TNA TV Reports 3/20 TNA Impact Live Coverage: Kurt Angle's public workout, Homicide vs. Sonjay Dutt, last chance to hype live show By Jason Powell Mar 20, 2008 - 08:00 PM Email This Article | Printer Friendly Page Send Us News & Results | Back to Main Listing TNA Impact on Spike TV Taped in Orlando, Fla. [Q1] Jeremy Borash stood outside Jim Cornette’s office and hyped that we’re only four weeks away from Lockdown. He hyped Kurt Angle’s workout and A.J. Styles bringing a special guest to the show. Cornette walked out of his office and announced Rhino vs. Tomko for later in the show... Mike Tenay and Don West introduced the show... Booker T walked to the ring where a table set up with champagne. Booker introduced Sharmell while the announcers talked about how guilty he felt for the punch she took from Bobby Roode. Sharmell joined Booker in the ring. They kissed and Booker vowed to never put her in harms way again. Robert Roode and Payton Banks walked onto the stage. Booker challenged Roode to come to the ring. Roode told him not to worry about Sharmell’s safety because he wasn’t coming to the ring. Cornette walked out and booked Booker and Sharmell vs. Roode and Banks inside a cage. Booker knocked the table over and threw a fit while Roode and Banks laughed on the stage. Cornette left the ring, but stopped and announced Booker vs. Styles for later in the show... Backstage, Crystal interviewed Styles, who was excited about his special guest. Team 3D showed up and informed A.J. that they’ll be teaming with him and Tomko at Lockdown. They teased friction between the two tag teams... [C] Powell’s POV: Could someone answer the obvious question of why Booker would bring his wife to the ring if he fears for her safety? For that matter, couldn’t Sharmell just say no if she doesn’t want to appear in the cage match? Does Cornette have the power to book every TNA wrestler’s wife in matches whenever he feels like it? 15 minutes in and no mention of next week’s live show. [Q2] Backstage, Borash stood between Kaz and Eric Young. Kaz complimented Young on the “Super Eric” routine, but he acted like he and “Super Eric” are two different people... 1. Scott Steiner and Petey Williams (w/Rhaka Khan) defeated Kaz and Eric Young at 5:23. Before the match, highlights aired of Steiner initiating Petey by dunking his head into a container of water. At 4:45, Petey went for the Canadian Destroyer, but Kaz blocked the move and turned it into a reverse piledriver. Cool move. Young went to climb the rope, but was distracted when Black Reign and Rellik walked onto the ramp told him that evil always triumphs. Ugh. Steiner took advantage of the distraction and ended up pinning Young. Afterward, Steiner put the black hood and handcuffs on Petey and led him backstage for some further initiation, which Tenay said viewers could see by logging onto TNAwrestling.com... [C] Powell’s POV: Whoa! Don’t race over to TNA’s website all at the same time. Their severs could crash because everyone wants to see the latest installment of Steiner’s homoerotic bondage segment with Young. It’s cool they’re trying to lure people to their website, but the content is really corny. [Q3] Tenay sat between Rhino and Christian in a pre-taped interview segment. Tenay said Rhino initially rejected the idea of taking part in the interview. He warned, “This will be the last time you’re on my interview set” if Christian did anything to embarrass him. No, not that! Christian tried to talk Rhino into joining his team at Lockdown. He said he sent birthday cards to Rhino every year despite their feud. Sweet. Rhino told a story about his daughter asking why “Uncle Christian” was hurting her father. He said his ex-wife told his daughter that they were just playing. Well, that’s true, but he didn’t mean it like that. Rhino stood up and asked Christian how could he fix things with his daughter, and then walked away... Powell’s POV: They tried to make it personal and I’m happy they’re trying to set up their eventual reunion rather than just jumping into it given the long feud they had, but this was not their best work. Rhino came across like a pouty, emotional wuss more than anything and I don’t think that’s what they were going for. By the way, we’re 30 minutes into the show and there’s still no mention of next week’s live broadcast. What are they thinking? 2. Tomko defeated Rhino in 7:00. They cut to a commercial break roughly two minutes into the match. [C] A short time after the break, Styles appeared out of nowhere and clotheslined Rhino. Styles disappeared under the ring as quickly as he appeared, and then Tomko scored the pin. The fans pointed to Styles under the ring. Referee Earl Hebner listened to the fans and found Styles under the ring. Tomko and Styles attacked Rhino. Christian ran in and made the save. Rhino and Christian cleared the ring and shook hands. Team 3D ran out and attacked Rhino and Christian from behind. Kevin Nash walked out with the chairs and the heels fled. Cornette and Matt Morgan walked out. Cornette booked Rhino and Christian vs. Team 3D as the show’s main event... Powell’s POV: I’m not sure how that made everything okay with Rhino’s daughter, but whatever. [Q4] More highlights aired of Black Machismo’s date with SoCal Val. Sonjay Dutt showed up again and rooster blocked Machismo... 3. Sonjay Dutt beat Homicide (w/Hernandez, Salinas) in an Xscape match qualifier at 2:16. SoCal Val was standing at ringside as usual, so Sonjay tried to show off for her early on. Later, Sonjay climbed to the top rope and pretended to slip. He feigned a knee injury and rolled up Homicide for the pin. Sonjay danced after the match to show that his knee wasn’t hurt. He hugged both members of LAX, who responded by attacking him and giving him the Border Toss... Powell’s POV: Really lame. Sonjay made the slip look good, but it seemed fairly obvious that he would end up in this match given that he’s the only wrestler with an active story line with Machismo. Homicide was a street smart thug a few months ago, but now he’s being played. Worse yet, LAX stole the money Guru collects from ringside. Apparently, Mexcians are petty thieves in the eyes of the creative staff. Oh, and we’re an hour into the show and no one has bothered to hype the live show they’re having next week. Backstage, Booker cut a promo while Sharmell stood by. He’s more concerned about her safety than ever and he’s going to take out his frustrations on Styles... [C] [Q5] The latest edition of TNA Rought Cuts aired. B.G. James said wrestling has changed. He said Styles does backflips whereas they used to come out, say “suck it,” and were done for the night. Kips said he tried to get B.G. to go to the ring more. B.G. said taking care of his family is more important at this stage in his life. Kip claimed he carried 60 percent of the weight for their team... Powell’s POV: Let me get this straight. We’re supposed to cheer B.G. because he didn’t change with the times and no longer cares enough about wrestling to hit the gym. WTF? Styles walked to the ring and introduced his special guest Karen Angle, who hugged A.J. and then took a seat in the front row... 4. Booker T (w/Sharmell) pinned A.J. Styles in 9:00. Back and forth action followed by a commercial break. [C] Highlights aired of Cornette and Morgan forcing Roode to go backstage during the break. Payton Banks ran out and attacked Sharmell from behind. However, Sharmell pulled out a leather strap and ran her off. In the ring, Booker rolled up Styles for the win. Afterward, Styles expressed frustration because Karen had already left her ringside seat... Powell’s POV: A Dot Net reader just informed me that Tenay mentioned the live show in passing earlier and said it would be the biggest edition of Impact ever. This “hype” was so effective that I didn’t even hear him say it and I’ve been waiting for some type of acknowledgement all night. I just don’t understand the logic behind not hyping this as a major event. What was the point of fighting for a live show if they were just going to treat it like any other edition of Impact? [Q6] [C] Backstage, Crystal interviewed Raisha Saed while Awesome Kong stood by. Saed read a message from Kong that mocked ODB and Gail Kim for failing to beat her at the Destination X pay-per-view... 5. ODB and Gail Kim beat Angelina Love and Velvet Sky at 5:21. Tenay put over next week’s live broadcast. He said viewers would be able to vote online to determine who will challenge Awesome Kong for the TNA Knockouts Title. The match was fairly competitive. The stars got their offense in, but they also let Sky and Love look good before ODB powerslammed one of her opponents and scored the pin... After the match, Tenay hyped the live show and the internet vote again. Roxxi Lavaeux walked out the heel duo fled the ring while ODB and Kim celebrated at ringside... Powell’s POV: Finally, some hype for the live show that actually stuck with me. It doesn’t change the fact that there hasn’t been nearly enough hype, but it’s better than nothing. Backstage, Borash interviewed Angle, who wasn’t clowning around this week. He was intense and vowed to punish four opponents in his public sparring session... [Q7] [C] Mike Carlson of Real Fighter commented on the Angle vs. Joe match. MMA fighter Marcus Davis said he’s been training with Joe... Kurt Angle mowed through four consecutive opponents in an MMA style training session. Angle had his fists, feet, and ankles taped as he mowed through four consecutive sparring partners. He beat the first three via submission and then knocked out his final opponent with a headbutt and a series of strikes to the head. Afterward, Angle took the mic and cut a short promo on Joe. He held up his fist to show off the blood on the tape and delivered his “It’s damn real” catchphrase... Powell’s POV: This could have been set up a lot better. They just kind of threw Angle out there in an MMA segment during the middle of a pro wrestling show without much explanation. Nevertheless, I’m excited to see what Angle and Joe come up for an MMA style match at the pay-per-view. Backstage, Borash stood by while Tomko, Styles, and Team 3D took turns cutting a promo about their Lockdown match... [Q8] [C] By the way, I forgot to mention that Tenay said MMA fighter Frank Trigg will appear on the live show next week to discuss the Angle vs. Joe match... A video segment recapped the history between Rhino and Christian... 6. Christian and Rhino beat Team 3D by DQ in 8:45. Tenay said the handshake between Christian and Rhino that took place earlier in the show will prove to be one of the most important moments they’ve ever had on Impact. They cut to a break early in the match. [C] After the break, Tenay said he’ll have a sitdown interview with Karen next week regarding her problems with Kurt and her current love life. Late in the match, Rhino gored Brother Ray and went for the cover, but Tomko ran out and pulled the ref out of the ring for the DQ. Styles also ran out and it was four-on-two until Nash came out. He was eventually outnumbered as well. Shark Boy, Curry Man, and the Motor City Machine Guns ran out to help, but the heels beat them all down. The heels celebrated and mugged for the camera. The lights went out and Sting’s entrance lights and music played. Tenay said it has to mean that Sting will appear next week on “the biggest Impact in history”... Powell’s POV: Good action until the cheap finish. The announcers did a much better job of hyping the live special during the second hour of the show. I still don’t think TNA did nearly enough to promote the show, but advertising Sting at the end can only help. I’ll have a lot more to say about this show in Friday’s TNA Impact Hitlist. 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