By Wade Keller, PWTorch editor

KELLER'S TNA IMPACT TAKE
APRIL 5, 2012
TAPED IN ORLANDO, FLA.
AIRED ON SPIKE TV

-Having Hulk Hogan open the show with a State of Impact Wrestling address was a sensible follow-up to the show-closing announcement that Hogan had become G.M. It also made sense that Ric Flair would be featured as an antagonist to Hogan given his prominent role at the Hall of Fame ceremony. Flair, though, still comes across as Bischoff's sidekick and an ancilary character, and he deserves better and is badly cast by people who just don't get him.

-Kurt Angle's bleeding from his head was some of the heaviest blood on TV in a while.

-Bully Ray building his promo around Austin Aries being so small again this week seems counter productive. Viewers are not as wrapped up in Aries's size as heavyweights and bookers are backstage. It's just not a prominent thing fans think of when they think of Aries, so drawing tons of attention to it – even in the context of a heel promo by a bullying heavyweight – seems to do more harm than it's worth. There are other ways to get heel heat.

-That powerbomb off the ropes out of the corner by Ray on Aries was amazing, and they did a great job in slo-mo replay getting their money's worth out of it. Aries took the bump great.

-I cannot take my eyes off of the shady Joseph Parks character. This ongoing storyline with him is playing out nice and slow, and I'm intrigued with where it goes. Parks is playing the part brilliantly so far.

-TNA should dare to put the Knockouts in the main event more often. Not that match quality dictates that, but let's be honest - Garett Bischoff's push isn't based on his in-ring ability, either. I'm just saying they should main event them because they draw ratings. I know it works against the power base behind the scenes because if the women began to draw comparable or better ratings than the higher paid former WCW/WWF heavyweights, it could screw up some good deals for the male wrestlers and non-wrestlers who dominate that Q8 space and use it to justify their bloated pay, but if TNA is serious about moving ratings to the next level and creating a perception of greater main event depth, it makes sense to build one show a month around a Knockouts match and put Knockouts Title matches near the end of PPVs. This week's tag to determine the no. 1 contender would have been a good one.

-It adds some authenticity to Storm's persona that he was at the ACM Awards, although I'm not sure Storm and Kiss are a natural mix. Jeff Hardy and Kiss, though, did make for a good match. Not sure about Storm bragging he has nicer hair than the female models at the red carpet ceremony, though. Do Cowboys hanging out bars every say that about models appearing on TV? "I have nicer hair than Miss America, dammit!"

-Eric Young's bachelor party featuring wine, lolly pops, and everyone doing baseball fantasty drafts on their laptops was very Eric Young-like. Even funnier is that he vowed that what happens at EY's bachelor party stays at EY's bachelor party, as if he was expecting things to get rowdy at the draft party. ODB bringing in cigars, a beer keg, and chicken wings changed the mood a little. I was a little letdown overall in the bachelor party skit, though. EY and ODB are good comedy relief, but that wasn't their best skit. But still okay.

-Good idea to give Storm a clean win over A.J. Styles in a competitive match. Storm is the no. 1 contender headed into a PPV, so it makes sense to give him a credible win over a credible opponent and former champ. It sends the message to fans that Storm is for real and he's ready for Lockdown.

-I could barely hear Hogan and Sting have that backstage discussion over the loud Storm theme music playing in the background. It seemed like they were talking about something important, but I just humming "Longneck and Rednecks are my friend" or whatever the lyrics are.

-They did an okay job building up the return of the Motor City Machine Guns. The credit goes for pushing it on TV the last several weeks. The downside is that the little vignettes didn't really define who they are or what defines their personalities. Being from Detroit is not, in and of itself, a gimmick. At least they declared their intent to recapture the tag titles after their win.

-After the way they let that Repo Games TV show host talk to them a few weeks back, it's hard to take Mexican America seriously as a tough tag team.

-Eric Bischoff referred to the WWE Hall of Fame by noting to Ric Flair that he's a two-time hall of famer.

-Quotebook – Eric Bischoff: “I'm the psychological ninja, remember that.”

-Taz said Roode used a beer bottle he stole from a fan to KO Mr. Anderson. It's a good thing that fan was drinking out of a gimmicked glass beer bottle.

-Counting Angle's bloody head earlier and Anderson gushing blood after the beer bottle shot, this was the bloodiest pro wrestling show on national cable in a while.

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