By Hubert O'Hearn, Torch specialist

-- 6/18 TNA IMPACT HITS & MISSES

IMPACT HITS

Mick Foley Throws a Helluva Party - Thursday night's Impact had perhaps its best opening segment ever. Leave us face it, it's hard to go wrong with Mick Foley hosting an in-ring party, but this one was exceptionally well done. As much as I love good comedy, I'm actually a lousy audience when it comes to laughing out loud. The Foley Party made me laugh out loud twice. Once was at Don West's great line after Mike Tenay spluttered that Foley had brought confetti, balloons and clowns. West replied, "that's not a nice thing to say about Rocco and Big Sal." Ever since TNA made the decision to let West be the dry cynic his improvement has been absolutely meteoric. I'd now be really disappointed if TNA replaced him on color with either Foley or Taz, and who on Earth would have said that with a straight face two months ago?

But back to the Foley Party, the other great thing was Jarrett and Angle's reaction to it all. Angle's face was an absolute study in a weary - "damn crazy bastard wants me to do something. What. Ever." - sort of look. I laughed hard at it. And Jeff Jarrett's mouthed "Have you lost your mind?" It was also perfectly right for Jarrett to take no part in the joining of hands. It's a very good character definition for Jarrett to be the Serious Guy always having his chain pulled by the Crazy Guy in Foley.

Raven Soars - To be honest with you, I've never been a big Raven fan, but here I am for the second week in a row giving Raven a Hit. But in analyzing it - because this really amazes me - TNA is absolutely bang on in how they're using him. First, in associating him with Steven Richards and Daffney he has two equally strong and creepy personalities to frame his own. Because Daffney is crazier than a cave full of fruit bats, Raven doesn't have to be that crazy. Instead, he can deliver his longer, more thoughtful nightmare promos in a calm way while we also know that he can blow at any second.

Second, I've never been that big on weapons matches. "Honey, I hear someone breaking in downstairs. Quick! Grab the baking sheet!" But Raven is one of a very few guys who know how to use a weapon without looking goofy. Kudos to Jethro Holliday too for his part in the Clockwork Orange match. The one thing that surprises me is that TNA, which loves giving weird names to factions, (ah, the Voodoo Kin Mafia ... they're really big on that Mafia thing aren't they?) hasn't yet named this new flock. It's got to be tempting for them to go for some kind of a play on ECW as Raven/Richards/Daffney are way more ECW than that show Vince McMahon puts on. Eagle Claw Warriors or something. Problem is, they'd (a) get sued as soon as the t-shirts were printed and (b) why plug the competitor? Any thoughts? Put 'em in the comments below.

Samoa Joe Hits it Dead Solid Perfect - I think I speak for all of us when I say that we've been waiting for this week to happen. We finally - finally! - have Samoa Joe playing the right notes, or more to the point having the right notes written and directed for him. We didn't have Joe screaming like that guy on the street corner in the tin foil hat. We didn't have Joe being a complete tool of his latest mentor (Taz's non-compete clause actually timed out quite nicely). We didn't have Joe being gooder than good or badder than bad. And someone tossed that Happy Halloween Knife into the dumpster. No, instead we had Joe explaining in a normal yet intense voice precisely why he wants to pound the living hell out of Kurt Angle. Now let us pray that TNA sticks with this version of Joe for a long, long time.

Some Quick Hits - Laughed yet again at the Lethal Consequences/Motor City Machine Guns backstage interview ... I like Jay Lethal's act ... especially every time he calls Sabin "Jannetty" ... Glad to see the brief Tara/Kong meeting ... Excellent transition from the mutual admiration society that was Team 3D and Beer Money to the "we hate these guys" that will lead to an intriguing match.

IMPACT MISSES

A.J.'s Hairline - This was a small moment in a show that I'd give a definite 7 out of 10 overall, but man it hit with a clunk. So here's Joe and A.J. all made up as brothers and getting ready to go into their match and out of the blue Joe points at A.J. and says, "I know you've got a hairline." My first thought was, yeah well, everyone in the locker room does except Kurt Angle. Heh heh. But then I realized that Joe meant that A.J. had some kind of a hairline fracture. As they used to say in Marvel Comics: What th-? What's fractured? Toe? Fibia? Tibia? Is A.J.'s entire body going to suddenly have parts go flying off like he's a Mister Potato Head?

Now, to A.J's credit, he sold some kind of leg injury during his ring entrance, but there was no hint of this when Foley called him out at the top of the show, nor did Mike Tenay mention it when Foley made the match (I'm not faulting Tenay specifically here - it would be the face announcer's job to protest). TNA is getting so much better at tightening up the plotlines that when then slip up now it sticks out like a sore - or hairline fractured - thumb.

The Sorority Sisters - So the whole Knockout Division is cooking with gas right now except...um...this Taylor Wilde and Lauren storyline. Do you buy that these two went to school together and have been best friends forever? Really? You buy that? If you but that send me $10,000 and I'll send you my Magic Invisibility Powder. It's so powerful you can't even see it. Hey! Told you it's invisible! All cheesy jokes aside, having Daffney want to beat up Taylor Wilde is fine by me. Makes sense. But to be gentle about it, Taylor Wilde ain't exactly Dame Edith Evans on the microphone. (What? Haven't heard of Dame Edith Evans? She had a helluva feud with Vivian Vachon back in the old AWA). And now it's mucked up Lauren, who I really really liked as an interviewer. Well, I think the whole thing will be put aside after Slammiversary.

That Whole Matt Morgan Thing - I know I know. I read the blog postings faithfully. Some of you out there really really like Matt Morgan. And I'll admit he's got talent. Mind you, saying as some have that he's one of the "outstanding young seven footers out there" is a bit like saying that the Moon is one of the outstanding giant rocks circling the Earth. Just how many people are we competing with here?

But I'm not having a complete bitchfest with Matt Morgan's talent, it's just how this storyline is resolving itself. So now we have Morgan challenging Sting for a spot in the Main Event Mafia. If Sting loses, he will relinquish his leadership of the MEM. Ummm...don't like this on two counts. One, Sting's only been the leader for a few weeks, it's too soon to knock him off the pedestal, so I'm not buying that Morgan is going to beat Sting one little bit. Two, if you really wanted to impress the MEM, wouldn't you do it by maybe going after the guy who's put three of your members on the shelf? Like, wouldn't you challenge Samoa Joe? That would be a better match too.

Anyway, I look forward to your comments. As Jay Lethal would say, "Don't stand there like a chicken going quack quack quack." 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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