By Hubert O'Hearn, Torch specialist

-- 7/9 TNA IMPACT HITS & MISSES

Opening Thought: Now that's more like it. After a pretty wobbly Impact last week, I thought TNA got back on a winning track Thursday night. I only have three small (yet important) Misses, which combined only took up six minutes or so out of a two-hour show. I'll take that ratio any time.

IMPACT HITS

Knockouts Title Change - This was a hit for me in so many different ways. First, I've long felt that every title should change once a year on free TV and once a year at a house show. Why, you ask? Well, when you see a title put up in a match on a regular, weekly show do you ever - as in ever - think that the title will change hands? One of the purest motivators for sports fans is the 'any given Sunday' scenario wherein anything could happen. Having an occasional title change will keep us coming back and also serves as a nice reward for loyal viewers.

The second point is that Tara's defeat of Angelina Love was treated like a proper big deal. Going from the time of the pre-match conflict between Velvet Sky and Angelina Love, through to Lauren's post-match interview with Tara, the arc of the story took almost a half an hour of the show. The Knockouts Title is clearly and definitively established as the only goal worth having in the division.

Except for friendship and loyalty. This was a really well-done story with Angelina stepping up to the plate to save her BFF Velvet from having the tarantula dropped on her again. (Only in wrestling columns do you get to write the words, 'having the tarantula dropped on her again.') And all good stories lead to more good stories. One can hardly wait for the Beautiful People infighting now that Angelina will undoubtedly blame Velvet for the title loss. And finally, we have the possible establishment of Velvet Sky as a clear character of her own. We might just be at the dawning of something I can't recall seeing before: an actual mid-card feud in a women's division between Velvet and Angelina besides the chase for the title belt, which I assume will be between Tara and Awesome Kong.

Beer Money vs. Motor City Machine Guns - TNA's other great asset - their tag division - was also well highlighted. You really have to applaud whomever it was that thought up the combination of James Storm and Robert Roode. It was particularly impressive how smoothly they flowed from heels to faces without missing a beat. The match with the Guns also gave us a strong foreshadowing of just how good a feud between these teams could be, what with some truly original spots like Storm slipping out of Sabin's arm drag and Roode hip tossing his partner across the ring so that he would be in position to make a legal tag. I did however want to stuff a Buick in Booker T's mouth so he would occasionally be quiet and let someone else talk on commentary. Some of his play-by-play was good, but holy crap could he come up for air sometimes?

Sting - Sting has had a very, very good run of it in the last six months or so. For my money, it has been the best run of his career on the mic. But there was always something about Sting in the Main Event Mafia that didn't quite fit, even though the group was more or less his idea in the first place. Some wrestling characters are made for factions: think Kevin Nash or Randy Orton, who thrive in groups. Some are made to stand alone: the low point of Steve Austin's career was when he was leader of the (shudder) InVasion. Sting is one of those stand alone guys. Thursday night showed us the Stinger back home where he belonged - as the mad as hell lone wolf face out to seek justice. There was also a surprisingly good chemistry with Samoa Joe. So good, in fact, that it's almost too bad that they're jumping to the pay-per-view payoff in just ten days.

Quick Hits - I like the "recaps" TNA does at the top of the show and in edited in-show pieces like the story of Sting's involvement with the MEM. I once heard Curt Gowdy say that whenever he broadcast a baseball game, he was aware that someone out there was watching a game for the first time ... For all I've ripped at Lauren (well, ripped at bad direction anyway) the last few weeks, this week she was more or less back to being a very good backstage interviewer and not over-playing every moment ... The Dr. Stevie/Abyss thing is really whacked. Nerve paralyzing drugs? Sure, I mean, why the hell not? ... Really liked Eric Young as the special guest referee in the main event. TNA should keep up with EY popping up as a strange tormentor of Jeff Jarrett. Keep it original. Have Foley let Eric Young hold a proxy on his shares some week. Sit in the front row and boo Double J's matches. Have him be the constant burr under the saddle. But, Jarrett has to resist his "hero urge" to run off EY the way he did on Thursday. This is the wrong time to turn Young into a cowardly heel. He's trying to shake that cowardly persona, remember?

IMPACT MISSES

Sue Us sighed - I didn't have a problem with Suicide speaking. It was going to happen eventually and while we could argue that maybe the moment should have been hyped, I don't know as 'Suicide Speaks!' would have popped a rating. But it was sooooo corny.. Blah blah blah 'tortured soul' blah blah blah 'suicide is not the end it's the beginning' blah blah blah. We already have Abyss playing the 'tortured soul' character and he's made a career out of it. And TNA had Raven, who has taken tortured soul and made it an art form. The worst thing was that it was boring. Hey, blog away if you like it, but can you really truly say that you're looking forward to Suicide's NEXT sit down? Are you breathlessly awaiting that big money promo Suicide is going to lay down in the ring? And damn it, it could have worked. Imagine if Suicide had something roughly on the lines of, "I wear this name across my chest because that's what I want my opponents to see when they stand across from me. When they face me, they face suicide. I'm the gun to their head, the poison to their gut and the rope around their neck." Maybe it's just me, but I'll take Dangerous over Depressing any day.

Sale on Ladders in Aisle Five - As much as I enjoy TNA in general and Impact in particular, there are still repeating flaws that show up like nervous tics. One such flaw is tossing out specialty matches like ladder matches that are supposed to be blow-off finales to long feuds. That two-and-a-half minute ladder match between Doug Williams of the British Invasion and the returning Homicide was just sort of insulting. Maybe "insulting" is too strong a word, but I'll stick with it. There was a lazy spot where Williams was at the top of the ladder kind of tickling away at the briefcase, visibly waiting for Homicide to push him over. The Homicide just kind of strolled up the ladder and took down the briefcase without a whisper of anxiety, elation, or anything other than a slightly chagrined expression on his face. And besides - this was the return of Homicide and LAX! I know you can't push everybody or else you wind up pushing nobody, but I think the white hot act TNA had just two years ago deserved something a little better than a curtain jerker surprise.

Hey Buddy, your Participle is Dangling - So we have a new slogan. "I will become." Here's the next slogan: "Random Word Thought." Frankly, I thought they had it right when they used to say, "We are Wrestling." But "I will become" just invites one response - a great, big, Steve Austin sized, "What?"

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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