By Jason Powell

TNA Impact Hits

Fortune beats up EV2.0: A great beatdown angle that we only saw part of. Correspondents who were in the building said the footage was heavily edited and didn't pack as much punch on television as it did live. Nevertheless, the beatdown angle was still very well done. It was violent and bloody, and made for an excellent lead in for the TNA Reaction debut.

That said, TNA has to stop leaving so much good material in the editing room. Scale back on the match count, as it seems like I'm hearing from people in TNA every week that there was good material left out. I did enjoy the way the announcers acted like Sandman was coming out when the lights went out only to act stunned when Fortune attacked. Likewise, I love the way they showed Sandman coming to the rescue only to pull the rug out from under the fans by having him get beat down. Strong angle.

I don't complain about fan reaction very often, but the fans chanting "This is awesome" constantly is downright annoying. It's bad enough when they chant those words during routine matches, but it really annoyed me when they chanted that during the big angle at the end of the show. This can't be the reaction TNA officials were hoping for during a violent heel on babyface attack. Obviously, it's out of their control, but I wonder what the reaction would have been if the angle had taken place in front of a different group of fans.

Rob Van Dam vs. Abyss: The Stairway to Janice concept was silly, but this was a strong match. Both wrestlers worked hard and had a tough act to follow because of the hot tag match, but they definitely delivered a strong hardcore style match that wasn't overshadowed in any way. This was my favorite RVD performance in TNA thus far, and Abyss finally felt like a monster again (until he opened his mouth on TNA Reaction).

Motor City Machine Guns vs. Beer Money: Great work by the two teams. I'm not sure why it took TNA so damn long to get to this feud, but I'm thrilled that they finally did. This is definitely a contender for the match of the year title, and I really hope to see more from these teams in the future. Here's hoping The Guns will have that pushed back feud with Generation Me at some point. As for last night, I must point out that this would have been the perfect show to put the tag titles on MCMG for the first time, but TNA pulled the trigger early by having them win the straps at the last pay-per-view. Even so, a great match to end a great best of five series.

Kurt Angle vs. A.J. Styles: A great way to kick off the show. Angle and Styles work very well together and they didn't even need a real storyline to hook me on their matchup. I do hope this is the last time Styles loses a non-title match on television to someone who doesn't factor into the TV Title picture.

Overall show: The announcers should have been driving home the point that this is the type of action you see on TNA pay-per-views every month and gone above and beyond to sell the September pay-per-view. Granted, they would have been lying through their teeth because this show was way better than the average TNA pay-per-view event, but here's hoping that isn't the case going forward. Overall, a really good night for TNA, and this is arguably the best edition of Impact they've ever produced. It's amazing what happens when the focus is put on the in-ring action.

TNA Reaction: Let's get the criticisms out of the way. As I mentioned last night, I hated the way the heels were casually hanging around the building following the big beatdown angle. The babyfaces are screaming about revenge in one part of the building, while Abyss is granting interviews near the stage and the members of Fortune were just hanging out talking backstage. I also feel this format would work better if it were a 30-minute show rather than a full hour. Nevertheless, I did enjoy the format and found it significantly better than the pilot that aired earlier this year. I'm curious to see how it performed in the ratings.

TNA Impact Misses

Matt Morgan vs. Mr. Anderson vs. The Pope: Too quick to matter. On a show filled with great matches and a big angle, I almost forgot this match even took place. I was looking forward to it going in because I like the dynamic between the three characters, but it was really lost in the shuffle by end of the night.

Jeff Hardy vs. Shannon Moore: An open challenge accepted by Shannon Moore? Their match was fine and all, but I just couldn't get excited about Moore accepting Hardy's open challenge. TNA isn't guilty of overhyping this one, yet I still rolled my eyes when I first heard that Moore was the mystery opponent. I just hope the open challenge gimmick continues and there's eventually a big payoff.

Angelina Love vs. Madison Rayne: Another match that was an afterthought by the time the show was over. I wish TNA would have saved this match and the three-way for another show in favor of showing the unedited footage of the big angle at the end of the show. I'm somewhat intrigued by the Beautiful People drama, yet I'm not even sure who to cheer for since they all come across so bitchy. I thought Love was the person to root for, but she came off more full of herself than Rayne did in the footage that aired on Reaction.

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