TNA Impact Wrestling TV report
July 14, 2011
Taped in Orlando, Fla.
Report by Matt Baxendell, PWTorch contributor

Where We've Been: Last week's show was built around Mr. Anderson's eventual decision to join Immortal. At the end of the show, he turned on Kurt Angle and Impact went off air with the World Heavyweight Champion on Abyss' shoulders.

This is particularly notable because tonight is Anderson's title defense against Sting. With Hogan taking Sting out last week with the Stinger's own bat, Anderson seems to be in a strong position to hold onto his championship with the backing of Immortal and a challenger coming off of a backstage assault.

It's Midsummer's Nightmare: Anderson versus Sting. Who will emerge as champion?

[Q1]

-The show began with a montage recapping Anderson's decision to join Immortal.

-After that, it was direct to the Impact Zone where Immortal (like usual) came out first. Immortal were all in suits, even Abyss, who had his sleeves torn off. Hogan, Bischoff, Abyss, Gunner, Steiner and Bully Ray came out. No sign of Mr. Anderson.

There was a poker table in the ring and Bischoff got on the microphone, saying he was excited. He said the table was there because they were going to gamble with some people's careers because they can.

Bischoff then got serious and said that Anderson threw himself a party a few weeks back after his title win that no one came to, so they were going to make it up to him tonight.

Out came Anderson, who was wearing a camouflage tuxedo. He shook hands with Hulk in the ring, who said that they might nave had a rocky road in the past but one thing that had always been a constant for them was that both had always strived to be the best. Hogan formally welcomed him into Immortal with a hug.

Anderson said they probably wouldn't agree at all times, but as long as he was the top card in the deck like promised, he was willing to gamble with Immortal.

With that, the lights went down and Sting was sitting at the poker table. Bischoff told him that Anderson was going to take him out tonight. Sting asked him if he wanted to gamble about it, since they're at a poker table.

Sting told them that tonight he was going to win the World Heavyweight Championship and return TNA to its rightful owner, Dixie Carter. Hulk told him that he was going out of the building on a stretcher tonight.

This caused Sting to jump up and say, "No!" about ten times. Stinger said he had the Network ace in the hole, since Hogan and Bischoff had been told that they were on thin ice from Spike TV. If any shenanigans happened, someone with more bite than him would be their problem.

Sting said he was going to leave as World Heavyweight Champion because he had a bunch of magic bullet aces in the hole. He then pointed to the ceiling, where a bunch of people in clown masks were watching from the rafters. He said they would have his back tonight.

With that, the Impact Zone went dark and when the lights came back up, Sting was gone and Immortal stood in shock. [c]

BAX REAX: I'm not too fond of the Joker Sting with clown minions, though I am curious to find out who they are. The problem is that they have this kitschy World Title
storyline going on where Sting is becoming a deranged cartoon character with minions while there's a deadly serious 12 man tournament going on to determine a future top contender. Its just counterproductive to treat the current title feud with such silliness while the BFG Series is trying to enhance the value of the championship. 'Running in place' would be a good way to describe it.

[Q2]

-A nice recap was done of the Bound For Glory Series was highlighted. Up tonight is a three way match between Pope, Bobby Roode and Samoa Joe, the only three men without any points. Crimson leads with 31 points.

-Straight to the Impact Zone, where all three men were in the ring.

1 - BOBBY ROODE vs. SAMOA JOE vs. THE POPE - Bound For Glory Series Match

Early domination from Samoa Joe on Roode as Pope watched on. After Roode was down, Joe dumped Pope out of the ring and threw Roode into the corner and followed with his spinning head kick. Joe immediately took Roode down and put him into a cross arm breaker that a returning Pope broke up.

Joe didn't like that very much and threw Pope back out to ringside. He then traded punches with Roode before Joe headbutted Roode to the ground. Pope came in and threw Joe hard to ringside after an Atomic Drop and went at it with Roode.

Pope worked on Roode's injured arm before kicking Joe back to ringside and hitting a hard DDT on Roode at 3:00 for a two count. Pope then hit a Lawler Fist Drop off the second rope for another two count.

Pope lined up Roode for the DDE but had to kick Joe in the face at ringside before he could attack Roode and that caused him to miss with his knees. Roode hit two clothes lines before leveling Pope with a Russian Leg Sweep.

Roode then climbed to the top rope but leveled Joe on the ring apron and knocked him back out to ringside again before hitting his flipping neck breaker for a two count.

After some back and forth action, Roode was setting Pope up for a Superplex when Joe climbed up onto the apron and tossed Roode down, kicked Pope in the head and set him up for the Muscle Buster.

But Roode got back to his feet and kicked Joe in the gut and hit him with a Fisherman's Suplex pin for a two count that Pope broke up with a splash. Pope was bounced to ringside by Roode but Joe got Roode into the rear naked choke. He struggled before rolling back onto Joe, who kept his grip tight.

But Rood fell more than flat onto Joe, rolling over on him. Joe wasn't aware that Roode technically had him in a pinning position and he kept the choke on and Roode got a three count immediately before tapping out himself.

WINNER: BOBBY ROODE in 5:50

-After the match, Joe raised his hand like he thought he had won. When he was told he had been pinned, he threatened ref Hebner and the rest of the officials had to come out and take Earl to safety of the back.

BAX REAX: Nice match that revolved around Joe's frustrations. The number of times that he was knocked back to ringside was a good visual throughout the match that represented his frustrations and the way the match ended was a nice way to continue the story. He's going to snap soon and I'm looking forward to it.

-Backstage, the Jarretts were shown coming in backstage with sombreros on their bags.[c]

[Q3]

-Hogan and Bischoff were in their office telling the troops to prevent Sting from making it to the ring tonight for his match against Anderson. Abyss was pumped up and ready to go when Bischoff told him to make sure he followed the leaders after failing to destroy the X Division on Sunday.

As Abyss went to walk out, the Jarretts came in with a big smile on their faces and started giving out presents to the group, with the exception of Abyss, who had left. Jarrett opened a present, which was the AAA Championship Belt. Guess he'd been busy.

-Elsewhere, Devon's kids were talking about how he nearly had the BFG Series match. Devon came in and told his sons that he told them that they weren't supposed to be hanging out with Pope.

Devon told him that he didn't like his kids learning from a two bit con and that he didn't trust him. Pope said to Devon he gave him seven BFG Series points, which didn't impress Devon. Pope told him that if he kept pushing his kids to do what he wanted, not to blame Pope if they turned their backs on him. [c]

-Back from break, a montage was played showing the highlights from Destination X, including some of the best spots from some of the standout matches. Really great showcase for the great moves on the show. It ended with Kendrick holding the X Division belt up.

-In the ring, Shannon Moore was in the ring before Austin Aries made his entrance. The announcers put over his win at Destination X as the crowd chanted his name.

AUSTIN ARIES vs. SHANNON MOORE

After Moore hit two armdrags early, Aries went to shake his hand but Moore slapped it away. Aries took him down and give him a back rake before the ref broke them up. Moore hit a few rapid fire moves but it didn't even get him a one count.

Aries kept running and floated over twice before Moore caught him the third time and took him down. Moore then hit a moonsault on a standing Aries in the middle of the ring. Aries then tried to skin the cat after being thrown over but Moore hit him mid-pull up with a drop kick. Moore followed that quickly with a front flip over the top to ringside.

[Q4]Moore threw Aries into the ring and climbed up to the top turnbuckle and hit a backflip into a kick. Aries climbed out of the ring on all fours and grabbed the Book of Dilligaf but Moore took it and gave it to the ref. But as this was happening, Aries wrapped the chain for the book around his hand and leveled Moore when the ref wasn't looking.

When the ref turned around, Aries hit a slingshot twisting splash onto Moore for the three count.

WINNER: AUSTIN ARIES in 3:40

After the match, Alex Shelley came to the ring and grabbed the chain and confronted Aries. Shelley told him that everyone had seen it but Aries walked out and told the camera 'fair and square.'

-Backstage, Abyss said he wasn't going to wait for the rematch with Kendrick to get the belt back. But as he turned to go, a clown minion leveled him with a bat. [c]

-Back from break, Shelley was standing with Moore backstage and they discussed how Aries cheated to win. Shelley came in and said that he did a slick job selling that he got the win off of the splash. But "A Double" wasn't the greatest man alive if he had to cheat.

Aries was shown elsewhere and he said that he was there to entertain and would compete and beat anyone, even if it was the Impact Champion.

BAX REAX: The seeds of a logical X Division feud that isn't built on either 1) "I hate the X Division" or 2) "Let's put on a show?" I'm so happy they're letting these wrestlers actually create characters and this clearly establishes Aries as a cheating heel against the honest face Shelley. Looking forward to where this goes? I am. An Aries-Shelley match would be great.

-A montage was shown of Tara-Madison leading up to their match tonight before the announcers plugged the World Heavyweight Championship Match. [c]

[Q5]

-A nice montage was shown featuring most of the company's top wrestlers talking up how much wrestling matters to them and announcing the Bound For Glory Series in Philadelphia in October. Very solid promotion making Bound For Glory look like a big deal.

-Steiner was backstage hitting on SoCal Val before another clown minion came and took him out from behind.

-In the Impact Zone, Madison made her entrance as Taz & Tenay reminded the audience that Tara had been brought back into the company by Madison. Tara then rode in on her motorcycle and had a present for Madison with her. Tara told her she could open it after the match as Madison threw a fit about not getting it right away.

3- MADISON RAYNE vs. TARA

Madison acted surprised that Tara wasn't laying down for her and caused Tara to take her town with a couple of punches and a clothesline. Tara hit a bodyslam, followed by a standing moonsault before mounting Madison and telling her that she didn't own her.

Tara clotheslined Madison before pulling her onto her shoulders and hitting a spinning side slam. Instead of going for a pin, Tara set up for a power bomb, which Rayne counted with a back body drop and a big running kick.

The pair ended up at ringside, where Madison slammed Tara's face into the ring apron before tossing her into the ring steps. But instead of pushing her advantage, she climbed into the ring and went to open the present. Put it was Poison, Tara's tarantula, which terrified her.

By the time she was done screaming and had set it down in the corner, Tara came in and hit the Widow's Peak for the pinfall victory.

WINNER: TARA in 3:50

AFterwards, Tara took Poison out of her cage and help it out at Madison, who ran around the ring in fear before running backstage with Tara in pursuit.

-Sting versus Anderson was plugged before Kurt Angle was shown coming to the Impact Zone. He's up next. [c]

-Back from commercial, the British Invasion were shown backstage talking about how making themselves friends with Rob Terry as their muscle was a great move. Magnus said what matters now is winning the tag team titles, so they need to beat Mexican America for the #1 Contendership. With Beer Money distracted by the BFG Series, timing couldn't be better.

[Q6]

-In the Impact Zone, Kurt Angle's music hit and out came the Olympic Gold Medalist. He said that he was the number one contender and would get his title shot at Hardcore Justice. He said that he didn't know who his opponent would be, but if it were up to him he would pick Mr. Anderson based on their history.

Angle said he remembers facing Anderson last year at Lockdown in a steel cage. He definitely hasn't forgotten how Anderson left him lying at the end of the show last week and he was going to come after him win or lose.

Angle also said that he has a history with Sting. They were in the Main Event Mafia together, but Angle has never beat Sting in his entire career. Kurt said that pissed him off. He said he would watch from backstage tonight as a neutral observer but on August 7th at Hardcore Justice, he would walk out as the Champion.

Nice promo from Angle to put some importance on the title while the clowns are running around backstage taking out Immortal. Kurt adds instant credibility to any match he is in, so bringing him back to the Title scene for the first time in almost a year is a great move.

-Backstage, the Jarretts were shown leaving to go back to Mexico. Karen had the sombrero back on and was dragging the suitcases. Double J said he had enough of crazy clowns since this didn't happen in Mexico and they were leaving with the Immortal World Title.

But when Karen opened the trunk in their SUV, a clown was waiting. She ran off in terror, but Jarrett was left to face a guy with a bat. He blocked the first blow with the belt case but took a bat to the gut. The clown choked him out with the bat and dragged him off. Three Immortal members down to clowns tonight.[c]

-Back from break, out came Mexican America for the #1 Contender match for the Tag Titles. Hernandez said something in Spanish before Anarquia called the crowd stupid Americans before saying nothing is impossible. Out came the Brits in their smashing matching red jackets and as they hit the ring on the fly to Taz screaming, "The British are coming!" the bell rang.

4- BRITISH INVASION vs. MEXICAN AMERICA - #1 Contender Match for the Tag Team Championship

Magnus quickly clotheslined Hernandez over the top rope before Williams hit a suicide dive on him at ringside. The Invasion had control with some quick tags before Hernandez hit Williams in the back of the head and hit a springboard shoulder block. Hernandez put Williams into a modified backbreaker before getting a two count after a slam.

Hernandez hung up Williams on the top rope before tagging Anarquia in. He kicked Williams in the face and knocked him to ringside, where Hernandez choked him while the ref was unaware.

Anarquia put Williams into a headlock in the middle of the ring before hanging him up on the top rope again. He stayed holding him as Hernandez leapfrogged over the top for a splash.

Williams got up, tried to fight out and got onto the second rope and hit a flying European uppercut to knock both men down. With Williams bloody, both men made hot tags and Magnus was on fire. He leveled Anarquia with a big boot before hitting a big clothesline on an interfering Hernandez. Magnuss got two counts from a sitdown slam and a big elbow of the top rope. The latter of the two had to be broken up by Hernandez.

[Q7]Hernandez was tossed out to ringside and the British Invasion hit the Hart Attack with Williams playing Bret Hart and Magnus as Anvil Niedhart. Williams hit a flying European uppercut instead of a clothesline and Magnus had the pinfall.

But Rosita ran out to the ring and distracted the referee, allowing Hernandez to dump a surprised Williams to ringside, hit Magnus in the back of the head with something and turn Anarquia on top of him. When the ref turned around, it was a dirty three count win.

WINNERS: MEXICAN AMERICA in 5:40 to become #1 Contenders

BAX REAX: Mexican American can't wrestle, can barely talk and can only draw cheap heat. Yet they're now the number one contenders? The British Invasion are simply better in every measurable manner and if anyone is going to take the tag titles from Beer Money, it should be the much more serious and over Brits. I'm sorry but the cheap racism of Mexican America is 'go away' heat and I'm not a fan.

-Backstage, Bischoff was shown talking to Gunner and Ray. Bischoff told them that they were his last line of defense. Gunner told Ray that didn't want to be the hunted, he wanted to be the hunter. Ray said that he was going to be right behind him but stopped before leaving the office. [c]

-Back from break, a nice montage was shown of Kendrick and Shelley talking back and forth about who was the better wrestler. Next week, they will face off for the X Division Title.

-The announcers then ran down next week's other matches. Most notable was RVD vs. Scott Steiner in a BFG Series Match and a Four Way outing between A.J. Styles, Samoa Joe, Matt Morgan and Gunner where the winner earns 10 points.

BAX REAX: I'm really glad that TNA is announcing matches for next week's show so that audiences will carry over to see what happens. The X Title match and the two Bound For Glory Series events should be enjoyable wrestling. My only beef is with the logic of awarding 10 points in a four way ladder match. Unless every one of the 12 wrestlers in the competition receive a similar match, doesn't that seem like an advantage? If wrestling matters, so should the rules.

-Taz and Tenay recapped the clown minions jumping members of Immortal that have taken place throughout the show. The Midsummer's Nightmare is up soon.

-Backstage, Gunner was shown holding a metal pipe calling out the clowns. They all walked out bouncing their bats on the bgrond and started to surround him. Gunner was quickly overwhelmed and beaten by punches. One of the clowns told him to stay down and the masks were thrown down on him......

The clowns were A.J. Styles, Kazarian, Daniels and James Storm! They asked where Bully Ray was before A.J. said he had already been taken care of.

[Q8]

-In the Impact Zone, out came Joker Sting for the championship match. The announcers put over Sting's plan to level the playing field and Taz called him the Insane Icon.

Anderson came out and called for his microphone, but instead of introducing himself, he swatted the mic away to boos. The crowd chanted, "Let's go Stinger!" as Anderson climbed into the ring for the official introductions.

Sting was introduced at 259 pounds. No chance he weighs anywhere close to that. At least he took his shirt off for the match. Anderson weighed a more realistic 234 pounds and he looked bigger than Sting.

Referee Brian Hebner held the belt up high and as the crowd continued chanting for Sting, the title match was underway.

5- World Heavyweight Champion MR. ANDERSON vs. STING - World Heavyweight Championship Match

Sting no-sold some early punches from Anderson, which scared him back. Deranged Sting glared into the hard camera before Anderson climbed back into the ring, only to have Sting hit him with a bunch of overhand clubbing blows

Taz made a good point talking up Anderson's concussion issues. Sting followed up his dominant showing by hitting an Atomic Drop and a standing dropkick out to ringside.

Sting continued his big clubbing blows in cartoonish fashion before hitting a Stinger Splash on Anderson in the corner. He went for it again but Anderson hit a drop kick into Sting's knee that hobbled him. Another good point by Taz saying that it could affect Sting's ability to use the Scorpion Death Lock.

Anderson attacked the knee repeatedly in the middle of the ring to actual boos from the Impact Zone crowd. Anderson drew more boos by using Sting's own move against him. Sting was stuck in the Scorpion Death Lock but managed to make it to the ropes.

Anderson was fully in control at 4:30 and he put Sting's leg on the bottom rope and sat down on it before going for a pin and earning a two count. Anderson then put Sting into a modified single leg Boston Crab, but he didn't step over and Sting kicked the champ in the face twice to escape.

With Sting selling the knee injury, he hit a few clotheslines before tossing Anderson into a guillotine on top rope. At 6:30, Sting hit the Mic Check on Anderson but Anderson kicked out at two.

Anderson put Sting on his shoulders and knocked out the ref by accident. Sting fought back after Hebner was hit to ringside and
locked in the Scorpion Death Lock, causing Anderson to tap out.

But the ref wasn't up and Ray came in to interfere. After Sting was down, Anderson held up Sting for Ray to bash with his chain. But the lights went down and when they came back up, a clown came in and hit Ray with the bat.

Then the lights went down again and when they came back up, Anderson was alone in the ring. As he turned around to look for Sting, he was attacked from behind. With the sneak move by Sting, Anderson was caught and hit with the Scorpion Death Drop for the 1-2-3.

WINNER: STING in 9:10 to become NEW World Heavyweight Champion

As the celebration began, the camera showed the clown on stage. He removed his mask to reveal Kurt Angle as the last bit of Sting's backup and that's how Impact ended.


BAX SHOW REAX After three months of poor title matches, I'm stunned that Sting recaptured the championship tonight. While Angle coming out to help Sting was a swerve, there's no question than an Angle-Anderson feud for the title in the months leading up to Bound For Glory is far more desirable than Sting holding the top prize.

Furthermore, I don't like the clown minion storyline. It is frustrating to see TNA devaluing their top title with excerpts from Joel Schumacher's campy Batman movies when they have such a solid base going on with the Bound For Glory Series. Its just a contradiction and Impact is sending a mixed message about their biggest prize.

The Stinger just can't 'go' at a high level any more and I honestly don't understand why Impact has now TWICE yanked the title away from Anderson after a month's reign. If they're going to make him champ, at least let him successfully defend it once.

Otherwise, I was displeased to see Mexican America go over the British Invasion. Mexican America is just a bland, boring team that is packaged as a bunch of racist invaders and it isn't working.

There were some good stories told tonight though. First of all, the X Division is finally being given some time to sell their characters with Aries cheating in his match tonight and Shelley calling him out on it. I'm very much looking forward to next week's X Division Championship match as well.

Speaking of which, next week's show has a nice lineup with two BFG Series matches and the X Title match. Before I wrap things up, I also need to credit the continuing frustrations of Samoa Joe in the BFG Series. This has been a nicely told story from the start and if Joe loses the Four Way next week he could snap. Like usual, the best part of Impact comes out of the BFG Series.

Overall, this was a strange show with the surprising victory for Sting in the Main Event and the shenanigans that went on around it. It wasn't bad show and the amount of wrestling was acceptable with 28:15 total, but it fell below the action that made the lead up to Destination X so enjoyable.

SHOW GRADE: C+

Matt Baxendell is one the Torch’s contributing writer covering Impact Wrestling. Bax is also a football columnist for NationalFootballAuthority.com and Bucknuts.com. On top of that, he's an on-air talent for Sports Radio 790 The Zone in Atlanta. If you want to talk wrestling, hockey or football with Bax, please email him at matt.baxendell@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter @MattBaxendell

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