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By Curtis Shanks, PWTorch Specialist

Welcome to the TNA Impact edition of Under the Microscope. 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. We're here to point out those little tidbits you may have missed, make some random observations, or use a little research to dig deeper into what was on the show. Cue the opening pyro.

Don't eat the red snow

It's a hardcore feel to start this week's show, as Abyss and Mick Foley set the stage for their Monster's Ball showdown in two weeks. Abyss puts over Foley, saying that he's a hardcore legend and has bled on every continent. North America, Europe, and Asia? Sure, those are easy. But I doubt that Foley has bladed in Antarctica. Could still happen though as I've heard that Foley will be involved in the first ever Penguin on a Pole match when TNA visits the extreme Southern portion of the planet on their next round of house shows.

I also have a list of references

Abyss debates his status as nothing more than a cheap Foley rip-off, listing off the big match experience from his career resume. He first mentions main eventing Lockdown 2004 against A.J. Styles. The match was a number one contenders match ultimately won by Styles. My most vivid memory of that match was an absolutely sick looking shot that Styles took with the cage door during the first part of the match. The match can be seen on the TNA Ultimate Matches DVD. Oh yeah, and probably that TNA Video Vault thing we see 47 commercials for each week.

Abyss also mentions Barbed Wire Massacre versus Sabu in 2005 (which he also lost). Funny, no mention of facing Judas Mesias in the same style of match a couple of years later. He also references his TNA World title win over Sting in 2007 (it was actually 2006, Chris). He doesn't mention specifics, but that's probably because he only won the match due to a DQ finish. Probably still the best choice to mention though, as it's hard to list a Prison Yard match or a Last Rites match against Sting as a huge career accomplishment.

Hey, I know you!

Our main event is set, with Matt Morgan and Abyss teaming against Foley and Kurt Angle. The thing I've always liked about TNA is that they are not shy to acknowledge past storylines. WWE can treat their "universe" like children with short memories, but TNA has had a tendency to remember the past in their shows. But they only went half-way with this philosophy tonight.

It was good to see Abyss and Morgan have a confrontation backstage and mention their past together. Their feud wasn't too long ago, but WWE would have probably just put the team together and expected them to be best friends since they are both babyfaces. But TNA forgot to acknowledge the history between Foley and Angle. They seemed to work well as a team this week despite their feud dominating Impact only a few short months ago.

Not so Amazing Red

After his victory last week to earn an X-Division title shot, Red keeps his lucky streak going by defeating Samoa Joe this week to win the title. The odds were against Red, as Joe has been the unstoppable force in TNA since his arrival, while Red has been seldom used and not treated as an equal of any one outside the X-Division. The guy didn't even get any intro music this week. It's hard to think of a lot of wrestlers who didn't even get intro music for the match they're booked to win a title in.

But along with the odds, the numbers were against Red this week as well. This week's Impact marks the 14th shot Red has had at the X title since his TNA debut. He was victorious only one time before - April 30, 2003 when he defeated Kid Kash. The first reign didn't amount to much, as Red lost the title in his first defense a mere two weeks later. For those keeping track, Red is 0-1 lifetime when the Legends Title is on the line.

At least it's not Vince Vaughn

There was a great exchange from Taz and Tenay this week as they discussed the Muscle and Fitness magazine.

Tazz: "Hey, wasn't Vince on the cover?"

Tenay: "Russo?"

Of course, this is in reference to Vince McMahon. Vince donned the cover at age 60 back in 2006. He was not humbled by the exposure, as the poster-sized cover was seen in the background shots of backstage segments for many months to come. It's hard to think of a lot of other Vinces in the wrestling world besides Russo and McMahon. Is it too late to ask for a return of the Vinnie Vegas character?

Your services are no longer needed

He never actually said the words "retire" or "quit," but it appears Sting will be in a retirement match at BFG when he faces A.J. for the title. The announcers seemed shocked, and they expected us to be as well. But I wasn't. The official BFG website has had a Sting promotional poster with the tag line "The Final Curtain" for months. The poster was even seen in backstage segments earlier in the show. BFG commercials before the Sting segment aired had the voice over guy asking "Will this be the final match for Sting in TNA?"

TNA billed this as Sting's retirement match without his character actually announcing it. It's as if he saw all the clues throughout the show before going out for his promo and just said "well, I might as well." I can think of no better reason as to why a major announcement such as retirement got nothing more than a quick, lack-luster promo from Sting in the middle of the show.

Am I part of creative now?

Two weeks ago we talked about Willie Urbina in the Microscope. Willie, half of the TNA Spanish announce team, had never really been seen in TNA before. I posed the thought that TNA should break the Spanish announce table a la WWE during their PPV shows. TNA heeded my call and had Samoa Joe destroy the table with an elbow drop on Bobby Lashley this week.

It is nothing more than coincidence...I think. Guess there's only one way to find out. At the next set of TV tapings, Velvet Sky should don an "I love nerds" t-shirt and profess her undying love for me. Pretty please?

A fighting champion

The feuds are chugging along and the card is shaping up for TNA's "WrestleMania" - Bound For Glory. Looking at the announced card so far, there are no official matches listed for the X-Division title or the Knockout title yet. If one of those titles were to be left off the card, it would make a bit of history. Through the first four BFG PPVs, every available title in TNA at the time of the PPV was defended on the show - not a single one was left off. TNA is 14-of-14 at getting their titles on the biggest show of the year.

WWE has had a different approach presenting their titles on the biggest stage of the year. Out of 42 active titles during the past five WrestleManias, only 18 were defended on the PPV card. Ultimately it's the characters, not the titles that we pay to see. But the importance of certain titles can be lessened if they are never presented during the big game.

I know the secret password too

As we move onto Global Impact 2, Kurt Angle mentions Riki Choshu and Masahiro Chono - the two tag partners of Nash and Angle. Angle states that they have become honorary members of the Mafia. Wonder how Matt Morgan feels about that. The two New Japan talents do qualify for the Mafia. Both have held the IWGP World Heavyweight title - Choshu three times and Chono once.

No photo available

We were treated to three matches from the Tokyo Dome card involving TNA talent, but there were other matches that appeared on the same card with some recognizable faces. Some of the other competitors not featured on Global Impact include Masato Tanaka (former ECW champion), Jushin Liger (who has made a few TNA appearances), Hiroshi Tanahashi (who was part of the TNA roster late last year), and Low-Ki.

Low-Ki lost the IWGP Junior HW title on that show to Tiger Mask IV. Low-Ki was of course a TNA original during the weekly PPV days and had a second run under the name Senshi. It's no surprise that TNA did not mention him, but he could be seen during the opening of Global Impact when the shot is shown of all the wrestlers gathering for a group picture. Front row, white shirt and of course, bald head.

Japan's WrestleMania

The Tokyo Dome show that has been shown on the Global Impacts is one of the most famous events in professional wrestling for Japan. The event is known as the January 4 Tokyo Dome Show, and is held every year on the same date. The first Dome Show was presented in 1992 as the first two were actually shown on PPV here in the U.S. The WCW/New Japan Supershow as it was then called featured WCW talent, including Lex Luger defending the WCW World title on the first show.

Plenty of recognizable names here in the states have competed on the card throughout the years. Dusty Rhodes, Sting, The Steiner Brothers, Randy Savage, Brock Lesnar, Vader and Sabu can all say they've competed on the January 4 show. While reference is made to the 40,000 fans in the Tokyo Dome for this show, the event has had crowds of 65,000 for past January 4 shows in the Tokyo Dome.

Numbers crunch - Gimmick matches galore

Remember that old TNA stereotype? You know, the one about how they present far too many gimmick matches and devalue the impact and importance of certain styles of matches from overuse? We've looked at numbers before concerning TNA and their propensity for giving us gimmick matches on PPV. But WWE is following suit. Extreme Rules, Hell in a Cell, Breaking Point - all PPVs presented by WWE with gimmick matches as the main attraction. But which company is presenting the most PPV gimmick matches with WWE's new philosophy?

As stated before, previous number crunches showed that TNA loved to overuse the gimmick match during their PPV cards. But WWE is the new king of the gimmick in today's wrestling world. To compare the numbers, let's look at the percentage of total matches across all PPVs that had some sort of gimmick attached to it.

2007 - WWE 21.4 percent, TNA 35.6 percent
2008 - WWE 28.9 percent, TNA 36.1 percent
2009 - WWE 35.4 percent, TNA 28.0 percent

While not quite matching TNA's output from last year, WWE has presented far more gimmick PPV matches than TNA has so far this year. In fact, if you take out Lockdown (the all-cage match PPV) from TNA's numbers, they are only giving us a gimmick match 19 percent of the time on PPV. All that's left now for TNA is to erase the "stuff on a pole" matches from their booking techniques.

Curtis Shanks is a self-described wrestling nerd who, contrary to popular belief, does have a social life. Feedback is welcome as comments, suggestions and questions can be sent to Curtis at curtisshanks.torch@gmail.com.

[Abyss art credit Neal Obermeyer (c) PWTorch]

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