TNA Impact on Spike TV
Taped in Orlando, Fla.

[Q1] The show opened with James Earl Jones guy narrating brief clips that showcased the top Bound For Glory matches... The show is called, "Angle's Revenge"... The opening montage aired... Mike Tenay and Taz on commentary...

The Main Event Mafia were in the ring. Kurt Angle said BFG will mark the one-year anniversary of the Main Event Mafia. Angle addressed the various members and gave them pep talks and said he expected them to win their BFG matches. Angle looked into the camera and said he would hold up his end of the bargain by beating Matt Morgan.

Angle said he'll get a shot at the TNA Title if he beats Morgan. "Gentlemen, this is our time and the time is now," Angle said as the other Mafia members held up their title belts.

A.J. Styles's music played. He walked onto the stage with Bobby Lashley, Matt Morgan, Heranandez, Beer Money, and Team 3D. Brother Ray took the mic and asked if the fans are as tired of seeing the Mafia as he is. He introduced Styles as "our TNA World Heavyweight Champion."

Styles took the mic and recalled Kurt saying BFG is a make or break pay-per-view for the Mafia. He predicted they were only three days away from the Mafia ceasing to exist. Morgan took the mic and said, "A.J., I don't know about you, but I ain't waiting." The babyfaces stormed the ring and cleared the Mafia from the ring. The brawl continued at ringside as the babyfaces went after the heels... [C]

Powell's POV: I hope this is the end of the Mafia. They really do feel stale right now. That said, I'll take them if the alternative is pushing World Elite in its current form as a main event heel stable. Solid opening that made BFG seem important. They really should use a countdown clock similar to the one WWE uses for WrestleMania. Sure, WWE has done it, but it would help establish BFG as the biggest TNA show of the year.

The announcers hyped Angle vs. Styles for later in the show...

[Q2] 1. Velvet Sky, Madison Rayne, and Lacey Von Erich defeated Tara, Awesome Kong (w/Raisha Saeed), and ODB in 3:00. Tenay noted that Tara, Kong, and ODB will battle for the TNA Knockouts Title at Sunday's pay-per-view. Kong attacked Tara at ringside, so their partnership didn't last long. Kong and Saeed headed backstage less than a minute into the match.

Tenay called Tara nipping up. Taz said he shouldn't say "nip." Wow, just wow. Tara and ODB bickered for no apparent reason. Tara kicked ODB, which allowed Velvet to pin ODB to win the match for her team...

Powell's POV: Predictable with the babyfaces bickering even though they didn't really establish and reason for them to be at odds. No Lacey in the actual match, presumably because she was nursing a leg injury.

Backstage, Lauren interviewed D'Angelo Dinero, who pimped an energy drink twice during his promo. He also said it was time for everyone in the X Division to bow down and kiss his ring... [C]

Powell's POV: As if the product placement wasn't enough, they went right to a commercial for the same product. Ugh.

Backstage, Lauren interviewed Lashley. Rhino interrupted the interview by goring Lashley and saying that he wouldn't make it to BFG to face Samoa Joe... A slick video showcased Ultimate X...

Powell's POV: Nice video. Unfortunately, Jay Lethal was in every other shot. Ultra-talented guy, but that gimmick makes me cringe whenever I see him. I can't believe they haven't pulled the plug on Black Machismo.

[Q3] 2. Amazing Red (w/Don West) fought Suicide to a no-contest in an X Division Title match in 3:40. West came out with Red. He shook hands with the announcers and then looked into the camera and yelled, "Red!" West remained at ringside and cheered for Red. Tenay noted that Homicide was sent home for insubordination for attacking a Spanish announce team member last week.

Suicide was in control of the match and went to the top rope. D'Angelo Dinero ran out and attacked Suicide for the no-contest finish. Tenay speculated that Dinero didn't want Suicide to win the X Division Title. Red saved Suicide. West climbed in the ring and looked like a proud, um, uncle as he stood behind Red...

Powell's POV: Maybe Dinero was hopped up on the energy drink. Zero chemistry with West and Red. It's an odd pairing. I get the idea that West can talk for Red, but they just seem like such an odd couple. Maybe I'll change my mind when West starts cutting promos for Red. By the way, there is a way to market Red's shyness by simply acknowledging it and making him look like a nice, sweet guy.

Backstage, Borash interviewed West, who must have dipped into Dinero's energy drink supply. West said he's co-promoting Red. He announced that Red has been added to the Ultimate X match at BFG, making it a title match...

Powell's POV: Red can't talk. West can talk. However, I'm still not sold on this pairing. Maybe it will grow on me.

Eric Young came out and joined the announcers on commentary for the next match. Hernandez made his entrance. He grabbed Young and threatened to break every bone in his body at BFG...

[Q4] 3. Hernandez beat Doug Williams, Brutus Magnus, and Rob Terry in a gauntlet match. Tenay explained that Hernandez would be facing all three members of the British Invasion in the gauntlet match. Hernandez plowed through Williams in 1:20. He hit the Border Toss and got the pin on Brutus two minutes later.

Rob Terry entered the ring and grabbed the quick advantage, but Hernandez powerbomed him off the ropes and got in the win. After the match, Eric Young entered the ring and attacked Hernandez with a kendo stick. Young and the Invasion posed over Hernandez... [C]

Powell's POV: I would say it's a good win for Hernandez, but he plowed through his opponents so quickly that they came across like jobbers, which made the match seem insignificant. The creation of World Elite has done more harm than good for The British Invasion.

Tenay sat in front of four televisions that featured separate shots of Robert Roode, Brother Ray, Booker T, and Brutus Magnus. They all said they're going to win the Full Metal Mayhem tag match at BFG. Booker slipped up and referred to Team 3D as "The Dudleys" and ripped all four teams.

Tenay interrupted a verbal squabble between Booker and Brutus to inform them that their tag partners were all fighting in another part of the building. They cut to a backstage brawl with Scott Steiner, Doug Williams, James Storm, and Brother Devon fighting. The partners showed up on the scene and they all brawled for about a minute until referees showed up to break them up... [C]

Powell's POV: Another week, another big brawl in what I'm going to start referring to the brawl section of the building. I can't wait until they get back to having tag matches rather than multi-team tag matches.

A shot aired of Kurt Angle warming up inside the Mafia dressing room... [C]

[Q5] Lauren interviewed A.J. Styles in the locker room area. She asked if he regrets accepting Angle's challenge just a few days before he faces Sting. He said he and Kurt have to know who the better man is...

4. Daniels beat D'Angelo Dinero in 4:45. Paper money fell from the ceiling during Dinero's entrance. A camera showed a brief shot of one of the bills and it had Dinero's face on it. The announcers referred to them as "Dinero Bucks." If you catch one million of them and send them to me, I'll consider giving you a free month of Dot Net membership.

Tenay hyped the BFG press conference that will air on Mycontent.com after the show on Sunday. Daniels won the match by using the Angel's Wings suplex. After the match, Suicide's music played and he came to the ring and stared at Dinero. Suddenly, he attacked Daniels. Suicide unmasked, revealing himself to be Homicide... [C]

Powell's POV: Decent hype for the Ultimate X match. So did Homicide steal one of Suicide's outfits or did he have one made just in case? Either way, there's nothing wrong that that. After all, Twilling has a Beautiful People outfit that he wears in front of his bathroom mirror three nights a week.

[Q6] Mick Foley came to the ring. A lounge chair was set up in the middle of the ring. Foley wore home made mask. He took off the mask, sat in a chair, and narrated "rip off" footage of Abyss (one shot of James Mitchell included). Foley accused him of ripping off his look, thumbtacks, and falling through a burning table from him.

Abyss came out with a barbwire baseball bat (um, probably not the right weapon to bring out when Foley is accusing you of ripping him off). Abyss went right after Foley, who turned his attention to the video screen, which contained a shot of Dr. Stevie with what appeared to be Lauren tied up. They never showed her face. Foley encouraged Abyss to find her. Foley ate popcorn as he watched Abyss leave the ring... [C]

Powell's POV: Tenay said we were seeing a dark, evil side of Foley. Unfortunately, the dark and evil Foley sounds just like the cute and cuddly Foley. Plus, everything he's saying about Abyss being a rip off rings true. It's hard to cheer for either guy in this feud because Foley seems like he's trying harder to be cute than a heel.

Backstage, Homicide said he attacked Suicide in his dressing room and took his outfit. He said Suicide is ugly without the mask, and now he knows his identity. "It will be our little secret," Homicide said. Security crashed the scene to drag off Homicide, who wasn't supposed to be in the building...

Powell's POV: Here's hoping the plan is for Suicide to blackmail Suicide. Otherwise, it doesn't make much sense for him not to spill the beans on his identity.

5. Hamada defeated Alissa Flash in a falls count anywhere match in 5:05. Flash attacked Hamada on the entrance ramp to apparently start the match. Flash dominated the offense because of the sneak attack. However, Hamada came back and hit a moonsault that drove Flash through a table at ringside and then pinned her...

Powell's POV: Flash might be the most marketable new female wrestler they have, but she never wins.

[Q7]

Backstage, Angle said he was going to teach Styles and Matt Morgan lessons... [C]

6. Bobby Lashley beat Rhino in a stretcher match in 5:00. Lashley came out with his ribs taped to sell Rhino's earlier attack. Taz said Rhino is bitter. He said guys get bitter when other wrestlers get better pushes. I didn't think I'd hear the announcers talk about "pushes" tonight. Rhino attacked Lashley before the bell and targeted his injured ribs.

The announcers did a nice job of selling the story that Lashley's rib injury can be targeted by Samoa Joe during their submissions match on Sunday. Lashley put Rhino on the stretcher and dragged it near the side of the stage at one point. This should have been a key part of the match, but for some reason they cut to highlights from earlier in the match.

They fought outside the building, where an ambulance was waiting. Lashley eventually slammed Rhino onto a piece of guardrail that was outside the building and then placed him onto the stretcher. They went to more highlights and came back just in time to show Lashley putting Rhino into the ambulance to win the match. The ambulance took off as soon as the doors were shut... [C]

Powell's POV: My guess is that they went with highlights to cover some bad spots during the match. Perhaps Lashley had trouble getting the stretcher into the ambulance. Otherwise, there's no excuse for cutting in with so many highlights. The ambulance taking off right away was cheesy because Rhino wasn't beaten to the point that he would need medical attention.

[Q8] Don West hosted the Live Events segment. He hyped Bound For Glory weekend events...

Backstage, SoCal Val interviewed Lashley. Samoa Joe attacked Lashley with a chair and then applied his finisher. He eventually let him go and said that he left him with one last breath. "And at Bound For Glory it will be your last"...

Powell's POV: It's beat up Lashley backstage night on Impact. Good intensity from Joe, as always.

Tenay and Taz ran through the pay-per-view lineup...

Backstage, AByss ran after the woman he thought was Lauren. As expected, it was Daffney wearing a blonde wig. Mick Foley and Dr. Stevie showed up and attacked Abyss. Foley pressed the barbwire bat onto Abyss's head... [C]

Powell's POV: The hype for Abyss vs. Foley has been very lackluster tonight. Everyone over the age of 10 had to see the Daffney wig thing coming. Let's see if they give us an explanation for where Lauren has been for the last hour.

Ring introductions for the Styles vs. Angle match took place. Taz said he doesn't like the idea of Styles wrestling so close to BFG. He said he would be licking his chops if he were Sting...

Powell's POV: Good move to start the match during the second hour with the goal of keeping people watching past the show's usual finish time.

7. A.J. Styles fought Kurt Angle to a 20-minute draw. The first few minutes were back and forth with both wrestlers going for takedowns. Styles hit a great dropkick for the first big move of the match.

[Q9] Styles would hit a move and then Angle would roll out to the floor for a breather during the first five minutes. Both wrestlers scored some great near fall. Unlike most wrestlers, these two rarely stare at the referee during near falls. He turns and looks at him at the last second and then kicks out. Love that.

At 18:00, Angle missed the 1,000,000th moonsault of his career. He has less success up top than Ric Flair. Styles came right back with a sprinboard 450 splash for another great near fall. The fans chanted, "This is awesome." They were right. At 19:15, Angle fought off a superplex attempt.

[Q10] Styles came right back and caught him in piledriver position. They jockeyed for offensive position. Angle eventually caught Styles in the ankle lock. Styles was on the verge of tapping. Angle released the hold and raised his hands in victory. The ring announcer quickly stated that it was a 20-minute draw.

Tenay said we just witnessed one of the greatest matches in TNA history, which would mean more if he and West hadn't spent years telling us that everything was the greatest. Sting came out and tried to approach Styles in the ring, but A.J. brushed him off. [C]

Powell's POV Damn good match with some awesome near falls. These two will have one hell of a pay-per-view match in the near future. No complaints about the in-ring performances and I love that it was commercial-free. My only complaints in general are that they should have focussed more on BFG by showing Sting and Matt Morgan watching their upcoming opponents intently on backstage monitors. It's been done a million times, but it's effective and would have had fans thinking more about about those pay-per-view matches. For that matter, they could have had Styles ask Morgan not to interfere, which would have played off the opening segment. Again, though, a great 20-minute match.

After the break, the announcers recapped the previous match. Taz referred to it as "epic." By the way, I dug the way they questioned Styles for wrestling the match so close to BFG. The announcers set up preview footage of BFG...

Footage aired from the "Before The Glory" special that I gushed over last week. The footage featured the great preview for Lashley vs. Joe... [C]

Powell's POV: I'm happy they got this on the show. I just wish they would have aired this earlier in the night because there were probably a lot of people tuning out after Styles vs. Angle. They really should have hyped one more match for later in the show as a hook to keep people watching after the main event.

[Q11] The announcers set up the Abyss vs. Foley portion of the preview...

Powell's POV: I covered most of this in a recent blog. Ugh, they left in the part with Abyss laughing. That part bothered me. The 30-minute preview was serious and sports-like, but Abyss laughing reminded me that he's a cartoonish character. By the way, where was the go-home promo from Sting talking about the possibility of this being his final match and how badly he wants to win the title? It was important to reestablish his desire to win the belt given the way he let Styles take it last month.

Yes, we'll get Sting comments in the preview video, but there should have been one with him long before midnight on the East coast. I'm worried that people are tuning out in droves due to the late time and because they're airing the footage in one big bunch rather than at in pieces throughout the show when people still had actual matches to look forward to.

Tenay and Taz hyped an upcoming interview with Angle. They introduced the Angle vs. Morgan preview footage...

[Q12] Borash interviewed Kurt Angle, who declared himself the real winner of the match... A graphic asked, "Sting's Final Curtain?"...

Powell's POV: The Angle and Morgan footage was great. This match came across so much more significant in the video footage than it did at any point on Impact over the last month. As for Sting, why not hype the hell out of the fact that Sting would comment on whether Sunday will be his final match? That could have been a selling point to keep viewers watching if they had hyped that consistently throughout the show.

Tenay and Taz set up the Sting and Styles preview footage. They hyped an interview with Sting coming up after the video concluded...

The Sting vs. Styles preview included Dixie Carter saying that she doesn't know whether Sting will be back...

Backstage, Borash interviewed Styles in his locker room. Borash was about to ask whether Styles would have tapped to the ankle lock if the match had lasted longer, but Styles stopped him from asking the obvious (and good) question. Styles said he didn't lose the match and he didn't win it. He said the only thing he can do is learn from it. He was pissy and threw his towel across the room before storming off...

Powell's POV: I liked Styles in the video so much more than when he cuts promos. He's always yelling during his promos. He's much more likable in the video than he ever is on the mic.

Tenay and Taz set up the final video, which featured several TNA wrestlers hyping Bound For Glory. This video closed the show...

Powell's POV: Where the hell was that video in the weeks leading up to the event? That made the event feel special. Unfortunately, it aired too late. My guess remains that the rating bombs for the third hour because it's late and there was too much pre-taped footage airing in blocks. I hope I'm wrong because the footage they aired was sensational. For those of you not following along live who missed the "Before the Glory" footage, check it out at TNAwrestling.com.

Check back on Sunday for my Live Coverage of TNA Bound For Glory. Plus, Rich Twilling and I will be discussing the show in detail during Friday's Dot Net Weekly audio show, which is available exclusively to Dot Net Members. You can become a member for only $5 per month by clicking the link below.

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