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TNA Impact Hits

Mick Foley and Jeff Jarrett vs. Sting and Kurt Angle: Very well done. They hyped the match consistently throughout the show and all the backstage segments that led up to and followed the match were great. Most of us knew that Sting vs. Foley would headline the Lockdown show, but it was fun to see how TNA got to that point. The Foley chairshot on Sting was a cool twist, and Foley's explanation after the match seemed logical coming from the semi-crazed Foley. Having said all that, TNA should have promoted this match at least a week out.

Overall show: There are more Hits than Misses for this show, but that's not a fair barometer. The Foley, Jarrett, Sting, and Angle segment carried the show and made this one of the most entertaining editions of Impact to date. TNA creative proved that they can produce a quality shows when they focus on the top players. The keys now are to be more consistent and to show as much concern for the mid- and undercard programs as they do for the main event players. Overall, a strong episode that set the table nicely for Lockdown.

Motor City Machine Guns vs. No Limit: I'd love to see these guys get 10 minutes to tear the house down. I was tempted to give this a "Miss" because TNA has done a terrible job of introducing the No Limit tag team. A simple graphic that lists their names would be a nice start. They just showed up one week and hang out with Kiyoshi, who is being wasted at a time when the X Division could desperately use a performer with his talents. That said, I enjoyed the match and I'm looking forward to seeing their Global Impact match.

TNA Impact Misses

Mike Tenay and Don West: I was impressed by the overall performance of the announcers last night. They did a really nice job of hyping the main event consistently throughout the show, and got the big angles over. The "Miss" is strictly for awkward West heel commentary. I thought they were abandoning the turn during the first hour of the show because they were calling the action with no heel overtones from West throughout the first hour, but then he suddenly kicked into heel mode in the second hour. Worse yet, there's usually a lot of truth in his heel commentary, which makes Tenay defend silly things like Jim Cornette swerving Booker T with a different contract.

Lack of hype for next week's 20-man gauntlet match: This match wasn't even mentioned until late in the broadcast. This should have been built up as a major event. The match is the TNA equivalent of the Royal Rumble match, but you wouldn't know that unless you've seen a TNA gauntlet match before. They should have explained the rules of the match and teased it throughout the show to get people excited about next week's show.

Samoa Joe: The footage of Joe hanging Sheik Abdul Bashir upside down and then beating him with a kendo stick was just plain disturbing. Joe's new gimmick just isn't clicking with me and I cringe every time I see him pull out the giant f'n Rambo knife. The screaming promos he cut late last year were a huge turnoff. Rather than tone down his persona, TNA went in the opposite direction and has turned Joe into an unlikeable psychopath.

The Governor: Please tell me that the Beautiful People cutting her hair is going to lead to a new look and character.

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