Impact spoilers for 11/15

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

*Impact opened with TNA champion Kurt Angle coming out to the ring with TNA Tag Team champions AJ Styles and Tomko. He thanked them for helping him at Genesis and announced they were forming the "Angle Alliance." Kevin Nash comes out and is attacked by all three with a number of babyfaces coming out break it up.

 

*Lance Hoyt and Jimmy Rave defeated LAX. After the match, the female member of the Latino Nation (the still unidentified Shelley Martinez) hit Christy Hemme with a slapjack.

 

*Team 3D, holding the X-Division championship, cut a promo backstage with a list of demands. They had an "X-Division wrestler" held hostage with a bag over his head.

 

*Team 3D come to the ring with the hostage and called out the Motor City Machineguns. The Guns come out with Jay Lethal and they go back and forth on the mic until a group of X-Division wrestlers attack 3D. Lethal frees the hostage, who turns out to be Havoc, but Havoc grabs his kendo stick and attacks the other X-Division wrestlers.

 

*Kevin Nash and Scott Hall come to the ring and announce they will face the Angle Alliance at Turning Point, promising to reveal their mystery partner by the end of Impact.

 

*Robert Roode and Ms. Brooks defeated TNA Women's champion Gail Kim and Chris Harris after Roode drilled Harris with a chair. Brooks got into a catfight with Roode's "ringside fan."

 

*Abyss defeated Riddick (the masked Johnny Stamboli, with a new name in his second appearance) and Black Reign in a Three-Way. After the bout, Jim Mitchell's charges were beating on Abyss and Rhino hit the ring for the save.

 

*Booker T and Sharmell come to the ring for their official TNA contract signing. Christian Cage comes out and cuts a promo. He calls Sharmell a "nappy headed ho" and gets laid out by Booker.

 

*TNA champion Kurt Angle defeated Kaz in a good match. After the match, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall attacked Angle. The Angle Alliance attack them. Samoa Joe makes the save, so apparently he's the mystery partner.

 

*They announced Samoa Joe vs. AJ Styles vs. Chris Sabin in a Loser Wears a Turkey suit for the Thanksgiving Impact.

 

Xplosion:

 

*Eric Young defeated James Storm in a comedy match.

[HollywoodSpikeJenkins 0]

This Team 3D vs. X-Division feud is really starting to get interesting.

[cd213 0]

So far it sounds like a pretty good show.

[Hawk 34 0]

"Nappy headed ho", way to be current, TNA.

[Silence 0]

"Nappy headed ho", way to be current, TNA.

 

TNA: We are racist.

 

[Timmy8271 0]

Why do they have Shelly masked? Didn't they want Nidia in LAX?

 

Nappy headed hoe huh? That sure is current.

[2GOLD 0]

 

So I guess Raven is gone after the whole fight over his name trademark huh? Otherwise, I am royally confused WHY Havoc joined with Team 3D.

 

Christian against Booker could be good although Christian being a racist really seems like a bad idea. That only works for HHH.

[Golgo 13 0]

I wish TNA still had Spike. Tell me evil heel Spike Dudley wouldn't have been perfect for this.

 

Not really sure if I like Riddick. It doesn't seem to suit him, but it is better than Crimson Blood.

[The Buzz 0]

I'm not 100 percent positive, but I think Raven had a bunch of bookings overseas recently. That could be the reason he's not on impact. Also I thought he might have hurt his arm at Bound For Glory, but those are just guesses from me.

[Steviekick 0]

On Raven's website, he's listed to be showing up at the December and January tapings. I'm assuming he had other obligations this month.

[Scroby 0]

I'm really hoping TNA doesn't drop the ball with the Angle Alliance like they did the Christian Collison. That stable just seemed to quietly break apart. If they could pick one more up and he has the X title, after the Dudleys vs X-divison feud that is, it could be a really good stable.

 

Impact sounds really good. Hopefully it looks as good as it sounds...and Yes, I would like to see Joe in a turkey suit.

[RedJed 0]

Hmmmm.......well.......

 

So we go back to the Joe/Angle dynamic AGAIN? I'm torn on this alot. It's been such a ridiculous feud the past years, that it's now to the point of complete absurdity in a way. Logic then would dictate Joe pins Angle in the six man, leads to Joe/Angle, perhaps as a "last chance" world title match at Final Resolution for Joe. Which, if this is the time for them to finally give the belt to Joe, thank god. But who really knows. In any regard, is this six man really a draw whatsoever for the next ppv? I certainly don't think so. I just am not feeling Styles and Tomko joining Angle at all, either. Plus it appears there was no follow up on Christian even talking to Styles and Tomko about what they are doing? I dont get it.

 

I like the idea of Martinez as LAX's manager/valet alot.

 

The 3D/X division angle, I agree, would have been way way WAY cooler if the guy under the hood was actually Spike, and then it went the same way it did. With Havok as the guy, it just comes off rather bland and second rate.

 

What happened to the Rhyno/Harris impending blowup and feud? Now Rhino goes to the usual garbage feud with Black Rhein and this new guy w/ Abyss. Makes sense but yet seems so rehashed a bit. And Roode seems to be paired off with Harris now.

 

Chrstian v. Booker T, seen it many times before, doesn't really interest me much at all to be honest. They should be more creative than to come up with Christian being racist/sexist to Sharmell to fuel this feud.

 

Looking forward to Kaz/Angle.

[Golgo 13 0]

Wait. So Christian doesn't acknowledge the Angle Alliance at all? I'm assuming we'll get some brief Christian and Angle team-ups out of this eventually, but it's weird not for it to be mentioned at all.

[RedJed 0]

Wait. So Christian doesn't acknowledge the Angle Alliance at all? I'm assuming we'll get some brief Christian and Angle team-ups out of this eventually, but it's weird not for it to be mentioned at all.

 

What might be happening is that Tomko and Styles are essentially on both side of the fence, supporting both Angle and Christian. That would then lead Christian to be more of an ass to both down the road and Angle essentially doing the same, which would lead to the face turn for at least Styles. Styles would then go solo again, and Tomko would perhaps join up with Giant Bernard or something.

 

No real rush to do it, but a Styles/Christian long term feud sounds really fun.

[MillenniumMan831 0]

Hmmmmm, no Sting

[UseTheSledgehammerUh 0]

Let's see if I'll watch this show...I'm trying to keep an open mind here.

 

announced they were forming the "Angle Alliance."

 

Stupid, generic name. Obviously won't be around in a couple months.

 

Lance Hoyt and Jimmy Rave defeated LAX.

 

Stupid. Hoyt and Rave are a terrible team. This makes LAX look bad.

 

with a list of demands.

 

I'm down with cute backstage skits. But it's The Dudleys, who are not funny at all.

 

*Team 3D come to the ring with the hostage and called out the Motor City Machineguns. The Guns come out with Jay Lethal and they go back and forth on the mic until a group of X-Division wrestlers attack 3D. Lethal frees the hostage, who turns out to be Havoc, but Havoc grabs his kendo stick and attacks the other X-Division wrestlers.

 

I have no interest in seeing the terrible Dudleys or terrible Havoc on my television. God forbid the Machine Guns get to work a program with someone interesting.

 

*Robert Roode and Ms. Brooks defeated TNA Women's champion Gail Kim and Chris Harris

 

Gail Kim is very good. The other three I have no intention of ever seeing on TV.

 

*Abyss defeated Riddick (the masked Johnny Stamboli, with a new name in his second appearance) and Black Reign

 

An even worse Dungeon of Doom!

 

*Booker T and Sharmell come to the ring for their official TNA contract signing.

 

This makes no sense. Booker could have been TNA Champion on Sunday without being under contract? Was he paid under the table for his PPV appearence?

 

*They announced Samoa Joe vs. AJ Styles vs. Chris Sabin in a Loser Wears a Turkey suit for the Thanksgiving Impact.

 

Definitely be skipping this shitty show.

[cabbageboy 0]

Interesting set of spoilers, though the past few weeks of tourney were basically wasted since Kaz simply faced Angle here and jobbed with no fanfare. What a bizarre push attempt.

 

Are we going to get an Outsiders reunion? Good lord it would be sad if Styles and Tomko actually jobbed to them.

[cd213 0]

What is looks like is they are going towards Angle vs Joe and AJ/Tomko vs Hall/Nash at the January PPV.

[Celtic Guardian 0]

Angle Alliance = AA. An inside joke, perhaps?.

 

Insensitivity issues aside, the racial stuff is just lazy booking. TNA should be able to feud heels against Booker without going there already.

[Mecca 0]

Hey speak for yourself, Traci Brooks boobs are welcome on my TV.

[RedJed 0]

Here is some more detailed spoilers from the Observer site, including a match that wasnt originally talked about in the initial spoilers (Awesome Kong/Alexa Jade) plus apparently TNA is going to have to come up with a new name for Booker T.....and they explain more about some storylines here they are running....

 

TNA Wrestling returned to Soundstage 21 at Universal Studios. With an abbreviated build time for the next pay-per-view, Final Resolution on the eve of December 2nd, the company was forced to tape a show and a half tonight, as there will only be three iMPACT's leading up to the PPV. The show was one of the best from top to bottom since the company went to two hours.

 

At some point before the show, they filmed Jim Cornette at the announcer desk talking about how Booker T and Sharmell haven't signed contracts yet and to avoid getting sued that there is to be no calling the two of them by their names. Cornette said he would have a signing ceremony later on.

 

Kurt Angle opened the show with AJ Styles and Tomko. He talked about the tag match from last night and welcomed Styles and Tomko into his fold as his "new family." This brought out Kevin Nash, who reminisced jokingly about being family with Angle prior to their falling out. Nash eventually got into the ring and began to brawl with Styles, Tomko, and Angle. The numbers game began to overwhelm Nash until he was saved by the majority of the TNA babyfaces.

 

Lance Hoyt & Jimmy Rave w/ Christy Hemme defeated LAX. LAX was perhaps the most over act in the company at this taping and it was disappointing to see them in such a lower tier match. Hemme got on the apron to distract the referee leading to Rave scoring the pin with a rollup.

 

Team 3D was backstage with the X Division Championship and a captured and hooded X Division wrestler. They went through a list of demands that they wanted the X Division to comply with to get the belt & the wrestler back. The list included junk food.

 

We go to Kristal backstage with Christian Cage. He was very upset about losing Tomko and Styles, saying he will get an explination out of the two of them. This almost seemed like he was teasing a babyface turn although later in the show this proved to be incorrect.

 

In a Mixed Tag match, Bobby Roode & Traci defeated Chris Harris & Gail Kim. After an opening sequence with the women, Roode sent Traci to a chair at ringside and wrestled the rest of the match with Harris. After Roode scored the pinfall, he got into an argument with Traci, who argued back and finally quit. She left the ring and jumped the Roode fan planted at ringside until security pulled the two apart.

 

Team 3D comes out with the beaten and hooded X Division wrestler and calls out the X Division to meet their demands. The Motor City Machine Guns and Jay Lethal come out and Sabin and Bubba banter back and forth with each other. 3D releases the hood on the wrestler and it turns out to be Havok. Bubba mentions that there is "a traitor within the X Division", which sends Shelley, Sabin, and Lethal to the ring, as well as with the other X Division wrestlers who come from the other side of the building. The three brawl with the X Division guys gaining the advantage until Havok turns on the X Division and hits them all with his cane.

 

Scott Hall and Kevin Nash come out and announce their reunion at the next pay-per-view, in a six man match with Angle, Tomko, and Styles. They tell Angle that he'll find out who the partner is "later tonight."

 

In a Triple Threat match, Abyss defeated Relic & Black Reign. Relic is Johnny The Bull and debuted last night at Genesis. This match was a typical Abyss/Black Reign style match ending with Abyss scoring the pin with a Black Hole Slam on Relic. After the match, Reign and Relic beat down Abyss until Rhino made the save.

 

In a women's match, Awesome Kong defeated Alexa Jade. Kong was still staring at the picture of Gail Kim. This was the standard Kong squash that we've been seeing since she came to TNA. It never ceases to get old. Kong won with a sitout powerbomb. After the match, Gail Kim came out and the two women brawled with security in the middle until Kong laid Kim out.

 

The signing ceremony then took place. Cornette came out and introduced Booker T and Sharmell, who "officially signed" with TNA. Christian Cage came out and argued with Booker T. The two ended up brawling until security broke them up.

 

Kurt Angle successfully defended his TNA World Heavyweight Championship by defeating Kaz. Kaz got a ton of offense in, even cleanly landing the flux capacitor. However, Angle kicked out and quickly landed an odd looking DDT and hooked Kaz for a three count. This was a very good match. Afterwards, Angle got on the mic to talk trash to Nash and Hall. They came out and began fighting with Angle, which brought out Styles and Tomko. However, Samoa Joe ran down and helped the Outsiders clear out the ring, setting the stage for the main event at Final Resolution.

 

 

 

In a match taped for Xplosion, Eric Young defeated James Storm.

 

In a match taped for the Thanksgiving episode of iMPACT (November 22nd), Samoa Joe pinned AJ Styles in a three way match with Chris Sabin in the finals of something called the "Turkey Bowl". As a result, Joe "won" $25,000 and Styles was forced to dress in a turkey outfit. The match went a little longer than 15 minutes and was excellent after the three got going. After the match, Jim Cornette came out and demanded Styles wear the outfit or he would be fired. Styles reluctantly put it on. Kurt Angle came out dressed as a pilgrim and talked about how ridiculous Styles looked. The Outsiders and Samoa Joe came to the top of the stage and bantered back and forth with Angle until the six men began brawling again. Eric Young came out and started running around with a turkey leg, which ended up in Angle's mouth as Nash, Hall, and Joe beat him up.

[luke-o 0]

Interesting set of spoilers, though the past few weeks of tourney were basically wasted since Kaz simply faced Angle here and jobbed with no fanfare. What a bizarre push attempt.

 

It makes sense really, giving Kaz the win gave him a big rub and a massive profile match that apperantly was really good that gave Kaz a lot of offense. That puts him over without winning really.

 

Did you really expect Frankie Kazarian to headline a PPV in the midst of the Angle/Nash fued?

[RedJed 0]

I dont think they wasted the tournament on this with Kaz. EVERYTHING they are doing here is slowly building him into a credible performer. Guys, he beat Christian in the next to as clean of a job Christian has done for ANYONE except Joe since he's been in TNA. And it wasn't like it was a fluke in any sense. That's how you build a guy up, by manufacturing big moments for the character and big wins as well. Unless they totally squashed him against Angle at the taping, which from reading the spoilers doesnt appear to be the case, this just helps to further elevate him overall. Back when Jarrett was heel champion, I recall them putting Lethal in there with him and he was made to look competitive as hell even though he lost. From there, they just continued to push him into finally getting the X division belt, so this may be a similar vein here a bit, only they will just continue to build him up as a serious threat to the champ (whoever it may be), and if he keeps going, sooner or later he might make a main event spot if the fans get really behind him. But that takes time and all of these situations they are giving Kaz are giving him that slow build to be taken seriously as a true star for the company. Trying to build him up to an actual ppv match against the TNA champ, even months from now, is still something nobody is going to be take seriously even if they pushed him flawlessly from now to then. Like some have said, things take time, and thats still what is happening. So lets get off this Kaz title shot is premature/pointless, because it's not. Its still putting him over, regardless.

[Lt. Al Giardello 0]

*They announced Samoa Joe vs. AJ Styles vs. Chris Sabin in a Loser Wears a Turkey suit for the Thanksgiving Impact.

 

Wow, just wow.

[cabbageboy 0]

There's still this sort of "WTF?" quality about this Kaz push. As in why him, why now? So he just jobs to Angle...now what do you do with him? I'm not saying he isn't a reasonably talented performer but before this tourney there's been nothing to suggest he could ever main event. Before this Kaz was mostly screwing around with Raven's bunch of jobbers and hitting on Ms. Brooks.

 

I don't think Russo grasps this aspect of pushing someone. You can't just suddenly push someone, like he did with Booker in WCW. Seeds need to be planted, guys need to win a bunch of matches and get over, and then you push them. If Kazarian had beaten people on TV for a couple of months and had some excellent matches, then it might be more plausible for him to win a tourney.

[luke-o 0]

I think Kaz's push has been started since he beat Raven (which was essentially a 3 on 1 match) and was then made to be the stand out star of the multi-man UX.

 

He's barely lost a match since he beat Raven.

[UseTheSledgehammerUh 0]

The first step to people taking Kaz seriously will be getting rid of the name Kaz. It's didn't work as a nickname for Bill Kazmaier in WCW, it didn't work for Kaz Hayashi in WCW, and won't work as a name in WC...er, TNA.

[luke-o 0]

Now that I will agree with, whats wrong with just calling him Kazarian?

[cabbageboy 0]

Yeah, I have to agree with that. If we're supposed to take the guy seriously he can't just be Kaz. He needs a bit of a repackaging, or just call him Frankie Kazarian again.

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

The Kaz title shot is premature, at least for having the maximum effect when it comes to elevating him, because it’s the final chapter of a story without them having bothered with the middle of the book. Presumably, the idea was for Kaz to be elevated from opening match geek with Raven to credible mid-to-upper midcarder.

 

The first part of the story, breaking Kaz away from Raven’s group went fine. They did the angle that broke them up, Kaz beat Raven at Hard Justice, and it was firmly established that Kaz was no longer part of the opening match act and was on his own.

 

The second part, and this is key, is establishing Kaz as his own person and a guy in the midcard who the people should get start to take seriously. This is accomplished by Kaz looking strong in a feud against a guy, Bobby Roode, who is established at a level above him. Kaz doesn’t even have to win the feud, because just by looking strong against a guy above his level, Kaz gets elevated. The problem with this part of the story, and it’s probably the most important part, is that they dropped it altogether and went straight to the third and final chapter of the story of Kaz’s elevation.

 

They skipped over the most important part of the story, because Kaz didn’t get the credibility of being established as someone to take seriously at the level they’ve put him in. Sure, Kaz looks good because he hung in there with, and beat, Christian in the final of the Fight for the Right tournament, but think how much better it would have played out if Kaz had first been firmly established as a midcarder to take seriously. Not only that, by putting Kaz’s title match on TV, in detracts from the impact of Kaz’s accomplishment because it’s been portrayed as something that’s not important enough for people to have to pay to see. Think about how much Kaz would have been elevated simply by having his match with Kurt be in the semi-main event of a PPV. Putting on PPV alone would have made Kaz look good, and it would have made the Fight for the Right tournament mean something, because the winner actually got his big prize, a TNA title shot, on PPV. On PPV, the match could have gone 15 minutes, Kurt and Kaz could have torn the house down, and even in defeat they could have portrayed it as Kaz proving to the world that he really does belong in the ring with the TNA world champion and the focus would have firmly been on Kaz. As it is, it’s going to be a shorter match on TV that probably won’t be as good, and instead of the focus being on Kaz and how he’s proven he belongs on the ring with the TNA champion, the focus appears to remain on the already established main event talent because they immediately did a run-in angle for the next PPV and Kaz is a mere afterthought, if he’s even going to get mentioned at all.

 

This isn’t the same deal is what happened with Jay Lethal situation, because with Jay, the NWA title shot was clearly the first part in the story of the elevation of Lethal, and so putting it out there with no real build was acceptable because it was the first chapter of the story rather than the climax. Second, Lethal hadn’t just gone through this big, company wide tournament for a title shot, where giving that title shot away in Impact dilutes the impact of winning the tournament.