Jeff Hamlin's TNA Impact review
11.6 TNA Impact
By Jeff Hamlin (
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The Big News: A go home show that served its purpose to build up the PPV. Scott Steiner is back as a focal point in the company, going over Samoa Joe in the main event. Yes, Joe did another job, but it’s not like his aura hasn’t been ruined for years now. In fact, trying to get Joe’s killer rep back looks like a job for Gabe Sapolsky.
The Main Event Mafia came out to start the show, and Kurt Angle introduced Scott Steiner as the group’s “hit man.” Steiner was in a suit, possibly (on camera) for the first time in his career. Steiner got more cheers than boos in his promo. Steiner talked about all the various buildings the mafia had wrestled in, including Boston Garden, Madison Square Garden (when did Steiner headline MSG? WCW never went there) and 80,000 seat arenas in Japan (Tokyo Dome?). Steiner then did a great job burying his own company, saying he had never heard of any of the talent in TNA before he entered the company, and they had to go to TNA because they had no other options. Then he said whenever TNA runs a show, the names on the marquee are the stars. Well, not if it’s a house show because “the stars” don’t work those. Man, I feel like I’m writing about WCW more and more everyday. Samoa Joe came out and did a good verbal comeback. He introduced Christian Cage as a member of the young team, but Cage basically claimed he was still a free agent and just wanted a piece of Booker T. Cage did another good promo on Booker saying he was going to take his title at Turning Point, stand over him and say “I Am Legend.” Booker said he would own Cage by the end of Sunday.
Backstage, A.J. Styles and Mick Foley arrived to the arena. They supposedly rode together. Styles said Foley had an important announcement to make, but never got around to saying it on the ride over.
1. Beer Money and Booker T defeated The Motor City Machine Guns and Christian Cage. Usual solid action that would have been even better with an additional four minutes. But, by God, they just had to get two more angles in involving Jeff Jarrett and Kurt Angle rehashing the same stuff we’ve seen before. Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley did a sandwich kick on Robert Roode. James Storm kicked Sabin from behind on the apron. Storm did a cool swinging neckbreaker with his knee instead of his shoulder on Sabin. Cage got the hot tag. Finish came when Cage gave Booker a frog splash, but Jacqueline distracted the referee. Booker then hit Cage with the Legends belt for the pin. **1/2
Jeremy Borash warned Jeff Jarrett that Kurt Angle was coming to his office. Then Angle burst in cutting the standard promo about visiting Jarrett’s children if he didn’t get a rematch from Bound for Glory. It ended with a pull apart.
Backstage, Awesome Kong and Raisha Saaed jumped Roxxi backstage.
2. Matt Morgan and Abyss won a four-team latter match to earn a TNA Tag Team title shot over Team 3-D, LAX and Tanahashi and Volador. Two teams brawled outside the ring to stay out of the way of the other teams who worked spots in the ring. Dvon gave Hernandez a wazzup on Hernandez. Morgan still has no steam at all as a monster face. Morgan took a bump off the top of the ladder and landed on his knees on the floor. Why the hell do you take that bump on a go home show? At 6-11, Morgan will feel that the rest of his life. Then for good measure, Hernandez tried to do his 300 pound tope, only to jump into a ladder stationed at ringside. Virtually no heat for any of this, probably because the crowd is burned out on gimmick matches. Ray bumped the ref after missing the splash. Tanahashi hit his signature sling blade on Ray and Dvon. He missed a frog splash on Dvon and then took the 3-D. Team 3-D then climbed the latter together to get the contract, but Beer Money ran in and gave both Ray and Dvon a low blow. The interference was meant to tell the story that Beer Money didn’t want to defend the titles against Team 3-D. That allowed Abyss to climb the latter and get the contract to earn the title shot. **3/4
Suicide, this time using captions without a voice on the vignette, is coming.
Mick Foley came out to the ring to introduce A.J. Styles. Overall, it was a really good segment until a pointless conclusion. Foley opened by essentially doing Styles’ promo on Sting for him, and who could ask for anyone better? Foley said he talked to Raven years ago about Styles (I might add Raven’s name got a good pop) and Raven said even then Styles was “phenomenal.” Foley then gave Styles a pep talk about how he would have to defeat Sting this weekend, and Foley said he would stand behind him because Sting had lost his way. This brought out Sting, who cut another excellent promo about how he hadn’t lost his way. Sting put Foley over like hell, saying he was one of his closest friends and respected everything he had done in wrestling. It ended with Sting and Styles arguing. Just when it was really rolling, Sting brought up Styles father mistreating him in a storyline that is still so vague. Sting claimed Styles would do the same thing to his children. The Styles’ father routine isn’t over a lick. It was supposed to turn Sting into a true heel, but it left the crowd confused. Sting walked to the back to total silence.
Taylor Wilde was distraught over losing Roxxi and vowed to fight Kong and Saaed alone. Then Rhaka Khan stepped up and said she would be Wilde’ partner. Wilde said she didn’t want to be in a match that stunk the joint out and she would fight herself. Well, that’s what I wish she said. Really, Wilde didn’t say a word and followed Kahn to the ring. Damn.
3. Awesome Kong and Raisha Saeed defeated Taylor Wilde and Rhaka Khan. After several attempts at near falls on Kong, Wilde got beat on the entire way. Khan finally got a hot tag, had a staring match with Kong, then turned on Wilde with a choke slam. This led to Kong pinning Wilde with the implant buster. Considering the threat of seeing another Khan hot tag sequence at half the speed of smell, I’ve never been happier to see a heel turn in my life. DUD
Kevin Nash did a backstage interview about his match with Samoa Joe. Nash mentioned Buford Pusser, a real-life figure who was the subject of a 1970’s movie (and 2004 remake starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson) “Walking Tall.” If I’m not mistaken (Dave can clarify this because he’s written about it), Pusser was also a professional wrestler. Exactly how anyone below the age of 30 is supposed to know that is beyond me. Having said that, Nash is a better interview as a heel. Then he mentioned something about being in shape for this match. I missed the rest of the segment from laughing so hard.
Sheik Abdul Bashir did a sit-down interview with Mike Tenay. This segment featured Tenay having to act, which usually means disaster. Here, it wasn’t too bad. Bashir said he didn’t hate America, just the fans who he compared to sheep being led to slaughter. Tenay said Bashir had him to thank for getting him his shot in TNA wrestling during the TNA World X Cup from last summer. Bashir then cut a promo on Tenay saying he had no idea what it was like to not be booked on a show because of the color of his skin. It wound up with another argument between the two and security being called in to break it up.
4. Kevin Nash, Sting and Kurt Angle defeated Eric Young, Black Machismo and Consequences Creed. At least the faces weren’t totally buried. Young and Creed got offense in during hot tag sequences, and Nash and Sting sold well to make them look good. Finish came when Angle blocked a superkick by Creed and caught him for the Olympic slam for the clean pin. *1/2
Rhino cut a promo on Sheik Abdul Bashir. Actually, he cut a better promo on Lauren the backstage interviewer than he did on Bashir. Then again, so do half the other people in this company.
5. Scott Steiner defeated Samoa Joe. Pretty bad, as Steiner can barely take bumps anymore. He didn’t even take his tank top off, which I guess speaks volumes about his physique. Nash came to ringside after Joe hit a side suplex on Steiner. Joe hit Nash with a tope, but while Joe got up, Steiner pulled out brass knuckles and hit Joe with it for the pin. ½*
Postmatch, Nash hit Joe with several punches from the mount before Styles ran in for the save with a chair. Angle, Sting and Booker came out to congratulate Steiner.
SUMMARY: Memo to TNA. This is 2008. I don’t care what the circumstances are, Samoa Joe shouldn’t be doing jobs for Scott Steiner. It wasn’t a bad show and a satisfactory go home show. Something that needs to be addressed in Jim Cornette’s role in the company. Now that Jarrett has identified himself as the founder, and Mick Foley is a co-owner, it totally steals Crnette’s thunder as the company’s authority figure. Basically, Cornette has now been relegated to Ted DiBiase in 1997 WCW after Eric Bischoff turned on WCW and joined the NWO. DiBiase went from the heel mouthpiece to the NWO to a babyface manager of the Steiners, which was pretty useless. Just like back then, it leaves a great talker standing around with no role.
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