TNA Impact Hits

Sting promo: Sting has delivered two of the best promos of his career over the last two weeks. I don't know if he's excited about the material or what's led to his sudden improvement on the stick, but he's clearly more interested in what he's doing now than he has been in quite some time. I remain concerned that Sting is making top babyfaces Samoa Joe and A.J. Styles look bad and that the fans will choose Sting's side if TNA isn't careful, but that doesn't change the fact that Sting has stepped it up lately.

Kurt Angle and Booker T promo: It probably seems like a small detail, but presentation is so important and these guys always dress the part. It was fun to see these two share the ring as heels even if this wasn't a monumental segment in terms of storyline development.

ODB vs. Raisha Saeed: I definitely could have lived without ODB's backstage bathroom antics this week, but I enjoyed the match and her attempt to remove Saeed's burka. It did seem odd that the announcers acknowledged that Saeed wears the burka for religious reasons, yet didn't seem to have any problem with ODB removing it.

Awesome Kong: I thought it was odd that Kong didn't come out sooner to save her manager in the ODB segment, but I loved the way she ended up plowing through ODB and Roxxi. TNA has done a nice job of making Kong look menacing even though her unbeaten streak was ended.

Overall show: A solid edition. There was nothing truly memorable about the show, but I enjoyed the two hour ride. Sure, there were a couple of bumps in the road (more on that below), but this was better than the average Impact.

TNA Impact Misses

Christian Cage vs. A.J. Styles: A very entertaining match. The action was "Hit" worthy, but I knew from the start that there would be some type of lame interference because TNA creative is too chickenshit to have one of these guys lose clean. I would be more tolerant if TNA didn't have such a long track record of cheap finishes. There's no bigger buzz kill than when you're enjoying a show, looking forward to a main event, and the promotion delivers a clunker finisher. Too bad.

Sheik Abdul Bashir: A well delivered promo, but I wasn't a fan of the verbiage. How did the United States cost Bashir to lose his family? It just felt like TNA decided to shake up the character and there were elements of the promo were inconsistent with previous remarks he's made. By the way, what are the fans from international markets thinking when they watch this character?

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