Powell Editorials TNA Impact Hitlist: Booker T, A.J. Styles, Sting, Awesome Kong, Angle family drama, Matt Morgan, Robert Roode By Jason Powell May 23, 2008 - 11:42 AM CLICK FOR BIO Email This Article | Printer Friendly Page Send Us News & Results | Back to Main Listing TNA Impact Hits Booker and friends attack A.J. Styles: As I mentioned in my blog this morning, the five wrestlers who attacked Styles all have a history in WWE. A.J. is TNA's homegrown star. Likewise, LAX, who were beat up by Booker and Team 3D earlier in the show, is a TNA homegrown tag team. My guess is that TNA is either launching a new heel faction based on their past connections to WWE or Vince Russo is recreating his Millionaires Club vs. New Blood storyline. Even if I'm wrong, I thought the angle was very well done and set up Styles for a long overdue push as a top babyface. My only hope is that they will get Karen off the babyface side as soon as possible. By the way, I really enjoy Booker in his new heel role. Awesome Kong vs. fan. A fun old school gimmick. Here's hoping they already have a good payoff in mind. Bonus points to Jeremy Borash who did a nice job of setting up this angle in his role as the backstage reporter. Kurt and Karen Angle: Angle's comments to Frank Trigg were funny, as was the fact that Borash was standing behind them with a microphone as they stood at the urinals. The in-ring segment with Kurt and Karen was predictable, yet well done. Overall show: This show was not without its flaws and was in desperate need of more in-ring action, but the storyline direction was fun for a change. It's funny because I spoke with a friend in the industry last night and the person said he hadn't watched Impact in over a month, and he was ranting throughout the conversation about how frustrating and bad the show was. Meanwhile, I thought it was one of TNA better recent efforts even though there were the usual "only TNA" follies (see below). TNA Impact Misses Idiotic commercial timing: This might be the poorest placed commercial break in the history of wrestling. The main event ends and the heels beat up Styles. They cut to commercial and it looks like the show is finished even though there's still time left before the top of the hour. How many people turned on the NBA playoffs at this point? This was a huge angle for TNA and it was executed very well other than this horrible decision. Sting sitdown interview: Let me get this straight. Last week, Sting talked about a wrestler who isn't under TNA contract. This week he talked about a wrestler who hasn't appeared on camera in ages. Next week he's going to talk about a retired wrestler who no longer works for the company. How does this help Sting or TNA again? TNA also sent the message to a portion of the audience that they shouldn't believe anything that comes out of Sting's mouth during this interview by having him claim that he hasn't seen much of Jeff Jarrett in the last year. I'm not suggesting that TNA should cater to the internet, but they don't have to insult them either by including a line that easily could have been left out. Don West: I'm really tired of the babyface cheerleader announcers. I think West could play a valuable role as a backstage interviewer or pitch man, but he's just so irritating on color commentary. He's done a better job recently of working in a couple of one-liners (nice one last night about dreaming of "vodka-filled boobies"), but I just want something more than screaming and cheerleading out of the color commentator. Perhaps the problem could be solved by adding a heel to the broadcast team. Robert Roode vs. Matt Morgan: This was a letdown of a match. Granted, they only had four minutes to work with, but they really didn't get anything out of those four minutes. Rather, it was just a basic, forgettable match, which is the last thing that two guys who are trying to work their way out of the mid-card should deliver on national television. Morgan has been a disappointment since his debut angle concluded and TNA refuses to make some necessary changes to Roode's gimmick that no one buys in to. However, those are booking issues. The lackluster match falls on the wrestlers. What did you think of Thursday's Impact? Do you agree or disagree with my assessment of the show? Let me know by sending a paragraph or two of comments for a possible Mailbag feature to dotnetjason@gmail.com. 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 Powell Editorials Latest Twelve Articles TNA Impact Hitlist: Sting, Kurt Angle, Booker T, Awesome Kong, ODB, Christian Cage, A.J. Styles, Sheik Abdul Bashir ECW Hitlist: Eight-man tag main event, Super Crazy, John Morrison and The Miz, Ricky Ortiz, Gavin Spears, Matt Striker WWE Raw Hitlist: Randy Orton returns to bicker with C.M. Punk, Rey Mysterio and Candice Michelle back in action, Shawn Michaels, Chris Jericho, Honk-A-Meter WWE Smackdown Hitlist: Triple H vs. Shelton Benjamin, Jeff Hardy vs. MVP, The Brian Kendrick, Vickie Guerrero, R-Truth, Natalya, Maryse, Michelle McCool, Maria TNA Impact Hitlist: Sting promo, Samoa Joe, Kevin Nash vs. Kurt Angle, Karen Angle, Kip James, Jay Lethal, Sonjay Dutt ECW Hitlist: Matt Hardy vs. John Morrison, Evan Bourne vs. The Miz, Finlay vs. Mike Knox, Matt Striker's color commentary