BY WADE KELLER, PWTORCH EDITOR

-The show opened with footage of Chyna hitting Karen at the Sacrifice PPV with Kurt Angle reacting. Also, Sting commenting RVD coming at him with martial arts moves at the PPV but surviving, then Mr. Anderson talking about facing Sting next. A sweaty Sting then said, unconvincingly, "that's why I love this business. I love... (pause presumably to remember new name of company)... Impact... Wrestling."

-The show is called "Back from the Dead."

-Then came the new opening for this show, renamed "Impact Wrestling" (rather than "TNA Impact"). It's got a new blue color scheme. Let's look at who's featured in the open, in order: After a close-up of a drop of sweat on someone's nose, then came RVD, Hulk Hogan, Kurt Angle, Hernandez, Matt Morgan, Chris Sabin, Velvet Sky, Ric Flair, Matt Hardy, Mick Foley, Jeff Jarrett, Jeff Hardy (distant shot of a highspot), Mr. Anderson, Devon, Bully Ray, Crimson, Abyss, Matt Morgan, Jesse Neal, an Angle moonsault, Mickie James, Scott Steiner, Rob Terry, a Sabin suplex, Mr. Anderson, Brutus Magnus, Samoa Joe, an RVD Five-Star Frogsplash, Winter, Sting, Karen & Jeff Jarrett, Eric Bischoff, Madison Rayne, James Storm, Gen Me, Beer Money, Kaz (distant shot), Anderson, Hogan, Jeff Hardy, Angle, Sting.

Notable by their absence: A.J. Styles (that shocks me), Angelina Love, Amazing Red, Alex Shelley, Brian Kendrick, D'Angelo Dinero (understandable), Christopher Daniels, Desmond Wolfe, Douglas Williams, Eric Young (surprising), Gunner, Murphy, Miss Tessmacher, Orlando Jordan, Robbie E., Rosita, Sarita, Shannon Moore, Suicide, Tara, and Tommy Dreamer.

So they got us two Matt Morgans, two Jeff Hardy highspots, two of Kurt Angle, two of Jeff Jarrett, two of Sting, two of Mr. Anderson, but not one A.J. Styles close-up (not counting his nose, if that was actually his nose at the start) or highspot (not counting him being landed on)? And blink and miss Beer Money, perhaps their other best "home grown" act other than Styles. The rest are understandable, although given how much TV time Eric Young gets at the expense of promoting money-matches, you'd think he'd be included.

-Mike Tenay and Taz introduced the show, drawing attention to the new name and color scheme. They've changed the look of the Impact Zone. No sign of the letters "TNA." It's all white, dark blue, and light blue.

-Just to really drive home Wrestling Matters now, they opened with a wrestling match, right? Nope. Well, at least the announcers talking about the main event match on that show, or the opening match at least, right? Nope? How about wrestlers talking about their next match? Nope. Out walked Eric Bischoff leading Immortal to the ring, minus Hulk Hogan. Tenay noted that Hogan was conspicuous by his absence.

-Bischoff then immediately made it clear how rattled he was by The Network appointing Mick Foley to change the show and make Wrestling Matter, right? Nope. Instead, he neutered the entire angle by taking credit for working with The Network to change the look of the show. And then he got off the best line of the last two weeks, saying that if Mick Foley had his way, the new motto would be "Thumbtacks Matter." He added: "When the hell did he wake up, look himself in the mirror, and see Frank Gotch all of a sudden." The way to draw money, of course, is to point out the (legit) flaws) in the babyface argument or actions and make sure the heels are the coolest, smartest people in the mix. No great way to build support for babyfaces getting revenge on heels. This is why Bischoff was so effective when he was the babyface announcer taking it to Nitro. He is a bully who thrives on taking it to another bully using in-hour-face tactics. Where he's not good is saving the best lines for the babyfaces when he's playing a heel role. He comes back as strong or stronger than babyfaces when he's in charge of his heel character.

Bischoff said Hogan is meeting with the New York execs and Foley. He said Foley just went into a gun fight with rubber bullets. At least the crowd chanted "We Want Foley!" briefly. Bischoff said he is now in charge since Foley isn't there. He said anyone who gets in his way will pay the price.

Brian Kendrick led Generation Me and Amazing Red to ringside. Kendrick said Bischoff is a leech who has parasited off the business since he was a child. "A man who has manipulated and slithered his way to power with backstabbing favors through phony friends." He said that has left the X Division in the cold without being on a team. Bully Ray yelled back that the X Division sucks and nobody likes them. Kendrick said, "Come on, fat boy."

Bischoff stepped out into Kendrick's face and said they should handle things like professionals. He said he has a right to express himself, just as it is his right to make history by single-handedly wiping out of the X Division once and for all. "I'm sick of it, I'm done with it," he said.

Bischoff booked Kaz vs. Abyss, Amazing Red vs. Samoa Joe, and Matt Hardy vs. Kendrick. He concluded by booking himself in his karate gi so he could "kick some vanilla midget ass" in the form of Generation Me. Kendrick asked, "What about me?" Bischoff slapped him, turned his back, and ordered his men to attack Kendrick. I can't wait for UFC to prove that Jose Aldo isn't a draw by having Cain Velasquez kick his ass on a Fight Night. Maybe UFC can also feed Urijah Faber to Shane Carwin.

(For a full detailed report on every match and segment, check out James Caldwell's report at the Main Listing of PWTorch.)

-The Knockouts six-woman tag showed that Madison Rayne is scared of Tara. It seemed a little busy when the main point was building the tension between Tara and Rayne, freshly broken up. Their break-up and first match where they might potentially face each other at least deserved more build-up.

-When Abyss wrestles Kaz, it breaks the whole notion that the X Division stands for something, even if it's not clearly defined. If Abyss can wrestle in it, there no differentiation left between the X Title and the Global Title and the Legends Title and the World TV Title. It's just a belt that doesn't mean as much as the World Title.

-Taz wondered why the X Division wrestlers are agitating Bischoff. What does he mean, "X Division wrestlers." Isn't Abyss an X Division wrestle since he's wrestling for the X Division Title? Taz explained that Kaz is one of the bigger X Division wrestlers, while Abyss is a super-heavyweight. Tenay tried to defend the X Division saying the X Division was a cornerstone of the company. It's just maddening and confusing what the X Division actually is. It drove Jerry Jarrett nuts when TNA launched and I kept hounding him for a palatable explanation for what the X Division was. It's always been a mess, because they've treated the X Division as a faction of united smaller guys at times, including now, rather than a weight division full of athletes fighting each other to win the X Division Title.

-Joe squashed Amazing Red in under a minute. This is a show that makes anytime TNA says the words "X Division" it's a waste of TV time. It's just being completely destroyed and rendered irrelevant. It's fine if management thinks investing in and protecting talented, athletic smaller wrestlers isn't worth doing, but then why waste a whole show "proving it" with one-sided matches. Just move on to something that will draw money instead.

-A.J. Styles said the piledriver Tommy Dreamer gave him is costing him a couple weeks of ring time. That's pretty good for one of the worst looking piledrivers ever. It's not a move I'm crazy about anyone doing (think Owen Hart's piledriver of Steve Austin likely shortening his career), but if you're going to do it and it looks horrible, maybe don't attribute an injury to it. I know, on the bright side, relatively few people saw the move on the PPV.

-Styles shouldn't refer to himself as a "dumb hillbilly." It's just not something that should be part of his TNA-bio to the point that he's fighting that image in promos.

-Styles puts his hand on Dreamer's shoulders and says he knows wrestling matters to him. So two of the faces of "Wrestling Matters" are Mick Foley and Tommy Dreamer?

-Every time Tommy Dreamer makes references to his ECW career, I just think: "Time... to... move... on..." Let that be nostalgia for those who lived it, let it be cool footage for those who want to look back on it if they missed it the first time, but stop incorporating it into modern contemporary national TV shows as if it makes a lick of a difference to fans 15 years since it matters and several years since a water-down meaningless version of it that stood for nothing was on SyFy. The execution by Dreamer and the emotions he conveyed was fine, but again it's based on a character that last was presented in a serious context more than a decade ago, and was only a serious player in front of a relatively tiny audience. I mean, nobody had heard of iPod the last time Tommy Dreamer was the centerpiece of an actual promotion.

-Brother Ray looks nearly 100 pounds lighter than just six months ago.

(I'll finish up the blog with a review of the second hour tomorrow.)

-Angle's blue eyes match the new color theme of Impact Wrestling. Jeff Jarrett's pants and formerly white jeans also match the new color scheme. Just sayin'.

-Jeff Jarrett is doing the best interviews of his career across the whole spectrum from comedy to serious. Of course, when he's serious he's full of false indignation, but he plays the notes just right. After Sky rolled Karen down the ramp and crashed her into the ring apron, I loved Jarrett looking toward Sky and saying, "She's a mother of five!" His delivery there was just great. He really has found his comedy touch and walks that fine line without taking into pure (ineffective) camp.

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