TNA IMPACT! Slamback: The Price You Pay to Play the Game

Friends, Allies, and Rivals=A Recipe For Disaster

On a night where everyone was being forced to make a choice, AJ Styles and Christian Cage had to find a way to get past the outside politics that were going on involving the vets and the studs. Last night, they had the chance to prove themselves as they teamed with "Black Machismo" Jay Lethal to take on Booker T and Team 3D.

In a battle of legends and up and comers, the battle went in and out the ring. But it was the ending to the match that made all the difference as Booker used the briefcase to take out Lethal, and Brother Ray used Styles' own momentum to take out Cage enough to allow Booker to pick up the win for his team. After the bell, Cage and Styles tried to talk about what happened at the end, but it wasn't going to happen on this night.

X Marks The Spot

On a night where controversy, anarchy and insanity ruled the land, the X Division was on in full force as Sheik Abdul Bashir defended the X Division Championship in his quest to keep holding the gold hostage. In a triple threat match against Eric Young and Jimmy Rave, Bashir managed to survive the outside interference from The Rock and Rave Infection to survive the match.

But even after that, James Sewell was still a victim of Sheik's ignorance. But rest assured when I say this: Sewell will get revenge sooner or later on Bashir.

A Monstrous Change

It was made official last week that the Monsters Ball will return at Bound IV Glory. We already knew two teams that would be in that hellacious battle in Chicago. Last night, LAX joined Team 3D and The Monstrous Blueprint in the Ball, much to the chagrin of their opponents, The Motor City Machine Guns.

Despite a great effort from the Guns, they couldn't compete with the brute strength of Hernandez and the break-neck speed of Homicide as it was a Gringo Bomb that sealed the deal for the Xchange.

But following the match, it was Alex Shelley that had the last word so to speak as he reentered the ring to check his partner and say that everything was cool towards LAX. But when the Xchange turned their backs, Shelley threw them a one finger salute only to take it back when the duo turned around to face them. Despite Shelley's lack of respect to even LAX, the Midway Monsters Ball now has its third entrant into the party.

But the night wasn't done for the Monsters of the Ball.

The TNA Tag Team Champions Beer Money appeared later in the night to not only boast about their tainted victory last week, but also issue an open invitation to anyone who wants to take them on. With that, Team 3D came out to answer the call...but they didn't show up alone.

As 3D began to talk, The Monstrous Blueprint and LAX both came out to answer the call. But Cornette stopped all of them with an idea. He turned the Monsters Ball match already set into a Fatal Four Way Midway Monsters Ball for the TNA World Tag Team Championships.

Point/Counterpoint

Sting and Samoa Joe were given a chance to speak their minds in a special point/counterpoint. While Sting continued to make his message of respect very clear, Samoa Joe continued to counter with the fact that Sting is not there every week. Thought the two never came to blows, it's clear that something has to give at Bound IV Glory.

TNA Plays "The Angle"

In case you didn't notice, Jeff Jarrett was not in a good mood last night after reading comments from Kurt Angle in the UK Sun during his promotional tour in the United Kingdom. So Jarrett did the only thing he could do: Fight fire with fire. The King of the Mountain found himself fighting back the urge to go completely off the handle. But he chose to raise the stakes in a way that shook the wrestling world all the way down to the boiler room.

In an interview conducted two years ago, Kurt Angle expressed his disdain towards the Chairman of the WWE, Vince McMahon. He also made it clear that two years from then, he would love to live up to his promise to Vince about kicking his ass for the way he was mistreated during his final stint with WWE. Following the airing of this tape, the insanity that is the politics of professional wrestling took a turn for the bizarre.

In Jim Cornette's office, Angle was fined $25,000 for his comments in the Sun, but that only made his anger boil completely over as he was determined to get into a physical altercation with his boss, as well as his opponent at Bound IV Glory, Jeff Jarrett. Angle went everywhere to find Jarrett but could never catch him.

At the end of the night, it was time for TNA to meet Mick Foley. Foley came out to a sea of cheers and insanity from the crowd with chants of "Foley! Foley! Foley!" As Foley soaked in the atmosphere of his new surroundings, Kurt Angle comes out to spoil the party. Angle begins to raise the stakes even more by bashing Jarrett and then turns his attention to Foley.

But Foley counters and defends the young studs as well as talking about the last few months with WWE. With that, Bound IV Glory gets interesting as Foley makes the announcement that he will be the special enforcer for the match between Kurt Angle and Jeff Jarrett.