On the Road to Victory (7/16 Impact Recap)

Impact opens with footage of the reconciliation of Mick Foley and Jeff Jarrett and the Main Event Mafia leaving Foley a bloody mess in the ring as the close of last week’s show.

The Impact intro hits as we are welcomed to the show by Mick Foley’s music.  Foley comes down to the ring with a microphone in his hand.  Foley says he is going to do the best he can to win back the TNA World Championship this Sunday at Victory Road.  Foley then asks Kurt Angle to come out to the ring to talk man-to-man.

Kurt Angle comes out and Foley tells him that he got the message they sent him last week but what is bothering him is the fact that he didn’t tap out last week and hasn’t tapped out since 1991.  Foley promises that he won’t tap out on Sunday.  Foley also asks Angle to keep the MEM and security in the back so the two can face off one-on-one.

Angle explains to Foley what the Main Event Mafia is all about and says that they are here to help themselves along with the likes of Jeff Jarrett and Foley.  Sting’s music hits as he comes out and says Angle is full of bull and that it is all about money and power.  Sting says he has his own agenda for Sunday with Samoa Joe but wants Angle in the ring one last time tonight.  Angle agrees to it and tweaks it to be a Six Sides of Steel match.

With that match booked the announce team tells us what else is on tap for tonight which includes a match between Samoa Joe and Amazing Red, the debut of Sarita, MEM vs. Beer Money & AJ Styles in a 6-man tag team elimination match.  They are then told of a commotion backstage where we see Samoa Joe beating the hell out of Amazing Red as we head into a commercial break.

We return to see Joe continuing his assault on Red as they make their way towards the ring.  Joe rolls him into the ring as the bell rings and this match starts.

Match 1: Samoa Joe vs. Amazing Red
Joe stomps on Amazing Red for a moment and pushes aside Rudy Charles, which causes Joe to be disqualified.  Joe doesn’t care and keeps pounding on Red and hits him with the muscle buster.  TNA security enters the ring with night sticks as Joe leaves the ring.

Lauren is backstage with Sarita who says she has been waiting for this day for a long time.  Lauren says she will be taking on a new TNA Knockout, Alissa Flash.  Sarita doesn’t know much about her but she says she always prepares with the same intensity.

A video package highlighting the history between Jenna Morasca and Sharmell is aired.  We then see a sit down interview between Sharmell, Sojo Bolt, Jenna Morasca, Awesome Kong and Raisha Saeed conducted by Don West.

Sharmell says she has been disrespectful from day one and says that if she would have apologized they wouldn’t be here right now.  Jenna says she was invited into the group by Kevin Nash and says she conducted herself like a lady.  The women, sans Kong, then all get up and in each others faces as the interview ends.

Jeremy Borash is backstage with Kurt Angle and asks why he agreed to fight Sting in a Six Sides of Steel match just days before Victory Road.  Angle says he just wants to prove to Sting and TNA that he is the real icon.  As for Foley, Angle says the future of TNA will be decided at Victory Road as they will win all of the titles on Sunday.

Match 2: Chris Sabin vs. Suicide (Non-title match)
The match starts and the two go back and forth until a small distraction by Alex Shelley allows Sabin to take control of the match.  Sabin misses with a springboard clothesline and Suicide turns the momentum and scores a near fall after a neckbreaker.  Suicide turns his attention to Shelley as he dives on top of him over the rope.

Sabin is able to recover in the ring and takes control of the match once again but Suicide is able to drive him face first into the turnbuckle and hits the Suicide Solution to win the match.  Shelley, though, attacks Suicide as Sabin grabs a chair and legdrop’s Suicide’s face onto the chair.

Homicide comes down to the ring and uses the Feast or Fired case to chase the Motorcity Machine Guns out of the ring as he looks at the X Division Title and hands the case over the Slick Johnson to cash in the title shot.

Match 3: Homicide vs. Suicide (X Division Title Match)
Homicide goes for the quick cover but Suicide is able to kick out.  Homicide then hits the Gringo Killer to pick up the pin fall and become the new X Division Champion.

Lauren is backstage with Homicide and asks about the questionable manner that he won the title.  Homicide says he didn’t make the rules and took advantage of the situation.  He then offers Lauren to come and have some celebratory drinks and pulls her away.

The Beautiful People come down to the ring as Angelina Love is wearing a bee-keepers outfit while Velvet Sky has a can of Spider Killer.  Angelina says that Tara is a freak show and that there is no room for her in TNA.  She goes on to say that the Beautiful People do not recognize her defeating her last week and says that the match between them was never official.  She says that she will face her in an official match at Victory Road this Sunday.

Tara comes out and says that the title around her waist confirms that she is the new TNA Knockout Champion.  She then tells Angelina that she snuck into her dressing room earlier in the day and put Poison in her bee-keeper’s outfit.  As she squirms about, Tara enters the ring and drives her down to the mat with the Widow’s Peak.

Match 4: Alissa Flash vs. Sarita
Alissa Flash walks over to David Penzer and tells him to announce her as the Future Legend.  Alissa spits her gum out at Sarita but she quickly turns the tide and takes Alissa down with some quick high risk moves.  The match finds its way to the outside and Alissa slams Sarita down on the mat and kicks her into the guard railing.  Alissa continues on the attack in the ring and is able to pick up a two count.

Alissa continues to work over Sarita but she begins to mount a comeback but it is short lived.  Alissa begins to power Sarita around until she counters with a roll up and picks up the pin fall.  They two go for a handshake but Alissa instead slams her down to the mat.

Lauren is backstage with AJ Styles who says he will pull the Main Event Mafia apart piece by piece if he has to tonight.  Styles then goes on to say the TNA was better without Kevin Nash as he came in all about the money.  He goes on to say that Nash will cash his last paycheck at Victory Road.

Match 5: Kevin Nash/Scott Steiner/Booker T vs. Beer Money & AJ Styles (6-Man Elimination Match)
The match starts as Styles and Beer Money work over Steiner and Booker in the opening moments of the match.  The three of them then begin to work over Kevin Nash and get a near fall until the rest of the Mafia comes in to help as this match quickly breaks down.  Nash then pokes Styles in the eyes and drives him down to the mat with the Jackknife Powerbomb to pick up the pin fall and eliminate Styles from the match.

Nash then hits Roode with a side slam but Roode is able to kick out.  The Mafia then take turns wearing down Roode but his is able to make it to the corner to tag in James Storm, who takes Steiner down with a neckbreaker followed by a back cracker.  The numbers game catches up with Beer Money as Steiner is able to come in and eliminate Storm after driving him down to the mat with a power slam.

After a commercial break we come back to see Roode being slammed down to the mat by Booker T.  The Mafia methodically works over Roode as Steiner tries to pin Roode with one finger.  Nash comes in and Roode is able to hit him with a low blow and covers for the pin fall to eliminate Nash from the match.

Steiner comes in as Nash trips up Roode in the ring.  James Storm comes down the ramp with a chair but is cut off by Matt Morgan.  Back in the ring, Roode is fighting off both Steiner and Booker and nearly pins Booker after a spinebuster.  Roode then hits the Payoff but Sharmell hops on the apron and distracts the referee.  This allows Steiner and Booker to nail Roode with a double team move to win the match.

After the match, the Mafia celebrates in the ring as Sharmell and Jenna Morasca get into a cat fight.

Jeremy Borash is with Team 3D who says the British Invasion are lacking in two qualities – respect and class.  Brother Devon says they will take them to school on Sunday night and they will learn to obey Team 3D’s rules.  Brother Ray says the British Invasion screwed them twice and they will get revenge at Victory Road.

The British Invasion walk in as they a separated by security.  They says that they just came back from Foley’s office and they got a couple of tweaks from him – the main one being that the IWGP Titles are on the line.  The two teams get in a pull apart brawl as we head to the announce table to preview the Victory Road card.

Lauren is with Abyss who apologizes for everything that has happened to her.  Abyss calls out Dr. Stevie and says that he is not an animal but he is one pissed off 350 pound monster.  Abyss pulls out a bag of tacks and says that he loves pain, suffering and carnage as he begins putting tacks into his arm.  Abyss then says he no longer needs Dr. Stevie, the therapy, the whites and he will giving Stevie one major ass beating with no refills at Victory Road.

Jeff Jarrett heads down to the ringside area to be a guest commentator for tonight’s main event.  Don West is being a smart ass as Jarrett stands next to him until Jarrett warns West that he is treading on thin ice and tells him to watch himself.

Match 6: Kurt Angle vs. Sting (Six Sides of Steel)
The match starts as the two go back and forth with wrestling holds until Angle sends Sting head first into the cage wall and we head into a commercial break.

We return as we again see Sting being thrown head first into the cage.  Angle begins to stomp on Sting as he begins to fight back and sends Angle into the cage.  Sting covers Angle but he is able to kick out.  Sting goes for the Scorpion Death Drop but Angle is able to escape.  Sting sends Angle into the cage wall a few times but is still unable to keep Angle down for the three count.

Sting goes for the Scorpion Death Lock as Samoa Joe comes out and levels Jeff Jarrett and opens the cage door and locks it shut but has a tough time getting it locked as Sting stands behind his back.  Sting is able to knock him down and get him into the Scorpion as the lights go out and we see the letters FTW and the number 13 on the big screen.

As the lights turn on we see that Joe is choking out Sting who is bleeding from the mouth as Jeff Jarrett and Mick Foley are trying to get into the cage.  The rest of the Mafia comes out and begin to beat down Foley and Jarrett as Impact comes to a close.

Quick Results
- Amazing Red defeated Samoa Joe by disqualification.
- Suicide defeated Chris Sabin by pin fall.
- Homicide defeated Suicide by pin fall to become the X Division Champion.
- Sarita defeated Alissa Flash by pin fall.
- Kevin Nash/Scott Steiner/Booker T defeated Beer Money & AJ Styles in a 6-man elimination match.
- Kurt Angle and Sting fought to a no contest.

Starman’s Thoughts
For the most part, tonight’s show was a good way to head into Victory Road as a majority of the event was hyped in some way or form.  The big item of note was they teaser of Tazz to close the show.  Of course, being TNA, it could very well be a swerve and actually be for Bobby Lashley or something like that.  At any rate, I am waiting to see what kind of role Tazz has within TNA.

Tonight’s show opened with a great exchange between Mick Foley, Kurt Angle and Sting, which set up the main event.  Angle and Sting were top of their game tonight and we got to see the two top stars face off inside the Six Sides of Steel.  Unfortunately, TNA always fails to promote these big matches ahead of time to, I guess, give Impact that spontaneous feel to it.  Even though it did end in a no contest, this match should have gotten a bit more hype than it did.

Not every match has to be hyped, though.  Take Homicide cashing in the Feast or Fired briefcase against Suicide for the X Division Title.  This was a nice surprise as I really didn’t see it coming.  One thing that I wasn’t too fond of is the fact that Homicide hasn’t been in the X Division picture for some time, but I like seeing Homicide holding some gold once again.  Hopefully TNA lets him open up some more and further develop his character.

Two new Knockouts made their debut this week and at first I figured it would be a quick squash match to put Sarita over but I think I came out more impressed with Alissa Flash than I was with Sarita.  Don’t get me wrong, both were impressive, but I liked how they both looked strong in their debuts.  I feel that both of these talents will be a great addition to the Knockout Division and freshen up the division that has gotten a bit stale as of late.

Finally, I will leave with two questions that came to my mind while watching Impact.  One, did Kurt Angle raid Don West’s wardrobe this week?  What was up with the Don West-esque shirt with the white collar?  Second, why did AJ Styles get eliminated from the match after an eye poke and a powerbomb?  That really isn’t phenomenal in my eyes.  Maybe he should be wrestling for free just as he said he would if he keeps that up.

As always, I will return sometime this weekend to give my Victory Road preview and predictions.