By Ryan Kester

I really enjoyed Robert Roode's promo, but something struck me as unnecessary. While I loved his intensity and how he seemed to genuinely go after Hulk Hogan, I could have done without his use of the term "rape." Now, I know that the word fit the context, and it certainly fit for what he was trying to get across. However, I have had too many experiences in my life with that topic to be comfortable with someone using that term so nonchalantly. I understand why he did it, to elicit a visceral and impactful reaction out of the viewer, but I think that's a road best left untraveled, especially when his promo was otherwise golden.

I believe Thursday's show was ultimately hurt by the hype for the TNA Title match at Sacrifice being limited to a video package. This is supposed to be Sting's dream match at the PPV, yet we barely received any talk of it last night.

There were a few things about Impact that I wasn't a fan of, the chief of which was the the Knockouts are portrayed. To me, the professional wrestling world got over showing off their women's wrestlers as overly-sexual stereotypes years ago. However, last night, we had Miss Tessmacher bending over and stripping, Velvet Sky naked for no reason, and Velvet Sky and Karen Jarrett arguing over who was the bigger slut. I'm sorry, but that's not entertainment. If it was confined to one specific character it would be a different story, but it seems only Winter and Mickie James are immune to the stereotypical women's roles in wrestling, and I feel that hurts the entire division.

I also wasn't a fan of Jay Lethal being mentioned throughout the show. It comes off as rather unprofessional of TNA unless Lethal's firing was a work. Considering the fact that he's already signed with ROH, I don't think that's the case, and that makes the wrestler's repeated references to him a bit much.

I am on the fence with A.J. Style's neck injury angle. While TNA has an opportunity to take this in the direction they did with Anderson's concussion, I get the sense that is not where we are headed. This is some shaky ground to walk on when the wrestling world is still getting over the tragic forced retirement of Edge for this exact same injury. Hulk Hogan's comments about Edge's retirement make this all the more suspect.

TNA needs to slow down on the rapid-fire turns. Last night, we got two of them in the form of Tommy Dreamer and Shannon Moore both turning. Like I said in my report on Thursday night, the more TNA turns people, the less impact each turn has on the viewer. It's gotten to the point that the shows have been so deluded with face or heel turns that when Dreamer hit Styles with a piledriver, I didn't even bat an eye. Tommy Dreamer is the guy who gets teary-eyed and can tug at the heartstrings of views at the drop of a hat, and hi heel turn got no reaction out of me whatsoever. This is a problem TNA needs to address.

For a further reference to the frequency of TNA's turns, just look at Shannon Moore. It wasn't but a month or so ago that he turned heel, and here he is acting like a patriotic face. TNA needs to determine who their top heels and faces are, and stick with them for a long time or they will lose a lot of potential moments that they need to hook new viewers and keep them coming back for more.

I don't think TNA did themselves, or the Sacrifice PPV, any favors by not having Sting and RVD do more on Impact. This match at Sacrifice is supposed to be Sting's personal dream match, and I can't help but shake the feeling that it's just another title match. TNA needs to be going out of their way to make that clash seem epic, and leaving the guys off the card for one week doesn't do that.

Thank you for following along with me on my first Reaction. 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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