By Curtis Shanks, PWTorch Specialist

Welcome to the TNA Impact edition of Under the Microscope. We're here to review all those little observations and tidbits you may have missed. This is not a detailed recap of the show, but a review for those of you that saw the show but didn't actually "watch" it. After last week we know that the Lethal/Dutt storyline is deader than dead, Sting likes to show off his photo collection and Abyss thinks bears are cute and furry. But what else is there to notice? Let's see what we can spot. Cue the opening pyro.
 
Starting off tonight, I would like to apologize for an oversight on my part last week. I listed Kurt Angle, Christian Cage and A.J. Styles as the only TNA roster members in the top 25 of the PWI 500. I forgot to list Samoa Joe at number four on that list. I was trying to point out that the top of the list is dominated by WWE and foreign wrestlers and forgot to mention arguably to top talent in TNA right now. My apologies again for the error and thank you to all the readers who caught my microscope malfunction as well.
 
The opening recap for tonight's show features a Smashing Pumpkins song in the background. TNA often uses other people's music for their recaps and PPV's themes, but never for ring intros. WWE does use outside music for ring intros for wrestlers like Edge, C.M. Punk, Jeff Hardy, Batista, Randy Orton and Triple H to name a few, along with their PPV themes. A longtime WWE employee by the name of Jim Johnston is the one responsible for all of the other music we hear. Some of his work includes the Rock, Jesse & Festus, Beth Phoenix and dozens of others. His counterpart in TNA is Dale Oliver. Although many intros are sound-alikes of popular songs, every time you hear a TNA ring intro the man responsible is Oliver. If you want to add a third category to the intro music category, there are talents such as HBK, Jillian, John Cena and R-Truth who sing their own intro music.
 
We sometimes compliment and more often criticize in the Microscope columns. Tonight Velvet Sky is wearing a shirt that says "I'm the hot friend". I'm here to state that I will never criticize that and agree with her 100 percent. On the other hand, Kip James' shirt has the exact opposite effect.
 
TNA's next PPV is Bound For Glory, which is treated as their Wrestlemania of sorts. The world title has actually changed hands in all three BFG main events. In 2005, hell froze over and Rhino defeated Jeff Jarrett for the world title after winning a gauntlet match (although he would lose the title two days later at a TV taping). In 2006, Kurt Angle debuted as a ring enforcer as Sting beat Jeff Jarrett for his first world title in seven years. And last year Sting bested Kurt Angle to once again win the world title.
 
Although she now is known as just Roxxi, the voodoo queen was known as Roxxi Leveaux when she first debuted in TNA. During tonight's Roughcuts segment we see her actual surname, Raczynski, listed during comments from her mother.
 
TNA's slogan of Cross the Line is in reference to them crossing the line in the standard definition of how heels and faces are portrayed. Good people do bad things and bad people do good things, thus the gray areas we see in many characters. But TNA crossed a different line with the Sheik Abdul Bashir character. The airplane noises during his intro and some of his promo content (killing innocents) is offensive, as that is a line that should not have been crossed. TNA may have finally realized this mistake, as this was the second week without the crashing airplane noises in Bashir's entrance. I'm in favor of companies using creative methods to draw heat for their heels, but the tragedy of others should never be used to draw cheap crowd heat for a wrestler.
 
Is Matt Morgan the next Matt Striker? Morgan used words like self-gratuitous and digress during his short and speedy promo tonight. He also referred to Abyss as Abby, which is just plain funny in my opinion.
 
Anytime a wrestler or tag team issues an open challenge, I find it odd that we usually see just one person answer the call. I know it's all just a ploy to set up storylines and matches, but it was refreshing to see three different teams answer the Beer Money challenge tonight. If only one team were to respond, does that mean that the other teams aren't confident they can win and don't want a title shot? 
 
There are many opinions out there on TNA's current main-event storylines (legends vs. youngsters and Jarrett vs. Angle). Some may have problems with logic or the WWE references. But one thing you can say about these story arcs are that they are all treated with a serious tone. Too often in TNA's history the main event picture is loaded with childish humor and goofy stories. Whether your a fan of these current storylines or not, it's refreshing to see such a serious approach taken in some of the things TNA is presenting.
 
Tonight's notable MIAs: Consequences Creed, Petey Williams, Curry Man, Shark Boy, Sonjay Dutt, Awesome Kong and Taylor Wilde.
 
Numbers crunched harder than an unprotected chair shot to the head: When Samoa Joe reaches the Bound For Glory PPV in two weeks he will be enjoying day number 182 of his current title reign. This milestone will surpass Kurt Angle's last reign of 180 days, and will tie Jeff Jarrett for the third longest heavyweight title reign in TNA history. The top two runs belong to Jeff Jarrett as well, as he has a 203 day and 347 day title run to top the list. All three of Jarrett's top runs were with the then NWA/TNA Heavyweight title, so Samoa Joe will actually take over as the longest reigning world champion of the post-NWA era.

Curtis Shanks is a self-described wrestling nerd. Who else would lay claim to keeping up-to-date on the title histories of over 40 independent and foreign promotions? In the words of Adrian Monk, "It's a blessing…and a curse." Curtis encourages anyone with questions or comments to e-mail him at curtisshanks.torch@gmail.com.

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