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HITS & MISSES - TNA IMPACT 7/2: Kevin Nash's moneyball, Eric Young wins a match, SuperJJ thinks he's Triple H, Matches too short (as usual)
Jul 5, 2009 - 10:11:27 AM |
By Chris Reed, Torch Specialist
(For an alternate Hits & Misses perspective, read Hubert O'Hearn's TNA Impact H&M column)
IMPACT HITS
Jeff Jarrett Won't Team With Mick Foley: Last week, Mick Foley tried to convince us that he and Jeff Jarrett were going to work out their differences and get together to take out the Main Event Mafia. Jarrett solved that equation with one swift guitar shot that pretty much eliminated Foley for the remainder of the show. After all the troubles that Jarrett and Foley have gone through in the past months, it should make sense that Jarrett should still want to bash Foley's brains in. I wasn't going to buy Foley and Jarrett all of a sudden being on the same side, since doing so would require throwing out all forms of logic ... oh wait, we are talking about TNA booking here...
Kevin Nash Interview: I'm still not a fan of TNA bringing up WWF/E and WCW almost every week, but Kevin Nash's interview with Mike Tenay was well worth the exception. It firmly established Nash's feelings for the business right now, and it's all about the money. I especially loved how he twisted the fact that winning the prestigious (yeah right, since when?) TNA Legends Title would mean more to him because of the extra bonuses he would get on the autograph circuit. Very nice segment.
Eric Young Wins A Match: Sure, it was a three-minute throw-away match, I'll give you that. But last week, I asked for two things: one, for Eric Young to wrestle Rhino, and for Young to start picking up some wins to build some legitimacy to his heel character. Mission accomplished. I'm not fond of the speedy breakup that seems to be coming between Rhino and Jesse Neal, but at least Young looked good in the ring with Rhino, which is not always an easy accomplishment.
Team 3D vs. Harlem Pump: Seems the growing name for the team of Scott Steiner and Booker T is Harlem Pump. I like it, I'm gonna roll with it. All four of these guys gave a good show in the ring, showing off their signature moves and getting the crowd into it. The ending was ridiculous with the overkill of run-ins by both the Kiyoshi/Sheik Abdul team and then the British Invasion team, but the right team moved on for the storyline and gave a good show in the meantime.
Kurt Angle & Samoa Joe vs. Jeff Jarrett & A.J. Styles: Jeremy Borash's formal introductions made the match seem a little more special. And remember how last week I mentioned that Kurt Angle could prove that he could still go in the ring? This match showed that to be true. In fact, all four of these guys gave great efforts when needed. The ending was far-fetched (again, more on that later), but the action during the main portion of the match clicked together well, and put on a decent TV main event.
IMPACT MISSES
Faces Have Superhero-Like Strength: The Main Event Mafia showed last week that when they worked together, they could take out the top faces in the business, including Sting himself. This week, the entire Mafia scattered from the ring at various times for the following: Jeff Jarrett with a guitar, A.J. Styles with a belt, and Sting with a baseball bat. Come on now, seriously. The Mafia has what, five top-level superstars in one group, and they can't beat up on one super-face? What would happen if all of these guys were to get together and start their own faction designed to take out the Mafia? Oh wait, that's right, TNA tried that and killed it. Thanks TNA. Then, in the main event, Jeff Jarrett somehow finds the strength to not tap out to the Ankle Lock of Kurt Angle and instead pass out from the pain. Almost every other star has had to tap when Kurt gets that grapevine hooked in, but Jarrett can stick with it. Who does he think he is, Triple H? Maybe so; Jarrett even stole Hunter's Pedigree move this week.
More Hype of Jenna Morasca vs. Sharmell: Man, I can't wait for this classic match-up. This one's gonna make the Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels WrestleMania 25 match look like an indy show. Seriously, you weren't buying that for a minute, were you? And neither will we when it comes time to buy the PPV. We can only hope that the bathrooms won't be too crowded when this one comes around.
More Short Matches, Not Enough In-Ring Action: Outside of the two tag matches at the end of the show, the other matches each fell under the five-minute mark for actual wrestling. And then, to cap it off, we only had a total of five matches on a two-hour show. Last I checked, we were supposed to be watching a WRESTLING show, not a soap opera (okay, wrestling is kind of a male soap opera, but bear with me here). TNA is giving us too much backstage drama, and not enough in-ring action. Flip the script TNA. I want to watch wrestling, not Abyss going crazy, not backstage fights, WRESTLING.
Chris Reed is a new PWTorch Specialist covering TNA Impact with a weekly Hits & Misses column, replacing John Mezzera who is shifting his Thursday duties to the new WWE Superstars program instead.
Send feedback on this article to pwtorch@gmail.com and we'll regularly publish reader feedback in the "Torch Feedback" category on the Main Listing.
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