TNA Impact! Wrestling: Roode's Title in Jeopardy

This week's TNA Impact! wrestling show on Thursday kicked off with the world heavyweight champion Bobby Roode making his way to the ring. Roode begins to brag about becoming the longest reigning TNA champion.  He wants to throw a celebration event on next week's show, but must need Hulk Hogan's approval.  Hogan comes out, looks at the list of Roode's demands and rips up the paper.  Hogan says he can celebrate, but must defend his belt at Open Fight Night next week.

A group of wrestlers come forward to get their title shot at Roode.  Hogan makes a few matches for last night's Impact!  Hogan proposes Open Fight Night qualifier matches that include Bully Ray versus Rob Van Dam, Mr. Anderson versus Jeff Hardy and a wild card battle royal.

Bully Ray versus Rob Van Dam

Your winner: Bully Ray. Strong match to kick off the show. Bully Ray needed a win after a losing streak.

Match Rating: 3/5

Wild Card Battle Royal

Your winner: AJ Styles. Great to see Styles back in the title picture. Overall, this was a short but pretty decent battle royal for television.

Match Rating: 3.5/5

Styles is in the ring after the Royal and discusses the secret he had with TNA President Dixie Carter.  Again, Christopher Daniels and Kazarian interrupt. On their iPad, Daniels and Kazarian reveal video footage of Styles and Carter walking together into a hotel room. Styles seems embarrassed and quickly leaves the ring. Samoa Joe and Kurt Angle fight backstage before being broken up.

Mr. Anderson versus Jeff Hardy

Your winner: Jeff Hardy.  Another solid match on Impact!  Good action in the ring by both wrestlers and a good decision to put Hardy in the picture of the world title.

Match Rating: 3.5/5

Velvet Sky versus Brooke Tessmacher versus Gail Kim for the TNA Knockouts Title

Your winner: Gail Kim to retain the Knockouts title. Kim winning again over Tessmacher by pulling up the tights shows that Kim can only beat her by cheating and gives people a good reason to root for Tessmacher, who is developing into a nice Knockout division wrestler.

Match Rating: 3/5

Samoa Joe versus Kurt Angle

Your winner: Kurt Angle. The crowd seemed to be behind Angle to win. A very nice feature for TNA have these two men in the ring for another match. This was a very enjoyable main event and brought back a few memories to fans of past battles between the two.

Match Rating: 4/5

Roode, who came out during the match, is then surrounded by four of the wrestlers who Hogan will select next week to battle him for the TNA World Title.

Match Rating: 4/5

PERAGINE'S TAKE

This was the best edition of Impact! in 2012, other than the United Kingdom shows.  There was a good opening to the show, solid wrestling matches and the whole format went extremely smoothly. 

I like how TNA is really investing in the Open Fight Night and Gut Check concepts.  It is certainly different and provides some unpredictability.

TNA officially goes live in two weeks for the whole summer, beginning Thursday, May 31st. If Open Fight Night is just like this week's episode, I can see TNA seeing enjoyable ratings this summer, and it could possibly transition them to go live more frequently.

Can Open Fight Night continue the momentum after this show? We will find out soon enough!