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 Kurt Angle has very loyal bodyguards, Lauren is falling for Abyss' charm, and Mick Foley is done commentating again.  But what else is there to notice?  Let's see what we can spot.  Cue the opening pyro.

The sign of the night award for Destination X goes to the individual who is a big A.J. Styles Fan.  With Styles facing off against Booker T for the Legends Title (I still don't know if I should put an apostrophe in Legends, TNA never does) a fan held up a sign that said A.J. Styles - The Real Legend Killer.  Randy Orton has dropped the moniker on Raw, but that gave me visions of a never-to-be-seen Orton/Styles match-up.  Now that would have changed some people's perceptions on how the Destination X card played out.

Maybe instead of cutting talented performers like Petey Williams in order to save some money, TNA should look at reducing their expenses on office supplies.  Jeff Jarrett and company have to be a welcome sight to the staff at Staples, as they are always cleaning out their stockroom of thumb tacks for whatever storyline Abyss is involved with.  Although I only counted 9,857 tacks (I might have missed some on Abyss' left elbow), TNA could have saved 100 bucks and not wasted a sick Abyss bump on the third match of the show.  Hey, every little bit counts.

Alex Shelley has lost his X Division belt, but the Guns are still sporting gold as they come to the ring with their IWGP Junior HW Tag titles.  This is the first we've seen of the Guns sporting the belts on Impact, and Tenay puts over their title win as though it happened just a few days ago.  The title change actually occurred over three months ago, January 4.  Shelley and Sabin's current reign is already just ten days short of the reign of No Limit, the team they took the titles from.

Tonight's main event will feature Sting and Kurt Angle vs. Jeff Jarrett and Mick Foley.  Nice job by Mike Tenay making this match-up seem important, as he mentions that this will be Foley's first match ever on Impact and Jarrett's first in over two years.  Jarrett's last match on free TV took place on October 5, 2006.  The main event of that episode (back when it was still a one hour show) saw Jarrett and Christian Cage defeat Christopher Daniels and Ron Killings.  Jarrett pinned Daniels after LAX interfered, as they were feuding with Daniels and Styles over the tag titles at that point in time.

Lee Stevens noted in his Raw Microscope that Vickie Guerrero's office featured a John Cena poster promoting his new movie, 12 Rounds.  You'd think they wouldn't have put up the poster since Edge and Vickie despise Cena, but Jeff Jarrett suffers from the same affliction.  In Jarrett/Foley/Cornette's office there are large pictures on the wall of stars such as A.J. Styles, Foley and Samoa Joe.  The opposite wall, however, has smaller pictures featuring other wrestling talents such as Kurt Angle and Booker T - Mafia members who are currently feuding with Jarrett and Foley.

My job here on the Microscope is to look at all the small things, which is why something else besides feuding Mafia member's pictures were noticed during the segment in Jarrett's office.  An open book was laying face down on the desk in front of Mick Foley.  The book was all black and featured nothing but a title on the front cover and spine - Rulebook.  I chuckled a bit at the thought of an actual rulebook published on professional wrestling, and chuckled even more that it was in the offices of a member of TNA management.  With all the wacky convoluted finishes and blatant disregard for the rules in many TNA matches, it only seems appropriate that the book was only half-finished by whoever in TNA was reading it.

In perhaps the worst ten minutes of PPV time ever aired, Cody Deaner won the Night with ODB contest.  The contest was of course fixed, as Deaner is an independent wrestler who has wrestled here in the U.S. along with frequent appearances in Canadian promotions.  Deaner's indi character was basically the same thing we saw last Sunday, which is why he will be a suitable pairing for ODB's character.  To view the Myspace profile of his character (including videos from some of his matches) click here.  Interesting to note that Cony has almost 1000 friends, and after last Sunday ODB has been moved to the top friend position.

Samoa Joe has been reinvented, but his return has seemed a bit flat in a way - the face tattoo, the knife, the ridiculous segment where he was a masked police officer.  The majority of opinions have expressed disappointment with his new character.  But there is a silver lining with the new look.  Gone are the atrocious dual-colored shorts Joe has worn since his ROH days, replaced with full-length wrestling tights.  I've been a fan of Joe's work for a long time and have no qualms about his build, but the shorts had to go.

Although he's only the second man to hold the Legends Title, A.J. Styles is mentioned as being TNA's first "Grand Slam" Champion as he has now held all four men's titles.  It was mentioned that A.J. was the first triple crown winner as well, but two have followed in his footsteps.  Kurt Angle became the second when he won a match at Hard Justice '07 with all the titles on the line.  Samoa Joe followed, as the former X and Tag champion won the world title at Lockdown last year.

The next set of Rough Cuts is on Team 3D, hyping up their tag title match and return to Philadelphia at Lockdown next month.  Brother Devon is interviewed tonight, and references his training with Johnny Rodz.  Rodz (Johnny Rodriguez) wrestled throughout the 60's and 70's, including some time spent with WWE (then known as WWWF).  Rodz was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 1996, despite not achieving much success in the promotion.  Rodz has trained well-known wrestlers other than Devon, including Matt Striker, Tazz, Tommy Dreamer and Ricky Vega - who briefly appeared in LAX as Machete.

I only counted one on the bleep counter tonight, at the end of a backstage promo by Velvet Sky.  Bleep the bleep counter.  We should start a "Jeff Jarrett is referred to as the founder of TNA" counter.  I counted three on tonight's show, one by Mike Tenay during the opening segment, once by Jeremy Borash backstage, and one during Jarrett's ring introduction for the main event.

Numbers crunched harder than an unprotected chair shot to the head:  Last Sunday at Destination X Sting was successful in his title defense against Kurt Angle.  Sting's five-plus month reign continues, as Kurt Angle came up empty-handed yet again.  Even if Kurt Angle would have won, TNA's world title history would've still consisted of only eleven different wrestlers who have held the heavyweight title in TNA.

While some of those eleven have had multiple reigns, there have been plenty of other individuals who have gotten the chance at the world title.  In TNA's history, forty different individuals have been involved in a match where the world title was on the line.  While only eleven different wrestlers have walked away with the title, some have had plenty of chances.  D-Lo Brown, Monty Brown and Chris Harris have the worst luck, as they have competed in five world title matches without having their hand raised in victory.

The overall leader for title match appearances in TNA is Jeff Jarrett, who is 26-7-2 (counting DQ loses as loses, despite the title remaining with the champion).  Nobody in TNA has come close to that much success when the world title is on the line.  Only six other individuals have appeared in at least ten world title matches - A.J. Styles (13-10), Sting (9-8-2), Kurt Angle (11-6), Christian Cage (7-8-2), Ron Killings (8-5-2) and Samoa Joe (7-5-1).

Curtis Shanks is a self-described wrestling nerd.  Who else understands what Matt Striker is talking about all the time.  Feedback is welcome, as comments, suggestions, questions and classified ads can be sent to Curtis at curtisshanks.torch@gmail.com or in the comments section below.

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