11/29 Kester's TNA Impact Wrestling Live Coverage Review: Championship Thursday with the X-Division Championship on the line, Mickie James vs. Gail Kim, and Wes Brisco faces the Gut Check judges

By Ryan Kester

Impact Wrestling on SpikeTV
Aired live from Orlando, Florida.

[Q1] Hulk Hogan made his entrance and said his world almost imploded last week after he was faced with the idea of his daughter being in a relationship. Hogan demanded to know the truth and he summoned Bully Ray to the ring. Ray obliged.

Ray deflected by talking about how Hogan doesn't trust him. Hogan asked him again. Ray asked Hogan if he really wants to know the answer to that question. Brooke Hogan decided that was an excellent time to make her entrance. She didn't fall off the stage.

Hulk asked Brooke the same question and Brooke pointed out that she's over 18 now. Hulk fired up and said he doesn't want to see Brooke with a wrestler as Brooke begged Hulk to stop. Austin Aries chimed in from Hogan's office where several X-Division stars were waiting to be told who gets to challenge for the X-Division Championship. Aries made a snide comment about Brooke and Hulk stormed to the back.

Kenely checked in with Taz and Tenay and the three men ran down the card for the evening…

Mickie James and Gail Kim were shown stretching backstage… [C]

Ryan's Reaction: I've said several times that I was looking forward to this story, but they did their damnedest to undo that here. Hulk is playing the overprotective father role, which stops being cute and starts being creepy at best once a daughter is a grown woman.

[Q2] 1. Mickie James vs. Gail Kim. Kim quickly gained control and began working over James.

James made her comeback and hit the Jumping DDT for the pinfall victory…

Mickie James defeated Gail Kim in 4:48

James Storm was backstage and he said that he lives with his decisions but he refuses to have someone talk about his family. AJ Styles showed up and chastised Storm for whining and then he started whining himself. To keep the hypocrisy train running, Storm told Styles to stop living in the past. Storm told Styles to get ready for their tag match tonight… [C]

Ryan's Reaction: More signs point towards Styles turning heel, which would really be the best option for him at this point. As far as the match goes, it was ok, but we've seen better from both women before, and they really weren't given enough time to accomplish much.

Hogan tore into his office and quickly ran through the challengers for the X-Division Championship. He quickly eliminated Kenny King, in large part because he's Aries' friend…

[Q3] Bobby Roode made his entrance. He pointed out that Hardy got called out last week by a Gut Check rookie. Christian York made his entrance and when Roode told him to split, he punched him in the face. York got on the mic and said he was calling Roode out.

Roode got all kinds of pissy and took his shirt off as the show went to break… [C]

Ryan's Reaction: York needs to stop being handed a microphone. He is terrible on the mic because he defaults into the stereotypical professional wrestler promo style rather than sounding like a normal person. Beyond that misuse, I like what they are doing with York thus far.

2. Bobby Roode vs. Christian York. York took control early and manhandled Roode. Roode managed to get in some offense, but York controlled almost the entirety of the early match and nearly caught Roode in a couple of rollups.

Roode caught York in the back of the head and he locked in the crossface for the tapout victory.

Bobby Roode defeated Christian York in 5:12.

After the match, Roode grabbed a steel chair and went to attack York's legs, but Jeff Hardy ran down and chased Roode away…

The announcers briefly recapped the recent Aces and Eights attacks…

[Q4] Bane, in the Aces and Eights hideout, said the holidays are a time to be festive. He said one of them get to face Kurt Angle next week, one on one. Devon grabbed a hammer and said he either gets a shot for his Television Title next week or all hell will break loose tonight…

Taz and the other Gut Check judges very briefly debated Wes Briscoe backstage… [C]

Ryan's Reaction:TNA is doing that frantic pace again without focusing on an individual segment. Two important angles like the York push and the Aces and Eights hype should have been kept away from each other, but they are now competing for attention along with hype for the Gut Check judging.

More of the backstage Gut Check judging debate aired…

Kurt Angle approached Brian Prichard backstage and tried to put in a good word for Wes. Prichard blew him off and then cornered D-Lo Brown and asked where Al Snow was…

Christopher Daniels and Kazarian made their entrances. Kazarian mocked Styles for his current predicament and he said that Daniels will defeat him in their latest PPV encounter…

[Q5] [C] 3. James Storm and AJ Styles vs. Christopher Daniels and Kazarian. Styles and Storm controlled the early going, but the heels managed to gain control off of a mistake from Styles. Storm tagged in quickly, however, but the heels managed to regain control again quickly.

Styles got a tag off, but he was quickly cut down by the heels. They nearly put him away with their tag finisher, but Styles managed to make the Kickout. Storm took out Kazarian and blasted Daniels with the Last Call to pick up the victory…

James Storm and AJ Styles defeated Christopher Daniels and Kazarian in 6:54

The announcers ran down the rest of the evening's card…

Back to the X-Division challenger eliminations, Kid Kash made his case for why he deserves a title shot, but Hogan decided that RVD hates Aries, so he eliminated Zema Ion and Kid Kash so Aries can get his ass kicked tonight…

Ryan's Reaction: Great match. They told a good story of Styles and Storm being at odds and never really getting it together as a team.

[Q6] [C] Samoa Joe accepted Devon's challenge. He stared into the camera and told Devon that he will be beaten…

Joey Ryan made his entrance before the next match and told Christy Hemme to go make him a sandwich. He then introduced Matt Morgan.

4. Douglas Williams vs. Matt Morgan (w/ Joey Ryan). Morgan manhandled Williams for a few moments before drilling him with the Carbon Footprint for the 1-2-3…

Matt Morgan squashed Douglas Williams in 2:08

Bruce Prichard and D-Lo Brown continued to stress about being unable to find Snow. Brown offered to stand in for Snow this week, and they agreed they would resume the search as soon as the Gut Check was over… [C]

Ryan's Reaction: Pretty standard squash match. The whole Hogan's robe gimmick doesn't have a lot of staying power. It's a sign that Hogan will be getting the better of Morgan in the near future, so the true sign of whether Morgan will be getting a real push or not will be what happens after Hogan retrieves his robe.

Wes Briscoe was called out for his Gut Check judging. Dude has a small face.

Prichard noted Snow's absence before the actual judging but he said the show must go on and he introduced D-Lo Brown as TNA's lead agent and Gut Check judge on the road.

[Q7] Prichard went first and commented on his history with Wes. He said Wes' performance last week wasn't great. He said he has a lot of potential, though, so his answer was yes. Taz said that Wes' performance wasn't up to par and he voted no. Borash told Wes to Kickout.

Wes spoke to the three judges and talked about how wrestling was his dream growing up and how he's doing it for his fans and family as much as he is doing it for himself. Wes got emotional but he managed to ask Brown to give him a chance to prove himself.

Brown laid out his thought process in making his decision and he eventually said yes. Wes celebrated with the judges and Kurt Angle and Garett Bischoff jumped in the ring to join the celebration…

Bully Ray confronted Hulk Hogan backstage about how he was confusing his business life with personal life problems. Hogan said that's what Ray is doing, and he left… [C]

Ryan's Reaction: York needs to take some notes from Wes. His promo was great. He didn't yell, he didn't throw in a fake tone, he just spoke genuinely. I liked it.

ODB spoke backstage about Aces and Eights attacking Eric Young. She said he was in the hospital before walking away from the interview…

The announcers ran down the Final Resolution card…

Aries bragged backstage about Hogan falling for giving him a title shot. Some other audio clip played over the top of them…

[Q8] 5. Rob Van Dam vs. Austin Aries for the X-Division Championship. RVD controlled the early going, but the two men crashed to the floor and sold as the show went to commercial... [C]

Aries and RVD continued to brawl on the floor, and Aries hit a neckbreaker on the guardrail. Aries rolled in RVD for a near fall. Aries continued to work over RVD's neck.

RVD began to make a comeback after Aries missed a frog splash attempt. RVD did his finger-point routine and went up for the Five Star Frog Splash, but Aries shoved him off the turnbuckle and onto the steel barricade.

Aries cut a mid-match program about how RVD being on his back, sweaty, with messed up hair made him look like Brooke Hogan. Bully Ray ran down and attacked Aries, causing the disqualification.

Austin Aries defeated RVD via DQ in 12:29

Hulk Hogan walked out onstage and he and Bully Ray had a stare down from across the Impact Zone.

Ryan's Reaction: Good match that was a lot more physical than I expected it to be. It's nice seeing Aries getting his heel act away from the CM Punk lite material he was working with before. I'm still not enjoying the direction TNA elected to go with the Hogan/Ray angle. Hogan question ray's intentions or being upset would be one thing, but having him act like his daughter is 14 just makes for uncomfortable and poorly written television. There's a bright spot in all of it with Hogan being upset about Brooke dating a wrestler, but the execution of that idea is extremely poor.

If you have any questions or comments or just wish to chat with a fellow wrestling fan about whatever, then feel free to email me at ryan.kester@gmail.com or follow me on Twitter at @TheRyanKester.