TNA TV Reports 2/7 TNA Impact: Joe tears up another contract, Tomko saves Christian, R&R Infection early favorite for worst gimmick of 2008 By Jason Powell Feb 8, 2008 - 12:51 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] The show opened with a video recap of the Kurt Angle vs. Tyson Tomko match... Backstage, Jeremy Borash, wearing a neckbrace, interviewed Bobby Roode and Payton Banks. Roode sipped a glass that contained “liquid steak” to mock Sharmell. Roode slammed the drink down and shoved Borash aside. He talked directly into the camera and took a serious tone while claiming that he’s tried to apologize. He added that Booker is probably grateful because Sharmell can’t boss him around the house because of her broken jaw... Roode and Banks walked to the ring for a match. However, Booker entered through the crowd and attacked Roode at ringside. Roode escaped and ran backstage with Booker in hot pursuit... Mike Tenay and Don West introduced the show from ringside... Backstage, Crystal stood by as Jim Cornette threatened to fire Matt Morgan if he interfered in the Samoa Joe contract signing again... Ms. Brooks and Awesome Kong were introduced for their match... [C] Powell’s POV: I’m torn on the Roode vs. Booker feud. On one hand, it’s great the Booker is working with a mid-card wrestler. I’m just not sure what Roode is really clicking in his current gimmick. He needs to abandon Terry Taylor’s former robe and the catch phrases that are connected with his rich gimmick because it’s just not clicking. He is a solid performer otherwise and I think he’d do so much better if he were just portrayed as an arrogant prick and not saddled with a cliched gimmick. All of that said, Roode did a really nice job when he took the serious tone. If he rises above the mid-card, it will be in spite of his gimmick. [Q2] 2. Awesome Kong (w/Raisha Saed) defeated Traci Brooks at 3:43 in a non-title match. Whe the bell rang, ODB appeared on the video screen. She cut a promo about her Against All Odds match against Kong. The match was all Kong. After the match, Payton ran out and attacked Brooks until security pulled her off... A backstage camera followed Borash and Booker chasing Roode. Bobby climbed into a sports car and raced off while Borash asked, “What about Payton Banks?”... [C] Powell’s POV: I know they’re trying to establish that Roode has no regard for the women in his life, but Borash’s question about Banks seemed out of place. It’s not like Booker has shown any animosity toward her. There was no reason to think she was in danger if Roode left without her, particularly since she was in the ring beating up Traci at the time. Backstage, Crystal stood in Jim Cornette’s office, where Petey Williams and Scott Steiner bickered about their tag match from the week before. Cornette booked them in a pay-per-view match and said the winner will get both briefcases and can choose between an X Division Title match or TNA Title match or take both... Powell’s POV: I can’t believe they’re still bickering over these briefcases. I vaguely remember the match that set this all up to begin with. I’m assuming this is supposed to be TNA’s answer to the money in the bank match, but I have no idea. I just want the silly bickering to end and for Petey to show some hint that he actually cares about challenging for one of the titles. A video package recapped the Black Reign vs. Kaz feud. They actually used the guy with the James Earl Jones voice to hype a match over a pet rat... 2. Black Reign defeated Kaz in a rat trap match in 9:00. Tenay did a nice job of explaining the rules of the match before the opening bell. There were four poles with boxes at the top. Five contained mouse traps and one contained Dustin’s rat. Dustin opened of the boxes and multiple traps closed on his hand. [C] [Q3] Dustin opened the other two boxes that contained traps. Kaz opened the final box and found the rat. Reign struck Kaz with the darkness falls weapon and took his rat back... Backstage, Borash interviewed Booker, who said Sharmell asked him to beat the hell out of Roode... [C] A video hyped the Team 3D and Johnny Devine vs. Black Machismo and the Motor City Machine Guns pay-per-view match... Powell’s POV: Did they ever bother to explain how the Guns and Machismo have the power to put the entire future of the X Division at stake? On the positive side, the preview videos for the pay-per-view matchups are nice recaps. 3. Homicide (w/Salinas) defeated Johnny Devine by DQ at 5:10 in an X Division Title match. Homicide dove from the ring onto Devine at ringside early in the match and high-fived West at ringside. Remember when LAX was the edgiest team in wrestling? Now one of their members high-fives the babyface color commentator. Ugh. [Q4] Later, Homicide hit the Gringo Killer and went for the cover. Referee Slick Johnson counted to two and then stopped because he saw Team 3D approaching the ring and called for the DQ. Team 3D beat down Homicide with a kendo stick. Hernandez ran out and Team 3D bailed, leaving Devine to take the Border Toss while Salinas tended to Homicide... Powell’s POV: Johnson had to stop his count at two and point at Team 3D when they weren’t even in the ring yet. Someone missed a cue. Johnson deserves credit for keeping his composure in a tough situation, as a less experienced referee may have panicked and made the situation look even worse. Backstage, Crystal interviewed Christian, who said he was going to call out Tomko for a face-to-face conversation in the ring... The announcers hyped the Samoa Joe contract signing as coming up after the break... [C] Jim Cornette conducted Joe’s contract signing in the ring. Kevin Nash came out with Joe. Just as Joe was about to sign the contact, Kurt Angle’s music interrupted him. Kurt and Karen Angle walked to the ring. Angle took the mic and warned Joe not to cost him his match against Christian at the pay-per-view. [Q5] “If there’s any funny business, not only will I break your ankle, but I’ll make sure you’ll never walk again,” Angle said. Joe took the mic and vowed to call the Against All Odd match right down the middle due to the respect he has for Angle. Kurt bought it and shook hands with Joe, who picked him up and slammed him through the table that was in the ring for the contract signing. Cornette handed Joe the contract, but he tore it in half and threw it on top of Angle... [C] Backstage, Borash interviewed the Rock and Rave Infection. They brought their toy guitars and the mic stand with them. They screamed and carried on... Powell’s POV: They’re like a three-person hard rock version of Jillian Hall. I don’t understand what TNA hopes to get out of this gimmick. It works for Jillian because she’s in a niche comedy spot and it’s a parody. If these three are a parody, it would be nice if TNA would let us in on the joke because I don’t think anyone outside their booking office gets it. This is hands down the worst gimmick of 2008 thus far. 4. Curry Man and Shark Boy beat The Rock and Rave Infection (w/Christy Hemme) at 5:13. Late in the match, Shark hit Stunners on both opponents. Curry hit his finisher on Rave and let Shark get the pin... [Q6] Backstage, Crystal asked Tomko regarding he and Christian if there was a chance “we could get the reunion we’ve all been waiting for?” He told her he was only accepting the invitation because of his history with Christian... [C] Backstage, B.G. Games and Bob Armstrong cut a promo about their upcoming tag title match. Kip walked in at the end and said he supports them 100 percent. His endorsement had heel turn written all over it... Powell’s POV: Let’s start with the Tomko interview. Who fed Crystal the line regarding everyone wanting Christian and Tomko to reunite? That couldn’t be further from the truth. Are they even paying attention to their own story lines? Meanwhile, I can’t help but wonder whether anyone in TNA realizes that Bob Armstrong was a regional star way back when. They keep bringing him back every few years as if they think the masses care. Maybe it’s a bigger deal in South Carolina than I realize, but they probably could have drawn the same number of ticket buyers had they featured Bob in the opening match rather than in a tag title match. Let me get this straight, Bullet Bob Armstrong is on the pay-per-view, but LAX doesn’t have a match? 5. A.J. Styles defeated Tiger Mask at 5:26. The announcers didn’t do enough to build this up as something special. Rather, they talked about all the Marines that will be in attendance at the pay-per-view supporting Bob and B.G. Some good action during the match, which A.J. won with the Styles Clash... [Q7] [C] The announcers hyped Abyss vs. Judas Mesias for the pay-per-view... Christian and Tomko came out separately for their in-ring confrontation. Christian turned his back and invited Tomko to punch him, saying he should “do what’s best for Tomko.” Tomko wound up to punch Christian, spun him around, but backed down. Tomko left the ring... [C] Powell’s POV: I sure hope this leads to a feud between these two because no one is pining for them to reunite, even as babyfaces. Hell, they were just together as a heels a month or two ago. I never thought for a second that the story line might be heading in this direction until Crystal made that comment earlier. I can only hope they threw this in as a swerve. [Q8] 6. Christian Cage beat Judas Mesias (w/James Mitchell) in 12:00. The announcers hyped it as the first time these two had worked against one another. Judas pressed Christian over his head and dropped him to the floor as the show went to break. [C] Late in the match, Christian climbed the ropes, but Mitchell distracted him by poking him with his cane. Christian jumped off the ropes and was caught by Judas, who hit him with a Diamond Cutter-like move. Abyss walked out as the action in the ring continued. Abyss ran off Mitchell, which distracted Mesias. Christian caught him with the Unprettier a few seconds later and got the pin. Abyss ran out with his arm wrapped in barbwire and punched Mesias, who fell out of the ring. Abyss chased Mesias backstage. Christian mugged for the crowd in the ring, but Styles ran out and attacked him. Christian came back and locked Styles in the Sharpshooter. Angle ran out and kicked Christian’s back. Angle and Styles beat up Christian until Tomko made the save. Tomko and Christian hugged... A pay-per-view preview video closed the show... Powell’s POV: This was no way for a non-chicken shit heel to head into a barbwire match. Judas should have done something to Abyss or an opponent in the ring to establish how sadistic he can be. Instead, he was pinned clean in the main event just 72 hours before he’s supposed to compete in a barbwire match. I don’t get it. This was an odd show. TNA made a better than usual effort to hype the pay-per-view matches, yet this still felt like a filler episode rather than a go-home edition. Most of the in-ring matchups just felt thrown together in the sense that they didn’t really lead into Against All Odds. Likewise, the pay-per-view story lines weren’t really advanced in any meaningful way. TNA needed a hot show heading into the pay-per-view and they came up way short. 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