TNA Impact on Spike TV
Taped in Orlando, Fla.

[Q1] Highlights aired from last week's show of the Main Event Mafia beating up Christian Cage... Outside the building, Kurt Angle told Jeremy Borash that the Main Event Mafia would give Christian Cage a proper burial... The opening montage aired...

Powell's POV: Did anyone else see the Wolfboy on the episode of CSI that aired before Impact? I just flipped over and didn't know what the hell was going on so I immediately went back to football. By the way, Twilling, who might be a Wolfboy since he has yet to send a photo for the website, is slacking, er, taking the night off from covering TNA.

Mike Tenay and Don West introduced the show and hyped the Angle and Kevin Nash vs. Matt Morgan and Abyss match... Two men wearing suits wheeled a casket to the ring. Additional highlights of the Mafia's attack on Cage aired as the Mafia (including Sting, who wasn't there for the attack) walked to the ring for a promo. Angle reiterated that they were there to give Cage a proper burial.

Angle said Cage refused to make a commitment to the Mafia and TNA as a company. He said their attack on Cage should serve as a warning to anyone who thought about crossing them. Angle asked if anyone had final words to say about Christian. Rhino's music played and he walked onto the stage with a mic in hand.

Rhino said Angle should have addressed any issue he had with Cage one-on-one. He complained that the group jumped his friend. Nash said no one in the ring cared what Rhino thinks. Rhino said he's a veteran and demanded respect. Nash said they'll show respect to people who show respect to them.

Rhino said the Mafia are egomaniacs. He said he looks at the Mafia and sees a group of guys who are afraid to lose their spots and their big contracts. Rhino said Booker T is the "biggest bitch (censored) of them all." Booker said Rhino has balls the size of his chihuahua and challenged him to come to the ring. Rhino took him up on the offer.

The Mafia stomped Rhino and he bladed quickly. A shot aired of Jeff Jarrett and Mick Foley watching it all play out on a backstage monitor. The Mafia members placed Rhino inside the casket and closed the casket...

Backstage, Mick Foley said he was around for DX and Jeff Jarrett was around for the NWO, but he's never seen anything like it. Jarrett said he hasn't accepted Angle's challenge despite Kurt's claims to the contrary. Jeff said he and Foley were "taking our house back tonight"... [C]

Powell's POV: Okay, so where was Rhino last week when his friend was getting his ass kicked? They may have addressed it, but I don't remember them saying anything about it during last week's show. Nice of Jarrett and Foley to sit there and watch the Mafia beat the hell out of Rhino and not help him. Some babyfaces.

[Q2] Backstage, Lauren interviewed A.J. Styles while the other TNA Originals stood behind him in the locker room. He wished Jay Lethal and Consequences Creed luck. The Motor City Machine Guns walked in the room and joked around about being late because they were watching the second season of Dexter and playing Grand Theft Auto. Samoa Joe got pissed and slammed Alex Shelley against a locker. Styles invited to the ring to settle it the old fashioned way.

Foley walked into the room and told Joe and Styles that they don't have the authority to matches in TNA, but he does. He booked the Styles and Joe vs. The Guns for later in the show...

1. Consequences Creed and Jay Lethal defeated Tanahashi and Sonjay Dutt (w/SoCal Val) in 2:25. Spaz referee guy was in charge of the match. Val blew a kiss to Lethal, who lunged at her only to be attacked from behind by Dutt. Later, Creed hit the TKO on Sonjay and scored the clean pin.

Powell's POV: Good action from these four while it lasted. I wish they would have given those guys more time, but they have to get to more promos and pre-tapes.

A TNA Knockout video aired... Backstage, The Beautiful People sat on thrones while Kip James laid on a pillow in front of them. They took shots at Sojourner Bolt's name to hype their tag match for later in the show. Kip did the crotch chop, but it was actually digitized out... [C]

Powell's POV: I don't get the censoring on this show. They censored the word "ass" earlier, but let "balls" get by seconds later. And now Kip isn't allowed to do a crotch chop. Strange.

[Q3] Another "Who is Suicide?" vignette aired... Tenay hyped the return of "Feast or Fired." It's the match with multiple briefcases that contain title shot contracts or a pink slip...

Powell's POV: I can't believe they're bringing that shit-fest of a match back. It was so lame last year. They just refuse to give in and admit when something doesn't work.

Backstage, Jim Cornette told spaz referee guy that he had a nice career in Canada and Puerto Rico, but he has to come to grips that it's over. He ordered the ref to hand the X Division Title belt back to Sheik Abdul Bashir. The ref obliged. Cornette warned the ref that he'd be fired if he laid his hand on another wrestler. He warned him not to go over his head to Mick Foley or Jeff Jarrett because he still has some stroke in the company. Cornette booked Eric Young in a match against Booker T for the TNA Legends Title...

Powell's POV: How many on-air authority figures does one company need? By the way, wouldn't the logical move have been to give Young a rematch against Bashir?

2. Angelina Love and Velvet Sky (w/Cute Kip) defeated Sojourner Bolt and Christy Hemme in 3:15. The heels worked over Bolt early. Hemme took the hot tag and cleaned house. She even debuted her version of Trish Stratus's Matrix move. However, Cute Kip distracted Hemme, which enabled Love to hit her finisher for the win...

A Rough Cuts segment with Homicide aired. Steve "Monsta" Mack and other friends appeared. He told a story about wrestling his fifth match with a tampon stuck inside a bullet hole with a piece of duct tape covering it... [C]

Powell's POV: How many kids are sitting at home right now asking, "Dad, what's a tampon?" That's one hell of a story, though.

[Q4] ODB interviewed Sharmell on the set of her new talk show, which featured a beat up desk, lawn chairs, and beer bottles. ODB mocked Sharmell's name. She said she was named after her grandmother. Sharmell said the Main Event Mafia made TNA. She said the "young boys" need to start showing respect, just as ODB needed to start respecting her. They bickered until ODB challenged Sharmell to a match. She accepted. ODB told her to have Booker stop by her house because he left his shoes by her bed...

Powell's POV: Sharmell is awesome. She really gets into the act and is one of the better talkers in the entire company.

Backstage, Borash interviewed the Mafia again. Angle said Abyss and Morgan were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Angle offered two pay-per-view main event match ideas: Angle vs. Jarrett, and the winner of the Guns vs. Joe and Styles match with two partners of their choosing against Sting, Scott Steiner, Kevin Nash, and Booker T in an eight-man tag main event... [C]

Powell's POV: It looks like it will be another throwaway pay-per-view if Angle gets his main event match.

A video recapped the Scott Steiner and Petey Williams storyline... At ringside, the announcers said Petey will be sidelined indefinitely after the attack last week...

Powell's POV: I'm guessing Petey will be sidelined until his hair grows back. By the way, we've had a grand total of five minutes and 40 seconds of in-ring action at the 55-minute mark of the show.

3. Samoa Joe and A.J. Styles defeated The Motor City Machine Guns in 7:15. The Guns attacked Joe and Styles from behind to start the match. Hot action to start with A.J. hitting a flip dive over the top rope onto the Guns at ringside, but they cut to a commercial break less than a minute into the match. [C]

[Q5] After some really good, competitive action, Joe clotheslined Sabin and then Styles hit the Styles Clash on Shelley for the clean win. After the match, Angle, Booker, and Nash attacked Joe and Styles while Sting and Steiner stood at ringside in their suits. Jay Lethal and Consequences Creed ran out to help, but they were quickly beaten down by the three Mafia members.

Steiner eventually entered the ring to help while Sting just watched from ringside as his stablemates left the young guy lying. "Oh, this is hard to watch," Don West said. Nah, too easy...

Powell's POV: It was a seven minute match, yet a little over four minutes actually aired on television. Too bad.

Backstage, Raisha Saeed asked Traci Brooks (yet another TNA authority figure) if she found competition for Awesome Kong, who was standing by with Rhaka Khan. Saeed said Kong would attack a civilian since she didn't have better competition... [C]

Lauren was about to interview the young guys when the Machine Guns came tumbling into the picture. Rhino followed them with a heavily bandaged head with blood still covering his face. He tried to rally the troops with a passionate promo. He mentioned his past in ECW and said his concern now is TNA. Rhino put over Joe and Styles and then asked the Guns if they know what it's like to fight alongside men who will bleed and fight for what they believe in...

Powell's POV: One of Rhino's better promos.

[Q6] 4. Booker T (w/Sharmell) pinned Eric Young to retain the TNA Legends Title in 5:10. Young hit the Death Valley Driver for a nice nearfall at 4:45. Moments later, Booker came back with an axe kick and scored the clean pin. Afterward, ODB ran out and checked on Young, which led to more bickering between ODB and Sharmell...

Powell's POV: Nice TV match. Good effort from both guys.

Backstage, Foley said he had something that wasn't going to please Angle. Jarrett said he'd watch from backstage and would have his back if Kurt laid a hand on him... [C]

Backstage, Borash interviewed Team 3D. Devon did the bulk of the talking and cut a promo on Beer Money. Brother Ray threw up his hands and said, "Obama wins and you've been doing more talking." Devon raised his fist in the air and said, "Oh, yes, my brother." Ray continued the promo and concluded by telling Beer Money to take the advice of the Mafia. "Learn some frickin' respect," Ray said...

Powell's POV: Nice mic work from Devon. He doesn't say much, so he commands your attention when he cuts a full promo rather than dropping a catchphrase.

Lauren interviewed Herme Sadler, who is debuting Hermie's Hotseat, a new interview show on the TNA website. Awesome Kong and her crew came up from behind. Hermie invited her to be his guest on the show, but she attacked him...

Powell's POV: Hey, NASCAR fans, am I missing something with Hermie? I'm not a NASCAR fan, but the last time I asked friends who follow the sport they had no idea who Hermie is. If TNA can score some new fans via NASCAR from this online segment then it's a good move, but I get the sense that he's not even popular with the NASCAR audience. Let me know if I'm wrong.

[Q7] [C] 5. Kevin Nash and Kurt Angle defeated Matt Morgan and Abyss in 10:30. The show cut to commercial after two minutes and 30 seconds and back and forth action. [C] After the break, Morgan and Nash stared each other down and traded punches. Morgan was getting the better of the slugfest, but Angle entered the ring and clipped Morgan's knees from behind.

At 9:00, Beer Money and Jackie walked to ringside as the babyface team controlled the action in the ring. Abyss headed to ringside and punched Storm and Roode. He brought Angle back to the ring with him, but Storm recovered and struck Abyss with a beer bottle while the ref was distracted. Nash hit the big boot on Abyss and scored the pin...

Powell's POV: Good tag team action. I'm not really sure what the storyline excuse for Beer Money coming to ringside was, but I figured out the finish as soon as I saw Storm and his beer bottles. By the way, he should really save his beer comedy for his eventual babyface turn.

[Q8] A shot aired of Mick Foley walking backstage... [C] Foley walked to the ring and said he accepted the Main Event Mafia members as a big part of wrestling's past, which he considers himself part of. He said he may not agree with them, but they might be the greatest collection of stars and champions ever assembled inside the ring.

Foley said he recognizes that the Mafia might be the past, present, and perhaps even the future of TNA. He said his intention has always been to level the playing field for the TNA Originals, not to play favorites. He said he has come to accept that Final Resolution could be their chance for final restitution.

Mick announced two co-main event matches for Final Resolution. He announced Booker T, Kevin Nash, Scott Steiner, and Sting vs. Samoa Joe, A.J. Styles, and two partners of their choosing. If the Mafia wins the match, Sting keeps his title. If the TNA Originals win, then the new TNA Champion will be A.J. Styles. What?!?

Foley called for a drumroll from the live crowd and then announced Kurt Angle vs. Rhino. Um, yeah. Angle walked to the ring and demanded to know why Jeff Jarrett wouldn't face him. Angle said that if he can't have Jarrett, he wants Foley in a match. Angle slapped Foley. Jarrett's music played and he walked to the ring with a mic in hand.

Jarrett said he's the founder of TNA and therefore they are going to play by his rules, not Kurt's rules. Jarrett said he swore on his life that he wouldn't let Angle talk him into wrestling again. He said he wouldn't let Angle destroy what he's built from the ground up. "As bad as you want me in this ring, I want you out of my stinkin' company even worse," Jarrett said.

Jarrett said he can't fire Angle because of a clause in his contract. However, he said he could make him an offer he can't refuse. Jarrett said that if Angle beats Rhino, he'll face Jarrett. If Rhino wins, Angle is out of TNA for good. Jarrett offered his hand to shake on the deal. Angle slapped him. Jarrett turned around, smiled, and pointed behind Angle. Kurt turned around and was greeted with a gore from Rhino...

Powell's POV: I was wondering what TNA would do for a challenger for Sting since they claimed there would not be a rematch between Sting and Joe, and Sting just defeated Styles at the last pay-per-view. The idea of having Sting put the title on the line in an eight-man tag is ridiculous. Why in the hell would Styles win the belt in an eight-man tag? The Angle and Jarrett confrontation was solid and at least they provided some type of stipulation to make the Angle vs. Rhino match seem more important, but I can't get over how horrendous that eight-man tag stipulation is. Oh, and we get the silly ass briefcase match on the same pay-per-view.

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