TNA Impact Wrestling, 6/2/11: Hulk Hogan Regains Control of TNA

Impact Wrestling kicked off with a Knockouts brawl between ODB and Velvet Sky. 

It was a pretty good back-and-forth brawl, with each getting in their shots. 

It ended with ODB stripping Velvet down to her lingerie and choking her with her own shirt.  Miss Tessmacher then came out to check on Velvet. 

This was a nice way to start out the show.  It was certainly better than having people talk in the ring for the first 10 minutes. 

With this intense brawl, this feud is starting to hook me in. 

I was already interested, since I’m a fan of both women, but the brawl has really sold me. 

You don’t see two women beat the hell out of each other like that too often. 

Sting’s music hit, but it was more of Mr. Anderson’s mind games.    

He said that he’ll face someone from Sting’s past tonight.  This should be interesting, or a complete waste of time.

Backstage, Eric Bischoff had apparently been served.  Brian Kendrick then walked up to him wanting another X Title shot.  He made Kendrick vs. Kazarian for later.

In the ring, Bischoff called out Beer Money.

They can’t defend the titles at Slammiversary, so Bischoff was going to strip them of the Tag Team titles. 

Cue Motor City Machine Gun music and Alex Shelley. 

With Chris Sabin out with an injury until next year, he offered his services to team with James Storm against the British Invasion at the pay-per-view. 

Storm handed him a beer and Gun Money was born! 

This worked out pretty well when TNA mixed the teams of America’s Most Wanted and Triple X a few years back, so it looks like they’re trying it again. 

Both wrestlers are great talents and work very well together as opponents.  I can see that transitioning well into a team. 

I have a feeling, though, they’re going to lose the titles.  It’s been rumored that Roode is in for a singles run and what better way to break up Beer Money than to have them lose the belts and fight because of it. 

What will this do for the Fortune vs. Immortal storyline if two members of Fortune are torn apart? 

And why the British Invasion?  Since when are they the No. 1 contenders?

Our first match of the night finally came in the shape of Matt Hardy vs. Crimson.

Crimson was in control of the early goings of the match until Hardy hung him up on the ropes. 

Hardy stayed in control until the match got some back-and-forth action for a bit. 

Crimson soon countered the Twist of Hate into the Sky High for three at just over six minutes. 

Samoa Joe would run down to the ring but got speared. 

This was a decent match.  You can tell that Crimson is still green, especially when put in the ring with a veteran. 

Looks like Hardy is back to being a jobber, much like his final days in WWE. 

Joe is being wasted here.  What happened to the Samoan Submission Machine who was a former X-Division and World Heavyweight champion? 

Joe seems to have been stuck in this feud just because Crimson is rivaling Joe’s undefeated streak, even though Crimson is nowhere close to Joe’s streak. 

Hopefully we’ll finally see Joe win something at the PPV, but I doubt it.  Match rating: two out of five stars.

Backstage, Anderson wanted to recreate Sting vs. The Great Muta with Eric Young.  EY was skeptical because of his respect for Sting, but Anderson convinced him.

Elsewhere, Winter complained about Mickie James. 

Whoa, zombie Angelina Love finally speaks!  It’s like she’s Bub from Day of the Dead.  She basically said what Winter has been saying for weeks now.

Somewhere else, Bischoff talked to Immortal like he and Hulk Hogan are finished in TNA.  Immortal freaked out afterward.

Knockouts action as Miss Tessmacher took on Angelina Love. 

Tessmacher started out quick with some pin attempts, but Love took control with a shoulder block. 

Tessmacher started to mount a comeback with some quick strikes.  An attempt at her Victory Roll was countered into an Electric Chair Drop. 

Love hit a reverse DDT into a backbreaker for three at three-and-a-half minutes.  Love proceeded to choke her afterward. 

This was a decent match.  We got some nice back-and-forth action during parts of it.  

Tessmacher is improving in the ring.  I hope we get to see more of her wrestling. 

My only gripe was...where’s Mickie?  She’s facing Love at the PPV but doesn’t come out to save a fellow face while Love attacks her.

And since when is Love the No. 1 contender?  Match rating: three out of five stars. 

Did I miss a No. 1 contender’s match for both the Tag Team and Women’s titles?  I feel like I'm missing something here.

It’s Mr. Anderson vs. Eric Young up next, or should I say, Sting vs. The Great Muta. 

Anderson mocked Sting throughout while EY didn’t seem to want anything to do with the match. 

Anderson slapped EY and the match really started.  Each wrestler went back and forth with moves of the wrestlers they were playing. 

The ending saw Gunner’s interference backfiring, which gave EY the chance to spit the green mist at Anderson.  EY rolled him up for three at almost three-and-a-half minutes. 

Gunner and Anderson proceeded to beat down EY until the real Sting came out for the save. 

The match was actually not that bad.  I expected it to be pure comedy. 

Anderson is great in the role he’s playing here.  WWE really dropped the ball with him.  Match rating: two-and-a-half out of five stars.

Here’s a No. 1 contender match I won’t miss.  Brian Kendrick vs. Kazarian was up next to determine the No. 1 contender for the X-Division title.

The first three minutes were very fast paced, with some great back-and-forth action until Kendrick missed a suicide dive. 

From there we got a great series of reversals of finishing moves and more back-and-forth action. 

The 10 minute time limit ended at eight minutes and five seconds.  I don’t know about you, but I don’t think eight minutes is 10 minutes. 

The match was declared a draw until Bischoff gave the match five more minutes. 

It didn’t last 30 seconds until Abyss came down and delivered a Shock Treatment to Kendrick and a Black Hole Slam to Kaz. 

He gave us another quote about war and declared the X-Division dead. 

This was a phenomenal match.  Great from start to finish, the first finish anyway.  This is what the X-Division is all about, great wrestling.  The Abyss run-in took away half a star, though, I understand why they did it.  Match rating: four-and-a-half out of five stars.

In the ring, AJ Styles called out Bully Ray. 

Ray insulted AJ, and AJ told a joke about Ray’s lower member. 

It’s last man standing at Slammiversary between the two.  This should be a good match.

Main event time as Jeff Jarrett teamed with Scott Steiner to face Kurt Angle and Matt Morgan. 

Earl Hebner kicked Karen out from ringside so we could see a fair match. 

The match started with the heels afraid to face their respective PPV opponents.  It finally got underway with Angle and Steiner, where we saw Angle play the face in peril. 

A hot tag to Morgan gave him the chance to clean house. 

Angle and Jarrett were now fighting on the ramp while Morgan and Steiner were in the ring. 

The focus was on Angle and Jarrett, as Karen came out and Angle backed her up to some stairs. 

It appeared Angle pushed her down them, or Jarrett’s hit from behind caused Angle to push her. 

Either way, we cut back to the ring just in time for Steiner to get the win for his team at six-and-a-half minutes. 

This was your standard tag team match, though, a good one. 

I didn’t like the fact that Karen being pushed down some stairs was more important than the finish of the match. 

I guess that shows how unimportant the Morgan/Steiner feud is.  Match rating: three out of five stars.

The show ended with talking.  Bischoff and Hogan talking to be exact. 

Apparently they hadn’t even opened the letter yet. 

Hogan opens it, and Mick Foley has been fired by the network.  Hogan is back in control of TNA. 

With Hulk back in control, I guess wrestling will no longer matter since that was Foley’s thing. 

It gets me to wonder, will there be a new authority figure after Slammiversary?

Overall, with a little over 27 minutes of wrestling, Impact Wrestling put on a pretty good show this week.  A lot better than last week, especially since we got more wrestling. 

There was still a little too much talking for my taste, though. 

My worry is that with Foley “fired,” the whole wrestling matters campaign will be put to a end, at least storyline-wise. 

That is until the next network executive comes in and reinstates it.  Show rating: three out of five stars.