Impact jumps right into the intro and we head into the Impact Zone where Mike Tenay hypes the big matches for Genesis, which takes place this Sunday. Don West pipes in and tells us that Kurt Angle will face BG James and Awesome Kong will be in action tonight, but first we’ll kick off with an X Division Tournament semi-final match.
Match 1: Alex Shelley vs. Eric Young (X Division Tournament Semi-Final Match)
The bell rings and Eric Young takes Alex Shelley down with a power slam and nearly picks up a quick victory. Young continues on the attack but Chris Sabin is able to pull Young off the apron while Shelley has the referee distracted. Shelley dives through the ropes and onto Young before hitting a flying cross body block to pick up a two count.
Shelley begins to methodically pick Young apart and picks up another near fall after landing a tornado DDT. Young is able to counter a flip and connects with a superkick to turn the momentum and nearly puts the match away with a flying elbow drop from the top rope. Shelley distracts the referee once more while Sabin boots Young in the face. This gives Shelley and opening to drive Young down with the Sliced Bread #2 and pick up the pin fall.
After the match, Chris Sabin enters the ring to celebrate with his partner who will face each other for the X Division Title at Genesis. We then join the announce team who run down tonight’s show, which will feature Matt Morgan vs. Robert Roode, Awesome Kong in action and Kurt Angle against BG James.
Sheik Abdul Bashir begins making his way down the ramp and meet up Shane Sewell. Bashir slaps and pushes Sewell before connecting with a series of rights. Bashir rolls him into the ring and begins beating the hell out of him until Sewell fights back with a flying forearm. Sewell then takes the referee shirt off and gives Bashir a crotch chop before going on the offensive until Bashir leaves the ring.
Jim Cornette comes out and calls Bashir back into the ring. Cornette begins to discipline Sewell on his actions before telling him that he is fired. Cornette begins giving Bashir a tongue lashing for instigating this mess and tells Bashir that Sewell is fired for 3 days and tells him that come Sunday, Sewell will be back on the payroll as a wrestler. His first match will be against Bashir at Genesis.
The Main Event Mafia music hits as they come down to the ring wearing their trademark suits. Kurt Angle says that in three days a shift of power will occur in TNA as Mick Foley and Jeff Jarrett will be taken out on the same night. Angle also says that the blood of Jarrett’s friend will be on Jarrett’s hands when he beats the hell out of BG James tonight on his way to tearing Jarrett apart at Genesis.
Sting gets on the microphone and says that he never had anything against Rhino until the he decided to side with the Frontline. Sting says that what is going on is still about respect and says that the war will come to an end at Genesis. Kevin Nash follows and says that war won’t be over at Genesis and asks why wait until Sunday and take out Jarrett and Foley tonight. Booker chimes in and says that they are coming for them and their asses will belong to the Mafia.
Jeremy Borash is with Jarrett and Foley in Jarrett’s office to get their reaction. Brother Devon and AJ Styles come in and say that they will survive by sticking close to them before handing Foley a trademark Brother Ray flannel shirt. Styles tells them two that they have their back.
The Beautiful People are with “Gov. Palin” and they are standing in a horse farm to do their charity work. They mention that Kip James no longer wants any part of this as they are talking about standing in horse manure. Once Velvet Sky realizes what she is standing in she suddenly becomes ill.
Match 2: Madison Rayne vs. Awesome Kong
Awesome Kong comes down to the ring will a portrait of Christy Hemme. The match starts and Rayne tries her hardest by coming at her with dropkicks but Kong just takes her down and flings her across the ring. Kong then squashes her in the corner before delivering the Awesome Bomb for the pin fall.
Lauren is backstage with Abyss who says that Matt Morgan doesn’t want to talk to him anymore. Abyss says that he is going to make things right with Morgan at Genesis as the old Abyss may come back out before he starts to laugh.
After a commercial break, Lauren is standing by with the LAX who talk about their Feast or Fired briefcases. Homicide says they are going to lay back and see who come out as the champions at Genesis before they cash in on their title shots. Lauren asks if this signifies the end of the LAX and Homicide says that they will be together forever.
Mike Tenay and Don West hype the Genesis pay-per-view with the updated matches before sending it to Jeremy Borash who is with the Motorcity Machine Guns. Borash asks if the X Division Title will get in the way of their friendship. Alex Shelley says that they predicted this would happen weeks ago and says that their bond is unbreakable while taking some shots at Mick Foley.
Mick Foley comes in and says that he knows that they the ability to steal the show, but they also have the ability to stink up the place like Oz and Bill Kazmaier did in 1992. Foley says that if one of them decides to lay down for the other that they will be on a one-way bus back to Detroit and will never get a title shot again.
We see a video package that highlights the past year of TNA. We then get to see the next edition of TNA Rough Cut, which again features Beer Money. James Storm and Robert Roode talk about their future and how they want to eventually work their way up to the World Champion and what they want to do after wrestling.
Match 3: Robert Roode vs. Matt Morgan
Robert Roode goes right on the attack before the bell rings but Morgan is able to stop Roode in his tracks and take control of the match. Morgan goes for the Carbon Footprint but Roode bails to the floor but Morgan follows him and sends him into the guard railing.
Abyss gets involved and knocks James Storm’s and Roode’s heads together as Jacqueline enters the ring and rakes Morgan’s eyes and Roode follows with a neckbreaker. Roode connects of a series of elbow drops, ala Tully Blanchard, before picking up a near fall on Morgan. Roode tries for a high risk move but Morgan is able to catch Roode and knocks him down with a clothesline.
Morgan then hits the Carbon Footprint as James Storm tries to get involved again but Morgan knocks him off of the apron before sending Roode over the top rope and out to the floor. Roode begins favoring his knee as a trainer comes out to look at leg. Referee Rudy Charles stops the match and awards the match to Matt Morgan.
As the trainers look to Roode, Jay Lethal and Consequences Creed come out with their briefcase and want to cash in on their tag team title shot. Rudy Charles makes James Storm get into the ring and the match for the Tag Team Championship is up next.
Match 4: Beer Money vs. Jay Lethal & Consequences Creed (Tag Team Championship)
James Storm is wrestling in jeans as both Lethal and Creed go after Storm and pick up a quick near fall. Creed and Lethal use double team moves and their quickness to wear Storm down. Morgan and Abyss watch on from the entrance ramp as Roode is finally able to help his partner as he crotches Creed on the top rope and we head into a commercial break.
We return to the match to see that Storm is in control of the match and he finally tags in his partner. Roode takes Creed down with a hard clothesline as Storm makes a fake tag to get back into the match as the referee has his back turned. Storm then accidently nails his partner and knocks him out to the floor as Creed is able to make it back to his corner to tag in Lethal.
Lethal comes in and nails Storm with a series of clotheslines but Storm is able to fight his way back into the match and takes Lethal down with the Eye of the Storm but Lethal is able to kick out of the pin attempt. Lethal comes back with the Lethal Combination and hits the elbow drop from the top rope as Jacqueline hops on the apron and distracts the referee.
Roode comes in with the briefcase but Lethal kicks him in the knee and steals the case away from him. Lethal then clocks Storm in the head with the briefcase as the referee turns around and makes the three count and we have new tag team champions. Creed and Lethal celebrate in the ring as Matt Morgan and Abyss look on with a shocked look on their faces.
After a commercial break, Lauren joins the Frontline in their locker room to talk with the new tag team champs. Jay Lethal says that they were bigger than the Mega Powers and says that the win was for all of them. Lauren begins to ask Brother Ray about their upcoming match at Genesis but Devon says he is going to let Lethal and Creed have their moment.
Mike Tenay then tells us that Jay Lethal & Consequences Creed will defend their titles against Beer Money and Matt Morgan & Abyss at Genesis. The announce team then hypes the Genesis card once again.
Jeremy Borash is backstage with Jeff Jarrett and BG James as James is emotional about what Kurt Angle has been saying for the past six months. James says he has to shut him up tonight and that he has to do this for Jarrett.
More footage of the Beautiful People is aired at the horse farm where they are shoveling manure. Angelina Love goes off about their clothes, the lack of makeup, touching the marks and shoveling crap. Sarah Palin promises that they will sign the paperwork to become members of their cabinet next week as they begin to jump around and slip into a pile of horse dung.
Match 5: BG James vs. Kurt Angle (No Disqualification)
BG hides out on the entrance ramp to get an early attack on Kurt Angle as he comes up from the floor. James connects with a series of punches and sends him hard into the railing. Angle begins to fight back and sends James into the ring post which busts him open and we head into a commercial break.
We return to the match to see Angle working James over in the ring with a headlock and picks up a couple of two counts. James is able to fight his way back into the match and nails Angle with the shaky knee shuffle and drives him down with a pump handle slam to nearly pick up the pin fall. Angle is able to make a quick recovery and nail the Angle Slam but it isn’t enough to keep James down.
James tries to mount a comeback but Angle is able to apply the ankle lock and James is able to get to the ring ropes but it is a no disqualification match so Angle doesn’t have to break the hold. The pain becomes to be too bearable for James and he eventually taps out.
The Main Event Mafia come out to the ring and Scott Steiner tosses in a steel chair. Angle continues to beat James in the ring as he puts the chair around his ankle and begins to stomp on it. Mick Foley and Jeff Jarrett run out to the ring and clears the ring of the Mafia as security and trainers come out to tend to BG James.
James is stretchered out of the ring as AJ Styles, Rhino and Brother Devon join the two in the ring. Jeff Jarrett gets on the microphone and says he cannot describe how he feels. Jarrett says all he can think about is beating the hell out of Angle. Foley tries to comfort Jarrett and takes the microphone away from him. Foley then gives a spirited promo about how the hardcore legend is coming home on Sunday. Foley says he might not be as good as he once was but for one night he will be as good as he ever was.
One final video package is aired that focuses on the MEM/Frontline feud and the Genesis card as Impact comes to a close.
Quick Results
- Alex Shelley defeated Eric Young by pin fall to advance to the finals of the X Division Tournament.
- Awesome Kong defeated Madison Rayne by pin fall.
- Matt Morgan defeated Robert Roode after the referee stopped the match due to injury.
- Jay Lethal & Consequences Creed defeated Beer Money, Inc. by pin fall to capture the TNA Tag Team Championship.
- Kurt Angle defeated BG James by submission.
Starman’s Thoughts
With some stiff competition from the BCS Championship Game and with Genesis only three days away, TNA had to be firing on all cylinders tonight and they actually rose to the challenge. There was plenty of hype going on for Genesis tonight and it is starting to look like a half decent pay-per-view.
I believe that both Mick Foley and Jeff Jarrett shined on the microphone in the final segment of the broadcast and really sold me on their upcoming grudge matches. Furthermore, we now know that the Motorcity Machine Guns will be facing one another for the X Division Title and the new tag team champs, Jay Lethal & Consequences Creed, will defend their titles in a three way match against Beer Money and Abyss & Matt Morgan.
It wasn’t only the hype for Genesis that was top notch tonight, it was the matches as well. I have complained and griped about the lack of wrestling that takes place on a standard episode of Impact for months now and this week they finally seemed to have went in the right direction. Aside from the Awesome Kong squash match, all of the matches tonight were entertaining to watch and didn’t seem to be too rushed for a change.
I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who groaned when I heard the main event of Kurt Angle vs. BG James, but the match was surprisingly good with some back and forth action, not to mention the emotional promo that BG James had prior to the match. It’s not often that we get to see a side of BG James like that and I feel that it worked well and set up the match nicely.
The tag team match was a nice surprise and I was amazed at the amount of time it was given, especially since one of the competitors was taken out of the match for the most part. The win for Lethal & Creed gives the Frontline some much needed momentum, although I would have rather seen them win the match on a level playing field without the use of illegal objects, but I guess you can’t win them all.
Since I am on the subject of Beer Money, I will have to say that, the TNA Rough Cut segments featuring them haven’t been that great. Seeing this side of Beer Money, a team we are supposed to hate, doesn’t really make any sense to me. Don’t get me wrong, they have been put together well, but it just didn’t seem to fight right. If they were in line for a face turn it would make sense but I doubt that will be happening any time soon.
The one thing that was worse than the Rough Cut segments, though, was easily the segments featuring the Beautiful People and Gov. Palin. For the past year I have highly enjoyed what Angelina Love and Velvet Sky have brought to TNA, but this has been a stinker, and it literally was that tonight. During the package, Sky was getting ill and I almost seconded that motion after watching this crap.
As I can only hope that the Beautiful People skits come to an end soon, there were a few things that I noticed tonight that I enjoyed seeing begin. For starters, the LAX got their time in the limelight with a backstage promo and it was good to let them see Homicide bust out a bit and truly become the mouthpiece for the team. After being overshadowed by the likes of Konnan and Hector Guerrero, it was a long overdue and refreshing change Homicide in the role.
Aside from that, I enjoyed the fact that they finally pulled the trigger on the Shane Sewell/Sheik Abdul Bashir feud by officially making Sewell a wrestler on the roster. The feud between these two has been building slowly and I am interested in seeing how a match between these two play out. I also hope that Abyss keeps his word and allows the old Abyss to come out at Genesis as the new Abyss isn’t a lot of fun to watch.
Finally, as I stated earlier, Mick Foley’s promo work at the end of the show was golden, however, not all of Foley’s mic work was great as he did have one slip up. The stinker of a match he mentioned between Oz and Bill Kazmaier actually took place in 1991 as opposed to 1992 as he stated. Like he said, he was there and got to participate in one of the worst matches in professional wrestling history, the Chamber of Horrors match at Halloween Havoc in 1991.
