First off I would just like to say if you are a Hardy Boyz fan and haven’t yet purchased the new basketball top from wwe.shop.com then drop whatever you are doing and go and do so immediately. It is awesome and one of my favourite pieces of WWE merchandise I own. Be aware that it is very big though as I ordered an adult small and it is still HUGE on me but it looks awesome and maybe Ill put a picture up on my myspace sometime of me wearing it.

There was a huge uproar earlier in the week when it emerged Jeff Hardy had been removed from his scheduled flight home from the Smackdown/ECW tapings. The internet became rife with rumour and I was seriously concerned that my favourite superstar could well be on his way out of WWE. Thankfully Hardy was just drunk and unable to take the flight due to his inebriated state. Now some people will no doubt think this is not exactly stellar behaviour from someone who is supposed to be a role model but in all honesty I cannot see any problem with it. From a report I read from someone who had been at the bar where Hardy was drinking it sounded like many superstars were having a pretty heavy night of it and why not seeing as they had the next day off. Sport stars of all sorts generally have a tendency to get well and truly smashed after a successful performance and if there are any of my readers from England then remember our cricket team and their three day bender after their ashes win a few years ago! Hardy did nothing wrong and was entirely cooperative with the airport authorities and therefore WWE are making the completely correct decision not to punish him in any way. Whether or not it affects the outcome of his match with Triple H at No Mercy remains to be seen but in all honesty I can see WWE holding off on a Jeff title win until at least Survivor Series.

In other big news this week Kevin Nash resigned with TNA. Now this came as somewhat of a surprise to me as I really did think we would see him returning to RAW to act as Shawn Michaels bodyguard in the lead up to No Mercy and beyond. Having seen how much of a reaction R-Truth has got form the live crowds (more on him later) Nash could have returned to a heroes welcome and for any other name in TNA considering jumping ship I would say look no further than Killings as an example to follow. Someone like Christian Cage who put on such a stellar performance at No Surrender a couple of weeks ago could instantly come in as a main event level star and imagine the calibre of matches Cage could put on with the likes of Jericho, Punk, Edge, Orton etc. It sure is an exciting time to be a wrestling fan!

In a more gossip reltaed note I read the following comments from Randy Orton in an interview he conducted with Power Slam Magazine:

PS: Were you glad when Triple H was Drafted to SmackDown?

Orton: I was at the Draft (on June 23) after I got hurt. I was in the locker room watching the backstage monitor. I was hoping to get traded (from Raw to SmackDown). Actually, it’s funny because Umaga just got traded to SmackDown. He was like, “Man, you know what? At least I haven’t got to be around Triple H no more.” So (Umaga) goes to SmackDown and I’m like, “Yeah … F–k you!” The last Draft pick’s Triple H and I’m like (punches the air), “Yes! Oh, my God!” Yes, yes, yes!” I went right up to Umaga and I was, like, “You’ve got to deal with it now!” It was my favourite Draft pick, to be honest with you. And we got Rey Mysterio, we got Kane, Batista. I’ve got history with those guys.”

All I can say is this sounds like the start of ego overdrive to me. Remember Randal that without Triple H and Evolution you would be nothing! I cannot believe that he would be so openly disrespectful to the guy who helped him make a name for himself in the wrestling business. I really hope that some of the higher ups in WWE take note of this and take the appropriate action because otherwise in a few years time Orton will be the biggest ego around and everyone in the business will despise him. I can understand why Umaga feels slightly despondent to be working on the same brand as Triple H as during their feud he was completely buried and did not pick up one single victory but Orton has no excuse and in fact Triple H put him over in one of the greatest Last Man Standing matches of all time at No Mercy last year.

Ok so with the news and notes out of the way it is on to this week’s Smackdown

The show opens with an outstanding video recap of the exploits of Jeff Hardy last week and his subsequent destruction by Vladimir Kozlov.

The show opens with a match for the Divas Championship featuring champion Michelle McCool taking on Maryse. Ok so a title match with no build whatsoever but hopefully these two would be able to give us a good match to at least the standard of their Unforgiven encounter. Maryse showed a different side to her game early on here locking in a side headlock and trying to grind McCool down. Beautiful drop kick from Michelle taking advantage of Maryse’s posing. Maryse was able to get back in control after delivering a kick to the head whilst Michelle was on the ring apron. Maryse has improved some more in the ring and for the first time did not look out of place against the experienced Michelle. Superb jumping neck breaker from followed by a very unique finisher which is apparently called the Wings Of Love allowed Michelle to retain her title. This was an excellent way to open the show as both women showed a lot of quality in the ring and gave us a decent match. I imagine this to be the blow off from this feud but it has certainly helped Maryse show at least to me that she is the real deal in the ring.

We see Big Show and Vickie discussing power backstage but they are interrupted by Eve who is anxious to know when she can make her in ring debut which is mocked somewhat by Vickie and Big Show.
Next up Jesse and Festus seem to be continuing their removal men gimmick as they find themselves taking on Ryan Braddock. Festus dominated in the early stages until Braddock was able to hit a nice drop kick sending Festus into the corner. The corn fed colossus however fought back and was able to overpower the imposing Braddock. Jesse and Festus are over as a tag team and this new gimmick seems to be working well for them. After Festus hit his finisher Jesse and Festus proceed to tie up Braddock just as they did with Dykstra last week. I guess this is part of a gimmick to promote Smackdown’s move to MyNetworkTV shortly and I am enjoying it.

Next up we see a video from Shelton Benjamin putting down his opponent for tonight that will be R-Truth. Wow! This should be a match! Shelton is certainly improving his mic work. Shelton generates some serious heat from the crowd as he makes his way to ring side. R-Truth makes his way to the ring rapping once again and is over as anything in Nashville. Awesome! Shelton looked disgusted with Truth’s entrance and shows a complete lack of respect for the ex TNA man early on. Hard elbow to the face from Truth early on followed up by his corkscrew elbow which caused a big pop from the crowd. Benjamin opened up on Truth but found himself on the receiving end of a very high flying kick. Big T-bone suplex from Shelton which was followed by a unique back breaker submission maneuver. Shelton continued to dominate, grinding Truth down with his unmatched mat wrestling, Truth however battled back hitting some aggressive strikes but soon found himself grounded once again by Shelton. The crowd rallied behind Truth Hardy style, who countered Shelton’s offence with a nice Jaw Breaker. Truth missed the axe kick but was able to counter Shelton’s suplex attempt into a roll up for a pin fall and victory. This was an excellent match that really has potential to be a great feud between two top athletes in the WWE. After the match Gregory Helms appeared on screen for a few seconds saying the price of gold had just gone down. Awesome! Helms is a great asset and I look forward to seeing him return!

Jeff Hardy is out next to an enormous pop and found himself in one on one action against The Brian Kendrick. Prior to the match Jeff got on the mic and delivers a heart felt and intense promo saying how Triple H fired him up last week and has made him better, Jeff then started to run down Kozlov but is interrupted by Kendrick who gets a lot of heat from the crowd by trash talking Hardy. Classic line from Jeff “THE Brian Kendrick who I beat in THE fatal four way to become THE number one contender” Jeff started the match very aggressive sending Kendrick flying but Kendrick was able battle back using his quickness and sending Jeff out of the ring. Kendrick then took control using his flurry of kicking offence and submission techniques to wear Hardy down. Nice mule kick counter from Jeff who followed up with his jumping kick in the corner. Kendrick countered the Twist Of Fate but missed his follow up kick allowing Hardy to hit a perfect face buster but Kendrick clung to Jeff’s leg preventing him from hitting the Swanton. Hardy went for the Whisper in The Wind but found himself distracted by Ezekiel. Kendrick went for The Kendrick but somehow Jeff was able to counter into a backslide. After Jeff made his way to the top of the rope in celebration Kozlov laid him out to a huge amount of heat from the crowd. Seems Kozlov is really in line for a monster push on Smackdown.

Next up we get more backstage antics from Vickie and Big Show with Chavo impersonating the Undertaker and then more video recap from Unforgiven. This was pretty funny!

Carlito’s Cabanna is next with his special guest his brother Primo. They talk about how easy their win was last week but were soon interrupted by Hawkins and Ryder. As Hawkins and Ryder made their way to the ring we got another vignette from Helms. Whoop! Now I am even more hyped for his return. Hawkins and Ryder proceeded to trash talk Carlito and Primo for a few minutes before agreeing to a tag title match next week. This was a fun segment that really poked fun at the current tag champs. Once again Carlito showed he is just as at ease working as a face as he is a heel. Something tells me we will be seeing new WWE tag champs next week.

Colt Cabanna A.K.A Scotty Goldman (guess I’m going to have to start calling him that) was taking on the Great Khali next in singles action. Prior to the match Cabanna cut a hilarious promo mocking Khali but in the match he just could not deliver and found himself demolished by the four moves of doom. The crowd were dead as was my interest in this match. However after the match it was announced that Khali would be taking on Kozlov in singles action next week. Now that will be quite a match! Not in terms of quality wrestling but in terms of it will be the time Kozlov really steps up and takes down the “greatest” threat he has faced so far.

Next we see Chavo backstage watching the video of Big Show knocking out the Undertaker, however in true horror movie style the video cuts out and the Undertaker locks his hand around Chavo’s throat. I really couldn’t care less about this angle but there is so much other quality happenings on Smackdown right now that it really does not bother me!

Triple H is in action next against MVP and comes out to a huge welcoming from the Nashville crowd. It seems MVP has permanently stolen Undertaker’s flame pyro that went off by accident a few weeks ago and I have to say it suits him much more. Triple H looks very unimpressed as MVP stares in disgust at the crowd. MVP is in control early on here grinding Triple H down but finds himself on the receiving end of a huge clothesline from the Game. Triple H followed up by mocking MVP’s showboating and gives him the DX crotch chop. As we return from commercial MVP is focusing on Triple H’s arm and uses one of Triple H’s signature face busters against him. MVP’s focused intelligent wrestling style continues to impress me and Triple H did a very good job selling the arm injury. The crowd rally behind the Game as MVP has a key lock in place but as Triple H powered out MVP ground him back down. The crowd were not into the slow paced technical style of MVP but I enjoyed seeing this old school approach and this match further reinforced why I would really like to see a feud between Shelton Benjamin and MVP as their styles would perfectly compliment each other. Very good arm bar take down from MVP but after dominating the whole match it seemed obvious where this one was going. MVP went for his big boot in the corner but Triple H countered with a high knee to a big pop from the crowd. Excellent counter from Triple H taking MVP down with a neck breaker and following up with a face buster of his own. As MVP charged he found himself caught in the signature spine buster. As MVP went to the top rope (which is something I have not seen him do before) Triple H countered his flying kick into the Pedigree for the pinfall and victory. This was a good if somewhat predictable match. Afterwards Kozlov stormed to the ring showing no fear of the WWE champion and locked eyes with the Game. MVP distracted Triple H which allowed Kozlov to physically dismantle Triple H laying him down with his signature head butt. The monster from Moscow is on a mission! I wonder if Kozlov will end up inserted into the match at No Mercy making it a Triple Threat perhaps?

This was yet another excellent edition of Smackdown that featured some great matches and the start of what will hopefully be an outstanding feud between R-Truth and Shelton Benjamin. Jeff Hardy is really staring to sounds fired up and intense when he delivers his promos and Maryse has come on so much in the ring that I am left regretting the amount of criticism I gave her when she debuted. I am enjoying Jesse and Festus’ new moving gimmick and The Brian Kendrick continues to impress me week after week. As I said earlier the only thing which I am not enjoying right now is the whole La Famillia plus Big Show vs Undertaker angle but hopefully that will come to an end at No Mercy. Match of the week this week has to go to R-Truth vs Shelton Benjamin for their outstanding display of wrestling skill.

Did I mention Gregory Helms is returning! Whoop!

This weeks Smackdown scores a solid: 9/10

That is all for this week. Join me next week for more Chris Reviews Smackdown. As always the email is: a_agreement_called_forever@hotmail.com and the myspace: www.myspace.com/agreement_called_forever

Until next time The Rated R Era is resting in peace!

My top ten matches so far this year in WWE:

1. Edge vs Undertaker – Summerslam – 17th August 2008
2. Chris Jericho vs Shawn Michaels – Unforgiven – 7th September 2008
3. Ric Flair vs Shawn Michaels – Wrestlemania 24 – 30th March 2008
4. Edge vs Undertaker – One Night Stand – 1st June 2008
5. Triple H vs John Cena – Night Of Champions – 29th June 2008
6. Edge vs Undertaker – Wrestlemania 24 – 30th March 2008
7. Shawn Michaels vs Chris Jericho – Great American Bash – 20th July 2008
8. Jeff Hardy vs Shawn Michaels – RAW – 11th February 2008
9. Jeff Hardy vs MVP – Summerslam – 17th August 2008
10. Batista vs John Cena – Summerslam – 17th August 2008

Smackdown Power 10

1: Triple H
2: Jeff Hardy
3: Brian Kendrick
4: Shelton Benjamin
5: MVP
6: Vladimir Kozlov (+3)
7: R-Truth (+2)
8: The Big Show (-2)
9: The Undertaker (-2)
10: The Colons (NE)

Watch any WWE programming you miss at: http://newagewrestling.niceboard.com all you have to do is register and then you can watch your pick of some of the greatest matches in the history of pro wrestling as well as all of today’s great shows.

1.) Decent Storylines for Hard Justice ✓

2.) Decent Build for Hard Justice ✓

3.) Solid PPV Card✓

4.) PPV Booking = ????…. (Remember Victory Road)

#4 will be the clincher. No matter how good the previous Impacts have been, they are irrelevant if TNA can’t cap that by ‘blowing off’ the storylines with some great wrestling at Hard Justice.

The entire World Title situation began with Sting interfering at Victory Road. Joe keeps saying that once he’s done with Booker he’ll be coming after Sting. That sets up an interesting situation at Hard Justice. For 4 weeks Sting has only been seen in the rafters, playing ‘mind games’. Those who buy this PPV will be the ones who want to know where that goes in addition to the impressive card.

If the great people in TNA decide to do something ‘innovative’ and screw that up, then you’d have just lost $30……again.

The 2 most important feuds that will take place at Hard Justice namely the title match in a 6 sided weapons filled cage and the Last Man Standing match between Kurt Angle and AJ were well built in this week’s main event: The Weapons Gauntlet match.

8 guys compete with 2 starting out. Each guy gets to bring one weapon to the ring. Every two minutes another 2 guys enter.6 guys are eliminated by being thrown over the top rope and the final two battle over a pinfall or submission victory.

The pairing of enemies to start the match added a lot of heat. Kurt and AJ starting off was entertaining. Both the guys exchanged moves at a fast pace. The only complaint here was the addition of the James Gang. No one expected them to win or even be a threat so why were they there?

An earlier idea might have been to have Tomko face Matt Morgan on PPV but since Tomko’s left the company, those two guys beating each other up doesn’t mean anything. Tomko’s last match for the time being in TNA saw him mount some decent offense towards Joe. Both of them being the last two guys in the gauntlet. I would have liked to see Booker and Joe as the last 2 men, which would have made sense to close the show.

Nonetheless Joe gets the win off a muscle buster that has him looking strong. Booker T fuming near the tunnel and Sting then showing up in the rafters after Joe addresses Booker was fun and sets up the match well on PPV. How TNA actually book it will be another story. However this match needs to deliver. It’s a weapon filled cage match. If TNA decide to showcase the wrestling Booker and Joe can steal the show but if it’s another convoluted finish aimed at plugging the storyline …..Then God help us!

Kurt Angle bleeding like a leaky tap after a ladder shot ruled in a very sick way. Last Man Standing at Hard Justice between Angle and AJ should be worth a watch.

However, this show was stolen hands down by Money Beer. They set up their match with LAX and Cage/Rhino damn well backstage and dominated as the heel team despite partnering 3D in the 8 man tag match.LAX landed some really decent spots and I always mark out when Hernandez flies!.The DUI powerbomb +neckbreaker combo is an awesome move by Beer Money. The last minute was super well done with the faces preventing the 3D flying headbutt, Cage spitting beer into Storm’s face and then getting Homicide to land the Gringo cutter on Storm for the pin.

BUT what followed was pure Beer Money genius. I love it when one heel team out-heels another.3D kept plugging that Rhino had an X on his back and that they’d put him through the glass table. So as a viewer that’s what you’d have expected when Devine brought out the glass table after the match. While 3D are busy showing off and leave Homicide on the turn buckle.

Beer money pick him up and CRASH..Through the table he goes. I marked out when Storm’s ‘Sorry About Your Damn Luck’ music hit the speakers and Roode goes to high five a very Pissed D-Von! 3D can’t believe it while Beer Money are celebrating. That was awesome.

The only other wrestling that stood out was the MCMG vs. Lethal/Creed match. Very quick spots and combos. The guns land cool moves as usual. Clotheslines, Enziguris, Head Scissors and Kicks exchange. More lariats, sling shots and cross bodies land. Creed finally counters the Sliced Bread and rolls up Shelley for the win. This was the right thing to do since he’s the #1 contender for Petey’s X title.

Shelley refused to shake Creed’s hand after the match. Is a heel turn coming then..?

Useless match # 1 = Awesome Kong vs. Salinas. Salinas is Splat after the Awesome Bomb and then eats an Implant Buster. Kong should have belted Salinas with the chair.Damn that ODB, Kim and Wilde for the interference. Kong is about to bomb Wilde on the chair when ???? ABYSS ???? comes out. Are TNA really trying to build a Kong vs. Abyss feud? Have Abyss’ doctors allowed him only to fight women and not men?

Useless match #2 = Sonjay Dutt vs. Curry Man (!).They booked this to end in less than 3 minutes with a win for Dutt so that Sharkboy can land a few punches on Dutt and Super Eric and the ‘Prince Justice Brotherhood’ could prove Dutt stole Val’s engagement ring; and the ensuing drama leads to Dutt’s super lame excuse and Val ‘forgives’ him.

Another lame angle. Only the Black tie brawl and chain match on PPV between Dutt and Lethal can save this angle. Either way I pray this stuff between Val/Dutt and Lethal is O V E R.

Lastly, the only decent wrestling match that was there for the sake of wrestling was the show opening bimbo brawl between Roxxi and Jackie Moore. These 2 women have good chemistry and are very good wrestlers. Roxxi won this bout as was expected as she’s the face.TNA should really write this into a full blown feud. That will be awesome.

Last Word: It did a decent job as the go home show to a PPV but nothing spectacular. Angle bleeding like a wounded soldier on the battlefield added a lot of heat to his Last Man Standing Match against AJ. Joe vs. Booker is an interesting prospect in the cage with weapons at Hard Justice and Sting, Sharmell and Nash popping around is either a recipe for disastrous booking or a convenient way for the title to change hands. Karen and her ‘Angle’ suck but Trigg can definitely talk. Sheik Abdul Bashir hates America but America’s got Beer Money and they RULE.

Super Last Word: The Olympics begin today, 4 BILLION, I SAID 4 BILLION people are going to watch the Olympics. That’s more than half the planet’s population.TNA on the other hand gets a weekly rating of 1.0.Go Figure….

The good news first: Black Reign is gone, Richard Gray is extremely happy. The bad news now: unfortunately so is Misty the rat.TNA is now monster free, no Rellik, no Reign,no Judas Mess-yes. Only the masked rule of Abyss.

After watching Impact last night it’s been intereSting to watch the build to Hard Justice. A PPV that has been weak every year since the company started producing it. They’ve realized that .Maybe that’s why they’ve flooded the card with some serious gimmick matches.

They’ll not be getting my money for the PPV but I will somehow manage to watch it.

It’s definitely been interesting to see the way Russo’s been writing the World Title storyline. The significance of Booker holding the belt is lost on me and is inconsequential but the two guys up for the 6 sides of steel weapons match for the title at Hard Justice are doing a damn good job. Booker has been an excellent heel delivering killer promos each time and Joe’s also been doing the same thing.

The feud has gathered good heat and the way TNA keep teasing the fact that Sting is helping Booker by teasing a heel turn without even being on TV has been entertaining.

They continued that this week with Booker giving Joe a tour of the 6 sided weapon filled cage. Once again both the guys were excellent on the mic and Joe beating Booker made the feud more realistic. It was definitely irritating to see Sharmell at ringside with Kevin Nash holding the cage door shut for Joe to beat Booker.

Sting’s bat falling from the sky and the commentary team accusing him of having turned heel was unexpectedly entertaining.

What was irritating was the way they capped the show with Joe searching for Sting in the rafters in the middle of the Knockouts match between The Beautiful People and Kim/Wilde. Not that the Knockouts match was outstanding. It was just an ordinary match heavily down graded by Velvet Sky who is easily the worst woman wrestler in TNA. Frankly this match didn’t deserve to close the show as the main event. The only entertaining part was after the match when Kong came out and bombed Wilde and a few seconds later other Knockouts piled up while ODB and Kong faced off.

Those who don’t know much about Sting will not realize the significance of the crow sighting by Joe in the rafters. The baseball bat dropping down to Booker and him mouthing ‘Thank You Sting’ made more of an impact.

The other storylines for Hard Justice were built up well. Having Cage and Rhino taking on Money Beer for a shot at the tag champs meant being able to build two matches for Hard Justice.

The match was well wrestled with regular tags exchanging hands. Money Beer are an awesome heel team and TNA have found a real good heel team in them. The match picked up after Storm spat beer into Cage’s face. A double suplex from the heels followed by a tornado DDT by Cage led to Rhino tagging in and building momentum with a try for a belly to belly .

3D’s Ray coming out saw Cage flying into him eventually setting up a finish in which Jackie distracts Cage allowing Roode to belt him with a kendo stick and 3D 3ding Rhino allowing Storm to win and sending Beer Money into the tag title match at Hard Justice.

If that was cool, what was cooler was easily Christian’s challenge to 3D after the match, a match at Hard Justice with a New Jersey Street Fight Stip. An amazing line finished that segment with Cage saying ‘Let’s See Who Finally Finishes who?’

The other well wrestled match was the 6 man tag match between Rave/Rock And Devine vs. Shark Boy, Jay Lethal And Curry Man(!).This match didn’t last more than five minutes but was still entertaining because the X divisioners filled it with fast spots. The in ring Curry Man (!) dance with Christy Hemme was cool. The kicks, elbows, clotheslines all landed fast. The final finish was the best part with Lethal performing a hip toss, cart wheel combo and while Shark Boy and Curry Man take care of the Infection outside, Lethal converts the Devine intervention into a pinfall victory after the Lethal combo.

They did a small segment after that where Lethal asks Val to marry him again. The proposal didn’t go through because it seems Val has ‘lost’ the previous ring. Lethal walks off in a huff and is pissed. That’s what happens when you star in an Ace Young music video.

Dutt didn’t show up, so there was no pop for the ‘Black Tie Brawl and Chain’ Match between Lethal and Dutt at Hard Justice though that should be a good match.

Petey Williams vs. Consequences Creed was another good match. Hermie Sad-Ler graced the commentary which was a good thing because that way Don West talks less. Petey gets in Creed’s face at the start. Creed takes control with a crossbody and a slingshot cover. Petey pushes Creed off the apron to the outside and does the amazing slingshot hurricanrana which has Hermie Sad-ler excited.

Rest of the match sees him in control until Creed slightly gains the advantage with an attempted fireman’s carry (A great MMA move according to Don West, not Hermie Sad-Ler).Rhaka khan distracts the ref but Williams knocks into her. Creed goes for a top rope leg drop and misses which allows Petey to go for the destroyer but Creed turns that into an inside cradle and picks up the win for a shot at Petey and the X title at Hard Justice.

Speaking of Hard Justice AJ styles got his ass beat by Kurt Angle .I don’t know what AJ has got to do with Sting and his promo about telling the others that Sting was a good man was useless. The cool part was Sting’s music hitting but Angle showing up and hitting three Angle Slams on AJ which was awesome.

This set up a challenge made by AJ in the back. At Hard Justice Kurt Angle vs. AJ Styles in a Last Man Standing match is on.

Last Word: The backstage stuff sucked as usual but the in ring stuff was very good. The Booker/Joe/Sting storyline was extremely well written with the bat dropping in the cage. Kurt Angle Olympic slamming AJ thrice was awesome. The tag team match between Money Beer and Cage/Rhino was extremely well done. Matt Morgan kicking Tomko makes no sense of a feud right now as we know Tomko’s left TNA. Speaking of leaving KAZ saying he’s also left TNA on Karen’s Angle was sloppy like a cheap talk show pop which was exactly what it was in the first place. The adventures of the ‘Prince Justice Brotherhood’ were funny. Overall the Hard Justice build was decent.

So everyone who was surprised at Nash taking a backseat and Sting appearing just two shows before Victory Road can take the liberty of concluding whose idea that was. We can also attribute the horrible booking of the title match at Victory Road to you know who.

I don’t want the comment board turning into a chorus for ‘Firing Russo’ simply because as fans there’s little we can do about it. Let’s instead focus on what parts of the show we enjoyed or not and how things play out.

For now everyone can be damn sure that I for one will not be ordering Hard Justice no matter how good the build is. My next TNA PPV will only be in October for BFG. Everything in between is a waste of my money and time. I would be surprised if you disagreed especially after the way they completely blew up the title match on PPV and have us talking about that instead of all the great X division action in the Ultimate X.

Things this week started of in the ring between Joe and Booker discussing their match. Booker’s words were thankfully rebutted by Joe. I say ‘thankfully’ because having Booker get away with the fact that he ‘physically and mentally dominated’ Joe would be a case of really bad writing. Joe killed with his promo. The Impact zone gave him a huge pop chanting the ‘Joe’s gonna kill you’ line. It’s hard to say if TNA just worked the crowd into saying that or they genuinely felt that way.

Those wanting to know what the situation with the title was got their reward for tuning in .A brief line from Cornette saying Joe is still champ. So much for speculation.

The angle they’re currently playing is Joe allows Booker to keep the belt but is going to beat him down every show because he’s a target. Somehow Sting plays into all this with a heel turn being teased. There is no point in trying to guess what happens because ahem…You know why.

Kevin Nash and Joe are friends again because Nash was only trying to motivate Joe by saying ‘You Can’t Beat Booker’. Now that he isn’t saying it anymore Joe’s having doubts whether he can actually beat Booker as reflected in this week’s backstage meeting between the two. While it was being said Joe was fully certain he could beat Booker. Bizarro World anyone?

Booker wrestled on Impact against consequences Creed. Creed cuts a promo which was pretty good doing Rocky’s underdog story. Booker converts this into a stretcher match as he claims he’s gonna put Creed in a hospital. Creed hits early offense and his rolling clothesline for about one minute after which Booker totally squashes him and puts him on the stretcher. Just as he’s about to load him into the ambulance and Sharmell opens the door Joe jumps out and closes Booker into the ambulance which speeds off.

Meanwhile Sharmell attacks with a baseball bat. We’re supposed to assume Sting gave it to her. Joe plucks it and asks ‘Where did you get that from’. We’ll ponder over that till next week.

Speaking of Sting, 3D and Kurt showed up in Sting attire and baseball bats trying to proclaim that Sting is a heel after a conversation between Angle and Sting a day earlier. They’re saying this on the mic in the ring when the guys they beat on PPV; Cage, Rhino and AJ show up.

Ray and Christian’s mic work was excellent and set up the 5 tables’ elimination match next week pretty well. That should be a good watch.

At this point does someone realize that I’m talking about promos and no wrestling? That’s because there’s nothing to talk about wrestling wise.

The show opened with a match after about ten minutes into Impact between KAZ and Petey for the X title which KAZ lost …as usual. They booked the match to be full of spots with Petey and KAZ doing some crazy body benders. Petey dominated most of the match and survived a pinfall after a Wave of the Future. Petey landed a slingshot hurricanrana to KAZ which was damn cool to watch. KAZ’s flux capacitor attempt is converted to an exchange of rollups which finally gets Petey the win.

KAZ’s promo backstage about how he let the X division down was pretty decent.

After a meeting in Cornette’s office which was lame, the knockouts competed in a 10 woman gauntlet with a title shot for Taylor’s title on the line. This match was very good. They gave it some time and the senior wrestlers put on a good show. The feud between Roxxi and Jackie had heat and should be developed. The finish with Kim eliminating Love after a tussle on the apron leading to Velvet Sky with a roll up for the Victory means a title match for the Knockouts belt is on for next week.

Another knockout Karen Angle will have her own talk show where she asks the difficult questions from next week, this segment is going to be called ‘Karen’s Angle’. I have a question for that segment: Why Are You Still on TV?

Lance Hoyt will henceforth be called Lance Rock. After changing his name he and Rave got squashed by Matt Morgan in separate singles matches. The only point of interest here is that Morgan squashed both of them in less than three minutes, has a new entrance song and has renamed his finisher to the ‘Mount Morgan Drop’.

The only segment that combined the wrestling and the storylines was the Dutt/Lethal angle. Though why TNA couldn’t give the 3 way between Dutt, Devine and Eric Young more than three and a half minutes is beyond me. They booked Dutt to pick up the win after a CHOP BLOCK to EY. Why a chop block, anyone? It’s been ages since I saw the Hindu Press on Impact.

What followed was very entertaining. Lethal running in and Val following means the angle is not over. A-La Eddie Guerrero followed with Dutt hitting the ring post with a chair and tossing it to Lethal leading to Val suspecting Lethal of knocking out Dutt while Dutt fakes injury on the mat.

Last Word: Absolutely nothing to talk about wrestling wise except KAZ/Petey which was way too short and the Knockouts gauntlet match. The promos dominated the show. Some were entertaining especially those in the ring. The other backstage stuff totally sucked. Money Beer beating down everyone pushed them as heels though I still fail to understand how the refs,Scott D’Amore and Simon Diamond can get to the ring to save the fan they were beating down in half the time the LAX took to get in the ring to save Hector. Once again no Abyss.

They didn’t exactly do that but definitely put on a better show this week which helped. For starters having guys like Petey, Matt Morgan and Abyss come out and make an in-ring presence is ‘refreshing’  despite them not having a spot on the card simply because it’s sickening to see them in backstage promos, rough cuts ,or not at all.

Frankly speaking, I don’t think TNA have done a great job building some buzz for the VR PPV at least not on TV. However from what I have heard Houston’s wrestling fans are quite excited about the event this Sunday. So you can expect a noisy crowd this Sunday Live on PPV.

Victory Road is an important PPV for TNA; it’s when they start planning for BFG. Even though the execution of the storylines has been weak, I for one will definitely be ordering Victory Road. The biggest question for me as posted for this week’s title will be: Will the title change hands from Joe to Booker T?

It will be refreshing to see it actually happening because it makes sense to do so. Nash can get involved and easily cost Joe the title. Since it is Booker’s hometown, it won’t be a bad idea to put the strap on him at set up the rematch for BFG. The spoiler in all of this is the sudden appearance of Sting 2 weeks before the PPV. The plan seems to be to get Sting involved so that he generates a few more PPV buys, but having him show up just 2 shows earlier in 2 minute appearances is a recipe for more overbooking but we’ll see.

This week started off with Roode taking on Homicide in a parking lot street fight. It was a cool change to see the show starting outside. Clearly no wrestling with both guys bashing each other with trash can lids, road signs, pipes, etc. James Storm getting involved made sense but why he was wearing a mask didn’t. They drag Homicide to the ring and with Jackie put the beatdown on him with the strap. Hernandez runs in to break up the numbers game but why he didn’t do that earlier made no sense.

So while Money Beer Inc. double team Hernandez, Hector tends to Homicide. Hernandez recovers and is about to BORDER TOSS Storm when Roode pulls him to safety. The lights dim and for about 5 seconds Sting is shown from the rafters with Mike and Don screaming their heads off.

Moving on to this week’s X Cup matches. The first one between Doug Williams of Team International and Masato Yoshino of Team Japan was extremely entertaining filled with way too many near falls. It was like the entire match was in a perpetual state of fast motion! clearly a difference in offense between Doug Williams and Yoshino.Williams uses a knee, leg and power offense while Yoshino relies on quick strikes and body benders. There was a botch by the guys in attempting a head scissor move .The ending was superb with Yoshino running toward Williams who moved allowing Yoshino to bounce off the turn buckle leading to a rollover German bridge style suplex. In other words Doug Williams landed the CHAOS THEORY finisher for the win.

Oh yeah! I mark out every time I see that. The second X Cup match between Kaz and Ultimo Guerrero was nowhere as good as the earlier one .In fact they booked this match to be a spot filled quick match. This match would have been a lot more enjoyable if they had given it some time. In between Kaz trying to sell a bad knee backfired. Ultimo Guerrero once again delivered with a superb Gourd Buster right at the beginning and in the middle a reverse superplex!! called the Guerrero Special. The match ends with Kaz pinning Guerrero after waving him into the future.

This has definitely not been the best World X Cup line up in years BUT everyone involved CAN definitely wrestle and it will be amazing to watch them go insane in the ULTIMATE X for the X cup at Victory Road.

Onto the Awesome Kong vs. Taylor (surname: Wild) match for 25,000 dollars and the women’s title.Surprise, Surprise! Kong is beaten by Taylor, after dominating 75% of the match.TNA booked this as one where Taylor keeps coming back after eating or avoiding Kong’s high impact offense like the spinning backfist or the implant buster. In the middle Raisha Sayeed is trying to get involved but is countered by Roxxi. Kong goes for the backfist which is avoided = rollup pinfall=celebration with belt=speech about ‘dreams coming true’ which was lame but thankfully not long.

Sometime on the show when Cornette was hyping the Victory Road PPV he announced the rematch between Taylor and Kong for the title at VR. This time Kong should kill her. Kong looks good bashing people senseless.

ABYSS APPEARANCE. After intensive treatment the doctors let Abyss out at Slammiversary but then they re-admitted him. This week they released him so that he could save Eric Young. Since its TNA only God knows when Abyss will be re-re-rehabilitated and start appearing regularly.

He appeared at the end of a 6 man tag match.BG James, Matt Morgan and Eric Young taking on Petey Williams, Tomko and Kip James. Matt Morgan started with some flash including a ropewalk but the match slowed down after that. Kip landed a suplex on BG James on the outside. Clearly the spot of the match was Petey applying the sharpshooter on EY on the ring steps. They move inside where EY counters the Canadian Destroyer hold with a neckbreaker. Tomko breaks the ensuing pin and that sets up Petey to slingshot into EY getting the pin after Tomko clocks him with the pipe. They’re about to do more damage when Abyss appears and teases a return to his old self (I hope that’s not being the recently released Jim Mitchell’s son).

Throughout the show they plugged the main event 6 person tag match between AJ, ODB and Gail Kim against Kurt Angle + The Beautiful People. Angle was pissed backstage through the night that the girls were busy tanning or beautifying themselves instead of practicing for the match. At least the segments were shorter and much better than last week’s stuff.

When the match finally began TNA booked it to be dominated by Angle and AJ with Frank Trigg and Karen Angle at ringside .After basic moves AJ counters the Angle slam into the DDT, uses the DDT and the Pele which sends DW into cardiac arrest….again. Tags exchange and the ladies takeover and Kim pins Sky leaving Angle and AJ to get it on. Meanwhile Love & Sky brown bag Kim.

After a low blow by Karen to Kurt, AJ is about to drop Angle when Frank Trigg performs the Fireman’s carry slam on AJ leading to Kurt applying the ankle lock.

Point Of Irritation: Don West screams out that the fireman’s carry is ‘A great MMA move’ by Trigg.Maybe Jackson could have used it to beat Griffin at UFC 86.

The important Joe/Booker storyline progressed once again only with an in ring verbal confrontation. Neither champion nor challenger wrestled on the go home show which sucks. Booker T was impressive on the mic apologizing to Joe for what he was going to do to him on PPV while Joe was equally impressive countering him on the mic. The only point of interest was the appearance of Sting who said he’d be watching at VR .It’s still unclear what he’ll do at VR since he hasn’t made it clear whether he wants the winner for the title.

It’s a recipe for overbooked finishes which can kill the wrestling.TNA could either use him well or ….we know.

Last Word: Definitely not a strong go home show but that doesn’t matter too much because the VR card is strong. Adding Gail Kim vs. Angelina 3 days before the PPV has no buzz despite the prospect of a decent match. Dutt vs. Lethal built on Lethal beating him down in the back this week was really bad because the skit was not funny even with the Guru-ite’s but the match should be good. The X Cup on the line in the Ultimate X should be good at VR as well. The critical thing once more is: Will the title change hands? Come Sunday we will know if Booker walks out of Houston as the new World Heavyweight Champion.

TNA gets a weekly rating of 0.9 which is incidentally worse than the worst ever rating WWE RAW has scored over the years.TNA has a better roster than WWE’S ECW yet ECW on Sci-Fi does a better rating.

What that means is that people Like Chavo, CM Punk, Mark Henry, John Morrison and Kane have gotten more people to watch their show over Kurt Angle, AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, Booker T, LAX and the Guns.

It’s not because people don’t know about TNA but rather because they have decided to watch something else when Impact is on. Simply because they know what to expect. Even if they see something totally unexpected, the unexpected is so profoundly stupid that they watch something else.

Over the years TNA have gotten everything that they’ve asked for. Starting from their own weekly show later extended to a 2 hour show. A primetime spot on Spike TV. They’ve even signed Kurt Angle and Booker T yet they keep getting a 0.9 rating.

They need to realize that as much as Spike TV appreciates wrestling, they wont have too much of a problem pulling the plug on TNA Impact if the ratings do not pick up because after all even a TV channel aims to make money and if TNA isn’t making them any they will find a show that will.

The only part of this week’s show that was consistent was the opening .I am against Karen Angle playing any further part in the Styles vs. Kurt Angle feud. This ‘Angle’ has become more about her than the two extremely talented wrestlers.

So even though AJ was beaten down yet again by 3D, it was some really good mic work cut by two guys one wouldn’t normally expect it from: Rhino and D-Von.The fans stip to vote for a TLC/Full Metal Mayhem match at Victory Road should be a good watch.

The use of Kurt Angle on this show was extremely disappointing. If the guy can’t wrestle it would be better if he sat at home and healed .I’m sick of watching him week after week doing silly backstage BS or beating down AJ.

Setting him up on 3 dates by 3D is not funny and having the Beautiful People beat down the 3^rd date in the ring just so that a melee by Kim, ODB, AJ and Rhino can be made is not going to impress the viewers.

I’m also trying to understand this. Roode and Storm are the #1 contenders to the tag team titles. It’s quite clear TNA read this blog because they’ve named the team ‘Money Beer’ after Blog Reader Guy Landau called it a few weeks ago .This week they were in 2 matches.

The first one against the Guns which they LOST as #1 contenders in less than 5 minutes should be questioned. A few months ago the Guns were jobbing to almost everyone including Reign and Rellik but this week they go over the #1 contenders. The only solace in watching this was the interference by Jackie and the strap beatdown after the match to the Guns.

Their second loss was to a team that shouldn’t even be together.TNA keeps playing the Joe/Nash dissension but if Nash does not cost Joe the title at Victory Road then this whole angle would have been a total waste.

In the past TNA have teased proxy heel or face turns like they did with Tomko at ‘Against All Odds’ only to blow it up on PPV.

Having the #1 contenders to the tag titles job twice in one night is just dumb.

Having the #1 contender Booker T to the World title appearing only in a short backstage locker room appearance and not wrestling is also dumb despite a decent promo from the man.

The World X Cup which should have highlighted the wrestling blew off some steam.

Alex Kozlov vs. Rey Buccanero of Team Mexico should have been longer. They seemed to have done it just for the sake of it .They had Buccanero winning with a senton splash in less than 4 minutes.

The other X Cup match between Japan’s Milano collection AT and Curry Man also blew up. It’s not good to see someone so over with the crowd in Curry Man hardly making an Impact in the match and jobbing to a good wrestler.

The problem was clearly with the match’s booking. Not having a world class wrestler like Milano showcasing his wrestling skills is another stupid idea.

Another thing I don’t understand is the disappearance of Abyss.TNA spent weeks in plugging his return at Slammiversary. He came back at Slammiversary and the following Impact and has completely disappeared with no sufficient explanation. Maybe TNA don’t realize that Abyss is a wrestler with a dedicated fan following. His entire image is over with the fans.

His earlier tenure as Jim Mitchell’s Weapon of Mass Destruction was super-over despite him being a heel until creative screwed that up with him being Sting’s adversary and Mitchell’s son.

The only other good part of the show was the Knockouts section. Taylor’s match against Saeed was impressive. Her win off a German suplex guarantees a shot at Kong for $25,000 and the title next week.

Moose on the other hand is looking extremely impressive. Her hardcore style in the bimbo brawl against Roxxi pushed her image pretty well and their in ring chemistry is also good. I hope the feud continues.

TNA also has this bad habit of adding too many things in. They don’t have a storyline for Matt Morgan or Gail Kim and are therefore just pushing them through the interview and ‘Rough Cut’ section. Why make a big deal out of Matt Morgan during Lockdown as ‘The Blueprint’ only so that he can sit at home?

Even if he’s filming ‘American Gladiators’ he might as well wrestle. He could even feud with Abyss.

Another example of adding too many things was the appearance of Sting. The last 2 minutes of the show showed him from the rafters after umpteen sayings of ‘Wait a Minute’ or ‘What’s that’ and ‘Could it be’ from Tenay and West. Seriously guys we know its Sting.

Last word: A very flat, disappointing and un-entertaining show where both the storylines and wrestling fell flat in spite of the World X cup. The Nash/Joe angle is of absolutely no use unless a title change occurs at Victory Road. Having the #1 contenders in Roode and Storm lose twice in one night in tag team matches is BS and Kurt Angle’s lame skits were pathetic. Somebody give Karen Angle the boot.

Even after AJ’s face turn they make his feud with Kurt about her. Either they don’t see the stupidity or have just run out of ideas. The disappearance of Abyss= nuff said.

Even though this blog talks TNA, I will take a few lines to discuss the 2008 WWE DRAFT. Things have definitely been shaken up. The WWE has managed to create a lot of buzz by shaking up the rosters. For me however, the real test begins after the buzz dies down and the storylines start to click. It was good to see Kennedy being traded to Smackdown. His Raw tenure was a disaster. With Smackdown Kennedy can hopefully get back to where he was before he was on Raw.

Moving to Impact.

It’s always easy to watch Impact when TNA keeps things simple. Too many things happening at the same time really piss the viewer off. This week saw them push storylines through a combination of backstage drama and in ring action. The difference being that more emphasis was placed on the in ring action both wrestling and promo wise. Backstage stuff was short, funny and most of all NOT overbooked. It was easy to understand.

Once again it was good to see a match starting of the show. A few good minutes of mat work, counters and body benders between AJ Styles and Consequences Creed. A quick shot of Kurt Angle watching from the parking lot means that Kurt will probably be on AJ’s tail all night long. The match ending Styles Clash after a Pele by AJ gets him the pinfall.

It was good that JB called out to AJ after the match not during. A mini brawl between AJ and Kurt erupts with Karen hanging around. Security breaks that up and that leads to AJ being by Karen’s side all night long. This last bit was well thought out by TNA. By having Frank Trigg cut a promo later on in the show (a pretty good one) in the ring, mocking AJ it was easy to understand after last week why he ran to the ring.

Instead of doing a beatdown on AJ, Trigg shows AJ the screen where Kurt has arranged for The Beautiful People to push and shove Karen around leading to her finally getting brown bagged. A helpless AJ leaves but it’s too late .In spite of a good turn of events this week, it is irritating to see that AJ has still not been given a place on the Victory Road card. They might do it in the next 2 weeks but why have they waited so long?

Another angle that has not made it to the card on Victory Road but is quite obvious is Team 3D vs. Christian and Rhino. After Rhino ate 2 successive 3D’s, the numbers of 3D and Tomko got to Cage this week. Ray cuts another damn good promo in the ring and starts of the singles match with Christian.

A nothing match with Devine running in only to get the inverted DDT by Cage set up Ray taking Devine’s kendo stick and knocking out Cage leading to a DQ victory. The coolest part of the show followed.Ray promised to show the people something they had never seen before. D-von got the glass table with Tomko.

That’s where maximum impact occurs with Ray power bombing Christian THROUGH THE GLASS. The crowd went absolutely insane for this spot and 3D was drawing real good heat. Christian through the glass was awesome selling by him. The whole part was perfect except for the ENT who ran in with a towel that clearly showed was dyed red before hand to emphasize a bleeding Christian. Botches like that need to be covered up by TNA.

The best wrestling of the show was once again highlighted by the X Cup match between Team Japan (Yoshino and Doi) against the debuting Ultimo Guerrero and Rey Buccanero of Team Mexico. Having team TNA and Team International watch from the ramp made this match a bit more interesting not that it need any in the first place.

Yoshino and Buccanero begin. Tags exchange throughout the match. Doi and Yoshino use a lot of kicks and dropkicks. Team Mexico rely on armdrags,hip tosses and spinning hurricanranas.Yoshino And Doi do simultaneous suicide dives on Team Mexico on the outside which got the crowd pumped. More kicks and clotheslines follow. A crazy grapevine style gourd buster by Guerrero on Yoshino. More moves exchange with a tag to Doi who eats An Awesome Corkscrew Senton Suplex from the top rope by Guerrero. Both members pin him getting Team Mexico a win and a point after an awesome match.

Knockouts action was split into 2 parts. One being Kong furthering the $ 25,000 challenge. She beats the crap out of a girl named Danielle. Bashes her on the outside, ramming her into stairs and finally bombing her but this segment was to try and get the viewers to notice last week’s Kong challenge contender; Shantelle Taylor from the Indies now called Taylor who jumps into the ring but is held by security. The camera cuts in to her and Cornette talking that she would get another title shot at Kong if she beats Raisha Sayeed. That should happen next week.

The other part was a no holds barred match between Moose (Mickie Knuckles) and ODB. This feud has the potential to be really big. Moose is known to wrestle a shoot style while ODB has a no nonsense image. This match lacked ring skill focusing more on damage with weapons. Power moves exchange, Moose uses the hockey stick.ODB eats steel many times, getting pinned off a double Underhook DDT on the chair. Moose goes over ODB…clean.

The funny came with Sonjay coming out with turbaned guru-ites.Little kids who collect money for him on behalf of the ‘Save Socal Val Foundation’. Dutt’s mic work was good and he did the whole thing quite well. The beginning part with Don West screaming about the guru-ites was awesome. Lethal enters later and a brawl follows with Dutt backing out but surrounded by guru-ites.

Finally onto the main event. Through out the night we saw Joe and Nash exchange words back stage. Nash trying to prove the stronger mental game was interesting though we know what to expect from the match itself with Booker T. They kept this match in focus with Booker acting like a jerk in his new and renovated locker room.

Note to Booker: Next time you’re in the locker room, please don’t say that ratings are up, it’s not funny, it’s just sad. You dig.

Even though I expected the match to be slow (which it was) Booker and Nash worked it on the outside. Stairs and chairs come into play. Nash does the clotheslines, punches and Ahem,, Big Boot while Booker is all chops and knees. Joe at ringside is unseated by Booker leading to him entering and fighting Booker. He connects with a superkick on Nash as Booker ducks. That leads to a major argument between Nash and Joe as Booker watches. The mental game it seems was played by Booker.

Last Word: An easy show to understand that featured a good mix of backstage and in ring work.3D power bombing Christian through the glass table was INSANE. The World X Cup match between Team Mexico and Team Japan was Amazing and Ultimo Guerrero with His Corkscrew Senton move is a brilliant wrestler. It was once again irritating to see Abyss not show up. Maybe the doctors think he still needs treatment. Booker vs. Nash despite low quality wrestling definitely moved the storyline forward to Victory Road. Gail Kim and Matt Morgan showed up in interviews which mean that TNA still has nothing for them. Frank Trigg and Sonjay Dutt were good on the mic.

Moment of confusion: Don West tries to explain to Mike Tenay who the Guru-ite’s are.

This week saw little of the big guys wrestling which meant that the entire show had to be built on the back of the mid card and tag team storylines. That’s not a bad thing, in fact it’s great to see the LAX and Sonjay Dutt steal the show. But will people really watch TNA to see them?

That’s another question altogether. As far as this week goes Impact started of with Jay Lethal waiting at the Pink Taco which was the place where he had that bachelor party. It was also the place where Kip James dressed like a transvestite and got his ass spanked by Sonjay Dutt. Throughout the first hour the commentary guys plugged the ‘meeting’ between Dutt and Lethal at the Taco. We also had the camera catching up with Jay who clearly arrived ahead of schedule at the Taco, thus he gets bored and breaks bottles and glasses.

Finally after teasing a non appearance Dutt appears at the Taco only to piss of Lethal and then the best part.3 minutes worth of the ‘ass whip’ being opened. Sonjay sold the weaker overwhelmed guy pretty well only mounting some weak punches. Lethal on the other hand hit him with everything he could lay his hands on and an elbow drop off a ladder.

The crazy segment finished with Lethal spearing Dutt through a metal door. This segment was really cool. I’d love to see a false count anywhere match between these 2 guys on PPV. The only thing that killed the part was that they should have done the brawl right at the opening of the show instead of Booker T vs. BG James.

After creating the buzz for the Joe/ Booker match for the title at Victory Road TNA seemed to have killed it this week .Booker basically just appeared for a few minutes literally belting BG James who really looked a total wuss getting his ass handed to him. Last week saw Booker cutting a killer promo that wound Joe up. This week saw the locker room saga sorted out with Joe sitting in the back and watching the royal ass kicking of BG James.

JB ruffles up Joe and that’s when Nash comes in and delivers another really cool dialogue. It was great to see Joe push Nash into wrestling Booker T. In all seriousness we know how that match is going to be. A big boot + snake eyes + a side slam + a big boot and another big boot and finally me on this blog screaming my head off at watching Nash wrestle again.

At least they made it interesting with Nash saying something about ‘The Mental Game’ being more important than ‘The Physical Game’. It should be interesting to see at least for that fact how this match goes.

On to the LAX segment of the show. I was reminded a lot of the days when Konnan used to cut the promos for the LAX and say really cool stuff on the mic and then belt the opposition with his slapjack. Hector Guerrero did that in his own way wanting a match against Roode and Storm.

Cornette grants them a match on PPV.A fan lumberjack strap match. Apparently when Roode and Storm picked the belt of a ringside fan last week they ‘hurt the sentiments of the fans’. This is another of those matches that sounds like a total disaster but in reality not so.

TNA’s earlier fan lumberjack matches have been fun + it’s always cool to see non wrestlers beating the crap out of James Storm with a leather strap. Doesn’t he know that alcohol is bad for him? I hope he gets whipped. Sorry about his damn luck.

That segment saw Jackie Moore/Jacqueline/Pride Of Tennessee come out .This = match with Salinas who gets hammered by Jackie’s superior wrestling skills and finally Jacqueline makes Salinas tap out with a guillotine choke hold. That was a 5150 match.

More of the great X Cup continued with 2 more matches. One a preview between Alex Kozlov and KAZ and another a tournament match between The Guns And Tyson Dux/Daivari of Team International.

The singles preview match was damn entertaining. Early mat work followed by some really cool aerial stuff and crazy counters. One spot where Kozlov flies into KAZ and does his own DANCE Russian style was superb. The finish with KAZ waving Kozlov into the future was understandable.TNA was never going to put Kozlov over in a preview match clean.

The Guns’ second X cup match was again a show stealer. They gave the match a lot of time. Though the commercial break killed the excitement in the middle, the fast pace of The Guns stole the show. The Moshino/Doi match last week was still better but this match as well kicked ass.

Dux and Daivari sell the formidable international team. Cool mat work in the beginning. Shelley and Dux exchange rights and a few moves. Things pick up with the tags. Daivari hits a few power moves. Sabin does a kick- enziguri combo. Tags exchange again and things really pick up. Clotheslines, a frog splash, a DDT, a few body benders and a cross body sets up the finish. Sabin uses the hesitation dropkick on Daivari and nails the ‘Sliced Bread Part 2′ to pick up the win for team TNA. That was cool except for AJ styles brawling with Tomko backstage.

The adventures of AJ without Karen in the Impact zone continued with him searching for Kurt Angle. Kurt was in hiding all day. AJ beats Tomko as said earlier during the tag team X cup match and goes on a tour of the Impact zone. He sees a bald man who he thinks is Angle but wait its Frank Trigg.AJ mistakenly beats own Trigg and doesn’t even say sorry!

The main event was supposed to be 3D Vs. Rhino and Cage but Rhino ate a 3D in the back so he’s out. Again backstage brawls not in the Pink Taco suck especially when the camera cuts into them after everything is over sucks.

AJ replaces Rhino and when Cage says that his partner is a phenomenal change; its good 3D called the clue or else AJ would come out and Don West would have started crying with tears of joy saying “Oh my God, unbelievable, AJ Styles is Christian’s partner!!!!!!”

This was another good match. Very physical with a lot of heel tactics by 3D.Christian dominated most of the ring time for his time.3D land their combo moves. Lots of punches and clotheslines exchanged.3D isolate AJ towards the end and are about to punk him out when he hits the pele, springs off the ropes and lands the inverted DDT to pick up the pin on D-Von.

The celebration is cut short when Frank Trigg stands outside the ropes. Kurt Angle appears and knocks AJ out. Ankle lock follows and the show ends.

Last Word: Once again the X Cup matches kicked ass. Not too much emphasis was placed on the title bout between Joe and Booker which sucked. The Dutt/Lethal Pink Taco brawl was really cool and intense. Awesome Kong’s challenge continued on Shantelle Taylor and the Fans’ Revenge Lumberjack match at Victory Road should be fun. I guess the only reason they did the interview parts with Matt Morgan and Gail Kim was because they had nothing for them. An okay show overall, not too good but not too crappy.

P.S: Where Was Abyss?

Let’s just say that Slammiversary was a good show. It wasn’t great but it was a very good wrestling show. Overbooked finishes did not help the PPV but it did a decent job trying to set up the storylines for Victory Road most notably the title bout between Booker T and Samoa Joe.

As of right now the storyline played out well on Impact. I am not a fan of heavyweight title matches opening the show the way Kaz vs. Joe did on Impact. There was absolutely no way Kaz was going to beat Joe for the title so why did it start off the show?

By no means was it a bad match. It was very good, one of the best on Impact in recent memory. Kaz used his speed while Joe used his power. Forearm shots, elbows and whips traded followed by some cool spots. Kaz’s wave was easily countered. Joe builds amazing momentum towards the latter half trying a snap slam, a power bomb and an enziguri on the top rope. Joe finishes the match by catching Kaz in the air off a slingshot, converts into the muscle buster for the pin.

The wrestling was amazing but no one’s going to remember that considering the number of times TNA have built Kaz for a title match and made him look weak by losing over and over again.

What follows is an example of how a heel promo should be cut. The current heel turn of Booker is quite different from his King Booker avatar.TNA are trying to play him as a guy who hasn’t gotten the respect he deserves instead of the cocky, arrogant heel. What follows is Booker saying Joe won at Slammiversary only because of Nash. That’s a good sign because it allows Nash to come into the title picture at Victory Road.

That is if and only if TNA decide to do a title change at Victory Road. Creatively it would be good if Nash screws Joe allowing Booker to become the champ. They can then have Joe taking it back from him at Bound For Glory. But then again with TNA, one never knows. Perfectly simple choices are overbooked and overplayed. Hence a rating of less than 1.

The rest of the interactions between Joe, Nash and Booker focused on Booker getting a title shot at Victory Road and TNA teasing dissension AGAIN between Joe and Nash. Nash was however really cool on the mic to Joe. Simple sentences like ‘I’m Kevin Nash’ and ‘You Can’t Beat Booker T’ sounded really cool.

Onto the Kurt/Karen/AJ situation. After the loss to AJ at Slammiversary in an awesome match Kurt sold heel by blaming Karen and rightly so for his loss at Slammiversary. Since Spike TV won’t allow him to touch her he put a HIT out on his wife.

It was definitely irritating to see a rematch between AJ and angle so damn soon. For those who just tuned into Impact after Slammiversary, this was baloney.TNA were clearly over anxious to keep Kurt Angle strong after his loss at Slammiversary thus they booked a lumberjack match with Morgan,Cage,Rhino,3D and Tomko as the lumberjacks.

If this company has got to get a rating of more than 1 then they’ve got to make a bigger deal about matches like these. Kurt Angle vs. AJ is a big feud. If TNA keep giving away free matches like these on TV then they’ll never make any money. There was absolutely no need to do the Kurt-AJ rematch within 5 days of it already happening at Slammiversary. Slow down the pace guys!

Matchwise, the wrestling was decent, not in the same class as what we saw at Slammiversary. Obviously room needed to be made for the lumberjacks. So it was no surprise to see both guys falling to the mat. The second half of the match kicked butt. Both guys were really trying some cool moves especially AJ who landed a really cool Japanese style hammerlock back suplex. That set up the finish with 3D interfering allowing the ref to not see AJ’s pin.

Angle counters with the Angle slam and gets a win. All hell breaks loose in the ring with the heels kicking ass.Rhino was earlier taken out by a 3D leaving the faces one man short. Tomko and 3D beat them down. Abyss enters with a cool intro (he’s become a bit fatter!) and choke slammed Tomko through the table.

The ring eventually clears leaving AJ and Kurt all alone setting the scene for Karen to enter. This was well done with Awesome Kong finally taking out the Hit on Karen leaving both AJ and Karen beaten in the ring while Kurt raises Kong’s hand.

Somewhere in the show was the start of what could be a good feud for the tag team titles.TNA had nothing else for Roode and Storm so it makes sense to put them together and let them compete in the title scene against LAX. They took on the LAX in a pretty good match. Roode and Storm isolated one partner; frequently tag in and out nullifying Hernandez. A ref distraction allows them a win BUT wait they aren’t the champs as Hector reminds the ref.

Deuces Wild controversy follows, match restarts and LAX pick up the win to retain the belts. What follows is a good beatdown.Lax are cuffed and belted with leather straps. Don West makes a noise and kills the moment.Damn that guy.

The best part of the show was undoubtedly the return of TNA’s X cup tournament and the preview matches for the cup held this week.

It’s one of the few things in all of wrestling that is less storyline and more wrestling. Team Japan’s Naruko Doi and Masato Yoshino from Dragon Gate against The Guns stole the show. AMAZINGLY FAST, lots of solid mat work and quick counters and combos. The Guns finally win but the match was without doubt the best tag team match on Impact in the last one year. Too bad nobody in TNA made a big deal about it.

Curry Man (!)against Alex Kozlov in an X cup preview match was also good. Pretty short and more grounded compared to the X cup tag team match. Kozlov sells strength and gets the pin but Curry Man (!)Does the dance, yeah!

Last Word: The wrestling on the show was quite simply some of the best I’ve seen in a while. The X cup preview with The Guns against Doi and Yoshino was Simply Phenomenal. Creative built the Joe/Booker storyline pretty well. In spite of all the great wrestling on this show nobody’s going to remember it and TNA only have themselves to blame. Like I said earlier, in order to get people to watch their show they need to market it more. How else can you explain a free AJ Styles vs. Kurt Angle match happening but no one excited or even knowing about it?

Next week: Jay lethal vs. Sonjay Dutt in a PINK TACO match.

Sometimes TNA gets carried away; usually they start the show backstage which is very irritating. Sometimes we get a good opening promo segment in the ring like last week. Most other times are overbooked long boring segments or a match that isn’t very exciting.

It was therefore good to see the show open with a good tag team match filled with the big stars in TNA. Booker T and Robert Roode vs. Christian and Rhino. Not much of mat work shown but compensated by it’s quick pace and exchange of quick tags and body shots. Rhino works the beginning part of the match while Christian tags in and works the latter part. Same with Roode and Booker.

The match ending with Booker and Roode losing because of 3D’s interference after a Rhino gore was intended to set up the show’s main event.3D and Booker with Roode beat down Cage and Rhino .AJ runs in and clears house, gets on the mic and promises to hurt Angle at Slammiversary. That’s when Cornette makes AJ vs. Tomko with Nash as the enforcer for the main event.

At this point I was excited. Tomko vs. AJ has the potential to be good and the X division KOTM match is also on for the night. It looks to be a good show.

A street fight is plugged next between Velvet Sky and ODB. As usual The Beautiful People make fun of the backstage bimbo with a mic and promise to brown bag the one who is a dirty bit*h.

The match starts excellently with ODB totally selling her gimmick by chewing tobacco and spitting into Sky’s face. It breaks into a brawl then but more of a catfight.ODB hammers Sky with blows and kicks. Sky mounts some weak offense.ODB bashes her some more, picks her up and tosses her overhead. Fights off a distraction by Love and nails a running powerslam on Sky for the pin but alas the celebration is short lived.

ODB gets an impaler from Love .Roxxi and Kim with a taped knee try to make the save but get beatdown. A new female wrestler who hasn’t been named yet debuted on Impact as the muscled backup of Sky and Love helping to destroy the face Knockouts and brown bagging Gail Kim.

This new wrestler is known as Mickie Knuckles on the Indy scene. She’s a very good wrestler and from what I’ve seen of her earlier she hits really hard and wrestles a shoot style. In other words she’s a Knockout NOT a diva.

She will team up with The Beautiful People to take on Kim, ODB and Roxxi at Slammiversary. Knockout action for the week continued with Awesome Kong issuing her $25,000 challenge. This week we have Becky Bayless from ROH’s Special K and Amber O’ Neil and Daffney from the Indys to try and accept the challenge.Daffney accepts, signs the release (thanks JB) but ho hum. She gets the crap beat out of her. Awesome Bomb from Awesome Kong -end of story. She’s a dead body after the match.

6 man tag team match is up for the week. I am truly surprised.TNA usually don’t do 6 man tag team matches. Anyway; Kip James, James Storm and can’t wrestle Hoyt take on the LAX and Matt Morgan. Storm controls the match for his team. Both the LAX dudes tag in and out frequently. Homicide spots now and then. Hernandez is all power as usual. Morgan tags in at the end, heats up and lands some entertaining shi*.A side slam and the Lesnarian F5 on Kip James for the pin.

Meanwhile, the LAX is kicking ass especially Hoyt’s. Hernandez bashes his brains out and counters his moonsault into a spinebuster. Yes, go back and play air guitar.

His partner on the other hand was involved in the best match of the night. Quite simply it should have been the main event for the skill and athleticism shown.TNA gave away a free KOTM match with X division wrestlers. That’s a good thing this time because a lot of people haven’t seen a KOTM match earlier. Getting people to see a preview on Impact can garner interest for the PPV.

Curry Man (!), Kaz, Rave, Sabin and Johnny Devine were damn good in the match. Devine did an insane moonsault of the penalty box. The ladders were used frequently. Many guys ate steel. Sabin got waved into the future on the ladder by Kaz. Curry Man was suplexed into the ladder by Devine. Chris Sabin hangs Devine from the ladder and uses the hesitation dropkick on him in an absolutely crazy spot.

The match continues in ring. The wrestlers pin each other allowing them to hang the X and win the match. Finally Curry Man does the Spice Rack on Devine, gets in the ring after a slingshot on Sabin and starts to climb the ladder. Kaz sees this, runs in off the ropes, and pushes Curry Man to the mat after taking the X from him. Hangs it and wins.

P.S: Kaz will get a title shot against the champ who walks out of Slammiversary next Thursday on Impact. He will mostly lose which will allow me to make fun of TNA for wasting another title shot.

The main event with AJ against Tomko was also very good. AJ started with an amazing dive on Tomko before the bell. A catapult, kicks and punches follow but the damn ad break kills it.

AJ continues with a clothesline and a Pele before nailing a Frog Splash for the win. Meanwhile Nash fends off Roode and Booker.3D showed up BUT this time the faces are backed up by LAX and Joe. The ring is clean except for Booker. Nash aims for Booker who ducks leading to Joe getting hit in the shoulder. That was a nice swerve playing on the Joe/Nash dissension all month long.

Last Word: It was an entertaining show that built to Slammiversary pretty well. The X division KOTM match was awesome and should have been the real main event. The Tomko/AJ match was also good. The backstage stuff was really lame especially Lethal’s bachelor party. I think Kip James forces TNA to act out his intense gay fetishes by dressing like a stripper and having his ass spanked by Dutt. Good God! That was horrible.

Funny line of the week: Kurt Angle to Mike Tenay “Shut Up Mike Tenay, I’ll bet you too are sleeping with her.”

Image of the week from TNAwrestling.com:

Onto Slammiversary.

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