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-- 6/11 TNA IMPACT HITS & MISSES

IMPACT HITS

Jeff Jarrett Gets the Night Off/Earl Hebner Gets Respect - We all have pet peeves: rain on a long weekend, saying 'youse' instead of 'you,' the very idea of Brett Favre playing for the Vikings ... these kind of things just get under my skin and crawl around in there. My pet peeve with wrestling over the years has been a wrestler belting a referee and there being no consequences. In football, touch the referee - you're gone. In hockey, touch the referee - you're gone. In baseball, if you even look pissed off at the umpire - you're gone. In wrestling, chair shot the referee - no biggie. Granted, Mick Foley was looking for any reason at hand to continue his torturing of Jarrett's ego, but in choosing Double J's hit on Earl Hebner last week - perfect.

Jeremy Borash as Joe Pesci - Yeah, I thought that might get your attention. Quick story: Best definition of good acting I ever heard was told by Joe Pesci. When he was starting out, he was cast in a play. He was on for three short scenes. First scene, he makes sure he sets up the other actor for the other guy's lines and business. Made for a good scene. Second scene - same thing with a different actor. Good scene. Same thing for the third. End of the night, the audience leaves and says, "Joe Pesci was in three really good scenes. He must be a hell of an actor." JB has been doing backstage interviews since the Earth cooled, so we kind of forget about him. But the way he plays off Angle, Foley, and the Beautiful People makes all three individuals or groups much better than they would be with anyone else. And if you're like me and find one of the most appealing aspects of TNA being its lighter moments, then you have to love Borash.

Tara vs. The Beautiful People - This was a very good night for The Beautiful People in general. I've already alluded to the extended backstage interview, which was fine and funny. The build of the feud with Tara (the former Victoria in case you didn't know) has been quite good too. First they introduce Tara, then last week have her fend off a backstage attack by the BPs, now this week we see her in a match against Madison Rayne. In some ways this is a better feud than the Awesome Kong-BP feud. Reason is that, while all sentient humans know full well that Tara ain't losing no match to Madison Rayne leading into a pay-per-view event, she matches up better physically with the law firm of Love, Skye, and Rayne than Kong did. My only quibble is that Kong has been totally forgotten about except when Don West mentions her. It would so help matters if TNA even did one of those WWE-style backstage bump-intos, where Tara and Kong could see each other, eye each other and keep on walking. It would just give us that little bit of uncertainty that needs to be there for suspenseful plotting and also start a good slow build to an eventual Kong vs. Tara match.

Raven - That was a pretty cool little experiment TNA pulled off Thursday night. They managed to get Raven over by just having him walk into scenes and sit on the floor. (And I'm imagining anyone who didn't see the show reading that sentence and going,"Huh?!?") And while the Daffney assault on Lauren didn't dazzle me - it always seems a little cheap when the athlete beats up the non-athlete - you have to like how this whole dark side crew of Raven, Daffney, and Dr. Stevie is coming together, leading eventually to the assumed rehabilitation of Abyss as a truly scary monster seeking revenge on the bunch of them.

IMPACT MISSES

A Franchise like...the Kansas City Scouts? The Seattle Pilots? - No offense to Shane 'the Franchise' Douglas, but this whole storyline is just kind of in 'yeah whatever' land. I have no problem at all with bringing him back for a guest appearance here and there - unexpected appearances are good things, like when Don Rickles would suddenly show up on the Tonight Show to insult Johnny Carson (kids, ask your parents). But it's all too much of cribbing bits of other, better storylines and throwing them together like wrestling paella and serving it to Shane Douglas. Pissed off at TNA management for forgetting about him: that's Eric Young's story. Exiled from the company: that's Daniels's story. Anger at the Joe/A.J./Styles group for not respecting him: that's Sting's story. Plus why in all blue hell would Daniels risk putting up his roster spot when he's only just come back? I sure would rather see the potential of a Daniels vs. Suicide feud continue than this.

Main Event - It pains me to write this, but the main event of Kurt Angle vs. Sting was messed. Not full-blown train wreck messed, not "Land of the Lost" messed, but messed all the same. For once, TNA gave a main event over fifteen minutes to tell a great ring story...then chopped it to shreds by putting in two commercial breaks each long enough for a viewer to make a sandwich, eat a sandwich, digest a sandwich, have a dump, wax the car, rotate the tires, make love to the missus, walk the dog, think about having another sandwich 'cause that last one was like hours ago...you get the point. Yeah, TNA and Spike need to make money, but if they really really have to put in two breaks in the last twenty minutes, why not bring back that grand old man of wrestling - the Best-of-Three-Falls match? The other problem was the match ending with Matt Morgan interference. Kurt Angle sold his outrage well but Morgan sneaking up on Sting was way way way way way too predictable. I'd have rather he flattened both Sting and Angle and set up a three-way next week for the final King of the Mountain slot.

No Money Feud - This is an overall Miss that occurred to me while watching the show on Thursday. Impact has become the best wrestling show on TV over the past couple of months. You can argue that if you want, and if you really love Raw or something, hey good for you. You can never, ever convince someone that they are wrong to like something. We like what we like. This is why Lindsay Lohan still has a career. (Oops. Sorry. I forgot. She doesn't.) But I digress.

If TNA's goal is to become First in Your Hearts and First in Your Ratings, it needs that huge, transfixing money feud. It needs its own Hogan-Andre, Flair-Steamboat, Austin-Rock, etc. Those great feuds, and pick any others you like, all have three elements: an intriguing storyline that begs resolution; a physical match-up that meshes styles perfectly; and one or both participants who can deliver a promo makes the St. Crispin's Day speech in Henry IV Part One look like a Boy Scout roll call (betcha didn't expect that in a Hits and Misses column now didja?). I just don't see where that feud is going to emerge from right now on Impact. But I'll bet you have some ideas, so I'm going to be reading the blog notes below. Be seeing you.

Hubert O'Hearn is a new PWTorch Specialist covering TNA Impact with a weekly Hits & Misses column. You can read Hubert's Hits & Misses column and Chris Reed's new TNA Hits & Misses column weekly on PWTorch.com

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