The Making of the Mafia (10/30 Impact Recap)

A recap of last week’s show open Impact that focuses on the Main Event Mafia, the Legends Championship and Mick Foley announcing that he is a major stock holder in TNA.

The new Impact intro airs as we head into the renovated “HD Impact Zone” and are welcomed to the show by Mike Tenay and Don West.  Scheduled for tonight’s show is Kevin Nash & Booker T against Samoa Joe & AJ Styles and Kurt Angle taking on Abyss.

AJ Styles music hits as Styles and Samoa Joe come down to the ring with microphones.  Styles says that he is glad that Mick Foley is a part of TNA but says that he is going to fight their wars on their own.  Styles then says that he has grown along with TNA as they made their transition from the Asylum in Nashville to the Impact Zone and HD.

Styles says that him and Joe got to crushed and bloodied in high-def, but what bothered him the most is that none of the younger guys never came out to help.  Styles tells the young stars to take advantage of the situation and asks if they have the balls to cross the line and stand out there with him and Joe.  The question is answered by Jay Lethal as he comes out to the ring and is followed by Consequences Creed, Petey Williams, ODB and Eric Young.

Joe tells them that they appreciate for them coming out before being interrupted by the music of the Motorcity Machine Guns.  Shelley says that he couldn’t help but notice all of the sheep in the ring and asks why they should fight along side with them.  Joe says it is in their best interest to help them against the people who have kept them down in the main event scene.

Shelley says he isn’t biting and tells the rest that Joe doesn’t care about any of them.  Joe slaps Shelley across the face as the music of the Main Event Mafia hits and they come out dressed in the suits and Sting is sans make up.  Angle calls them all a disgrace to TNA and to wrestling before Nash chimes in and says that if they want a war, then they got a war.  Booker says that the war will start tonight and by the end of the year, there will be none of them left.  Booker ends by saying “it’s all about the five.”

Jeremy Borash is backstage with Jeff Jarrett who says that he isn’t going to do anything about it as AJ Styles and Samoa Joe can fight their own war.  Mick Foley comes in and asks to be allowed to improvise tonight during his proclamation to try to get through to Sting.  Jarrett wishes him luck on that task.

Lauren is backstage with the Beautiful People and Cute Kip and ask when Christy Hemme became a wrestler.  Angelina Love tells her to stick to Playboy as the ring is no place for her.  Velvet Sky then calls out ODB and says that she is about as female as Rosie O’Donnell and that they didn’t ask to be beautiful, they were just born that way.

Match 1: The Beautiful People vs. Christy Hemme & ODB
Christy Hemme and ODB are able to control the match in the early going until Sky hangs Hemme up across the top rope.  The Beautiful People then begin to work Hemme over with quick tags until both Hemme and Angelina Love take each other down with the hair toss.

Love and Hemme are able to roll over to their corners and make the tag as ODB comes in and fires an assault on Sky.  ODB nearly pins Sky with a running power slam, but it is broken up by Love.  Hemme comes in and kicks Love out to the floor and then jumps on Kip as ODB slams Sky down onto the canvas and covers her for the three count.

Lauren is walking backstage with the Motorcity Machine Guns who says that things aren’t always as they seem.  They meet up with Samoa Joe as Chris Sabin says he wants to start off with a clean slate and that they understand what he is trying to do with the company.  Sabin says that they want in and Joe tells them that there is a trust issue between them.  Joe says that when shots are fired, he will see if the Guns fire back before walking away.

Jeremy Borash is backstage with Eric Young, who says that he has been in TNA for five years and that there are a lot of things on the line.  He doesn’t want to take it lying down and tonight he wants to show the world who the real Eric Young is.

Match 2: James Storm vs. Eric Young
Eric Young comes out and doesn’t scare when his pyro goes off.  Young enters the ring with a purpose and takes Storm down with a couple of drop kicks until Storm answers back with a kick to the head that sends Young out to the floor.  Storm then distracts the referee as Roode works over Young out on the floor before sending him back into the ring.

Storm continues on the attack and delivers the Eye of the Storm but Young is able to kick out.  Jacqueline then begins to distract the referee as Roode hops up on the apron and spits beer at Young, who ducks out of the way and it gets into the eyes of Storm.  Young then rolls up Storm for the pin fall.

Young’s celebration is short lived as he is beaten down by Roode and Storm.  The Motorcity Machine Guns come out and send Beer Money out of the ring and tend to Young.

Lauren catches up with Taylor Wilde and Roxxi who are carrying weapons.  Lauren says that they aren’t even scheduled for a match tonight as Roxxi goes on a foul mouthed tirade about going after Awesome Kong.

We join the announce table who talks about the new set and run down the rest tonight’s matches before sending it off to Jeremy Borash who is standing by in the locker room with Awesome Kong and Raisha Saeed.  Before Saeed is able to speak they are attacked from behind by Taylor Wilde and Roxxi and sends Kong flying into the lockers.

Match 3: Tanahashi & Volador vs. Motorcity Machine Guns
Sheik Abdul Bashir joins the announce table for this match up.  Tanahashi is from NJPW and Volador comes to us from CMLL.  The bell rings as Tanahashi and Volador are quick on the attack and use quick double team moves to control this match.  Once order is restored, Tanahashi and Volador take turns working over Shelley until Volador misses with a moonsault, which allows Shelley to tag in Sabin.

Sabin comes in and nails Volador with a springboard clothesline as Shelley takes out Tanahashi on the outside.  Sabin then delivers the Cradle Shock to Volador to pick up the win.  The victory makes Bashir irate as he enters the ring and gets in Volador’s face.  Rhino then sneaks into the ring and catches Bashir with the Gore as he turns around.  Mike Tenay then announces that Rhino will meet Bashir at Turning Point.

Lauren is backstage with Christian Cage who accepts Booker T’s challenge for the Legends Championship.  Cage goes on to say that he doesn’t need or want to pick a side but if he didn’t, it wouldn’t be with the Main Event Mafia.  Cage says that he will take his title at Turning Point and be on the side that he has always been on, his own.

Match 4: Booker T & Kevin Nash vs. Samoa Joe & AJ Styles
Booker T and Kevin Nash come out to their own individual music for some reason.  The match starts and Kevin Nash tries to methodically pick at AJ Styles but Styles takes him down with a springboard dropkick.  Joe then decides to take Booker out and sends him crashing to the floor as we head into a commercial break.

We return to see Joe working over Nash in the corner of the ring.  Nash finally connects with an elbow and makes a much needed tag to Booker, who comes in and continues to work over Joe.  Booker lands an axe kick on Joe and goes for the pin but Styles breaks it up.  Booker and Nash begin to pick Joe apart and wear him down until he counters an axe kick attempt with a snap slam.

Joe crawls back to his corner and tags in Styles who goes after both Booker and Nash.  Styles nails Booker with a flying forearm and locks in an armbar until Nash breaks it up.  Samoa Joe then locks the rear naked choke on Nash and Styles nails Booker with a Pele kick, which is enough to pick up the win.  The younger stars come out to celebrate the victory with Joe and Styles.

Lauren is backstage with Abyss and Matt Morgan who asks if Abyss is fully recovered from his burns.  Abyss says it is just a flesh wound but Morgan disagrees and says that he is not mentally or physically ready to face Kurt Angle.  Abyss says that he didn’t forget what Angle did to him two weeks ago and that it didn’t feel good as he begins to laugh.

Mike Tenay and Don West recap tonight’s happenings before hyping the rest of the show.  We then see footage of Mick Foley’s announcement from last week before heading to Jeremy Borash who is standing in a hallway with Sting.  Borash asks for his thoughts on what Mick Foley plans on saying to him in the ring.  Sting says that he hasn’t talked to Foley in over a decade and plans on going into the ring with an open mind.  Sting then says that he hopes that Foley doesn’t try to close it.

Mick Foley’s music hits as he makes his way to the ring to make his proclamation.  Foley talks about the new set and says that big dividends are already being made in TNA.  Foley turns his attention to Turning Point and announces that there will be two big main events with Samoa Joe taking on Kevin Nash and Sting defending the TNA World Championship against AJ Styles.

Foley then asks Sting to come out to the ring and Sting complies.  Foley tells Sting that he put Foley on the map in 1991 when they blazed their own trail on the national scene.  Foley then asks Sting why he is acting like a wedge to tear apart TNA instead of the glue that holds it together as the World Champion should.  Sting says he wants to be the glue but the missing ingredient is the lack of respect from the young guys.  Sting then tells Foley that it is not his war to fight, it is his.

Jeremy Borash is with Kurt Angle who pushes Borash out of the way and asks Jeff Jarrett how long he is going to hide behind Abyss.  Angle says that he always gets what he wants and runs down his list of accomplishments and says that now he wants Jarrett in the ring.

Match 5: Kurt Angle vs. Abyss
Abyss uses his size and power advantage against Angle until he leaves the ring and begins walking away.  Abyss follows Angle up the ramp and brings him back into the ring and continues to work him over and picks up a two count with a side slam.  Abyss then sends Angle out to the floor with a clothesline and Angle hops the guard rail and heads into the crowd as we head into a commercial break.

We return to see Abyss knocking Angle down some steps in the bleachers.  Abyss rolls Angle back into the ring but Angle begins to gain some momentum as he starts to take out Abyss at the knees.  Angle tries to fire some rights at Abyss but he just feeds off the punishment and levels Angle with a big boot.  Abyss then nails Angle with the Shock Treatment, but it isn’t enough to keep Angle down.

Abyss tries for a choke slam but Angle rolls through a counters into the ankle lock.  Abyss is able to kick out of it and come back with a choke slam but Angle kicks out of the pin fall in the knick of time.  Angle is able to return the choke slam with the Olympic Slam but that isn’t enough to keep Abyss down either.  Angle climbs the ropes for a moonsault but Abyss picks him off the ropes and drives him down with a powerbomb, but Angle is able to kick out of the pin attempt.

Angle rolls out to the floor and grabs a steel chair and nails Abyss with it and Rudy Charles disqualifies Angle, but he continues to go on the attack and begins scraping the burns on Abyss’ back before going back for the ankle lock.  Matt Morgan comes out to help his friend and levels Angle with the Carbon Footprint, but Booker T and Kevin Nash come out to help their partner.

Nash levels Morgan and Abyss with chair shots but they are chased out of the ring by the TNA Originals.  Scott Steiner then comes in from behind and begins taking them out with the lead pipe as the MEM begin to beat down their opponents.  Sting makes his way out to the ring and helps AJ Styles up but Styles just spits in his face.  Sting answers back with a Scorpion Death Drop and the five members of the Mafia celebrate in the ring over the younger stars.

Quick Results
- Christy Hemme & ODB defeated the Beautiful People by pin fall.
- Eric Young defeated James Storm by pin fall.
- Motorcity Machine Guns defeated Tanahashi & Volador by pin fall.
- Samoa Joe & AJ Styles defeated Booker T & Kevin Nash by pin fall.
- Abyss defeated Kurt Angle by disqualification.

Starman’s Thoughts
Tonight’s show wasn’t incredible by any means but it did have focus, which is what Impact usually lacks on a weekly basis.  Every match and nearly every angle tied into the big Mafia/Originals feud and the storylines and booking seemed to take a turn in the right direction.  I have plenty of topics I want to cover from tonight’s broadcast so I’m going to get right to it.

I will start with the new HD set.  I think the upgrade looks 10 times better than the Impact Zone of old.  The dual tunnels are a nice touch and they are complemented nicely by the huge screen in the middle, it really looks like Impact belongs in primetime now.  There were even some nice little additions, such as the small screens that are tiled across the entrance ramp that play along with entrances of the wrestlers.  Overall, I was impressed by what I was able to see on television so far, but I do wish they wouldn’t have cut to a commercial so quickly during the main event.  That would have been a nice way to show off the new set a bit more as Angle and Abyss fought through the crowd.

I will say, though, that I didn’t like all aspects of the new set.  I didn’t particularly like the widescreen monitor that faced the main cameras.  This screen is just too big for its own good and literally dwarfed the crowd.  Not only that, but it seemed like its sole purpose is to display the TNA logo.  In addition to that, it’s too bad that the green laser light made it through the remodeling process.  I never really liked that lighting effect and it really took away from the big screen above the entrance stage when it was shining in front of it.  I believe it’s about time to retire that thing.

That’s about enough about the new set for now and it’s time to move on to other things.

I was glad to see the younger stars rally together on the show tonight.  I don’t think all of young stars need to be a part of this feud and was happy to see that only a small mix of talent answered the call.  Many of them also got their chance to shine tonight as ODB, Eric Young and the Motorcity Machine Guns picked up wins in their respective matches.  On top of that, Samoa Joe and AJ Styles cleanly defeated Booker T and Kevin Nash in a tag team match.  Too bad all of these victories were cancelled out in the end, but I will get to that later.  First I want to talk about the transformation of Eric Young.

Eric Young has been one of the most misused talents on the TNA roster over the past couple of years.  This guy has a huge following and the crowd loves him, but he has been subject to lousy, uneventful feuds that go on much longer than they should and has been stuck with the paranoia/superhero comedy gimmick.  Tonight, if it was even for a brief moment, it seemed like he shed that persona and come across as a serious performer for once.

I am hoping that this newfound change in attitude will signify the end of the Super Eric gimmick.  While they are at it, they can bring back one of the other TNA originals and have Christopher Daniels join the fold minus the Curry Man garb.  Sure, doing that would probably be an unpopular idea, but even though Daniels was technically “fired” from TNA, what better time is there than on the cusp of something huge to defend something that he helped create?

While I am on the topic of misused talents, I do believe that the Motorcity Machine Guns got more television and microphone time tonight than they have had in the past two months.  Not only that, but they actually won their match against Tanahashi and Volador.  Sure, those two aren’t a regular tag team or even from the same promotion, but the short match they had was a lot of fun to watch.

I’d like to see more of this talent exchange on Impact as it gives the fans a chance to watch something new and it freshens things up a bit.  It’s too bad, though, that it didn’t get the build up it deserved.  All of tonight’s matches got some sort of graphic and hype except their match as all it got was a little blurb from Don West.  I’m getting a little off topic and it’s time to get back to the Motorcity Machine Guns.

By the looks of it, their apparent heel turn has been put to rest, although I am not sold on the fact that the MMG’s won’t eventually turn on the young stars.  I will give TNA credit, though, as there was some sort of explanation as to why they went from a mild heel group to standing together with the TNA Originals.  TNA booking usually would have just stuck them in there anyway no matter what kind of demeanor they had and just left it at that without giving the fans an explanation at all.

The main event for tonight was actually decent and I really enjoyed the near falls and counters at the end of the match.  I will admit that I thought this match between Kurt Angle and Abyss was going to be a clunker, but it wasn’t that bad.  It came as no surprise that the match ended in a disqualification as I’m sure a match between these two is penciled in for Turning Point, so that was expected.  However, what came afterwards was something that I didn’t expect and thought was a horrible decision.

There were two things I felt were wrong in how the show ended.  First, the Main Event Mafia came out and basically picked apart the entire group of TNA Originals.  Thus, all of the work that went into putting this team over earlier in the broadcast was just tossed out the window.  I didn’t expect them to beat down the Mafia or anything, but at least let them chase them out of the ring and have their time to hold their heads high in the spotlight.

The second part that was wrong in my eyes was the arrival of Scott Steiner.  Don’t get me wrong, Steiner is a logical choice for a fifth member of the group and will probably fit well, but this should have been saved for either Turning Point or at least until next week.

Again, this week should have belonged to the young stars and having the young stars rise to the occasion would have given the Mafia good cause to find some muscle in the form of Steiner.  Holding off on Steiner until Turning Point would have worked better as early taping reports on the Internet already stated that he was joined the group days before the broadcast aired which, in the end, lessened the impact of his arrival.

Even with the decisions that I don’t agree with, I am looking forward to seeing how this feud begins to build and play out.  Paul Heyman stated that TNA lacked focus and a central theme in a recent article in The Sun and it looks like TNA is finally delivering on those two missing aspects, and in a big way.