TNA TV Reports 4/3 TNA Impact Live Coverage: Sting returns to the ring to face James Storm, Tomko and A.J. Styles vs. Rhino and Christian Cage By Jason Powell Apr 3, 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] A video recapped last week's show... Backstage, Jeremy Borash stood outside Jim Cornette's office and hyped the show. Cornette came out and complained that Matt Morgan gave Team Tomko permission to have a fifth partner for the Lethal Lockdown match. Cornette walked off and Morgan came out and said he stepped up and made the decision while Cornette was out sick... The opening video aired... Mike Tenay and Don West hyped the show and ran through the matches... Tomko, A.J. Styles, and Team 3D walked to the ring for a promo. Tomko, sporting a black eye from the Kurt Angle sparring session, bragged about outsmarting Christian. Brother Ray thanked Morgan for being an idiot and letting their team have a fifth member. He introduced James Storm, who walked to the ring with Jackie Moore. Same old beer swilling Storm. Christian Cage, Sting, Kevin Nash, and Rhino walked onto the stage wearing "Team Cage" t-shirts. Christian said he was interrupting Storm's promo time because nobody wants to listen to a drunk slur his words. Christian announced that he'd be teaming with Rhino to face Tomko and Styles. Christian called out Morgan. Morgan walked to the ring and high-fived Tomko's team. Christian asked Morgan what he was going to do to make things even. Morgan made it clear that he wasn't going to help Christian, who responded by saying he might have one more ace up his sleeve... Backstage, Kurt Angle, wearing a suit, told Borash that he was letting him off the hook this week as far as their sparring session goes. Kurt said he no longer knows the name Karen Angle, and vowed to retire Samoa Joe. Eric Young interrupted and told Borash that Super Eric was in the building. Angle called him a moron and referred to himself as the only superhero... Powell's POV: A solid opening segment that puts the babyface team at a temporary disadvantage. The Team Cage shirts were corny. I liked Kurt's serious tone and look. Here's hoping that becomes a trend. [Q2] [C] Outside the building, Scott Steiner drove a car while Petey Williams hung onto the top of the car. It was probably a cool stunt, but I was too distracted by Borash's jacket. It's like Backstreet Boys meets Matt Hardy or something... Backstage, Black Reign and Rellik and the Rock-n-Rave Connection cut a promo. Christy Hemme referred to them as the Monsters of Rock... 1. The Motor City Machine Guns and LAX (w/Salinas) beat Lance Hoyt and Jimmy Rave and Rellik and Black Reign (w/Christy Hemme) in 7:30. Young was hanging out in the crowd before the match. He was just leaving when the show went to commercial. [C] After the break, TNA hyped that subscribers to their mobile service could get an update on the WWE wrestler who appeared on their show last week. Ugh. [Q3] Good action during the match, which the babyface team won when Hernandez hit the Border Toss on Rave. Afterward, the heels attacked the celebrating babyfaces. Kaz ran out to save the babyface teams, but he was eventually outnumbered. The live crowd chanted "Super Eric" and he ran out and cleared the heels from the ring... Powell's POV: I really wish they'd get the Machine Guns and LAX in a program together. The two heels teams in this match just don't have much to offer. Backstage, Borash interviewed Sting. He talked about how great it was to be back and hyped his match against Storm... [C] Powell's POV: Good promo. Sting's been better than usual on the mic over the last two weeks. Another "Cross the Line" video aired. These look and feel like WWE videos from five years ago... Another "Rough Cuts" video aired with B.G. James and Kip James hyping their upcoming match. B.G. said they might not need to beat the hell out of each other before they can be friends again. Kip said that's not an option... Powell's POV: Kip was funny here as he talked about kicking B.G. in the head and waiting for him to wake up just to kick him again and then wait for him to wake up again and then kick him in the gut. He was so matter of fact about it and he sounded like Ricky Bobby. Mike Tenay conducted a pre-taped interview with Raisha Saeed and Awesome Kong. He led a long list of restrictions that Saeed placed on him about asking questions about their personal lives. Saeed said she came to the United States from Syria when she was 15. She said Kong is from the United States, but lives in Japan. Saeed said she trained and fought with Kong in the past, and wouldn't comment on her burka... [C] Powell's POV: At least we found out some history on the two, I suppose. Tenay just isn't good in these sit-down interviews. He's just too stiff and he asks every question like it's the most important question that's ever been asked. [Q4] A Consequences Creed video aired and hyped his return for next week... Backstage, Crystal interviewed Storm, while Moore stood by. Same old Storm. Still comes across like he's more concerned with drinking beer than winning matches... Powell's POV: Storm is good on the mic. He changes the volume of his voice and makes viewers pay attention. I'm not a fan of his character, but I think there's a lot of potential there. 2. Tomko and A.J. Styles beat Christian Cage and Rhino by DQ. Back and forth action early followed by a commercial. [C] [Q5] The referee had his back turned and missed Christian tagging Rhino. Apparently, Rhino wasn't happy about it so he gored the referee. Team 3D ran out and attacked Cage and Rhino. Kevin Nash ran out for the save. Jim Cornette ran out and announced Cage and Rhino were disqualified... [C] Powell's POV: Good action while it lasted. I assumed heading in that there were too many names involved to get a clean finish. TNA took a step in the right direction by having clean finishes last week, but it takes more than a week to make viewers feel like they might see something on television that actually matters. Backstage, Borash held the mic while Cornette bitched about the commotion Morgan caused. Morgan volunteered to referee the Sting vs. James Storm match. Cornette walked off to find Morgan a referee shirt. Once Cornette disappeared, Morgan pulled a referee shirt out of his pocket... Another Black Machismo and SoCal Val date video aired. They were sitting in a hot tub and Machismo went for a kiss, but Sonjay popped up from underwater and interrupted the kiss. You know, because they wouldn't notice a man was underwater using a snorkel in a small hot tub. Powell's POV: The skits are ridiculous, but I'm starting to get a kick out of Sonjay cock blocking Machismo every week. 3. Shark Boy defeated Elix Skipper in an Xscape match qualifier at 4:25. All the comedy figures (and Johnny Devine) are in the Xscape match. [Q6] Backstage, Traci Brooks cut a promo about her feud with Payton Banks and Robert Roode. Velvet Sky and Angelina Love interrupted her and said they're sick of her playing the Mother Hen role and acting like she's a veteran who can boss everyone around... [C] Powell's POV: It's a shoot! I totally believe that exchange was real because I read about it on a STOOGE!!!! website. Backstage, Crystal interviewed Shark Boy, who was in Stone Cold mode. Curry Man showed up and danced with Crystal briefly before cutting a promo in "broken English." Cute segment... 4. Traci Brooks pinned Payton Banks in 2:00. During the match, Tenay announced ODB and Gail Kim vs. Kong and Saeed. The match was good while it lasted and Brooks scored the clean pin. AFterward, Love an Sky ran out and attacked Brooks. Jackie, Roxi, and Hemme ran out and got involved in the brawl. Sharmell ran out and cleared the ring with a strap. Booker came out and Sharmell headed backstage with him... Powell's POV: You just knew they were going to try to recreate the hilarious pay-per-view scene of Sharmell whipping everyone. And you just knew it wouldn't be nearly as good the second time around. [Q7] [C] Backstage, Booker bitched about Sharmell about entering the ring. She stopped him and said: "When you married me, you knew you were marrying a wildcat. Welcome to the jungle, honey"... Video footage aired of Samoa Joe training at an MMA workout facility. He said he is training with people who want to be champions, while Kurt is training with his old college buddies. Um, hasn't he been training with MMA opponents, Tomko, and Styles?... Angle walked to the ring with the title belt and a mic in hand. He recalled Joe saying he'd leave wrestling if he didn't beat him at the pay-per-view. Kurt said Samoans are all lying SOBs, so he's having a contract drawn up and wants Joe to sign it in the ring next week. Wait, didn't Joe say he wouldn't return to the Impact Zone without the TNA Title? Scott Steiner and Rhaka Khan interrupted Angle. Steiner said he was cashing in his Money in the, er, whatever the hell they called that "Deal or No Deal" inspired farce that no one remembers. He said he wants to face the winner of Angle vs. Joe. Angle stuck his hand out, but Steiner refused to shake his hand... Backstage, Morgan tried to talk Cornette into holding a women's gimmick match in which they'd all start outside the ring and the goal would be to fight to get into it. The first two inside the cage will face off in a regular match. Cornette sent Morgan away and then stole his idea... [C] [Q8] 5. Sting pinned James Storm (w/Jackie Moore) with Matt Morgan as special referee at 8:40. Someone is really proud of those "Team Cage" shirts because Sting wore his throughout the first part of the match. He and Storm brawled to ringside and then into the crowd, where Sting rammed Storm in to that part of the wall that always breaks when TNA wrestlers throw each other into it. [C] After the break, Sting was still wearing his super cool "Team Cage" shirt. Then again, it is a creative shirt. It reads "Team Cage" on the front and "Team Cage" on the back. I can see why TNA would want to show those off. Late in the match, Sting locked Storm in the Scorpion leg lock. Jackie jumped off the top to break it up, but Morgan caught her. Storm tried to use Sting's baseball bat, but Morgan stopped him. Morgan threw the bat to Sting and then turned his back while Sting struck Storm with it. Sting hit the Scorpion Death Drop on Storm and got the pin. After the match, the rest of Team Tomko, which doesn't have cool t-shirts, came to the ring and chewed out Morgan. Brother Ray shoved Morgan and the heels surrounded him. Team Cage (you could tell who they were because they had the cool t-shirts) ran out and cleared every heel other than Styles from the ring. Morgan performed a cool power move on Styles. Christian removed Morgan's referee shirt and Morgan was wearing the cool "Team Cage" t-shirt... Powell's POV: Well, at least there was a reason they were wearing the corny t-shirts. I hope they go back and try to explain all this because Morgan has been portrayed as a borderline heel and stupid throughout most of his run in TNA. He's a huge dude and he has a ton of potential. Honestly, I can't believe it's taken TNA this long to get him in the ring. I guess we have the contract he was offered by "American Gladiators" to thank. The show was a step down from the live show last week. I'll have a lot more to say about it in Friday's TNA Hitlist. BOOKMARK DOT NET AND ADD US TO YOUR RSS • HELP DOT NET: TAKE OUR ADVERTISER DEMO SURVEY CLICK TO RETURN TO MAIN LISTING OR SELECT A LINK BELOW FROM THIS CATEGORY TNA TV Reports Latest Twelve Articles 9/4 Twilling's TNA Impact Live Coverage: A.J. Styles vs. Christian Cage in a Four Ways to Glory qualifier, Abyss wrestles first TV match in months 8/28 Powell's TNA Impact Live Coverage: Sting explains why he attacked Samoa Joe and A.J. 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