TNA Impact! Reviews and Thoughts

Thursday’s edition of TNA Impact! was another good show as the company gets geared up for its Victory Road pay-per-view in July.

I will recap this edition of TNA Impact! and provide overall ratings for each match.

The show began with Eric Bischoff addressing viewers on the TNA Tag Team belt situation.  With the recent release of Scott Hall, who is battling personal problems, “The Band” was stripped of the tag team titles, and a championship tournament to claim those belts is in the works for this edition of Impact!

The first match is Kevin Nash and Eric Young against Ink, Inc (Shannon Moore and Jesse Neal). 

This was a pretty decent showing.

Overall Rating—three out of five (Winner: Ink, Inc).

We then see the entrance of Ric Flair, AJ Styles, Kazarian, James Storm, Robert Roode, and Desmond Wolfe.  Flair talked about the Four Horsemen group and their stamp in wrestling history, but his major announcement was that the Horsemen were returning under the name “Fortune” and with much younger talents. 

Jay Lethal comes out and he and Flair do an extremely comical segment featuring a few of Flair’s best lines and moves.  It was quite a funny segment, possibly one of the best this year despite being a bit bizarre to some viewers. 

Finally, Lethal and Wolfe agree to battle it out in the ring.  If Wolfe loses, he will be dropped as a member of the new “Fortune” group.

The second matchup of the night was Samoa Joe versus Hernandez.  It seemed rushed after the previous talking segment with Flair and Lethal.

Overall Rating—two out of five (Winner: Samoa Joe).
 
The third match featured X Division Champion Doug Williams against Max Buck in a non-title bout.  It was a fine match that also put Brian Kendrick, who beat down on Williams, in a position as a major babyface in the X Division and a rematch for the title.

Overall Rating—three out of five (Winner: Doug Williams).

Angelina Love returned to the ring to face Lacey Von Erich.  It was an extremely short match, lasting just three minutes. 

The women’s Knockout Division needs some fixes quickly.  The loss of Tara, Awesome Kong, Roxxi, and more hurt the group, as viewers may have seen in previous weeks.

Overall Rating—two out of five (Winner: Angelina Love).

Beer Money (James Storm and Robery Roode) against Team 3D (Brother Ray and Devon) was another TNA Tag Team titles tournament match.  A subpar match that saw Brother Ray continue his feud with Jesse Neal and Devon's anger against Ray.

Overall Rating—two-and-a-half out of five (Winner: Beer Money).

Match number six featured Jay Lethal and Desmond Wolfe.  Tommy Dreamer, who quietly walked out into the crowd, made his Impact! debut.  Lethal continues to get his push in TNA.  I believe that is a great decision, because he has plenty of potential.  The match focused quite a bit on Chelsea, who is now trying to escape Wolfe.  It was a pretty decent match.

Overall Rating—two-and-a-half out of five (Winner: Jat Lethal).

Hulk Hogan’s music sounds off as he makes his way into the ring.  As Flair, who teamed with Wolfe on the beatdown of Lethal, bailed into the ring, Hogan talked about Jay’s potential in TNA and announces it’ll be Flair and Lethal at Victory Road.

Afterward, Jeff Jarrett and Sting confronted each other in the ring, and Sting did not say one word.  It is becoming clear to fans Sting decided to turn heel because of Hogan and Bischoff. 

Let's see where TNA goes with this storyline.

The main event was a three-way bout to decide the No. 1 contender for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship belt.  Jeff Hardy, Mr. Anderson, and Abyss battled it out in the ring.  After a double team effort by Hardy and Anderson, the match was a no contest when all three wrestlers stood outside the ring for too long. 

Abyss, angered by the result, turned heel and attacked both Hardy and Anderson.  Abyss slammed Anderson into a pile of broken glass and knocked Hardy out by throwing him down from the ramp.  Hogan then came out and asked Abyss what he was doing. 

It was a pretty good way to end the show.  Turning Abyss' heel seems to be the right fit and could benefit TNA.  I think they have finally gotten Abyss’ character right.

Overall Rating—three out of five (No contest).

OVERALL IMPACT RATING—three out of five.