Strange Bedfellows (3/20 Impact Recap)

Impact opens with Jeremy Borash standing outside of Jim Cornette’s office and hypes tonights show that will feature a public workout from Kurt Angle and AJ Styles will bring a special guest to the Impact Zone. Christian Cage is then seen walking out of Cornette’s office with a smile on his face and Cornette follows and announces that Rhino will be taking on Tomko tonight.

The Impact intro hits and Mike Tenay and Don West basically hype what Borash did just a minute earlier. West’s voice sounds a little coarse, maybe he won’t talk too much tonight.
Booker T kicks off the show and makes his way to the ring, which is decked out with a table with champagne and welcome back decorations. Sharmell comes out as the two embrace until Robert Roode’s music hits. Booker and Roode share a few words until Jim Cornette and Matt Morgan come out to calm things down. Cornette says that due to Sharmell’s involvement at Destination X, he is booking a match between Roode & Payton Banks against Booker & Sharmell at Lockdown. Booker doesn’t like the news and knocks down the table. For that, Cornette then makes a match between Booker and AJ Styles tonight.

Crystal is backstage with AJ Styles who doesn’t like the fact that he is booked for a match against Booker. Crystal asks who his special guest tonight is going to be as Team 3D come into the picture. Brother Ray says they are a family now as Tomko has invited them to be a part of their team for Lethal Lockdown. Ray promises to destroy their opponents and warns Booker to watch his back tonight.

Jeremy Borash is backstage with Kaz and Eric Young. Kaz says he is proud of Eric and his alter ego as Young plays it up that him and Super Eric are two different people and says that he is still scared of Rellik and Black Reign.

Match 1: Petey Williams & Scott Steiner vs. Kaz & Eric Young
Prior to the match, clips of Steiner’s initiation of Petey Williams are aired. In it, Steiner dunks Williams’ head into a tank full of water, to which Tenay thinks Steiner went too far.

Kaz & Young work over Williams and score a couple of pin attempts on Williams in the early portion of the match. Steiner chastises Williams to tag him in and shows him up by taking it to both Young and Kaz. After working over Kaz for a bit, Steiner feels safe to tag Williams back into the match who quickly loses control as Kaz lands a seated dropkick. Both Williams and Kaz make tags into their partners and Young comes in and knocks Steiner out to the floor as Williams tries for a Canadian Destroyer on Kaz but it is countered into a reverse piledriver. Young climbs up to the top rope as Black Reign & Rellik come out the entrance tunnel and distract Young, which allows Steiner to land a back suplex off the top rope and picks up the pin fall.

Steiner yells at Williams after the match and handcuffs and hoods him once again. Tenay tells us to go to tnawrestling.com to see what happens next with the initiation.

A pre-taped interview between Tenay, Christian Cage and Rhino is aired. Cage tells Rhino that he still considers him a friend even when they weren’t on speaking terms. Cage says he is sorry for not being there during his drinking problems and then says that Team Cage needs him for Lockdown. Rhino says that Cage hurt his daughter when she saw “Uncle Christian” beating up on her dad in the ring and that bothers him. Rhino asks Cage how he is going to fix things with her and leaves the interview.

Match 2: Tomko vs. Rhino
Rhino and Tomko trade off with power moves to get this match started. Rhino gains the advantage and sets up for the gore as Tomko pulls Earl Hebner in his way and AJ Styles comes in and nails Rhino with a blow from behind. Tomko levels Rhino with a clothesline and picks up the win.

Some of the ringside fans try to tell Hebner that Styles is hiding under the ring and Hebner finds him. Styles and Hebner get into an argument until both Styles and Tomko start beating down Rhino some more. Christian Cage comes out to the ring and helps Rhino out by clearing the ring. Cage and Rhino then shake hands and stand side-by-side until Team 3D slides into the ring and attacks them from behind. It turns into a 4-on-2 until Kevin Nash chases them all out with a chair. Jim Cornette comes out and books a match between Team 3D against Cage & Rhino tonight.

Footage of a second date between Jay Lethal and So Cal Val is aired. This time the two are at an expensive restaurant and Sonjay Dutt is there as one of the waiters. Lethal tries to get a discount from Dutt but he would rather flirt with Val instead. This will be continued.

Match 3: Sonjay Dutt vs. Homicide (X Division Xscape Match Qualifier)
Dutt is constantly looking over at So Cal Val, who is sitting ringside, during the match and tries to get her approval. Sonjay tries for a springboard off the top and slips off the rope and crashes down to the canvas. Dutt holds his knee in pain until Homicide comes in close and rolls him up for the three count.

Dutt’s knee is suddenly recovered as he dances around the ring until Hernandez sends him flying with a border toss. LAX follow that up by taking off with the cash from Dutt’s tambourine.

Crystal is backstage with Booker T and Sharmell and Booker is still irate. He says he doesn’t know what’s wrong with Cornette and warns Roode not to even look at his wife. He then tells Styles to bring his “A” game as he is going to be facing a living legend tonight.

Mike Tenay says BG James and Kip James will face off at Lockdown, which brings us to the next installment of Rough Cut. In it, they say that people were expecting the James Gang to be like the New Age Outlaws but things had changed between them and in their own lives over the past 10 years. BG had other things like his family on his mind, which ended up making Kip carry most of the heavy lifting for their team.

AJ Styles comes out for his match and introduces Karen Angle as his special guest. Karen comes out and takes a special reserved ringside seat.

Match 4: AJ Styles vs. Booker T
Booker goes on the attack and tosses Styles around as it looks likes Styles is more focused on Karen Angle. Roode makes an appearance at the tunnel entrance which gives Styles an opening to land a kick to the back of Booker’s head. After a commercial break, the action continues on the outside as we see footage of Jim Cornette and Matt Morgan sending Roode to the back during the break. The action gets back into the ring and Booker retakes control of the match but misses with an axe kick as Styles counters with the Pele. Payton Banks comes out as her and Sharmell get into it as Booker sloppily rolls up Styles in the ring for the pin fall. As Booker and Sharmell celebrate the victory, Styles notices that Karen Angle has left her special seat.

Crystal is backstage with Awesome Kong and Raisha Saeed, who reads a new message from Kong. It says that Gail Kim and ODB’s plan failed at Destination X and will suffer the wrath of Kong.

Match 5: Angelina Love & Velvet Sky vs. ODB & Gail Kim
Mike Tenay announces that next week during their live broadcast people will be able to log on to tnawrestling.com and vote for Awesome Kong’s next opponent. As for the match, ODB & Gail Kim are in control during the opening minutes until Kim takes a boot to the face from Angelina Love. Kim then takes the brunt of the punishment in the match up from her opponents until she is able to take Love down and make the tag to ODB as Love tags in Sky. ODB comes in and cleans house and picks up the win after delivering a running power slam to Sky. After the match, Roxxi Laveaux comes out and chases Love and Sky to the back as Kim and ODB celebrate their victory.

Borash is in Kurt Angle’s dressing room and asks for his thoughts on Karen being AJ’s special guest. Angle says there is no more Karen and says that he is focused on eliminating Samoa Joe from TNA and says that he is going to bloody four human beings tonight.

We are then treated to some footage of MMA fighters talking about Samoa Joe and Kurt Angle and saying how big their match at Lockdown is going to be.

Kurt Angle comes out to the ring for a sparring session. Angle is quick to take his first opponent down and get him in a side arm triangle to make him tap out. The second opponent comes in and they trade some quick blows until Angle takes him down and makes him tap with a leg submission. The third one tries to box with Angle but ends up quickly submitting to the guillotine choke. The final opponent is knocked down with a head butt and Rudy Charles stops the session after Angle knocks him out with a series of blows to the head and face that leaves him bloody. Angle gets on the microphone and says that all of Joe’s training isn’t going to matter.

Jeremy Borash is in the locker room with Team Tomko, which is fully assembled a week before it was needed to be done. Tomko and Brother Devon share some rare mic time between them and suggest they Machine Guns, Curry Man or Shark Boy as their fourth partner and that they will break them at Lethal Lockdown.

A video package for Consequences Creed is aired, which announces his return on April 10th.

We get a nice video package highlighting the history between Rhino and Christian Cage, which leads us into the main event.

Match 6: Team 3D vs. Rhino & Christian Cage
Johnny Devine distracts Cage, which gives Team 3D an opening to take control of the match in the early going. Rhino chases after Devine and gets clotheslined by Brother Ray on the outside as we head into a commercial break. Team 3D stays in control of Cage during the break and have isolated him on their side of the ring. Cage, however, is able to fight back and deliver an inverted DDT to Devon, which allows him to tag in Rhino as Devon tags in Ray.

Rhino comes in and clean house with Team 3D until he is tossed out to the floor. Instead of calling the action, Mike Tenay and Don West announce that Kurt Angle will be sparring again next week against AJ Styles & Tomko and Karen Angle has requested a sit-down interview with Tenay to discuss her personal issues. Rhino re-enters the ring and takes Ray down with the gore and picks up a two count before Tomko pulls Hebner out of the ring. Tomko then enters the ring and attacks Rhino and the referee disqualifies Team 3D.

AJ Styles comes in the ring to help his team out as Cage tries to fight them all off but it proves to be too much for him. Kevin Nash comes out and help his team until Team 3D take him out at the knees. Curry Man & Shark Boy run out to try to help out, but they too are no match for Team Tomko. The Motorcity Machine Guns are the next ones out but they suffer the same fate.

Team Tomko celebrates in the ring as the lights go out in the Impact Zone and some familiar music is played. It is Sting’s music and Tenay and West hope to see him live next week as Impact comes to a close.

Quick Results
- Petey Williams & Scott Steiner defeated Kaz & Eric Young by pin fall.
- Tomko defeated Rhino by pin fall.
- Sonjay Dutt defeated Homicide by pin fall to qualify for the Xscape match at Lockdown.
- Booker T defeated AJ Styles by pin fall.
- ODB & Gail Kim defeated Angelina Love & Velvet Sky by pin fall.
- Rhino & Christian Cage defeated Team 3D by disqualification.

Starman’s Thoughts
Tonight’s show was of standard fare up until the end. Like Brother Ray promised earlier in the night, Team Tomko was running like a well oiled machine and taking out everyone in their path, even with the numbers against them. And then the lights went out and the music started.

Not having Sting appear tonight and ending the show with a teaser was a good thing in my mind as they give viewers even more reason to tune in next week, aside from the fact that it is being broadcast live. Hopefully this means that TNA will go all out next week and pull out all of the stops to make it a memorable night for a change.

As for the rest of the show, the Lockdown hype was in full force as a mixed tag team match between Booker & Sharmell against Roode & Banks was added to the card and the teams for the Lethal Lockdown match began to take shape. Oh, and the former VKM partners will also be facing off in a match, in case you didn’t catch that.

At the end of the show, Mike Tenay said that next week’s live Impact will be the biggest in TNA’s history. Let’s hope that he is right on that one. At any rate, at least that guy from Survivor isn’t on Team Cage and I am very thankful for that.