TNA Impact Wrestling, 5/26/11: Does Wrestling Really Matter?

TNA showed that wrestling matters when they opened the show with a match!  We saw Tommy Dreamer and Bully Ray vs. Christopher Daniels and an injured AJ Styles in a street fight.

I thought this “injury” would hinder Styles, but it didn’t.

While AJ hit a beautiful crossbody from the stands, the usual weapons were thrown into the ring. 

Ray managed to get his foot up to block a BME, but wasn’t able to avoid the Pelé.  That wasn’t enough, though, as the heels worked over AJ’s neck.

Daniels would finally get up and Fortune would hit a spike piledriver on Dreamer for the win at five minutes.

This was a good back and forth match, and a great way to start off Impact Wrestling. I just wish it lasted a bit longer.

Bully Ray is no doubt the best heel in TNA right now, and in my opinion, rivals CM Punk, who’s the best in WWE at the moment.  He really knows how to get under the crowd's skin.

AJ and Daniels are also the best overall talent the company has, and I’m glad to see them teaming again.

As for Dreamer, well, he can still work a match, but he shouldn’t be wrestling anymore.  He’s way past his prime and could be better utilized backstage. Match rating: three-and-a-half out of five stars.

The Scorpion Sitdown?  What happened to “wrestling matters?”

Anyway, Mr. Anderson comes out dressed as 90s Sting.  It’s uncanny how much he resembles Sting from back then. 

He brought out Disco Inferno of all people. 

Anderson mocked Sting, while Disco praised him.  It ended with Disco calling Anderson a “dick” and he got beat down for it. 

Hey look, blood! Something I miss happening in WWE.

The real Sting made the save ending the segment. 

This was an okay way to continue the feud. Putting one of them in a match would have been better and showed that wrestling mattered. 

Anderson certainly knows how to transition from calm to pure intensity in a heartbeat.  He reminds me of Steve Austin from the Attitude Era.  He can say whatever he wants, even insult the fans or their hero, but you can’t help but love him! 

Anderson’s probably got the best character in TNA.  He’s got the attitude and the talent to back up everything he says.

Velvet Sky then came out next to call out ODB.

ODB blamed Sky for her firing last year and attacked her. 

Short and simple segment.  It’s great to see ODB back in TNA. 

I’m disappointed that Velvet didn’t move onto a title feud, but at least she’ll be featured on television every week.

Backstage, Eric Bischoff told Beer Money that he’d have to find a suitable replacement for Robert Roode since his injury would prevent him from competing at Slammiversary. 

I smell a reunion of America’s Most Wanted, or it could just be a member of Immortal that will screw them out of the titles. 

Personally, I hope it's AMW.  I’d like to see Roode as a singles wrestler and win the World Title within the next year or two.

Time for a match as Jeff Jarrett took on Matt Morgan. 

We got good back and forth action between the two until Morgan hit a big fall-away slam.  Morgan kept with the usual big-man power moves until Karen handed Jeff a crutch and jabbed him in the throat with it. 

He hit the stroke for two.  Morgan got up like nothing happened and hit an interesting move that was a combination of a chokeslam and an atomic drop.

With a big carbon footprint, it looked like this was over.  Out came Scott Steiner stumbling into the ring and hit his finisher.  Jarrett got the win with help from Big Poppa Pump at just over three minutes. 

This was an okay match.  It had some decent action, but was killed by time constraints and Steiner’s interference. 

I’m a fan of Steiner and all, but he’d be better suited as a commentator.  I mean come on—the man is pure gold on the microphone. Match rating: two out of five stars

Bischoff headed to the ring.  He bragged about Hulk Hogan winning and then Hogan came out. 

He bragged about beating Mick Foley and the Network and praised the burial of the X-Division.  Foley then came out. 

He claimed that the Network laughed at Hogan after he left and that he was still in control. 

The X-Division will stay and Ultimate X will be returning at Destination X. 

Hulk wanted to get Foley in a title match with Abyss, but Brian Kendrick and the X-Division came out. 

Kendrick said some big words, but the gist of it was that he wanted the shot.  It’s his destiny! 

Wait, since when did Alberto Del Rio get here?

The match was made, so it’s Abyss vs. Kendrick for the X Title later on. 

I find it funny that the guy who said that “wrestling matters” is taking up time by talking.  This could all have been done in short backstage segments, which would give more time to matches.

Speaking of backstage segments, we got more weirdness from Winter and Angelina Love. 

This whole zombie Angelina thing is getting a little old. 

It would be nice to get an explanation on the whole “we knew each other centuries ago” thing.  I suppose we will eventually, which will possibly lead to an Angelina/Winter feud.

Knockouts action was up next, Winter vs. Knockout’s Champion Mickie James. 

At about two-and-a-half minutes, we got some decent back and forth action.  Mickie got in her usual spots and that led to her win. 

Winter showed some blood and Angelina went nuts and attacked Mickie and threw her into the steps. 

While this was better than a WWE Divas match, it wasn’t as good as previous Knockout matches. 

The TNA women used to wrestle circles around the WWE women and even main event Impact! once in a while.  What happened?

The quality has certainly improved when Mickie came in, but it’s still not what it was three or four years ago. Match rating: two out of five stars.

Backstage, Kazarian attacked Abyss and stole Janice.  Since when is Janice back?  Abyss hasn’t used it since he was taken out by it on January 20th.

The X-Division Title was on the line next, as Abyss defended against Brian Kendrick. 

Kendrick started out quick by flying to the outside.  His quickness was too much for the big man in the early goings of the match. 

Abyss proved more dominant as his power took control, and a Black Hole Slam gave him the win at about four-and-a-half minutes. 

I really hope that Abyss as the champion is going somewhere, like the full-on revival of the X-Division. 

As for Abyss, I like the new character.  The missing teeth make him that much creepier, and the quotes about war make him seem more dangerous and insane.

Two matches in a row, I like that.  Gunner is out and was set to defend his TV Title against Eric Young. 

Oh no, not this again.  It’s the Finger Poke of Doom II.

The first one between Hogan and Kevin Nash is a black mark in the history books. 

Wait a minute; this wasn’t quite the Poke of Doom after all. 

EY rolled up Gunner to win the title at 29 seconds.  Gunner was understandably angry and gave chase. 

So Immortal gains one title, then loses another. 

Why Eric Young? 

Sure, he’s a fan favorite, but he has nothing to do with the Immortal/Fortune feud. 

It would have made more sense for a member of Fortune, or even a member of the X-Division, to have won it.

Main event time as we got Kurt Angle vs. Rob Van Dam with the Jarretts on commentary. 

The split-screen kind of annoyed me a bit.  I mean, we can hear them on commentary; we don’t have to see them. 

The match itself was great back and forth action until RVD got in some kicks and rolling thunder. 

We got back to some back and forth, but this time Angle took control with a belly to belly suplex. 

The match ended at almost eight minutes when RVD missed the five-star frog splash and Angle hit the Angle Slam.

This was a great match between two great talents.  Very solid match.

Angle proves that he is still one of the best, if not the best, in the business. 

RVD also proved that he can hang with the absolute best and that he can still perform. 

If given a little more time, this could have been a five-star match.  Match rating: four-and-a-half out of five stars.

So does wrestling really matter? 

Out of the two-hour show, we got just under twenty-three minutes of wrestling. 

I love TNA, I prefer them over WWE most of the time, but you can’t say that wrestling matters, then have less than a half-hour of action in the ring. 

Overall, though, it was a good show.  Better the last week.  The matches just needed some more time.  Show rating: three out of five stars.