6/9 Kester's TNA "Impact Wrestling" Live Coverage: The fallout from the Network firing Foley and the final hype for the Slammiversary PPV


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6/9 Kester's TNA "Impact Wrestling" Live Coverage: The fallout from the Network firing Foley and the final hype for the Slammiversary PPV
Jun 9, 2011 - 08:00 PM


By Ryan Kester

TNA "Impact Wrestling" on Spike TV
Taped in Orlando, FL. in the Impact Wrestling Zone


[Q1] The show opened with a video recapping last week's firing of Mick Foley. The show opened with Hogan making his way to the ring with Eric Bischoff.

Tenay recounted last week as the power pair made their way to the ring; Hogan welcomed the "Hulkamaniacs" to the show and said that nothing has changed. He said the Network finally realized that their representative had an agenda and got rid of him.

Bischoff took the mic and talked about how they were in love with the new "wrestling matters" campaign and went on to talk about how the Network enjoys the X-Division and wanted them to be pushed. He wanted the competitors for the main event of Slammiversary to come to the ring.

Anderson's music hit and he made his way to the ring, and he was quickly followed by Sting. Hogan immediately began talking about the changes that "they" made to the show and wanted to make it clear that they were not going to go through what they had with the Network again. He said there would be no interference in their match at Slammiversary, and if they had a problem with that to speak up now or forever hold their peace.

Anderson took the mic and turned to Sting to inform him he'd been mocking him for the past three weeks and said everything Sting stands for is a joke. He said at least he's an asshole enough to admit he's in it for him. He said he was going to be the new TNA Champion and acted like he was going to hand the mic to Sting but dropped it instead.

Sting said he wasn't going to lose at Slammiversary and said that the title was the only thing that stood between Hogan and Bischoff from making a mockery of TNA. He said he still had a lot left to do. He said either Hogan would go back to his former self or Sting would be a thorn in his side for a long time.

[Q2] He said Hogan slapped his fans in the face and maybe he should slap Hogan. He talked about the real infection in TNA and said it was Bischoff. He told Hogan to cut the cancer before it was too late.

Sting's music hit and he headed to the back… [C]

Ryan's Rant: There you have it folks, straight from Hulk Hogan's mouth: nothing's changed in TNA. Sting spent way too much of that time focusing on Hogan when he needed to be focusing on hyping the main event match he's in on Sunday.


1. Winter & Angelina Love defeated Mickie James & Tara in 4:50. Tara and Winter started. Winter tried to get early control but Tara over powered her and tagged in Mickie. Mickie tagged Tara back in so the pair could work a double-team maneuver.

Love tagged in and pointed to Mickie. Tara tagged her in and the two flattened Love. Love quickly tagged in Winter and the two began to work over Mickie. It didn't last long, however, as Mickie quickly got the better of Winter. Winter and Love began to work quick tags to work Mickie over in their corner.

Mickie no sold the onslaught and started to take out both women. As soon as she took down both women, she suddenly started selling the damage and crawled slowly to her corner before getting cut off by Love. Madison Rayne interfered in the match and distracted Mickie long enough for Love to capitalize and pick up the win.

Post-match, Love choked out Mickie.

Backstage, Beer Money and Alex Shelly were talking about the tag team championship match at the PPV… [C]

Ryan's Rant: I don't find it a good think when the person playing the zombie character is the best worker of the match, but there you have it. Mickie is nothing more than an afterthought at this point, and I don't think she does a thing for the Knockouts title or its division with how they are currently using her.

Backstage, Mexican America was complaining about gringos holding them down and how they weren't getting title shots. They said they weren't going to ask for a shot, they were going to take it.

[Q3] The announcers set up a 'bar fight' between Crimson and Samoa Joe. They then showed the video of Joe making Crimson his little bitch… [C]

Ryan's Rant: That was...different. I like it, but they tried to make it look too real by shooting it on a camera phone.

2. Mexican America defeated James Storm and Alex Shelley in 4:34. British Invasion joined the commentators for the match. Anarquia and Shelly stared the bout and Shelly went for a series of pin attempts. James Storm and Alex Shelly quickly worked rapid tags to work over Anarquia as Taz and the British Invasion bickered like mad on commentary.

Anarquia made it to Hernandez and it became their turn to work rapid tags on the small guy. Hernandez eventually went to the top for a flying headbutt and missed. Shelly got the hot tag to Storm and the big man met Anarquia in the middle of the ring. Storm dominated before he tagged Shelly back in and dealt with Hernandez.

Storm had the win but the Mexican America girls got on the apron and distracted the ref. Chaos ensued and Alex Shelly accidentally superkicked Storm and Anarquia covered him for the win.

[Q4] Gunner walked into Anderson's locker room and Anderson said Gunner was stepping on his coat tails. Anderson said the mission tonight was to hurt Sting... [C]

Ryan's Rant: The match had moments of brilliance but was completely overshadowed by Taz's sudden compulsion to argue with the guy on commentary. TNA is getting far too frequent with their use of wrestlers on commentary and the focus they give those guys just detracts from the few matches they have.

Mexican America stormed into Hogan's office to demand a tag team title shot. Hogan said he wasn't racist and told them that they needed to check themselves.

A video package covering the Angle and Jarrett feud aired complete with Angle and Jarrett talking about their final match and how Karen wouldn't be in the match at Sunday… [C]

[Q5] Jeff Jarrett and Kurt Angle both made their way to the ring. Jeff said Karen Jarrett is gone and it’ll be just him and Angle for his gold medal and the number one contender spot on Sunday. Jeff talked about how Kurt's 'former employer' made a huge mistake letting him go. He put him over as the best in-ring performer that the industry has ever produced.

Jeff talked about how Kurt wasn't happy having a company built around him but he also wanted to make people forget about Jeff Jarrett. Jeff said he then wanted to take everything that meant anything to Kurt form him. He said he took his wife, his kids, and his integrity. He then took the distinction of better wrestler from him as well, and now he was after his gold medals.

Jeff said when he won on Sunday Kurt would know he always was, always am, and always will be the better man. Kurt took the mic and thanked Jeff for doing the one thing no one else could ever do: remove Karen from his life for good. He said all he ever wanted was a one-on-one match. He said he wasn't going to waste another word on Jeff and he'd let his wrestling do the talking. Then he said he'd show Jarrett how real this really is.

ODB talked backstage about how Velvet was the first skinny bitch she ran in to and that she'd take her out… [C]

Ryan's Rant: Pretty good segment hyping their match at the PPV. TNA, your company is almost a decade old and you have yet to even approach competing with WWE. It's time to stop taking jabs at them.

Backstage Kazarian and Kendrick were carrying Janice and talking about Abyss.

Bully Ray got in the ring and started screaming about AJ Styles and their Last Man Standing in three days. He focused on how Styles isn't a man and he made an open challenge to anyone in the back. RVD obliged.

[Q6] 3. Rob Van Dam defeated Bully Ray in 3:43. Bully Ray attacked form behind and immediately started to target his neck. Bully ray got RVD in the corner and delivered a hellacious chop. RVD tried to come back several times with no luck.

Bully Ray dropped a series of elbows on RVD and AJ Styles was shown standing in the crowd watching the match. Bully ray eventually noticed Styles and got distracted. RVD attacked him and hit a couple of moves before landing the Five-Star Frog Splash for the 1-2-3.

Backstage, Velvet Sky was going off on ODB's complaints as of late about her. She then said ODB has a worse character. I kid you not… [C]

Ryan's Rant: RVD looks really dumb for going down there just to get his ass kicked until his buddy showed up to distract Bully Ray. Worthless match that left a bad taste in my mouth in more ways than one.

Backstage, the wonder twins were still walking backstage with Janice when they ran into Abyss, who talked about the Art of War and how he no longer needed Janice. He said the X-Division title was now the X-treme title. He challenged them to a three-way match for the X-treme championship. Kendrick went off on a deep thinking rant.

The announcers then ran down the PPV card for this Sunday.

4. Velvet Sky defeated ODB in 5:08 ODB is apparently not under contract so she gets no entrance music and can't enter from the main ramp. Um, ok.

The two battled at ringside before the bout and ODB got the better of Velvet. She rolled her in the ring and made the ref ring the bell and tried to get a quick pin but Velvet kicked out. ODB continued her assault and dominated velvet while calling her trashy names.

Velvet suddenly burst out of nowhere and started decimating ODB. The fight spilled to the floor and ODB rammed Velvet spine-first into the steel post. Back in the ring ODB hit a fall-away slam and started patting her crotch. Lovely. Velvet then hit a DDT out of nowhere and picked up the win.

Backstage, Sting and Eric Young talked about their match coming up. Sting told Young to get serious… [C]

Ryan's Rant: TNA needs to stop those full-screen replays during matches. It reminds this viewer how this is all pretaped and really takes me out of the action. That match had trash written all over it and I am just glad it's over.

Back from the break, Devon and Pope were talking about stuff happening on Xplosion that no one cares about.

[Q8] 5. Mr. Anderson and Gunner defeated Sting and Eric Young in 4:55. Jeremy Borash handled in-ring introductions. Anderson and Sting began. Gunner quickly tagged in and Stinger hit the two Stinger Splashes in the corner.

Anderson tagged back in and took it to Sting for a few minutes before tagging Gunner back into the match. Gunner locked the abdominal stretch on Sting and tagged Anderson back in, who also worked over Sting's midsection. Sting suddenly came back and nailed Anderson and got the hot tag to Eric Young who immediately started to work over Gunner. Anderson ran in only to get knocked down by Young.

Young got pushed into Sting who was then hit with an F5 by Gunner for the pin… [C]

Ryan's Rant: I seriously hope they aren't trying to make Gunner the next Brock Lesner here because he certainly is not, but that ending was just embarrassing. There is no reason for Sting to have taken the pin here, and TNA just let all the air out of their main event of Slammiversary for the second week straight. Why on earth would anyone buy this PPV? The main event is an absolute joke if the two competitors can get pinned by jobbers.

Sting was walking backstage as Eric Young was following him asking if they won and if he changed his name to Gunner. AJ Styles started talking about how a bully is like a balloon, Bully ray showed up and security was there instantly to keep them apart.

Anderson was laughing his head off about Gunner getting the pin. Sting started towards him and Anderson ran to his trailer. The two then fought in the weakest beat backstage brawl ever. Sting rubbed red paint on both of their faces and put Anderson in a sleeper hold. Where is that amazing security at?

Ryan's Rant: I am tired of the rapid fire interview segments to close the show. This show was nearly devoid of in-ring work despite having five matches as all of them had a few spots and they rushed through the matches. It's a said day when TNA makes me look more fondly on Superstars. At least that show featured an eleven minute match. Have no fear, though, because Bischoff and Hogan had their fill of time during the opening and throughout the show. Ugh. I'll have more to say about the show in the Impact Wrestling Rundown tomorrow. Thank you for following along with me and I will see you here next week.

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to email me at ryan.kester@gmail.com or find me on twitter at @Ryan_Kester.

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