Impact Spoilers for 7/24

[RedJed 0]

For the show that airs on 7/24:

 

Samoa Joe and Booker T argue to set up Hard Justice. They announce it will be Joe/Booker in Full Metal Mayhem, as if we didn't just see one of those at the last ppv.

 

Consequences Creed & Eric Young b Johnny Devine & Jimmy Race when Creed pinned Devine. Rave, Devine and Lance Hoyt beat down Creed until Abyss made the ave

 

Matt Morgan b Trevor Chavis

 

Robert Roode & James Storm b Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley

 

Taylor Wilde b Velvet Sky in 5 seconds. Sky demanded a rematch and Wilde won. Angelina Love then challenged Wilde and Wilde was beating her until Sky interfered for the DQ. They beat her down until Gail Kim made the save

 

Petey Williams b Jay Lethal to keep the X title

 

Time for the Joe-Booker contract signing. Booker wants Kevin Nash to leave. Joe agrees but tells Booker to have your wench (Sharmell) leave. The lights went out and Sting's music played. When the lights came on, Booker had a baseball bat and Joe was knocked out

 

Team 3-D & Kurt Angle b Christian Cage & Rhino & A.J. Styles in a table elimination match. Came down to Angle and Styles but Frank Trigg interfered again so Angle put Styles through a table

 

-------

 

TLC Match at Hard Justice? After they just did this match at the last ppv with the six man? Eh....so they picked this over the other idea, a cage match. They should have done neither and gotten a little more creative, for sure.

 

Otherwise, guessing Frank Trigg has to be actually wrestling pretty soon, and that should be something. I will say this much, he's done well on the talking front so far.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

I'm sure it's missing some details but that doesn't really sound like a 2 hour show.

[DarKnight 0]

Thank God they won't do an Abyss/Kong feud. What are they doing with Abyss anyway? It seems like his gimmick now ever since he returned, is that he helps people when they are beat down.

 

This stuff with Sting has been very bizarre the past few weeks.

[Lt. Al Giardello 0]

Frank Trigg has an MMA fight on August 24th... So I can't see him getting in a wrestling match, and risking an injury to prevent him from fighting.

[DarKnight 0]

Does anyone else get very confused whenever Frank Trigg does a run in? Sometimes I could have sworn I saw Kurt Angle! (hopes TNA doesn't do tag matches with them confusing the ref by looking alike)

[luke-o 0]

Shhhh! Russo reads the Internet remember!

[RedJed 0]

Frank Trigg has an MMA fight on August 24th... So I can't see him getting in a wrestling match, and risking an injury to prevent him from fighting.

 

I'm sure that if he works any pro wrestling down the road, it will be after that date anyway, probably the Sept ppv or Bound for Glory in October. Once Styles and Angle finish out their program, Trigg against Styles seem imminent.

[King Cucaracha 0]

Thank God they won't do an Abyss/Kong feud. What are they doing with Abyss anyway? It seems like his gimmick now ever since he returned, is that he helps people when they are beat down.

 

Well reading between the lines, it's got to be something to do with the videos where he was being treated in the mental institution. This is probably his way of making up for loving to inflict pain. Maybe him only satisfying his need when it helps someone else, or something along those lines.

[DarKnight 0]

Did anyone find those Abyss videos where he was in the asylum to be really cheesy? I don't know why but I just couldn't help but laugh all the way through them. Maybe it was the weird editing or something.

[Jingus 0]

Same here. "Well it may be a grungy run-down loony bin of hellish nightmares, but boy do they have a great beginner's class in Adobe Premier!"

[DarKnight 0]

Those videos were also really funny because they blatantly ripped off Mankinds debut videos.

[RedJed 0]

I read somewhere that the Booker/Joe match is essentially a TLC match inside a cage actually, not just a Full Metal Mayhem match). One would guess TNA might even make up a name for such a gimmick match. So the belt will be elevated in the air like a ladder match, but they can use the cage too. It's an interesting concept that seems simple enough, but could be something unique and memorable depending on the spots they do.

[DCH 0]

There's a section that was missed here where Roode and Storm claim that they will run around and whip people outside then walk back into the iMPACTZone and whip fans inside or something.

[DarKnight 0]

read somewhere that the Booker/Joe match is essentially a TLC match inside a cage actually, not just a Full Metal Mayhem match). One would guess TNA might even make up a name for such a gimmick match. So the belt will be elevated in the air like a ladder match, but they can use the cage too. It's an interesting concept that seems simple enough, but could be something unique and memorable depending on the spots they do.

 

Holy shit, thats an awesome gimmick match. Booker/Joe don't seem like the right kind of guys to be in that match though. It would make more sense if it were high-flying guys.

[Matt Young 0]

Tenay: "ODB is gnawing on a turky leg!"

West: "And why wouldn't she?"

 

Random and hilarious.

 

But WHAT THE FUCK, TNA? Velvet Sky is not only the most attractive, but probably the most talented of all your female wrestlers. So what do you do? Completely bury her. I guess it was supposed to put over Taylor, but it just made me want to hate her even though it wasn't her decision. Why wouldn't they have just done that third match and had taylor get the clean pin?

 

Also, good to see Daivari in TNA full time. I guess the WWE trademarked Daivari's name (although why couldn't he used his real name of Shawn daivari?) but Abdul Bashir has a nice ring to it.

[Jingus 0]

Velvet Sky is not only the most attractive, but probably the most talented of all your female wrestlers.

No.

 

 

I generally agree that the booking was stupid and Taylor is being overpushed.

 

 

But, NO.

[Matt Young 0]

She's at least in the top 3 with Kong and Gail. Who are your picks? I'm sure one is ODB, who would be my #4.

[Jingus 0]

In terms of wrestling talent, I'd put Sky in the bottom half. Gail and Roxxi are easily better than her. ODB, depends, she's not always consistent. Kong is so much better than just about every other girl on the roster that it's awe-inspiring. Christy Hemme makes the best punching bag for jobber duty. Jacqueline can still go when she feels like it, though she rarely gets the chance, though since she is past 40 and all I don't blame her for not killing herself out there. Meanwhile, Velvet just stands out a little since she's better than her partner.

[Jebus 0]

...and I don't even think Velvet is better than Angelina.

 

Sky is IMO the worst woman wrestler they have next to Salinas and probably Hemme (she doesn't get to show her stuff though).

[Matt Young 0]

I've just never been a fan of Jacqueline. Roxxi is really good, and Christy's extreme hotness makes it easy to look past her faults. She's better than many WWE women, anyway.

 

I guess it's a good thing that we are actually debating who's better, rather than lamenting how shitty all but maybe 4-5 of the female wrestlers are like with WWE.

[cabbageboy 0]

Jingus, you have all but converted me to a TNA basher. Or is it just the post Slammiversary shows have been this crappy? I mean right now there's maybe one thing that interests me in TNA and that is the whole Angle/3D vs. Styles and Co. feud. That is adequate stuff.

 

But the rest? The X Division is all but invisible at this point, with a champ in Petey that is barely on the shows and there's no real feud going on for the belt. Why even get the belt off Lethal if this is what they had in mind? The tag feud of LAX vs. Beer Money was an okay filler feud for a month, but it has no business continuing over multiple PPVs. Move the MCMG into the title scene and do something decent.

 

The world title scene? I don't know where any of this is leading, aside from the obvious stuff like Joe eventually beating the crap out of Booker. Again, that's a 1 month nothing feud, just feed Booker to Joe and move on. I seriously detest all these "so and so has possession of the belt but isn't really champion" angles that TNA loves to do. Imagine being a first time viewer and seeing Booker show up with the belt as though he's the champ, but it's really Joe, yet he simply lets Booker keep the belt. WTF?

 

But the real venom has to be directed at the way TNA has so thoroughly fucked up the Knockouts division in almost record time. They for whatever reason decided to job out Kong to this worthless Taylor chick, and then actually did it AGAIN on a PPV instead of immediately correcting that fiasco. And then set up a 10 woman Rumble match for #1 contender with Velvet Sky winning only to job her out to Taylor in 5 seconds, then in 20 seconds right after. Angelina Love was correct in pondering who this chick is banging to get this wildly overpushed for no good reason. Beating opponents in actual matches with a finisher gets someone over, not just doing rollups and small packages in less than a minute. That stuff sucks and doesn't work.

 

Who is booking the women now that D'Amore is gone? It almost has to be Russo, I won't believe it's anyone but him.

[Chazz 0]

Did Kurt order Tomko to crash Karen's interview segment last week for this week's show?

[HollywoodSpikeJenkins 0]

Velvet Sky is one of the hottest, though. More so than Angelina.

[Silence 0]

Did Kurt order Tomko to crash Karen's interview segment last week for this week's show?

 

Yes, and TNA forgot about it this week.

[RedJed 0]

Watching this off the DVR, so far a few things stood out to me.....

 

The Joe/Booker segment came across all so rushed, and why was Nash out there anyway?! Since there is not supposed to even BE a ref in this match, one has to assume the cage/weapons match has to be won only by grabbing the belt elevated ala a standard ladder match. At least that makes sense into the story that was played at the ppv, with all of the refs getting beat up.

 

The 3D/Angle promo with Borash being forced to lay on the table was weird shit, D-Von was starting down Borash and strokin his hair, etc, hilarious. I love how they just threw out the heel cliches during the promo, even going to so far as to say~GASP~Santa Claus isn't real! OJ is innocent!

 

The Kaz video package highlighting his career in TNA was good, weird that there was no mentioning of him "quitting" TNA so it must just be an angle they are playing more off the website, obviously he isn't really leaving. But yeah, Tomko was supposed to be w/ Karen this week, but I guess someone in booking changed it up around the time the website mentioned him "leaving" as part of some idea to get Kaz over more. We'll see if it works, I think as sad as this sounds, but just turning him heel and putting Christy Hemme with him as his valet or something like that might get him more over than anything. Or even having him and Taylor become a duo, if they want to keep him babyface.

 

The Kaz/Karen thing wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, surprisingly. Lots of quasi-shoot comments though, this has Russo all over it.

 

I do have to say they are still making me wonder what's up with Sting, so having that as a focal angle right now is working for me.

 

BTW, did anyone see Matt Morgan on American Gladiators earlier this week? He was hokey as all hell, but entertaining. I never noticed his entrance music is a knock on Click Click Boom by Saliva. Too bad TNA couldn't get any footage from NBC from the show, unfortunately. This is probably the best way to use Morgan right now, since he starting working matches earlier this year with little to no buildup of his in ring work showcased like this.

 

Wow, that Price Justice League stuff is some goofy shit, not really that funny though. I just dont care for the Super Eric character at all.

 

Tag strap match was fun stuff, as good as the four way on ECW was this week (both very pay per view quality matches), weird to see this gimmick and then the tables match also later on the show though. This match could have been built to the ppv, with LAX also thrown into the mix. Machine Guns looked really solid here, as usual. Love the heel's "Beer.....Money!!" tandem taunt. This match definitely worked for me.

 

Honestly, as far as Velvet Sky goes, I could give a shit less how she works/is pushed, given how she looks is fine enough for me to be satisfied with her role when she is in a match/segment. Seriously, one of the hottest chicks in wrestling. But I dont see the issue with the push for Taylor.....they're trying to show her dominance immediately here, big deal. The other pinfalls on Sky other than the last one were just to show she could beat someone out of nowhere, much like she did Kong. I'm sure in due time, she will have a finisher. Guessing Gail/Taylor against the BP next week.

 

Not sure if I'm feeling this new character for Daviari, err or whatever the new TNA copyrighted name for him is. Sheik Abdul Basir?!! All I can think is that Iron Sheik would make a great manager for him.

 

Ugh, the Dutt/Val segment was just ridiculously bad.....hahah nice excuse for Val never watching a replay of last week though...."I hate violence" What a weird ending, a doctor brings in a bedpan and then Dutt is shown smelling a diamond ring?! Oy vey....

 

Tables match felt like a true main event style match, went almost twenty minutes total. Strong stuff as far as Impact main events are concerned. Again, another match that could have been saved for the ppv (especially if the ppv match ends up being without any gimmick to it) but if they want to put it on Impact, I won't complain. The only next step I can see with all these guys is Christian/Rhino against Duds in a glass tables match and Styles v. Angle with some stip that if whoever loses, they have to stop talking or interacting with Karen for good. Maybe those are the ideas for the next pay per view, I dunno. But it would certainly seem possible to do those matches down the road here. I still think they will do Frank Trigg v. Styles at some point down the road too.

 

For some reason, seeing Samoa Joe in a suit just doesn't look right. The last Joe/Booker segment was a hell of a lot better than the beginning one, however, I didn't get why it was so pushed that Joe had to sign the contract when he was the one who challenged him in the first place?! It shouldn't even be a question to ponder, unless it was a coward heel they were trying to get to sign it. Not that I'm expecting Sting to go heel in anyway, but I do like that they are keeping him in the mix of all of this Joe/Booker stuff, as its' making Sting's next step (likely at the ppv) that much more questionable.

[LuckyLopez 0]

Jingus, you have all but converted me to a TNA basher. Or is it just the post Slammiversary shows have been this crappy? I mean right now there's maybe one thing that interests me in TNA and that is the whole Angle/3D vs. Styles and Co. feud. That is adequate stuff.

As someone who is a TNA fan and has enjoyed it quite a bit the last year (which seems to be VERY rare around here) I really have not enjoyed things post Slammiversary much at all. And post Victory Road I just think has been bad. Last week I hated the show and this week did very little for me. Some of the stories are just crap (Lethal/Dutt; Kaz; the Justice League thing) and some I just don't entirely get or want to see or are dragging.

 

The one difference from what seems to be the general sentiment here is I loved the Kong/Taylor stuff. Absolutely LOVED it. And I have no real problem with Sky being fed to her even if it didn't totally entertain me.

 

I think TNA tends to fall into a lull between Lockdown and Bound For Glory. Or maybe just Slammiversary and BFG. They want long running stories and big built matches for BFG but that means they either have to drag things out for months before or throw stuff out there that just feels pointless to kill time.

[The Ghost of bps21 0]

The builds are always better for the bigger ppvs. What they did leading up to Lockdown looked like it was from a different company altogether. Best bet is that TV won't be good again until after the September ppv.

[Chazz 0]

I guess Val doesn't have any friends who watch Impact to tell her that Sonjay is playing her. Sort of like Matt Hardy apparently didn't have any friends to tell him what was going down between Kane and Lita.(I still remember that ridiculous backstage segment in which Lita told Stacy Keibler to "just keep it between us" about Lita being pregnant. With the camera 3 feet away.) I hate it when TNA and WWE does shit like this. Lazy ass writing, pure and simple. Unless of course it is revealed that Val was just stringing Dutt on all along to get his ass kicked by Lethal in a blowoff match, then I'd be o.k. by that.

[LuckyLopez 0]

The builds are always better for the bigger ppvs. What they did leading up to Lockdown looked like it was from a different company altogether. Best bet is that TV won't be good again until after the September ppv.

Oh agreed, and Lockdown was just something else. But like I said, I seem to enjoy TNA a lot more consistently than most around here but I think the time between Slammiversary and BFG feels like its usually a lot emptier. Just looking back at the title pictures of the last two years of Victory Road/Hard Justice/No Surrender you have:

 

2007: Angle/Joe vs Team 3D with all belts on the line; Angle vs Joe in Winner Takes All; Angle vs Abyss

The whole Winner Takes All could have been a big story and could have gotten Joe over huge but it was 2 months basically used to get Karen Angle over and then the whole thing was set back to where it was at No Surrender with Angle losing the X and Tag titles.

 

2006: Sting vs Joe vs Steiner vs Christian for #1 Contender; Sting vs Jarrett; Joe vs Jarrett non-title in Fans Revenge

The whole build was for Sting/Jarrett which had been going for a year and was clearly set up for Hard Justice. But it just got dragged out with a main event #1 contender match on a show the champ didn't wrestle on then a non-title match vs Joe that had Joe in a bit of limbo while Sting was absent from that show.

 

Maybe it just seems worse to me when its really common for the runs between the big shows. But this time of year feels worse to me for TNA, at least on the top of the card.

 

Actually, now that I think of it something that has bugged me about TNA is that their PPVs are oddly paced as their "Big Ones" seem to be Destination X, Lockdown, Slammiversary, and BFG. But that's March, April, June, and October. TNA basically seems built to run strong during the spring/summer of March-June but then the July-September run before BFG seems to come as a bigger letdown and longer drag as a result. I don't know, maybe I'm overthinking it and they're just in a slump.

[cd213 0]

I guess Val doesn't have any friends who watch Impact to tell her that Sonjay is playing her. Sort of like Matt Hardy apparently didn't have any friends to tell him what was going down between Kane and Lita.(I still remember that ridiculous backstage segment in which Lita told Stacy Keibler to "just keep it between us" about Lita being pregnant. With the camera 3 feet away.) I hate it when TNA and WWE does shit like this. Lazy ass writing, pure and simple. Unless of course it is revealed that Val was just stringing Dutt on all along to get his ass kicked by Lethal in a blowoff match, then I'd be o.k. by that.

 

I haven't really cared for Dutt/Lethal so far, but I think it might be interesting if instead of Val turning heel, since that's what everyone thinks is going to happen, that if she looks like she's going to turn heel and then helps Lethal. I agree, Chazz, with you on that being the ending of the storyline.