TNA Impact on Spike TV
Taped in Orlando, Fla.

[Q1] This week's show is titled "All Hail The Governor"... Backstage, the TNA Front Line were celebrating inside their locker room over Team 3D joining them. Brother Ray addressed them and stated, "Tonight, the new revolution begins"... The TNA opening montage aired...

Mike Tenay and Don West introduced the show and discussed the Final Resolution pay-per-view. Tenay questioned whether this would be Angle's final Impact appearance...

Kurt Angle led the entire Main Event Mafia to the ring for a promo. Kevin Nash took the mic and gave Team 3D one minute to change their minds. Team 3D walked onto the stage. Ray took the mic and introduced themselves as Samoa Joe and A.J. Styles's tag team partners at Final Resolution. Angle shook his head in disgust in the ring.

Ray said he and Devon are arrogant, but now when it comes to doing the right thing. He said the young guys are everything that is right about the wrestling business, while the Mafia is everything that's wrong about the business. He accused the Mafia of raping every company they worked for. He said he and Devon hope they never become like the Mafia.

Ray called out the rest of the TNA Front Line. They entered the studio through the crowd and stood with the fans. Rhino said Angle is one gore away from the unemployment line. Rhino said he never had a problem with Sting until he joined the Mafia. He said Sting should be standing next to him. "You'll realize you made the wrong choice when I'm kicking the living crap out of you here tonight in that ring," Rhino said. Ray said this would be the night they kick the Mafia's asses...

Powell's POV: Nice mic work by Brother Ray. The shot of the wrestlers in the crowd really made the Impact Zone look small. The Front Line has too many members. They've suddenly become NWO-like with all those wrestlers and they are only facing five guys.

Outside the building, Jeremy Borash said TNA Mobile is now free while Lauren and the Beautiful People stood by. Cute Kip, Angelina Love, and Velvet Sky bragged that Sarah Palin has agreed to join the Beautiful People... [C]

[Q2] Tenay introduced the No. 5 "Kurt Angle in TNA Moment." He became the first man to hold every title in TNA...

Backstage, Jeremy Borash interviewed Booker T and Sharmell inside their locker room. Booker used the African accent again while hyping his match against Samoa Joe as a street fight. He broke into his usual voice and dropped a "Sucka!" at the end... A TNA Cross the Line video aired...

Powell's POV: Please let that be the end of Booker's campy accent.

1. Booker T defeated Samoa Joe for the TNA Legends Title in 8:30. Joe and Booker fought around ringside as they cut to a break early. [C] Late in the match, Joe locked in his submission finisher. Booker tapped, but the referee was distracted by Sharmell. The Beautiful People ran out and sprayed something in Joe's eyes, which enabled Booker to score the pin...

[Q3] Backstage, Borash stood by while Scott Steiner cut a promo in which he stated that Team 3D didn't join their faction because they didn't have enough Twinkies or doughnuts for them. The rest of the group left the locker room as Angle stayed behind. Kurt told Borash he had something to say to Mick Foley and then he was headed to the ring to say it to Jeff Jarrett... [C]

Another Angle moment aired. It was Angle vs. Yuji Nagata from the Tokyo Dome...

Powell's POV: That really was a great match. If you've never seen it, you should go out of your way to catch it. Tremendous.

Backstage, Brother Ray spotted Joe hanging his head low in the locker room with a towel over his head. Ray told him no one wins every match. He asked Joe how many times Ric Flair held a World Title and now many times they held the tag titles. They told Joe to man up...

Powell's POV: Good pep talk, but that's the kind of talk you'd expect them to give someone like Eric Young, not a former TNA Champion like Samoa Joe.

ODB's Angle talk show aired. She interviewed Taylor Wilde and Roxxi. ODB was grumpy because it was that time of the month, and she was fretting a three-on-one situation at the pay-per-view. Roxxi and Wilde said they would help her... The announcers ran through the pay-per-view lineup and said the six-Knockout tag match was official...

Backstage, Beer Money snuck up on Abyss, who turned around and slammed James Storm against the wall. He said the only reason he wasn't going to destroy him now was because he and Matt Morgan are going to take the tag titles on Sunday. Abyss told them Morgan was at the gym "like he always is." Storm apologized for hitting him with the beer bottle and said it was a mistake.

They invited him to have a drink. He said he promised his therapist he wouldn't drink. He said he'd never been to the Drunken Clam (Family Guy reference) and would love to go there, so they claimed they would take him. They gave Abyss a beer and a chaser. Abyss didn't like the beer, but he liked the shot so they poured him another. He slammed another shot as the show cut to commercial... [C]

Powell's POV: This has to be the first time in history that the go home edition of a wrestling show featured a challenger doing shots with the tag team champions. Strange way to build toward a match, but I must admit that I'm curious to see how it plays out after the break. Besides, it's either TNA or that lousy NFL game.

[Q4] [C] Another Angle moment aired. This one featured his debut with the company...

Powell's POV: Well, at least they're trying to make it seem like he could be leaving the company.

"Sarah Palin" arrived in a limo as the Beautiful People flipped out. She flirted with Cute Kip. Ugh... Highlights aired of A.J. Styles training Christy Hemme...

2. A.J. Styles and Christy Hemme defeated Scott Steiner and Awesome Kong (w/Raisha Saeed, Rhaka Khan) in a mixed tag match in 8:20. After 2:50 of routine action, they show cut to commercial. At 7:15, Steiner reached in and grabbed Hemme by the hair, so Styles ran over and gave him a forearm smash that knocked him off the canvas. A.J. followed up with a dive over the top, but it looked like Steiner's head caught him in the chest. A short time later, A.J. helped Hemme hit a spinning DDT on Kong to score the pin...

Powell's POV: The announcers hyped that Hemme had momentum heading into the pay-per-view, and West added a nice line by saying that Hemme won't have Styles helping her on Sunday. Solid hype for Hemme, but lousy hype for A.J.'s chances of winning the TNA Title.

[Q5] Backstage, Angle found Foley in the hallway and demanded that he get a one-on-one match against Rhino. He told Foley that he'll have someone in his corner at the pay-per-view... [C]

Powell's POV: TNA Mobile is hyping that the mystery man will be a former champion who once held tag titles with Mick Foley. I'm sure they'd like everyone to think The Rock is going to be there, but my guess is Terry Funk, which would be fun.

Backstage, Beer Money continued to feed Abyss drinks. They even had Jacqueline sit on his lap and kiss him. She ran away. "Does that mean I'm not a virgin anymore?" Abyss asked. Abyss told Lauren that he hopes the kiss doesn't change anything between the two of them...

Powell's POV: The virgin line doesn't make Abyss cool, but it got a laugh out of me. This has to be the strangest hype I've ever seen for a pay-per-view tag title match.

3. Consequences Creed and Jay Lethal and Eric Young defeated Sheik Abdul Bashir and Jimmy Rave and Sonjay Dutt (w/SoCal Val) in 4:10. Shane Sewell worked the match as referee because clearly they like to torture him by only having him work Bashir's matches. Bashir spent the entire match talking to the commentators because he wasn't happy about the referee.

[Q6] The babyfaces dominated the match, which concluded when Creed hit the TKO on Rave. After the match, Bashir attacked Young, who fought back and ran off the X Division Champion...

A video package previewed the Feast or Fired match... Backstage, Borash interviewed Sting and brought up A.J. Styles's story about his father kicking him out of the house. Sting was flustered by the story. He said he would be in the ring with guys he could trust at the pay-per-view. He said he'd never had a problem with Rhino before and was still trying to figure it out... [C]

Powell's POV: Sting continues to show signs that a babyface turn is in the works.

The Beautiful People showed off Booker's locker room to "Palin." Booker ordered Kip to get them out of his room. He complied...

Powell's POV: Maybe that NFL game wouldn't be so bad after all. I can't believe they are wasting time with a third rate comedy impersonator skit when they should be trying to sell the pay-per-view.

The latest Rough Cuts segment with LAX aired... Backstage, the party continued with Abyss and Beer Money. Abyss received a phone call from Matt Morgan. He told Beer Money that he invited him to have a drink with them. Storm slammed a bottle over Abyss's head...

Powell's POV: There was a graphic that popped up on the screen to stress that Angle would confront Jarrett in six minutes. I thought they didn't want to expose the fact that this was a pre-taped show? Interesting approach, though.

[Q7] [C] A video recapped the Jarrett and Angle storyline... Kurt Angle walked to the ring and politely asked Jeff Jarrett to join him in the ring. Mike Tenay said it could be the final time they see Angle on Impact and said they recapped his top five moments. I guess I missed some. Oops.

Jarrett walked onto the stage with a guitar and stood there while Angle spoke. Angle remained in the ring and said his focus heading into his match with Rhino is still Jarrett. Angle recalled signing a deal with TNA two years ago. He said he's butted heads with Jarrett since he arrived in TNA. "It's no secret," Angle said. "It's on the internet. It's in the newspapers."

Angle said he came to the conclusion that Jarrett was jealous of his success. He said Jeff dodged him so that he would never have to get in the ring with him. Angle said he's going to take out Rhino and Mick Foley just to get to Jarrett. "And then it will be just you and me at Genesis," Angle said. Kurt brought up Jeff's kids again and said he knows they miss their mother and he knows Jarrett misses his wife. "I have no remorse for you, Jeff."

Angle said that when he's through, he'll own TNA. "I'll own you," Angle said. He said that he's so out of control he has no idea what he's going to say or do. Jarrett said the only way Angle could do everything he claimed he was going to do was "over my dead body." Jarrett's music played while they glared at one another. Jarrett mouthed the words, "You sick son of a bitch."

Powell's POV: All this shit about Jarrett's late wife has to stop. It's sick. I know they'll try to claim that it's all Angle and that Jarrett didn't approve. I don't care who came up with it. It's just twisted and wrong. Seriously, what the hell is wrong with these people?

Backstage, Lauren interviewed Rhino, who said Angle crossed the line with the things he said. He accused Angle of breaking the code amongst "the boys." Rhino said he doesn't know what he's capable of doing to Sting in the main event... [C]

[Q8] Another "Who is Suicide?" video aired... Backstage, Borash interviewed Styles, Joe, and Team 3D. Styles said he never thought he and Joe would be on the same team as Team 3D. He said it's all about doing the right thing and that's how you become a legend and an icon. "You don't want to pass the torch?" Styles asked. "That's fine, we'll take it from you." After the others cleared out, Joe told Borash, "That's all there is to say, man"...

Powell's POV: Oh no. Are they turning Joe? I won't get too stressed about it since they spend so much time trying to swerve everyone that you can't take anything seriously. By the way, the Beer Money vs. LAX match that took place at the taping must have been a dark match. Too bad. Our correspondent had really good things to say about it.

4. Rhino defeated Sting in a non-title match in 8:35. Rhino charged the ring and brawled with Sting to start the match. They fought to ringside, where Rhino charged at Sting. However, Sting moved and Rhino slammed his head into the guardrail. He bladed. The camera focussed on Rhino's bloody head as the show cut to commercial less than two minutes into the match. [C]

After the break, Angle walked to ringside to stand in Sting's corner. Moments later, Styles walked out to stand in Rhino's corner. Rhino was a bloody mess. Angle stood on the rip apron and was greeted with a Rhino punch. Sting took advantage of the distraction and went for the Scorpion Leg Lock, but he became distracted by Angle bickering with the referee. Sting turned his attention back to Rhino and was greeted with a gore. Rhino covered Sting and scored the pin. The Front Line celebrated in the ring as Rhino held up the TNA Title belt...

A video hyped the Feast or Fired match and the rest of the pay-per-view matches...

Powell's POV: They're doing a good job with Team 3D, Rhino, and most of the Main Event Mafia members. The pay-per-view? Not so much. I'll have more to say in the TNA Impact Hitlist on Friday.

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