team Champions did on Impact this week. The scene was so loud that it gave me a headache. Then Super Eric finally bothered to watch a tape of last week to see that Sanjay Dutt stole the ring. Shouldn’t someone show that to Val? The worst part of all of this is that there was actually an on screen graphic that said “to be continued...” at the end of the scene. That means that we have to see more of this next week. Also, who put that graphic up in the first place? Shouldn’t TNA at least pretend this is happening live?
Everyone Yelling at Sting: For a guy who hasn’t been on Impact in a few weeks, Sting has managed to dominate the broadcast, especially this week. Everyone seemed to be yelling at him at some point or another. Samoa Joe yelled at him, numerous times. Kevin Nash didn’t yell, but he did talk about Sting multiple times. There was a video package that included Sting. After a black baseball bat was lowered to the ring from the rafters so that Booker T could bash Joe (I guess any one of the several weapons hanging from the ring wasn’t good enough, so it was good that someone gave the bat to Booker), the announcers both yelled at Sting. Then, AJ Styles showed up to yell at Sting as well. We got more of Joe yelling at Sting too. Then the show ended with even more of Joe yelling at Sting as he searched the rafters to find a crow or something. Am I the only one expecting that it is actually Nash who is behind all of these baseball bat moments? It seems pretty obvious. I mean, anyone can buy a black baseball bat. Maybe TNA will do the unexpected and not have a swerve. I doubt it though.
Too Many Gimmick Matches: We already know that the Main Event for Hard Justice will be a steel cage weapons match. Early on Impact, we heard Christian challenge Team 3D to a Jersey Street Fight. What I love about this is that Christian called it Team 3D’s match. I thought Team 3D’s match was a tables match. Christian made a strategic error, because if he had just called it an 8 Mile Street Fight, it would have been Rhino’s match instead, and they would have had the advantage. We then found out that Jay Lethal will face Sanjay Dutt at the PPV in a Black Tie Brawl & Chain match. I have to admit to finding the name slightly clever, and at least this feud has been brewing for a long time, so the gimmick match makes sense. We also got Styles challenging Kurt Angle to a Last Man Standing match at the PPV. Can anyone say Frank Trigg? And on top of all of that, we found out that next week, instead of having to pay to see these gimmick matches, we will get one for free as Team 3D will team with Beer Money to face Rhino, Christian and LAX in a no DQ match. I understand that there is going to be some sort of weapons gauntlet next week as well. It is getting out of hand.
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.
LATEST PRO WRESTLING TORCH NEWSLETTER #1039 (17 PAGES)
This issue begins with a cover story by Wade Keller who attended Brock Lesnar's first UFC victory on Saturday night in the semi-main event in front of a record-setting crowd in his hometown. Keller's BBL looks at Lesnar's place in MMA and in what ways he seems more comfortable than ever... Bruce Mitchell's Memo examines the dilemma of Chris Benoit and the Hall of Fame... Sean Radican reviews the two latest TNA DVD releases... In-depth coverage of the TNA Hard Justice PPV including Keller's match report with star ratings and the newsletter-exclusive Roundtable Reviews... Jason Powell's "Page 2 Buzz" with scoops and insider analysis... WWE Newswire, TNA Newswire, and ROH Newswire with insider news, big story analysis, and notebook tidbits... Plus Keller's reports on Raw, Smackdown, and Impact, the Top 5 Stories of the Week, and more....
