TNA Impact Taping
Orlando, Fla. at Universal Studio
Report by Dot Net reader Emmanuel Cruz

The Impact taping began about an hour later than usual due to an apparent technical difficulty, so there was a much longer wait in line than the usual two hour or so slog. Also, there was a dude who strongly resembles film director Kevin Smith handing out ROH flyers to anyone with hands outside the entrance to the soundstage area. Makes sense as far as promotion goes. On to the results...

Dark Match

1. Eric Young def. Chris Sabin. Fun, fast paced little deal with lots of rope running, duck under spots and a very mixed crowd for both competitors. Shelley came out with Sabin and they made a big deal out of the X Division belt, air buffing it and posing with it every few seconds.

Impact Tapings

Pyro, the usual rigamarole, followed by the Main Event Mafia emerging together (minus Kevin Nash of course) and gathering in the ring for a promo where Kurt Angle talked his smack about Jeff Jarrett and made a big show of calling up footage of the chair intwined with the ankle spot from Genesis, along with a ton of gloating. About five minutes in, Hernandez shows up on the stage with his Feast or Fired title shot brief case, demands a title shot with Sting and a match begins, with Shane Sewell reffin' and Sting wearing his ring gear plus a gray TNA T-shirt over it.

1. Hernandez defeated Sting via DQ in a TNA World Title match. A short match ensues with Hernandez getting the vast majority of the offense, it almost looked like a squash to be honest. As expected, the MEM interferes as soon as Sting is on the verge of defeat and proceeds to give Hernandez the beatdown. Homicide runs in for the save, cranks a punch a piece to each MEM-er and is subsequently taken down and given a savage beatdown as well.

AJ Styles runs in for a would-be save and soon the same happens to him. Finally, an intact Team 3D emerges and cleans house, ending their barrage with a Brother Ray powerbomb to Kurt Angle through a table. After all of this, Team 3D cuts a promo that culminates in Brother Devon demanding a match with Kurt Angle and Brother Ray saying he wants to go after Sting.

2. ODB, Taylor Wilde and Roxxi Leveaux beat Rhaka Khan, Sojourner Bolt and Raisha Saeed. A pretty standard match and more or less exactly what you'd expect. I could've sworn Penzer announced it as a street fight at the beginning of the show, but there was nothing "street" about it unless you count my "She's A Tranny" chant everytime Rhaka Khan graced the ring with her presence.

3. Jay Lethal and Consequences Creed defeated Matt Morgan and Abyss to become No. 1 contenders to the TNA Tag Titles. Fun match with Morgan and Abyss playing the monster roles well and doing a good job of no-selling the bulk of Creed and Lethals offense until their aerial maneuvers slowly break them down. The match was colored by a string of mistakes by Abyss that reached a head when he accidentally powerbombs Lethal directly onto a prone Morgan, who is subsequently covered by Creed for a three count.

After a brief celebration by Lethal and Creed, Morgan berates Abyss verbally while repeatedly poking him in the chest. Abyss has enough and gets into it with him as well and they both come to blows with Morgan clearly being the more heelish of the two. Referees come and break it up as the two continue to go after each other. So it's finally happened, Morgan has become a heel.

4. AJ Styles beat Scott Steiner with Mick Foley as special enforcer. Two things that were advertised for this match that didn't come to fruition at all: Foley was announced as special guest referee when in fact Earl Hebner did that job, and Foley did his standing at ringside deal the entire time. Also, Kurt Angle was supposed wrestle Styles but the previous table spot apparently incapacitated him and his replacement was Steiner, something I'm sure was a work.

The match was not too bad, they were given a decent time to wrestle. I'd put it at about ten minutes or so. There were some good nearfalls and the finish didn't make Styles look any stronger but it least it was a main event win for the guy who hasn't had a ton of good exposure lately.

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