TNA Impact Wrestling: Roode vs. Hardy, Brandon Jacobs, Madison Rayne and More

TNA Impact Wrestling opened with world champion Bobby Roode.

He had Christy Hemme announce his name twice before bragging about still being champion. What happened at Against All Odds was all Sting’s fault and that brought out the Stinger.

He admitted that his anger got the best of him, but he will make things right.

He then booked Bobby Roode vs. Jeff Hardy in a no disqualification match and that it would happen right after the commercial.

I liked this segment. Roode was great on the mic and is really proving to be one of the best heels in the business today.

Sting did his thing and spent little time out there.

Another short opening segment, another winner in my book.

Bobby Roode vs. Jeff Hardy: No DQ Match for the World Championship

Bobby Roode picked up the victory with a spear after Kurt Angle attacked Jeff Hardy outside the ring.

I thought this was an entertaining match. Hardy controlled most of it and it made it seem like he may actually win this time.

Seeing poetry in motion on the guard rail and him jumping off the ramp was quite cool.

Roode really sold for Hardy here and made the Charismatic Enigma look like a star.

It’s good to see Angle back after missing for about a month.

An Angle/Hardy feud could be very entertaining to watch and I can’t wait to see how it develops.

Backstage, Bobby Roode is bragging about retaining the title. That brought in Sting who said he’d be booking a No. 1 contender’s match for later. Roode wasn’t too happy about that.

I’m very interested to see if this is going to lead to a Sting/Roode match somewhere down the line.

Elsewhere, Eric Young has a guitar. He talked about Valentine’s Day and the ridiculous reasons as to why he forgot to give ODB something. He had a song for her, though, and he walked off to find her.

I’m glad to see the EY/ODB storyline back but I’d rather see them both wrestling on a regular basis.

Staying backstage, Sting was talking to James Storm and Bully Ray. He booked them in the No. 1 contender’s match and the two talked a bit of trash.

While I’m glad to see them in the match, I would like to see someone new enter into the title hunt sooner rather than later.

The Jesse Sorenson injury was then shown. Mike Tenay talked about what happened and described the injury he sustained.

He announced that Sorenson was now out of the hospital and on the road to recovery.

That’s good to hear. It was certainly a scary moment for that to happen to a young wrestler. I hope his recovery goes well and that he’ll be back soon!

Austin Aries and Zema Ion vs. Alex Shelley and Shannon Moore

Austin Aries and Zema Ion got the win after Ion got the blind tag and delivered the rollup of doom on Alex Shelley.

I thought this was a good match, though it was a bit short.

It was interesting to see Aries team with his No. 1 contender but you could definitely tell that there was tension between the two.

Both wrestlers have very high opinions of themselves and it’ll be interesting to see them go one-on-one when the time comes.

All four X-Division wrestlers looked good in the ring and I was glad to see Shannon Moore actually get some television time.

Moore’s a solid performer and could be utilized very well in the division if given the chance.

Shelley, while a great singles wrestler, needs Chris Sabin to come back soon. The Motor City Machine Guns could make a much bigger impact than Shelley can solo.

Backstage, Gail Kim is putting herself over. Madison Rayne brought up the strain in their friendship but was glad they patched things up.

Madison is a great heel, but she needs to get away from Gail.

Knockouts Battle: Winner is the No. 1 Contender

Velvet Sky vs. Mickie James vs. ODB vs. Winter vs. Angelina Love vs. Tara vs. Brooke Tessmacher vs. Sarita vs. Rosita vs. Madison Rayne

Before the opening bell, Madison got on the mic and said they should all recognize Gail Kim’s greatness since she’s giving all of the Knockouts in the ring an opportunity.

The bell rang and Madison got out, leaving the other nine to fight it out.

The match came down to Velvet and Sarita, but Velvet bested the former member of Mexican America to win the match, or so she thought.

Madison then slid in and knocked Velvet out to win the match.

While the match was kind of boring, I was glad to see Madison win the match. I was hoping for a Sarita victory, but I’m overall happy with the end result.

Madison has been Gail’s lackey for too long, it was about time she got the chance to shine on her own.

When Madison was champion, she was a great heel champ, and was much better than Gail is now.

While Madison may be a face now, I still think she’ll make a better champion than Gail right now.

Backstage, James Storm is ready for the match and punches the wall. I guess he really is ready.

It was then time for Eric Bischoff to come out and brag about beating his son.

He came out with Gunner, Ric Flair and, wait a minute, is that Chelsea? Well look at that, it is!

Good to see her back, though hopefully she’ll stick to being a valet.

Eric bragged about the victory, put down Garret and then celebrated with cigars and champagne.

That’s it? Wow, that was short.

I was expecting this to be 10 minutes of Bischoff putting down his son, then another 10 minutes of Hulk Hogan praising Garret.

Thankfully this was short and to the point!

Backstage, Bully Ray loves his calves. He called himself Calfzilla and said he’d beat Storm and then beat Roode for the title.

Calfzilla? Well, at least it got me to laugh for a good few minutes!

Elsewhere, Christy Hemme can be in two places at once as she’s with Mike Straka, who’s the host of some new MMA show on Spike TV.

I sat there thinking, “Why should I care?”

Staying backstage, Eric Young finally found ODB. He sat her down and sang the “Ode to ODB.” She seemed to love it and they walked off together.

This was an entertaining little segment, though like I said, I’d rather see them wrestling more often.

Bully Ray vs. James Storm: No. 1 Contender’s Match

James Storm picked up the victory with the Last Call out of nowhere.

Literally, out of nowhere.

Bully Ray dominated the entire match as he attacked Storm’s leg. The bully would take off Storm’s boot and knee pad, and despite the damage done to Storm, the Cowboy still got the win.

Overall, though, I enjoyed the match. It showed the dominance of Bully Ray and the resiliency of Storm.

A part of me wanted to see Bully Ray win this, but I like that Storm won. While I would have preferred to see the big Roode/Storm match at Slammiversary, I’m still glad to see it happen!

Post-match, Super Bowl champion Brandon Jacobs climbed over the guard rail to celebrate with Storm. Bully Ray would soon attack Storm and spit beer in Jacobs’ face.

That resulted in the bully getting knocked on his ass by the New York Giants running back.

Man, you never really know how big a football play is until they take off their pads. Brandon Jacobs is a big dude!

I liked out this turned out; it should be interesting to see what happens next week.

Backstage, Storm and Jacobs say they’ll lay the smackdown on Bully Ray next week.

Oh boy, I smell a lawsuit by WWE here.

The show ended with Sting booking Bobby Roode vs. James Storm for the title at the Lockdown PPV in April.

Roode responded by kicking Sting between the goal posts. He then put his sunglasses on and busted the Icon open after a shot with the title belt!

The show went off the air with the world champion standing tall over the Stinger.

I originally didn’t like the idea of the show ending with an in-ring segment but I quickly turned around after what happened.

I thought this was a great way to end the show.

Since becoming champion, Roode has been pushing Sting’s buttons but has never really left him down and out like this.

Sting has been pushing Roode’s buttons as well and the champion finally snapped and bloodied the wrestling legend.

I can’t wait to see what happens next week!

Overall, I thought this was another solid episode of Impact Wrestling.

While there were a few low points, like the amount of backstage segments, I felt that the rest of the show made up for that.

I love how they’re building Lockdown already. It’s one of their big shows and it should be built in advance.

I just hope that Victory Road doesn’t suffer as a result.

I can’t wait for next week to see if TNA Wrestling can keep up this roll they’re on!