Dot Net reader Mr. Showtime attended the TNA Impact taping on Monday and sent the following report.

The tapings stared late because they were running behind on taping vignettes, so there was no introductions for Taz or Mike Teney or the Spanish booth this time.

Dark Match

1. Amazing Red beat Slick Brown. I missed Brown's middle name. He came out looking a little like a cross between the The Rock and D-Lo Brown. He looked good with his offense (to which I credit Red) but a little sloppy in his bumps. Fun, fast paced match. Brown got a good near fall with a version of the Low-Down (I guess the look was not enough, he had to take D-Lo's finisher too!) but Red eventually won with his finisher.

TNA Impact

Impact started with Fortune coming out with Daniels, who cut a promo on how his past with TNA has always been rocky, but he and his best friend A.J. Styles have always had each other's back. He then asked Fortune to be their fourth man in their match with Team Flair at Lockdown.

Team Flair came down to the ring and Ric Flair cut a promo He said that no one, even himself, God, knew who the hell Daniels was. He suggested he take himself back to California and stay there. At one point, Flair called himself "your God-King." Funny. Daniels said The Network knew who he was. This brought out Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff. Hogan said if "The Superhero" Daniels wanted a contract and The Network wanted him at Lockdown, then so be it.

Hogan also said he was in negotiations to buy The Network so he didn't have to put up with this crap. Bischoff then made a match between Bully Ray and Daniels as a warm up for Lockdown. Ray made fun of Daniels for wearing eyeliner and painting his nails black and said Daniels should just put on lipstick and be done with it. Daniels told Ray to remember that the guy with eyeliner and painted nails kicked his ass. A brawl ensued with Fortune and Daniels got the better of Team Flair.

2. Hernandez and Anarchia defeaterd Tommy Dreamer and Devon. The new LAX (with Sarita and Rosita) got their butts kicked the whole match until Hernandez interfered and the new guy covered Devon for the win. After the match, they beat on Devon and Dreamer until Morgan made the save. Hernandez fed his partner to Morgan for a choke slam and escaped up the ramp, so I guess they continue this awful feud. Side note, they hung the giant Mexican flag behind the ring the whole match and it blocked everyone sitting in the stands. Looks like it may be a cool visual on TV though.

3. Samoa Joe beat Murphy. Murphy came out looking like a madman pulling his hair out and making pained expressions to absolute silence. Not one person cared. Joe came out to a nice pop, and Pope sat in on cometary. Murphy got in a move or two before Joe decided he had enough and locked on the RNC. Wow....that was quick. Joe then chased Pope out of commentary and to the back.

4. Sarita and Rosita defeated The Beautiful People for the TNA Knockouts Tag Titles. When TBP came out, Velvet had to drag Angelina to the ring, and she was overselling the trance thing. Velvet started and wrestled for a few minutes but when she went to tag in Love, Angelina didn't move. Winter came out to the stage and called Angelina's name. She made a snapping a twig motion and Love snapped Velvet's neck on the top rope, then got on top of her and dropped punches for a bit. Love then left the ring and the champs retained. Winter and Love walked to the back together as Velvet looked stunned and confused it the ring.

Sting came out and asked Rob Van Dam to join him. RVD came out and Sting said he wanted to apologize to RVD for the way he treated him when he debuted for the company (anyone remember the baseball bat beat down?). Sting then said Rob should apologize to him for the distraction of him and Anderson while he is trying to deal with Immortal. Rob said something about becoming champion. Hogan and Bischoff came out and quickly made a match between the two for tonight.

5. Bully Ray defeated Christopher Daniels in a lumberjack match. They announced it would be a lumberjack match with Team Flair and Fortune as lumberjacks. Nothing too fancy until Daniels hit the BME, and Flair pulled the ref out before three. While the brawl at ringside distracted the ref, Hogan came down and used Ray's chain to clock Daniels in the head, giving Ray the win.

They started setting up a cage, but did not announce a match. Jeff Jarrett came out while there was only three sides up and cut a promo on Kurt being arrested last week.(He was talking about Impact, though bad timing for Angle's real arrest). Jeff then said that Angle would probably not be at Lockdown because of it and asked if that was Kurt's plan because Kurt was afraid he would be beaten within an inch of his life by Jarrett. Jeff then asked them to play Karens music so she could say a few words.

Instead, Angle's music hit and he used Suicide's rope entrance into the side of the cage that was not up yet. He then motioned for the ring guys to finish the fourth side and Kurt had Jeff trapped. Jarrett pushed the camera guy into Kurt and climbed out. Angle chased him up to the top, then posed there, as Jeff and Karen escaped backstage.

Seriously, that three minute angle took ten minutes for the cage to be set up, and ten more to take it down. They were already behind and they should have and could have moved it to the end of the show. It was pointless and used as a reason to see the spot of Kurt rappelling in, but it was obvious when the put up three sides then stalled putting up the fourth. It really dragged the live crowd down.

6. Rob Van Dam beat Sting in a non-title match with Mr. Anderson as special referee. Anderson was announced as the guest ref. He came out limping (and limped the whole time he was out there, and carrying Scott Stiener's pipe for some reason. RVD and Sting faced off, and Anderson turned to RVD and asked if he gives up. Funny. Back and forth action until Anderson Mic Checked Sting after a Scorpion Death Drop on Rob, and told RVD to "climb!!"

RVD hit Sting with the Five Star Frog Splash and got the pin. Anderson then hit RVD with the title belt. Murphy and Rob Terry came out clapping and lifted Anderson onto their shoulders as Hogan made the "I scratch your back...." motion on the stage. Anderson acted like he turned full heel for a few minutes then hit both guys with a Mic Checks as Hogan looked stunned to close the show.

It did seem that Anderson had joined Immortal for a second and the double twist turn was very good (unless they ruin it on TV). Everyone in the crowd groaned and started cursing Russo again, but they all loved the (eventual) double swerve.

7. Chris Sabin, Suicide, and Brian Kendrick beat Generation Me and Robbie E. Fun X Division match while it lasted. Jeremy was about to win it with a top rope move when Max, who i guess thought Jeremy was trying to show him up, crotched him. Jeremy then hit a sick top rope DDT on him, and Kendrick covered for the win. Afterwards, Max threw his Generation Me wristband at Jeremy and left.

Xplosion

1. Ink Inc. defeated The British Invasion. A fun match with a lot of Ink Inc. (especially Jesse Neal) fans in the crowd. Lots of near falls and Ink Inc. won with their finisher.

All and all,not a bad taping, but the matches were kinda short and nothing really exciting happened. I'll be back tomorrow for the 4/14 taping. See you then!

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