Screwed (1/28 Impact Recap)

A recap of the tension between Mick Foley and Eric Bischoff is aired as well as the new relationship between AJ Styles and Ric Flair kicks off Impact.  The recap ends with footage of the Orlando Screwjob that took place at the end of last week’s broadcast.

The Impact intro hits and we are welcomed to this week’s show that will update us on last week’s controversial incident, plus we will have qualifying matches for an upcoming tournament at Against All Odds.

Hulk Hogan’s music hits as he comes out to the ring with Eric Bischoff.  Hogan gets on the microphone and immediately calls out Mick Foley to the ring.  Foley comes out and Hogan wants to work out the issues between Bischoff and Foley.  Hogan says he sees things in Foley that can make him an asset if some things are tweaked, but Bischoff says he already finished the job off by firing him last week.

Foley steps in and says that he didn’t lay a finger on Bischoff last week and says if he did touch him, they would have carried Bischoff out of the office.  Hogan tries to calm the two down and tells Foley that he needs to work out his problems with Bischoff or walk out.

We head backstage where Bubba the Love Sponge is with Jeff Jarrett and Bubba is concerned about trusting Jarrett, who in return says that he won’t do him wrong and agrees to go talk to him.
Christy is with Ken Anderson who takes the microphone away from her and takes the liberty to issue an open challenge to anyone in the locker room as he was not booked in a match tonight.  He doesn’t care who it is, the Motorcity Machine Guns, Beer Money, Samoa Joe, or Sting, but is praying deep down inside that it is answered by Abyss.  It doesn’t matter, though, as the only name that will matter after it is over is Mr. Anderson.

Mike Tenay and Taz run down the new tournament concept called the 8 Card Stud Tournament to crown a new #1 Contender to the TNA World Championship that will take place at Against All Odds.   Qualifier matches will take place between Desmond Wolfe against Sean Morley and also Daniels against Hernandez.  The first match is up next.

Match 1: Desmond Wolfe vs. Sean Morley (8 Card Stud Tournament Qualifier)
Desmond Wolfe is accompanied to the ring by his new valet who goes by the name of Chelsea.  The match starts and Wolfe works over Morley in the early going and wears down Morley’s arm.  Morley is finally able to turn the tide by countering with a boot to the face but too much showboating allows Wolfe to knock Morley off the top rope and hits the Tower of London to pick up the pin fall and advances to the 8CS Tournament.

Jeff Jarrett walks into Hulk Hogan’s office to meet with Hogan and Eric Bischoff.  Jarrett says he doesn’t want to bring his lawyers into this and wants to get a few things off his chest.  Jarrett says Bubba got him to see things differently over the past week and he is there to start over with Hogan and will start from the bottom if needed.  Bischoff brings up that Ken Anderson needs an opponent tonight and suggests that Jarrett face him in the main event.  Jarrett says he hasn’t wrestled in eight months but will wrestle tonight if he needs to.

A review of last week’s main event is aired where the abrupt ending caused Kurt Angle to snap.  Taz mentions that this isn’t the first time that Earl Hebner has been involved in something like this and that he won’t ever forget Angle spitting in Hulk Hogan’s face.  Angle has been in Hogan’s office and camera’s were denied access early in the day.

AJ Styles is with Ric Flair and a piece of arm candy who are looking at Styles’ new custom made wardrobe.  They talk about going on a 30-day vacation and the girl says she will call up one of her friends for the Nature Boy.

Match 2: Daniels vs. Hernandez (8 Card Stud Tournament Qualifier)
Daniels attacks Hernandez before the bell rings to get an early advantage in this qualifying match.  Daniels picks up couple of near falls after hitting an enziguri and a moonsault but Hernandez fights his way back in to the match with a shoulder block before throwing him across the ring with his shirt.  Hernandez misses with a high risk move but is able to come back with a gut wrench slam to score the pin fall and qualify for the 8CS Tournament.

Mike Tenay is in the ring to interview both Team 3D and the Nasty Boys, who will be meeting for the first time at Against All Odds.  Both teams are introduced and security has to step in between them to hold them apart.  Brother Ray calls them a couple of punks for destroying their locker room when they weren’t around and attacking them from behind.

Devon says that while they were sitting on their fat asses for the past decade, they have been winning tag team titles in every company they have wrestled in and nobody has come close to accomplishing what they have done.  Brian Knobbs says they have beaten the likes of the Road Warriors, Harlem Heat, the Hart Foundation, the Steiner Brothers, and now Team 3D will be on their chopping block.

Ray says they can trade blows all night long but people want to see the two teams beat the hell out of each other while Taz says he cannot wait for this St. Valentine’s Day Massacre.

Christy is with the Beautiful People who wants to know their feelings about Angelina Love being back in TNA.  They say that she is so 2009 and they have moved on to bigger and better things and will show the world where the TNA Knockout gold belongs.

Bobby Lashley is with Eric Bischoff and tells Lashley that after some long thought, Lashley is fired as a mob of security come in and pull him out of the office.  Bischoff laughs to himself at the desk and says that he is just taking out the trash.

Match 3: The Beautiful People vs. Awesome Kong/Hamada/Tara
Hamada starts off the match by working over Madison and takes her down with an arm drag after walking the ropes.  Madison is able to turn the match into her favor as the Beautiful People begin working over Hamada in the corner with quick tags.  Hamada finally takes Madison down with a drop toehold and rolls to her corner to tag in Tara who comes in and slams Madison down and scores a near fall after hitting a standing moonsault.

Kong is tagged into the match who takes down everyone in sight before tagging in Hamada who picks up the pieces.  The trio of champions continue on the attack and Hamada hits a moonsault off the top rope on Lacey but Madison hits Hamada twice with the ugly stick and she picks up the pin fall to get the victory.  The Beautiful People continue beating down their opponents before Angelina Love comes in and clears the out of the ring.

Hulk Hogan is in the office with Earl Hebner who wants an answer why he called for the bell so quickly.  Hebner defends his actions by saying that Kurt Angle tapped but Hogan thinks something is wrong and brings up what happened 12 years ago in Montreal.  Hebner finally snaps and says that he screwed Bret and he screwed AJ for the money.  Hebner says he got a check from Flair for and Hogan is taken aback from it.  Hogan then suspends Hebner for his actions and tells him to leave right away.

AJ Styles and Ric Flair are still hanging out backstage and three more girls walk in with the first girl.  Flair introduces himself to one and Styles takes the other three and they say it is time to party.

Bubba the Love Sponge catches up with Mick Foley who says he is optimistic about his meeting tonight with Eric Bischoff and will remain optimistic no matter what happens.

Kurt Angle comes out to the ring and says he is confused and pissed off over AJ Styles’ recent actions.  Angle says Styles went from a hero to a punk ass in one night and says that Ric Flair is just using Styles to strip him of his innocence and reminds Styles that he is the dirtiest player in the game.  Angle goes on to say that he has a qualifying match for the 8 Card Stud Tournament, and when he wins he won’t let Styles get by.

Hulk Hogan’s music hits as he comes down to the ring and tells Angle that spitting in his face is unacceptable and that if it happens again he will be unemployed.  Angle says that since Hogan is leading TNA, anything that happens in the ring he is accountable for.  Angle, though, shakes Hogan’s hand and apologizes for his actions.

As Hogan leaves the ring, Syxx-Pac and Scott Hall come out and attack Angle from behind as we head into a commercial break.  Once we come back, we see the two being kicked out of the Impact Zone by security as Hall says that they will see them next week.

Match 4: Brian Kendrick & the Motorcity Machine Guns vs. Generation Me & Amazing Red
A quick flurry of offense starts the match with bodies flying everyone until finally Max scores a near fall on Sabin.  Jeremy is tagged in but is quickly taken down by the high octane offense of the Machine Guns and also finds himself in a near fall predicament.  Red is tagged into the match and takes down Sabin but some double team moves from the Machine Guns slows him down.  Kendrick then makes the blind tag and kicks Red in the face as the Guns were waiting to hit their high low and picks up the pin fall for his team.

Just as the match gets over with, the music for the British Invasion hits as Big Rob is carrying his X Division Feast or Fired title shot. The British Invasion stomp down on Red and before Big Rob is able to cash it in, Brutus Magnus tells him to give his shot to Doug Williams as we head into a commercial break.

Match 5: Doug Williams vs. Amazing Red
We return to the match and see Amazing Red taking down Williams with a tornado DDT in this impromptu title match.  Williams comes back, though, with a rolling suplex with a bridge and pins Red to win the X Division Championship.  Big Rob looks on with a sour look on his face as his two partners celebrate in the ring with the X Division Championship.

The meeting between Mick Foley and Eric Bischoff is going on and Foley tells a story about his son taking a dump at Chuck-E-Cheese and the janitor having to clean it up and says that he would rather have that job than to work for Eric Bischoff.  Bischoff says that he has the careers of Abyss and Jeremy Borash, friends of Foley’s, in the palm of his hands and tells him to reconsider.

Bischoff then walks down the hall to AJ Styles’ dressing room and says that Ric Flair must have a good attorney because they are contractually stuck with him.  However, he tells Flair and Styles not to plain a long vacation as everyone has to be ready 24/7 under the Hogan/Bischoff regime before leaving the dressing room.

Match 6: Mr. Anderson vs. Jeff Jarrett
Mr. Anderson came out and did his usual ring entrance while Jeff Jarrett came out with no theme music whatsoever.  Tenay informs us that Eric Bischoff had Jarrett’s music pulled.  After a couple of lockups, Jarrett takes Anderson down with a series of shoulder blocks, which gets the fans in the Impact Zone behind him.  Anderson, though, fights back and begins to pound on Jarrett but Jarrett answers back with a couple of hip tosses and clotheslines him out to the floor.  Jarrett begins to strut around the ring before we head into a commercial break.

We return to the match to see Anderson send Jarrett into the ring post and is in control of the match.  Anderson then drives Jarrett’s arm into the steel steps before rolling him into the ring.  Anderson continues to work over Jarrett’s arm a picks up a few near falls as he keeps on wearing Jarrett down.  Anderson goes for a senton backsplash but Jarrett rolls out of the way and Anderson lands on the canvas.  Jarrett begins to fight back and goes for the Stroke but Anderson counters with a mule kick and rolls up Jarrett for the pin fall.

Back in the office we see Eric Bischoff laughing while Anderson is announcing his victory on his personal ring mic.  Anderson then goes back on the assault and beats down Jarrett before laying him out with the Mic Check.  We then see Bischoff talking to the monitor in back saying that it will be a long, hard, climb to the top of his mountain for Jarrett as Impact comes to a close.

Quick Results
- Desmond Wolfe defeated Sean Morley by pin fall to qualify for the 8 Card Stud Tournament.
- Hernandez defeated Daniels by pin fall to qualify for the 8 Card Stud Tournament.
- The Beautiful People defeated Awesome Kong/Hamada/Tara by pin fall.
- Brian Kendrick & the Motorcity Machine Guns defeated Generation Me & Amazing Red by pin fall.
- Doug Williams defeated Amazing Red by pin fall to win the X Division Championship.
- Mr. Anderson defeated Jeff Jarrett by pin fall.

Starman’s Thoughts
After watching several years of TNA’s programming, some good and some bad, last week’s episode almost drove me to the breaking point of turning their product off for good.  I really hated what was on my television as it barely seemed like TNA’s brand of wrestling at all.  After a nice vacation in the Mexican Riviera and seeing no wrestling of any sort for a whole week, I went into this week’s Impact with an open mind and I came out pleasantly surprised.

For starters, the show wasn’t overrun by Hogan’s cronies who all came over with him.  Yes, they were on the show, but Impact also featured a nice mix of the regular TNA stars and not all of them were buried in their matches.  In fact, Sean Morley’s surprise win streak came to an end by Desmond Wolfe in a qualifying match for the 8 Card Stud Tournament to become the #1 Contender to the TNA World Championship.

Aside from that match, we also got a decent match between Daniels and Hernandez, a great fast-paced X Division 6-man tag match and the Knockouts were given the spotlight with all of the Knockouts champions teaming up against the Beautiful People.  Hogan and Bischoff took up a lot of time and some TNA stars are still for some reason absent, such as Beer Money and Samoa Joe, but the Nasty Boys and Hall/Pac were only briefly shown on television this week.  Plus, Orlando Jordan was nowhere to be found.

Speaking of the Nasty Boys, I really hated seeing them wrestle last week and they really looked like they haven’t seen the inside of a wrestling ring in at least ten years.  For some strange, and maybe sadistic, reason, though, I am really looking forward to seeing the Nasty Boys take on Team 3D at Against All Odds.  The two teams are near carbon copies of each other and I feel they could work well and give the fans an all out brawl.

Aside from that, I could care less if Knobbs and Sags were ever shown on TNA television of any sort ever again.  It did scare me though at the thought of Knobbs’ statement of them being in TNA for a long time actually becoming true.

Of course, not everything was great on this show.  For starters, the follow up to the Orlando Screwjob was a huge letdown.  Before leaving on my vacation, I got several emails about last week’s show of fans stating their displeasure and read the thoughts of other columnists and most of what I read was negative.  At any rate, the angle got people talking but nothing much was made of aside from Earl Hebner saying he did it, along with the Bret Hart Montreal Screwjob, for money.

Other than that, I really thought that Bobby Lashley’s firing was poorly done.  The segment was over and done in less than a minute and it rushed right into the next segment like what had just happened was nothing special.  Of course, I have a feeling that this will be about as meaningful as Foley’s firing last week so I expect to see more of Lashley soon, if not by next week.

Finally, I am really displeased the development of Jarrett’s character as of late.  It seems every week he is going back and forth between being a face or a heel.  Last week he was saying that nobody likes Hulk Hogan’s changes in TNA.  Before that he was talking about the young stars in TNA not drawing a dime, which was a week after he said how rewarding it was to give the young stars an opportunity.

This week he was playing the sympathetic former owner who wanted to get a shot at proving himself and had the fans strongly behind him.  This constant back-and-forth with his character is confusing as fans are never quite sure what kind of Jarrett they are going to get at any given moment.  You’d think that TNA would have learned its lesson when they did the same tactic with Mick Foley last year, but I guess it is hard to learn from past mistakes.

At any rate, I am not totally ready to give up on TNA just yet and will continue to stick by their side as I had for the past several years.  I’d much rather see TNA drop this whole “war with WWE” mentality and focus on putting out the best product possible, but I doubt that will happen any time soon.