Fighting for the Edge (3/6 Impact Recap)

Impact opens with Kurt Angle telling the tag team champs that all they have to do is win two of their three matches tonight to get the man advantage at Destination X, however, AJ Styles seems to have Karen Angle solely on his mind. Angle tells him to forget about her and start focusing on his street fight against Kevin Nash later on before giving both Styles & Tomko advice on how to win their matches.

The Impact intro hits as Mike Tenay and Don West hype tonight’s three big matches featuring AJ Styles against Kevin Nash in a street fight, Samoa Joe vs. Tomko in a first blood match and Kurt Angle against Christian Cage inside the Six Sides of Steel.

Jim Cornette and Matt Morgan are standing in the ring and Cornette runs down the Destination X card. He then talks about the three matches tonight and says that all of them must have a decisive winner as the winner will go into the pay-per-view with a advantage.

Cornette then calls Booker T out to the ring and tells him that his match against Robert Roode will be a strap match. Plus, if Booker wins, Traci Brooks will be able to give Payton Banks 10 lashes with the strap after the match, however, if Roode wins, Banks will be able to do the same to Brooks. Roode comes out and says it’s against his morale fiber to allow the lashings to happen and says it is between Booker and himself. He then tells Booker to be a man and fight his own battles, which sends Booker into a rage as they come to blows on the ramp. Security has to come in to separate the two.

Crystal is backstage with the Unlikely Alliance who all cut promos about picking the Angle Alliance apart tonight to gain the advantage during the six-man tag match at Destination X. Nash tries to throw in a bit of comedy by doing a Hulk Hogan impersonation and asks what AJ Styles is going to do once his 17-times surgically repaired knees come crashing down on him.

Match 1: AJ Styles vs. Kevin Nash (Street Fight)
Nash lands a few hard rights to the Styles’ forehead before the action heads out to the crowd. On that note, cue the commercial break. Upon returning, Styles is in control of the match in the middle of the ring and works on Nash’s knees, however, Nash turns the tide by landing a side slam on Styles. Nash then tries for a jackknife powerbomb but Nash can’t deliver the move as his knees buckle. Styles tries for a high risk move from the top rope but Nash catches him by the neck and delivers a choke slam for the pin fall and pick up the first win for his team.

Crystal is the workshop with Black Reign, who says he loves to torture people like Eric Young. As for Kaz, Reign will eat his face off for dying is arctic fox, Misty, white.

After a commercial break, Crystal is standing by with Jay Lethal and So Cal Val and asks when the two will be going out on a date. Lethal says he has business to take care of with a battle royal tonight, and then it’s on to Petey Williams at Destination X. After all of that is taken care of, he will get freaky with So Cal Val.

Mike Tenay and Don West run down the rest of tonight’s card that will feature a Destination X battle royal and Awesome Kong in action. Tenay then gets word that something is going on backstage and it’s Brooks and Banks in a catfight.

Jeremy Borash is with Eric Young, who is still running around being scared of the monsters, Black Reign and Rellik. Jeremy Borash tries to give him some encouragement by telling him the same thing that Kaz told him last week and to dig deep to find his alter ego and bring it out.

Match 2: Battle Royal
Everyone in this match is scheduled to compete at Destination X. The winner of the battle royal will get to add a special stipulation to their match. Competing in the match is the Rock n’ Rave Infection, the Motorcity Machine Guns, the LAX, Eric Young, Black Reign, Rellik, Jay Lethal, Petey Williams, Shark Boy, Curry Man and Team 3D.

Speaking of Team 3D, they still have to make weight to compete in the battle royal. Neither of them make weight and Brother Ray proclaims that he didn’t want to be in the match anyway. He then explains that they didn’t make weight because muscle weighs more than fat.

The battle royal starts as Sonjay Dutt comes out and begins taking donations and gives the hand of So Cal Val a kiss. Scott Steiner also comes out for a closer look as Homicide is eliminated by the MMG’s. Neither of the MMG’s last too long after that as they’re nearly eliminated at the same time shortly thereafter.

Hernandez is the next one to go out as Scott Steiner helps Petey Williams eliminate him when the referee’s back was turned. Steiner tries to give Williams more help by trying to take out Young, but referee Slick Johnson sees him this time and orders Steiner to the back. Williams is still able to toss out Young, though, even without Steiner’s help.

Shark Boy & Curry Man eliminate Lance Hoyt with a double clothesline and Rellik tosses Shark Boy out afterwards. Lethal tosses out Black Reign, who is then tossed out by Petey Williams, who is then eliminated by Curry Man.

Jimmy Rave, Curry Man and Rellik are the final three in the ring and Rellik begins to use his size advantage over his opponents. Curry Man and Rave start working together against Rellik, but their partnership is short lived as Curry Man puts Rave in the spice rack and dumps him over the top rope. Rellik then nails Curry Man from behind and tosses him over the rope, but Curry Man’s feet both land on the back of Jimmy Rave, thus he is not eliminated. Curry Man re-enters the ring and clotheslines Rellik over the top rope to win the battle royal.

Curry Man calls for a microphone and begins to speak in Japanese until Shark Boy enters the ring and steals the microphone away from him. Shark Boy calls out the stipulation that if Team 3D doesn’t make weight or loses their match at Destination X, they have to leave TNA for good. As for the match, Shark Boy makes it a fish market street fight.

Jeremy Borash is standing by with Angelina Love & Velvet Sky. Roxxi Laveaux is wandering around in the background and gets pulled over by the two. They both apologize for mocking her last week and promise to give her a makeover next week on Impact.

Match 3: Tomko vs. Samoa Joe (First Blood Match)
The match starts and the hammer for the ring bell comes into play quick as the two battle near the announce table. Joe sends Tomko into the ring post and the steel steps, but is unable to bust him open. Joe then delivers a piledriver to Tomko on the entrance ramp and sends him into the ring, where Tomko levels Joe with a clothesline. Tomko locks Joe in a headlock and begins to pound on Joe’s forehead with some hard rights.

Tomko sets up a chair in the corner and tries to send Joe flying into it, but Joe is able to put on the breaks and send Tomko crashing head first into the chair. Joe then kicks the chair into Tomko’s face, but it still doesn’t draw any blood. Tomko then fights back and swings the chair at Joe, who tries to block it with his arm. Joe comes back at Tomko and locks him in a rear naked choke and the referee calls for the bell and awards Tomko the victory. The referee then points out Joe’s arm that has a small trickle of blood on it.

The first installment of TNA’s Rough Cut is aired where both Kip James and BG James explain how the two of them got together as a tag team in the first place. Kip explains that they worked well together as he was the workhorse and BG was the mouthpiece, however, BG states that they had their differences early on and those eventually started to shine through. This is to be continued next week.

Jeremy Borash is backstage with James Mitchell and Judas Mesias, and asks Mitchell if he knows the whereabouts of Abyss. Mitchell says he did exactly what he said he was going to do as Abyss is no more. As for Mesias’s match against Rhino tonight, Mitchell has instructed him to drink his blood and eat off his flesh so he chokes on his own blood.

Rhino comes out with the drinking championship and compares it to a piece of crap, just like James Storm, and proceeds to smash it. He then promises to make Storm fall 15 feet off of the Elevation X platform on Sunday.

Match 4: Rhino vs. Judas Mesias
The match starts out as a seesaw battle between these two powerful individuals. The action constantly sways back and forth with neither of them gaining the advantage for long. Mesias finally gains control of the match with a Russian leg sweep, but misses with a frog splash. This gives Rhino the opening to Gore Mesias and pick up the pin fall.

After the match, James Storm sneaks into the ring and levels Rhino with a superkick. Storm and Jackie Moore then taunt Rhino by screaming in his face.

Crystal is backstage with Awesome Kong and Raisha Saeed as Saeed reads a prepared statement from Kong that says she is sorry to have to destroy Salinas tonight as she is very agitated. As for ODB and Gail Kim, they have signed a declaration of war and their fates will be sealed at Destination X. The LAX come onto the scene and start making sexual remarks at Saeed until Kong grabs Homicide by the throat. Hernandez steps in and the two have a stare off that is broken up by security.

Match 5: Salinas vs. Awesome Kong
Salinas tries for some quick offense to start the match but it doesn’t get her very far. Kong then takes over and dominates Salinas and picks up the victory with the Awesome Bomb.

Crystal is standing by with Kong’s opposition at Destination X, ODB and Gail Kim. Kim says that she knows Kong can be beaten and that she is weakened when she gets knocked on her feet. From there, the better wrestler will pick up the pin fall.

Mike Tenay and Don West then run down the Destination X card and hype some house shows as the cage is being set up around the ring for the main event.

Match 6: Christian Cage vs. Kurt Angle (Six Sides of Steel)
This match must be won by either escaping over the top of the cage or exiting through the door. Angle works over Cage in the opening moments of the match with some mat wrestling and tries early on to escape over the top, but Cage is able to put a stop to that, but Angle is still able to control the match as he slams Christian into the wall of the cage, which brings us to a commercial break.

Upon returning, Angle is trying to escape through the cage door, but Christian is there to stop him. Angle answers back, though, by sending Christian’s head into the steel cage a few times before locking him in a headlock. Angle then tries for an Olympic Slam, but Cage is able to reverse the move into a DDT. Christian follows with an inverted DDT and instead of going through the door, he tries to climb out and then decides to hit Angle with a frog splash.

Christian then charges at Angle, but Angle is able to duck out of the way as sends Christian flying into the cage. Angle tries to escape, but Cage is able to recover and pull Angle down as the two begin fighting on the top rope. Christian tries to climb out again as Angle takes him down with an Olympic Slam off the top rope. Angle goes for the door but Cage is able to pull him back in. Cage then tries for the door as well and nearly gets out when Angle begins to pull him back in.

Cage tries for the Unprettier but is sent face first into the cage instead. Angle manages to land two German suplexes on Cage before Cage blocks the third attempt and gives Angle a back body drop. Christian tries to escape over the top as Angle gets up and the two begin fighting on the top rope again. Angle locks in the ankle lock on the top rope, but Cage is able to get out of it by dropping down to the mat.

Cage tries for the door, but Angle stops him as Cage gets his leg caught in the rope near the exit. Angle works on Christian’s leg a bit before trying to escape over the top. Angle makes it over the top when Cage is finally able to stop him as he also climbs over and they both drop at the same time. Earl Hebner awards the match to Christian Cage.

After the match, the tag team champs go to the ring and begin to assault Cage and lock themselves in the cage with him. Samoa Joe and Kevin Nash try to break into the cage but they are unable to get in as Impact comes to a close.

Quick Results
- Kevin Nash defeated AJ Styles by pin fall in a street fight.
- Curry Man won a Destination X battle royal.
- Tomko defeated Samoa Joe in a first blood match.
- Rhino defeated Judas Mesias by pin fall.
- Awesome Kong defeated Salinas by pin fall.
- Christian Cage defeated Kurt Angle inside the Six Sides of Steel.

Starman’s Thoughts
And so we head into Destination X. I will say that tonight’s main event was fun to watch and it did its part to help sell the main event at Destination X, but the rest of the show almost seemed like filler – much like the Destination X pay-per-view altogether.

Tonight’s focus was the three big matches between the six participants in the main event at Destination X. Instead of just trying to gain an advantage by softening up the competition, TNA had to throw in a stipulation into the mix to give them something to work towards. The stipulation, in case you missed it, is that the six man tag match will be a three-on-two handicap match for the first five minutes at Destination X.

To me, the stipulation that they were fighting over doesn’t do much for the match and it seems rather pointless. If it were a regular tag team match and it was made into a two-on-one match for five minutes, that may work, but I don’t think it makes much of a difference in this situation.

As for the three matches, like I said before, the cage match was a lot of fun to watch and I was surprised to see that Cage actually won the match. I will give TNA credit for putting on two entertaining back-to-back main events on Impact. The rest of the matches tonight, however, were really bland.

Given that I was impressed with Kevin Nash’s ability to still entertain me last week, I was looking forward to the street fight tonight between him and AJ Styles. The fight, however, didn’t even really resemble a street fight at all, aside from the two wearing street clothes to the ring, and fighting for a moment in the crowd. The commercial in the middle didn’t help matters much, especially since it seemed that the break last longer than the actual match did that was aired.

As I was disappointed with that one, I figured at least Samoa Joe and Tomko would make it somewhat interesting tonight, but that too failed to deliver. What made that match even worse, though, was the way it was won. I suppose they didn’t want to have one person appear to be too banged up to compete at the pay-per-view, but then why would a first blood match be booked in the first place?

Even with all of the problems I had with the matches, at least tonight’s show was focused on actual wrestling and not some sort of lame attempt at comedy – i.e. Team 3D’s attempt at weight loss or a date between AJ Styles and Karen Angle. As a matter of fact, the absence of Karen Angle all together made the show a lot more pleasing to watch.

Something that I have been noticing, however, that isn’t pleasing is the amount of verbal cannibalism that has been making its way onto the show. A few weeks ago Rellik made the comment about tearing out Eric Young’s heart and eating it. This week we got to hear Black Reign talking about eating Kaz’s face and James Mitchell ordering Judas Mesias to drink Rhino’s blood and eat his flesh. What ever happened to the “family friendly” wrestling alternative that TNA once claimed to be?