TNA TV Reports 4/17 TNA Impact Coverage: X Division title change, tag titles held up, Team 3D squabbling, Booker upset with Sting By Jason Powell Apr 18, 2008 - 03:15 AM Email This Article | Printer Friendly Page Send Us News & Results | Back to Main Listing TNA Impact on Spike TV Taped in Orlando, Fla. [Q1] A video recapped Samoa Joe winning the TNA Title at the Lockdown pay-per-view... The opening video aired... Samoa Joe walked to the ring for a promo wearing a suit and carrying the TNA Title belt. Mike Tenay and Don West introduced the show and hyped the replay of the PPV. Once in the ring, Joe put over Kurt Angle and dedicated the win to his fans. Scott Steiner walked to the ring with Rhaka Khan and Petey Williams. Steiner commended Williams for passing his initiation test and rewarded him by giving him the X Division title briefcase, which Steiner won in that silly "Deal or No Deal" mess that occurred ages ago. Steiner mocked Joe's weight by calling him a fat ass and "genetic junk." Steiner said he's been a World Champion in WCW, the WWF, and in Japan. He said the only place he hasn't been a World Champion in TNA. "At Sacrifice (PPV), you're going to be my sacrificial lamb." Angle's music interrupted Steiner and he came to the ring for a promo wearing a suit and shades. "No excuses, man to man, you beat me at Lockdown," Angle told Joe. He cracked that Steiner's last big win was"with your idiot brother" against the Road Warriors in 1975. Angle pulled out his contract and said it contains a title rematch clause. He announced that he'll be facing Joe "live" in a rematch next week on free TV... Powell's POV: The Joe vs. Angle rematch was taped on Wednesday night so it won't be airing live. The interview segment was mediocre and a disappointment. This should have been a memorable moment since Joe finally won the TNA Title, but his promo was nothing special and they rushed right into hyping two matches rather than his win. Backstage, Lauren, the latest blonde interview girl, interviewed Christian and Rhino. They talked about the ups and downs of their friendship and were interrupted by Team 3D. Devon spoke in a normal voice and was effective. Brother Ray asked Rhino what happened to the guy they used to hang out with in ECW. Ray called in Kip James, James Storm, Robert Roode, and Ms. Jackie. The heels beat up Christian and Rhino as the show cut to commercial... [Q2] [C] Backstage, Jeremy Borash interviewed Black Machismo in front of the women's bathroom. SoCal Val and Sonjay Dutt emerged from the women's bathroom. Machismo and Val headed to the ring, but Borash stopped Dutt and said he knew what Sonjay was up to... Hermie Sadler joined the announcers on commentary... Highlights aired of Machismo winning the Xscape match at Lockdown... Powell's POV: I know Sadler runs shows with TNA talent and is friends with management, but that doesn't justify putting him on commentary. No one cares. 1. Black Machismo (w/SoCal Val) defeated Johnny Devine to retain the X Division Title in 3:40. Back and forth action that concluded with Machismo hitting the top rope elbow drop and scoring the clean pin. After the match, Little Petey Pump (Petey Williams) ran out and struck Machismo with the briefcase that contains the X Division title match contract... [C] Powell's POV: The match was fine while it lasted, yet totally forgettable at the same time. [Q3] Highlights aired from during the break of Williams kneeling over the fallen Machismo and cutting a promo. Machismo's head was inside the open briefcase that contained the X Division Title shot. He screamed at Machismo and announced that he was cashing in his title match on the spot... 2. Petey Williams pinned Black Machismo to win the X Division Title. Williams picked up Machismo, hit the Canadian Destroyer and scored the pin. Rhaka Khan came out and presented Petey with the X Division Title. Sonjay ran out to check on Machismo... Powell's POV: Good intensity on the mic by Petey. Too bad he's a clone and his title win doesn't mean anything. Characters are important in wrestling, but I'd actually prefer to see Jay Lethal and Petey Williams have a feud without using their corny personas. Backstage, Lauren held the mic while LAX cut a promo. Homicide said something about Gringos not having the marbles to mess with LAX. Salinas got in Lauren's face to finish the promo. Powell's POV: When did LAX turn heel again? Matt Morgan came to the ring for a promo and said Jim Cornette has been like a father to him. He recalled Cornette telling him that timing is everything in pro wrestling. Morgan said he made a sacrifice by wearing a suit and serving as a bodyguard for TNA management. He looked into the camera and said his "genetically jacked, athletically stacked" catchphrase in Rock-like fashion... [C] Powell's POV: You can tell that Morgan is Cornette's protege because he talks a million miles an hour. It works for Cornette, but not for Morgan. It's too bad because I listened to his interview on BeteweenTheRopes.com and he's very well spoken in a normal interview environment, but his in-ring interview was really bad and the crowd couldn't have cared less. Slow down! Backstage, Lauren interviewed Samoa Joe. As Joe spoke, Kevin Nash, who was apparently sitting behind him, stood up behind him and watched the promo over Joe's shoulder. Nash mumbled something at the end of the promo and followed Joe out of the room... [Q4] 3. Super Eric and Kaz defeated A.J. Styles and Tomko and LAX (w/Salinas) in a three-way to win the TNA Tag Titles in 6:30. After some back and forth action, Young headed backstage 90 seconds into the match as they cut to commercial. [C] After the break, Hernadez hit a great running dive over the top rope and onto Tomko at ringside. Super Eric came out and took the tag from Kaz. He fought off the Styles Clash and quickly scored the pin... [C] Powell's POV: The Steiner-mini winning the X Title didn't bother me because he beat the black Randy Savage, but the one-joke character of Super Eric and his partner winning the tag titles is ridiculous. Inside Jim Cornette's office, Styles and Tomko protested. Styles made the argument that if Young and Super Eric are not the same person, then Super Eric technically interfered in the match and the title change shouldn't count... Powell's POV: Nice. I don't care for the Super Eric character, but that's clever. It would have been a good idea to have Styles and Tomko make this argument before the break because I know I would have changed the channel when i saw Super Eric win the title if it wasn't my job to watch the show. Again, though, that was a clever swerve. 4. Christian and Rhino beat Team 3D at 11:30. The babyface team took control of the match and the show cut to commercial early on. [C] Late in the match, Brother Ray avoided a gore attempt by Rhino, who accidentally gored Christian instead. Moments later, Rhino ducked a running forearm shot by Devon, who accidentally struck Brother Ray. Rhino rolled up Devon and scored the pin. After the match, Ray and Devon bickered and then pushed and shoved one another until security ran in to pull them apart... Powell's POV: I think everyone involved forgot that Rhino and Christian were attacked by five heels earlier in the show. Well, the announcers mentioned it, but Rhino and Christian weren't selling any injuries and actually charged the ring to start the match. I'm not intrigued by the idea of a Team 3D breakup. Maybe they can do Rough Cuts segments or something. Ugh. [Q6] Backstage, Cornette spoke with Young about the tag title situation while Borash stood by the with a microphone. Cornette instructed him to come to the ring when he called for him so that they could straighten everything out... Powell's POV: I admire the fact that TNA always goes out of their way to explain why the cameras are present by having Borash or one of their many blond interview girls present. That being said, it seems just as silly when Borash or the blonds stand around and hold the mic during these segments. Couldn't they just say that Cornette agreed to have a camera positioned in his office? Cornette left his office and walked into a room that was filled with bickering divas, er, Knockouts. Cornette told them to quiet down and threatened that they'll end up in the unemployment line. He said he's sick of their petty complaints about wanting a better locker room, makeup artists, etc. He said there will be changes made and sacrifices. "Spoiled brats," he concluded... [C] Powell's POV: And that, my friends, was a case of the writers sending a message through a story line. Where was the line about the drunken champion being hauled off to the hospital with her title belt? In the ring, Styles and Tomko continued to plead their case with Cornette regarding the tag title situation. Cornette apologized to the fans for all the stupidity that's been taking place on the show. It's about damn time. Kaz came out. Cornette called out Young, who came out in his stupid ass Super Eric costume. Cornette and Kaz pleaded with Super Eric to admit that he's really Eric Young, but he refused. Cornette stripped Young and Kaz of the tag titles. However, he refused to give the belts back to Styles and Tomko. He said he'd straighten out the tag title situation next week... Powell's POV: Not good. i got a kick out of the original swerve, but they made Young look like a total goof for giving up the tag titles. The easy way around this would have been for Cornette to rule on the matter by saying that Young has stated in the past that he and Super Eric are not the same person. Backstage, Lauren interviewed three of the five guys who are clearly pansies who attacked Christian and Rhino earlier and failed to leave a single scratch on their bodies. Kip did the old "down here" bit with Lauren. James Storm mocked him for telling and old joke. Robert Roode, who is still wearing Terry Taylor's old robe, said he's going to continue to make Booker T pay... Ring introductions took place for the women's title match... [Q7] [C] 5. Awesome Kong (w/Raisha Saeed) defeated Roxxi Laveaux to retain the TNA Knockouts Title in 4:20. Roxxi got in some offense, but Kong finished her off with the spinning back-fist and the Awesome Bomb... Backstage, Angle bitched to Borash that nameplate on his locker room door was missing. Borash informed him that they only have a private dressing room for the champion. Kurt threw a fit and then whined, said he slipped once, and vowed to win the title back next week... [C] Powell's POV: I don't think they know which direction to take Kurt's character. One minute he's a serious performer and the next he's backstage whining in a borderline comedy bit. [Q8] 6. Sting and Booker T and B.G. James beat James Storm and Robert Roode and Kip James (w/Jacqueline) in 8:00. They cut to commercial at the 2:30 mark. [C] Late in the match, Storm tried to use the beer bottle as a weapon, Matt Morgan ran in and hit Storm with a big boot. Booker, who didn't see Morgan, recovered and finished off Storm with a scissors kick and scored the pin. After the match, Booker's teammates informed him that Morgan interfered on his behalf. Booker got pissed and shoved Sting. Booker took the mic and said he doesn't need help from Morgan. He said if Sting backs Morgan, then he has a problem with Sting. Booker said Sting better be bad enough to "take some" next week. The announcers flipped... A video hyped the Samoa Joe vs. Kurt Angle rematch for next week... Powell's POV: That didn't come off well. Booker looked silly for taking offense to Morgan helping him out even though the announcers tried to explain he has pride. I'm not sure how Booker's frustration over Morgan interfering set up an apparent match between Booker and Sting. I'll have a lot more to say about this show in the TNA Impact Hitlist later today. BOOKMARK DOT NET AND ADD US TO YOUR RSS • HELP DOT NET: TAKE OUR ADVERTISER DEMO SURVEY CLICK TO RETURN TO MAIN LISTING OR SELECT A LINK BELOW FROM THIS CATEGORY TNA TV Reports Latest Twelve Articles 9/4 Twilling's TNA Impact Live Coverage: A.J. Styles vs. Christian Cage in a Four Ways to Glory qualifier, Abyss wrestles first TV match in months 8/28 Powell's TNA Impact Live Coverage: Sting explains why he attacked Samoa Joe and A.J. Styles, Kurt Angle vs. Kevin Nash in a Four Ways to Glory qualifier 8/21 Twilling's TNA Impact Live Coverage: Kurt Angle vs. AJ Styles in a ladder match, Awesome Kong vs. Gail Kim in a street fight in what could be Kim's final TNA match 8/14 Twilling's TNA Impact Live Coverage: Samoa Joe and Kevin Nash vs. Team 3D, Kurt Angle challenges AJ Styles 8/7 Twilling's TNA Impact Live Coverage: 8-man weapons gauntlet match featuring Samoa Joe, Booker T, Kurt Angle, and AJ Styles, 8-man tag team no DQ match 8/7 Powell's TNA Impact Live Coverage: Gauntlet weapons match, Team 3D and James Storm and Robert Roode vs. LAX and Christian Cage and Rhino in a tables match