TNA Impact TV taping report
June 29, 2013
Las Vegas, Nev. at Orleans Arena
Report by Harry Simon, PWTorch correspondent

Quick Results/Happenings:

- 7/4 Impact: T.J. Perkins is back in the "Suicide" costume, but he’s now “Manic.” ... (1) A.J. Styles beat Kazarian via submission at 4:01 in a BFG Series match. ... Gut Check backstage: “Big O” Adam Ohriner was eliminated. ... (2) Hernandez beat Jay Bradley at 3:11 in a BFG Series match. ... (3) GunStorm beat Bro Mans at 3:10 in a non-title match. ...

Magnus was announced as the fourth member of the Main Event Mafia. ... (4) Jeff Hardy beat Joseph Park by DQ at 8:01 in a BFG Series match. ... Gut Check in the ring: Ryan Howe got two “no's” and a “yes,” so he did not get a contract. ... (5) Chris Sabin won a three-way over Austin Aries and Manic at 14:37 to regain the X Division Title.

***

Detailed TNA Impact Results 7/4

Hulk Hogan arrived to loud cheers. I started yelling lyrics at him from Randy Savage’s “Be A Man” song, but no one cared. Hogan brought out Austin Aries to again scold him for his skullduggery in stealing the X Division Title the previous week. They again established the gimmick that the XD belt could be cashed in for a TNA World Title match at the special “Destination X” Impact in Louisville on July 18. Hogan told Aries that he may not get the chance to cash in because he’s defending in tonight’s main event - a three-way XD Title match against Sabin and the man he screwed last week. Here’s where things get strange. Hogan said that T.J. Perkins was still under the mask, but he was not Suicide any more. Hogan decreed that from now on, T.J. Perkins will be known as “Manic.” T.J. came out in the same mask and the same costume, except now the word “Suicide” was gone. None of this made any sense to me since Hogan brought out the guy without his mask and revealed his identity to the world last week.

(1) A.J. Styles beat Kazarian (w/Christopher Daniels) by submission at 4:01 in a match that was probably for the Bound For Glory Series (more on that later). Bad Influence came out dressed as famous Las Vegas entertainers Siegfried & Roy. They had sequin jackets and funny wigs. Daniels was even carrying a stuffed tiger. Styles came out to his new entrance music that is about as exciting and adrenaline-pumping as a moving walkway at the airport. Styles immediately knocked Kazarian’s wig off his head to start the match. Daniels retained his wig at ringside. A fan shouted “Nice hair” at Daniels, to which Daniels spun around and fired back “Not as nice as your mother’s mustache!” At ringside, Daniels worked just as hard as the guys in the ring. Fans near me chanted “Let’s go A.J.” to which I shouted back “CENA SUCKS!” They popped. Around the ringside area, fans started yelling at other fans to sit down. Not sure if it was a TNA fail or Orleans Arena staff fail, but that was a problem all night. Anyway, Styles slapped on the calf killer and Kazarian tapped. Very good match, though way too short. Bad Influence is awesome as a live act.

JB started shilling that the loudest fans would be given passes to go backstage and/or hang out at a VIP party afterward. Fans screamed accordingly.

Mickie James came out with a ladder to promo a #1 contender ladder match between Gail Kim and Taryn Terrell for the 7/11 show. Mickie is great as the condescending arrogant heel. Mickie said it didn’t matter who wins because she would beat either one of them.

Backstage Gut Check segment: Ryan Howe’s Gut Check will be in the ring later tonight. Alas, “Big O” Adam Ohriner was eliminated on the spot, gone before we could even finish reading whatever he has tattooed on his pec.

(2) Hernandez (w/Chavo Guerrero) pinned Jay Bradley at 3:11 in a match that was probably part of the BFGS (more on that later). Both guys played their roles well, but didn’t have enough time for much. Chavo tripped Bradley to give Hernandez the win.

Aces & Eights came out for their standard “Sons Of Mediocrity” biker gang promo. Bully Ray threatened to take out Aries tonight and thus, prevent him from cashing in his title shot.

During a break, “Miserlou” played as JB again tried to Pied-Piper fans with the promise of being brought backstage “right now.” I liked the ECW montage nostalgia, but I did wonder why a wrestling company doing a television show would specifically want to earmark the fans that cheer the loudest and REMOVE THEM FROM THE ARENA.

(3) TNA Tag Team champions GunStorm (Gunner & James Storm) beat The Bro Mans (Robbie E & Jesse Godderz w/Tara) at 3:10. They didn’t announce it as title or non-title, they didn’t have the referee hold up the belts, and they didn’t announce GunStorm as “winners and still champions,” so I’m assuming it’s a non-title match. Makes me wonder why go to the effort of making a new team if you’re just going to job them out in a quickie for their first match. The Bro Mans have a great logo for the Tron with two fists bumping together. I already want that t-shirt. Oh, and I know the champs aren’t officially called “GunStorm.” I think it sounds cool. Also, they never officially said they WEREN’T called GunStorm either, so there. My report, my abbreviations. The Bro Mans worked the heel comedy bit well and I hope they keep them together. Storm worked the crowd well as a babyface, and Gunner botched the finish so bad, he literally had to do it over from scratch. He’s not earning a better t-shirt for himself anytime soon with that kind of performance.

The Main Event Mafia (Sting & Kurt Angle) came out and introduced their new third member, Samoa Joe. I have to say, Joe rocked the suit and still came off as a total badass. No sooner had we taken in the sight of Joe’s popped collar than the MEM introduced their new fourth member, Magnus. I know they said that MEM membership was exclusive to former TNA World Champions, but they say a lot of things. Sting vowed that the MEM would negate any interference from Aces & Eights in the main event so the best man could win. That giant vein on the right side of Kurt Angle’s head looks bigger in person.

(4) Jeff Hardy beat Joseph Park by disqualification at 8:01 in a match that was definitely part of the BFGS. Now about that. They didn’t announce which matches were for the BFGS, but during this match I noticed that the BFGS logo was on the Tron. Between watching the matches in the ring and taking notes, I didn’t think to look at the Tron for the previous two matches. I assume they were part of BFGS as well, but I can’t swear to that just yet. We’ll find out on Thursday. Anyways, this was a good match except for Hardy doing an awful twist-of-fate where Park’s chin was in a different zip code from Hardy’s arm on the impact, followed by an equally poor Whisper In The Wind that missed by a mile. At this point, I should mention that comedy abounded all night as a couple of fans in suits holding replica belts and a “CWF Hollywood” sign were entertaining as hell. Fans chanted “Let’s Go Hardy” so the CWF guys chanted back “Let’s Go Fat Guy!” Park eventually did the bloody mouth thing, and worked the crowd masterfully so that they popped big when he Abyss’ed up and did the crossed-arms pose. Jobyss then grabbed the referee and planted him with a sweet Black Hole Slam. Another ref ran down and called for the DQ. Hardy just stood there selling that he was confused, as I guess he doesn’t watch Impact. He probably doesn’t even know that Xplosion is still a thing. Naturally, the bell snapped Park out of his trance and he wondered what happened to the unconscious ref. The Joseph Park character is brilliant.

Live Gut Check segment: Al Snow smiled warmly at the “Head” chants fans bestowed upon him. Ryan Howe came out carrying his guitar, but didn’t play it. Fans HATED Howe as a pretty boy rock star. He was the most hated heel all night and I’m not even slightly kidding. Snow talked first, saying that he has watched Howe’s improvement over time and he was the reason Howe was invited to Gut Check. That didn’t win Al any points with the ferocious anti-Howe mob. But then Al won the crowd back over by voting “no” with a heavy heart. JB gave Howe 30 seconds to “kick out” and in twenty-six years of going to live wrestling shows, I have never heard fans louder or more united in their booing. Nevertheless, Howe remained on-point in his plea to the judges. I couldn’t hear a word he said over the booing, but he did stay focused. Next was Danny Davis’s turn. Watching fans react to Danny Davis is fascinating. Many of them really think he’s Dusty Rhodes until he’s introduced or he talks. Then fans feel like he screwed them by not being Dusty Rhodes, so they booed poor Danny, who did nothing wrong aside from not being Dusty Rhodes. Danny didn’t get booed as loudly as they booed Ryan Howe, but his own heat was still significant. Davis hung the proverbial lantern on this, telling Howe that the crowd “was booing the hell out of him” but he stayed on point, so that changed Davis’s vote to a “yes.” The crowd did not like that non-Dusty-Rhodes one iota for voting yes. With the votes split, all the pressure was on Bruce Prichard. Fans booed and chanted “No!” There was plenty of nervous tension that Bruce would say the wrong thing and thus be responsible for modern society going down in flames. Bruce did his usual “You’re great, but…” speech and finally voted “No.” The place ERUPTED in the loudest pop all night. Ryan Howe took his guitar and went home. Taz got on the live mic and took a swipe at Snow’s “thrift shop” jacket. (It was pretty hideous.) Howe had so much heat and this is going to come off so great on television, they pretty much have to bring him back as a heel now. It worked for The Honky Tonk Man.

A&8 walked to ringside for the main event.

(5) Chris Sabin won a three-way over Austin Aries and Manic to regain the X Division Title at 14:37. Very good match. Brief “Super Dragon” chant from a few fans over yonder in the opening minutes. Turning point of the match came when Manic dove onto A&8 at ringside, but D.O.C. caught him and gave him a SICK powerbomb on the floor, causing a very loud “thump” that actually made fans cringe. They essentially halted the match (possibly for a commercial break) while medics stretchered Manic to the back. Everyone around the scene was just doing an awesome job of selling. At this point, the MEM came out. Remember how they said they were going to prevent A&E from interfering? Remember how I said that they have said a lot of things? Well, yeah. The match continued as Aries vs. Sabin one-on-one and they put on a clinic for what time they had. Chants of “This is awesome” and “TNA” rang out. Aries kicked out of cradle shock. They wound up on the ropes and Sabin outmaneuvered Aries into a second cradle shock off the second rope for the pin. Big crowd pop.

The show ended with Bully yelling at Sabin from ringside.

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