TNA’s Unsolved Mysteries (8/14 Impact Recap)

Hard Justice pay-per-view highlights kick off tonight’s Impact broadcast.  The clips focus on Sting’s attack on AJ Styles and the end of the main event with a guitar shot.  Footage of Samoa Joe and Kevin Nash arriving earlier in the day is then aired and Lauren meets up with him and asks about the guitar shot.  Joe says that it is getting interesting around here where everyone wants to get in on the action.

A video game version of the Impact intro hits and we are welcomed to tonight’s show that will feature Hernandez vs. James Storm, Taylor Wilde vs. Christy Hemme and Team 3D vs. Joe & Nash.  Don West also wonders if we will hear Sting’s explanation for his actions at Hard Justice.

Match 1: The Rock n’ Rave Infection vs. Christian Cage & Rhino
The match starts and Rhino and Cage work over Jimmy Rave until he is finally able to retreat to his corner to make the tag to Lance Rock.  Cage and Rhino work over Rock and Rhino looks to put this match away with a Gore, but Rave trips him up on the outside and the RnR Infection crotch him on the ring post as the referee has his hands full with Cage.

Rock and Rave try to capitalize by using double team moves and quick tags but they are not able to keep Rhino’s shoulders down on the mat.  Rhino manages to fight back with a spinebuster on Rave and he levels Rock with a clothesline before making it to his corner to tag in Cage.

Cage comes in and drives Rave down with an inverted DDT and is about to go for the Unprettier, but Rock comes in and levels him with a big boot as it turns into a melee with all four in the ring.  Rhino dumps Rock over the top rope with a clothesline and the Gores Rave in the middle of the ring.  Cage then flies off the top rope with a frog splash and picks up the three count to win the match.

Jeremy Borash is backstage with Kurt Angle and asks about the condition of his neck.  Angle says his neck is sore and has been wearing a neck brace all week.  Angle says that he was regarded as the best wrestler in the world at the 1996 Olympics, however, TNA booked him in a Last Man Standing match, which isn’t about wrestling, but about violence.  Angle says that Styles cheated every way possible and tried to break his neck twice.  He is grateful that Sting came out and stopped Styles from trying to break his neck a third time.  Angle then challenges Styles to an Olympic wrestling match, which has no ropes, three 2-minute periods and every point counts.  The winner will win his gold medal and warns Styles to get ready for a good mauling.

After a commercial break, Jeremy Borash is standing by with AJ Styles and asks about his intentions at Hard Justice.  Styles says he made a promise to make sure that Angle would not get up and delivered on that promise.  As for Sting, he says that he looked up to him and he was wrong about him as Sting choose him to make an example out of.  Styles says that he accepts Angle’s challenge for tonight and will be taking home the gold just like Michael Phelps.

Mike Tenay and Don West preview the rest of tonight’s show, which will also feature Matt Morgan in action, the debut of Sheik Abdul Bashir, and the Gold Medal Challenge.

Lauren is backstage with Matt Morgan who says that he has two goals.  One goal is to realize his full potential and he is going to make an opportunity for himself.  His second goal is to become the TNA World Champion and he doesn’t care who will stand in his way.

Match 2: Matt Morgan vs. Johnny Devine
Devine tries to stand up to Morgan and slaps him across the face before being intimidated and runs away.  Morgan tosses and powers him around the ring before leveling him with a running boot and putting him away with the Hellevator.

After the match, Team 3D come out and attack him from behind.  Abyss comes in to the rescue and Team 3D sacrifice Devine to make their exit from the ring.  Abyss drives Devine down with a Black Hole Slam and Morgan and Abyss shake hands in the ring.

The latest installment of Karen’s Angle is up and this week she is joined by the Beautiful People.  Velvet Sky and Angelina Love are there to introduce their new buddy who has been hired to primp and dress them and that person is Kip James.  James comes on and hurls insults at Karen who walks off the set.

Lauren is backstage with Jay Lethal and says that he hasn’t talked to SoCal Val since Hard Justice.  He says that she has to pick between him and Sonjay Dutt and tells Lauren that if she sees Val, tell her that the thing between him and Dutt won’t be over until he says it is over.

Match 3: Sheik Abdul Bashir vs. Jay Lethal
Bashir rants on the microphone in Arabic before the match starts.  He finally speaks in English and says that he came to America and took everything that she had to offer – money, land, cars, fame and the American dream while the rest of the lazy Americans waited for handouts.

The match starts and the two battle back and forth until Lethal knocks Bashir out of the ring and takes him out on the floor after diving through the ropes.  Bashir is able to take Lethal out in the ring after knocking him down to the mat while Lethal was on the top rope.  Bashir works over Lethal with a chinlock but Lethal is able to escape and hits a series of clotheslines and picks up a near fall.

Lethal continues to work on Bashir in a corner until the referee breaks them apart and pushes Lethal back.  This allows Bashir to pull out a metal object from his boot and jabs it into Lethal’s throat.  Bashir then drives Lethal down with a DDT and picks up the pin fall.  After the match, Sonjay Dutt comes out and nails Lethal with the Hindu Press.

Jeremy Borash is with Booker T and Sharmell and asks what’s on his mind.  Booker says that a silver and black guitar is on his mind and so is the bump on his head.  Booker continues by saying he had Samoa Joe beat until a guitar came into the ring.  He wonders if this is TNA’s version of a joke as “that hick” has some business interest in the company.  Booker then says that he will let his actions speak louder than words.

A video package on Sting is aired which says that he has been faced with decisions, challenged to make choices and forced to take action.  The voiceover guy says that he has embarked on a personal vendetta and will not stop until retribution is paid in full.  This leads us to backstage footage from Hard Justice where Kevin Nash confronted Sting after his attack on AJ Styles.  Sting says that he is running out of patience and says that it is now or never before walking away.

Match 4: Team 3D vs. Kevin Nash & Samoa Joe
Joe works over both members of Team 3D in the opening of this matchup before tagging in his partner.  Nash continues on the attack of Team 3D as we are sent into a commercial break.  Upon returning, we see Team 3D have taken control of the match and are working over Nash’s knee in the corner of the ring.  Nash finally takes out Team 3D during a double team attempt and rolls over to his corner to tag in Samoa Joe.

Joe comes in and takes out both members of Team 3D and picks up a near fall on Brother Devon.  Team 3D return with a double team move on Joe, but Nash pulls Ray out of the ring which distracts Devon allowing Joe to lock in the rear naked choke to make Devon tap out.

After the match, Samoa Joe goes to the outside and takes a steel chair into the ring and nails Devon in the back.  Joe continues to hit Devon with the chair until Nash finally pulls it away from him.  Hebner reverses the decision of the match and Joe then levels him.  Mike Tenay says that the champion’s temper is his Achilles heel and that he needs to learn how to control his temper.

Match 5: Christy Hemme vs. Taylor Wilde (Non-title match with Traci Brooks as special referee)
Taylor lands a few arm drags on Christy as the screen flashes a web site for a moment that says “whoissuicide.com.”  Christy makes a comeback with a horrible bulldog and follows up by tossing her around by the hair.  Christy picks up a couple of near falls until but misses with a split leg drop off the top rope, which allows Taylor to land a German suplex with a bridge to pick up the win.

Awesome Kong comes out to the ring and goes right after Taylor and attacks her in a corner until Brooks pull her away by the hair.  All of that work is met with a spinning back fist by Kong which drops her to the canvas but allows Taylor to get in some offense until Raisha Saeed pulls her off.

Saeed tosses a chair into the ring but Gail Kim comes out before Kong is to use it.  Kim tries for a cross body block on Kong, but she is caught and slammed down to the mat as Gail Kim’s sister, Katie, watches on in horror from ringside.  Kong looks to use the chair on Kim, but she is able to get out of the way and kicks the chair into Kong’s face.  Kim then cracks Kong with the chair before Kong retreats to the outside.

The TNA Rough Cut segment for this week is about Consequences Creed and his dreams and desires.  Creed says he wanted to become a pro wrestler in grade school although he was the smallest kid.  He took up wrestling in the seventh grade and he even took up show choir as a senior to help him get ready to perform in front of an audience.

Lauren is backstage with the LAX and asks Hector Guerrero what condition Homicide is in.  Hernandez pushes Hector out of the way and says that Beer Money took something more than just the tag team titles on Sunday as the took Homicide out.  Hernandez says he is going back to his roots tonight by going 5150 on James Storm.

A video of the short history between Beer Money and the LAX is aired, which brings us to the backstage where Lauren is standing by with Beer Money.  Lauren says that Hernandez is upset but they don’t care as they are going to take out another “Tacos R Us employee” tonight.

Match 6: James Storm vs. Hernandez
Hernandez attacks Storm on the outside before the match starts.  He tosses Storm into the railing before tossing him in the ring to get the match officially underway.  Hernandez tosses Storm to the floor and does a dive over the ropes onto both members of Beer Money.  Hernandez tosses Storm back into the ring but the Beer Money numbers game is too much for him as he is double teamed while Jacqueline distracts the referee.

Storm knocks Hernandez down with a knee to the face but Hernandez comes back with a couple of clotheslines and a high back body drop.  Hernandez tries to follow with a superplex, but Jacqueline holds his foot, which allows Storm to nail a tornado DDT.  That isn’t enough to keep Hernandez down, though, as he is able to catch Storm in midair and drive him down to the canvas with a sit-out powerbomb to pick up the win.

During the post-match celebration, Slick Johnson must have had a momentary memory lapse as he mistakenly hands Hernandez one of the tag team title belts.  Hector Guerrero grabbed the belt and threw it on the mat.

Jim Cornette joins the announce team and has several major announcements to make.  First off, he just passed Hernandez who said that he wants a match with Robert Roode next week and he is granting him that match.  Also, after what happened earlier in the night, next week there will be a knockout street fight between Gail Kim and Awesome Kong.

Finally, the main event for No Surrender has been made and it will be Samoa Joe defending against three challengers in a Four Ways to Glory match.  The three challengers will be determined over the next few weeks on Impact with Booker T against Rhino being the first qualifying match next week.

Mike Tenay runs down the rules for the Gold Medal Challenge and it will be three 2-minute periods with 2 points being awarded for a takedown and 2 points being awarded for a near fall.  The winner will be decided by whoever gets a three count or wins the most points at the end of the three periods.

Match 7: Kurt Angle vs. AJ Styles (Gold Medal Challenge)
The ropes are taken off of the ring for this contest and Angle’s gold medal is being guarded by security.  The first period starts and Angle is able to take down Styles with a single leg takedown to earn 2 points.  Angle follows with another takedown before even one minute had expired to pick up another 2 points.  Before the end of the period, Angle would pick up another 2 points to make the match score 6-0 in favor of Kurt Angle.

The second round starts and Styles is able to takedown Angle and pick up a near fall to gain 4 points in one quick move to close the gap.  Angle comes back with another takedown but Styles answers with another takedown and near fall to tie the score at 8 as time expires on the second period.

Angle lands a cheap elbow to the face of Styles and follows with a takedown to take the lead at the start of the final round.  Angle then tries to hold Styles down to run out the clock but Styles powers his way back up and takes Angle down with a suplex but it inadvertently hits referee Rudy Charles in the process.

With the referee out, Angle nails Styles with a clothesline and the lights go out in the Impact Zone and the lights come back on as Angle has a black bat in his hand.  The lights go out once again before we see Angle use the bat as Jeff Jarrett’s music hits.  When the lights come back on we see Styles standing behind Angle with a guitar in his hand as he smashes it over Angle’s head and busts him open.  Rudy Charles comes back into the ring as Styles covers Angle for the three count to win the Gold Medal Challenge.

Styles celebrates among the shattered pieces of the guitar with the gold medal around his neck as Impact comes to a close.

Quick Results
- Christian Cage & Rhino defeated the Rock n’ Rave Infection by pin fall.
- Matt Morgan defeated Johnny Devine by pin fall.
- Sheik Abdul Bashir defeated Jay Lethal by pin fall.
- Team 3D defeated Kevin Nash & Samoa Joe by disqualification after the referee reversed the original decision due to Joe’s continued use of a steel chair once the match was over.
- Taylor Wilde defeated Christy Hemme by pin fall.
- Hernandez defeated James Storm by pin fall.
- AJ Styles defeated Kurt Angle by pin fall in a Gold Medal Challenge to win an Olympic Gold Medal.

Starman’s Thoughts
TNA’s unsolved mysteries remain unsolved at this point as two people known for their accessories took center stage without them actually being there.

Last month we were subjected to weeks of the black bat making an appearance while we only got to see Sting standing in the rafters for a brief second at the close of a broadcast.  As if that wasn’t starting to wear thin, we are now seeing the silver guitar being brought out with no signs of Jeff Jarrett anywhere.  I’m sure more of the same, from both Sting and Jarrett, will happen over the course of the next few weeks, if not into October for Bound for Glory.

One other aspect of Impact that bothered me was the Gold Medal Challenge.  I enjoyed the contest itself and was a little surprised to see that AJ Styles actually “won” the medals from Angle, however, I think this match would have been better if Angle would have issued a challenge this week and had the match take place next Thursday.

Angle and Styles fought in a classic Last Man Standing match at Hard Justice this past Sunday and it would have been better to see Angle rest from the effects of the match.  Seeing Angle bounce around the ring just a few days after being carted off on a stretcher took away from their match on Sunday.  Sure, this was in the spirit of the Olympics, but to my knowledge, the Olympics will still be taking place next Thursday as well.